Chapter 4

I grabbed a wine glass off the table and slammed it hard against the floor. The glass shattered, fragments spraying across the ground.

"Elena! Have you completely lost it?" Jasper roared.

In an instant, more than a dozen warriors surged forward and closed in on me. Their eyes burned with hostility, as if I were some dangerous intruder.

"I'm not crazy," I said calmly. "I'm protecting my dignity."

"Dignity?" Serena sneered. "What dignity could an orphaned wolf possibly have?"

I took a deep breath and looked at the warriors keeping me in. In my desperation, the words slipped out before I could stop them. "Alpha Damon is my brother. He won't let this go."

At the same time, I hurriedly pulled out the report Damon Fox had sent me.

The room fell into stunned silence. Then, laughter erupted.

"Elena, if you're going to make things up, at least make it believable!" Victoria laughed until tears spilled from her eyes. "The Alpha of the Blackwood pack is your brother? Do you think we're idiots?"

"Exactly," Serena said smugly as she walked toward me. "Are you really that desperate that you'll say anything? How pathetic."

She reached out to snatch the document from my hands. "Let me see this so-called proof. I'm curious how convincing your forgery skills are."

I clutched the report to my chest, but Serena was much stronger than I was. After a brief struggle, she ripped it away.

To make things worse, my moonstone bracelet slipped off my wrist during the scuffle and clattered onto the floor.

"This is your evidence?" Serena mocked, waving the report. "Any back-alley clinic could fake something like this."

She bent down and picked up the moonstone bracelet, twirling it between her fingers. "Or is this useless rock your proof of identity? How laughable."

"Give it back!" I lunged for it. "That's the only thing my mother left me!"

"Your mother?" Victoria strode over in high heels. "Since when does an orphaned wolf have a mother? Did you dig her out of a trash heap or something?"

As she spoke, she lifted her foot and stomped hard onto my wrist. The sharp heel dug into my skin, causing a pain so intense that I nearly blacked out.

"Ah!" I screamed as warm blood spilled from the wound.

"Victoria, that's enough," Jasper said with a frown, but there was no real force behind his words.

"Enough?" Serena scoffed. "She's the one spreading lies and slandering my future brother-in-law. If we let this slide, she'll think we're pushovers."

She crouched in front of me, her voice dripping with malice. "Want that useless stone back?"

I clenched my teeth, fighting through the agony in my wrist. "Give it back."

"Then kneel and lick up the wine you spilled," Serena said, pointing at the puddle from the broken glass. "Clean it up, and maybe I'll give it back."

Boos and laughter rippled through the crowd.

"Isn't that going too far?" someone whispered.

"She brought this on herself by pretending to be connected to the Blackwood pack," another voice replied.

I looked at Jasper, hoping he'd stop this.

But he turned his head away and said coldly, "Elena, you got yourself into this, so you have to deal with the consequences. Apologize, and it'll be over."

My heart went completely numb. He had always known how precious that bracelet was to me, yet he chose to stand by and watch.

To get back the only thing my mother left me, I dropped to my knees, trembling.

The floor wasn't just wet with wine. Shards of broken glass were scattered everywhere, sharp as blades as they bit into my knees.

I closed my eyes and stuck out my tongue.

The burn of the alcohol hit my nose, twisting my stomach into knots. My old stomach injury from four years ago flared up, making me shiver all over.

Disgusting laughter filled the air.

"She's really licking it! Hahaha!"

"Like a dog!"

"An orphaned wolf should know her place!"

Swallowing my nausea and humiliation, I forced myself to clean the floor inch by inch.

A shard nicked my tongue, sending blood spreading across my mouth.

After a long time, the floor was finally spotless.

I lifted my head, tears streaming down my face. "Can I have it back now?"

Serena stared at me, relishing in my misery and grinning wider. Then, she raised the moonstone bracelet high and smashed it on the ground right in front of me.

A sharp crack rang out as the moonstone shattered into pieces.

"No!" I threw myself at the fragments, screaming. "Why would you do this? You promised!"

"When did I promise anything?" Serena laughed cruelly. "I said you had to lick it. I never said I'd give it back after."

I kneeled on the ground, clutching the broken pieces of moonstone as I sobbed uncontrollably.

It had been the only thing anchoring me to this world, the only proof that I had ever had a family.

Now, it was gone.

"Why are you crying?" Victoria nudged me with the tip of her shoe. "It was just a useless rock."

Serena picked up a silver dinner knife from the table. The blade gleamed coldly under the lights.

"But this isn't over yet."

She crouched in front of me and pressed the tip of the knife to my cheek. "I'm going to carve the word 'orphan' into your face so everyone knows exactly what you are."

The icy metal touched my skin, sending a bone-deep chill through me.

"Serena, this might be too much," Jasper finally said weakly.

"Too much?" Serena shot back. "She claimed to be from the Blackwood pack and brought this on herself. Even if Damon were here, he wouldn't give a damn about some poser like her."

The blade pressed down.

I felt my skin split, and warm blood ran down my cheek.

Despair swallowed me whole.

Just then, the doors to the ballroom were kicked open with a violent crash. The heavy wooden doors slammed into the walls, the impact echoing through the entire hall.

A furious male voice thundered through the room. "Stop right there! Touch my sister again, and you die."