Chapter 3

I could feel the weight of every gaze in the pack pressing against my skin, but all I could focus on were the identical pairs of ice-blue eyes studying me with an intensity that made my wolf stir restlessly beneath my ribs. The air around us grew thick and suffocating. The funeral crowd had gone completely silent. Alpha Lucian and Alpha Kieran stood mere inches away, their presence overwhelming.

"Zara Sawyer," Lucian said, his voice carrying that particular quality that made it impossible to ignore. His pale eyes swept over me from head to toe, taking in my simple black dress, my uncombed hair, the way I held myself apart from the rest of the pack. "The half-blood daughter."

I felt the familiar sting of that label, but I'd heard it so many times it barely registered anymore. What did catch my attention was the way Kieran tilted his head slightly, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth as he studied me.

"You stand before your new alphas, yet you do not bow. Explain yourself."

His arrogant expression—that smug certainty that I would eventually submit—made me want to punch him. Every survival instinct screamed at me to bend the knee, but instead, I lifted my chin higher.

Around us, I could hear the soft shuffle of feet as pack members shifted nervously. This wasn't how these encounters typically went. New alphas were supposed to be greeted with immediate submission, with acknowledgment of their power and authority. By remaining upright while everyone else bent the knee, I had essentially issued a challenge—whether I'd meant to or not.

"Because I don't bow to criminals," I said, my voice carrying in the stone hall. "In human society, you're murderers and terrorists. I won't submit to you like these others have."

A collective gasp swept through the assembled werewolves. But I wasn't done. The words hung in the air between us, and I saw something flicker across both their faces—surprise, maybe, or possibly intrigue. It clearly wasn't the response they'd expected. But I wasn’t done.

"I willingly sever my pack bond. I choose to become rogue."

Pack bonds weren't casual things to discard—they were woven into our very beings. To break them voluntarily was almost unheard of and incredibly dangerous.

"I want to leave," I continued, my voice gaining strength. "I want to live in the human world, away from all this hierarchy and violence. Maybe I can find my mother's family there. Maybe I can finally understand who I'm supposed to be."

Even as I spoke these dreams aloud, I knew the bitter truth that made them impossible. Pack bonds couldn't simply be severed by declaration. I could only truly leave the pack with the alpha's permission—and looking at the cold amusement beginning to play across the twins' faces, I doubted that permission would be freely given.

"Really?" Kieran said, his voice a low purr that was more threatening than any shout. "Without our permission, you'll die right here, little half-wolf." His tall frame casting a shadow that seemed to swallow me whole.

Lucian stepped closer, close enough that I could see the flecks of silver in his blue eyes, could smell the faint scent of blood that clung to his skin.

"Your father," he said slowly, "was weak. He led this pack into complacency, allowed disorder to flourish. His death was... inevitable."

The casual cruelty in his words made anger flare hot and bright in my chest. Arthur Sawyer might not have been father of the year, but he was still my blood. Still the man who had raised me, however poorly.

"He was still my father," I said, lifting my chin to meet Lucian's stare directly. "And you murdered him."

A collective intake of breath swept through the crowd. Accusing an alpha of murder—even when it was true—was essentially signing your own death warrant. But I was tired of pretending, tired of dancing around the truth to protect everyone else's comfort.

Kieran laughed, raising every hair on my arms. "Murder?" he repeated, clearly delighted by my boldness. "We challenged him for leadership of this pack, as is our right. He accepted the challenge and lost. That's not murder, little wolf—that's natural selection."

"Your father knew the rules," Lucian added, his voice growing colder. "The strong lead, the weak follow or die. It's the most basic law of our kind."

Kieran’s expression shifted, lips curling into something colder, crueler.

“Kneel.”

It wasn’t a request—it was an order, wrapped in power. His words didn’t just hang in the air; they slammed into my spine like an invisible hammer.

My knees buckled before I realized what was happening. I hit the ground hard, the cold stone biting into my skin as if to punish me for defying gravity. My body trembled, and my mind screamed in rebellion, but I couldn’t move. I wasn’t in control anymore.

This was the alpha voice.

My first time hearing it—feeling it. It was just a few calm words, not even raised in volume, but they had cracked through every barrier I didn’t even know I had. It bypassed my thoughts entirely, speaking directly to my wolf, and she obeyed.

Not out of fear. Instinct. I was a puppet under someone else’s hand.

Kieran approached slowly, his footsteps echoing like thunder in the silent hall. He didn’t crouch—of course not. He didn’t need to. Instead, he used the tip of his boot to lift my chin, tilting my face up until I was forced to look into his. Into the smirking mouth of a god.

He was breathtaking in the most painful way—his features carved and elegant, his golden hair catching the light like a crown. He looked like the kind of man to be worshiped. Feared. If not for the cruelty bleeding from every pore, he might have been perfect.

All I felt was fury. My blood boiled. My vision burned red around the edges. I hated this. Hated him. Hated the weight pressing against my very soul, telling me I belonged to someone else.

The wolf inside me—my wolf—growled. The sound was low, almost imperceptible, but it came from deep inside my chest. A warning. A refusal.

My father had never used the alpha voice on me. Not once. He might have ignored me, might have pushed me aside for Chloe, but he’d never tried to control me. Now I understood why. He had known. Maybe not consciously, but something inside him had recognized that I was... different. And that trying to dominate me wouldn’t go well.

The pressure in my chest cracked open—and something snapped. Power surged through me like lightning arcing through wet stone. My wolf roared forward, clawing through the command that held me down. I felt the threads of the alpha voice tear like paper as something deeper—stronger—rose up from within. With a violent snarl, I broke free.

Kieran staggered back as I sprang to my feet, barely avoiding the clawed swipe I aimed at his chest. He dodged fast, fluid, but his eyes widened in genuine shock. That arrogant smirk vanished.

“You resisted?” he breathed, more stunned than angry.

My chest heaved with the effort of holding myself together. My fingernails had shifted, sharpened into talons, and my vision still burned wolf-gold. My entire body hummed with wild, unfiltered energy. Almost no one could break the hold of an alpha’s command. I stood tall, trembling from the exertion but refusing to look away. “Looks like I’m the exception.”

The silence that followed was deafening. I could feel the pack’s disbelief, could almost taste the fear rolling off them like mist. They didn’t understand. I didn’t understand. Kieran stared at me like I’d grown wings and horns.

Lucian stepped forward then, quiet and deliberate. He hadn’t moved this whole time, hadn’t interfered as his brother tried to assert dominance. But now, something flickered behind those silver-flecked eyes—calculation.

“She resisted,” Kieran said, almost to himself. “That shouldn’t be possible.”

Lucian didn’t respond at first. He studied me with unsettling patience, eyes raking over me as if searching for something hidden beneath the surface.

“It is possible,” he murmured at last. “Under very specific circumstances.” He looked at me as though he were seeing a piece of an ancient puzzle finally snap into place.

“She’s not like the others,” Kieran said, still watching me. “What is she?”

Lucian’s eyes flicked to his brother. “We’ll find out.”

He turned to me fully now, face unreadable. “You believe yourself an exception. You believe you’re beyond our reach. That you can speak to alphas without consequence. That your bloodline gives you freedom.”

I said nothing. I didn’t trust my voice.

Lucian took one step closer. “Fine. Let’s test that theory.”

My muscles tensed, preparing for another fight, but instead of another command, Lucian spoke coldly and clearly.

“Starting today, you are no longer rogue, Zara Sawyer. You are a servant of the alpha house.”

The words hit harder than I expected. Not because they humiliated me, but because they reeked of strategy. They weren’t throwing me out. They weren’t killing me. They were keeping me—caging me in plain sight.

“To teach you respect,” Lucian continued. “To teach you your place.”