Chapter 1

"Sign the paper. The system will wipe your identity from the West Coast in three minutes."

The monitor glared back at me. One tap of my finger, and the screen flashed red with a single word: REVOKED.

A syringe lay on the corner of my metal desk, filled with concentrated suppressants. Just enough to force my inner wolf into a coma and fake my death.

Nora, my second-in-command, slammed her hand over the transfer papers. Her eyes were bloodshot.

"Dr. Winslet, he is erasing you! You spent three years curing his rabid soldiers. Now he throws you out to Florida like garbage?"

"Take your hand off the papers, Nora." My voice did not shake.

I closed the thick medical logs from the last three years. Every page was full of my blood, literally. I made serums to purge his wolfsbane poison. Every full moon, he held me close to soothe my damaged beast. But the moment his own beast tried to take over, he shoved me away. He never laid a finger on me.

For three years, he never gave me his mark.

"Your wolf is too weak," he told me back then. "I want to wait for peace. I want to give you a real ceremony."

I fell for his lies. I thought he was protecting me.

Two hours ago, he marched that woman through the front doors for the whole pack to see.

He never had a problem marking someone. He just never wanted to mark me.

The doors burst open.

Chloe walked right in. Two armed guards followed close behind.

She ignored Nora completely. Her eyes scanned my lab, stopping dead center on the display shelf.

A pair of mating cuffs sat in the center of the shelf.

Roderick clamped them onto my wrists our first winter together. He said the metal was soaked in his scent. He said it would keep my wolf steady. I wore them every day until the metal wore down. I only took them off this morning to buff out the scratches.

"So this is where you hid them." Chloe smirked. She picked up the cuffs with two fingers, her face twisted in disgust. "Roderick drew the sketch for these when I turned eighteen. They were supposed to be my birthday gift. You wore them for three years. Doesn't that make you sick?"

"The Alpha gave those to the doctor personally!" Nora snapped.

"It is a cheap copy." Chloe tossed the cuffs to her guard. "Torch them. They make me sick."

The guard fired up a blowtorch. Blue fire hissed.

"Stop!" Nora lunged forward.

The guard raised the heavy metal handle to bash her skull in.

A massive hand caught Nora's wrist in mid-air. He shoved her away with zero mercy.

Nora crashed into a metal cart. Glass trays shattered across the floor.

Alpha command rolled through the room like a physical wave. My damaged wolf whimpered in my chest.

For three years, he never used his Alpha aura around me. I thought it was love. I was wrong. It was just pity.

I let out a quiet breath and turned to face the man I lived with for three years.

Roderick stood in the doorway. He looked at the mess on the floor and frowned.

Chloe instantly put on tears. She threw herself into his chest, holding up her red palm. "Roderick, the sparks burned me. It hurts so bad."

"Where are you hurt? Let me see."

Roderick pulled out a tin of salve and rubbed it gently onto Chloe's skin.

That was my medicine. I spent nights boiling the herbs by hand when he came back bloody from battle. It was the only tin left on the entire coast. Now he was wasting it on a scratch that was not even there.

My blood ran cold.

Roderick finally looked up at me. His Alpha aura pressed hard against my chest. "Winslet, are you done acting out?"

"I am not acting out." I met his gaze dead-on.

"Then control your dog." He put the tin away. "Chloe suffered six years in hell. She has every right to take back what is hers. I protected your family's business. I gave you this lab. I gave you a safe haven in Florida for life."

He took a step closer, towering over me.

"You asked to visit your pack one last time. I gave you that too. I did my duty by you. Now, grow up and play your part."

Every word tore away the last shred of my pride.

I took half a step back, putting distance between us.

"You are right, Alpha," I said quietly, dropping my gaze. "I will do as I am told."

The fire had already swallowed the cuffs. The metal warped, blackened, and melted into slag.

Chloe rested her head against Roderick's shoulder, smiling like a winner.

The last trace of my pine scent in the room was gone, replaced by the stench of scorched metal.

Roderick checked his watch. His voice stayed completely flat. "Lucas will pick you up at eight tonight."

He locked his cold gray eyes onto mine.

"Let's end this cleanly, Winslet. You got everything you asked for. The entire territory is watching this ceremony tomorrow. I do not want any surprises."