THE LYCAN KING'S BIGGEST REGRET: HIS CHUBBY MATE

The living room smelled like cheap pine cleaner and fear.

I sat in my usual spot near the back wall, the one chair nobody ever wanted because the cushion was flat and the armrest wobbled. My stepmother Lily stood at the front of the room next to my father, Beta Albert, and both of them looked like they had swallowed something rotten. The whole Ashford household had been called into this meeting, every cousin, every aunt, every ranked wolf in the family. That never happened unless someone was dying or already dead.

My half sister Scarlet sat in the center of the front row with her legs crossed and her long blonde hair swept over one shoulder like she was posing for a magazine cover. She kept checking her phone and sighing every few seconds, annoyed that this meeting was cutting into her evening plans. I pulled my oversized hoodie tighter around my chubby frame and tried to make myself smaller, which was something I had gotten very good at over the past twelve years.

"There is no easy way to say this." My father's voice cracked on the last word. His hands were shaking and he gripped the edge of the table to steady them. "Marcus has been arrested by the Lycan King's forces."

A collective gasp rippled through the room. My stomach dropped.

"On what charges?" Uncle Thomas leaned forward with wide eyes.

"Murder." Lily pressed a tissue to her perfectly lined eyes, though I noticed no actual tears falling. "They are saying our Marcus killed the King's sister."

"That is insane!" Scarlet shot to her feet, her face twisted in outrage. "Marcus would never do something like that. This is a setup."

"It does not matter what we believe." My father's tone went hollow, like a man reading his own death sentence. "The Lycan King believes it. And he has offered us one chance to save Marcus's life."

The room went dead silent. I could hear the kitchen clock ticking from two rooms away.

"What chance?" Aunt Brenda whispered.

My father looked at Lily. She looked at the floor. Then he spoke the words that would ruin my life forever.

"He wants a daughter from our household. As a slave. In exchange for Marcus's life."

The silence that followed was so thick it felt like the walls were pressing inward. Then Scarlet let out a sound that was half scream, half sob, clutching at her chest like she had been physically stabbed.

"No! No, absolutely not!" She was crying now, real tears streaming down her face as she grabbed our father's arm. "Daddy, I am engaged to Alpha Jensen's son. The wedding is in three months. You cannot do this to me. You cannot send me to that monster!"

"Sweetheart, nobody is sending you anywhere." Lily wrapped a protective arm around Scarlet's shoulders, pulling her close and stroking her hair.

I watched the whole thing from my wobbly chair in the back. Something cold and sick was growing in my gut because I already knew what was coming. I could feel it the way animals feel a storm before it hits. Scarlet's tear filled eyes slowly moved across the room, scanning every face until they landed on mine.

And she smiled.

"What about Mia?"

Every head in the room turned toward me. Thirty pairs of eyes locking onto the chubby, scarred, wolfless girl who had spent the last twelve years washing their dishes and scrubbing their floors.

"She is not doing anything with her life anyway." Scarlet's voice had already steadied, her tears drying up like they had never existed. "She has no wolf. No prospects. No future. And she is technically a daughter of the household."

I opened my mouth but no sound came out. My throat had sealed shut.

"That actually makes sense." Lily tapped a manicured nail against her chin, studying me like I was a piece of furniture she was considering throwing away. "Nobody would miss her. And it would keep our Scarlet safe."

"Dad." My voice came out as a whisper. I stood up on shaking legs, my thick thighs trembling beneath my jeans. "Dad, you cannot be serious. You cannot just hand me over like some kind of... of..."

"Marcus saved your life, Mia." My father would not look at me. He stared at a spot on the wall just above my head, his jaw tight. "When you were starving as a child, who snuck food to your room? Who made sure you ate?"

"That does not mean I owe him my entire existence!"

"And who is responsible for your mother's death?" His voice dropped low and cruel, and I felt the words hit me like a fist to the chest. "If she had not been so weak after carrying you, she would still be alive. You owe this family a debt you can never repay, girl."

My knees buckled. I grabbed the back of the chair to keep from falling, tears burning hot and fast down my round cheeks. He had never said it that bluntly before. He had always let Lily and Scarlet do the dirty work of reminding me that I was unwanted. But tonight he said it himself, and the last tiny thread of hope I had been holding onto for twelve years snapped clean in half.

"Then it is settled." Lily clapped her hands like she was wrapping up a lunch order. "Mia will go."

Nobody argued. Nobody even looked uncomfortable. Thirty wolves in that room and not a single one opened their mouth to defend me.

I sat back down in my broken chair and stared at my hands in my lap while the meeting continued around me like I had already disappeared.

An hour later I was sitting in the garden behind the house, tucked between the rose bushes where nobody ever came. The night air was cool against my swollen eyes, and I had my arms wrapped around my knees, rocking back and forth like a child.

"Bella!" Tessa came running across the grass, her dark curly hair bouncing wildly as she dropped to her knees beside me. "I just heard. Tell me it is not true. Tell me they are not actually sending you to the Lycan King."

I could not speak. I just nodded, and that was enough. Tessa grabbed me and pulled me into a hug so tight I could barely breathe, her small frame pressed against my bigger one like she was trying to physically hold me together.

"Those monsters." Her voice shook with fury. "Those absolute monsters. Your own father, Bella. Your own blood."

"He said I owe them." I wiped my nose on my sleeve. "For Marcus. For my mother."

"You do not owe them a single thing! You have been their servant since you were six years old. You have cooked and cleaned and bled for that family, and this is how they repay you?" Tessa pulled back, gripping my shoulders, her brown eyes blazing. "We are leaving. Tonight. Right now. I have two hundred dollars saved up and my aunt in Ridgedale will take us in."

"Tessa, I cannot."

"Yes, you can. We pack a bag, we walk to the bus station, and we never look back."

"If I run, the Lycan King will destroy the entire pack." My voice crumbled under the weight of the truth. "Every man, woman, and child. He will burn Ridgewood to the ground, and that includes you."

Tessa's face crumpled. She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it, then opened it again, but nothing came out because she knew I was right. The Lycan King's reputation was not built on mercy. It was built on mountains of bones.

"There has to be another way." She grabbed my hand and squeezed it until her knuckles went white. "I am not giving up on you, Bella. I will never give up on you. We will find a way out of this nightmare. I swear it."

I leaned my head against her shoulder and let the tears fall without trying to stop them. The stars above us blurred into bright smears of light, and the garden smelled like roses and endings.

I did not believe her. But I loved her for saying it anyway.