Samantha was condemned to slavery for a crime she didn’t commit—her twin sister’s mistake that left Alpha Kade’s parents dead and his sister broken. For five years, she endured beatings, humiliation, and the torment of serving Kade, who was once her childhood friend. When Samantha discovered she was carrying Kade’s pup, her secret was exposed: Kade was her fated mate. But instead of protection, Kade delivered the cruelest punishment of all: “I reject you as my mate. I never wanted you before, and I don’t now.” Shattered by his words, Samantha’s life ended in agony. Yet the Moon Goddess granted her a second chance at life... This time, how will Samantha live on? How will she take her revenge? And what greater purpose lies behind the Moon Goddess’s plan for her rebirth?

Samantha's POV

"Slave, you've been summoned to Alpha Kade's private chamber." My stomach dropped when I received the order from the Gamma of the pack.

I had just finished my work for the day. My work as a slave had been grueling as usual, but being summoned to Alpha Kade's chamber for sex—that was far more terrifying than any other dirty chores I was asked to do.

But I had no choice.

This was all part of my punishment. My punishment for a crime that my twin sister Serena, and not me, had committed.

Kade and I were best friends when we were kids. We were both strong Alpha kids living in neighboring packs, so we had a lot to talk about and always trained and adventured together.

Kade also has a sister, Debbie, who was two years younger than us. Serena and Debbie were both the quieter type. They weren't strong like Kade and I, but that didn't matter. Not back then, at least.

Everything was perfect until five years ago, when Serena somehow managed to bring Debbie with her when she adventured past the border patrol and into the forbidden forest out of curiosity. I wasn't sure if that was Serena's first time doing that, but unfortunately, their presence was discovered by rogues.

They tried to run away, but they were weak and young. Just when they were about to be caught, they ran into Kade's parents on their way home. Kade's parents mindlinked the pack for help while they tried to protect Serena and Debbie.

However, by the time help finally arrived, Kade's parents had been killed by the rogues. To make matters worse, Kade's sister was dragged away and raped by the rogues. Serena was the only one who escaped while Kade's parents fought desperately. Conveniently, she was gone by the time Kade arrived.

Kade angrily demanded that someone had to pay for the crime—the punishment was indentured servitude of five years—and so my parents decided to hand me over instead of Serena.

When I resisted, they begged me—told me that Serena was weaker, that I could handle it and she couldn't. It didn't matter that I didn't do anything wrong. It didn't matter that I didn't want to take the blame.

They forced it on me anyway. And no matter how many times I tried to explain myself, it was useless.

Everyone trusted my parents. No one thought they would lie about something like that, and Serena, the perfect and quiet girl who would never get in trouble, went unsuspected. Even Debbie didn't believe me; she was so mentally unhinged after that night that all she did was point at me with a shaking finger and say that she saw my face right before it all happened.

No one thought that it was only because I looked like Serena and not because I actually caused the accident.

So, for five years, I became Alpha Kade's slave.

For five years, I did everything Kade wanted me to do.

By now, I had become numb to the physical pain and exhaustion I endured in the pack house of Crescent Hollow. The Gammas and Omegas beat me nonstop and forced me to do all of the worst jobs around the house as punishment for my crime.

But whenever I was summoned to Kade's house… I was terrified.

Kade usually summoned me to his room for humiliation when he was triggered by Debbie's pain. It was revenge for what his sister had been through.

Though not as violent as what Debbie had been through, Kade made sure what happened in his chamber humiliated me deeply.

The worst thing about all of it was that I found out Kade was my fated mate after I turned eighteen. My wolf tried her best to hide our scent from him. But still, every cruel intimacy between Kade and I made my suffering a thousand times worse.

How could I be both drawn to him and frightened of him at the same time?

"But I haven't even had dinner," I protested to the Gamma weakly, standing. My joints ached from kneeling on the floor; I had spent hours scrubbing the hardwood until it practically sparkled in the torchlight.

"You know the rules," the Gamma growled. "Come with me. Now."

I had no choice but to obey, of course. Even though my hands shook and my legs wanted to carry me in the opposite direction, I obeyed and followed the Gamma down the hall.

When I entered the bathroom, I found two stern-faced Omega maids waiting for me beside the tub. I was rarely allowed baths anymore, but I knew that it wasn't a luxury. It was part of my punishment.

The maids stripped me violently, revealing my naked body, which had grown frail and slender from lack of food over the years. Once, I had been curvy and beautiful, but now my body could only focus on mere survival. I could count my ribs, and the long days of constant work with only a single slice of bread and a tiny bowl of porridge made it difficult to even think straight.

As the maids roughly washed me in the ice cold bathwater, scrubbing violently against my skin and angrily combing through my once-beautiful golden locks and hitting me in the head with the hairbrush whenever I moved, I tried my best to shut my eyes and breathe deep, preparing myself mentally for what was to come.

Once I was clean and decent enough for the Alpha, I followed the Gamma down the hall to Kade's private chambers. My heart thudded violently in my chest while he knocked, and a voice called from within, "Enter."

It was Kade's voice, deep and rumbling and terrifying. I shuddered just at the sound, but that little piece of my heart also lurched with anticipation.

The Gamma opened the door and shoved me inside, sending me to my knees. Pain barked through the joints as I fell to the hardwood. I didn't need to look up to know that Kade was lounging in his usual chair by the fireside, watching me with those cold gray eyes of his.

"Come here," he ordered.

I slowly looked up and felt my breath caught. He was shirtless, tanned muscles on full display, raven hair loose around his shoulders. In this light, with the scars on his chest highlighted by the firelight, he looked like a rogue warlord.

"Didn't you hear me?" Kade leaned forward. "Come. Here."

My pulse spiked, but I obeyed and stood, walking over to him. When I stopped in front of him, he stared at me for a long moment, gray eyes wandering my form. For a moment, just a moment, I could smell his cologne. It was rich and warm like coffee and spices.

Wordlessly, Kade stood, towering over me, and lifted me into his arms. I didn't resist—couldn't resist, because even though I knew I was about to face the most brutal humiliation of all, that foolish little shred of my heart still wanted this. Wanted him.

He laid me down on the bed face-down and lifted my skirt just enough. He never fully undressed me, never looked at me in the face when he slipped himself into me.

Maybe that was for the best. Because I knew if I looked him in the eye, I might lose control and reveal the secret I'd been keeping for five years.

"Debbie had two episodes today, screaming and thrashing everything in her room," Kade whispered as he slipped his hard member into me with painstaking slowness. His hand cracked across my ass, sending pain stinging through my skin.

Kade curled his fingers into my hair as he seated himself fully in me."I want you to remember that you are a gross murderer. A sinner." His other hand spanked me again. "Say it."

"No."

It was humiliating and perfect and terrible all at once—that feeling of completeness as he began to move in me. But emotionally… Emotionally, the man I was bound to hated me to my very core.

"Say it," he commanded again. One thrust. Then another. Another spank that made my eyes prick with tears.

"No—"

"Say. It."

The thrusts became slower, more halting. My body ached for the only sensation of pleasure I'd received in months. And though tears began to prick my eyes at the humiliation, I grit my teeth and said the words he wanted me to say.

"I am a murderer."

"Again."

"No—"

"Again!"

"I… I am a gross murderer!"

"And remember that your sin will never be forgiven. And you will never be loved. Not by me, not by anyone. "

What followed was the most humiliating joining we'd had in months.

Kade never hit me, no, but he didn't need to—the mental torment was far worse than the physical abuse of the Omegas and Gammas.

To have a man—the man you truly want on a deep and primal level, even if he hates you—inside of you in the most intimate way possible, bringing you to your edge only to pull back and tell you how worthless you are to him…

The only reprieve I got from it was when my world finally went black mere moments before my climax. The last thing I saw before everything turned dark was Kade's face moving above me, twisted with equal parts hatred and ecstasy.

When I woke, I found myself lying on the small cot in the tiny storage closet that was my bedroom. My entire body ached, and my head felt like it was on fire. I groaned, pressing my hand to my temple.

"Ava… What happened?" I whispered aloud into the darkness. I felt strange and foggy, and I faintly recalled passing out during my punishment. "Did I faint from lack of food again?"

Ava was quiet for a long moment. Too long. Finally, she whispered, "There's something I have to tell you…"

"What is it?" I struggled to sit up, but it was useless. My body felt too weak and fragile, and I felt like I might vomit if I moved too much.

"Samantha… You're pregnant."

Samantha's POV

I sat bolt upright, ignoring the way it made my head spin.

"That can't be possible," I breathed, clutching my stomach. "You must be mistaken. I'm not pregnant."

Ava bristled indignantly. "You know I only ever tell you the truth, Samantha."

She was right, as much as I hated to admit it at the moment. My wolf was weak right now due to our five years of torment, but she was still incredibly wise—back when I first shifted, Ava told me that with the proper nourishment, she could be extremely powerful. A silver wolf.

Silver wolves were incredibly rare—not having been seen in our world for over a century. Not only that, but they possessed powerful regenerative abilities and the gift of healing, with a deep understanding of werewolf anatomy.

Which meant that they had the ability to see a body's ailments before anyone else could.

Which also meant… that my wolf was correct when she said I was pregnant, even if I hadn't begun to have symptoms yet.

I sighed and flopped back down onto the small cot, running my hand over my face.

"That's why you fainted," Ava went on. "You almost lost control and released your scent. Kade would have known about the mate bond. So I made you pass out."

Ah. So it was a failsafe to keep Kade from finding out that he was bound to me in ways that neither of us ever wanted. Ever since Kade took me as his slave, Ava hid her presence whenever he was around to keep the fact that he was my fated mate a secret.

And now that I was pregnant, the mate bond would be even harder to ignore. So my wolf had to take matters into her own hands.

I bit my lip, hand instinctively fluttering to my belly as if I could already feel the little life within. My stomach was still flat, and I felt the same; but I knew that Ava was telling me the truth.

A baby. I was going to have a baby.

Becoming pregnant with my mate's pup should have been a joyous occasion. But all it brought was sadness. Kade didn't love me—quite the opposite, in fact. He hated me.

"You are nothing," his words from last night echoed through my mind. "You'll never matter to anyone. You'll die alone and miserable, and only then, for the first time in years, will I smile."

How could I have a baby with him?

I shuddered at the thought. "Kade can't know," I whispered into the darkness.

"Of course," Ava replied. "We'll keep this secret, just as we've kept all the others."

My wolf's support was comforting. I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep this child born of hatred yet, but for now, I had to focus on keeping the pregnancy hidden until the end of my sentence. Then, and only then, could I worry about my next steps.

I just had to survive for another seven months.

Those months passed interminably slowly. With each passing day, I grew weaker and weaker, both due to the pregnancy and my torment. I managed to hide the pregnancy, but only because my belly was still relatively flat due to my lack of nutrition.

Finally, on the final day of the seventh month, my family arrived to pick me up as promised. I didn't even know they had arrived until I heard my mother's familiar voice in the foyer.

"Where is my daughter?"

My hands shook as I dropped the toilet scrubber and rushed out of the bathroom. I nearly collapsed when I saw my father and mother standing there. My father, of course, showed little emotion; hardly more than a cold flick of his gaze over my bedraggled form.

However, my mother's eyes went wide when she saw my stained dress, ragged hair, and pale skin—a far cry from the healthy young woman she had last seen nearly five years ago.

"Samantha," my mother breathed, rushing forward and throwing her arms around me. "Samantha, my baby girl…"

I didn't cry as my mother held me close. I had stopped knowing how to cry a very long time ago.

And then, over my mother's shoulder, I saw Serena step out from behind my father. She looked like me—or at least, she once did, before my sentence. Now, she was just a bitter reminder of what I'd once had.

Beautiful golden hair trailing down her spine. A slender, upright posture. Bright green eyes.

But there was one thing that Serena and I had never shared: our spirit. She was once the introverted and quiet twin. Now her face was just as cold and unfeeling as our father before she schooled it into a mask of horror.

"Oh, Samantha!" Serena cried, rushing forward and throwing her arms around both me and our mother. "My dear sister, what did he do to you?!"

You have no fucking idea, I wanted to say, but held my tongue. Instead, I simply replied, "Can we leave now?"

My mother and sister stepped back and blinked at me. My mother held me by both shoulders, looking me over for injury. Everything was hidden under my clothes, but she didn't know that the worst injuries of all were the ones on the inside. The emotional torment. The baby.

"Samantha, aren't you happy to see us?" my father snapped. "We came all this way to pick you up, and you can't even crack a smile."

I flicked my gaze over to him and felt my chest tighten. Of course he would make this about him. He always did.

As if they hadn't fucking left me in this hellhole for five years.

"Oh. She's still blaming us," Serena sighed, taking another step back. The horror on her face had slipped away, her expression returning to its usual coldness. "As if it's our fault that she wound up here."

But it is your fault, I thought, but didn't say out loud. What was the point? No one listened to me. No one ever did.

"We suffered too, you know," my father went on, rolling his eyes. "You look at us as if we wanted you to be locked up here as Alpha Kade's ward."

Ward. I almost laughed out loud at that.

Not prisoner. Not slave.

Fucking ward.

It wasn't sorrow or relief that I felt building up inside of me just then, but anger. But my wolf quickly calmed me, reminding me that it wasn't worth it to argue with them.

Once again, Ava was right. The shitty bond I shared with this even shittier family was nothing now compared to the pain I had spent the last five years enduring. I just needed to get out and figure out what to do with the baby.

I forced my face into neutrality again and turned to my mother. "I'm just tired," I said, which was partially true. "I've been working a lot."

My mother's expression crumpled. She took my hands in hers, and it was only then that I realized my fingertips were trembling. "Oh, dear… You're shaking," she whispered, tears misting her blue eyes—so much like my own.

Before I could stop her, my mother lifted my hand, causing my sleeve to rise to reveal my wrist. I gasped, trying to pull it back down, but it was too late. My mother had already seen the black mark beneath.

"What's… What's this?" My mother asked, pushing my sleeve up.

I tried to pull away. "Nothing. Just a—"

"Oh, Goddess!" My mother cried out when she saw the dark bruises and the network of scars marring my arm.

Samantha's POV

The scars and bruises on my arm were like a macabre map of abuse. Some were old scars, some were new bruises, but it didn't matter how long they had been there.

All that mattered was that I had endured five years of broken skin and physical torment, with only a weakened wolf to heal me, which also meant that those scars would remain until Ava returned to her old strength.

And that could never happen as long as I remained here in this hell.

My mother's cries were distant to my own ears, as if she were saying my name from underwater as she held my arm up to reveal my humiliation to all.

Meanwhile, across the room, my father's face remained cold. But he looked away and his voice was tight as he said, "We should speak to Kade so he can end your sentence."

I nodded, holding back a sigh of relief. At least my family and I were on the same page about one thing: I needed to get the hell out of here. And quickly.

The Beta, who had been standing nearby and watching the entire exchange with a look of complete disinterest on his face, led us to Kade's office. I had only set foot in this room before when summoned, and it was never for good reasons.

His office was exactly the same as always. Bookshelves lining every single wall, with an area cut out for the fireplace. A large desk that I had endured too many spankings bent over. A couple of plush armchairs that he only reserved for guests.

Kade was sitting behind the desk with a pair of glasses perching on the end of his nose as he studied a document in front of him when we entered. He barely looked up; he hated my family just as much as he hated me.

"Alpha Kade." My father spoke first, effectively stopping my mother from blurting anything out about the cuts and bruises. "We've come to collect Samantha."

For a long moment, Kade didn't answer—just kept reading his document. Finally, he set the paper aside in no rush at all, removed his glasses, and looked up at me.

I suppressed a shudder as his gray eyes swept over me.

"I'll end her sentence now," he said calmly.

My mother let out a sigh of relief beside me. I nearly crumpled right then and there from exhaustion and joy in equal measure. "Gather your things," she said, turning to me. "We're taking you home now—"

"Home?" Kade cut her off, standing. In the enclosed space, he looked positively mountainous, all broad shoulders and thick muscles straining against his shirt. "Who said she's going home?"

"But you said you'd end her sentence—" my father began, but Kade cut him off with a raised hand.

The room fell silent as Kade slowly turned his gaze on me again. There was something strange in his expression, something unlike the usual hatred he showed me. Was that a hint of… panic in his eyes that I saw? But it was gone before I had a chance to study it.

"Oh, Goddess… He knows about the mate bond and the child, doesn't he?" I desperately asked Ava. "He won't let me go now because of it."

"He shouldn't know," Ava assured me. "I haven't revealed myself. He would have no way of sensing the bond or the child."

I chose to believe her. I had to. Because the alternative… I didn't even want to consider what punishments Kade might have in store for me if he knew the truth about everything.

"She will no longer be a servant," Kade went on coolly, as if we were discussing no more than the weather, "but I won't allow the woman who caused my parents' deaths and my sister's madness to return to a life of luxury. No. She must remain here, in Crescent Hollow pack, and live out the rest of her days witnessing my sister's pain and grief."

My throat constricted painfully. I should have known that Kade wouldn't just let me walk away. He intended to destroy my life as punishment, whether I was his slave or not.

Panic took hold of me then, and I whirled to face my mother. "Mom, please take me away from here," I begged, grasping at her hands. "Please, I don't want to stay—"

"Crescent Hollow has provided your family's pack with protection for years now, Samantha," Kade growled. I hated when he said my name; he only said it when he was angry with me. The rest of the time, I had no name. "Do you really want to take that from them now?"

My family looked at one another in shock. It was true; Crescent Hollow had protected our pack, Stoneridge—of which my father was the Alpha—for many years now.

Kade's implication was clear: if I didn't remain in Crescent Hollow as his personal punching bag, he was going to revoke that protection. Rogues could overrun the small, rural pack of Stoneridge within a fortnight if it weren't for Crescent Hollow's strength.

"No," I whispered, even though I knew begging wouldn't help me now. My family had already made up their minds just like that. "Mom… Dad… Please…"

My mother was the only one who hesitated. Serena and my father were already at the door. Neither of them was looking at me. "Margaret," my father said warningly, hand lingering on the doorknob.

I felt sick. "Mom…"

My mother shivered, but murmured, "I'm sorry, Samantha. It's for the good of the pack. At least you won't be a servant anymore…"

With that, my mother wrenched her hands free from mine and quickly followed my sister and father out the door. The last look she gave me before they were gone was tearful, but resolute. I had no choice in the matter.

They were leaving me behind with this brute. Abandoning me. Again.

I fell to my knees, ignoring the sensation of pain shooting through my joints as I made impact with the hardwood floor. As the door fell shut behind my family, one tear fell. Then another. And another.

Soon, I was sobbing openly for the first time in… I couldn't even recall how long it had been since I cried like this.

"Please," I choked out through the sobs, clasping my hands together and looking imploringly up at Kade. All my remaining dignity slipped away in an instant, replaced with the overwhelming need to escape. "Please, let me go home—"

I didn't have a chance to finish before the back of Kade's hand met my cheek. Blinding pain shot through me, sending stars dancing across my vision. The force of the slap was enough to send me slamming against the floor, belly-side down.

"No!" Ava cried, and in a moment of panic, released what little strength she had to protect me and the child from permanent harm. Her aura radiated through the room, like a warm, silver light enveloping everything.

My eyes shot open when it was over. No. No, no, no…

I looked up to find Kade standing over me, nostrils flaring and gray eyes glowing.

"You're my fated mate?!" he breathed. "And… a pup? You're pregnant?

I swallowed hard, preparing for the worst. Ava's strength was short-lived, having only shown herself for a moment to protect me and the baby before she collapsed in exhaustion. But it was enough.

Kade knew. And all I could do now was lay there on the floor, clutching my stomach and wondering what to do next. Or if there was even anything to do now.

He stepped closer and towered over me, dark figure blotting out the light.

"You hid all this from me," he growled, "and you want to leave?"