chapter 1: A Born disgrace

Selena’s POV

I should have turned around the moment I heard them laughing.

The sound came through Drake’s door, low and easy, the kind of laugh people only make when they know they won’t get caught. I stood there in the hallway with my hand already lifted to knock, listening to my future mate and my stepsister talk about me like I wasn’t real.

“What do you think her face will look like tonight?” Vanessa’s voice was bright with excitement.

“Shock. Maybe she’ll cry. She still thinks she’s going to be Luna.” Drake sounded bored, like the whole thing was already finished in his head. “A wolfless bastard who can’t even shift. She actually believed she was worth something.”

Vanessa giggled. “Wait until she finds out I’m the one carrying the heir.”

My hand fell back to my side.

Five years. Five years of warming his bed, covering for him, believing every quiet promise he made when no one else was listening. And this was what it added up to.

I pushed the door open.

They were tangled together on the bed, half-dressed, not even trying to hide. Drake’s head turned first. For a second he just stared at me. Then his expression settled into something colder.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“What does it look like?” My voice came out steadier than I expected. “Getting the truth.”

Vanessa sat up, not bothering to cover herself. “You were never supposed to hear that.”

“But I did.” I looked at Drake. “Was any of it real?”

He got off the bed and reached for his shirt. “Don’t start, Selena. You knew what this was.”

“No. I knew what you told me. Those are two different things.”

He moved faster than I expected. One second he was across the room, the next his hand was around my throat and my back hit the table hard enough to knock the air out of me.

“You will not make a scene,” he said, voice low. “Not tonight. Not ever.”

I clawed at his wrist. “Get off me.”

Vanessa appeared beside us and grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking my head sideways. “You should have stayed in your place. It would have hurt less.”

Drake dragged me to the door and shoved me into the hallway. I hit the opposite wall and had to catch myself against it.

“Walk into that hall and open your mouth,” he said, “and I’ll make sure what’s left of your life here isn’t worth living.”

I straightened up and met his eyes.

“Watch me.”

 

The main hall was packed. Every ranked wolf, every elder, every person who had ever looked through me was standing under the ceremony lights. Someone had made sure the whole pack would be here for this.

My father stood at the front in his formal coat. Alpha Richard Ashwood. When he saw me, his expression didn’t change. It never did.

“Selena. Sit down.”

“No.” I raised my voice so the nearest rows could hear. “Drake attacked me. He put his hands around my throat and—”

A ripple of laughter moved through the crowd.

“She’s making up stories again.”

“The wolfless girl. Always so dramatic.”

“I am not lying!” The words came out rougher than I wanted. “Look at my neck. Look at what he did.”

My father crossed the floor in four steps. He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.

The slap landed before I even saw his hand move.

My head snapped to the side. The taste of blood filled my mouth instantly. For a moment the whole hall went quiet.

Then my father turned back to the room like nothing had happened.

“Forgive the interruption. My daughter has always struggled with knowing her place.”

More laughter. Comfortable this time. The kind people make when they’re glad the target isn’t them.

Drake walked in through the side doors with Vanessa on his arm. She caught my eye and smiled, small and satisfied.

My father faced the pack.

“Tonight we celebrate the future of Blackthorn. Our Alpha has chosen his Luna. Vanessa Ashwood will stand at his side. She already carries the next heir.”

Applause rose around me like a wave.

“As for Selena…” He finally looked at me again. There was nothing in his face. Not anger. Not shame. Just emptiness. “She will leave pack territory tonight. She has no rank here. She never did.”

“This is my home,” I said.

Drake’s voice carried easily across the hall. “You never belonged here. You were convenient. That’s all.”

Something inside me snapped.

I started walking toward him. “I am your daughter,” I said to my father, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Your first child.”

His hand cracked across my face again. The second hit sent me to the floor. Before I could get up, his boot drove into my stomach.

“You are not my daughter,” he said coldly. “Your mother was a servant who got above herself. A whore. And you are the proof of it.”

Laughter rolled through the hall again.

I pushed myself up onto my elbows, breathing hard. “So you’re throwing me out. Making me a rogue.”

“Yes. I will not give shelter to something useless.”

“I’m not useless.”

“Then shift.” His voice rose for the first time. “Right now. Show every wolf in this room that you’re worth keeping. Shift!”

I couldn’t. We both knew I couldn’t.

He looked at the guards. “Take her to the dungeon. I’ll decide what to do with her later. A rogue with my blood is still a problem I don’t need.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong!”

The guards grabbed my arms. I fought them. I kicked and twisted and clawed, but it didn’t matter. They were ranked wolves and I was nothing, and they dragged me out of the hall while the pack watched.

Vanessa was smiling. Drake looked bored. My father’s face had already closed again, like the whole thing had been a minor inconvenience.

The last thing I heard before the dungeon door slammed shut was the sound of people going back to their celebration.

I sat in the dark with my back against the cold stone and my face throbbing, and I did not cry.

I was done crying over people who had never once cried over me.