Chapter 1

William ground a yellowed parchment contract into the rubble beneath his leather combat boot.

It was the deed to all the Howard family's territory.

"One dollar for all the land and energy deposits in your name."

William adjusted his gloves with a thin smile.

"If you don't hand over the territory seal by sunrise tomorrow, I'll wipe the Silver Moon pack off the map of the Wilds for good."

His cold gray gaze swept slowly across the hall.

It finally settled on Evelyn, who was trembling with fear.

"Oh, right. Except for the adopted sister.

"I'll take her back overseas and lock her in my private greenhouse. She'll make a nice pet to look at."

My father, Arthur Howard, glared at him with murderous rage, breathing hard like a cornered animal.

My seven brothers shielded Evelyn and me in the far corner.

I was curled up in a big, soft cashmere armchair.

My oversized dark glasses sat on my nose.

In my hand was a smooth ivory cane.

I listened to the uproar and sighed inwardly.

Did these thugs have no manners at all?

If they wiped out the Silver Moon pack, where was I supposed to find another heavenly setup like this, with free food and a roof over my head?

I kept up my blind act, eyes lowered, while I worked out where to go if the pack fell.

These hands of mine had dragged countless lives back from the jaws of death.

But that life was hell.

The most powerful Alphas from every pack fought over me. They raided strongholds by night and stormed the Council of Elders' forbidden grounds as if it were routine.

To get even one decent night's sleep, I used the corpse of a death-row inmate to stage my own death.

Then I put on these dark glasses and disguised myself as a "little blind girl" who couldn't take care of herself.

The day the Howard family took me back, I secretly stashed a dozen or so sprigs of wolfsbane.

In stories about powerful families, the biological daughter and the adopted one were always mortal enemies.

But to my surprise, Evelyn was nothing like the vicious, scheming adopted daughter I'd expected. She was kind to a fault.

To take care of me, she stayed up all night learning Braille until her fingertips blistered and bled.

Whenever we walked, she carefully held on to my sleeve.

My parents felt so guilty that they would have pulled the moon from the sky and hung it in my room.

My seven brothers, who killed without flinching on the borders of our territory, treated me like a treasure.

No patients, no stitching nerves back together. All I had to do was sit quietly in the sunroom being useless, and I got to live in total luxury.

I'd only been living this lazy, do-nothing life for three years.

And now these clueless scumbags wanted to tear my cozy little nest apart.

"Old man, my patience is running thin." William's boots crunched over broken glass as he closed in on Evelyn.

My second-oldest brother, Ryan Howard, let out a roar. "William, in your dreams!"

He lunged, but two heavy hammers slammed into his back before he could swing.

Ryan's arms were wrenched behind him, and his face hit the marble floor hard.

Blood ran from his temple and pooled beneath him.

William didn't even blink. He didn't slow down for a second.

Evelyn was shaking all over with fear.

Then she quietly edged one step forward.

Her thin frame blocked me completely from view in the armchair's shadow.

"Eight packs teamed up to take you down so we could teach you arrogant old-guard types a lesson."

William stopped in front of Evelyn, grinning like nothing could touch him.

"I flew all this way to see how you high-and-mighty packs would turn on your own flesh and blood once we had you under our boots."

Behind her back, Evelyn's right hand shook.

She found my palm and quickly tapped out a message in Braille. "Iris, listen. Crawl to the secret door!"

Each tap tugged at my heart.

She was shaking with fear, but her first instinct wasn't to save herself. It was to risk her life to get me out.

I didn't know what to feel, but I stayed where I was. If I slipped out through the secret door, where would I even go?

If I abandoned this family to save my own skin, I'd probably never find another refuge this comfortable.

My grip on the ivory cane loosened without me noticing, and it struck a chunk of broken marble with a sharp crack.

William's eyes snapped away from Evelyn's face.

His gaze swept past her thin shoulder and locked on me in the corner.