Chapter 1

When Mom was pregnant, she saved the life of a serpent shifter who was also expecting. To repay the debt, the shifter sent our family a betrothal contract.

As fate would have it, both women later gave birth to twins.

The shifter was deeply grateful to Mom. On top of that, shifter clans regularly needed to introduce human blood into their bloodlines to keep their inner beasts from going feral. So, the clan asked for both my older sister, Kelsey Shaw, and me to marry in.

On the day we were to choose our husbands, Dad laid two photos on the table in front of us and told us to decide.

One showed Zane Coyle, a powerfully built shifter whose beast form was a black serpent.

The other showed Mike Coyle, a pale, sickly shifter whose beast form was a white serpent.

Dad had barely set the photos down before Kelsey snatched up Mike's.

The corners of her mouth curled up slightly. She drew out her words on purpose, but she couldn't hide the joy underneath. "Kenzie, they say Zane is the one most likely to become the next Clan Alpha. He's the strongest and most gifted of them all. What a shame. If I didn't like Mike and his white serpent form so much, I would've taken Zane for myself."

She tilted her chin up, giving me a look of open contempt, as though she'd been forced to give up something precious for my sake.

"Kenzie, when you become the Lady of the Coyle Clan someday, don't forget me. I just handed you a straight shot to the top."

I took my time picking up Zane's photo, lowering my gaze to hide the faint amusement in my eyes.

…

On our wedding day, Kelsey gathered up her skirt and hurried to catch up with me.

She leaned close to my ear, her voice soft and warm despite the malice dripping from every word. "Kenzie, this time around, it's your turn to be a wife in name only. I wish you every happiness."

I pushed her away and smiled, looking her over as she stood there, radiant in all her bridal finery.

My dear sister. Even after five years at Coyle Manor, she was still as naive as a child.

That place was a snake pit. How could anyone there be any good?

Whenever Dad brought up the betrothal between my late mother and the Coyles, the smug calculation on his wrinkled face was impossible to miss.

"Your mom got lucky back then," he would say. "She threw a fit and walked out on me, but who would've guessed she'd end up saving the Lady of the Coyle Clan?

"The Coyles are one of the top ten shifter clans in the world. Once you two marry in, there'll be more money and power than you'll know what to do with. Don't forget your family when you get there."

In our past life, Kelsey had been completely sold on Dad's words. She'd chosen her husband in her heart long before the photos were ever laid out on the table.

She wanted Zane, the designated heir. Marrying him meant she'd be one step away from becoming Lady of the Clan.

What she never considered was that Zane cared about nothing but his own ambition. There was no room in him for anything resembling love.

No matter how much she flattered him or threw herself at him, he gave her nothing in return. As far as he was concerned, the training dummies in the yard were far more interesting than his wife.

Once he became Clan Alpha, he traded her away without a second thought. At a banquet, he handed her over to another shifter clan in exchange for a contract the Coyles wanted.

Meanwhile, after I married Mike, the two of us became the human-shifter couple the entire clan envied. He was romantic and attentive, openly affectionate with me in front of everyone and always surprising me with sweet little gestures. The clan wives teased us endlessly for being so lovey-dovey.

Then came Mike's second awakening. At the Clan Trials, he killed Zane without breaking a sweat and declared himself the new Alpha on the spot.

Kelsey was there that day. By then, Zane had already given her away to an eagle-shifter clan ranked a tier above the Coyles, where she'd endured endless torment before they finally sent her back.

She'd convinced herself that even without her husband's affection, she was still the Lady of the Clan—respectable and enviable.

However, when Mike killed Zane, she lost even that status.

Across the crowd, her eyes locked onto mine, burning with fury and envy.

I leaned against Mike, whose body was drenched in blood, fighting to keep myself from shaking. The coppery stench filled my nostrils. My head was too clouded to understand why she was glaring at me like that.

I wasn't the one who had killed her husband.

The day I tried on the Lady of the Clan gown, Kelsey, who had been recuperating in her own room, slipped into mine.

She shoved me to the floor and yanked a sharp silver hairpin from her hair. "Kenzie Shaw, did you know all along that Mike would have a second awakening?"

The silver hairpin pressed slowly against my vulnerable throat. In the fitting mirror, I could see her behind me. Her eyes were bloodshot with resentment.

"You've never come out ahead of me since we were kids," she spat. "And you're not starting now. I'm the only one who can be Lady of the Coyle Clan!"

I stared at my pale, vulnerable neck in the mirror, recalling how mercilessly Kelsey had stabbed me in our past life. A cold laugh escaped my lips.

This time around, she'd chosen Mike, determined to be the one who came out on top.

The only question was whether she could actually handle a twisted snake like him.