Chapter Four

Kimberly POV

My mouth flooded with the taste of copper as Alpha Derrick’s hand swept across my face. The noise reverberated through the suddenly quiet hall like a gunshot.

“How dare you touch my chosen with your filthy hands?” His voice was low — terrifyingly low — but it reached to every corner of the room. “You, daughter of a Beta, thought you could damage what’s mine?”

I pressed my fingertips to my split lip, the bright red blood a harsh contrast to my skin. My eyes met his—a mistake. That rage deep in those amber depths was not merely fury, it was cold, methodical contempt.

“I never touched her,” I murmured, my voice quavering no matter how hard I tried.

Alpha Derrick laughed, and it sounded empty. "Still lying? Even now?" He gestured to Mona, who quaked at his side with tears streaking her perfect face, the red lines on her wrist seeming more intentional than accidental.

Marks I never put there.

“Take her,” Alpha Derrick ordered, his voice descending an octave, the Alpha timbre resonating through the bones of each and every person in the vicinity. Two guards appeared on either side of me, their grips tightening at my arms.

I didn't fight. What was the point? The moment I’d screamed at Mona and she’d accused me of attacking her in a fit of jealousy, my fate was sealed. In a pack of wolves where surface matters above all, the truth matters not.

"UNHAND MY DAUGHTER!"

The double doors to the great hall broke open, cracking the elaborate wood. My dad stood there, his usually dignified self completely broken, giving way to something rage-filled and rooted in raw instinct. His warm brown eyes, like mine, turned, wolf eyes in a human face.

The holds of the guards slackened, uncertain. Alpha Derrick’s jaw clenched, the only indication I got that my father’s entrance had fazed him at all.

"Release her." His voice gentled but carried the weight of a command they could not ignore.

The guards released my arms as though I’d stung them, and I fell into a stumbling run, catching myself on a table. The crystal glasses rattled, the noise impossibly loud in the taut silence.

“You do not need to be involved in this, Beta Gabriel,” Alpha Derrick said as he stepped forward toward my father.

“Everything is my concern when it comes to my daughter.” My father's voice was ice. “Even the Alpha’s vengeful anger.”

There was an audible intake of breath from the gathered pack members. Nobody confronted Alpha Derrick — nobody. And yet here my father stood, trembling with rage, openly defying him.

“Pick your next words carefully,” Alpha Derrick said, as if the air around him darkened.

My father’s grin was the mark of a razor. “With all due respect, Alpha, the matters of the family will be dealt with by the family. Then if, and only if, the truth is known, there will be consequences for my daughter.’

They stood locked in an unspoken battle of wills, with neither man relenting. My heart pounded against my ribs so violently I was sure everyone could hear it.

“The engagement party is over,” my father said to the room, never breaking eye contact with Alpha Derrick. "Everyone out. Now."

None of the guests wanted to be caught in the line of fire between an enraged Beta and an avenging Alpha, and they fled like a flock of startled birds.

It was only after the last guest had fled that Alpha Derrick turned away, stalking to Mona. He cupped her face with a tenderness that twisted my stomach. He bent down and kissed her forehead, murmuring something that made her smile despite her crocodile tears.

That smile. That smile, my God, a thousand ships could be launched, or in this case, a life destroyed. Mine.

Like the sun personified — golden hair tumbling down her back like a waterfall of honey, skin almost too perfect to be real, eyes the precise color of a summer sky — Mona. When she smiled, it was as if the world was brighter, warmer. It's no wonder Alpha Derrick had fallen for her so completely.

I looked down: My own hands, nails bitten to the quick. I was shadow to her light — dark hair, eyes like wells of ink, skin kissed gold by the sun. My mother’s daughter in every respect, some said. Except they never told me I remote inherited her heart and not her courage.

Mona saw me looking and her eyes hardened, the vulnerability she'd shown for Alpha Derrick evaporating like mist in sunlight. The ghost of a smirk curled at her mouth.

This is how betrayal tastes, I thought. *Bitter. Metallic. Like blood. *

"We need to talk." Luna Catherine, my father’s voice broke the heavy silence in the room, there was no arguing that tone. "All of us. Now."

Luna Catherine’s immaculate hand tightened on the stem of her champagne flute. "Of course, Gabriel." Her smile was brittle. "Family first, always."

My father railed out of the apartment, and my daughter walked behind him in careful strides, her back blocking up. Mona hung back, eyeing me as though inspecting the extent of the wreckage she had caused.

“You should know better, Kim,” she said gently, using the nickname she knew I despised. “Than to grasp for something that wasn’t for you.”

She shoved past me, her shoulder hitting mine hard enough that I took a step back. The smell of her perfume — roses and something sharper, a little like thorns — trailed behind her.

I stood alone in the grand hall, which was now empty and filled only with the remnants of my engagement celebration. Crystal glasses half-emptied, plates piled with food that had barely been touched, decorations that had taken weeks to get just right. All for nothing.

"I fucking told you so."

I turned to see Hannah propped against a pillar, arms crossed over her chest. Standing beside her, Louis wore an expression of ambivalence, sympathy mixed with agreement.

“Hannah,” Louis replied warningly.

“No.” She shoved off the pillar, stalking toward me. “No, I’m not going to cater to her. I told you for years about Mona. I warned you what she was capable of, and you treated me like I was being petty.

Alpha Derrick’s slap hurt, yes, but the truth of her words cut deeper.

“She’s my sister,” I said weakly.

“Half-sister,” Hannah corrected brusquely. "And a viper in silk. She’s been plotting this ever since Alpha Derrick got a taste for you.”

“Hannah, please,” Louis said, moving forward to put a restraining hand on her arm. "Look at her. She's in shock."

The fierce look on Hannah’s face dissolved when she actually saw me. “Oh, Kim,” she murmured, pulling me into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry. I'm so damn sorry."

All I could do was stiffen in her arms as she tried to embrace me. If I allowed myself to feel even a little of what was happening, I would break. And I could not allow myself to break. Not yet.

"What will you do?" Louis asked quietly.

I pulled away from Hannah, calling up a calm I didn’t feel. "What can I do? In three days, I’ll be kicked out of the pack. Alpha-rejected. I'm going to become the property of the MoonStone pack—his property."

“There has to be something —” Hannah said.

"There isn't." My voice was flat. “You know the law just as well as I do. An Alpha's word is final. His claim on Mona overrides any previous arrangement. And now that he thinks I assaulted her...” I stopped, letting the implications hang in the air.

But that’s crazy,” Louis objected. “You would never hurt anyone, least of all Mona. Everyone knows that."

"Do they?" I asked bitterly. “Or do they see what they want?” The ideal Alpha, the shining Luna-to-be, and the scorned, jealous stepsister who lashed out, in fury?”

Hannah clutched my hand tighter. "We'll testify for you. We'll tell them—"

"And risk your own standing? No." I shook my head firmly. "This is my burden to bear."

"Kim, please—"

“You need to leave,” I interrupted her. "Both of you. To get closer to me, means you'll have scandal mud on you. I won't let that happen."

“We don’t give a shit about that,” Louis maintained.

"But I do." I pushed a smile through like it was sharded glass. "I'll be fine. Just... go. Please."

Hannah seemed to want to protest more, but Louis covered her shoulder with a hand and shook his head just a little. Both knew I was right, even if they hated it.

“This isn’t over,” Hannah vowed hotly as Louis ushered her away. "We won't abandon you, Kim. Ever."

I saw them walk away, hands linked, leaning on each other as they always did. The vision made my chest ache with loneliness so deep it felt corporeal.

When I was sure they were gone, I walked through the empty hall like a ghost, my fingers brushing abandoned tables. I paused at a table on which sat a full bottle of dark red wine, untouched.

A no-brainer, I snatched it. I’d never been much of a drinker — another of the many incapable-wolf stereotypes I apparently failed to live up to — but tonight felt like the right time to start.

As I sneaked outside, the pack house was unsettlingly quiet. My father's outburst had sent everyone scuttling, assuming they had enough sense not to stick around when the Beta was in a mood. He’d always looked out for me, especially since my mother’s death. Now that protectiveness could cost him everything.

“One more thing to add to my conscience.

Rather than going back to my room, where whoever it was who had driven here would definitely find me, I walked toward the one place no one in their right mind would look for me – the old, dusty basement under the former groundskeeper’s shed. Years ago, I’d found it while escaping the wrath of Luna Catherine, and it had become my sanctuary.

The night air was brisk against my bare skin as I trudged darkly across the grounds, clutching the bottle to my breast as if it were my only source of oxygen. The moon hung fat and full above, gazing down at my disgrace with indifferent silver eyes.

I arrived at the weather-beaten shed, where the wooden planks had long ago given way to the elements, and knelt to remove the loose floorboard that hid the entrance to my hideout. I reached for it, and felt the hairs stand on the nape of my neck.

I wasn't alone.

“Drinking away your sorrows?” A midnight velvet voice wafted out of the shadows. "Mind if I join you?"

I spun around, heart racing, to see a stranger leaning against a nearby tree. The moonlight caught the angles of his face, revealing features too exquisite to be completely human. There was an odd glint in his eyes, and his smile held secrets that made my wolf wake and pace under my skin.

"Who are you?" I said, tightening my grip on the bottle just in case.

His smile widened, teeth a tad too sharp for comfort. “Someone who can give you what you want most at this very moment.”

I raised my chin defiantly. "And what's that?"

“Revenge,” he said simply, pushing away from the tree with an economy of grace. “The question is, how bad do you want it?”

Danger rolled off him in waves, but I couldn’t look away. "What would it cost me?"

His laugh was soft and dark like the vow of a storm. "Everything," he admitted. "And nothing you'll miss."

I should have run. Any sane person would have. But sanity had fled at the moment Alpha Derrick's hand had struck my face.

Instead, I twisted the cork from the bottle, drank deep of rich, bitter wine, and handed it to the stranger.

"Tell me more," I said.