CHAPTER 1

Raina

“Ah!”

My head slammed against the edge of the bedframe, and for a second, I couldn’t think—couldn’t breathe. The room spun. My ears rang. My skin burned from where Kael’s hand had struck me.

Before I could recover, his hand closed around my throat.

He was on top of me, already pressing me down into the mattress with his weight. I grabbed at his wrist, struggling, but he was stronger—he was always stronger.

I gasped, choked, tried to pull in air, but nothing came. My nails scratched at his arm, desperate to make him stop.

Then I felt it—fabric tearing.

My wrapper was ripped away in one pull. My chest heaved with panic as I tried to scream, but he was already forcing himself into me.

No. No—

I wasn’t ready. My body wasn’t prepared. It felt like fire—sharp and unbearable. I cried out, the pain blinding. I used everything I had to push him off me, but he didn’t budge.

Instead, he pulled back.

And slapped me again. Hard.

I flew off the bed, hit the cold floor, and scrambled for the duvet to cover myself.

I could barely see through my tears, but I could hear him, loud and disgusted.

“Why can’t you just pretend to be her?” Kael growled. “Just once.”

“Why do you always smell like you? Talk like you? Think like you?” He spat the words like poison. “Can’t you at least act?”

He stood there, glaring, like I was a problem he didn’t know how to solve.

“You owe it to me to be a good wife,” he said, like I was the one failing. “But even that—you can’t get right.”

Right in the stomach, he kicked me.

I felt something inside me tear. Blood spilled from my mouth. My hands shot to my belly on instinct, even though there was nothing to protect but shattered bones and broken pride.

I curled into a ball on the floor, but he wasn’t done.

He came down beside me, pinned both my wrists above my head, and forced himself in again.

I didn’t scream this time.

I couldn’t.

I just cried. Quietly.

He moved rougher, harder—like my pain gave him permission. The more I wept, the more he seemed to enjoy it.

I wasn’t even a person in that moment. I was a thing. A body.

I stared at the ceiling, waiting for it to be over.

And when it finally was, he stood up, wiped himself off like nothing happened, and walked to the bathroom.

The water ran. He showered. Cleaned the blood and sweat off his body like I was something to be scrubbed off.

Then he came out, dressed himself, and walked out the door without a word.

I lay there on the floor, for I don’t even know how long. Time didn’t move. It was just pain and silence.

But I was used to this.

This kind of pain had always followed me. Long before Kael.

I was born into it.

People said I was cursed.

My mother, Leisha, had been the kingdom’s most gifted healer. Kind. Brave. The kind of woman who went where others ran from. That’s how she ended up in the wrong place.

She had followed the warriors into battle, volunteering to treat their wounds on the field. That’s where she was captured—taken by the enemy.

She spent seventy-five days in captivity.

The warriors risked their lives to save her. Some died. But she survived.

Except… she didn’t come back the same.

Weeks later, she found out she was pregnant.

Me.

She never said who did it. Never got the chance.

She died during labor.

And Darius—her mate—hated me for it. From the moment I was born.

He wasn’t even my real father.

But that didn’t stop him from reminding me every single day that I was a mistake. That I took everything good from him the moment I took my first breath.

I grew up knowing rejection, learning to live in silence, bracing myself for blame.

So no—what Kael did tonight wasn’t new.

It was just the same story… in a different house.

I slowly sat up, wrapping the duvet around myself. Then I saw the blood.

On the floor.

On the sheets.

Running down my legs.

My fingers touched my scalp and came back red—I was bleeding from my head.

I knew I needed help.

I grabbed my phone and called Tara. My only friend.

She answered immediately. And when she arrived and saw me, she froze.

“Fuck,” she whispered, eyes wide. “He did this to you? On your fucking birthday, Raina? Why?”

I didn’t say anything.

Maybe because today was one year since Kael and I were fated. Exactly one year since the Moon Goddess decided that I, of all people, was supposed to be his mate.

Selene—my sister—was supposed to be the one. That’s what everyone thought. That’s who he wanted. That’s who the whole pack expected.

It was like fate played a cruel joke. One that ruined everything.

The council called it a mistake. Some said I must’ve bewitched him. That I’d stolen her place.

Me. The unwanted daughter. The bastard born from assault. The girl whose own father never claimed her. The pack’s charity case.

I didn’t have wealth. Or power. Or even love. Now I was fated to my sister's lover.

A man who reminded me every day that he wished it was Selene instead of me.

Tara helped clean me up, her hands gentle but shaking.

“I have a party tomorrow night,” she said suddenly. “Come with me. Just for a few hours. You need to get out of here. Please.”

“I can’t,” I whispered. “If he finds out I left—”

She cut me off. “He can’t do worse than what he already has.”

I looked down at the bruises on my thighs. The dried blood on my legs.

“Raina…” Tara knelt beside me. “I can get a few rogue divorcees to beat the shit out of him. I mean it. I know people.”

That made me laugh. Just a little. And it hurt.

She smiled, finally. “Whiskey and gas money is all they need.”

I shook my head, wiping my face. “He’s my husband, Tara. He’ll get better. He’s just angry. He has a lot going on right now, with the pack and everything. He loves me... just in his own way.”

Tara looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “No man who loves you does this, Raina.”

I swallowed hard.

I wanted to believe she was wrong.

But somewhere deep inside, something in me was starting to crack.

Because this wasn’t love.

It never was.

And as I lay in that bed that night, my body aching, my heart a thousand pieces… I realized something.

I didn’t know what freedom felt like.

But maybe it was time I found out.