Gideon roared, lunging, but I was already moving. I slammed myself in front of Celeste, shielding her with every inch of my body. Gideon hit me like a brick wall, but despite my injuries, I pushed him aside like he was nothing. The movement tore a scream from her throat, raw and unrestrained.
“Don’t you ever hurt mymate!” she shouted, her voice breaking with fury and fear.
Mate.
It slammed into me harder than any bullet could have. For a split second, the boardroom disappeared - the shouting, the scrambling, the confusion. All I could hear was her voice, all I could feel was the weight of that word settling into my bones. She had chosen me. Not just as an alpha in her orbit, not just as protection, but as hers.
Heat flooded my chest, so fierce it nearly brought me to my knees.
The doors burst open. Uniformed officers stormed the room, their commands slicing through the chaos. We had called them before stepping foot inside, ensuring the law was already waiting. Gideon fought, spitting venom, but the officers restrained him, dragging him from the boardroom in handcuffs.
The board erupted into a storm of voices, scrambling to reassert control. But none of it mattered to me. Celeste was still CEO, at least for now. The legalities would come later, the war in courtrooms and contracts.
I only cared about the woman standing behind me. My omega. Mymate.
And for the first time, I realized she had just said it out loud for everyone to hear.
Chapter 44
Celeste
Police filled the boardroom, quickly grabbing the laptop, the flash drive, and the gun as evidence and while the rest of us held up our arms to show we were not the threat. By the time everything had been sorted, I stood aside, surrounded by the Lockwood pack and Sterling while the police questioned the board members individually.
I checked my phone. It had been my idea to livestream directly to my social media accounts as a failsafe, in case anything went wrong. Although the Eastern Province had corruption, there were more good people than bad. If anything bad happened to us, I knew the world would at least see the truth.
The notification counter on the livestream had been climbing steadily since I started, but by the time it ended, the numberwas almost unreal. Almost a million people had started watching since we first arrived at the board meeting. The press had been alerted and began streaming it along with everyone who followed my platforms.
The police had seen enough. They pulled my uncle to his feet, his wrists already yanked back and cuffed. And finally, I saw the real him. His mask of the polished, patient man who had been secretly working against me - it was gone. His face was now twisted with fury, his skin blotchy and his eyes dark as he stared daggers toward me. He was no longer the upstanding, genteel man he tried so hard to portray. Instead, we saw him as he really was - petty, desperate and unworthy of the family name. And yet, he still tried to fight his way out of his fate.
“No!” he spat, his voice guttural. “You can’t do this! This is a mistake, do you hear me? She’s manipulating you all - she’s an alcoholic, she’s too stupid to lead, for god’s sake, she’sjust an omega!”
“Enough,” one of the officers said firmly, cutting him off. They hauled him to his feet, but even as they did, he lunged forward, shoulders straining against their grip. His eyes locked on me, searing with venom.
My men surrounded me, instinctively forming a protective circle. But I held my arms out. “Let me deal with this on my own.” I started walking toward him. Sterling reached for my shoulder, trying to keep me from him, but I looked back at him and shook my head. I needed to do this.
I walked up to my uncle slowly. For once, I wasn’t worried about his disapproval. I wasn’t constantly feeling the weight of his authority hovering over every decision. Now, I was only calm and certain. Despite everything he’d done to make me feel otherwise, I’d always been enough.
Gideon glared at me as if he could still cause me to feel that weakness he’d always accused me of. But he could never again make me feel small.
“Oh, uncle.” I sighed, looking at the man who had done so much harm to his own family. Deep down, he was an insecure narcissist. I could see it now, so clearly. “You should have known to never underestimate anomega.”
The words left my mouth like a blade, clean and precise. His snarl deepened, his body jolting forward before the officers jerked him back with a sharp command. “You’ll regret this, Celeste!” He sneered, and I just shook my head.
“No, I won’t. And I’m disappointed, uncle. You really turned out to be…” I looked at him, a sniveling man, who couldn’t achieve much in life without cheating. “...quite mediocre.”
His eyes burned with fury, but underneath it I saw something else - fear. It was small, but it was there. He knew that I saw who he really was.
And then I felt pity. Here was a man who had spent so much of his life clawing for a crown he could never truly wear. Hemistook cruelty for power. And he had yet to learn that he never needed to resort to that.
Harringday had survived. Not because of Gideon and his backdoor deals, or the way he undercut everyone else, but because of me. I’d refused to give up when everyone told me I should. I’d given everything to protect not only the company, but the people it employed, and the legacy it represented. I had been the one driving Harringday forward all along, and the fact that I hadn’t seen it before almost made me laugh. I’d underestimated myself, let him get into my head. But I’d never do that again.
The board was in a state of discombobulation. Some of them seemed to be in shock. But others, the ones who voted against me, who I was sure helped my uncle out - they seemed to be already calculating how fast they could realign themselves now that the tide had shifted.
I sighed. “I’m going to have to really clean house after this.” I said, looking at Dante, his face finally looking at ease for once. “And you will be there with me, every step of the way, newest board member.” I said with a grin, nudging him slightly with my shoulder.
Dante couldn’t keep his eyes off of me. They were filled with admiration, and I couldn’t get enough of it. I knew he finally got some vindication for what happened to his family, but we had a long way to go. I needed to make things right for him, and for the workers on Arkala.
“And you, Miss Harringday, need to get up to speed on Manticore Tech. We have quite the collaboration ahead of us.” He said, his deep voice like velvet along my skin. But before I could get too lost in him, Reginald approached me.
