Chapter 2

The heavy doors of the Moon Temple swung open again.

I stumbled toward them, then stopped two steps short, staring hard into Ash's eyes.

That same, familiar hatred stared back at me, and my heart sank straight to the bottom.

"How did I ever fall for a filthy she-wolf like you? You don't deserve to live!"

Ash snarled and came at me, his hands already shifting into claws, raking bloody lines across my body.

I dropped to the ground in agony. He stomped down on me with brutal force, the earth beneath us cracking apart.

Blood shot from my mouth. I tried weakly to fight back, but the next second his hand had already closed around my throat.

"The Obsidian Pack shouldn't have to put up with a beast like you. I'll kill you myself!"

I clawed helplessly at his hand, but it might as well have been a steel trap. It didn't budge.

The air thinned. I could actually smell death closing in.

Ash finally let go. The second he did, he kicked me with everything he had.

I flew through the air before slamming into a tree.

"Trash. If we weren't inside pack territory, I'd have already snapped your neck."

The pack's law against killing their own was the only reason I was still breathing.

Just like the nine men before him, every trace of love in Ash's eyes was gone, replaced with pure hatred and the urge to kill.

After Ash left, it took me a long time to even sit up. The moment I did, something kicked me again, and I went flying into a tree trunk too thick for a grown wolf to wrap his arms around. It snapped clean in half and came down with me.

Blood spilled from my mouth again.

Just like the nine times before, my father unleashed a wave of pressure I had no way to withstand once Ash was gone.

Pinned under an Alpha's dominance, I couldn't move so much as a finger.

He pulled out a dagger coated in silver nitrate and drove it into my body, again and again.

The silver burned through my flesh like fire. I screamed in agony, and it didn't matter one bit.

He stabbed me eighty-one times across my hands, my shoulders, my thighs, before he finally pulled back his aura and walked away.

I lay on the ground for half the day before I could even move enough to crawl to the healing hall.

The healer took one look at my wounds and screamed, pinning me down on the table.

"What did this to you? I have to report this to the Alpha right now!"

I stopped her and hid the truth, like always.

Everyone in the pack knew how devoted the Alpha was to his mate, how even years after her death he still couldn't let her go, and how he'd poured every bit of that love into me instead.

So no one would have believed it. No one would have believed my own father did this to me with his own hands.

With no other options, I called my grandfather, Aaron Mercer.

Grandfather and I had never been close. He'd never liked my mother, not since the day my father nearly gave up his claim to the Alpha title just to be with her.

But when he saw my injuries over video, even he was furious, and it wasn't hard to see he actually cared.

He brought my two cousins and stormed over to confront my father.

"Alpha, how could you do this? Willow is your own daughter! This is monstrous!"

He kept cursing at my father while beating him with his cane.

My father didn't say a word. He just took Grandfather by the arm and led him toward the Moon Temple.

My cousins checked over my wounds, already talking about how they'd make my father pay for this.

But the next moment, Grandfather walked out of the temple with his expression like thunder, radiating a pressure even stronger than my father's. It crashed down on me without mercy.

My cousins froze, then threw themselves in front of me, taking the hit.

"Grandfather, have you lost your mind?"

Grandfather kept coming silently, his eyes burning with that same, sickeningly familiar hatred.

Before my cousins could say another word, my father pulled them away. Without them shielding me, I went flying again, and every wound on my body split open and started bleeding all over.

Fear and despair flooded through me.

"Grandfather, I'm your granddaughter. Please, stop..."

"You don't deserve to call yourself my granddaughter. Today, I don't care if it breaks pack law. I'm going to kill you!"

I curled up, shaking on the ground. My cousins slowly walked up behind Grandfather, their eyes now just as cold as his.

It looked like they'd gone into the temple too.

"Grandfather, don't hold back. Kill her today."

"A monster like her is a disgrace to this pack. I can't stand the thought of her still breathing."

I had lost count of how many times that cane and those claws tore into me. All I knew was that even a werewolf's body had its limits, and mine finally gave out.

I passed out from the pain.