Back home, I showered and patched up the cut.

Then I noticed Alpha Lucian was back, too.

He looked pissed.

I put it together. "Vanessa got in a fight with you?"

"Luna Ashvale!"

His voice was a low growl as he stormed over, grabbing my wrist and pinning me against the edge of the bed.

I tried to push him off, but Alpha Lucian's strength was no match for mine.

The lamp flickered, the light stinging my eyes. I squeezed them shut, but tears leaked out anyway.

He paused for a moment, then grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. "Crying? Feeling sorry for yourself?"

"Luna Ashvale, didn't you say you loved me? That you'd do anything to stay by my side, no matter what?"

His kiss was brutal, rough enough to draw blood, the metallic taste flooding my mouth.

Alpha Lucian barked, "You forgot everything I taught you? Close your eyes."

"Your eyes-they're the least like hers."

His movements weren't gentle, and the pain intensified.

In a moment of panic, I opened my eyes and caught his gaze-dark, stormy, like he was venting something.

It hit me.

I'd upset Vanessa, and Alpha Lucian was punishing me.

Humiliation swallowed me whole. My mind drifted to the past.

When we met, I was a broke college pup, scraping by.

He was the high-and-mighty Alpha Lucian.

I was working at a bar, and he got plastered, saw my face, and lost it.

"Don't you dare walk around with a face like hers, doing something this low-class!"

Later, when my grandma-the only family I had-got sick, I borrowed from every loan shark I could find. Still came up three hundred grand short.

For that money, I sold myself to Alpha Lucian.

Threw myself at him.

The price? He wouldn't let me keep studying for my master's.

"A stand-in needs to know her place."

His voice was flat, deciding my future in a few words.

"You say you love me, right? Then stay by my side for three years. Don't go anywhere."

Vanessa had left him to study abroad.

Alpha Lucian wasn't about to let that happen again.

From that day, my dream of a career in research became a pipe dream.

Grandma didn't make it through the complications after surgery. She held on for six months, then she was gone.

I was a wreck, sitting at her grave all night.

In the middle of the night, it started drizzling.

An umbrella appeared over my head.

Alpha Lucian.

He looked down at me, his voice softer than usual. "How long you planning to stay out here? I'll wait with you."

We were together three years.

I took care of him like my life depended on it.

In rare moments, there'd be a flicker of warmth between us.

But deep down, I knew Alpha Lucian looked down on me.

Another time, I went to pick him up from a night out with his rich buddies. They blocked me, sizing me up with smirks.

"She does kinda look like Vanessa-heard she's some brainiac from Tech U, even worked on patent projects?"

"No way. Yo, genius, show us how you do your science stuff. Put on a little performance."

I dug my nails into my palms, staring them down. "Science isn't a party trick."

The guy leading the pack sneered. "Oh, please. You talk about research, but you're just here to cash in, aren't you?"

A bottle got shoved in front of me. "Not feeling it? Fine, drink. Finish this, and Alpha Lucian's all yours."

Alpha Lucian just lounged on the couch, twirling his lighter, watching me.

Maybe it was the booze, but his usual cold stare softened, lips curling slightly, eyes lazy.

"Go on, drink. Show 'em what you've got."

I went quiet for a second, then asked, "If Vanessa was standing here, would you make her drink, too?"

That set him off.

He snatched the glass and smashed it against me. "Who the hell are you to compare yourself to her?"

"She's not some sellout who'd trade herself for three hundred grand."

I blinked back stinging tears, picked up the glass rolling on the floor, and muttered, "Fine. I'll drink."

Poor wolves' lives are cheap. Dignity's worth even less.

I took his three hundred grand.

This was my price to pay.

Before Vanessa left the pack, she was already a red-hot A-list actress.

Now, back with an extra layer of Hollywood shine, she was drowning in movie offers.

She called Alpha Lucian one day, saying she'd just returned and needed a solid assistant.

"That Luna Ashvale she-wolf you've got seems like she knows how to play the part."

Alpha Lucian went quiet for a beat.

She let out a soft laugh. "What? Can't bear to let her go?"

"Nah."

His voice was flat. "If you need her, I'll send her over."

So, I ended up trailing Vanessa on a film set.

During a break, the supporting actress, Lilith, strolled over to stir the pot. "Vanessa, your assistant's got a vibe kinda like yours."

"Except for the eyes. That little mole under hers? Makes her look, I dunno, almost classier than you."

Lilith was supposed to be the lead in this flick until Vanessa swooped in and snatched the role.

She was salty about it.

Saying that was just her way of getting under Vanessa's skin.

Sure enough, Vanessa's face twisted, her glare at me dripping with barely veiled hate.

After wrap that afternoon, she claimed her ring was missing.

"It was on during that lakeside scene. Must've slipped off in the water."

Her eyes scanned the room before landing on me. "Luna Ashvale, go fish it out of the lake."

The man-made lake wasn't deep, just up to my waist.

I waded in, bending over, sifting through the slimy muck at the bottom.

The sunset bled red across the horizon.

As night crept in, the light faded inch by inch.

Everyone knew Vanessa was screwing with me. They all stood on the shore, watching, not saying a word.

Nobody was gonna stick up for some no-name assistant.

My fingers, pruned and pale from the icy water, came up caked in mud that slid off in clumps.

Suddenly, I was back in college, holed up in the lab, working on my senior project.

Hands clean and dry, handling test tubes, petri dishes, slides. Observing results, jotting down data.

My advisor and senior lab partner always said I had a gift, that I'd go far in research.

But life doesn't give regular wolves like me a break.

One little ripple can wipe out everything.

Three years had passed, but that life felt like it belonged to someone else.

Finally, when it was pitch dark, the stylist piped up. "Vanessa, found your ring. It was on the makeup table."

"Guess I left it there by mistake."

Vanessa took the ring and tossed it into her Hermès bag without a second thought.

"Come on up, Luna Ashvale. Get yourself cleaned up. Don't make it look like I'm picking on you."

After wrap, Alpha Lucian was coming to pick her up.

I sat, soaked to the bone, under a few pear trees just off the set.

No idea how long I was there before that sleek black Rolls-Royce pulled back around.

Alpha Lucian got out and walked over. "Go home and change."

I didn't look up.

His tone softened a touch. "Don't be mad at Vanessa. She's just in a mood. She'll get over it."

When I didn't answer, his patience ran dry. "That's enough, Luna Ashvale. Who're you sulking at?"

I sniffed, choking back tears, and tilted my head to meet his eyes.

"Alpha Lucian, it's been three years. Vanessa's back now."

"Let me go."

His expression shifted. "Go where?"

I grabbed my canvas bag and pulled out a document.

"I applied to a top grad school abroad for science. They sent me an acceptance letter."

Before I could finish, Alpha Lucian snatched the papers and tore them to shreds.

He grabbed my dripping wrist and shoved me into the car.

His warm hand pressed against my freezing arm, heat seeping through.

In the dim glow of the car's interior, his stare was ice-cold.

"Don't even think about it. You're not going anywhere."

"Luna Ashvale, you're my mate."

After that day, I didn't go back to the set.

Alpha Lucian found Vanessa a new assistant and stuck me in his company as his personal one.

"From now on, you're with me."

He toyed with a fountain pen, glancing up at me, his voice easing up a bit.

"That day on set, Lilith was stirring crap between you and Vanessa on purpose. I made some calls-nobody's hiring her for gigs anymore."

I just stared blankly, not saying a word, and his face hardened.

"Don't push it, Luna Ashvale," he warned.

Was I the one pushing it?

Lilith was just pissed about losing her role and took a couple cheap shots at Vanessa.

We both knew who the real problem was.

But because I'd pissed him off that day, he didn't care that I was drenched and shivering. He dragged things out in that car, messing with me for ages.

I'd been running a low-grade fever ever since.

Popping meds left me groggy, too wiped to argue.

I just dipped my head. "Got it."

That evening, after Vanessa wrapped, I drove Alpha Lucian to meet her for dinner.

The second she saw me, her voice was like frost. "Alpha Lucian, I'm not here to fight, so don't bring something that'll ruin my mood."

Alpha Lucian glanced at me. "Wait in the car."

I nodded and walked off.

My phone pinged with an email from the grad school professor.

"Luna Ashvale, your acceptance letter's been mailed. When can you start? I reviewed your résumé and secured you the max scholarship. I'm thrilled to mentor a student as talented and driven as you."

I cupped my hands in the air, like I could catch the pieces of that letter Alpha Lucian had ripped up and thrown away.

That night, Alpha Lucian didn't come home.

He texted me: "Dropping Vanessa off. Don't wait up."

"Staying over at her place?" I typed back.

His reply was blunt. "Luna Ashvale, that's none of your business."

I drove out to the cemetery in the suburbs.

Grandma's been buried there for over two years.

The photo on her headstone was taken when she was on her deathbed.

She was so sick back then.

All the money she'd scrimped and saved, all the cash I'd swallowed my pride to borrow from teachers and classmates-it still wasn't enough. We were three hundred grand short.

To Alpha Lucian, that was pocket change, the cost of a night of drinks with his buddies or a designer bag for some fling.

To me, it was an impossible gap.

After her surgery, Grandma held my hand, telling me over and over: just because that money was nothing to Alpha Lucian didn't mean we could treat it lightly.

So for three years, I did everything he asked, no matter how ridiculous.

"But am I supposed to keep wasting the rest of my life here? My dreams, my ambitions?"

The cemetery was dead quiet, just the wind and crickets.

Grandma's face on the headstone stared back, silent.

She'd never answer me again.