Chapter 1

After our parents died, my Alpha brothers promised they’d protect me forever. But for that adopted human girl, Lily, they locked me in the dungeons and left me to be eaten away by wolf's venom, my body dissolving until nothing was left.

"Ethan, you can't do this! I'm your sister!" I screamed, tears streaming down my face, hoping for a shred of pity from my oldest brother.

"Sister?" Ethan turned, his eyes cold. "My sister wouldn't lead an innocent human girl into a dangerous forest, much less plot with a rogue wolf to get her killed."

"I didn't!" I struggled, but my second brother Caleb’s arms were like steel, locking my shoulders in place.

"Enough, Freya." Caleb's golden wolf eyes were filled with disappointment. "The fact is, Lily is hurt, and you don't have a scratch on you. How can you even argue?"

"It wasn't me—"

"Shut up!" my third brother, Noah, cut me off, his face twisted in disgust. "Do you realize that's going to scar her? And all because you were jealous she got our attention? Freya, when did you become so cruel?"

The silver door to the dungeon creaked open, releasing the scent of wolfsbane, an herb that weakens werewolves.

"Three days," Ethan ordered coldly. "Let her think about what she's done."

I was shoved into the dungeon, and the silver door slammed shut behind me.

"Brothers, believe me!" I pounded on the door. "It wasn't me! It was Lily, she—"

A searing pain tore through me—the agony of our mind link being severed.

Ethan's icy voice came through the door. "Don't bother us until you're ready to apologize."

"Ethan! Caleb! Noah!" I screamed their names, only to be hit with the searing pain of the second, and then the third link being torn away.

I collapsed onto the cold floor, my vision blurred by tears.

In the darkness, I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. The smell of wolfsbane made me feel weak, but it was only for three days. I could survive. Once they calmed down, I could explain everything—

Wait.

This smell… it was wrong.

My head shot up, a wave of terror washing over me.

This wasn't wolfsbane. It was—wolf's venom!

"No…" I struggled to stand, but my legs were already giving out. The venom was burning through my veins.

I scrambled to the door, pounding on the silver with all my remaining strength.

"Brothers! There's wolf's venom in here! Help me!"

Silence.

They had cut the links. They couldn't hear my pleas. I tried to reach out through the mind link, only to remember they had just destroyed it themselves.

No one was coming to save me.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

I don't know how much time passed before I opened my eyes again.

I found myself standing in the living room. On the sofa, my three brothers were gathered around a fragile-looking Lily, fussing over her.

"Does it hurt?" Ethan gently wrapped a bandage around her arm. I hadn’t heard his voice that soft in a long time.

"I'm fine, Ethan," Lily said with a weak smile, tears still glistening in her eyes. "It's just a little scratch, don't worry."

Caleb, always the hot-headed one, slammed his fist on a nearby wooden statue, shattering it. "Freya went too far! I can't believe she would do something like this!"

Noah, a designer who cared most about beauty, looked at Lily's wound with pity. "I'll find the best doctor for you. We can't let it scar."

I wanted to speak, but they couldn't hear me. I looked down at my hands—they were transparent, like mist.

I was dead.

"Alpha." The butler entered the room, hesitating. "Miss Freya has been in the dungeon for three days. There's been no movement. Should we—"

"Leave her," Ethan cut him off coldly. "She almost got Lily killed. She needs to reflect."

"But—"

"Freya has healing powers, she can't die," Caleb waved his hand impatiently. "She's just giving us the silent treatment to protest, trying to force us to give in. In her dreams!"

"Not a peep on the mind link," Noah sneered. "Guess she's not ready to apologize yet."

A bitter laugh escaped me, tears of grief and irony streaming down my face. Each of them thought the other two hadn't cut the link. They were all waiting for me to be the one to admit I was wrong.

And just like that, because of a tragic misunderstanding, no one heard my cries for help.

I remembered when they first brought Lily home after our parents died, saying they didn't want me to be lonely. I treated her like a sister, not caring that she was a mere human, sharing everything I had with her. But she used one "misunderstanding" after another to turn my brothers against me.

Now she’d succeeded.

She had stolen my brothers.

I looked at the fake, fragile Lily on the sofa, and at my blind, foolish brothers. All I felt was cold, bitter irony.

Oh, brothers.

Your only sister, your own blood, was murdered by your hands.