Chapter 1

LEA's POV

"You missed a spot."

The mop handle cracked against my ribs before I registered the movement, and I didn't cry out, I couldn't, not unless I planned to worsen things. Garrett's boot shoved my shoulder, and I caught myself before my face met the toilet I'd been scrubbing for the past hour. "Right there. See it?"

I saw nothing but porcelain so white it hurt my eyes, but I nodded as I should always nod and always agree.

"Yes, Gamma."

He spat into the bowl. "Pathetic. The great Lea Blackthorne, on her knees where she belongs."

The great Lea Blackthorne, the name felt like a costume I'd worn in another life, one that no longer fit. I was twenty-one years old, and I couldn't remember the last time someone had called me by my full name without sneering like it was some horrible joke.

Garrett finally left, and I was finally free enough to sit back on my heels and pressed a hand to my side where I was kicked earlier; thankfully, it was not broken. I'd learned to tell the difference between bruised and fractured by the time I was seventeen.

Through the narrow window above the toilet, the full moon stared down at me, judging and useless as always. My chest ached the way it always did when the moon was full, like something inside me was trying to claw its way out. But there was nothing there, the night my parents died, the Moon Goddess had taken my wolf as punishment for my sins. its public knowledge, and Damian, my brother, who is the alpha and now my warden, knows best.

I finished the toilets and moved to the barracks common room, where a group of warriors was drinking and playing cards. They didn't look up when I entered. I'd perfected the art of being invisible.

"Lea." The voice was familiar; I knew it was Margot, one of the omega servants, before I even turned back. She appeared in the doorway, her face pale. "Alpha wants you in his office immediately."

My stomach dropped because Damian never summoned me unless I'd done something wrong, and I'd been so careful lately.

"Did he say why?"

"Do I look like the Alpha's messenger?" Margot's eyes darted around nervously. "Just go, you know how he gets when people make him wait."

The walk to the pack house felt like a march to execution; other wolves moved past me in the corridors, their eyes sliding away. No one wanted to be associated with the cursed girl who'd murdered her own parents.

Except I hadn't, I knew I hadn't, but after four years of being told otherwise, I'm starting to doubt my own innocence. Maybe I killed them and just can't remember.

Damian's office door was ajar, but I knocked anyway, as expected of me.

"Enter."

He sat behind our father's desk, looking every inch the Alpha in his dark shirt and that cold, assessing stare. We had the same black hair, but where mine was always tangled and dull from harsh soap, his gleamed. Where my gray eyes were perpetually downcast, his black ones commanded attention.

"Sit."

I remained standing; we all knew sitting meant staying longer.

His jaw tightened. "I said sit, Lea."

I sat.

Silas pulled out a folder, making a show of reading through papers I couldn't see. The silence stretched, in another power play I'd learnt from his varieties of techniques by now.

"The Royal Shifts pack has requested a peace offering," he said finally. "After the border disputes last month, Alpha Amreth has agreed to a truce. In exchange, he wants a bride from our pack."

My heart stuttered. This should have nothing to do with me; it's public knowledge that I'm the pack maid, not wife material for an alpha.

"You're going to the Royal Shifts Pack  in three days."

The words didn't make sense, so I stared at him, waiting for the punchline, the real reason he'd called me here.

"Did you hear me?"

"I'm not..." My voice came out hoarse. "I'm wolf-less, I can't be a bride, I'm not even ranked, which means —"

"Exactly." Damian interrupted with a gloating smirk as he leaned back in his chair, and something like satisfaction flickered across his face, or perhaps it was relief. "You're perfect the way you are,” I was certain there was a barbed insult to the fake compliment. “Alpha Amreth doesn't want a bride with power or influence. He wants someone weak, someone who won't challenge his chosen Luna,” he leaned towards me, lowering his voice. “He needs someone disposable."

Disposable. The word loomed over my head like a heavy cloud.

"He specifically requested someone wolf-less," Damian continued. "Apparently, he has his reasons. And you, dear sister, are the only wolf-less female of age in Eel."

I should have felt insulted, but all I felt was a strange, buoyant sensation in my chest. It felt like Freedom, like my wings were finally being unclipped and I could live like a normal werewolf. I'm not oblivious to the fact that Royal Shifts might be cruel and Alpha Amreth might be a monster. But he couldn't possibly be worse than what I'm going through with my brother and pack members.

"When do I leave?"

Damian's eyebrows rose. "You're not going to beg me to reconsider? Throw yourself at my mercy?"

"Would it change anything?"

"No." The bastard..

"Then I'll be ready in three days."

Something dangerous flashed in his eyes, and for a moment, I thought he might hit me. He'd never done it himself, always delegated that task to his warriors, but there was a first time for everything.

Instead, he smiled, and somehow it hurt more than any physical blow would've.

"Good. I'm glad you're being reasonable about this." He straightened papers on his desk. "You'll be escorted to the Royal Shifts pack by Garrett and two other warriors. They have orders to deliver you in one piece, so try not to do anything stupid between now and then."

"Is that all?"

"One more thing." He stood, walking around the desk to tower over me. "When you get there, you keep your mouth shut about our pack business and about me. Do you understand?"

I met his eyes for the first time in months. "What would I possibly have to say?"

His hand shot out, gripping my chin hard enough to bruise. "I'm serious, Lea. You breathe one word about anything that happens here, and I'll make sure what's left of your pathetic life ends very quickly. Alpha Amreth won't protect you. No one will."

I jerked away from his grip. "I understand."

"Get Lost."