Chapter 1

ELARA’S POV

“Do you have anything else to say?”

Adrian’s Alpha aura crashed down on me. My knees buckled and I hit the stone floor hard. Chains ran through both of my shoulders, heavy silver links carved with suppression runes that burned against my bone. Blood soaked the front of my shirt and dripped between my hands.

I forced my head up. The brother who once carried me home when I scraped my knees now looked at me with nothing but ice.

“I never touched her,” I said. My voice came out cracked. “Adrian, please. You know me. I would never hurt Selene.”

Marcus, my second brother, moved before the last word left my mouth. His palm cracked across my face. My head snapped sideways. Blood filled my mouth and spilled over my lip.

“You’ve targeted her from the day she came home,” Marcus said, his voice flat and cold. “Every chance you got. And today you tried to kill her in front of the entire pack. Spare us the lies.”

I blinked through the water in my eyes and saw the three of them clearly. Adrian, Marcus, and my childhood friend, Liam. The men who had been my entire world, they now looked down at me the way hunters look at something already half dead. Disgust sat open on their faces. No softness, and no memory of the years I spent trying to earn my place.

“Liam,” I whispered. I turned toward the only one left who might still hear me. “You were there. You saw the spar. We agreed to stop at first blood. I never used a killing move. Something else happened. My wolf—”

Liam stepped forward. He reached out, closed his fist around the chains that pierced my shoulders, and twisted.

The runes flared as metal tore through muscle and scraped against bone. A scream ripped out of me. Hot blood poured down my arms. The last scraps of wolf power inside my spirit space shredded like wet paper. Tears ran freely now.

“Stop,” I choked. “Liam, please, it hurts—”

He looked at me the way a stranger looks at trash. “Even your own wolf turned on you. It left your side and stood over Selene to protect her. A contracted battle wolf does not do that unless its master has become something rotten. You have no right to keep denying it.”

The words landed deeper than the chains.

At the age of eighteen every member of the pack could form a contract with a wolf. Once the bond was completed they could summon their wolf from their spirit space at any time. Wolves were divided into ranks: Omega, Beta, and Alpha. The higher and rarer the bloodline, the more wealth, effort, and resources were required to raise it.

My wolf had been one of the strongest battle wolves in the entire pack. No one knew that this glorious silver beast had not become what it was by chance. I had traveled through countless dangerous places, searched for rare resources, and used my own special blood drop by drop to nurture it into the warrior it became.

Yet moments ago, during the sparring match Selene initiated, everything changed.

We had agreed to only test each other’s strength. After exchanging several moves she suddenly staggered backward, coughed up blood, and collapsed as if she were on the verge of death. Instead of protecting me, my silver wolf walked toward her. It lowered its body. Its silver fur stood on end. Its fangs were exposed. Its eyes locked onto me with pure hostility.

A high-ranking battle wolf bound by spiritual contract did not protect its owner. It turned against me and risked everything to shield someone else.

To everyone watching that scene became undeniable proof. They believed I had secretly attacked Selene out of jealousy and cruelty. Even my own contracted wolf could no longer tolerate me, so it abandoned me to protect the true victim.

I shook my head hard. “I did not do it. I swear on the moon I did not—”

No one could believe a powerful battle wolf raised with everything its master had would betray her without a reason.

I looked around. Every person present stared at me with coldness and disgust. In their eyes I had already become an unforgivable sinner.

In less than a year the returning real daughter of the household had taken away every bit of love, trust, and favoritism I had spent years earning. While I, the adopted daughter is left with nothing but hate and resentment. The family I had treated with all my heart now looked at me as if they wished I would simply disappear.

I pulled out a numb, mocking smile and stopped trying to explain. I allowed the false accusations to fall upon me.

My father, Alpha Kane finally spoke, his voice rolled across the hall. “Elara. You will kneel before the clan, apologize to Selene, and then be expelled from the pack. That is my judgement.”

Selene gently stroked the silver wolf’s fur. She pretended to be generous and forgiving. “For the wolf’s sake I will help her if she simply apologizes and bows down.”

Hidden deep in her eyes was the cruel satisfaction of a winner.

“You heard Father,” Adrian said coldly as he stood beside Selene. “Go on your knees and apologize to Selene.”

I did not obey. I endured the unbearable pain, grabbed the silver chains myself, and ripped them out of my own flesh. The pain of torn skin and broken wounds spread through my entire body. At the same time I severed the final connection between myself and this family.

I staggered away. Only hatred and unwillingness remained in my heart. I silently swore that one day I would make everyone who had wronged me repay every injustice and regret everything they had done.

But my injuries were too severe. My body had already reached its limit. After only a few steps darkness swallowed my vision. I collapsed into the snow.

At the final moment before losing consciousness I heard Adrian’s cold and merciless voice. “Leave her alone. Let her die outside.”

I didn’t know how much time had passed but when I opened my eyes again I was standing proudly on the platform and in front of me was the same silver wolf. The wolf that had betrayed me. The wolf that had sealed my fate and become the final proof of my “crime.” It stood there, powerful and majestic.

And it hit me. I have been reborn.