The walk back to the main villa was humiliating, but the cold pavement felt better than those shoes.

When I entered the Crawford living room, the scene 'was a tableau painted specifically to break me.'

Damian was there. Not at the border. Not even hiding it.

He sat on the plush velvet sofa, arm draped possessively over the back. Next to him sat Hadley, giggling as she held up her wrist.

Cecil, Damian's mother, was clasping a bracelet onto Hadley's arm.

I froze.

'The Moonlight Bracelet. The Crawford heirloom. It was supposed to be mine.'

"Oh, look who decided to show up," Cecil sneered, not looking up. "The maid finally finished cleaning the ceremony hall?"

Damian looked up. His amber eyes swept over my disheveled appearance. 'No guilt. Only annoyance.'

"You're late," he said, a low rumble. "I told you to wait at the hall until I sent for you."

"You canceled the ceremony," I said. 'My voice was dead.'

"Plans changed," he shrugged. "Hadley was frightened by a rogue sighting. A Luna's duty is to comfort the pack, but since you can't even shift to defend yourself, Hadley needed a real Alpha's protection."

Hadley looked at me, eyes feigning innocence. "I'm so sorry, Ariana. I just get such bad anxiety since... since I saved Damian from that fire. The trauma, you know?"

She waved her hand, the moonlight bracelet catching the light.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Hadley cooed. "Cecil said it fits me perfectly. Better than it would fit someone with... rougher skin."

She meant me. My hands were calloused from chopping herbs for Damian's medicine and scrubbing floors.

I walked forward.

Cecil stood up, blocking my path. "Don't get any ideas, you little leech. This bracelet is for a wolf with noble blood. Not a defect who smells like dishwater."

I didn't look at Cecil. I looked at Damian.

"You gave her the bracelet," I stated.

Damian stood up, his Alpha aura flaring. 'He was trying to use the biological pressure of his rank to force me into submission.' Usually, my knees would buckle.

Tonight, I just felt a mild headache.

"She deserves it," Damian said. "Hadley is delicate. She is high-born. And she is my savior. What are you, Ariana? You're a charity case."

He stepped closer, looming over me.

"Look at you," he sneered. "You're a mess. You're weak. How can I have you stand beside me as Luna? The other Alphas would laugh."

"So you're rejecting the contract?" I asked.

"I'm postponing it," he corrected, 'arrogance dripping from every syllable.' "Until you learn how to behave. Until you learn your place. Maybe if you work harder, if you serve Hadley and learn from a 'real' high-ranking female, I'll reconsider."

'He wanted me to stay as a servant, a spare blood bag, while he played house with Hadley.'

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the crumpled Mating Contract.

"You don't have to reconsider," I said.

I ripped the paper in half.

'The sound was a gunshot in the quiet room.'

Damian's eyes widened. Cecil gasped.

I ripped it again. And again. Until the legal document was nothing but confetti.

I threw the pieces in his face.

"I'm done," I said.

'The air shifted. A low hum vibrated from my chest. Not a growl-I couldn't growl properly-but the sound of pressure building.'

The Alpha aura Damian was projecting hit a wall. 'My' wall.

Damian stumbled back, hand going to his chest. He looked at me, confusion warring with anger.

"What did you just do?" he demanded, reaching for my arm.

"Don't touch me," I said.

I didn't shout. 'I spoke with the absolute authority of a bloodline he couldn't comprehend.'

He froze. His hand hovered inches from my skin, his wolf instinctively recoiling.

"You're acting like a child," Damian scoffed, recovering his composure. "Where will you go? You have no money. No pack. You're an Omega without a wolf. You'll die within a day."

"I'd rather die free than live as your slave," I replied.

I turned to Hadley.

"Enjoy the bracelet, Hadley," I said, a cold smile touching my lips. "It's a fake, anyway. Just like you."

"You b'tch!" Cecil screeched, raising her hand.

I caught her wrist mid-air. 'My grip was iron.'

"I wouldn't do that," I whispered. "I'm not the girl who begs for scraps anymore."

I shoved Cecil back onto the sofa.

"Go comfort your fake mate, Damian," I said, turning my back. "She looks like she's about to faint from the lack of attention."

I walked out, leaving the Alpha of the Crawford Pack staring at my back, wondering why his command hadn't made me kneel.

My room wasn't in the main hallway. It was down a narrow flight of stairs, near the kitchen-the servants' quarters.

I opened the door, expecting my few belongings.

The room was empty.

'Closet open. Drawers hollow.'

"No."

I ran back out and collided with a maid carrying laundry.

"Where are my things?" I demanded.

"Madam Cecil..." the maid whispered, looking around fearfully. "She ordered them cleared out. She said... trash belongs in the dumpster."

'My mother's photo. The only thing I had left.'

I sprinted toward the back exit, to the industrial dumpsters.

There, spilling out of the green metal bin, were my clothes. Covered in coffee grounds and slime.

And there, lying in a puddle of grease, was the silver frame. 'Glass shattered. Photo soaked, my mother's smile distorted by oil.'

I fell to my knees, snatching the photo up, trying to wipe it clean, but the grease just smeared.

"Mom," I choked out. A sob ripped through my throat.

"Pathetic."

I froze.

Damian stood on the patio steps. Cecil stood beside him, smirking.

"I told you," Cecil said. "I'm redecorating. We need the room for Hadley's shoes. We can't have clutter."

"Clutter?" I stood up, clutching the ruined photo. "This was my life!"

"Your life is what we say it is!" Cecil snapped. "We fed you! We clothed you!"

"I saved his life!" I screamed, pointing at Damian.

"Enough of that lie!" Damian roared. 'His Alpha Voice hit me like a physical blow.'

I stumbled back. My heel caught on a crack.

I fell hard.

The back of my cheap dress snagged on the sharp metal edge of the dumpster.

'RRRIIIP.'

'Fabric tore. My back was exposed to the night air.'

For a second, silence.

Then, Hadley screamed. "Oh my god! What is that?"

I scrambled to cover myself, but it was too late.

The moonlight shone directly on my back.

'It wasn't a normal burn scar. It was a roadmap of agony. The claws of the rogue had been dipped in dark magic poison. The flesh was twisted, purple and black, a raised, grotesque web covering my spine.'

It pulsed with a faint, necrotic energy. The mark of my sacrifice.

Cecil recoiled. "It's hideous! You're a monster!"

"A cursed mark," Hadley whimpered, burying her face in Damian's chest. "Damian, don't look! It's bad luck!"

I looked at Damian. I waited for him to defend me. To recognize the wound I took for him.

Damian stared at my back. His expression twisted.

'He looked nauseated.'

"Cover yourself," he muttered, turning away. "It's repulsive."

The words hit harder than the poison.

'Repulsive.'

"It's... it's a mark of honor!"

The voice came from the shadows. Keith, a perimeter guard, stepped forward.

"Alpha, please," Keith said, shaking. "She got that scar pulling you from the West Wing. I saw the medical report-"

"Silence!" Damian barked. "Are you questioning your Alpha? Or are you sleeping with this... thing?"

Keith went pale. "No, Alpha. But-"

"Get out of my sight, Ariana," Damian spat. "You're polluting the air. And take your trash with you."

I pulled the torn fabric together.

'The shame was a cold fire. But beneath it, the White Wolf stirred.'

"I'm leaving," I said hollowly. "But I'm taking Rodriguez."

Rodriguez. The old gardener. My adoptive father. The only person who loved me.

"Fine," Damian waved his hand. "Take the old cripple. One less mouth to feed."

I walked away. I didn't look back. 'I couldn't let them see the tears. Or the hatred.'

I found Rodriguez in his small room. He was packing, hands trembling.

"Lia," he wheezed. "I heard shouting."

"We're leaving, Papa," I said, grabbing an old oversized coat from a hook-Keith's coat-to cover my back. "Now."

"Where will we go?" he asked, coughing.

"Away."

I helped him up. 'He was light as a bird. Pack neglect had withered him away.'

We made our way to the courtyard. I had an old sedan, a rusted piece of junk.

I helped Rodriguez into the passenger seat. He was pale, sweating profusely.

"My chest..." he gasped, clutching his heart.

"Hold on, Papa."

I ran to the driver's side.

Damian was there. Leaning against the hood.

"Going somewhere?"

"Move, Damian," I said, panic rising. "Rodriguez is having a heart attack. I need to get him to a doctor."

Damian looked into the car. 'Zero concern.'

"That jacket," Damian said. "That's Keith's."

"I'm cold! My dress is torn!"

"Take it off," Damian commanded. 'His eyes darkened with twisted, possessive jealousy.' "You smell like another male. It's disgusting."

"Are you insane? He's dying!"

"Take. It. Off."

I ripped the jacket off and threw it on the ground, standing shivering, back exposed.

"Happy? Now get off my car."

Damian didn't move. He dangled my keys in front of my face.

"Hadley is shaken by your display," he said casually. "She needs a vehicle to go shopping tomorrow. She likes the vintage look of this scrap heap."

"You have ten luxury cars! Give me my keys!"

"No."

He threw the keys.

'They sailed through the air and landed with a 'plop' in the ornamental fountain.'

The water was black, filled with algae and sludge.

"If you want to leave," Cecil called from the porch, wine glass in hand, "you can swim for it."

Rodriguez groaned. His head slumped.

"Papa!"

I jumped into the fountain.

'Freezing. Stench of rot.' I gagged, wading through waist-deep sludge, feeling the bottom.

"Look at her," Cecil laughed. "A sewer rat in her natural habitat."

I found the keys. I waded out, dripping filth.

I ran to the car. "I got them, Papa!"

I jammed the key into the ignition.

Nothing.

I looked out the window.

Cecil stood there with a kitchen knife. She had slashed all four tires.

"Oops," she smiled. "Looks like you're stuck."

'My world stopped spinning.'

"Please," I begged, falling to my knees in front of Damian. 'Dignity was gone.' "Please. Use your car. Take him to the hospital. I'll be your slave. I'll never leave. Just save him!"

Damian looked down at me. Slime-covered, bleeding, crying.

"You should have thought of that before you embarrassed me," he said.

"He's dying!"

"Everyone dies, Ariana."

From the car, a long, rattling exhale.

Then... silence.

I scrambled to the passenger seat.

"Papa?"

I shook him. 'Dead weight.'

I placed my hand on his chest. Stillness.

I tried to push my 'Vitality' into him. I screamed internally for the White Wolf power.

'But I was drained. I had given it all to Damian.'

Rodriguez was dead.

I turned around.

Damian checked his watch. "Well, problem solved. No need for the hospital now."

'Something inside me snapped. Not a sound, but the breaking of the final chain.'

The White Wolf woke up. And she was screaming for blood.