Chapter 2

I shifted into wolf form and ran for the pack's territory.

Peter's voice faded behind me as the world blurred past.

Barely an hour later, I was at the gate of Lucas's villa.

The guard at the door looked down his nose at me.

"What are you doing here? You're confined to quarters. The Alpha won't be happy if he sees you."

It took me a second to realize he thought I was Bella.

She looked like me, and she'd inherited my white-wolf bloodline, so even our scents were almost identical.

At first, she'd even wanted to take my place on the mountain. She'd said she wanted to protect the pack and its people too.

But in the end, the people she wanted to protect were the ones who killed her.

My gaze turned cold at the thought.

But I quickly hid my anger.

I looked at the guard and played dumb.

"Why wouldn't he be happy? I'm his only daughter, aren't I?"

The guards looked at each other, and the one in front burst out laughing.

"Are you out of your mind? You still think you're the little princess you were when the Luna was around?

"Only daughter? Faye is the daughter the Alpha cares about now."

He wasn't the only one laughing. The others behind him joined in.

"Right. You lost your mother, but Faye still has Mina, and Mina could become the next Luna soon."

"Remember when Faye was kind enough to tell you the Luna was dead? You refused to believe her and even picked a fight with her.

"Mark slapped you for that. You went to the Alpha about it, but before you could even get inside, he tore into you and threw you out.

"I was the one who shoved you. I heard you lost your first pup after you got home. I was scared I'd be punished, but the Alpha listened to Mina and rewarded me instead."

Listening to their sneers, I realized my daughter had suffered far more than I'd ever imagined.

The same year I went up the mountain, Lucas moved Mina, his widowed sister-in-law, into the villa we had shared as mates.

Even when I was still there, he'd always gone out of his way to look after Mina and her daughter.

I thought he was doing it for his brother, who'd died young.

Now I wondered if their relationship had ever been innocent.

The day Mina moved in, she saw the things I'd left behind and threatened to kill herself over them.

Lucas didn't ask a single question. He slapped Bella.

"You know how insecure Mina is. Why would you leave this stuff out to set her off?"

Lucas destroyed everything Bella had so carefully preserved for me and took all the jewelry I'd left for her.

All so the place could be redecorated to Mina's taste.

By the second year, no one had heard from me on the mountain.

So everyone except Peter assumed I'd died up there.

Lucas only grew more brazen. He even moved Faye into the villa I'd left to Bella.

Faye moved in and made Bella live in the basement.

Bella didn't want to fight about it, so she stayed there.

When Mark heard about it, he slapped her too.

"You'd really go this far just to make Faye look cruel in front of everyone?"

In the third year, my daughter walked in on Mark and Faye.

Neither of them tried to hide it. They told her Lucas had arranged the whole thing.

When I didn't react, the guard ran out of patience.

"Do yourself a favor and get the hell out before..."

He never finished. My claws slashed across his throat.

He was dead before the blood even began to spray.

The other guards stumbled backward.

"How dare you kill someone just like that?

"He's Mina's brother, Faye's uncle! I'm telling the Alpha!"

They scattered and ran, and I let them go.

I looked down at the ugly, bloodless face at my feet.

He did look a little like Mina and her daughter.

Apparently, ugliness ran in the family—in more ways than one.

It didn't matter. They all deserved to die.

I picked the body up and carried it into the villa.

The living room was empty. Laughter came down from the second floor.

Lucas and Mina sat on the edge of a bed, looking at Faye like doting parents.

Mark stood beside them, delighted.

"Now that Faye's expecting, we should set a date for her mating ceremony with Mark as soon as possible. How about..."

The body suddenly landed on the bed, shattering the cozy family moment.

They all stared at me, stunned, and I smiled.

"Mark's having a mating ceremony? Why hasn't his own mother-in-law heard about it?"