"Please look through my notes and reconsider, Father," I pleaded. "I want to make this right for everyone. I... want to make this fair."

"Fair?" My father slumped back onto the leather backrest and snorted. "They're rabbits, Bodie. They're prey."

My brows furrowed at that last word. "What do you mean by that?"

"By what?" My father asked, his lips tugging upwards as if challenging me. "Prey? Admit it, Bodie. Wererabbits are the lowest creatures of the werekingdom. They're prey, we're predators."

The gears were turning in my head. I finally understood why the request had been so shocking to Auri, and why it had been so easy getting the other wereanimals to agree on a compromise. There had been an easier, fairer alternative—but this task had been unfair for a reason.

"You never needed to put this order out, did you?" I asked. "You could've done something else about the weremonkeys' complaints, but you wanted to make the wererabbits' lives more difficult."

My father pressed his tongue against his cheeks and tapped the table. "Here's another lesson for you, Bodie. In order to stay at the top, we need to let the ones at the bottom remember where they stand. The rabbits are prey, and so every once in a while, we remind them of that fact. That's how it works, and that's how we stay on top. Remember that."

I clenched my fists as fury shot through my veins. "That's not how it should be."

A snarl tugged at my father's lips. "You're... disagreeing with me? You... dare to disagree with me?"

"It's easy to disagree with something that is so obviously wrong," I spat.

The silence that ensued was so chilling that it sent shivers down my spine.

"And this is why I knew you could never be the Alpha," my father growled. "You are a letdown, you always have been. You were weak the moment you were born. If this task was given to Victor, he would have gone for the throat of any wererabbit who dared disagree with what he said. Victor knew what was at stake. You don't."

I had always respected Victor for everything he had done, but I could not wrap my head around this. Victor wouldn't have done that, would he? This was not right, there was no way this could be right.

"Victor's gone, Father. He's dead because of a stupid war with the werebears." An idea struck me, and I added, "Was the war unnecessary too? Was there a simple compromise you could've made, but you'd rather go through with the war, with the violence, and let your son die? Was that it?"

From the way my father's brows twitched, I knew I had hit the mark on that.

"I cannot believe this..." I muttered before straightening my back. "Well, I'm not following Victor's path. I refuse to do this."

My father folded his arms. "Then I'm not letting you be the next Alpha. I'll raise another kid."

"R- Raise another?" I glanced at my family portrait behind him, and my head spun. "You're getting another mate? You'd do this to Mom?"

"The pack needs a proper heir."

"What the fuck?" I exploded. "You don't have to let me be the heir, but you can just let Celine or Max take over! Why does it need to stay in this stupid family? Being blood-related means nothing. Look how different I am from Victor! From you!"

The swivel chair spun away from me. "I have the ruling bloodline of the pack. Everyone born to the bloodline is a born Alpha. My only child, Victor, was a born Alpha. Sadly, he has died and I have no more children."

His every word was like a lightning bolt to my body. My mouth had turned bitter and coarse as I forced myself to speak. "Are you... disowning me?"

When the chair rotated back, my father's eyes were cold and dead, like a block of raw, dirty gold. "What are you doing in my office, stray?"

Stray.

So he was not only disowning me as a child but also from the pack. I rubbed the bridge of my nose and let out a shaky breath. Fuck this shit.

"Goodbye, Father."

I snatched the folder from the table and stormed out of the room. Celine and Max were waiting by the door, along with the other betas, but I stormed right past them. I could hear my father calling Max into the room, but Celine chased after me.

"Bodie!" she called, grabbing my hand before I could enter the elevator. "What happened?"

I looked at her and then looked at the emptying lobby. My father had called all of his betas into his office. He only did that whenever he was making an official announcement.

This was it for me. My disownment was official.

"He disowned me, Celine," I said, my every word piercing me in the heart. "I have to leave the territory before word gets out and things get bad."

"W- What?" Celine's grip loosened. "That's not... I... Bodie, let's go back and make this right. Max can help, I can—"

"Do you want to be disowned too? You want to keep my brother's mark on you, don't you?"

Celine's hands flinched away from me. She covered the insignia on the back of her left hand as if trying to protect it from flying away. "I..."

"Stay here," I said. "I don't want you to be affected."

Celine blinked as tears formed in her eyes. "Bodie..."

"I'll be fine. Stay safe, Celine." I gave her a small wave and entered the elevator.

The door closed before Celine could say anything more. Which was good.

I was not sure if I could handle hearing a proper farewell.