Chapter one

Lillie

“No! Let go of me!” I screamed as loud as my lungs would allow me. Rough hands grabbed me by my shoulders and pulled me away from the door.

“What are you doing?! I said let go of me! I’m a Darkmoon citizen! I know my rights, you bloody…”

“Miss Lillie Rome, we have been ordered by the royal family to escort you to the palace.”

Of course, I didn’t need a soothsayer to tell me they were from the royal family. The four huge men that stood at my door all wore black uniforms with the wolf emblem of the royal family pinned to their shirts and black berets.

“This has to be a mistake.” I spat out, while trying to wriggle free of his hold.

“I haven’t done anything. I’m not the one you’re looking for!” I cried out once more.

Why would the royal family want to see me? It was more than clear that people in Darkmoon hated us. “The banished”, they called us. Did the new alpha king finally decide to exterminate us all?

“Mother! Mother!” I forced myself to turn towards the door while I shouted with tears in my eyes. Neighbors peeped from their doors and windows. I could feel their stares, but no one cared enough to ask what was going on.

No one ever cared for a werewolf with the mark of the banished on their neck, the royal family made sure of that.

“Lillie?” My mother’s soft voice came from inside the house. The guard who was holding me finally let go of me, and I ran as fast as I could and threw my arms around her frail body.

My mother and my sick brother in the hospital were the only family I had. I was the only person strong enough to work and sustain our family. I could never allow them to take me away from them.

“Oh, Lillie dear.” She spoke again. Her thin arms wrapped around me and I buried my head into her neck, tears streaming down my cheeks.

“I don’t know what’s wrong, mummy. They’re taking me away, and…”

“Now, now, dear.” She pulled away from me and flashed me a sad smile.

“Everything would be alright.”

I saw her look away from me and nod at the men at the door.

My eyes narrowed on her in confusion.

What the hell was happening?

“Hilda Rome,” One of the guards said as he walked into our house. My mother nodded and stood still, unwavering, as though she had been expecting his coming.

He took out an envelope from his breast pocket and held it out to her.

“From the royal family, as promised.”

Shock shot through my bones the moment I felt my shoulders being seized again.

She received the envelope, tore it open, and took out a piece of paper I couldn’t mistake!

A cheque?!

No. No. It couldn’t be.

She heaved a sigh and looked up at me. There was sadness in her eyes, but nothing like remorse, nothing like regret.

“You…you did this?”

I whimpered.

For most of my twenty-two years on earth, I had been mistreated, insulted, bullied and hated, and it never really mattered to me because at the end of the day, I had a mother and brother who loved me unconditionally.

Or so I had thought.

“We need the money, Lillie. Your brother needs the money. He’s dying, Lillie. Please understand.”

I couldn’t even bring myself to be mad at her. My heart squeezed painfully in my chest while I was being dragged out of the house. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her, I couldn’t stop looking at her despite the fact that she had sold me to the royal family. The people who hated us the most. The people we were supposed to hate the most. The ones who had taken everything away from us. The ones who executed my father and banished us to the outlands. The ones who changed their minds and asked us to return years later, only to treat us worse than shit.

I was their property now, all because of money.

Face to face with a black van, a sack bag was thrown over my head before I was forcefully pushed into the back seat of the van. I heard the door bang shut beside me.

Helpless, hopeless, and now sold.

How much did my mother think I was worth?

“We have to make it to the palace before the gates are closed, so drive as fast as you can.” I heard one of the guards say.

I was now a property of the royal family. What on earth would they use me for?

That was the last question I asked myself before surrendering to the weakness in my bones.

The next time I opened my eyes, the sack bag had been removed from my head and I was staring at a tall figure I recognized from my front door.

He frowned at me and stretched a hand to help me out.

That was more respect than he had shown me at my front door. I ignored his hand and forced myself out of the van. It didn’t matter that my knees buckled underneath my weight from the hunger that currently ate at my intestines. I swallowed my spit and leered at him.

“Follow me.” Was all he said, before turning away from me.

It would have been foolish of me to do anything else, so I obeyed.

I wasn’t nearly aware of the time, but I knew it was almost midnight when I had been forcefully dragged out of my house. The cold breeze caused me to wrap my arms around myself. They should have at least let me put in proper clothing before taking me away.

The palace of Darkmoon was everything my mother had told me it was. Tall, beautiful, glamorous. Rich flowers in the garden, and the fresh scent that filled the air. I looked towards my right and saw the fountain she had always spoken off.

Mother liked to speak of the meetings she used to attend with my father in the alpha’s court. She used to enjoy sitting in the garden and speaking with the queen, who had also been sentenced to death at the same time my father had been executed by alpha Asher, the former alpha.

“Here we are.” The guard’s voice caused me to snap out of my thoughts. I looked ahead and found a small building. He pointed at the door with a straight face.

“You would go in there. Further instructions would be communicated to you later, as well as the rest of the girls.”

My left brow flew up on its own accord.

The rest of the girls?! There were more girls sold by their families and forcefully brought to the palace?! Were they all from banished families like me? Was the new alpha planning to take revenge on our parents by selling us off too?

Fear caused me to shiver. I nodded feebly and began to take slow strides towards the door. I turned the door knob slowly and pushed the door open.

Silence fell on the room.

More than ten pairs of eyes turned to look at me, all at the same time.

I hitched a breath as my hand fell to my side.

I was definitely in the wrong place. I had to be! These weren’t banished girls. I knew because I took a quick look at all ten of them and saw that none had the mark of a red wolf on their necks.

Unfortunately, they all did the same thing to me. I could see all their eyes narrow at the tattoo of the red wolf on my neck, right underneath my jaw.

Horror filled their beautiful pair of eyes before they quickly turned away from me and resumed their activities as though I was never there.

It hurt, even though I should have gotten used to the feeling.

I had barely taken a step into the room when a female voice growled behind me.

“Would you move away from the door?”

Stunned, I shifted in a hurry, almost tripping on my own feet, which caused the girls to giggle.

I turned in the direction of the door after rescuing myself with the wall to see a tall woman dressed in a simple green dress. She held her head as high as her turtleneck, and allowed her gaze sweep around the room.

Disgust settled in her eyes once she locked gazes with me. I looked away. Ten years of being looked at like that had not made it any easier to bear the pain.

“Good evening ladies.” She spoke after clearing her throat.

“My name is Lady Mark, the queen’s hand, and on behalf of the royal family, I welcome you to the surrogate contest.”

The surrogate what?!

My pain turned to confusion, and confusion became anxiety. It took a strong hold on me, and I fell to the ground. Some girls turned to look at me, but a majority ignored my existence and continued to focus on the tall woman.

“Every one of you…” she stopped and glared at me. “…or most of you are here because you have been carefully selected by the queen herself, after your high born parents submitted your names to the royal family, to compete for the alpha king’s heart, a place in the alpha king’s bed, and a chance to be the mother of the next heir of Darkmoon.”

My stomach revolted against me. Disgust clouded every one of my features as I watched the girls squeal with excitement.

Still, in all of this, one emotion I couldn’t fight back was my anger.

It didn’t matter what name they called it, my mother had sold me to compete to be the alpha king’s whore.