Chapter 6

The dress Kane brought to my room was beautiful and completely wrong for me.

I stared at my reflection, the black silk clinging to curves I didn't have anymore. The cancer had stolen weight I couldn't afford to lose, making the expensive fabric hang oddly on my frame. Dark circles shadowed my eyes despite the makeup I'd attempted. I looked exactly like what I was—a dying human pretending to belong in a world of immortal predators.

A knock at the door made me jump. "It's time," Kade's voice came through, firm but not unkind.

I opened the door to find both twins waiting, dressed in dark suits that made them look like they'd stepped out of a magazine. They were devastating together, all sharp lines and predatory grace. For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

Kane's eyes traveled down my body, his expression darkening. "You look beautiful."

"I look sick," I corrected.

"You look like ours," Kade said, stepping close enough that his scent wrapped around me. "That's all that matters tonight."

His hand found the small of my back, warm and possessive. Kane moved to my other side, effectively caging me between them as we walked down the hallway. I should have felt trapped. Instead, I felt almost safe, like their presence could shield me from what was coming.

The dining room was massive, dominated by a table that could seat forty people. Crystal chandeliers cast golden light over expensive china and gleaming silverware. Pack members were already gathering, their conversations dying as we entered. Every eye turned to me, and the weight of their judgment pressed against my skin like physical touch.

Elena sat at the far end of the table, her silver hair perfectly styled, her expression cold as winter. The man beside her had to be their father—same sharp features, same silver eyes, but older and harder. He studied me with the detached interest someone might give a bug under glass.

"So this is the human," he said, his voice carrying across the room. "I expected someone more... impressive."

Kane's hand tightened on my waist. "Careful, Father."

"I'm simply observing." Their father, I remembered the twins calling him Alexander, gestured to a seat near the middle of the table, far from the head where the family sat. "Please, join us."

The seating arrangement was a deliberate insult. I wasn't family. I wasn't even important enough to sit near them. I was being placed with the lower-ranked pack members, the ones who served rather than led.

Kade's jaw clenched. "She sits with us."

"She sits where she belongs," Elena said, her voice dripping false sweetness. "We wouldn't want to give anyone the wrong impression about her status here."

"Her status is our mate," Kane growled.

"Your contracted fuck toy," a woman I didn't know said from across the table. Several people laughed.

Heat flooded my face, but I forced myself to walk to the assigned seat with my head high. The twins followed, their anger palpable, but I shook my head slightly. Fighting over seating arrangements would only make things worse. I needed to prove I could handle their world, not hide behind their protection.

I sat down between two she-wolves who immediately shifted their chairs away from me like I carried disease. Across from me, a young man with cruel eyes leaned forward.

"How much are they paying you?" he asked. "I might be interested in a human pet myself."

"Watch your mouth, Derek," Kade warned from the head of the table.

Derek just smiled. "I'm simply curious about the market rate for human whores."

The room went silent. Kane started to rise, violence written in every line of his body, but I spoke first.

"More than you could afford," I said, meeting Derek's eyes. "But then again, I doubt you could afford much. Your shirt's off-the-rack and your watch is a knockoff. So maybe stick to what's in your budget."

Shocked silence, then scattered laughter from around the table. Derek's face flushed red with anger and embarrassment. I'd gambled that a pack this obsessed with status would find his pretensions amusing when exposed.

Elena's eyes narrowed. "How observant. Tell me, dear, what else have you noticed?"

It was a test, and we both knew it. "I've noticed that this pack has structural problems," I said, my voice steady despite my racing heart. "Your territory borders are poorly defended. Your alliances are weak. And your leadership is divided between generations that can't agree on direction."

The room exploded into outraged muttering. Alexander's expression went dangerous. "You dare—"

"She dares because she's right," Kade interrupted. "Everything she just said, I've been telling you for months. But you wouldn't listen to your own son."

"Because your judgment is compromised," Elena snapped. "By her."

"My judgment is finally clear," Kade shot back. "And if you can't see the value in someone who can assess our weaknesses in one week, then your judgment is the one that's compromised."

A server appeared with the first course, breaking the tension. Food was placed in front of me—some kind of rare meat swimming in blood. My stomach churned. The smell alone made nausea rise in my throat, the chemotherapy making everything taste like metal and rot.

I forced myself to take a bite. The meat was like rubber in my mouth, my body rejecting it immediately. I swallowed anyway, washing it down with water, trying not to gag.

"Not to your taste?" Elena asked. "Perhaps you'd prefer something more suited to your... human palate?"

"It's fine," I managed.

The meal continued, each course another battle. Elena made cutting remarks about my appearance, my background, my lack of wolf. Other pack members joined in, emboldened by her example. They discussed me like I wasn't there, debating whether humans could actually satisfy shifter needs or if the twins were slumming.

"I heard human women break easily," someone said. "Too fragile for alpha stamina."

"Maybe that's the appeal," another responded. "Something that breaks and needs to be put back together."

Kane's fork bent in his hand. Kade's eyes had gone pure silver, his wolf rising. I reached under the table and found Kane's knee, squeezing gently. Don't, I tried to tell him with that touch. This is what they want. A reaction. Proof that I'm weak.

But God, it hurt. Every word was a knife, reminding me of everything I'd lost. My wolf. My family. My health. My future. I was dying and alone and sitting at a table full of immortal creatures who saw me as nothing but a temporary plaything for their cursed alphas.

The room started to blur at the edges. I blinked hard, trying to focus, but the faces around the table swam together. The nausea was getting worse, my body rebelling against the food and the stress and the poison the doctors were pumping into my veins to kill the cancer.

"She looks unwell," Elena observed. "Perhaps she's not strong enough for this life."

"Perhaps your hospitality is making her sick," Kade said coldly.

I tried to stand, needing air, needing space, but my legs wouldn't support my weight. The room tilted sideways. I heard someone gasp, felt hands reaching for me, and then the floor was rushing up to meet my face.

Strong arms caught me before I hit the ground. Kane's scent surrounded me, pine and smoke and safety. "I've got you," he murmured against my hair. "I've got you, baby."

"She's burning up," Kade's voice came from somewhere above me. His hand pressed against my forehead, cool and soothing. "Get Marcus. Now."

"This is what happens when you bring weakness into a pack," Elena's voice cut through the chaos. "Humans don't belong here."

"Get out," Kane snarled, and the pure alpha command in his voice made several people whimper. "Everyone out except Marcus. Now."

Footsteps scattered. Voices faded. I tried to open my eyes but everything was spinning, my body both freezing and burning at the same time. This was bad. This was worse than any reaction I'd had before. The chemotherapy combined with stress and lack of food was destroying me from the inside.

"What's wrong with her?" Kade demanded.

I tried to answer but the words wouldn't come. Darkness pulled at me, soft and inviting. It would be so easy to let go, to stop fighting, to just slip away into nothing.

"Ariana, stay with us," Kane ordered, his voice sharp with fear. "Don't you dare leave us."

But the darkness was stronger than his command. It dragged me under, pulling me away from the twins' desperate voices, away from the pain and humiliation, away from everything.

My last coherent thought was that Elena was right. Humans didn't belong here.

And I was dying anyway.