SUGAR AND SIN

ck, I found myself ensnared in the

guished cries of my kin. My brother’s was particularly pronounced. It was a desperate

my sprints became more frantic as I bolted

a decrepit room, cluttered with forgotten relics and shrouded in shadows that danced in the dim light filtering through cracked windows. This w

hter of the gamma—tended to her roses with a fervor matched only

on the job, why didn’t you admit it so my fat

hausted,”

own you. You should have be dead, but my father chose to spare you and make you his

a life of chains over death— but I

your wickedness, and you have the effrontery to call the go

you say,

ck me repeatedly with her watering

e, you’ll regret

n the job. Nothing particularly strenuous happened last night, right? You yourself claimed that slaving away is all y

t wise to swallow my retort, I lo

ree, I labored. The demands of my duties were a cons

own insecurities and resentments, reveled in their constant bullying. As I trudged through the castl

ed ch

s so

nd why we have to

entered the mix, another vicious onslaught of humiliation that stain

at I was a solitary figure in a world where alliances w

called home. The weight of the day’s labor hung like a leaden shroud around my shoulders.

my meager dinner as it was callously thrown to the ground by my peers. Their accusations cut through

was coated in a thin film of dirt—a cruel reminder of my status within the pack. Ignoring the laughter

a time long gone, a memory etched in sepia tones. In it, we were a family: my mother, my brother, and I,

t fateful day, to the chaos and carnage that tore my world asunder. We w

ed with the pack. But salvation came at a cost—a price paid in

pest that ravaged the fragile remnants of our shattered family. Consumed by his longing for those lost to us, h

s a solitary survivor in a broken world. I was a

rld. In the absence of Beta, many were exposed to the onslaught of our enemies. Each day brought with it a new wave of devast

death that had cost them so much. Whispers of condemnation became a second skin, fueled by

om the ranks of the privileged and relegated to the lowest rung of our hierarchical society. Stripped of my id

nd respite from the suffocating confines of my reality. But as fate would have it, my attempt at solitude was thwarte

n place. It hit home hard that I was a silent

than I care to admit,” I heard the man say mid-sentence. Was it my i

ite for you to let the relationship progress naturally instead of speaking impulsively like a horm

wanting to express that y

too

uilty for eavesdropping, but I couldn’t

mplex kind of werewolf th

ha

to kis

ink that’s a

ead. His gaze was affectiona

gainst my cheeks a

nging. It was a silent need for the dawn of my eighteenth birthday

d with it, the promise of protect