PROLOGUE

“So, as we all know already… I won the bet, fair and square. Now when do I get the money?”

I stopped mid-step at the entrance of the courtyard with the basket I’d spent all afternoon preparing with food.

I shook my head with a smile when I heard the chorus of laughter that followed his question. Klaus and these silly bets he played with his friends. They would literally gamble about anything and everything.

Although I had no idea that they would be here today. He had specifically asked me to meet him at this time and never mentioned that his friends would be joining us.

My heart swelled up with hope.

Was he finally ready to tell them about our relationship? It’s been six months and no one knew about us—which I perfectly understood because keeping it a secret was safer not just for Klaus but for my family.

It was a huge taboo for a royal blood like him to date a low Omega like me… yet that never stopped Klaus from loving me.

I took a deep breath and stepped into the courtyard but the first sight that greeted me made me stop dead in my tracks.

Klaus was sitting on a stone bench with his friends gathered around him… and there was a blonde lady on his lap, with her arms wrapped around his neck while his was on her thigh.

Get it together, Margaux.

I scolded myself when I felt an ache in my chest.

It had to be just harmless flirting… perhaps to save face in front of his friends or something.

He looked up and smiled when he saw me. “Margaux! Perfect timing. Come over here…”

I took a step forward but there was something in his expression… plus the glaring amusement on his friends’ faces that made me uneasy.

“You asked me to meet you here,” I murmured, suddenly feeling uncomfortable under their gazes. “You said you had something important to tell me.”

“Oh, it is important.” Marcus, his best friend, said and laughed. “We needed to settle the bet.”

“What bet?”

Why did they need my presence to settle it anyway?

I looked at Klaus again and he was grinning at me, but it wasn’t the same affectionate grin I had seen last night.

Nah, this one had mockery all over it.

What was going on?

“Should I tell her, Klaus, or would you want to do the honors?” Marcus asked, and Klaus waved a hand which he took as confirmation.

“You see, Margaux… six months ago we placed a bet that Klaus couldn’t get an Omega girl to sleep with him within a year. I mean we all know how uptight that group of people could be… because of the law…” My chest tightened, but I said nothing as he continued. “Now imagine my shock when this one calls this morning to tell us that… he actually scored one in six months!”

“My man!” Dane whistled and tossed a coin bag at Klaus, who caught it without looking away from me.

I had no idea when the basket I was carrying fell from my hands… which I realized were suddenly shaking.

“Wh… what?”

“You know, as impressed as I am,” Dane shook his head, “I gotta confess that I’m quite disappointed you gave in so easily, Margaux. I thought you lot had a reputation or was it just a rumor?”

The blonde laughed and kissed Klaus’ jaw. “I told you she would be easy. The whole uptightness you think they have is because no one looks at them anyway. Show them a little bit of affection and they will all but throw themselves in the nearest bed the next second.”

I placed a palm against my chest… as if it could calm my heart which was beating wildly now, as if it could ease the sudden pain exploding within me.

“Klaus… what are they talking about?”

“Come on, Margaux. You are smarter than this.” He stood, and the blonde slid off his lap.

Klaus walked toward me with the coin purse in his hand, shaking it so the gold inside would clink together.

“Three hundred gold… that’s just what you helped me make. I suppose I could let you keep a share out of it because, to be honest… I enjoyed the hell out of you last night.”

I could have sworn that the world tilted sideways at that moment, but I forced myself to stay upright, forced myself to think beyond the pain in my chest.

“Klaus, please tell me you are joking. You swore to me… you told me you loved me.”

“I never did.”

I bit my lip and tears suddenly filled my eyes when I realized then that he was right. He never actually told me that he loved me… I’d just been so desperate and stupid that I believed whatever lies he fed me.

A bet.

That was all it had been?

A bet?

“Oh my God…” I gasped and the tears rolled down my cheek. “Oh my God!”

“Awwnnn… is she crying for you, Klaus?” The lady sang and they all laughed, but Klaus was staring at me with something like pity.

He stopped in front of me, close enough that I could smell the blonde’s perfume on his clothes. “Look, Margaux, don’t take this personal. It was all fun and I know you enjoyed everything too, so why don’t we just… let it be, huh? Move on from it without being dramatic?”

He’s gotta be joking.

“You know what? I’ll give you fifty percent of the money for your time and the pleasure. I know your family would need it and it should be enough to make it up to you.”

I gaped at him, hoping that he would laugh and tell me that this was all just a sick joke.

One hundred and fifty gold.

He was offering me that “to make it up to me?”

After playing with my feelings, toying with me… but what does that matter? I’m worth nothing but a few gold coins to him?

Stupid me.

I wanted to slap him. Grab his robe and shake some sense into him. Instead, I turned around and walked away… trying so hard to stand upright and walk properly despite the fact that my legs were shaking so badly, and everything was so blurry.

I would not fall.

I had already humiliated myself enough so I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing me on the floor.

Their laughter was still ringing in my ears as I walked out of the courtyard. My feet carried me through the pack grounds without conscious thoughts. Past the training fields, past the market square. All the way home to the small house on the edge of the territory where my family had lived for three generations.

When I got there, the front door was standing wide open, which made me frown.

My father never left the door open.

He was obsessive about security, always checking the locks twice before bed. I took the steps slowly, and when I pushed the door wider, it swung on hinges that suddenly seemed too loud in the silence.

I froze when I looked down at the wetness my feet had stepped on and saw blood. My heart stopped for a second, then started beating again at a maddening pace.

“Mama?” My voice cracked on the word as I walked into the house.

I found her in the hallway and it took everything in me not to scream. She was on her back with arms stretched out like she was trying to reach for something.

Her eyes were wide open and staring at the ceiling… lifeless.

And her apron was soaked with so much blood.

Every thought of Klaus and whatever game he had played evaporated… the heartbreak making way for a fresh wave of another type of pain as I stared at my mother’s very still and lifeless body.

My knees hit the floor beside her. “Mama? Mama, please…”

But it was too late. She wasn’t moving… would never move.

A sob wrecked through me and I stood up to move around the house but I knew I would find no one… at least no one alive.

I knew that if my mum was gone that meant that everyone else who was in the house had to be dead too.

I knew that even before I walked into my sister’s bedroom and saw my father lying beside the door as if he was trying to shield the door before they got him.

Tears were furiously pouring down my cheeks, breathing suddenly too hard from the pain gnawing at my chest as I stepped over him and saw my sister.

She was just twelve years old and she was wearing the blue dress she begged my mother to make for her birthday.

No…

No, no, no.

I was quivering as I took in her form. They had slit her throat, I could tell even from this distance.

I clamped my palm over my mouth to stop the scream that almost tore out of me, but I could feel it tearing through my chest and leaving me hollow.

My family…

They had killed…

They had killed…

“Search the other rooms. She has to be here somewhere.”

The voice made me freeze. I knew that voice.

Everyone in the pack knew that voice because we had been trained since childhood to recognize it and obey.

Alpha King Aldric. Klaus’s father.

I scrambled backward and pressed myself against the wall beside the window. My hands were shaking so hard I could barely hold them still.

“Sir, what if she already ran?” Another voice asked… a guard probably.

“Then track her down and finish the job.” The Alpha King’s footsteps were measured and calm, like he was taking a leisurely evening walk. “Her father broke Omega law. He conspired against pack hierarchy and thought he could get away with it. This is what happens to traitors, and it should serve as a loud statement to all the other slaves.”

Lies!!

My father would never…

“When you see the girl, eliminate her quietly. And ensure you find a way to clean this place up and make it seem like it was done by a rival pack. Perhaps the rogues from the mountain. Nothing should point to me. My son has an unfortunate attachment to their daughter and he doesn’t need to know about this.”

It was a miracle that I was able to stay calm given the grief and pain mounting and building in me every passing second like a volcano threatening to erupt.

“What if he asks questions?”

“That is why you need to make damn sure you do a good job or I’ll have your head hung on a pole. He mustn’t know that I was responsible for this. He can’t afford the distractions that another one of his tantrums will bring, especially not now, with his coronation just a few weeks away.”

I did not wait to hear more. I moved to the back window and pushed it open as quietly as I could. The glass was old and stuck in the frame, but I forced it up and climbed through. My dress caught on something and tore, but I did not stop. I dropped into the garden and ran.

Behind me, I heard them enter the house. I heard them shouting to each other as they searched the rooms. I did not look back.

The forest swallowed me, branches whipping across my face and arms. My lungs burned and my legs screamed in protest, but I pushed harder. Faster. I ran until I could not hear their voices anymore. I ran until the only sound was my own ragged breathing and the thunder of my heartbeat.

When I finally stopped, I was deep enough in the woods that the pack grounds were invisible behind me. I leaned against a tree and let myself collapse. My hands were covered in blood. I did not know if it was my mother’s or my own.

They would think I died out here. They would think I bled out in the forest like a wounded animal.