Chapter one

Aria's POV

I'd wished the hurt would be erased by bringing her into being. I'd lied to myself that she'd be a redo…a tabula rasa at something actual, something true. It is foolish, perhaps, but to have her, the small clench around my thumb, a small flame of hope glowed within me.

I steadied myself, grasping her, not quite breathing with hope and fear. I could barely think that it was happening—she was here. I prayed that as soon as Alex saw her, he would understand. Perhaps even acknowledge that we were not to be kept from him. She was his daughter, after all. That must mean something.

But when he arrived at the room, his demeanor said it all. His eyes were icier than ice—darker than I ever had managed to recall them before. He regarded her as some kind of creature that he could not even hope to understand, turned, and gave me an even greater disdain.

"Is that your grand design, Aria?" he scoffed, the sound of his voice piercing through the quietness like jagged pieces of broken glass. "Did you truly believe a child would be enough to make you stay with me?"

My fondest delusion was crushed and I was shocked.

"Alex…

I hissed, my voice barely audible as I tried to stifle her shivering in my arms. "She's your daughter—our daughter. I did it for us, so the curse might end."

"For us?" He was laughing, his voice dripping ice. "Tried to deceive me thus? You're nothing but a witch who employed cheap magic to ensnare me!"

Each word lashed like a whip.

"God, not a witch, Alex. You know that isn't true, you. You came to me, you promised we could—" My sentences dissolved into anguish and humiliation twisting in my lips. I had believed him, trusted him, and now he lied to me.

He chuckled, his face contorting as if I were some subspecies beneath him whom he hadn't so much as spared a second glance. "You think you're smart, Aria? You're an omega—meant to obey, not to plot. And for that insult. You'll be reminded of your place. Soon enough."

I stared up at him, my heart breaking, craving so desperately to see the man that I had thought I once knew.

You do not mean that," I pleaded, hugging my daughter close. "She does not know. Do not expose her to your shame."

He glared down at us with contempt, his face granite-hard. "Innocent? She is your child, Aria—the bastard child of a dishonored woman."

My knees gave way beneath me, my world going awry as the words seeped into my mind.

Are you going to… kill us?" I chopped. "Alex, please… I did it for us. I brought her to break your curse!"

He folded his arms, eyes unyielding. "You should've left magic you weren't ready to handle by itself. The pack will never have a witch amongst them…and a reckless kid on top of it. The elders, including my dad, have stood up for her.".

The ultimatum of his voice, the complete lack of pity—it was as if staring into a void that yawned wide its jaws to consume me. Everything that he'd ever said to me, everything that I'd ever given him, it was all meaningless.

I begged, "Alex, you don't owe me anything. But don't hurt her because of me. She's just a child…"

He pushed me with his hand. "Enough, Aria. You never were mine or my pack. I have a mate…sound of pure blood. We're soon wedded, and she is to inherit my house."

Every sentence seared, a knife cutting across the little bit of heart I possessed.

Struggle was what pushed words past my gagging breath. "You said you loved me, you called me your mate," I wheezed.

I told you what I wanted," he interrupted. "But you? You are nothing to me. That is over now.".

The elders sat outside, their faces as unyielding as stone, weighed down by judgment. They brought me to them, my little girl still clinging to me, weeping for mercy. I begged for her, but they were unmoving, observing the pathetic conclusion of a drama that had started on the wrong note. Not one of them looked in my direction; not one of them exhibited even the faintest glimmer of pity.

They shoved me towards the fire they had kindled, the lips of which were smacking upwards with a horrid appetite. My little girl shrieked, her ear-piercing cry all but drowned by the wail of the flames.

I stared into pack faces—the very pack faces that had nurtured me, cheered for me, mourned with me. And now treated me like a stranger, an enemy. *How could they?* How could they all just stand there, so frozen, so empty?

I tried to struggle in their grip, against the inevitable, but they dragged me towards the fire.

Oh, for goodness' sake, don't do it!" I prayed in supplication, my voice trembling. "Take me if you must…but leave her alone!"

But my entreating was met with scornful and icy laughter, and I knew there was no more mercy to be won. Whether I pleaded and worshipped, nothing ever came into their hearts.

And as they threw us into the flames, I enfolded my daughter in my last spurt of strength. Her small battered body against mine, her cries mixed with the howl of the fire. I kissed her forehead, vowing things I did not even hope might ever be.

"Forgive me, my love," I managed to say, as I was engulfed in darkness. "Forgive me for not being strong enough to save you."

In those final moments, in flames, I felt a fury of hellfire burning inside of me—a fury that blazed more intensely than the flames destroying us. I gazed at the pack, at Alex, at the elders who had sentenced me to death, and I vowed on each atom of my being that this was not ending yet.

"I'll be back," I vowed, my words being consumed by the firewall. "And you're all going to pay."

And the world was blacked out. I fainted…