I broke three ribs getting out of that hellhole of cell.

The first thing I did when I stumbled into freedom? Signed a agreement for body research.

The guy behind the desk looked at me with pity swimming in his eyes.

"Emily, we're obligated to tell you this is a special body research.

"Your body will be used to test a new silver nitrate corrosive agent-specifically brewed to dissolve lycanthropic cells. By dawn, not even a sliver of your wolf bones will remain."

I pressed a palm to my aching ribs, the cracked bones-still hot with leftover lycanthropic fire-making each syllable drag like claws on stone. I forced a smile, twisted as a snarl. "Couldn't dream up a finer fate."

I didn't have much time left anyway. Might as well do something for the great pack.

My medical chart howled the truth in jagged, blood-red letters: Lycan Atrophy Syndrome.

Most wolves know it as LAS, the rotting curse

. I drew the short straw-complications ignited a silver-induced lung infection.

A month, tops, is what the pack healers grunted.​

The guy's eyes softened, pupils slitting slightly like he smelled my fading wolf scent. "Thank you for feeding the pack's silver research. This coin's a paltry offering. Take it."

My claws twitched uncontrollably as I reached for the coins.

I planned to drop every cent at the pup shelter, slip past the pack's burial stones one last time to nuzzle Kathleen's grave, then let the rot take me.​

I staggered out, and three wolves materialized from the tree shadows, hackles raised.​

"There's the runt!" one snarled, fangs glinting.​

"Thought you could slink away? We'll jam silver rods in your veins 'til you whimper like a cub!" another snapped.​

My fur prickled under my skin, chest heaving with wolfish panic.

The silver shock collars they'd used flashed in my head-my body folded in on itself, twitching, as I crashed into the enforcers' den.

I was moving too fast, too desperate.

I slammed right into someone, my coins scattering across the floor like dead leaves. The chest I crashed into was solid as stone, leaving me dizzy.

Amid the chaos of snarls and yelps, a familiar, frost-bitten scent hit me.​

Then his voice sliced through the noise. "Emily."​

My wolf blood slowing to a crawl in my veins.

Six years since I'd last seen him, and Damian Wolfe looked even more like the untouchable alpha he'd become. His sharp, elegant features were colder now, his eyes carrying that same distant chill.

But the way he looked at me?

That was new.

Pure disgust, laced with hate.

My heart twisted so hard I thought it'd snap.

Tears scalded my eyes, steam curling off them as my wolf heat spiked.

"Damian," I breathed, the word a whimper.​

The wolves at my heels skidded to a halt, their hackles flattening-alpha pheromones hitting them like a physical blow.​

Damian's stare pinned me, his scent sharpened to a warning.

"Who granted you leave to pollute pack lands?"​

I bowed my head, throat tight.

He couldn't smell the stench of my broken wolf spirit.

That pampered pup had locked me away, let them carve obedience into my bones with shock and silver.

His eyes flicked to the wolves behind me, then to the cash strewn across the ground.

One of them lunged forward, jabbing a finger.

"Damian, this rogue filched our pack funds!"​

Damian's laugh rumbled, cold as a winter hunt.

"Emily, reduced to scavenging? How the mighty wolf has fallen."​

I clamped my spasming hand to my side, wolfish panic coiling in my gut-desperate to deny it, but my tongue felt glued to my teeth.

No, no, that money was mine, blood payment for my soon-to-be-sacrificed body.

But the words stayed trapped, choked by the scars on my vocal cords.​

"Damian," a voice purred, rich with omega sweetness.​

A she-wolf slithered closer, her scent cloying with mating pheromones as she looped her arm through his.

Her eyes widened, feigning shock, but her wolfish grin gave her away.

"Emily? You're still. alive?"

My blood turned to ice. Brielle Monroe.

The she-wolf who'd made my life a living nightmare.

Back then, when my parents' scents faded from the pack and grief gnawed at my wolf core, I flunked the moon rituals-ended up in that run-down feeder school, where half-breeds and strays got stuck.

That's when the torment sank its teeth in.​

They dumped wolfsbane in my locker, scrawled "rouge" on my uniform in silver ink, locked me in the bathroom during the full moon, listening to me whimper as my bones ached to shift.​

I spiraled into a fog, my lycanthropic spirit withering-and Brielle was the master of it all, her scent sharp with cruelty, the she-wolf whose snarls still haunt my nightmares.​

Until Damian found out.

He left his purebred academy, transferred to this dump, and unleashed his alpha fury on every last one of them. Brielle slunk away , and for the first time in months, I could draw a breath without tasting fear.

When the nightmares from the bullying clawed back, Damian would curl beside me.

"I'm here," he'd murmur, over and over, his palm pressed to mine-our heartbeats syncing, steadying, guiding my fractured wolf spirit back to calm.​

Ten years ago, under the blood moon, we bared our souls.

Seven years ago, we surrendered to the primal pull, our scents melding into one.

Six years ago, we stood before the pack elders, vowing to bind our fates-swearing the sacred oath to be true mates, forever.​

Six years ago, I let the flames take Kathleen Wolfe, his sister.

The bond snapped, love curdling into venom.​

And now, the wolf whose scent is etched into my very bones stands shoulder to shoulder with the she-wolf I loathe as mates.

"Sorry, Damian, didn't mean this rogue to sour your hunt. We'll drag her to the outskirts!"

one of the wolves snarled, his tone laced with the snappish deference of a lower-ranked pack member as he lunged.

Before I could flinch, he seized a fistful of my hair, yanking so hard my skull felt ready to split.​

"You mangy thief! Swiped pack funds and thought you could slink off? Your kind doesn't get to run!" he roared, fangs flashing in a wolfish snarl.​

I yelped, a sound half-human, half-wolf, as pain lanced through my scalp.

I stumbled backward, hitting the ground hard enough to rattle my ribs, my arm scraping across the rough pavement-blood welling, hot and metallic.​

"Let me go! That's my blood money!"

I shouted, voice cracking into a whimper.

"Pfft! You, with pack coin like that? Don't make me howl!" he spat.​

I tried to twist away, but he clamped a hand on the back of my neck, thumb digging into the pressure point. It was My body locked up, trembling so hard my vision blurred.

That grip, that claim. it mirrored the hold the orderlies used before jabbing me with wolfsbane serum in the hospital.

My lycanthropic nerves had learned to kneel, conditioned to shut down at the first sign of subjugation.

The wolf, nostrils flaring at my submissive stillness, began hauling me off by the scruf,like he'd snared a weak fawn.

The thought of returning to that cage-those iron-barred walls reeking of wolfsbane, the endless jolts of silver-infused electricity-sent a whimper bubbling up.

My eyes glazed over, body going slack as a pup who'd given up, my wolf spirit retreating into a hollow corner.​

"Enough."

Damian's voice sliced through the air.

Damian fished a leather pouch from his coat and flicked it-coins clinking like a dismissive growl.

"Take the tribute and scurry. Don't soil Wolfe land with your stench."​

Before I could catch my breath, Damian's grip closed around my wrist, yanking me into the pack office building. My chest screamed with pain from my broken ribs, my head spinning as he shoved me against a wall. His presence loomed over me, dangerous and suffocating.

"Emily," he growled, his voice dripping with venom. "All these years, and you're living like some mangy stray?"

My heart felt like it'd been stabbed, the pain sharp and immediate. His words came slow, deliberate, each one a blade. "This. Is. Your. Reckoning."

Those hate-filled eyes bored into me, and for a split second, I ached to howl the truth.

But I clamped my jaws shut. I'd sworn to Kathleen, vowed to let her cross to the afterlife with a pure spirit.​

Six years ago, under a blood-red moon, Kathleen and I were taken-thrown into a den of rogue wolves.

She'd planted herself in front of me, and let them drag her off instead.

When I found her again, her legs were shattered , her face marred beyond recognition.

I lit the den ablaze, the flames devouring their foul scents, and hoisted her onto my back, ready to flee into the woods.

But at the last moment, she caught my wrist, her scarred fingers trembling-wolf tears glistening in her eyes.

"Emily, get out. Live well." she'd whispered.

"I want to stay clean in the eyes of my mate, my brother."

She pushed me out and let the flames take her.

Kathleen wanted to stay pure.

Damian, the pack's golden wolf, deserved to stay pure too. I'd been through the filth of that place, marked by it. I wasn't fit to be his mate anymore. One of us being tainted was enough.

So when Damian found me, eyes red with grief, clutching me and begging, "Emily, where's Kathleen? Why didn't she make it out?"

I forced a smile, tears flooding my face.

"She's dead. They said only one of us could carry the pack's light. I chose to survive, so she had to fade."​

I'll never forget the snarl that ripped from his throat-shock sharpening his canine.

Kathleen's mate, his wolfish fury unchecked, backhanded me so hard my head snapped, the taste of copper bursting on my tongue.

Damian's hands locked onto my shoulders,his grip a punishment, a plea, a storm all at once.​

"Emily, tell me the truth! Let your wolf spirit howl it's a lie!"

But I gave him nothing. Just silence.

The Wolfe pack wanted me dead. Damian locked himself away for three days and nights, then handed me a one-way ticket out of the pack's lands. His voice was raw with hate as he said, "Never show your face to me again."

He asked his rich pup friend to make sure I left. What he didn't know was that his friend, to "avenge" him, locked me in a cell for Six years.

"Sorry, Damian, didn't mean this rogue to sour your hunt. We'll drag her to the outskirts!"

one of the wolves snarled, his tone laced with the snappish deference of a lower-ranked pack member as he lunged.

Before I could flinch, he seized a fistful of my hair, yanking so hard my skull felt ready to split.​

"You mangy thief! Swiped pack funds and thought you could slink off? Your kind doesn't get to run!" he roared, fangs flashing in a wolfish snarl.​

I yelped, a sound half-human, half-wolf, as pain lanced through my scalp.

I stumbled backward, hitting the ground hard enough to rattle my ribs, my arm scraping across the rough pavement-blood welling, hot and metallic.​

"Let me go! That's my blood money!"

I shouted, voice cracking into a whimper.

"Pfft! You, with pack coin like that? Don't make me howl!" he spat.​

I tried to twist away, but he clamped a hand on the back of my neck, thumb digging into the pressure point. It was My body locked up, trembling so hard my vision blurred.

That grip, that claim. it mirrored the hold the orderlies used before jabbing me with wolfsbane serum in the hospital.

My lycanthropic nerves had learned to kneel, conditioned to shut down at the first sign of subjugation.

The wolf, nostrils flaring at my submissive stillness, began hauling me off by the scruf,like he'd snared a weak fawn.

The thought of returning to that cage-those iron-barred walls reeking of wolfsbane, the endless jolts of silver-infused electricity-sent a whimper bubbling up.

My eyes glazed over, body going slack as a pup who'd given up, my wolf spirit retreating into a hollow corner.​

"Enough."

Damian's voice sliced through the air.

Damian fished a leather pouch from his coat and flicked it-coins clinking like a dismissive growl.

"Take the tribute and scurry. Don't soil Wolfe land with your stench."​

Before I could catch my breath, Damian's grip closed around my wrist, yanking me into the pack office building. My chest screamed with pain from my broken ribs, my head spinning as he shoved me against a wall. His presence loomed over me, dangerous and suffocating.

"Emily," he growled, his voice dripping with venom. "All these years, and you're living like some mangy stray?"

My heart felt like it'd been stabbed, the pain sharp and immediate. His words came slow, deliberate, each one a blade. "This. Is. Your. Reckoning."

Those hate-filled eyes bored into me, and for a split second, I ached to howl the truth.

But I clamped my jaws shut. I'd sworn to Kathleen, vowed to let her cross to the afterlife with a pure spirit.​

Six years ago, under a blood-red moon, Kathleen and I were taken-thrown into a den of rogue wolves.

She'd planted herself in front of me, and let them drag her off instead.

When I found her again, her legs were shattered , her face marred beyond recognition.

I lit the den ablaze, the flames devouring their foul scents, and hoisted her onto my back, ready to flee into the woods.

But at the last moment, she caught my wrist, her scarred fingers trembling-wolf tears glistening in her eyes.

"Emily, get out. Live well." she'd whispered.

"I want to stay clean in the eyes of my mate, my brother."

She pushed me out and let the flames take her.

Kathleen wanted to stay pure.

Damian, the pack's golden wolf, deserved to stay pure too. I'd been through the filth of that place, marked by it. I wasn't fit to be his mate anymore. One of us being tainted was enough.

So when Damian found me, eyes red with grief, clutching me and begging, "Emily, where's Kathleen? Why didn't she make it out?"

I forced a smile, tears flooding my face.

"She's dead. They said only one of us could carry the pack's light. I chose to survive, so she had to fade."​

I'll never forget the snarl that ripped from his throat-shock sharpening his canine.

Kathleen's mate, his wolfish fury unchecked, backhanded me so hard my head snapped, the taste of copper bursting on my tongue.

Damian's hands locked onto my shoulders,his grip a punishment, a plea, a storm all at once.​

"Emily, tell me the truth! Let your wolf spirit howl it's a lie!"

But I gave him nothing. Just silence.

The Wolfe pack wanted me dead. Damian locked himself away for three days and nights, then handed me a one-way ticket out of the pack's lands. His voice was raw with hate as he said, "Never show your face to me again."

He asked his rich pup friend to make sure I left. What he didn't know was that his friend, to "avenge" him, locked me in a cell for Six years.