Chapter 3

The water was scalding but I stayed under it until my skin turned pink and raw. I wanted the heat to burn away everything. The humiliation. The betrayal. The image of my father standing on that platform and handing me off to a monster like I was nothing more than a piece of livestock at auction.

Steam filled the bathroom and the mirror disappeared behind the fog. Good. I did not want to see my own face right now. I was afraid of what I might see in my eyes.Three weeks of grime and tournament blood swirled down the drain. I had fought twelve matches. Won every single one. Beat my brother unconscious in front of ten thousand wolves. And my reward was a cage dressed up as a wedding.

I pressed my forehead against the wet tile and closed my eyes. The pendant pulsed against my chest. It had been doing that since the fight, a slow, rhythmic hum, like a second heartbeat sitting right beneath my own. Whatever had tried to claw its way out of me when.the chain broke, it was still in there. Still pushing. Still testing the walls of whatever prison the silver held it in.

We need to understand what lives inside us, Seraphina murmured.

"Not now," I whispered. "Please. Not now."

I dried off, pulled on a loose shirt and pants, and sat on the edge of my bed staring at the wall. My shoulder still ached from Tony's claw. The skin had closed already because we heal fast, but the bruise underneath ran deep and purple and every time I moved my arm, the pain reminded me of the chain snapping and the pendant falling and that horrible, burning flood of something black and ancient pouring through my veins.

A knock on the bedroom door made me flinch. Then a voice, warm and familiar.

"Gia, it's me. Open up before someone sees me standing outside your room looking pathetic."

Enzo.

I let him in. He slipped through the door fast, that familiar smell of cedar and coffee trailing behind him, and immediately dropped onto my bed like he owned the place. His dark hair was messy and his shirt was wrinkled and he looked like he had been pacing for the last hour trying to decide whether to come.

"You look terrible," he announced, stretching his legs out and folding his hands behind his head.

"Thank you, Enzo. That's exactly what every girl wants to hear after the worst night of her life."

He sat up, his teasing grin fading into something softer, something that made the ache in my chest worse instead of better. "I'm sorry, Gia. What your father did out there was beyond cruel. Everybody in that arena knew you deserved the title. Every single wolf in that crowd was chanting your name."

"Doesn't matter what they know." My voice came out flat. Tired. "What matters is what he decided. And he decided I'm worthless."

"You're not worthless."

"No. I'm worse than worthless. I'm a bargaining chip." I dropped into the chair by the window and stared at the dark sky outside. Somewhere out there, Vittorio Falcone was sitting in whatever room my father had prepared for him, probably already planning the ceremony like it was just another deal to close. "Three days, Enzo. In three days I'm supposed to stand in front of every pack on the continent and pledge myself to a man who collects people like hunting trophies. Did you see the way he looked at me? Like he had already decided I was his. Like the whole tournament was just entertainment before the real transaction happened."

"I saw," Enzo murmured, and the disgust in his voice told me he meant it.

"My father didn't even flinch when he announced it. Not one flicker of guilt. Not one second of hesitation. He looked right at me and traded me away like I was surplus inventory."

Enzo was quiet for a long moment after that. When he finally spoke, his voice was careful and measured. "Escaping your father is nearly impossible, Gia. You know that better than anyone. He has wolves posted at every border. Eyes at every airport. Every bus station.

Every safe house within five hundred miles."

"I know."

"And Vittorio is ten times worse. That man didn't build his empire by letting things slip through his fingers. If you run from him, he won't just send people after you. He'll come himself. And he'll enjoy every second of the hunt. You understand that, right? For a man like him, the chase is the best part."

The image of Vittorio's amused, dark eyes watching me from the platform flashed through my mind and my stomach twisted into a knot. But I kept my face still.

"So what am I supposed to do? Just let it happen? Walk down that aisle and hand myself over like a good, obedient daughter?"

"I didn't say that." He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his brown eyes serious in a way I rarely saw from him. "I'm just saying the options are thin. And getting thinner. I have to go back to Gravemont Academy in two days. You know how strict they are about attendance at the start of term. If I miss orientation week, I lose my spot."

Something sparked in the back of my mind. A tiny, dangerous, burning little thought. "Gravemont," I repeated slowly. "That's the all male academy. Strictly alphas. No women have ever set foot inside those walls."

"Obviously."

"And Matteo went there, didn't he? My cousin. Before he went missing."

Enzo's face changed. The softness disappeared and something wary took its place. "Gia, where are you going with this?"

"Matteo has been missing for over a year. Nobody has heard a single word from him. Nobody knows if he's alive or dead."

"Gia."

"He and I have the same bone structure. Same family blood. If Seraphina adjusts my features enough to pass a quick look..."

"Gia, stop talking."

"I could enroll as him."

Enzo stared at me for a full five seconds without blinking. Then he laughed. Not a polite laugh either. A full, head thrown back, hand clamped over his mouth laugh that made me want to throw something at him.

"You're out of your mind," he managed between breaths. "You want to walk into the most brutal, violent, cutthroat academy in the entire country, surrounded by alpha males who would rip you apart if they found out what you are, disguised as your missing cousin, while the most dangerous Alpha on the continent is searching for his runaway bride? That's your plan?"

"You have a better one?"

His laughter died. He opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.

"No," he admitted quietly. "I really don't."

We sat in the silence of that truth for a long moment. Outside the window, a wolf howled somewhere on the perimeter and the sound drifted through the glass like a warning. I could feel the clock ticking inside my chest, every second bringing me closer to a life I refused to live.

Then the knock came.

Three hard pounds on the door. A guard's voice, deep and mechanical. "Miss Moretti. Alpha Falcone is waiting for you in the courtyard. He demands your presence. Immediately."

My blood chilled. Enzo's eyes went wide and his face lost its color.

"Gia, don't go," he whispered. "What if he was listening? What if he heard us talking about..." I was already on my feet, already squaring my shoulders, already shoving the fear down into that locked place inside my chest where I kept everything that could hurt me. I looked at Enzo one last time.

"Either I end this engagement tonight, or I make the most powerful Alpha in our world my enemy."

I walked out the door to face him.