Chapter: 4The morning came too fast.I stood in the front hallway of the Ashford house with a small satchel over my shoulder, wearing the same off white dress from the night before because it was the nicest thing I owned, which really meant it was the nicest thing Scarlet had thrown at me. My hair was still curled but already starting to frizz, and the makeup over my scar had faded enough that the thin line was peeking through again.Before I had been allowed to pack, the pack witch, an old woman named Brenda with milky eyes and gnarled fingers, had pulled me into a back room and delivered a warning that still sat heavy in my chest."You will not speak of your life here. Not a word about being a servant. Not a word about how they treated you." Her voice had been cold and final. "If the King discovers the truth about this household, Marcus's deal is void and he dies in that cell. Do you understand?"I understood. I was not just being sold. I was being silenced.My father stood near the front doo
Last Updated: 2026-09-17
Chapter: 3The Alpha's office smelled like cedar wood and broken things.I stepped through the door and immediately felt the crunch of shattered ceramic beneath my borrowed heels. Pieces of plates and cups were scattered across the hardwood floor like someone had swept an entire table clean in a fit of rage. The breakfast spread that had been carefully prepared for the King's visit was smeared across the ground in a mess of crushed pastries and spilled juice.But the mess on the floor was nothing compared to what was sitting in my father's chair.Xavier Kane, the Lycan King, occupied the seat like he had been born in it. He was enormous. Not just tall but broad and carved from something harder than muscle, something that made the oversized leather chair look small beneath him. His dark hair fell across his forehead in a careless way that somehow looked intentional, and his jaw was sharp enough to cut steel. But it was his eyes that stopped my heart. Molten gold, burning and ancient, like staring
Last Updated: 2026-09-17
Chapter: 2The next morning felt like walking through a dream made of glass, where every step threatened to shatter something beneath me.I stood in Scarlet's oversized bedroom while she circled me like a vulture examining a fresh carcass. Her closet doors were thrown wide open and dresses in every color hung in neat rows, none of which had ever been offered to me in twelve years of living under the same roof."Hold still." Scarlet grabbed a fistful of my dull brown hair and yanked my head sideways. "God, when was the last time you washed this?""This morning.""It looks like you dragged it through a ditch." She wrinkled her nose and tossed my hair back like it had offended her personally. "We need to dye it. Curl it. Do something to make you look halfway presentable so the King does not send you back and demand me instead."Lily appeared in the doorway holding a garment bag, her lips pressed into that tight line she always wore when she was pretending to be helpful. "I found this in storage. Of
Last Updated: 2026-09-17
Chapter: 1The living room smelled like cheap pine cleaner and fear.I sat in my usual spot near the back wall, the one chair nobody ever wanted because the cushion was flat and the armrest wobbled. My stepmother Lily stood at the front of the room next to my father, Beta Albert, and both of them looked like they had swallowed something rotten. The whole Ashford household had been called into this meeting, every cousin, every aunt, every ranked wolf in the family. That never happened unless someone was dying or already dead.My half sister Scarlet sat in the center of the front row with her legs crossed and her long blonde hair swept over one shoulder like she was posing for a magazine cover. She kept checking her phone and sighing every few seconds, annoyed that this meeting was cutting into her evening plans. I pulled my oversized hoodie tighter around my chubby frame and tried to make myself smaller, which was something I had gotten very good at over the past twelve years."There is no easy w
Last Updated: 2026-09-17
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