PROLOGUE

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO

"Pass me the scissors, Chloe. This little rat needs to be taught a lesson."

She yanked my hair harder, and I shut my eyes, trying to bear the pain shooting through my scalp.

"Please... please... I'm sorry, please Aunty Selene..." I begged.

Her grip only tightened, making me wince even more. I glanced at Chloe, who was smiling smugly, her fake teary eyes betraying the truth of the lies coming out of her mouth. She had told her mum that I was trying to take her place in school as the top student and the school princess.

"She always acts like she’s the Queen Mum! She bullies me all the time, and now she’s trying to steal my crush!" Chloe cried dramatically, handing the scissors to her mother, she grabbed the scissors and started cutting my hair at a brutal, hurried pace.

"That’s not true! Master will kill me if he sees my hair like this!" I screamed, tears running down my face. But she didn’t care, she never cared. She always believed Chloe’s lies, no matter how ridiculous they were.

The truth was far from that. Chloe made sure everyone at school treated me like dirt, including the teachers. All because of my silver hair, the same hair that once made them admire me and called me the goddess of beauty, I think that was what angered Chloe more.

On top of that, she spread the cruelest rumors about me, even branding me a murderer. All because my mother had died the moment I was born.

From what I’ve heard about my dad and my real mom, my dad truly loved her with everything he had. He gave her everything she ever asked for because she was his dream woman. When he found out she was pregnant with a little girl, he treated her like a queen. He stopped her from working, bathed her himself, and even bowed down to her.

Everything seemed perfect until the Pack witch revealed something shocking that my mum's unborn child wasn’t a wolf but a human, an abomination to the crescent Pack. That changed everything. My dad was furious. Out of anger, he slept with my mother’s maid while my mom was still pregnant with me.

Things got even worse when the maid became pregnant during the final month of my mom’s pregnancy. From that moment on, my dad started treating the maid far better than he treated my mom. The reason? The maid’s unborn child possessed the powerful abilities of an Alpha wolf, while mine was considered worse than a regular human with silver hair.

When my mom gave birth to me, she had severe complications and died right there, even before my dad could reach her. Her death filled him with anger and regret because he had wanted to make things right with her. His heart was heavy with guilt for how he had treated her.

From that moment on, my dad couldn’t even bring himself to look at me. He was ashamed to call me his daughter and forbade me from calling him "Dad." Instead, he demanded I call him "Master."

Not long after, I found Chloe in her room, lying on the floor with her wrist slit and blood gushing out. Panicking, I saw the knife lying beside her and screamed as I pressed on her wrist, desperately trying to stop the bleeding. That was when Selene, my stepmother, walked in.

"She... She needs to be taken to the hospital urgently!" I stammered, my hands trembling as I tried to stop the bleeding.

"What did you do to my daughter, you witch?!" Selene’s eyes widened in fury as she stormed toward me. She slapped me hard across the face and roughly pushed me away from Chloe.

"No, no, no! Please, Aunty Selene, I swear I found her like this—"

"Shut up!" she screamed, her voice sharp and piercing. I flinched, frozen in fear, unsure of how to make her believe me.

Before I could say another word, a familiar deep voice echoed through the room. It was my dad, Alpha Jillian. He had just returned from his trip. His eyes immediately landed on Chloe lying on the floor, and he rushed to her side.

"What happened to my daughter? Who did this to her?!" he bellowed, his voice thunderous as his anger filled the room.

Selene’s fierce gaze shifted to me.

"This crazy brat! Just look at what she did to her hair"

Meanwhile she's responsible for my hair being like this.

"She was acting crazy today because she thinks Chloe is better than her. She’s always jealous of Chloe and even makes her fail her exams so she can stay on top!" Selene shouted, as my dad's eyes shot at me, looking at my trimmed hair.

She was wrong, completely wrong. My body trembled as I shook my head, tears streaming down my face. I glanced at my dad’s red, furious eyes. The daughter he cherished the most was lying on the floor, bleeding from her wrist.

"Is that true?" His voice was cold, cutting through the air like a blade.

"No, Master, believe me..." I stammered desperately.

But before I could finish, Chloe’s eyes fluttered open slightly. Relief washed over me, she was awake. She was the only one who could clear my name now and save me from the worst that could happen.

When they asked her who had done this to her, she slowly raised her hand. My heart pounded as I watched her weakly stretch out her finger, hoping she’d tell the truth.

But then, her finger pointed directly at me.

"Olena," she whispered faintly.

"I knew it!" Selene screamed, her voice filled with rage, and before I could react, a stinging slap landed across my face and it was from my dad, the first time he had laid his hands on me.

Ever since that day, my dad dropped me out of school as a punishment and locked me away in the dungeon. That became my home, a cold, dark place as the only time I saw the morning sun was when they called me out to wash the dishes, clean the entire house, and serve the high-ranking wolves.

That’s how I became a slave. An attempted murderer. And the human who was blamed for killing her own mother.