Matias' POV:

I watch as Henry drags Everest away, and Everest sends me pleading looks the whole time, as if he's hoping I'll say this is some joke and that I'm not letting the man who rejected him take him away.

When I called Henry, he was shocked but he sounded excited, which I hate. He thinks I'm offering him a second chance with Everest, as apparently he has never been able to find happiness with anyone else since rejecting Everest. His father died six months ago and he's taken over the company, and now he can be with his true mate.

That's not why I did this... I did this to save the Omega who has stolen my heart.

And I have my own plan, even if it doesn't end up with Everest coming back to me, at least it will mean he's out of danger. My parents can't harm him if he's not in power, but I need to get the leaders of their alliances together and get them to vote my father out and bring me in.

I don't want to lead this company, but I want Everest to be safe. Selfishly, I want him back, but I know that's not a possibility with how angry he is with me.

Plus, as a new member of my parents' alliances, I'll need a vote from Henry as well, and I'll need seventy five percent of the votes to take over. He won't give me his vote if he thinks I'll be trying to take back Everest.

Once Everest and Henry have left, I make my way to one of my father's longest allies, the one who hosted the first party Everest and I attended.

"Lorenzo," I say, shaking his hand.

"Matias," he responds, looking me up and down. "That was quite the spectacle."

I laugh dryly. "Yes, I suppose it was."

"That Alpha is a new alignment with the companies, is he not?" Lorenzo asks, taking two glasses of champagne from a waiter and handing one to me. "Henry Thompson?"

"Yes, and Everest is his true mate, despite what my parents thought."

Lorenzo watches me in a cold, calculating way while he sips from his glass. "I never did like their whole ideology of everything staying in the family. If Everest could not have pups, then it was the goddess' will, in my opinion."

"I'm glad you share that opinion," I comment, looking around us. "May we talk privately?"

He nods and we walk out to the terrace and stand side by side, overlooking the city. The lights are beautiful, and in the last month, Everest and I spent a lot of time watching the lights from the balcony of the mansion.

Everest's eyes always softened in awe as he watched the lights twinkle.

"You fell in love with that Omega, didn't you?" Lorenzo asks, patting my shoulder gently. "I have not seen you look at someone that way since you met Cody."

"You also haven't seen me in six years," I point out.

Lorenzo chuckles. "That is true. My brother does not believe that Cody died of illness. Tell me the truth, Matias. Who killed my nephew?"

"I'll tell you, but I need your help. My father does not have a moral compass, and he cannot stay in power."

"You want to take over." Lorenzo sighs and drinks from his champagne flute, finishing off the beverage. "But this is not about a desire to take over. You never wanted to lead. That is why you left, is it not?"

I sigh. "My father wanted Cody and I to have children, even though he was unable to. So, he planned to have a surgery preformed on him that was experimental and could have killed him. That is why we left... for Cody's safety."

"What happened to him?" Lorenzo asks.

"Anthony tracked us down after a few years and killed him." I try to fight back the tears, but they're getting close to falling. "He left me alive and told me he'd be back to collect me eventually. Be waited until I found Everest, whom my father saw as a replacement for Cody, even though Everest and I had not become anything romantic."

Lorenzo's face is stony. "You need my vote to take over, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Everest would have been expected to undergo that surgery, wouldn't he?"

I nod. "Yes."

"Do you expect to get him back? If you want Henry's vote-"

I cut him off. "I am doing this to keep Everest safe, as well as anyone else my parents would try to throw at me. He hates me for sending him away with Henry, who originally rejected him, but it gives me time to take over the company and ensure that he's safe from anything like that."

"How do you know Henry won't do that?"

"I made him sign a contract."

Lorenzo nods. "You have my vote, and I will work under the table to get the others to agree. The only hold back is that you'd don't have a mate or an heir, so it will be difficult to get a few of the votes, but you only need nine of the twelve, as your father will not be allowed to vote since his position is the one being questioned."

"Thank you," I say, truly grateful for him being willing to assist me in this, though I had very little doubt that he'd help me as he is a longtime ally of my father, but he respects me.

Plus, he loved Cody.

Everyone who knew Cody adored him... especially his family. They all contacted me when they got the news that he passed away, though everyone was under the impression that it was disease.

Lorenzo was probably skeptical, and since his brother was even more so, it does not surprise me that he wanted to know the truth.

He deserved to know.

"Please hold the information about Cody until I've taken over the company. I don't need my father breaking alliances or threatening to kill Everest because he's angry that the truth got out. Once he doesn't have his influence or title, it'll be easier to punish him. And Anthony as well."

Lorenzo nods. "I will do what I can. For now, you should contact Henry and get his vote, and then try to contact Everest and inform him of your plan. Maybe he will find it in him to forgive you."

I agree with him, but I doubt that Everest will be able to forgive me, even if he understands. He probably thinks I used him, that I was always going to leave him alone, that I was lying when I say I was falling for him...

My heart is heavy as I leave the house and order Anthony to drive me home.

"I did not know his mate was alive," Anthony says in Italian. "Much less than he was a powerful figure."

"There's a lot you don't know," I respond, looking out the window. "I'm never going to fall for anyone, no matter how you threaten them."

Anthony chuckles. "Well, your father doesn't need you anymore anyways. Matteo found his mate."

"It doesn't mean he'd let Everest not go through the surgery."

"I meant that you don't need to find a new mate. If Everest had stayed, then yes, he would have had to follow through."

I growl and fall silent.

Anthony seems to finally get the hint and doesn't say anything else as we pull into the driveway at my house. He opens my door and then opens the door to the house for me.

"For what it is worth, I really did not want to kill Cody," he tells me as I walk inside.

Before I can control myself, I turn around and punch him in the nose, leaving a smear of blood on my hand when I punch him for the second time.

I'm shocked when I feel a surge of power that I haven't felt in three years and my body aches and cracks as I shift into my wolf and tackle him to the ground.

Anthony doesn't have a chance to react when I dig my claws into his leg and rip a chunk of his flesh out before sprinting out the front door.

Never once do I stop until I reach Anthony's home, which is located on the east side of our property. I have no problem shoving the door open and finding Anthony's mate and two daughters inside.

His mate, Ari, screams when she sees me, and I'm sure she can tell who I am, but right now I look unhinged and more like a rogue than the future leader of the group whom her mate works for.

I corner the three, and I feel no mercy for the crying children or Ari who is begging me not to harm her or her children.

Anthony doesn't seem to have a problem with killing the mates of other people, so I think it's time he experiences the same thing that he's given to me.

I'm ready to attack, knowing that no one will stop me, when a terrible pain pulses through my head.

"Don't," my wolf tells me, his voice echoing in my head for the first time in three years. "This makes us no better than father."

"He deserves to suffer," I respond. "You're usually the one who's bloodthirsty and demands revenge. Besides, you haven't helped me at all for three years."

"Do you think that Everest will ever love you if you do this?"

I mentally growl at the asshole. "Why do you care?! Everest isn't our mate! He'll never want us!"

"If you kill them, that will be true. Don't do it."

I snarl at myself and turn around, making eye contact with Anthony, who is slowly bleeding as his wound heals itself.

He looks terrified.

I shift back into my human form and shove past him as I leave. "You're lucky that I'm nothing like my father," I snap at him as I head toward the mansion.

"Good," my wolf purrs in the back of my mind. "Let's go home. We have work to do."