CHAPTER 1 — ONE MORE DAY

"Shit." My heart jumps when Nova rounds the corner.

She freezes. "You know… I was going to ignore you today."

Big lie. She never does.

"But you come along and dare curse at me. You've got some nerve." She grabs my hair and yanks it backwards.

Pain shoots through my scalp. I bite down on the sound before it escapes. 'Not my hair.' I wouldn't dare say that out loud.

Dax shows up immediately, drawn by the noise.

"It hurts so bad, huh?" Nova's sharp voice cuts through the quiet like a weapon.

I don't answer. I grit my teeth and stay silent.

Dax sends his palm into my face. The impact is hard enough to flip my face ninety degrees. My ears go numb, followed by a loud persistent ringing like an abandoned alarm clock.

I take a step back but Rex is right there, blocking my path and making sure I cannot escape.

"You know…" Nova continues, her voice sliding through the space between us. "I don't need to touch you to make you feel miserable." She heads toward the laundry stand.

'Oh no. Not the hot iron again.'

"But you have a duty." She walks menacingly toward me, iron in hand. Dax snorts. Rex smirks.

"You have a responsibility to bring us satisfaction." Nova brings the iron an inch closer to my face.

I turn my face away, every muscle in my body tightening.

"Scared much?" Dax chips in, grabbing me by the hand.

"Hold her." Nova commands and Rex grabs my other hand, locking me in place.

"She always pretends like she fears nothing. Like she isn't scared. But she is." Nova brings the iron down against my skin.

A low hiss escapes from the impact, followed by the acrid smell of burning skin. I clench my teeth so tight my jaw aches.

'Don't give them that satisfaction. Don't show pain.'

"Scream. Cry." Nova taunts.

I don't.

She groans in annoyance and rips the iron away, taking a layer of my skin with it. The pain is sharp and intense, stealing the air from my lungs. I bite down hard on my lip to keep the scream locked inside.

"You're boring these days." She looks at me like I am something scraped off the bottom of her shoe.

"And pathetic." Dax adds.

I maintain my silence. I've learned over the years that it ends quickly when I don't react. They lose interest fast.

She dumps the iron on the nearby table. "I'm done for now.” She announce “I'll be back. Till then, know your place."

The words linger in the air like a bad omen, but I refuse to let them touch me. She always comes back. That is nothing new.

She claps her hands and walks out, followed by Dax and Rex who release me like I'm not worth the effort of holding.

I exhale slowly and wince immediately as the burn reminds me it exists.

'Soon,' I tell myself. 'Soon all of this will be over.'

Soon, My father, Mara, Nova, Dax and Rex will no longer be able to touch me. Except Finn.

Recently, Finn has been… different. Distant. He is our eldest who used to look at me with hatred since the night he returned back and saw our mother dying from poison in my arms. They told him that i killed her, and he believed them. But now, he no longer joins their daily ritual anymore or hits me with the others. He just removes himself with an unreadable expression that makes me wonder. Why the sudden silence? Why now, after all these years?

I don't trust it. I've been burned by hope before. Literally.

"Ayla!" Mara's voice cuts through my thoughts from downstairs. "Where is breakfast?"

The burn on my arm is still raw and throbbing. I haven't even had the chance to dress the wound properly and now my stepmother is calling. I drag myself down the stairs.

My father and Mara are already seated in the living room, eyes on the morning news like the rest of the world makes sense to them. Like they didn't hear Nova kicking my ass upstairs. But they don't even care.

"So now you spend your mornings lazing about. Is that it?" he growls.

"No, I—"

"Shut up!" He flings a flower vase in my direction.

I duck but not fast enough. The base catches my head and shatters on impact. My vision shakes, dark patches bloom at the edges. Everything doubles for a moment.

"Are you still standing?" he barks.

I run to the kitchen.

"Ayla is getting so lazy," Mara chimes in behind me, her voice wrapped in false concern like she can't hear herself. I can clearly hear the satisfaction underneath every word.

"We must be feeding her so much that she can afford to be lazy," my father says. "Let's reduce her portions."

"Yes. You're right," Mara agrees instantly because the sound of that brings pleasure to her ears. 

"Breakfast better be ready in five minutes," he shouts over the back of the sofa.

I move through the kitchen on autopilot, preparing coffee for each of them exactly how they take it. One wrong measurement and I am finished. I spread jam over his bread without thinking, moving my hands from memory and years of getting it exactly right to avoid the beating I get when I do it wrong.

Blood is still trickling down the side of my head. My arm throbs. But all I can think about is not making a mistake.

'He is my father,' I think, and this is not the first time. 'He is supposed to protect me.'

But he doesn't. He tells me that I killed my mother. That I came into this world and took her out of it, and that I deserve everything that follows. 

I have carried that guilt my whole life — the weight of a death I don't even understand, a crime that I have no memory of committing.

I was only eight years old when she died, foam spilling from her lips while I held her in my arms. I still don't know how I was supposed to have done it.

I come out of the kitchen with the meals balanced carefully in my arms just as Nova sweeps in, fashionably dressed in a fancy pink dress, and perfect hair, like she didn't just hold me down twenty minutes ago.

She slides into her place between my father and Mara like she was made to sit there.

"How is the inter-pack summit preparation coming, Dad?" she asks, voice dipped in sweetness that costs her nothing.

"Important guests are coming," he says. "Preparations are a bit hectic."

Her eyes light up immediately. "Important guests? What important guests?"

My father chuckles. It's the first time I've seen him laugh all morning and it's only for her. I set the plates down quietly because no one ever notice me.

"It's a secret," he says in a low, conspiratorial voice.

Nova makes the sound of an impatient child. "Tell me, Daddy. Tell me."

He lets himself smile. "Okay. Fine."

His tone shifts into something serious and even I find myself holding still, listening. Glad that no one knows I exist in this room.

"Caius Voss, heir to the Voss Dynasty, is coming. His pack is one of the wealthiest in five territories, I'm sure you've heard of him. Zane Ardell of the Ardell Pack and Ryker Stone are coming as well. The three most powerful Alpha heirs in the territory."

Nova's mouth drops open. "Wait — Caius Voss? As in one of the most eligible Alphas in the territory? And Zane Ardell, the prince charming?"

"Yes. We need powerful allies, Nova. And that is where you come in."

Tears are literally forming in her eyes now, the overwhelmed kind of tears that fall only when she wants something. "Me? What do I do?" she asks with enthusiasm.

"You must seduce Caius. If we get you positioned as his Luna, it's an instant elevation. Not just for our family, but for our legacy and our pack."

Nova smiles like she's already won. "I can do that. It's easy."

A sound escapes my lips before I can catch it. A low sound. Something between a breath and a growl.

Big mistake.

My father turns and looks at me for the first time like he's only just noticed I'm in the room. His eyes move from my face to the blood still drying on the side of my head. His expression doesn't soften.

"What are you still doing here?"

"I — I wait until everyone finishes eating."

"Not anymore. Crawl out of my sight." He waves a hand like I'm something to be cleared away. "And clean that blood off your head before you're seen. You look like an eyesore."

I fall on my knees and crawl out. In the hallway, Finn is standing at the bottom of the stairs. He says nothing. He doesn't move or look away either. His eyes hold mine for one full second — unreadable and searching. Something works behind them that I have no name for.

Then I walk past him and he lets me go.

---

I dress the wound in the bathroom mirror. My reflection looks back at me — pale, hollow-eyed, holding herself together from the inside out.

I think about what my father said. The three Alpha heirs. The most powerful wolves in five territories, coming here, to this house. Maybe it's my salvation, or maybe it’s my curse. I have no idea. But one thing that I know is that it will all end soon.

I pick my old bag on the floor by the door and sling it over my good shoulder. It's the one that I've had since I was small. My fingers run along the strap the way they always do without thinking and pause at something in the lining. A slight thickness where the fabric should lie flat. I've always assumed it was a loose seam.

I press it once, gently, then let go.

'One more day,' I tell myself. 'Just survive one more day.'

But for the first time in a long time, the words feel like something other than just survival.

It feels like the beginning of the end.