Chapter 1: A Broken Promise

Scarlett’s POV

“Enzo will become Alpha, he’ll get me out of here, and then we’ll finally be together.”

That thought was the only thing that kept me sane for the past three years.

Three years of concrete walls, iron bars, and bruised skin. Three years of silence and shadows. Three years of clinging to the promises he whispered the night I was dragged away in chains.

Enzo swore he’d fix everything. That his father would listen. That he would never let me rot in there.

“I love you, Scarlett. Just hold on for me.”

So I held on.

I held on when the guards laughed at me.

I held on when they threw me into solitary confinement just to watch me break.

I held on when I bled, when I screamed, when my nightmares became reality.

And today, today I was finally free.

The moment I stepped back onto Pack territory, the Packhouse loomed in the distance, grander, brighter, more extravagant than I remembered. Laughter spilled out from the courtyard.

They were celebrating.

A shaky smile tugged at my lips. Were they celebrating my return?

Heart pounding, eyes burning with unshed tears, I pushed through the crowd. 

I imagined Enzo’s face lighting up, his arms wrapping around me, his lips whispering, “I’m sorry it took so long.”

And then I saw him.

Enzo. Always handsome, dressed in a perfectly tailored Alpha suit, smiling and laughing like nothing had changed.

I quickened my pace, my smile widening until I saw her.

Ember Hart. My best friend. She slipped her hand into his, and he bent down and kissed her.

He raised his glass high. “To my beautiful Luna.”

The crowd erupted in cheers.

My smile shattered.

For a moment, I stood frozen in a sea of celebration and betrayal, listening only to the sound of my own breaking heart. This was a bad dream. I needed to wake up.

“Enzo!” I called, loud enough to silence the courtyard.

He turned. Ember turned too.

Enzo’s face paled. For a heartbeat, his eyes widened in shock. 

“Scarlett…” he muttered. 

Gasps rippled through the crowd.

“What is she doing here?” Ember sneered, her gaze raking me like filth.

I swallowed the pain clawing its way up my throat. “This is your welcome?”

Enzo stepped forward, shoulders squared, voice cold. “What are you doing here?”

I blinked, stunned. “I got released. So I came.”

“It’s been three years, Scarlett. If you just got released, you should be anywhere but here,” Ember snapped, disgust twisting her features. “No one wants you here. Not after what you did.”

I was the runt of the Pack and therefore the lowest in the Pack’s rank. I was forced to work for the Packhouse and the people who lived there after my father, the only family I had, died in war. 

After years of serving the Pack, Enzo’s father, Alpha James noticed me and began treating me like a daughter he never had. He put me in school and promised to train me in the Pack’s defense and shifting school by the time I turned sixteen. 

I had fallen madly in love with Enzo and he had marked me as his mate, secretly, a night before the incident that led me to prison. 

“Enzo, you marked me. We were mated—”

“That was before you got arrested,” he cut in flatly.

“You promised you’d visit, but you never did,” I began to say. A tear slipped down my cheek. “You promised you’d get me out. And now I’m here. We can finally be together again.”

His hand slid to Ember’s waist. “Whatever happened between us is over. I’ve moved on. I love Ember. And if you still think there’s something between us, hear me now. I reject you, Scarlett Darkson, as my mate.”

“No!” The word tore from my throat, raw, desperate. “You can’t just reject me. You promised! I lost everything for you. My reputation, my freedom, three years of my life!”

“I won’t let you ruin my reputation,” Enzo barked. “Ember is my mate. The Luna of this Pack. Go away, murderer.”

Murderer? 

My stomach dropped. 

I never committed the crime. I took the blame so he wouldn’t lose his Alpha title. I did it because I loved him, because I trusted him. And right now, he was asking me to go away like I hadn’t sacrificed everything for him. 

“I was innocent, yet I—“

His face hardened, his voice sharp as a whip. “Enough! Don’t you dare try to spread lies here. Everyone knows you were a traitor to this Pack.”

My knees nearly buckled as people nodded, their eyes burning into me with contempt.

That night, I had walked into his room. I saw his brother, Paul, laying in a pool of blood on the floor. And a flower vase shattered on the floor. I panicked and so did he. 

Then, he pleaded with me to take the blame for his own actions. Because of the love I had for him, I agreed without thinking twice. I lost everything in the process. Alpha James’s trust and support. 

“I went to prison for you,” I whispered, trembling. “You begged me to take the fall. You can’t push me away now. Not after I’ve lost everything.”

Ember stepped forward and slapped me hard across the face. Gasps and laughter followed.

“You don’t waltz back in here and ruin my anniversary. Enzo chose me over you.”

I ignored her, my tear-filled gaze fixed on him. “You promised, Enzo.”

He smirked coldly. “Promised? Scarlett, I was young. I said a lot of things. You must be stupid to think I will choose you over Ember.”

Tears spilled down my face like a waterfall.

It took this long to realize he had only given me the ring for me to take the blame for him. He had deceived me. He used me. 

Ember smirked and brushed her fingers over the mating mark on her neck, a deliberate taunt.

“You’re a criminal,” Enzo said loudly, his voice booming over the crowd. “A murderer. And now out of jealousy you want to disrupt our anniversary.”

“I’m not jealous,” I choked, my vision blurring. “I’m betrayed.”

His eyes darkened. “Listen well, because I’ll only say this once. I’ve moved on. I love Ember. And if you cause even the slightest trouble, I’ll make your life worse than those three years in prison.”

Silence crushed me.

I didn’t scream. I didn’t beg. I simply turned and began walking away.

“My love, where is she going to? I don’t want her out of this Pack house,” Ember snapped.

“What do you want, baby?” 

 My pace slowed down.

Did Ember suddenly remember the relationship we once shared? Did she care about the fact that I had no where to go from here?

“I know she has no where to go,” Ember said. “So I want her to go on her knees and beg me to let her stay in the Packhouse.”

The crowd howled with laughter.

Heat scorched my cheeks. 

I would never do such a thing. I had already suffered a lot because of them. They had to be crazy to think I would want to stay in the Packhouse.

I would rather sleep on the roads.

I didn’t stop walking.

Two guards stopped right in front of me, bringing me to an abrupt halt.

“On. Your. Knees,” Ember commanded from behind me.

The weight of a hundred eyes pressed down on me. 

I turned to her. 

“I wouldn’t do such,” I said, my voice steady.

“It’s not up for debate, Scarlett. It’s a command,” she said, taking a step closer to me. “Now, do it.”

Before I could say a word, the guards grabbed me and began forcing me to my knees.

Struggling against their grip, my knees trembled, then buckled. 

I fell onto the cold stone, shame searing through me.

“Let me go,” I screamed.

Ember ignored me and turned to the crowd. “From this moment on, Scarlett Darkson is my personal maid.”

Gasps and laughter exploded around us.

“That’s right,” Ember said proudly, tugging a strand of my hair. “The ex-mate and criminal of this Pack will now scrub my shoes, wash my dresses, and sleep in the servants’ quarters.”

Her breath brushed my ear, venomous. “And if you disobey once, I’ll make sure Enzo throws you back in prison. Now what do you say, maid?”

In as much as I didn’t want to stay in the Packhouse and become Ember’s servant, returning to the prison was worse. Three years in prison was hell for me and I wasn’t ready to go back there.

Perhaps if I stayed, I could find a way to escape. I wanted them to pay for betraying and humiliating me, for making me waste three years of my life. And that wouldn’t be possible in prison.