Chapter 2

Dad's face darkened like a storm cloud, his Alpha aura pressing against the room like a physical weight."Insolent brat! The Midnight Frost pack doesn't negotiate with slaves!"

His Alpha's dominance rolled over everyone present, but Julian barely flinched. That kind of resistance to an Alpha's command? It meant his bloodline was stronger than Dad wanted to admit.

Julian flicked a glance my way, and I caught his scent shift—disgust mixed with something else. Pity? His voice hardened, but underneath I heard his wolf's reluctance. "I'm not defying you, Alpha. But I'm damaged goods—my wolf's unstable. I won't be suitable for serving Miss Madeline."

I took a deep breath, tasting the tension and testosterone flooding the air.

Yeah, I knew I wasn't Catherine material. Skinny where she was curved, brown hair where hers gleamed like spun gold. Plus, that night three years ago when rogues breached our territory during the blood moon ceremony? Catherine had been caught alone near the sacred grove, and I'd thrown myself between her and a massive rogue's claws. The bastard's strike had torn through my spine, severing something vital—my wolf.

Shy as hell, tongue-tied around other pack members, especially the Alphas. No match for her bombshell glow and natural Luna presence that had every unmated wolf sniffing around.

Last life, Jasper's wolf must have been disgusted by my weakness. No wonder he'd played me like a fool while his true nature yearned for Catherine's strength.

Catherine's wolf was clearly panicking—I could smell the spike of anxiety in her scent as she grabbed Julian's arm, yanking him up with her enhanced strength. "Julian, you can't abandon my poor sister!"

"And if you go back to the slave markets? Those silver collars will destroy what's left of your wolf. I won't let that happen!"

I watched the performance, stone-cold. That "protective sister" act had me in tears in my previous life, my human heart desperate for pack acceptance. Now? Made my stomach churn with its fakeness.

I cut in, my voice flat and emotionless—the tone of someone whose wolf had never come to soften the edges. "No need, Catherine. Julian wants out? Fine. Let him go back to whatever hellhole broke his wolf in the first place."

Dad blinked, his Alpha instincts thrown off-balance. He'd planned to assert his dominance, make Julian submit through sheer supernatural force, then "generously" allow me to keep him, making me grovel with gratitude.

Catherine froze mid-performance, her wolf's distress spiking through her scent. This sob story was designed to showcase her caring nature to Dad while highlighting my inadequacy as a packless disappointment. I'd just burned her script to ashes.

She rushed to me with supernatural speed, all fake desperate pleas. "Madeline, his wolf's just unstable from trauma! Don't send him back to those monsters!"

"The silver poisoning will kill what's left of his supernatural side!"

I met her eyes, slow and lethal, letting my human coldness show—the one advantage of being wolfless was immunity to pack emotional manipulation. "You care so much? Take both Sterling brothers. Keep them as your personal collection."

Her face flushed beet-red, her wolf's embarrassment flooding her scent. "W-what the hell are you implying?!"

But I knew the truth. Inside, her wolf was practically purring with satisfaction. The Sterling twins were premium supernatural genetics—both Alpha-bred and drop-dead gorgeous in that dangerous way that made pack females swoon. She lived for being the envy of every she-wolf in the territory. Parading a matched set of powerful brothers? She'd be the talk of every pack gathering from here to the Canadian border.

Dad stepped forward, his Alpha presence trying to intimidate me into submission. Too bad it only worked half-strength on the wolfless. "Madeline, are you serious about refusing both guards?"

I smirked, ice-sharp and human-cold. "Dead serious. I want neither broken wolf."

Both brothers' faces went slack with shock. Jasper especially—his molten gold eyes hit me with that weird recognition again, like his wolf was trying to remember something impossible. Made me wonder if somehow, some way, he retained fragments of our past life. But that was crazy. Reincarnation wasn't a werewolf thing.

Dad played the concerned father, though his wolf's irritation was bleeding through his scent. "Then who's protecting you? A wolfless Midnight Frost heir is a target for every rival pack and rogue hunter on the continent."

I fired back with the confidence of someone who'd died once and had nothing left to lose. "Let me join the pack company, Dad. Professional guards have kept the CEO alive. I don't need a broken wolf—I need competence."