C1

“Who did this to me?” I whispered.

My skin burned. I sat up fast under the sheets. Huge red bite marks covered my neck and arms. There were so many. My inner wolf was shaking. I felt so small and so weak.

What happened last night?

A flash of a dark room hit my mind. A giant wolf with thick black fur had pinned me down. He did not care that I cried and begged him to stop. He just bit my neck and claimed me for himself. He took my pure wolf spark away.

I forced my legs to move. They shook like jelly as I stood up on the cold floor. I had to find the beast who did this to me.

But the room was totally empty. The only thing left behind on the pillow was a silver claw earring. It smelled like heavy pine and rain.

Did he drop this?

I hid the silver claw deep inside my pocket. I turned around to run out, but the big door flew open with a loud crash.

Chief Obinna Okafor, my father, stormed into the room. His male partner, Kieran Ashford, held his hand tightly, looking worried. Right behind them was my twin sister, Ayomide.

“Look at you!” Chief Obinna yelled, his voice shaking the walls. “You stayed out all night away from the Okafor Moonfang Clan! We thought a rogue wolf killed you, but you were just playing with some random beast!”

Ayomide fake cried and hid behind Kieran. “You went too far this time, Zanele! Dad and Kieran almost went crazy looking for you in the whole Ravenmoor Moon City!”

I shook my head fast. Tears came to my eyes.

“No, Dad, please listen to me,” I said. “I did not want this.”

“Have you no shame at all?” Chief Obinna pointed his finger at my neck. “Look at those dark marks on your skin! You still dare to lie to my face?”

“Someone set me up,” I gasped. “I fell asleep and then a wolf came in. I do not know who he was.”

Chief Obinna did not care about my words. He grabbed a heavy stone bowl from the table and threw it right at my head.

Thud!

A sharp pain hit my forehead. Warm red blood started running down my face and dripping onto my clothes. I grew very scared.

“I just gave your hand to Alpha Jacob Quinn!” Chief Obinna roared. “He is a strong leader! Now you are not pure anymore! How can I tell him his new mate has another wolf’s scent on her?”

My eyes went wide. I could not breathe.

“Alpha Quinn is almost sixty years old!” I screamed. “His last three mates all died under bad mysteries! You want me to die too?”

“You should be happy he even wants an omega like you,” Chief Obinna said. He turned away from me and looked at Ayomide. “Thank the Moon Goddess that Ayomide is good. You two have the same face, but you are bad. You bring shame to our clan name.”

Ayomide looked at my bleeding face and smiled a mean smile. “Do not forget she grew up in the poor wild woods, Dad. She does not know how real wolves act.”

My heart broke into tiny pieces. I looked at my own father and my own sister. They hated me. They did not care that I was hurting.

Ten months later, I lay in a small room on the edge of the city. The air was full of the sound of tiny babies crying. I had just given birth to two little pups.

My body felt so tired, like I was going to die.

Ayomide suddenly grabbed the two babies right out of the small bed. They were still wet and small. She looked at me with giant, angry eyes.

“Give them back to me!” I screamed. I tried to sit up, but my body fell back down. I was too weak.

“Give them back to you?” Ayomide laughed. “You are just a poor wolf. You cannot even buy them milk.”

“I am your twin sister!” I cried out. “We share the same blood! Why are you doing this to me, Ayomide?”

“Your mother loved you and left me alone in that big house with all those mean wolves!” Ayomide yelled. “I suffered for years while you were safe! I hate you!”

She came closer to me. Her teeth looked sharp.

“The pack only needs one beautiful face,” Ayomide said. “And that face is going to be mine!”

“What are you going to do with those babies?” I gasped.

“I am going to burn you until you are gone!” Ayomide said.

She grabbed a bottle of gasoline and threw it all over the floor. She lit a small fire and dropped it on the wood. Then she turned around and ran out of the room with my two tiny babies.

The fire grew huge in three seconds. It was so hot.

Ayomide walked out into the cold night and looked back at the big flames. She looked down at the two small newborns in her arms.

Ten months ago, she had gone back to the room to hide her bad tracks. She had met a guard who worked for Supreme Alpha Idris Blackthorne. That was when she found out the truth.

The wolf who had claimed me that night was not a bad rogue. It was Idris Blackthorne, the king of the Blackthorne Bloodmoon Pack.

Ayomide had made a big plan right then. She was going to use our identical faces to trick the Supreme Alpha. She would tell him she was the girl from that night.

With me dead in the fire, no one would ever know the secret.

“Do not cry,” Ayomide told the babies. “If you were not Idris’s kids, I would leave you in the dirt. But you will help me become the new pack queen.”

But Ayomide did not know something. I was not dead.

Before the fire could touch my skin, I used all my power to jump out of the low window. I fell into the wet grass and crawled away into the dark trees.

Suddenly, a huge pain hit my stomach again. I gasped as a soft cry came from the grass beneath me.

Oh my goddess. There were more.

I reached out with my shaking hands. I pulled two more tiny, wet babies close to my chest. I had given birth to four pups, not two.

“I will stay alive for you,” I whispered to them. My eyes grew hot with deep anger. “I will grow strong, and I will take back everything she stole from us.”