6

For as long as I could remember, my parents were rarely home. They were the pack's elite warriors, always protecting the former Alpha family, accompanying the former Alpha and his mate on various conquest missions.

They would often be gone for a year or more at a time.

So I grew up alongside the Alpha's triplet sons.

Afraid I'd be lonely, Hunter would risk being scolded by the former Alpha to skip classes and keep me company.

Knowing I was interested in healing arts, Ethan would venture deep into the Mist Forest to find rare healing herbs for my experiments.

When other pack children bullied me because my parents weren't around, Mason would stand in front of me as my shield, fighting off all those kids.

They would gather around me and promise, "We're family. We'll always spoil you like real brothers."

For many years when my parents were absent, they were both brothers and father figures as I grew up.

Until I was twelve, when my parents told stories about the snowfall in their homeland.

The Paine brothers promised to take me to see it at Christmas, and even booked the flights.

But the next day, rogue wolves suddenly attacked our pack, and my parents sacrificed themselves to save the former Alpha family.

Before the incident, our pack's Alpha and Luna were rallying the entire werewolf alliance to form a research team to Beta Wolf Enhancement program that could wipe out the rogue wolf groups that frequently waged war. This was an extremely important mission.

Fearing information leaks that would incite revenge from the rogue wolves, my parents continued guarding the Alpha family. But they were outnumbered when desperate rogue wolves deployed massive armed forces in a sneak attack on our pack. My parents died heroically protecting the Paine brothers. I never even got to see my parents one last time.

To this day, I still find it hard to remember what their faces actually looked like.

Scarlett went missing during that same attack, her whereabouts unknown.

The Paine brothers exhausted all pack resources searching for Scarlett, finally locating their little sister in the neighboring Ironwood Pack.

Life has strange coincidences.

Seven months after seven-year-old Scarlett was brought to the Paine family, I traveled to Ironwood Pack for a task organized by the Wolf Alliance. There, I accidentally overheard the Ironwood Alpha talking with a subordinate Beta.

I learned that the real Scarlett had died at the age of three in Ironwood Pack due to a weak constitution.

The "Scarlett" who had been sent to us was actually a spy carefully groomed by Ironwood Pack. They hoped to use her to disrupt the Alpha triplets and seize our pack's resources.

When I rushed home, I caught Scarlett destroying my belongings again.

She had thrown my parents' medal—which contained their photographs—into silver powder. Within seconds, the medal was completely corroded.

Just like countless times before, Scarlett crouched down, pretending she was about to reach into the silver powder to retrieve it, causing the Paine brothers to rush over to stop her.

I was furious. I yanked her away and, losing control of my emotions, shouted: "You're not even Scarlett! You're not the brothers' real sister! Get out!"

Ethan glared at me for the first time.

Even the usually gentle and quiet Ethan showed a disappointed expression.

Hunter roared at me, "Olivia, your arrogance and willfulness has gone too far! You can't speak to our sister like that!"

I told them everything I'd heard.

Then I saw Scarlett's panicked expression.

I thought at least an impostor shouldn't continue to occupy my home and brothers, shouldn't keep destroying my things.

But what answered me was Mason's angry voice:

"Olivia, why can't you just accept Scarlett?

"She is our real sister.

" Don’t you feel guilty about making up these lies?!"