Chapter 2

Mia did not notice the strange expression on my face. She simply smiled and ran her fingers through her reddish-brown hair.

“Now that Theo and I have formed a mate bond, I will become the Luna of the Crescent Pack. Naturally, I need to teach you some manners.”

I frowned and interrupted her.

“I am not Theo’s adopted sister. I am the daughter of the Alpha of the Crescent Pack. Theo is only the Beta I appointed to temporarily manage the pack on my behalf. He is not the Alpha.”

Mia looked as if my answer had amused her.

“If Theo isn’t the Alpha, then who is? You?”

“How ridiculous.”

Her smile disappeared, and her gaze turned cold.

“You’re an unawakened failure. Besides running around the forest playing with dirt, what else can you possibly do?”

Mia lowered her head and looked at me, her eyes filled with mockery.

“Theo already told me everything. You’re not right in the head. You’ve been imagining you’re the Alpha’s daughter since you were a child.”

I pressed my lips together and said nothing.

So this was what Theo had told her.

It seemed that after managing the pack for twelve years, the power he held had grown so deeply rooted that he had begun to desire something that was never his to take.

Taking my silence as agreement, Mia pulled a black card from her pocket.

It was my black card.

“This,” she said, holding the card between two fingers and waving it in front of me, “I had it canceled for you.”

I suppressed the anger rising in my chest and asked calmly, “Why?”

“Your wolf hasn’t awakened, and you’re not an Alpha. How could you possibly enjoy privileges like these?”

Mia took the card back into her palm and lightly tapped it.

I stared at her.

The black card was linked to my personal account. The money was part of the private inheritance my father had left me, completely unrelated to the pack’s business.

“That’s my money!”

A trace of disdain appeared in Mia’s eyes.

“What money? Without Theo, you’d have been starving years ago!”

She believed Theo was the true Alpha of the Crescent Pack, and that everything I owned came from him.

Mia then ordered her guards to bring over a thick ledger.

“These are all your expenses since childhood.”

“Since your wolf never awakened and you’ve never contributed anything to the pack, Theo shouldn’t have to support you.”

She slammed a pen down on top of a debt agreement.

“You owe Theo a total of one hundred million gold coins. Sign it.”

I flipped through two pages of the ledger.

The records did not only include my personal expenses. They also contained compensation payments for my father’s former warriors, upgrades to the territory patrol system, and even the equipment purchased for the border patrol team last year.

Everything had been converted into gold coins and added together, creating an absurd number.

“One hundred million?”

I almost laughed from anger.

“This estate alone is worth more than that, and it’s part of the inheritance my father left me.”

Mia smiled.

“This estate was clearly left to Theo by his father. How did it suddenly become yours?”

I looked at her coldly.

I knew that no matter how much I explained now, to her it would only sound like another one of my delusions and lies.

It would be better to wait until Theo arrived and confront them both face-to-face.

Perhaps believing that I could no longer keep pretending, Mia clapped her hands.

Two guards stepped forward and began removing the belongings from the living room.

Among them was the family portrait of my parents and me, with the date handwritten by my father in the bottom right corner.

My mother had hung it there seventeen years ago.

Every day, I passed by it and saw it.

“Get rid of this useless junk.”

Mia brushed off nonexistent dust from her hands.

“It will only get in the way when I redecorate this place.”

But she was not finished. She had someone bring over another document, a marriage contract.

“The Alpha of the Dark Night Pack is currently looking for a mate.”

“You can marry him. I’ll even give you a discount and consider this debt settled.”

So she was not only after my money.

She also wanted to drive me out of the Crescent Pack.

I picked up the marriage contract and tore it apart in front of her.

“I am the future Alpha of this pack. You have no right to decide my future.”

Mia let out a sinister laugh.

“An unawakened parasite like you still dreams of becoming an Alpha? Don’t push your luck. You’re signing this debt agreement today whether you want to or not.”

“Grab her!”

Her guards rushed forward.

One grabbed each of my arms, holding me firmly in place. Their strength was overwhelming, as if they were deliberately trying to crush my bones.

Just as I was preparing to fight back, the doors opened.

“What are you doing?”