Chapter One

Dahlia’s POV

“Why did you come to the banquet?? I told you to stay inside."

I whirled around, but before I could utter a word, a slap landed across my face. I staggered backwards, the wet mop clattering to the floor

“Didn't you hear me? How dare you!”

I raised my hand off my burning cheek and raised my head to look at my aunt. She stood there like the devil, hands on her hips, her eyes burning with fire. I didn't know whether she was referring to the messy leftovers and bones I ate off the dishes as I washed them. But I opened my mouth to answer.

“I didn't eat the leftovers, Lunar Jane,” I said slowly. “The remaining food after the banquet is still in the kitchen.”

“I told you not to show your face around the area, but you kept moving up and down, distracting our honorable guests with your dirty clothes and your stupid long hair.”

“I'm sorry, Lunar."

Another slap landed on my face, directly on my eye, and I lost my balance and tripped onto the floor.

The stinging effect of the slap shot went through my body, but that was before another one landed on the same spot.

"What is your problem, you fool?" she shouted again, kicking me with her giant legs. “I told you to remain in the kitchen and prepare food for the members of the RegalWolf Pack. But as usual, you choose to defy me. Who do you think you are?"

The most hated girl in the pack, that’s what. The girl whose father tried to steal the pack.

“The most powerful werewolf pack in the land has finally come to form an alliance with our pack,” she continued, snapping me out of my thoughts. “We made everything about the banquet special for them. The food, entertainment, decorations, and the well-dressed servant who served the guests in the hall. But you just had to show your ugly face and steal all the attention!”

“The royal chef needed help with the serving, and I couldn't refuse him.” I remembered the music stopping and all eyes turning on me the instant I set foot in the ballroom. I had walked in with a large tray of appetizers and glasses of punch. My skin was covered in black soot and grease, my long silver hair looking like thick cobwebs. My faded black and white pinafore barely reached my knees, with holes and visible patches. The multiple gazes felt like hot lasers on my skin, and I lowered my head in shame, grateful for the chance to return to the kitchen as soon as I was done.

“You should have told the chef you couldn't help him. " Lunar Jana growled, grabbing my neck. “Everyone was looking at you, and they began to talk about you the instant you left. We organized the banquet for the members of the RegalWolf pack. Hera is to marry Alpha Darryn in 2 weeks. You were an embarrassment tonight!”

Lunar Jane’s hand came down on me again, harder this time, as though she wanted to bury her anger deep into my bones. I hit the ground with a sharp cry, my knees scraping against the cold tiles. She didn’t stop. Her foot rammed into my side, and I curled up instinctively, gasping, with my arms over my head.

“You think you’re better than Hera, don’t you?” she spat, her words venomous. “You and your stupid looks! Always showing off! Always making yourself noticed when nobody asked for you!”

Another blow. This one is to my back. My breath left my lungs in a rush. But her words… those stung more than the beating.

My stupid looks.

That’s what it had always been. My cursed appearance.

My hand trembled as I touched the blood now trailing from my cheek, but I didn’t feel it. My mind had already travelled back to the days when I was younger, smaller, and more fragile. When the pack children would surround me in the yard, yanking at my silver hair, whispering that I must have fallen from the sky. That my eyes made them sick. One blue. One violet. Eyes like a storm trapped in ice and fire.

“Witch,” they used to chant. “Monster. Curse-bringer.”

I never knew my mother, but rumors of her were as heavy as chains. They said she seduced my father, Alpha Darius’s younger brother, and ran off when the heat of her betrayal began to burn. Some claimed she was human. Others said she was a rogue. A whore. A spellcaster. All I ever had of her were these unnatural features that made me the pack’s living shame.

“You stole Hera’s moment! She was dressed like royalty, wearing the finest emerald silk imported from Stormhold, and yet the guests couldn’t take their eyes off you!”

I didn’t understand; I truly thought their glares were full of hate. But now… a sick twist in my stomach made me wonder. Was it attention? Curiosity? Even admiration?

Lunar Jane must have seen the flicker of doubt in my eyes because she went wild. Her fingers curled into my hair and yanked it so hard I screamed.

“You’re just like your slut mother,” she growled. “She used her beauty to destroy a family, and now you want to do the same?”

“No, please, Lunar, please stop!” I whimpered, clutching her wrist, but she shoved me backward again. My head cracked against the edge of the table, and stars exploded across my vision.

“I should rip out your tongue!” she screeched.

She grabbed a knife from the table. My breath caught in my throat.

The pain was sharp and hot. I cried out, trying to crawl away, blood trickling down the side of my head.

“You want to be seen?” she shrieked. “You want them to notice you? Let’s see how they feel when you're bald!”

She grabbed my hair, twisted it, and raised the knife again.

"Stop, please! Please, no! Someone help me!”

I was screaming now, voice raw and full of panic, when the door burst open.

Alpha Darius strode in, his face tight with concern at first. Until he saw me crumpled on the ground, bleeding, hair half-hacked, the knife glinting in his wife’s hands.

“What is going on here?” he roared.

Lunar Jane immediately dropped the knife and turned to him, her tone switching like the flip of a coin. “She disobeyed again, Darius. She embarrassed us! I was only teaching her a lesson."

But Alpha Darius didn’t look at her. He looked at me. And something shifted in his eyes. Not pity. Not rage. But… fear.

“Get out,” he said.

I blinked. “What?”

“Get out of the kitchen. Leave the house.”

Lunar Jane spun around. “What are you talking about?”

“She has to leave. Now,” he growled. “She cannot stay here.”

“Why, Darius? What happened? Why now?”

But Alpha Darius didn’t answer her. His voice rose, harsh and clipped.

“Dahlia, leave! Go wherever you want, but leave this house!”

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I scrambled to my feet, my palm pressed against the bleeding wound beside my scalp. I staggered toward the door, heart thudding like thunder.

Then the kitchen door flew open.

Alpha Darryn stormed in.

His dark eyes scanned the room like a feral predator, his growl vibrating through the air. “Where is she?” he barked.

Alpha Darius straightened. “Hera is waiting for you in the gardens…”

“Not her!” Darryn roared, silencing everyone. “Where is the girl who served the appetizers?"

No one spoke.

He turned, and his gaze locked onto me. Dirty, bleeding, shaking, with hair half-fallen from my scalp. His lips parted as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. And then he crossed the room in three swift strides and caught me in his arms.

“You,” he whispered, his voice raw. “You’re my mate.”