All Chapters of From Cast-Off Daughter to Lycan Queen: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The door of Alpha Nero's office was heavier than I remembered, and it took everything in me not to let my hand shake against it before I pushed it open.They were all there. Alpha Nero behind his desk, Luna Amanda standing at his shoulder like a portrait carved from ice. My three brothers lined along the far wall — Jared in front, arms crossed, already wearing the expression he used when he'd decided to be “reasonable.” Behind him, Marcus and the youngest, and I could already tell which one of them was going to enjoy this. My parents near the window. And Emilia, folded into Michael's chest, crying like she'd rehearsed it in the mirror on the drive over.Nobody offered me a chair.My eyes caught on the door in the corner — the one that led down to the cellar. Even from here, I could smell the damp stone seeping through the cracks. My stomach turned.“Raven.” Alpha Nero's voice was careful, diplomatic. “We understand this is difficult for you. But you need to let your sister take your pl

Julian Perspective I hadn't been able to get her out of my head since the moment I saw her standing on that miserable stretch of road, soaked to the bone and burning with quiet fury. It grated on me in a way I couldn't shake — she was promised to the future heir of this pack, completely off-limits, and I had no business wasting a single thought on her. But something in her spirit had locked onto my wolf the second she climbed into my car, and it wasn't attraction. Attraction I could have out-waited. This was recognition — the kind the old stories warned about, the kind that didn't ask permission and didn't particularly care who she already belonged to. I told myself bonds didn't work twice, not for a woman three days from binding herself to someone else. I told myself a great many things that week. None of them made my wolf let go of her.And try as I might, she was nowhere to be found.The pre-dinner celebration was a carbon copy of every exhausting pack gathering I'd ever endured: r

The doors to the main hall opened, and there I was — carried in Julian's arms, barely conscious, pain still burning through my veins like liquid fire from whatever had torn through me in that cellar. It hadn't faded. If anything, every jolt of movement made it worse, a low continuous burn beneath everything else happening in that room.My sister stood at the center of it all, wrapped around Michael, her head resting on his shoulder. They turned together to face the doors.A guard stepped forward before either of them could speak. “You should put her down. This is pack business.”Julian's arms tightened around me instead of loosening. “Take one more step and find out what happens.” His voice was quiet. The guard didn't move again.Alpha Damon's voice came down like thunder. “Someone will explain to me,” he said, “why a ceremony scheduled for three days from now was rushed to one — and why the Luna standing at that altar isn't the woman whose name I heard announced as the bride.” His eye

The betrayal had hollowed me out, leaving nothing but a numb shell wrapped around a wound that wouldn't stop bleeding. Julian kept me close in the back seat while Uncle Damon drove us back toward the capital — back to Ashcroft territory. I was sweating through a fever that somehow still chilled me to the bone, but underneath the pain, something kept tugging at my thoughts, refusing to let me rest.Why had they fought so hard to keep me from leaving? Why?I had no power. No secrets. Nothing that could threaten their perfect, curated life. Even as the eldest daughter of the Beta, I'd been the discarded one — practically an omega in every way that mattered. So why did it matter so much to them whether I stayed or went?I remembered something my mother had said once, years ago, when she thought I wasn't listening: “She can't leave. Not yet. Not until—” But she'd stopped herself, noticed me in the doorway, and never finished the sentence. At the time, I'd assumed she meant I wasn't good eno

Five days after I woke, Selina finally agreed I was well enough to leave the healing ward — though not without one last negotiation.“You know what I want to hear,” she said, arms crossed, blocking the doorway the same way she had for the past three days.I gritted my teeth. “This is ridiculous.”“Say it, or you're staying another week.” She wasn't bluffing. I could see it in the set of her jaw.“Fine. Big sis.” The words tasted like defeat.“With feeling.”“Don't push it, Selina.”She grinned, victorious, but something shifted in her expression — softer, almost wistful. “You know, I had a younger sister once. She never called me that either.” The words hung in the air for a moment before she shook her head, the brightness returning to her face. “Daily check-ups. Non-negotiable. Your wolf is still—”“I know what my wolf is.” The snap came out harsher than I meant it to. Selina's expression softened again, and somehow that was worse than her teasing.“Fine,” she said, stepping aside at