Chapter: 2

I took an instinctive step forward-then froze. His daughter.

It couldn't be me. After ten years of indifference and resentment, the daughter my dying father wanted to see would never be me.

Ethan's laugh was ice. "Ten years, and our family is still paying for your mistakes!"

I turned to face him, tears streaking my cheeks. A decade since I'd last stood this close-since he'd looked at me. Time had sharpened him into a true Alpha: broader shoulders, harder jaw, a dominance that rolled off him in waves.

But the hatred in his eyes? That hadn't changed. My heart gave a vicious twist, like claws raking flesh.

"Because of you," he snarled at me, "Celeste moved away. Because of you, she can't be here. Because of you, Dad will die with his last wish unfulfilled."

"Yes, it's all my fault." My laugh was bitter, weighted with decades of pain. "After all these years, I'm still the first one blamed. No one cares about the truth-or how I feel!"

Tears burst forth, my outburst freezing Ethan for a heartbeat. But just as quickly, his voice turned razor-sharp:

"Your feelings? You stole your sister's fiancé and dare to talk about feelings?"

My nails dug deep into my palms, reopening that ugly old scar.

Ten years ago, at the Blood Moon Hunt, I'd just turned twenty-the age when every werewolf finds their mate. After a lifetime of being overlooked, I'd been desperate for that bond.

As a child, I'd foolishly dreamed it might be Kieran. But then he fell for Celeste-perfect, radiant Celeste, the darling of the entire Frostbane Pack-and I learned my place soon enough.

What was !? The Alpha's defective daughter, the one who couldn't even shift. Nothing.

When even my own family and pack barely spared me a glance, how could Kieran possibly want me? I never expected to change anything. But that night, when I heard about his impending engagement to Celeste, the pain cut deeper than any claw. For the first time, I let myself drown in drink.

I expected to wake up forgotten in some dark corner. Never did I imagine I'd find myself naked in Kieran's bed.

The liquor had burned through my senses. That night remained a haze of fractured memories. Before I could piece together what happened, Celeste burst in-her shriek slicing through the air as she took in the scene.

Then came the chaos: Celeste's hysterical sobs, Kieran's guilt-ridden apologies, the pack's venomous whispers, my stammered explanations -all silenced by my father's resounding slap across my face.

"I regret ever bringing you into this world!"

The aftermath played out in muted horror. Kieran carrying Celeste's unconscious form to the infirmary. Ethan snarling at gawking packmates. My mother's muffled weeping. And Father's eyes-Gods- that look of pure revulsion. I'd always known he despised me, but never with such intensity it stole the breath from my lungs.

"I didn't..." My whisper died unheard. No one listened. No one.

Overnight, I became the pack's favorite sin to punish. Where they'd once mocked my defective shifting, now they spat "whore" like a benediction. Even low-ranking Omegas cornered me in shadowed corridors, their hands and insults alike too bold. Females crossed themselves when I passed, hissing "husband-thief" like a curse.

The weight of it crushed me. When Celeste's admirers left death threats carved into my door, I gathered what little I owned and fled under a new moon. I intended to vanish forever... until the morning sickness began. Until the physician announced my pregnancy to the entire Blood Council.

That was the only reason Kieran married me. He was an honorable man, an Alpha who would never desert his heir.

Yet it tore my family apart.