The very next day, Alpha Aleron arrived at my side with his arm locked firmly around my waist, leading me through the wrought-iron gates of my parents’ mansion.
The estate, draped in silver banners and glowing lanterns, pulsed with pack energy as dozens of wolves gathered to welcome Liezel Duskthorn, the shining star, the Alpha’s favorite.
The moment we crossed the threshold, a familiar sickening scent hit me. A blend of dominance, perfume, and cruelty wrapped in polite smiles. Alpha Aleron’s friends, the same wolves who mocked me in hushed whispers and sidelong glances, nodded toward us as if they hadn’t laughed at me just weeks ago.
My body went rigid the moment Alpha Aleron leaned in and pressed a kiss to my temple.
“You must get along with everyone today, Elara,” he murmured against my skin, his voice deceptively soft.
“Don’t embarrass me.”
Then came her scent, honeysuckle laced with something darker.
Liezel Duskthorn
She descended the grand staircase like a goddess in heat, her crimson dress hugging every curve, deliberately chosen to remind the pack of her desirability.
And to humiliate me.
She looked like the Alpha female she always wanted to become. I stood there, wrapped in a plain forest-green dress, chosen for modesty and tradition.
“Sister! Elara!” she sang sweetly, taking my hands in hers. Her skin was cold.
Her eyes flicked to Alpha Aleron, my mate, before trailing back to me, her eyes filled with false warmth.
“Do you hate me, Elara? You’ve never called. You disappeared after all the love we gave you.”
I opened my mouth, but no words came.
“I’m sorry if I stole all of Mom and Dad’s love,” she continued, her lashes fluttering as if she were fragile prey.
“But love can’t be forced, can it? Mom’s heart is failing, and yet you’ve never visited her. How am I supposed to fix our broken bond if you keep running away?”
Her words were like poisoned honey, each sentence laced with venom designed to pierce deep. And she wasn’t even done.
“Elara doesn’t understand relationships,” Alpha Aleron interrupted smoothly, wrapping an arm around me like a leash.
“When I have time, I’ll take her to the estate so she can apologize properly.”
I stared at him in disbelief. He knew everything, how my birth family ignored me, how they locked me in a cellar when I first shifted late, how they treated me like a stray mutt while worshipping Liezel like a queen. Yet he still spoke as though I were the disgrace.
My heart sank.
I excused myself, teeth clenched, desperate for air. I barely reached the hallway before I heard the click of heels and the clink of glass.
“Well, if it isn’t my poor, pathetic sister,” Liezel’s voice cooed behind me.
I turned slowly as she strutted forward, swirling a glass of blood-red wine. Her eyes roamed over me from head to toe, settling on my modest dress with a smirk.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you raided your grandmother’s grave. That musty little thing looks ancient.”
My fists clenched at the mention of my grandmother, the only true family I ever had.
The grandmother who took me in, who cared for me when they tore me from the orphanage and brought me back to their so-called home.
But as I expected, Liezel didn’t stop.
“Tell me, how’s the old woman doing? Still rotting away in that rundown hospital bed? Must be heartbreaking. All that effort to raise you, only for you to abandon your real family.”
“Shut up!” I snapped, my voice cracking as I trembled.
I had worked myself to exhaustion, day after day in greasy kitchens and dangerous night shifts in pack-owned bars, just to afford her medication. No one knew those details.
Except Alpha Aleron Nightbane.
And now Liezel did too.
She leaned in, her lips curled into a cruel smile. “You told him everything, didn’t you? Your loyal little secrets. And he gave them to me like bedtime stories.”
She circled me like a predator, her scent growing sharper, more aggressive, dominant.
“My poor sister,” she mocked. “Your mate handed me the weapons to destroy you.”
I froze.
Nothing could’ve prepared me for what she said next.
“Why didn’t you die, Elara? You were supposed to stay lost. You were supposed to be forgotten. You took my place.”
“Stop it, Liezel,” I snarled, my voice lower now, vibrating with something beneath the surface. “You already have everything. Just leave me alone.”
She laughed, long, loud, and vicious.
“Everything?” she hissed.
“You think I have everything?”
Her eyes blazed, and for a moment, I saw the wolf in her—dark and hungry.
“You took Alpha Aleron. My Alpha Aleron Nightbane. We were always meant to be. You? You’re just the bedwarmer he settled for when I left. A pretty little mutt in heat.”
My heart pounded, the blood rushing in my ears. The hallway suddenly felt too small.
“I’ll have him back,” she whispered.
She raised her hand and let the wine glass fall. It shattered at my feet, crimson splattering like blood across the floor.
“Tonight, he’s coming to me. He’ll mark me again. Kiss me like he used to. Make love to me as only an Alpha can.”
My body went cold.
“What…?”
She leaned in, her breath hot against my ear. “You didn’t know? On your wedding anniversaries, when he was always away on ‘pack missions, ’ he was in our old honeymoon suite.”
My breath hitched.
“He told you that pink satin dress was a special gift, didn’t he? Sweet Alpha.” Her lips twisted.
“I wore it first. He ripped it off me, took me on every surface, then wrapped it up and gave it to you.”
A wave of nausea crashed over me.
“He said you were too boring. Too fragile. A little virgin wolf who couldn’t handle the real heat of an Alpha. That’s why he kept coming back to me. I gave him what you never could.”
My vision blurred, not from tears, but from rage. Raw, ancient fury surged beneath my skin like fire crawling through my bones. My wolf stirred, claws scratching the inside of my soul, demanding release.
The memory of that dress, how he held me gently as I cooked, how he kissed me and whispered, “You’re my one true love,” was now a twisted, cruel joke.
And still… Liezel wasn’t finished.
“Last night?” she whispered, her voice sweet, too sweet it choked me. “He said I taste better than you.”
That was it.
The wolf inside me roared.
