Chapter 1

The witch held out the Exchange Necklace. "Have you decided what you want to swap?"

I followed the comments' hint and glanced behind me. Sure enough, a sliver of Vivienne's sleeve peeked out from behind a tree.

I smiled and raised my voice just enough for her to hear. "Of course. The Wolf Alliance Academy Trials are coming up, and a good score could catch the Alpha King's attention. Maybe even land me a position at the Werewolf Bureau."

"I'm not about to let this chance slip by. So the person I'm choosing for the swap is the Academy's number one, Vivienne Cole."

The bushes behind the tree rustled.

Got her.

At school, Vivienne was always untouchable. First place in everything, always one step ahead of me. She was the Alpha's daughter with top grades and an elite bloodline, the girl everyone fawned over.

But they didn't know their precious princess was a vicious little monster behind closed doors.

She'd bullied me more times than I could count. She carved slurs into my desk and locked me in a pitch-black basement where I nearly froze to death.

When I told my mother, she didn't defend me. She turned around and blamed me instead.

"Why doesn't Miss Vivienne bully anyone else? Maybe you should ask yourself what you did to upset her. She was just teaching you a lesson."

"If she hits you, you take it. You think your worthless life is worth making trouble for Miss Vivienne? Pull this again and I'll throw you out myself."

Her words cut deep. At first, I thought she was only trying to protect her job as a housekeeper for Vivienne's family.

Then the comments told me the truth.

[I actually feel bad for the villain. She's the real Alpha's daughter, but she was swapped at birth by the housekeeper. That woman even used witchcraft to mask the bloodline, so the Alpha would never sense the truth.]

[She had it coming. She's always stealing the heroine's hard work with her dirty tricks. Now our girl knows the plan and she'll just turn in a blank exam. Let's see what the villain swaps then.]

[I can't wait to see her face when she finds out she scored a zero.]

[Yeah, the villain ends up washing dishes at some diner and gets stuck with a guy way older than her.]

Every single comment was waiting for my tragic ending.

Sorry to disappoint. This time, things weren't going to play out the way they expected.

Because what I wanted to swap was never her exam scores.

I was after something much bigger.