#1 Just Breathe Dee

Daeira POV

Four sharp knocks.... that's the code. I rapped my knuckles against the Luna’s office door like I wasn’t silently imagining slamming her fake face through it.

She answered with that sickly sweet, “Come in.”

I entered without hesitation. Never hesitation. I moved with purpose, fast, quiet, and always detached. The envelope of cash was in my hand, and I dropped it on the polished obsidian desk like it was poisoned.

Luna Danika Bloodmark barely glanced up. She lounged in her high-backed chair like a queen on a plastic throne. Her hair was that trashy bottle blonde with way too much volume, teased like it was still 1997. Her lips were caked in clumpy blood-red lipstick, her nails glitter-tipped claws. She smelled of desperation, powdery perfume, and the stench of a damn whorehouse.

I held my breath so I wouldn’t gag. She opened the envelope and hummed while counting the bills, like she was doing something delicate and divine. She stopped abruptly and gave me that plastic smile. “Well done, Dee. Thanks for not fucking it up, you worthless girl.”

I chewed my gum slowly and popped it once. Loud. The snap sounded like a challenge. My molars ground through the bitterness.

“I know you turn eighteen tonight,” she said, her voice sticky with venom. “Don’t get any fancy ideas. You still have work to do here. You owe us.”

I scoffed before I could stop myself. “I’ve paid off my debt and then some,” I snapped. My hands balled into fists at my sides. My voice was calm, but sharp as hell.

Her eyes narrowed. She stood too fast, and her chair slammed into the wall behind her. Then, crack. Her hand collided with my face so hard my jaw clicked. I didn’t stumble. I didn’t cry. I just stood there, my cheek burning, and my breath shallow. “You will not fucking speak to me that way, trash.”

I nodded once, my jaw tight. I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood. Keep it together. Don’t blow it now. I popped my gum again, just to feel like I was still in control, and turned on my heel and walked out before she could spit anything else vile into the air.

Fucking bitch.

I stormed down the hallway, my boots thudding against the marble floors of the Alpha’s estate, my fists clenched so hard my nails dug crescents into my palms. I needed air. I needed trees. I needed the fucking forest before I put someone through a damn wall.

I rounded the corner toward the back entrance and ran right into my personal nightmare in human form.

Kade Bloodmark. Future Alpha. Grade-A prick. Walking trauma. He wore black like always, with his smug smirks and cruelty wrapped in privilege. His icy blue eyes landed on me and lit up like it was his birthday. “Where do you think you’re going, mutt?” he sneered.

Before I could move, he shoved me. Hard. I hit my knees.

Fuck. I knew better. Fighting back only made it worse. I kept my eyes low. Submission kept me breathing.

“Look at that,” he said, circling like a shark. “She’s finally learning her place.”

I said nothing. Just chewed my gum. My face throbbed where the Luna had hit me, and the bruise was already forming across my cheek. He moved faster than I expected. A fist twisted into my hair and yanked. “Say thank you,” he growled, bending down so close I could smell whatever cologne he thought hid his rot.

I gritted my teeth and stayed silent. No way in hell I gave him the satisfaction. He snarled and kicked me in the ribs.

I grunted. Hard. Breath left me, but I kept the scream in. I kept everything in. Not tonight. Don’t fuck this up tonight. “You’re not even fun to fuck with anymore, slave,” he spat, stepping back.

He stared for a second longer, but when I didn’t react, didn’t move, didn’t whimper, he scoffed and walked off.

I waited until the echo of his boots faded down the hall before I pushed myself up. My ribs were on fire. My scalp ached. My cheek pulsed. I limped back toward the basement, toward the place they called my “room.”

It wasn’t a room. It was a hole in the wall. It was damp and dungeon-like, with peeling cement and a cot that still smelled like mildew no matter how many times I scrubbed it. A tiny attached bathroom with a broken sink, a cracked mirror, and a dank toilet. But it was mine. And right then, it was the only place I could be alone.

I stripped out of my hoodie and checked the damage in the cracked mirror. Swollen cheek. Bruised ribs. A smear of blood on my lip. Nothing I hadn’t survived before.

I reached under the mattress and pulled out the first aid kit I’d stolen last year. I dabbed at my face and swallowed the ache.

Just a few more hours. Then I’d be gone. Gone from this pack. This house. These monsters. I would take the files I’d gathered, proof of their trafficking, their drug routes, their money laundering. I would take every secret they thought I was too stupid to understand.

And I would run. And if anyone tried to stop me? I would remind them exactly how dangerous it was to underestimate the girl they tried to break.

____________

Kade POV

The lounge reeked of cigar smoke and scotch, just how my father liked it. The fireplace crackled behind me as I shoved open the heavy oak door, my boots stomping across the marble like I owned the whole damn house. Because one day, I would.

My jaw was tight. Still pissed from the hallway. Still annoyed at the nothing girl who thought chewing gum and avoiding eye contact made her brave. She hadn’t even flinched when I kicked her. Pathetic. Or maybe... dangerous.

My sister was already sprawled across a black velvet sofa, her legs tucked under her, with a silver tablet in her lap. Her platinum blonde hair was twisted into a messy bun; she looked post-workout perfect, fake sweet and dead behind the eyes.

“What the hell’s got your boxers in a twist?” she asked without looking up.

“Dee,” I growled, grabbing a glass from the bar and pouring. I didn’t even care what it was. I just needed the burn.

She perked up at that, a wicked grin curling her lips. “Ugh. Her. You mean ‘the gum-smacking sewer rat’?”

“The same.” I knocked back the drink and slammed the glass down hard enough to make the ice jump. “I tried to get a rise out of her. Nothing. No fear. No tears. Just... silence.”

“Maybe she’s finally given up. We should celebrate.”

“Or maybe she’s planning something,” I muttered, mostly to myself.

A growl rumbled in the back of my skull. Garian, my wolf. “You’re wasting your strength on cruelty,” he snarled. “This isn’t how an alpha leads.”

I rolled my eyes. “You again,” I bit back. “Always whining about honor and legacy. Get over yourself.”

“She has a wolf. I can feel her. And she is not what she seems. Tread carefully, Kade.”

“She’s an omega,” I snapped. “Trash. A servant. She should be grateful she’s even alive in this house.”

Garian fell silent, but I could feel his disapproval like a second heartbeat. A slow, pulsing reminder that I wasn’t born to inherit filth, but somehow I was swimming in it, deep in my father’s “business.” Deliveries. Names. Secrets. I knew too much now. Backing out wasn’t an option.

Still, every time I met Dee’s eyes, something shifted. Something tightened in my chest, and I fucking hated it.

Saria finally looked up from her tablet. “We need to put her back in her place. Just for fun.” She smirked. “You know, before her big, dramatic ‘I’m an adult now’ moment.”

“She turns eighteen tonight,” I said, my voice sharp. “Bet she’s dumb enough to think she’ll shift. Think she has a mate out there.”

Saria snorted. “Can you imagine? Some poor bastard actually mated to her?”

We both laughed, but mine was hollow and forced. There was something off about her lately. She didn’t cower like she used to. She didn’t limp when she walked after I hit her. She just absorbed it, like she was storing every ounce of pain for something I couldn’t see coming.

“She will not stay weak,” Garian murmured. “And when she rises… you will regret how you treated her.”

I shoved the voice down. Drowned it in scotch.

“Let’s humiliate her,” Saria said, stretching with a bored sigh. “Make her clean the kennels in front of the whole pack. Or strip her room bare and toss her shit in the hallway.”

“Better,” I murmured. “Make her serve drinks at the bonfire tonight. In rags. Everyone will be there.”

Saria grinned like a predator. “She’ll wish she never survived that forest.”

For a moment, I wished the same thing.