Chapter 1

Julian Valerius is my uncle.

Nobody at Ettelgard Academy knows.

It wasn't my idea to keep it a secret.

He cornered me on my first day.

“Forget the name Valerius while you’re here,” he’d said, his face a mask of stone. “And don’t tell anyone we’re related.”

“Why?” I was so confused.

“I’m twenty-one. You think I want you calling me ‘Uncle’? I’d sound like some fossil who needs a cane.”

He turned and walked away, his back as cold as ice.

“What if I run out of funds?” I yelled after him.

He tossed a black card over his shoulder without looking back.

No family crest on it.

“Mind-link me. We’ll talk when you’ve spent it all.”

From then on, we were strangers at the academy.

He was the legendary pureblood Alpha heir.

Gorgeous, ruthless, and terrifyingly powerful.

When he walked into a room, the air grew heavy with his dominant cedar and winter-chill scent.

Weaker wolves literally dropped their gaze.

He was a walking god.

Every female's ultimate fantasy.

I was just Aurora Vance.

A nobody from a minor “Vance” family.

No one would ever connect us.

Until Scarlett.

A Beta hopelessly obsessed with Julian.

She somehow got her hands on our private chat logs.

Probably bribed a tech in the academy's secure network hub while Julian was away for the Alpha Trials, totally cut off from the world.

She found the money he sent me every month.

The times I visited his private suite.

She didn't know the truth.

She didn't care.

A no-name freshman spending an Alpha heir’s money and using his private suite?

That was enough to condemn me.

The Induction Ceremony was canceled.

I was dragged before the Elders' Council.

My advising Elder sat beside me, his face like he’d swallowed a rock.

“Aurora, explain this recording. There's no mention of you in Julian Valerius’s bloodline file. Are you claiming to be his secret lover?”

I took a deep breath. “It was a private conversation with my family. He’s my—”

Scarlett slipped into the room, cutting me off.

Her eyes were red-rimmed as she sat down.

“Elder, she’s been hinting for months that she and Julian are… close. We all warned her to be realistic. She wouldn’t listen.”

My advising Elder’s gaze shifted between us.

The bias was obvious.

“Aurora, Scarlett is a student Enforcer. She has no reason to lie. Go write a statement. For now, your honors are suspended.”

I opened my mouth to argue.

To say she had every reason to lie.

But Scarlett was already holding the door open for me, a sickeningly sweet smile on her face.

“It’s not personal, first-year,” she whispered, her voice like a snake’s hiss. “Some things just need to be brought to light. For the sake of the academy’s integrity.”

She was a year above me.

That polite act was worse than a death sentence.

I walked out of the council chamber.

My phone was blowing up.

The academy network’s top headline:

【SHOCKER: HONOR STUDENT IS A PARASITE, BLACKMAILING TOP ALPHA HEIR. AUDIO PROOF INSIDE!】

The top comment:

【She always wears custom gear in the mess hall. Now we know her price.】

I looked down at my tactical jacket.

Julian bought this for me.

He claimed the tactical vendor sent a "midget size" by mistake and returning it was too much of a hassle.

A six-foot-four Lycan, pretending he accidentally ordered a women’s extra-small.

When my grandmother gave birth to him, she must have forgotten to include humility.

I tried to mind-link Julian.

Nothing.

Just dead silence.

I couldn't feel his presence at all.

Defeated, I tried our family’s encrypted channel.

【Uncle, big trouble. Your crazy admirer leaked the recording of us joking around.】

The message hit a dead wall.

He was in the Alpha Trials.

Completely off the grid.

Ghosted.

Fine.

Uncle is MIA.

Niece is getting publicly crucified.

Yep.

This family is completely useless.