Chapter 1

Layla's POV

"You stole everything from your sister. Now it's time to give your wolf back."

The silver knife in Kaelen's hand caught the light as he stepped closer. His face — the same face that had whispered promises against my hair — held nothing but contempt.

Behind him, Aurora trembled against the wall, her delicate hands pressed over her mouth. My twin sister. Beautiful, fragile, beloved by everyone.

Always hiding behind someone stronger.

I pulled at the ropes binding my wrists. They didn't give. The rough cord had already sliced through my skin, and blood dripped in warm streaks down my fingers.

Something between a laugh and a sob cracked in my throat. I'd spent my whole life trying to earn the love of people who only ever wanted to take from me.

And this — bound to a chair in a stained patrol jacket while my own mate walked toward me with a blade — this was where it ended.

I hadn't always known I was Alpha Marcus Thorne's daughter.

For eighteen years, I'd lived on the border with my grandmother, believing I was an orphan. The border was rough — rogues, smugglers, fights that started over a stolen piece of bread.

Then, just before I turned eighteen, a group of wolves in expensive clothes showed up at our shack and told me I had a family.

A father. A mother. A brother named Cole.

And a twin sister — Aurora — separated from me at birth.

I was so happy I couldn't breathe.

I swore I'd earn my place. When they said Aurora had never awakened her wolf and asked me to share mine — some rare magic that twins could do — I agreed without hesitation. I wanted to give them a reason to keep me.

They took half my wolf. And nothing changed.

I was still the border girl who spoke too loud and couldn't curtsy without stumbling. I copied Aurora's table manners, her posture, the way she lowered her eyes when Father spoke. My body grew weaker each month, but I told myself it was the price of belonging.

Then came the car accident.

Aurora and I were both trapped under the wreckage. The car caught fire. Our family arrived, pulled Aurora free, and left.

I screamed until the smoke choked my voice. The metal seared into my skin until the Lycan King's convoy passed by and his guards dragged me from the flames.

I survived. Scarred, half-dead, but breathing. For three years I stayed in his shadow. Healing, serving as his unseen guard, watching a man the whole world called a monster slowly lose himself to something no one could name.

Then my family found me again.

They said they were sorry. They said they'd never stopped searching. My mother wept and held my scarred hands like they were precious. My brother couldn't meet my eyes.

And I — stupid, desperate, still starving for a family that had never been mine — believed them.

They brought me home to rip out the rest of my wolf.

And the one holding the knife — the one they'd sent to carve my wolf out of me — was my own mate.

"I didn't steal anything." My voice came out raw. "Every time you people drag me back, it's to take something else. When does it end?"

Kaelen didn't pause. "If it weren't for you, Aurora would have her own wolf. She wouldn't be sick. You ruined everything."

He drove the blade into my stomach.

Silver and magic flooded my blood at once. Every nerve caught fire. Something deep inside me ripped — not flesh, not bone.

Something older. Something that was mine before anything else was.

My wolf thrashed and howled, clawing against the pull. The magic peeled her away like skin from a wound, and each thread that snapped sent a bolt of white through my skull. My vision drowned in red.

A sound ripped from my throat — or maybe it didn't. I couldn't tell if the scream was mine or my wolf's or just the silence splitting apart.

Kaelen stumbled backward, his face bloodless. The silver knife slipped from his hand and clattered against the stone floor.

But the magic didn't stop. It had already taken root, and it would finish what he'd started whether he held the blade or not.

Aurora knelt beside me. Her cool fingers brushed my cheek.

"It's okay, Layla." She kept her voice pitched soft, like a prayer. "Even without your wolf, you'll always be a Thorne."

I forced my eyes open. Through the blood and the tears, I saw it.

The corner of her mouth, curling upward. A satisfied smile she hadn't bothered to hide.

There it was. The real Aurora.

"I don't want to be a Thorne." The words scraped out of me like broken glass. "I will never — want to be — a Thorne."

Aurora's hand froze on my cheek.

The magic was still pulling, still tearing, and every syllable cost me more than the last. But I had one thing left to give, and it wasn't for them.

Moon Goddess. Hear me.

"My wolf —"

Nemesis. Any god who's listening.

"— and I —"

Please. Hear this.

I bared my blood-stained teeth and forced out every last breath I had.

"WE CURSE EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU."

The magic completed. My wolf's howl shattered the air, raw and furious, too big for my body.

Aurora screamed.

Good. Let her scream.

Darkness swallowed everything.

I thought I was dead. But the dark wasn't silent.

Sounds bled through — music, clinking glass, laughter. A party in another room, growing louder.

My eyes snapped open.

Crystal chandeliers. Marble floors. Hundreds of wolves in formal dress, carrying champagne and pretending to be polite. A banquet hall.

My wrists — no ropes. No blood. No burns.

I was standing upright in a dress that pinched my shoulders and hung loose at the waist. No one had bothered to get my measurements right. No one ever did.

"Layla." My brother Cole's voice came from right beside me, impatient and expectant. "We're asking you to share your wolf with Aurora."