The wolfless girl who took her stepsister's blame returns: I demand what's rightfully mine

ra

ility groaned open,five years of darkness. To

had worn on the day of my sentencing hung loose on my frame

rom my left leg-a remnant of old fractures and

my five-year exile met the clean, dark asphalt of the Va

thirty feet away. A deliberate act. The spray of muddy water t

ce was all sharp angles and cold precision,

ance.My

t lingered there for a beat t

, and you still know

art seized, a sharp and unexpected pain lancing throu

rogue orphanage and onto their territory-their long-los

I had stayed up late to leave meals outside his study when he worked through the night. I had learned to read his silences, to an

k Council and swearing an oath that I had attacked Olivia Sterling with f

girl who didn't have a drop of Vance blood in her veins. I suffered five year

nd his first words

oked past Ethan as if he were a stranger. Then

tiffened. I ha

e to close the distance.I'd look at him with eyes full of hope, a

agined I would be grateful. He had pictured my face crumbling with relief, maybe tears, maybe tha

repared for the

of the deference that had once defined me-lit a fire in his chest that

in th

by his own loss of control, and forced his voice into something approach

r. Fa

s in my mouth, shapes my tong

un gentle claws through my hair, a father whose growl would war

for me, I thought the Moon ha

r of the pack's former Beta, She was adopted by my parents when she was still a baby. She was raise

arents. They were

st who didn't kn

weight of their indifference. I had no de

ot stop

ision. He threw the car door open. His boots hit the ground. In three strides-Alpha blood singing in his veins, propel

lightning tore through my ruined knee, and for a moment my v

ing flickered behind his eyes-too fast to name, t

broken wolf. Some t

ve years wipes the blood from your hands.Olivia is still breathing through

ropped, hardening in

a an apology. Get in th

a sharp and unexpected pain lancing through th

one to push Ivy. It was Isabelle who slandered me with tears in her eyes, misleading everyone.That the wh

one

h of the matter at all. They simply chose to believe I

ilty of thinking I could earn what should have been mine by birt

d. Goddess,

their names would never reach my ears again. I would never co

grip-a slow, deliberate e

is mind flooded with images of the old me-the girl who used to shadow his steps, eager for a crumb of ac

emper into submis

e ground. My face wa

an felt his control splinter. Five years in a cage, an

uth-to say what,

la

hind me. Smooth. Warm.

heart, a dead thing in my che

didn't need

Ha