1. Chosen bride

"You stupidass girl”

The slap came out of nowhere, snapping Jenny’s head to the side and sending stars exploding across her vision.

She stumbled backward, tasting blood where her teeth had cut the inside of her cheek.

Lila stood over her, trembling with rage.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?

Alpha Maurice could have chosen any woman in this pack.. Any woman-and instead he chose you. A nobody. A servant. A bloody Maychild”

Jenny didn't respond. What could she possibly say?

She hadn't asked for this. She hadn't done anything except exist-and apparently, that was crime enough.

"My daughter was supposed to be chosen," Lila hissed. "My Lydia. She's beautiful, well-bred, worthy. And instead, that monster picked you." She grabbed her hair and yanked her head back, forcing their eyes to meet. "What did you do? Did you spread your legs for him? Bewitch him somehow?"

"I didn't do anything," Jenny said, barely audible.

"Liar!" Another slap, this one hard enough to split her lip "You must have done something. No Alpha chooses a low level girl like you without reason. A bloody healer’s child!”

Jenny’s blood ran cold. There it was. The reason for all these. The word that had defined her entire life, the legacy that had gotten her family killed and left her an orphan in enemy territory.

Healer.

The Maychild’s had been healers for generations. Wolves blessed with the ability to mend wounds and cure sickness through the power of their touch. They'd been respected once, even revered. But that was before the purge. Before the other packs decided that healers were too powerful, too dangerous, and needed to be eliminated.

Her mother had been the last true healer.

She'd died with her hands still glowing, trying desperatelv to save her father.

Jenny had inherited the gift. She'd known since she was twelve, when she'd accidentally healed a bird with a broken wing. But she'd kept it hidden, buried so deep even she sometimes forgot it existed.

The gift only worked when she cared about the creature she was healing, and she had made damn sure not to care about anything

She couldn’t in this hellhole anyway.

"I'm not a healer," she said, the lie she'd told a thousand times. "I can't even..”

"Save it." Lila released her with a shove that sent her crashing into the wall. "It doesn't matter now. By tomorrow, you'll be Alpha Maurice’s problem." A cruel smile twisted her lips. "And from what I've heard, he breaks people like you to pieces”

Before Jenny could speak, she leaves, slamming the door behind her.

Jenny slid down to the floor until she was sitting, her hand on her bleeding lip as her mind raced.

Why her? Of all the women in the pack, why had Maurice Arthur chosen her?

The answer was obvious, but she didn't want to believe it. He'd recognized her name. He knew what Maychild meant, what she potentially was. But how? The healers had been hunted to extinction over a decade ago.

Most people didn't even believe they were real anymore.

“Those were very dangerous beings” she usually heard the elders recount to the young children”

He wants to use me, she realized with growing horror. He found out what I am, and now he wants to use me.

But use her for what? Healing? Was someone in his pack sick? And if so, why the elaborate ceremony of picking her to be his bride?

A soft knock interrupted her spiraling thoughts and she tensed, expecting Lila’s return for round two in beating her up but the voice that came through the door was unfamiliar yet familiar at the same time.

"Miss Maychild? May I come in?"

Male. Calm. Not aggressive. Yet at least.

She pushed herself to her feet, wincing at the pain in her ribs. "It's not locked. Come in."

The door opened to reveal a man she didn't recognize. He was middle-aged, with grey temples and kind brown eyes that seemed out of place in a wolf's face. He wore the insignia of the Black Hollow pack, which meant he belonged to Maurice Arthur.

“Hello child”

Jenny took a minute of observing him, “Hello sir and I am not a child”

He let out a light chuckle “Of course. Forgive me” he smiled "My name is Henry” he introduced himself as his gaze swept over her. From the split lip, the bruising cheek to the defensive hunch of her shoulders and something like sadness passed in his expression.

"I'm Alpha Maurice’s beta."

Immediately, her guard went up. "What do you want?"

"To prepare you for the journey." He held up a bundle she hadn't noticed he was carrying.

"Clothes. Supplies. We leave at dawn, and I thought you might want..." He hesitated, looking at the empty room. "Things."

Things. Right. Because normal people owned things.

The room was silent for a while with him just standing while she posed as if she was ready for an attack.

"Why?" she suddenly asked, her voice flat.

Henry raised an eyebrow

"Why does your Alpha want to marry me? What does he want?”

That look of pity passed across his face again but disappeared almost immediately,

“It’s not in my position to know that but I’m sure he’ll explain when he's ready."

"That's not an answer."

"It is" he said "It's not just the answer you’re looking for." He walked into the room properly and set the bundle on her mat and straightened. "Get some rest, Miss Maychild. Tomorrow will be a long day."

He turned to leave, but something made Jenny call out: "Wait."

Henry paused at the door.

"The stories about him," she said. "About your Alpha Maurice. Are they true?"

For another long moment, he didn't answer.

Then he said "Some of them might be." He looked back at her, and she could have sworn he was hiding something

“You should get some sleep against tomorrow”

He steps out and closes the door and her mind immediately starts churning. Some of them. Some of the stories might be true. But which ones? The killing? The unthinkable stories of torture? The brutality?

Does it matter? a cold voice in her head

asked. He's an Alpha. They're all the same.

They all take what they want and destroy what they don't.

She didn't sleep that night.