Chapter 1

Everyone I've ever loved ends up loving Vanessa Hale more.

I know because I can watch it happen.

There's a number over their heads. It tells me exactly how much they like her.

At the orphanage, Ms. Porter was my favorite teacher. She used to save me the strawberry candies from the bottom of the jar.

When her number hit 80, the candies stopped.

During games, I'd work up the nerve to reach for her hand. She'd look right past it and take Vanessa's.

Years later, the day before my mating ceremony, I watched Ryan's number climb to 100.

He couldn't look at me. He said maybe we should think things over a little longer.

There was a hickey on his neck. His collar reeked of Vanessa's perfume.

I said okay.

Then I packed a bag and left town.

In the next city, my real family found me.

Graham Sterling, Alpha of the Silver Ridge pack. His Luna, Catherine. And my big brother Kieran, who spoiled me like he was trying to make up for a whole lifetime in one summer.

I tested them anyway. Old habits.

I brought up Vanessa every chance I got. How smart she was. How pretty. How I'd never measured up.

Every time I said her name, the numbers over their heads dropped.

Minus ten. Minus five hundred. Minus ten thousand.

By the end of the summer, all three of them sat at negative one hundred thousand.

So I let my guard down.

Right up until my birthday party.

They missed all of it.

They walked into the restaurant as the last guests were putting on their coats. Mom and Dad couldn't meet my eyes. Kieran gave a stiff little laugh and said a project had blown up at work.

Mom and Dad traded a look. I knew that look. They were talking over the mind-link.

I'd never been sworn into the pack. I wasn't on it.

I looked above their heads.

20.

I didn't say anything.

I knew how this went. I was already planning my exit.

Mom must have seen how hard I was smiling.

Her own smile slipped. She took my hand gently, like it might break.

"Ivy, sweetheart, we messed up. We should have been here."

"It won't happen again."

Dad waved a waiter over to wheel out the cake. He set a little birthday crown on my head and grinned at me.

"Come on, princess. No crying on your birthday."

They looked at me like I was the best thing that had ever happened to them.

If the negative one hundred thousand over their heads hadn't turned into a bright, ugly 20, I might have believed this was just a late arrival.

Kieran already had the camera up.

Everyone cheered as the waiter lifted the lid.

The cake had melted into a puddle. The frosting roses had slid down the sides and pooled on the tray.

Nobody said a word.

I stood up first. Somebody had to.

I picked up the tray, the cake I'd been looking forward to for months, and carried it to the trash.

I kept my voice even.

"It's fine."

"I'm too old for birthday cake anyway."

Kieran followed me.

"Hey," he said quietly. "We're pulling an all-nighter tonight to hand this project off. After that, the island. A whole week. Just like you wanted."

"Okay?"

There were dark circles under his eyes. Things at the company had been brutal for weeks. He and our parents hadn't had a real night's sleep in a long time.

My nose stung. My fingers tightened on the tray.

Then I heard the one voice I never wanted to hear again.

"Alpha? Sorry to interrupt. I just need one more signature."

Vanessa Hale stood in the doorway in a navy Silver Ridge Holdings blazer, the pack crest stitched over her heart.

The old weight closed around my chest like a fist.

My wolf went flat and silent inside me.

Kieran's whole face lit up.

"Vanessa! What are you doing here?"

Mom and Dad were smiling before they could stop themselves.

Mom glanced at me, a little careful, and explained.

"The project nearly went under today. Vanessa caught the problem just in time."

"If it weren't for her, we'd have lost forty million dollars."

Vanessa slipped her arm through Mom's like she'd been doing it for years.

Her smile was too bright.

"Please. I was just doing my job."

Dad didn't bother hiding how impressed he was.

"You're good at what you do. I'm thinking of making you project manager."

They laughed. They talked shop. I stood next to them holding nothing.

It was the orphanage all over again.

Wherever Vanessa went, I turned into the gray wall behind her.

Somehow she'd ended up right in the middle of them, between Dad and Kieran, her shoulder pressed to Mom's.

The numbers ticked.

25.

I curled my hands into fists.

Then I coughed. Twice. Loud.

Kieran finally turned around.

"You okay? Are you sick?"

Mom and Dad were on me in a second. They wanted to take me to the hospital. They wouldn't hear no.

We were halfway to the car when Vanessa's phone rang.

When she hung up, her eyes were red.

Kieran stopped with the car door half open.

"Is it the Ironwood pack again? Are they giving you a hard time?"

Vanessa shook her head bravely. Her face said otherwise.

"It's nothing. Just a few small problems. I can handle it."

Mom answered before anyone else could.

"Nothing? A young girl like you can't handle those men on her own."

Dad was already typing on his phone, his jaw set.

"We'll meet with them together."

"Nobody pushes around anyone who works for me."

Mom started to pull her hand out of mine.

I held on.

My voice shook.

"What about me?"

For the first time, I saw impatience on my mother's face.

She frowned at me like I was a child throwing a fit in the middle of a store.

"I know you don't like Vanessa. I know there was some kind of misunderstanding back then."

"But she's done a lot for us on this project."

"Can't you be more like her? Grow up a little?"