Chapter 1

The words barely left my mouth before the door crashed open.

"Damn right he's sure, you little bitch! You dared to touch my daughter! Call your lowlife family to crawl here and apologize!"

Madison's father—Richard, a powerful Beta of the Silver Vein Pack stormed in.

My body couldn't fight the sheer, suffocating intimidation of his imposing figures.

My knees gave out, and I slumped onto the floor.

The claw marks Madison left on my cheek were still burning.

The Dean immediately started kissing up to this Beta tycoon who monopolized half the northern mines.

"Don't worry, Sir. The Academy will handle this with the utmost severity!"

He snapped his head toward me, roaring in my face.

"Look what you did to Madison, Chloe! Call your people now. You will pay for this!"

I kept my head down. My nails dug so hard into my palms that they bled.

"It was Madison... she cornered me in the locker room and tore my clothes first. It was self-defense..."

I didn't even get to finish.

Madison started fake-crying weakly from her hospital bed.

"Dad! She's lying! She went crazy and pushed me out the window... She's just jealous of my background. She wanted me dead!"

"It was you—" I shot back.

But the Dean cut me off.

"Shut up, Chloe! The facts are clear. This was attempted murder!"

He dragged me out of the room by my arm.

Snatching my phone from my pocket, he threw it hard against my chest.

"I don't want to hear your excuses! Call your family. Tell them to get their asses here and apologize, or you accept the Academy's expulsion!"

Instantly, every wolf in the hallway turned to stare at me. Their eyes were full of malice and joy.

I gripped my freezing phone. I stared at my contacts, terrified to press dial.

Yes, I had five incredibly powerful Alpha brothers.

Every single one of them was an apex predator. They could make the entire North tremble just by walking into a room.

They always stuffed my wallet with limitless black cards and held me close, saying:

"Chloe, if anything happens, you call us. Anyone touches a hair on your head, we'll wipe their pack off the map."

"Exactly. Anyone makes you shed a single tear, we'll rip their throat out ourselves."

But... they were the hidden kings of the North.

I shivered. I remembered the Council's spies constantly watching the Crescent Pack. I remembered the lethal warning of the Purity Law.

The second my brothers showed up, the Council would know they were hiding an outsider Omega. The entire pack would face catastrophic sanctions.

I absolutely could not drag them down.

Looking up, I tried one last, desperate plea.

"Sir, my family... they're just loners. They barely survive taking minimum-wage jobs in the wastelands. They can't come."

"Please... can I just stay as a servant at the Academy to pay off the debt? Anything. Just don't call them."

The Dean let out a vicious sneer.

"Fringe strays? No wonder you have such a defective bloodline. They can't come?"

"Absolutely not!"

"How are you going to pay for Madison's private pack healers and the insult to her pride? Call them. Now!"

He looked at me like I was garbage.

"Whatever it costs, I can—" I started to say. I could pay for it myself with the black cards I never used.

But Richard stormed out and slapped a check onto the Dean's chest.

"Half a million. A pack donation to the Academy."

"My demand is simple. Make her family crawl here and apologize."

"Otherwise, I'm handing her straight to the Enforcers. Once she catches an attempted murder charge against a high-class elite, she'll be permanently exiled. Let her rot in the wild!"

Seeing the check, the Dean's eyes lit up with pure greed. He turned to me, his voice lethal.

"Did you hear that, Chloe? This is your last chance!"

"Either you call your pathetic family to get on their knees, or you get exiled and your life is over!"

Exile.

The word stabbed into my brain like a poisoned needle.

I couldn't be exiled. I had worked myself to the bone just to earn a spot in the Council Trials.

Only by earning a title could I proudly stand beside my brothers in the light. Only then could I stop being a secret and stop fearing I'd ruin them.

If my future was destroyed, everything was for nothing.

I looked at the massive check. I looked at the Dean's snobbish face.

The cold draft of the hallway cut right through my thin clothes.

Tears blurred my vision. With trembling fingers, I finally woke up my screen.

"Don't call the Enforcers... I'll call them."