Chapter 2

When Violet put the silver collar on me, all I could think about was biting that metal tag engraved with "Snowball" to pieces.

The Black Pine lodge was a timber mansion tucked deep in the pine forest. Elegant lampposts stood outside, and the living room walls were covered with antlers and mounted animals. The moment the crate was opened, a woman wrinkled her nose. "It's bleeding all over. Shouldn't we get a vet to look at it first?"

Violet ignored her and told her people to put me in a glass pen so visiting guests could look at me.

"Don't wash it yet. If it behaves, we'll clean it up later."

The silver collar suddenly tightened, and the cold metal clasp pressed right into my wounds. The pain tore a yelp out of me. But she only smiled and flicked the little gold tag in front of my face.

"Come here, Snowball. Sit."

I turned my back on her.

She brought over a plate of roast meat, and its rich smell wafted over me. I hadn't eaten or drunk a thing since noon, and my stomach growled at the worst possible moment. When Violet heard it, she laughed and slapped the table, then held the meat up high to tease me.

"Paw. Now bark twice, and you can eat."

I turned my head away. Even if they treated me like a dog, I was still a wolf. A wolf might go hungry, but she would never do tricks for anyone.

When I wouldn't cooperate, she just fed all the meat to the big hunting dogs nearby.

"Looks like it still hasn't figured out who its master is." Violet waved the handler over. "Let my babies in to teach it some manners."

The moment the cage door opened, I understood what she meant by "teaching manners." Four hunting dogs almost as big as me surrounded me. The black one in front lunged at me. I scrambled along the bars and only just got out of the way, and his sharp teeth splintered the floorboard beside my paws. Another dog clamped down on my back leg and dragged me a foot and a half across the floor.

The thick smell of blood made me cough. I remembered what my sister taught me. If you can't get away, never turn your back on your opponent.

I pushed through the pain, rolled over, and bit down hard on the side of a hound's neck. The big dog let go, thrashed a few times, then collapsed and lay still. The other hounds backed away, whimpering softly.

I propped myself half upright, my mouth full of the taste of blood, and I even felt a secret little thrill. See? I'm not some dog you can push around.

That thrill lasted all of three seconds.

"You killed my dog!" Violet charged into the pen, grabbed me by the ear, and hauled me up off the ground. "I've raised him since he was a puppy. How dare you hurt him!"

She reached for the hunting knife hanging on the wall. Nolan stepped in to stop her, and I naively thought I'd been saved.

"We have important guests coming tomorrow night." He stared at my snow-white fur. "If the fur gets cut up, how are we supposed to show it off? Put it in another cage and lock it up tight."

Just like that, I was thrown into an isolation room floored with cold metal plates. Every time I moved a paw, the silver collar tore my old wounds open again. The metal was freezing, so I lay on my side to hold on to what little warmth I had. Dylan stood on the other side of the glass, filming with his phone and narrating for the camera. "See that? That's the vicious dog the Black Pine princess just tamed."

After the door closed, a girl in an apron stopped outside for a moment. Her cheek was red and swollen, her sleeves were worn and pilled, and she had a small bowl of water hidden in her hands.

"Don't make a sound." She pushed the bowl through the gap. "Drink some water first."

I sniffed it warily. It was clean water.

I'd just put my mouth to the bowl when Violet's voice suddenly exploded behind her. "Lucy, who said you could feed it?"

The girl froze in terror, and the bowl fell from her hand and shattered on the floor. Violet slapped her so hard she slammed into the pen.

"Did you forget my rules? I said it stays hungry. Nobody feeds it without my say-so."

Lucy kept her head down and apologized over and over. Violet raised her hand to hit her again, and I don't know where I found the strength, but I still lunged and bit her bootlaces.

The bodyguards immediately pinned my head to the floor. Violet grabbed a leather whip and lashed my back, then pointed at Lucy. "Kneel over there and watch. Speak up for it one more time, and I'll punish you too."

I don't remember much about the wounds I got that night. I only remember that after everyone was gone, Lucy knelt outside the isolation room with a soft cloth and gently wiped the blood from my mouth through the bars. I was shaking all over from the pain, and she was shaking too.

"You didn't have to take that for me," she whispered.

I put my one good front paw on her hand. Her eyes welled up, and she didn't say another word.

An old brass plate hung on the wall of the isolation room, engraved with a worn wildfire rescue emblem. I looked closely at the knot pattern on it and recognized it right away.

It was the knot my brother had taught me.

When I was little, I kept tumbling down rocky slopes, so Ethan would secure me with a soft rope. He told me that kind of knot could keep someone safe without cutting into their skin. Later, when he worked on wildfire rescues, he taught the same knots to people here at Black Pine too.

But now, these people had woven silver threads into the rope net and turned something meant to save lives into the bonds that held me.

At the other end of the hallway, Violet was excitedly planning tomorrow night's party.

"The footage has to be perfect. I want everyone to see how I tamed this dog."

I licked the bloody wound on my back leg. Tomorrow, the second I get a chance, I'm biting her again.