Chapter One- The Things She Overheard

Seren’s POV

“She actually believes we are moving into the upper district next month,” Davan’s voice boomed through the speaker of his phone, followed by a sharp burst of laughter.

I froze in the middle of the kitchen. My fingers, still damp from the rain outside, tightened around the strap of my errand bag. The flat was dark, save for the pale light leaking from the kitchen counter where Davan’s phone sat. A live call was running. The screen glowed with three names I recognized—his closest friends from the warrior circle.

“No way,” Jax laughed from the speaker, his voice distorted by static. “She really thinks you're taking her with you?”

“I swear to God,” Davan said. I could hear the clink of ice in a glass from the bedroom down the hall, followed by his heavy footsteps. He didn't know I was back. He thought I was still running across the pack territory to deliver his medicine. “She already started packing her old sweaters into boxes. It is hilarious.”

My breath caught. A cold, heavy weight dropped straight into my stomach. I stepped closer to the counter, my boots making no sound on the worn linoleum floor. I reached out to press the red button to end the call, to stop the noise, to pretend I hadn't heard anything. But my hand shook, hovering an inch above the glass screen.

“You play too much, Davan,” another voice, Torin, chimed in. “But for real, what are you going to do with her when Zola officially joins the pack house tomorrow? Zola won't tolerate an unranked girl hanging around your space.”

“There is nothing to do,” Davan replied smoothly. He sounded so calm, so entirely different from the man who kissed my forehead before I left an hour ago. “Seren is going back to the low-rank dorms where she belongs. I already signed the transfer papers.”

“Did she ever suspect anything?” Jax asked.

“Suspect what? That an elite warrior would actually choose an unranked, unshifted orphan?” Davan chuckled, a sound that felt like a physical slap across my face. “Girls like Seren are grateful for any attention you give them. You give them a warm meal and a place to sleep, and they will swallow every lie you tell them. She was perfect practice, honestly. She kept my bed warm and my clothes clean while I waited for Zola to come back from the southern academy. I needed to sharpen myself for a real woman.”

“That is cold, man,” Torin said, though he was laughing too. “But fair enough. Zola is an Alpha’s daughter. You need that bloodline if you want to climb the ranks.”

“Exactly,” Davan said. “Seren was just the stepping stone. Easy to fool, easy to please. It is over now.”

The line went silent for a second before Jax spoke again. “Well, don't let her catch you slipping before tomorrow. You know how emotional those unranked types get.”

“She won't catch anything,” Davan said confidently. “She is too stupidly in love to see what is right in front of her. I’ll tell her tomorrow after the ceremony. Now let me get some sleep. I have a long day with Zola.”

The call beeped and ended. The kitchen fell into a dead, suffocating silence.

I stood completely still. The grocery bag slipped from my hand, dropping onto the counter with a soft thud. I did not cry. My eyes felt dry, almost burning, as I stared at the blank screen of his phone.

My mind instantly went into overdrive, fighting against what I just heard. No, a small voice whispered inside my head. There must be a mistake. He was just showing off for his friends. Men do that. Davan loves me.

I tried to pull up the memories of the last two years to protect myself. I remembered the night he brought me here from the crowded orphan dorms. I remembered him sharing his rations with me when winter hit the low-rank district hard. He told me I was his anchor. He told me that my lack of a wolf didn't matter to him.

But as I stood there in the dark kitchen, those memories began to shift and warp. The warm looks he used to give me suddenly looked like pity. The way he kept me hidden from his family wasn't to 'protect me from pack politics' like he claimed—it was because he was ashamed of me. The way he always left the room to take certain calls.

Every single nice thing he had ever done cracked open, revealing the ugly, rotten truth underneath. I was his maid. I was his practice.

A sudden, violent urge flared up in my chest. I wanted to storm down that hallway, throw his bedroom door open, and scream until my throat bled. I wanted to tear his face apart. I wanted him to see the exact moment he broke me.

But my feet felt like they were glued to the floor. I couldn't move. A deep, heavy shame wrapped around my throat, choking the anger out of me. If I walked in there now, I would have to face the fact that I had given two years of my life to a man who viewed me as a stray dog he fed out of boredom. I was not ready to let myself feel that broken yet.

Then, something happened.

Deep inside my chest, right beneath my ribs, a sudden pulse vibrated. It was low, heavy, and completely foreign.

I gasped, clutching my stomach as the strange sensation rippled through my blood. It didn't feel like a normal muscle spasm. It felt alive. It was a dark, heavy heartbeat that did not belong to me, waking up from a long sleep.

A wolf?

No, that was impossible. I was nineteen. The shifting age for our pack came and went at sixteen. I had been tested by the pack doctors three times, and every time, the result was the same: my blood lacked the spiritual spark. I was unranked. A human in a world of monsters.

But the pulse came again, stronger this time, reacting directly to the raw, suffocating agony in my chest. It felt like something massive was pressing hard against the inside of my bones, trying to break through a wall. It lasted for five seconds before it faded back into the dark, leaving my skin tingling with a terrifying heat.

The exact moment my heart broke, something else woke up. I didn't know what it meant, but the strange heat staying in my veins told me everything had changed.

I forced my hands to stop shaking. I picked up Davan’s phone, placed it exactly where it had been on the kitchen counter, and walked slowly down the dark hallway.

The bedroom door was slightly ajar. I pushed it open an inch and looked inside.

Davan was sprawled across the mattress, sleeping soundly. His breathing was slow and even, his face completely peaceful. He looked like a man who didn't have a single care in the world, completely unaware that he had just destroyed my entire life with a five-minute phone call.

I stared at him, my heart turning into a cold piece of stone. Then, my eyes drifted down to the floor beside the bed.

His leather gym bag was tossed carelessly against the wardrobe. Poking out from underneath the heavy strap was a thick, cream-colored folder stamped with a seal I recognized all too well—the official crest of the Pack High Council.