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Annalise POV

The carriage wheels screamed against the cobblestones, louder than my voice had ever been.

I slowly pressed my hand against the glass, watching the tall black gates of my father’s mansion come into view. They hadn’t changed in the years since I had last seen them. Still towering, still cold, still promising nothing but walls. For a heartbeat, my chest tightened as if I were that little girl again—mute, unwanted, standing too small in a house too cruel.

I was back home.

But not really.

I hadn’t been welcome here since the day my stepmother decided my silence was shame. I’d been taken to a far-off town under the pretense of “study,” but we all knew it was banishment. Out of sight. Out of mind. Out of the way of Dahlia’s glittering smile.

Now, I had been summoned back, pulled into the orbit of a family that had long ago cast me aside. For what? A wedding I wasn’t part of. A sister who had always lived the life I could never touch.

The gates groaned open, the sound slicing through my thoughts. My heart beat too fast, though no sound left me. It never did.

The carriage stopped at the steps of the manor. I climbed down, ignoring the driver’s hand. My boots struck stone, the sound too sharp, like a drumbeat heralding my return.

The doors opened before I reached them.

“Annalise.”

Her voice, sweet and venomous.

Judy stood in the entryway, a gown of gold silk clinging to her like a second skin. Her smile was painted, brittle at the edges.

She looked me up and down, a flicker of distaste in her eyes. “So they’ve dragged you back.” Her lips curved higher. “You’ve grown. Almost lovely, if only you weren’t so…silent.”

Her words stung, though I didn’t flinch. I dipped my head, saying nothing. I couldn’t. My tongue was a prisoner, my voice long buried.

Judy stepped aside, her perfume cloying as I brushed past her. “Don’t look at me like that,” she murmured, voice a blade. “If it weren’t for us, you’d have been left to rot with your mother.”

My hands tightened at my sides. She knew how to cut deepest. Always.

The moment I entered, I felt it.

Chaos.

Servants rushed through the halls, skirts brushing the marble. Curtains half-drawn, candles flickering too early, whispers darting through corners. The house smelled of roses and polish, but beneath it lay something sour. Panic.

I stopped, frowning. My gaze darted to Judy.

Her smile wavered.

“You’re imagining things,” she said too quickly.

But I wasn’t. My silence had always made me listen better than anyone else. And right now, the walls themselves seemed to whisper.

My father appeared at the top of the staircase, shoulders slumped, his once-proud frame bent with age. His eyes found me, lingering with something raw—guilt, regret, maybe both.

“Annalise,” he said, voice rough. “You…you shouldn’t be here.”

The words were a knife. He had called me back. And now he wished me away again.

I lifted my hands, signing quickly, sharp movements I hadn’t used in years. Why am I here?

He looked away, his mouth opening, closing. No answer.

And then I heard it.

“Gone.”

The word floated on a servant’s breath, not meant for me. But I caught it, clear as a shout.

My pulse stumbled as I realized what was happening . ‘Gone?’

I scanned the faces, searching. Judy’s eyes flashed with panic before narrowing to ice.

“Keep your face down,” she snapped, as though I had spoken aloud. “Do not pry into matters that do not concern you.”

But the truth was already unraveling around us. Dahlia… my sister, their jewel, the chosen bride of the Lycan Prince—was missing.

No…

She ran away.

I staggered back a step, breath caught in my throat. Dahlia had always had everything. Beauty. Voice. Favor. She had been chosen to marry the Lycan Prince, to unite kingdoms, to stand in a place I never could.

And now she was gone.

Leaving behind a house reeking of fear of the great unknown .

Then the sudden thunder of boots outside shook the walls of the house. Deep, steady, unrelenting.

BANG.

The front doors slammed open.

Two figures filled the threshold.

The Alpha of SilverClaw, Ethan, entered first, his presence heavy as storm clouds. His dark eyes swept the hall, daring anyone to breathe wrong as the air bent around him, thick with power and anger.

He knew….

Beside him walked his son.

Nathan.

Broader than my memory, his dark hair glowing under the dim light, his jaw sharp enough to wound. But it was his eyes that made me feel weird… they were green, startling, and unflinching. He looked once at my father, once at Judy, then stopped.

Stopped on me.

He stared curiously at me..

His gaze didn’t flicker away. Didn’t dismiss me as the others did. It pinned me where I stood, as if he had been searching for me all along.

The room fell silent.

The Alpha’s voice cracked through the air. “Where is she?”

No one answered. Not my father. Not Judy. Not the trembling servants pressed against the walls.

Nathan’s eyes still stayed on mine, and something in them made my stomach twist. Not pity. Not disdain. Something sharper. Something oddly dangerous.

Alpha Ethan stepped closer to us, his voice low and lethal dripping with rage. “Do not keep silent Troy… and do not even think you can deceive me. Someone saw your dear daughter leave the city. If the Lycans learn of this betrayal…” His words trailed off, but the threat remained.

Judy paled and my father swallowed hard.

The Alpha king’s voice snapped through the stillness. “Answer me.”

My father flinched. “… Dahlia…is…” His voice cracked.

Judy stepped forward, all feigned grace, her hand brushing her gown as though this were a dinner party and not a reckoning.

“My king,” she said, voice dripping with sweetness that was too thin to hide her panic. “There must be some mistake. Dahlia would never abandon her duty. She is… she is devoted to the kingdom.”

The Alpha’s glare cut through her words. “Then I wonder why she isn’t here… oh wait.”

He stepped closer. “My scouts saw her leave the gates with their own eyes. Did you actually think that the Lycans would not notice her absence tomorrow, when the prince stands at the altar alone? Do you wish for blood to flood the streets of this kingdom? Answer me my dear Beta!!”

Judy’s smile faltered and for the first time in a long time, fear bled through her poise mask.

My father sagged, his voice hoarse. “What…what would you have us do?”

The Alpha’s gaze swept the hall, sharp as a blade. Then it landed on me.

My stomach dropped.

For the first time since entering the room, Nathan shifted..

The Alpha king stared at me for a while and when he looked back at my father, his meaning was clear.

“There must be a bride so the peace treaty would be completed.”

The words struck like lightning.

My breath caught in my throat, though no sound followed. My fingers curled into my skirts, trembling. My father’s eyes widened, darting to me..

“No,” Judy said quickly, stepping forward. Her voice was soft, tender, mockingly so. She even reached a hand toward me, though I flinched away before she could touch me. “Not Annalise. She is fragile. Silent. A sweet girl, yes, but hardly fit to stand before the Lycans.”

Her words twisted like knives, dipped in honey to disguise their sharp edges.

Then she turned her eyes to me, wide with false pity. “she wouldn’t be able to survive there”

Her hand brushed my cheek, nails grazing my skin as if I were a child to be pitied. But her smile was sharp and poisonous. She wasn’t protecting me. She was savoring the moment m.

The Alpha king’s voice cut through her performance. “It is not survival I require. It is obedience.”

Judy froze.

“Would you rather the Lycans learn of your betrayal? Would you rather they tear your house apart stone by stone before they wreck chaos in the kingdom? A daughter must stand at that altar. If not Dahlia, then Annalise.”

His hand slashed toward me.

My father’s mouth opened, closed. His eyes found mine, guilt breaking him into pieces. But guilt could not shield me.

He lowered his head. “Then…so be it.”