Chapter 0001

My sister stole my fiancé. She’s about to become the Luna of our pack and gloats over me. But everyone thinks I deserve it.

My father is the Beta of the Riverwood pack. Samuel was my childhood sweetheart, my fiancé, and the future Alpha of the Pack. There has always been a tradition of marriage between the Alpha and Beta families. When our Alpha asked Samuel who he wanted as his Luna, he firmly chose me.

Until that night three years ago changed everything…

Three years ago, a mysterious man took my virginity, and then he disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a blank check. When I woke up in the hotel that morning, naked, my family had somehow already found me. They stood around my bedside, glaring at me.

“Harper, you shameless whore!” Mom picked up that blank check and threw it in my face. “How dare you sell your innocence for money? How could you do this to your family, your pack?!”

“To Samuel,” my sister Leah said snidely. “Do you even remember your engagement?”

My mind was a mess. I hadn’t been trying to hook up with any guys. I just came to find Leah. After Samuel chose me to be his intended, Leah would run away from home now and then. If I didn’t rush to find her, Mom would blame me for everything.

“Please hear me out,” I said, desperate. “Do you really think I would betray Samuel for money?”

“Who says you wouldn't?” Leah said coldly. “Mom and I found these in your room when we went looking for you last night. You conniving little thief, you want more money.”

She handed over her cell phone and the pictures were full of Leah's things, designer bags, extravagant watches and gems. They were lying all over the floor of my room.

“I didn't do it…” I said breathlessly. ”I'm marrying Samuel. I would never do something stupid like that for money. I… think I'm in heat. I don't know why.”

Leah was my biological sister. I don’t understand it, but I was the unappreciated one in the family. She had things that I never did. I could only look at her lavish and magnificent possessions from a distance; they never belonged to me.

Samuel was the only person who always stood behind me.

Leah curled her upper lip in disgust. “Anything to get out of accepting responsibility for your own actions.”

Suddenly, a jolt went through my thoughts and everything connected. I realized I knew who was behind all this.

“You know full well I was only going out to find you!” I countered Leah. “You know this place isn't under any pack jurisdiction, so it's a mess. I went to the club to get you. I held your drink, and hell knows what I drank...”

Leah covered her face, and started making audible sobs. “Are you implying that I drugged you? I fell out of love, so I wanted to find a new place to stay. I don't know anything about what happened to you.” Her shoulders shook.

Here we go again. Time for her crying attack. But I was sure my parents would support me when it came to my innocence.

My mother looked a little hesitant. Her eyes traveled between the two of us.

That's when I turned to my father and tried to beg for his support.

“Father…” I started.

Crack.

He slapped me cleanly across the face. My cheek stung so badly, I went into shock for a moment.

This couldn’t be happening.

“No one needed to drug you.” His voice was a growl. “You gave up your dignity for money. You're jealous of your sister, and for that reason, you steal from her and try to put your blame on her. You're no longer my daughter, and you're even less qualified to be the future Luna.”

“Whore,” Mother said again, under her breath.

My sister peeked at me from between her fingers. There was no trace of tears in her eyes now.

___

I shake my head, snapping out of my memories. Today is a big day, and I have to entertain the royal messenger for my family. Though no longer as a daughter of this household, but as a slave.

My fiancé Samuel? Now he belongs to Leah. As Samuel is next in line to become our Alpha, that makes Leah next to become our Luna.

A title she has already started calling herself during Samuel’s long disappearances conquering disputed territories. His frequent absences have delayed their mating ceremony, but Leah doesn’t seem to mind. She still walks around pack land like she’s already a queen.

Yet inside of me, a small fire burns. I still believe that through drugs, my heat was forced, which directly led to my undoing.

No one listens anymore.

Not even Samuel, who turned his back on me when I returned from that nightmare three years ago. I tried to tell him the truth, but he ignored me. He has not spoken to me again since.

Even with him in the same room as me now, he refuses to look at me.

At his first arrival, our eyes met for a half-second and I was transported to what felt like a different lifetime, when Samuel had been my fiancé and he would visit to spend time with me.

Quickly, he looked away and I remembered my new lowly place.

The royal messenger, a man in black with a violet sash over his arm, now sits in a chair opposite of Samuel and my sister who claim the couch. My mother and father stand nearby.

As per my duties as a household slave, I slowly deliver the tea set, lowering it down onto the coffee table. I try not to make eye contact with anyone in the room, but I am admittedly curious by the royal messenger’s arrival.

His visit was announced rather suddenly, causing me and the other household slaves to scramble to clean and make ready for his arrival, and that of Samuel, who escorted him.

A royal messenger is incredibly unusual.

The King doesn’t often have business with our small pack. What could he possibly want with us now?

Leah glares at me impatiently as I serve her first.

"This is awful." Leah prides herself on spitting out her tea in disgust. "You are trying to poison our honored guest."

“No, I –”

Before I can even straighten, Leah turns to me. “Harper. Kneel here beside me.” She gestures to the empty space beside her, the bare spot on the hardwood floor that the carpet does not cover.

I have no desire to press my knees to that hard surface, but I know the pain that will follow if I disobey, especially in front of an honored guest. The beating could last until dawn.

I fall to my knees where she directed.

“Hold out your arm,” she says.

Swallowing hard, I do as she commands.

Unhooking her arm with Samuel, Leah reaches forward and snatches the teapot off the table.

Samuel glances at Leah, at the teapot, and then at my arm. His lip twitches like he might say something to stop her, but he doesn’t. My heart breaks all over again.

I brace myself for what will surely be scalding hot water searing my skin.

A wild look in her eye, Leah starts to tilt the teapot.

“Stop,” the royal messenger says.

Leah stills, even as her eyes harden with fury. “I am allowed to keep my sister in her place, when she dreams above her station.”

“No you aren’t,” the messenger says. “Not anymore. This woman is now the property of the Lycan King, and only he can decide her punishments.”