อันหนิง...ยอดหญิงแห่งตงหลาง

"Laila, meet Brittany. My fated mate."

I was about to tell Jason about the baby growing inside me. His baby. While he brought his fated mate back, the woman the Moon Goddess had chosen for him.

The pregnancy test was still tucked in my jacket pocket. Two pink lines that would change everything.

I'd planned to show him privately when he got home, hoping that together we could figure out how to tell everyone.

No one knew that we had slept together yet. Things were tricky. Jason was the young Alpha of my pack, while I was his adopted sister.

But now...

"Brittany, this is my adopted sister Laila." The words sounded like a business introduction. Professional. Distant

Adopted sister. That's all I'd ever been to him. That's all I'd ever be.

Jason and his mother, Sarah, found me when I was seven. Just some terrified kid wandering the forest after rogues killed my parents.

Luna Sarah had a good heart. She brought me into her pack and made me a part of her family.

Everything changed a month ago on my eighteenth birthday. I had finally gathered up enough courage to tell Jason that I'd had a crush on him ever since we met.

To my surprise, he didn't push me away. We had both been drinking too much that night. One second, I brought him to my room, telling him how I felt. The next second, his hands were in my hair, his mouth on mine like he'd been starving for it.

Since then, it had been this weird thing between us. Midnight meetings and stolen kisses when nobody was watching. He'd climb through my window after dark. We'd lose ourselves in each other until sunrise.

But we never talked about what any of it meant. Never put words to whatever this thing was between us.

I knew why, though. Not only because I was adopted by his family, but also because I couldn't shift like all the other werewolves.

I realized that I couldn't shift when I turned fourteen, and no wolf meant I was basically human. And humans? They didn't fit in werewolf packs. Not really.

When every girl my age started to grow into their full-figured and curvy werewolf bodies with beautiful muscles and supernatural strength, I stayed the same skinny girl I used to be. Their bodies became powerful and graceful, radiating the confidence that came with their wolves. Meanwhile, I remained fragile and small.

Though no one dared to say it to my face, since I was still just the adoptive daughter of the Alpha family, whispers started to trail behind me in the hallways.

"Defective little freak." "Why doesn't Alpha just expel her?" "Waste of space."

Growing up hearing all these things, I knew Jason and I had to keep our relationship a secret until we were ready to tell everyone.

But today I found out I was pregnant.

I thought maybe this was a chance to talk to him about us. Maybe it was a good timing to let everyone know.

Clearly I was wrong.

Brittany giggled. "We found each other at a ceremony today. Isn't it just magical?"

I had to admit that Brittany looked like she'd walked straight off a runway. Blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders. Her dress probably cost more than most people made in months. Everything about her radiated the confident beauty and strength of a true werewolf - the kind of curves and presence that came naturally with a wolf's power.

Unlike me.

"Magical… sure…" The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them.

Brittany stopped smiling and gave me a weird look.

Jason's expression went cold. Nothing like the man who'd whispered my name in the darkness just two nights ago.

"Laila, I need to speak with you privately for a moment." His voice was careful, measured.

Brittnay smiled sweetly. "Of course, darling. I'll wait inside." She squeezed his arm possessively before gliding toward the pack house.

"I'm sorry if you got the wrong idea about us, Laila," Jason said coldly to me after we were left alone.

"Wrong idea?" My voice cracked like ice. "What am I to you then?"

The silence stretched forever. When he finally spoke, each word found a new way to break my heart.

"I was just curious. About sleeping with you." Then he paused again before he continued. "Now that I've found my fated mate, you know how this should go. Everyone wants a fated mate."

Tears blurred my vision, but I'd be damned if I'd let them fall here. Not in front of him.

Just then, Brittany emerged from the house, having given us enough time for our "private conversation."

"Everything alright out here?" she asked, though her tone suggested she didn't really care. "Dinner's ready."

I spun around and ran. I couldn't stand to look at either of them for another second. Behind me, I heard Brittany ask Jason what we were talking about.

"Nothing important," came his answer.

I made it to the tree line before the sobs started. Ugly, body-shaking tears that felt like they'd tear me apart. I pressed my back against an old oak and slid down to the dirt.

Curiosity. That's all I'd been. A damn experiment.

After I cried myself empty, I sat there in the mud and dirt and made my decision.

I should leave tonight with my child.

Pack law said all individuals could leave when they turned eighteen. I'd always heard stories of people leaving their packs after eighteen years old and starting over in the human world. They said there was a much bigger and freer world out there.

As a wolfless, I thought maybe I'd actually fit in the human world. I had planned to tell Jason how I felt about him on my eighteenth birthday and leave the next morning after he rejected me.

Instead, he surprised me with a kiss. For the first time in my life, I felt like I mattered. Like I actually belonged somewhere. So I stayed.

Now he surprised me with his fated mate, making it clear that my place wasn't with him.

It was time to leave.

But first, I owed the Alpha and Luna a proper goodbye. Jason's parents had been decent to me. They deserved better than me just disappearing like smoke.

I wiped my face and trudged back toward the house.

When I rounded the corner, I stopped dead. All my stuff was scattered across the front lawn like trash. My clothes, my books, even my pillow.

Brittany stood in the doorway with her arms crossed. Looking pleased with herself.

"What the hell is this?"

"Oh, sorry honey, but I already talked to Jason about what happened between you two," she said with the smuggest smile I'd ever seen. "I figured it's best if you leave."

My hands balled into fists. "I just want to say goodbye to the Alpha and Luna."

"I don't think so." She stepped outside and slammed the door behind her. "They're busy. Wedding planning and all that."

"They'll want to see me."

"Actually, they don't care about you wolfless human at all." Her smile turned mean. "Jason's decision. The whole family thinks it's time for you to disappear. Far away. The farther the better."

Ice water ran through my veins.

I looked at my stuff scattered everywhere.

I put my hand in my pocket, fiddling with the pregnancy test that was still hidden away. A secret I'd carry to my grave.

"Fine." I said it so quietly I barely heard myself.

I started shoving my stuff into the old duffel bag. The same one I'd arrived with eleven years ago. "I'll go."

When I finished packing up the pieces of my life, I stood, shouldering the bag.

One last look at the house that had never really been home. One last look at the man who'd never really been mine.

"Goodbye," I whispered.

I walked away with nothing but my broken heart. And the secret growing inside me.

The secret that was going to change everything six years later.