Chapter 29 "The Social Execution"

• The Archer family's monthly social gathering was held at their country club, a sprawling complex of perfectly manicured grounds and old-money architecture designed to project the kind of established wealth that could only be achieved through generations of successful breeding and careful social positioning.
• Ben had attended these events since childhood, watching his parents work the room with practiced precision while he smiled politely and made conversation with other pack heirs who were being groomed for similar futures of inherited responsibility and manufactured success.
• Tonight felt different, though. Tonight, Ben carried the weight of knowing exactly how much his presence at these gatherings had been purchased through his parents' systematic fraud.