Chapter 2

The next day, my Moonridge interview ran nearly twenty minutes over.

By the time I came downstairs, the Recognition portrait was already sitting on the desk.

Father and Mother stood behind Rowan and Sienna, all four of them dressed in Blackthorn ceremonial colors.

Sienna was in the center, two moonstones gleamed at her throat.

The portrait would hang in the Council Hall for decades. And there was no sign I had ever been meant to stand in it.

“Aria.”

Sienna’s voice pulled my attention away.

Everyone had gathered in the sitting room. The Pack attorney was there too, with a stack of documents open in front of him.

Father nodded toward the last empty chair.

“We can finally start.”

I sat down.

“Start what?”

“Some arrangements,” Father said. “There are certain assets and responsibilities that pass to Alpha-blood children when they come of age.”

The attorney turned the first folder toward Father.

Father began going through it.

“I’m putting thirty million dollars into Sienna’s Pack Trust. She’ll also receive the lakeside residence and, once she completes university, a seat on the Pack Council as the Alpha family’s second representative.”

A Council seat. That wasn’t just money.

It meant a voice in Blackthorn decisions. Access to Pack affairs. A future here that belonged to her before she had done anything to earn it.

I waited for Father to continue. He didn’t.

Sienna stared at Father.

“All of that is mine?”

Mother squeezed her hand.

“We want to make sure you’ll always be taken care of.”

Rowan grinned and tossed her a set of keys.

“And this is from me.”

I recognized the keys. They were for the sports car Sienna had been obsessing over for months.

Sienna jumped up and hugged him.

Mother turned to me next.

“Aria, you’re Sienna’s older sister. What are you planning to give her for Recognition?”

My fingers tightened against the chair.

“Before we talk about what I’m giving Sienna, I’d like to know what I’m getting.”

The Pack attorney glanced at Father.

Father answered without hesitation.

“You’ve always been strong enough to make your own way. We think it’s time you started building your future for yourself.”

“So I get nothing?”

Mother’s smile faded.

“We’ve given you everything you needed growing up, Aria. That is hardly nothing.”

“Sienna is getting thirty million dollars, a residence, and a seat on the Pack Council.”

“Sienna needs security,” Father said. “With your wolf, you can earn any position in this Pack you want. Why would you need property or a Council seat handed to you?”

“This isn’t fair. You’re giving Sienna a place in Blackthorn’s future and leaving me out of it.”

Father’s expression hardened.

“These are Recognition gifts. As Alpha, I decide what each of you receives.”

Mother reached for my hand.

I pulled it away.

“Aria, you have a strong wolf. You have your competition prizes and that brilliant mind everyone is always praising. You already have advantages most wolves would give anything for.”

Her gaze shifted toward Sienna.

“Your sister has never had things as easy as you.”

There it was again.

Sienna’s weaker wolf was a reason to protect her.

Mine was a reason to give me less.

Rowan leaned back against the sofa.

“You’ve always been stronger than Sienna. You can earn whatever future you want. Why do you need everything she gets too? Let her have something that’s hers.”

“Something that’s hers,” I repeated.

“So because Sienna might struggle to build a future for herself, you’re giving her one. And because you think I can build mine on my own, I get nothing.”

I looked at him.

“Does that actually sound fair to you?”

Sienna lowered her eyes to the folder in her lap.

“Aria thinks I’m taking what should have been hers.” Her voice trembled. “If she resents me this much, then I don’t want any of it.”

Mother immediately took her hand.

“No one is taking anything away from you, sweetheart.”

Then she looked at me.

“Do you have to ruin every happy moment your sister has?”

I almost laughed.

It was my Recognition too.

Somehow, everyone in the room seemed to have forgotten that.

Father slid another document across the table.

“Let’s finish this. As Sienna’s older sister, you’ll transfer five hundred thousand dollars from your competition account into her Pack Trust as a gift.”

My fingers went still against the arm of the chair.

That money came from years of academic competitions.

It was the only money I had earned entirely on my own.

“What is Sienna giving me?”

The room went silent.

Sienna’s eyes filled with tears.

Mother stared at me as though I had just asked something outrageous.

“You’re asking your own sister to give you a Recognition gift?”

“I’m asking whether she’s expected to give me anything.”

“You know Sienna doesn’t have money of her own,” Rowan said impatiently. “Stop embarrassing her.”

They had just put thirty million dollars into her Pack Trust.

Apparently, that still counted as having nothing.

“And if I refuse?” I asked.

Mother’s expression cooled.

“Then don’t expect your father to present you at the Recognition Ceremony.”

Yesterday, that threat might have broken me.

Today, my one-way ticket to Moonridge was already sitting in my inbox.

I picked up the pen.

“Fine.”

Relief crossed Mother’s face.

Sienna stopped crying.

I signed the transfer authorization and pushed it back across the table.

They thought they had taken another half million dollars from me.

What they didn’t know was that it was the last thing they would ever get from me.

Five hundred thousand dollars for my last obligation to Blackthorn.

Then I would owe this Pack nothing.

Fair enough.