Chapter One: The Frame

The slap cracked across my face before I was fully conscious.

I jolted awake, my cheek on fire and my head pounding for some reason I could not remember. . The room spun as I took in my environment.

unfamiliar walls, unfamiliar sheets, unfamiliar everything. My body ached in ways that made bile rise in my throat, and a strange male's scent clung to my skin, a scent that didn’t belong to the only male it should, my fiancé, Julian.

"Get up."

Dad's voice. No, just Victor now. The voice he used for pack business, and only for me when he was livid.

My eyes fought to focus and I found him towering over the bed, his face twisted with disgust. Behind him stood Julian, my Julian, but he looked at me like I was someone else, and not his fiancé.

My wolf curled in on itself, whimpering from the hatred in his gaze.

What is going on?

"Dad, I—" My voice cracked. I pulled the sheet tighter around my naked body. "What's happening? Where am I?"

"Don't." His hand rose and I flinched hard enough to rattle the headboard. "Don't you dare play innocent with me."

I’ve seen that hand come down before. Too many times.

"I can't believe I almost made the biggest mistake of my life."

Julian's voice cut through my panic. Those hazel eyes that used to look at me like I was his everything were stone-cold now. He was angry, like he wasn't looking at his future wife but a stranger who wronged him.

I didn’t understand. Why was I in this room? Why did dad strike me? Why was Julian glaring at me?

Why was I naked, away from my home, in this strange room?

"Serena tried to warn me. She said you'd been acting out, Jealous anytime I spoke to her. But I defended you." Each word landed like a physical blow. "I told her you’ve changed."

"Serena?" Memories flickered back, and I gripped the sheets around me tighter as my throat tightened.

The bachelorette party. My stepsister's unusual kindness: "Let's have one drink, just us sisters. I'm sorry for how I've treated you. I want us to be close, Ella. Really close."

The sweet red wine, that tasted wrong.

The way the room had started tilting after one cup.

Her smile as the world went dark.

I should have known.

How could I have been so stupid?

"No." The word came out broken. "No, she drugged me. Julian, you have to believe me, I would never—"

"Enough!" Victor grabbed my arm, yanking me from the bed. My shoulder screamed. I stumbled, barely keeping the sheet wrapped around myself, marble floor ice-cold under my bare feet. "You disgrace this family with your lies. I always knew you were weak, but this?"

Weak.

He called me that my whole life, every time I cried. Every time I wasn't as strong as my brothers or as perfect as Serena. Because of my omega wolf.

"Serena warned us about you. About your deception, killing the livestock and blaming her, biting her and claiming it was rogues. But I defended you." Tears rolled down my face as Victor sneered. "I should have known you were just a dirty slut. Not a daughter of mine. Not like my Serena."

The door opened as if on cue.

Serena stepped in, tears streaming down her beautiful face, Julian's jacket draped over her shoulders. She looked every inch the wounded innocent, the loving sister whose heart was breaking for me.

I wanted to rip her throat out. She planned this. She always wanted Julian, ever since we were kids. Even when Julian called her his best friend every time I expressed concern, I knew she had other plans.

I had no idea she could go this far.

"I'm so sorry, Ella." Her voice broke with fake sympathy. "I tried to stop them from coming, but Father insisted..." She turned those big blue eyes to Victor and Julian. "I didn't want you humiliated like this."

My wolf snarled, throwing herself against my ribs, desperate to break free.

"You bitch." The words tore out of me. "You did this. You drugged me, you set this up—"

"You see?" Serena turned to them, her performance flawless as it always was anytime she turned everyone against me. "Even now, she blames me. She's always been jealous that Julian and I connected, that we understand each other—"

"We're fated mates!" I screamed. I turned to Julian, desperate for him to believe me just this once. "Please. You know me. You know I would never—"

"I know that you've always been possessive. I know that every time Serena and I talked, you throw a fit." He stepped closer, and for one heartbeat, I saw conflict flash in his eyes. “I still chose you, despite all the signs.”

Then it hardened again.

“But clearly I was wrong. You are every bit of the weak, evil sister Serena told me about. A cheat. Maybe the bond was wrong. Maybe the Moon Goddess makes mistakes."

The world tilted.

No. He couldn't—

"I, Julian Thorne, future Alpha of the Silverpine Pack, reject you, Ella Ashford, as my mate and my bride."

The bond snapped in my chest.

Pain tore through my chest unlike anything I had ever known. My soul was being ripped apart, every cell on fire and freezing simultaneously. I collapsed to my knees as agony consumed me.

The sheet pooled around me. I didn't care. I just lost everything.

This wasn't supposed to happen. We were fated. The Moon Goddess herself had chosen us. We were supposed to have pups with his eyes and my laugh. I was supposed to be his Luna, his queen.

Through my blurred vision, I saw Julian's face spasm with pain, he felt it too, the breaking of the bond.

But he didn't take it back.

Instead, he turned away.

And reached for Serena.

My stepsister took his hand, leaning into him like she'd been waiting for this moment her whole life. The look on his face, the concern, the tenderness, the way he touched her cheek was a second knife to my already shredded heart.

"I'm sorry you had to see this, baby." Julian's thumb stroked her cheek the same way he used to touch me. "But at least now I know the truth. At least now I know who really deserves to be my Luna."

Baby.

He never called me that.

"Julian." Serena's voice was honey-sweet, her eyes innocent. "Are you sure? I don't want to come between—"

"You could never come between anything. You've been honest with me from the start." His voice was firm, certain. "It was always her causing problems. I should have known it was always you.”

He tilted her chin up.

And in front of me, still gasping on the floor, still bleeding from the rejection, he kissed her.

Serena's eyes opened mid-kiss, locking with mine over Julian's shoulder.

And she smirked.

"Get up." Victor hauled me to my feet by my hair. I cried out, my hands flying to his wrist, but his grip was unmoving. "Get dressed. You have exactly three minutes before I drag you downstairs to face the pack council."

"Father, please—"

The slap came faster this time. My head snapped to the side, the taste of blood flooding my mouth.

"Alpha Ashford. You lost the right to call me father when you spread your legs for some random male the night before your engagement. Do you have any idea what this does to our family's reputation? To our alliances?"

I wanted to scream that I didn't remember. That Serena had done this.

But the words died in my throat.

No one would believe me. They never did. Serena had spent years painting me as the jealous, unstable sister. Every tantrum she threw in private became my fault in public.

Every time Julian had chosen her company over mine, it was because I was too clingy, too possessive, too much.

She played this perfectly.

And I walked right into her trap.

“Once I am done with you, you would regret ever existing.”