第2章

I was done giving in. I?stormed?out of the room.

I wiped my face and steadied my voice.

"You only love Melissa. That's fine with me. I have parents who love me too. I'm going back to them. We can all pretend the last few months never happened and forget each other existed."

Seraphina's eyes filled with scorn.

"Leave? You'd never actually leave. I already looked into this. Your adoptive parents are the lowest kind of Omegas—they can't even fight! Don't think we don't know you've always wanted to dump them. You're the one who told someone to tell us the babies were switched. So don't threaten?me?with leaving. Melissa has been our precious girl for seventeen years.

"She excels at everything. Her white wolf awakened at fourteen. Look at yourself—how could you even measure up? Blood or no blood, she is our real daughter! If you want to stay in this pack and keep this life, your only option is to get along with Melissa and quit going after her!"

I opened my mouth but swallowed the words.

I wanted to tell them my wolf had woken too.

My wolf was simply too powerful. My adoptive father feared the backlash would hurt me, so he'd made a special serum to suppress her.

I'd told them more than once. They never believed it.

Thorold looked disappointed.

"We've put up with more than enough from you, and you're still acting like a child."

He called for the maid.

"Greta, lock Winnia in her room. Don't let her out without my permission."

Greta grabbed my arms at once.

"Ms. Winnia, the Alpha and Luna have been losing sleep because of you. Stop making a scene."

I fought with everything I had.

"No! Let go of me!"

But with my wolf suppressed, I was no match for Greta, who'd spent years doing hard labor.

She threw me into the cellar.

There was a snap, and the one light above me went out.

I pounded on the door.

"You're imprisoning me! I'm not a criminal! How can you treat me like this! Let me out!"

I shouted until my voice went hoarse, but nobody came.

I felt my way to the bed, found my phone, and messaged my adoptive father.

"Dad, I know I was wrong. I want to come home."

I pressed?send, but the message never went out.

No signal.

My parents had cut off the signal.

I lay on the bed, numb, and let the tears come.

"Dad, I really do regret it now."

Before I came to the Tervo pack, I'd messaged my adoptive parents.

I told them I'd found my birth parents and wanted to go stay with them for a while.

Not long after, my father sent me everything he could dig up about them.

They were the Alpha and Luna of the Tervo pack and they already had?a daughter named?Melissa. She got everything she asked for and was famously spoiled.

Their sudden appearance didn't bode well.

Even if they genuinely couldn't bear to leave me out there, the moment Melissa and I clashed, they'd side with the daughter they'd raised for seventeen years—blood or not.

My adoptive parents laid all of it out for me, but I still thought they were good to Melissa because they believed she was me.

Now that they'd acknowledged me as their daughter, surely they'd love me too.

I went home with them anyway.

It took all of this for me to understand how naive I'd been.

Luckily, my adoptive parents and I had an agreement.

If they couldn't reach me for three days, they'd come and find me.

I wondered if my birth parents would survive?my adoptive parents'?wrath when they showed up.