Chapter 3

I looked at my messed-up, bleeding hand and started to laugh.

Rowena's heart squeezed tight, and her face went all panicky. "Why are you laughing?"

I was laughing at how dumb I was, letting myself get hurt to earn the silly, shallow 'love' of my parents and Rowena.

Every time Hank acted sad, they always believed him, despite being my parents' real son and Rowena's childhood friend, whom she had promised herself to.

Hank had set me up time and time again. Everyone thought I was the mean kid who picked on my little brother and stole his ideas.

I balled my hands into fists so tight that my nails dug into my skin, and I looked up at Rowena with fierce eyes.

"I did nothing wrong, and I won't apologize."

Rowena's eyes narrowed, hurt by my defiance.

"Rowena..." Hank suddenly yelped. "Ow! My hand really hurts."

Rowena did not waste a second. She turned and started rubbing Hank's hand.

Worried Hank might get cold, she dashed to the car and grabbed a fox fur coat, wrapping him up snug and warm.

My chest tightened when I saw that coat.

It was made from my eight lost tails.

Hank had once risked his life just to make me look bad.

As a Spirit Fox, each tail was one of my lives. Rowena had forced me to cut off eight to save Hank.

However, that was still not enough humiliation. When Hank won a prize with the potion I made, he complained of the cold, and Rowena made him that fox fur coat to celebrate.

Hank caught me staring and smugly stroked the fur, gazing at Rowena with love.

Any kindness left in Rowena's eyes turned to disgust for me, and she said in an icy voice, "If you won't apologize to Hank, forget about being part of the Carter family. Let's see how long you can keep this up!"

I could not help but smirk. She was in for a letdown.

In two days, I was supposed to marry the serpent clan's princess to save her precious Hank from the same fate.

Right then, a car spun out of control and headed straight for us.

The wolf clan was known for being strong and fast, and Rowena quickly shifted into her beast form, pulling Hank to a safe spot.

She was running so fast that she bumped into me, the one closest to the car. My leg hurt like I had twisted it.

I thought the car was going to hit me, so I shut my eyes, feeling hopeless.

However, in that scary moment, someone warm grabbed me.

A girl in a cute animal mask pulled me to safety, even quicker than Rowena could have.

When I opened my eyes, I saw dark green eyes that made me think of the emerald on my necklace.

The girl in the animal mask put me on a bench and vanished before I could say anything.

I reached into my pocket and found a tin of burn ointment that was not there before.

I saw Rowena comforting Hank down the street and could not help but sneer.

I pulled out the bonding ring I was going to give back to her and tossed it into the sewer without a second thought.

Two days later, I put on a fancy suit from the serpent clan and stared at all the expensive gifts they had sent for the wedding, feeling kind of lost.

My parents came up to me, nervous. They asked if I could just say Hank made a mistake with the potion, rather than saying he stole it, to preserve his dignity.

That was when I knew I was done hoping they would ever understand.

I had even gotten my own wedding gifts ready, always making excuses for them in my head.

I thought they just forgot.

They did not think to get me a wedding gift, but they sure remembered to stick up for their favorite son.

"No way! If I don't stand my ground, the serpent clan won't either," I said firmly.

"You..."

Then, from downstairs, I heard a bunch of noise.

I went down and saw Rowena sitting in the room's main chair, acting all spoiled, holding a branding iron.

"James, you've got thirty minutes until the system pairs you with a nomad beastwoman. If you can apologize to Hank 1800 times in the next half hour, I'll grudgingly give you the beast slave mark."

She paused when she saw my suit, then her brow furrowed.

"What are you doing in that getup? Are you trying to outshine Hank as a beast slave?"

I gave her a cool look. "Rowena, I'm about to bond with someone else. You're not on the guest list."

"Don't be so defiant. Two minutes have passed, and now you owe 3600 apologies if you want to be my beast slave. You'd better not waste this chance.

"If you won't say sorry, I'm not against getting someone to make you bow and apologize!"

With a snap of her fingers, assistants appeared, ready to grab my clothes and force my head down.

"No... Rowena, I told you! Today's my bonding day..."

Amid the struggle, a soft chuckle came from behind, and an elegant beastwoman gracefully approached.

"Let's see who dares to make my husband apologize!"