Chapter 1: She's Innocent

"Mom, I'm home!" Hazel called out into the empty living room before glancing into the kitchen, where her mother would usually be by this time, preparing dinner—but she wasn't there.

"But her and Dad's car is packed outside," she muttered, helping herself to a cup of cold orange juice.

She placed the cup into the dishwasher and walked upstairs in search of her parents. She was about to climb the stairs when she heard her father's voice coming from the study.

"Dad, I'm home, did you leave something behind? Where is Mom?..." she asked, opening the door to see that her parents had a visitor.

"Oops, sorry," she apologized, backtracking out the door as she noticed her parents’ nervous stares from her to the man opposite them.

The man looked up from the documents he was reading, his brown eyes meeting Hazel's onyx ones. His lips stretched into a warm smile as their eyes met. His smile sent Hazel's heart racing.

'Handsome!' she gasped in surprise as his brown eyes flickered gold, filled with several emotions: excitement, lust, and attraction.

He cleared his throat and beckoned her in.

"Why don't you join us, miss? Your parents and I were just completing a deal," he asked in his heavy Italian accent, sending butterflies deep into Hazel's stomach as he patted the space beside him for her to take.

Hazel took a step forward, trying to get closer to the handsome man but was stopped by her mother's shaky voice.

"No, no, she just returned from school and needs to get cleaned," her mom argued nervously, earning a raised eyebrow from the handsome man.

Getting the hint, Hazel clasped her hands together and bowed toward the stranger.

"Excuse me, sir, I'm sorry I disrupted your meeting. I need to clean up as I’m sweaty all over."

"That's fine. What's your name?" he asked, bringing out a pen from his jacket pocket to sign the document he had been reading.

"Hazel."

"You have a lovely name, Hazel. Let's not be strangers when we next meet, alright?"

As Hazel disappeared behind the door toward her room, the atmosphere in the study grew more tense.

"Lorenzo, I mean Alpha Lorenzo, is there a reason your Pack moved all the way here from Italy?" Mr. Eric Halton, Hazel's father, asked.

A smirk and a mischievous glint appeared in Lorenzo's eyes as he maintained deep and unshaken eye contact with the man sitting in front of him.

"Oh, I thought it would take some time, but I found what I have been looking for, Halton. Why have I never heard you had another beautiful daughter apart from the one—what was her name again?"

"Ruby," Eric provided.

"Ah, yes, Ruby. Fierce one, that one was, don't you think?" Lorenzo complimented, adjusting his suit as he stood up to leave, placing the document on the table separating them.

"You can't get Hazel involved. She's innocent. She knows nothing about Ruby's crimes. Please, Hazel is innocent. Eric, say something, please, not my baby girl," Amanda, Hazel's mother, pleaded nervously, her voice trembling as she remembered the last time she had met her older daughter.

Lorenzo sneered, his eyes showing contempt and disdain as he looked down at the couple.

"It's not my call whether she gets involved or not, you see. Even if I don't want her to be, she already is," he said, subconsciously caressing a particular spot on his neck where he knew the mark would be.

"The final move will happen tomorrow. Tell your men to be careful and watch their backs. I won't tolerate any form of disrespect," Lorenzo ordered while exiting the study.

Amanda broke down in tears, sobbing loudly as her husband held her closely with a distant look in his eyes.

"I told you! I warned you! I warned you not to get involved. Why don't you listen?!" she screamed, hitting him on the chest after every word. "Now my daughters, my baby girl," she whimpered, her snot rubbing all over his dress shirt.

"Relax, Amanda. Hazel is safe."

"You said those words when Ruby was taken. You told me she would be back and nothing would happen to her, but we both know the outcome, don't we?"

"It was Ruby's fault in the first place. She crossed them and got what she wanted!" Feeling exasperated, Eric yelled at his wife, his hand combing his black hair before punching the table.

"She was just being a child, Eric! They were being mean!" Amanda argued.

"She was being a child? Oh, come on… she was twenty-five when it happened. You call that a child? They had clear conditions and rules, and she broke all of them! Do you know what that cost them? Lives, Amanda, lives. So don't go telling me she was just being a child!" he yelled and stomped off, slamming the door behind him.

Hazel sat by her window unaware of the heated argument between her parents. She had been patiently waiting to see the handsome man from the study again. It had slipped her mind that she needed to shower at some point.

Something about him drew her in, but something about him also made her curious—extremely so.

Why were her parents so nervous in front of him?

Why were they trying to prevent her from getting close to him?

It wasn't the first time she'd met her father's business partners, despite not knowing what he did for a living. Sometimes he'd even take her along so he could get the upper hand in a business deal using her beauty.

'Who are you?' she muttered.

A black SUV drove into their driveway as Lorenzo stepped out of the house. Before entering the car, he looked toward her window and flashed her a smile that sent her heart fluttering, while mouthing, "See you soon, darling."

Heat rose on her cheeks as she jumped off the windowsill.

She saw it ag

ain.

His eyes turned gold. Was that a medical condition?

Or was she hallucinating?