Lilian’s POV

“I’ll take Adeline’s place and accept the marriage-mating with the man you promised her to,”I said,my voice flat as stone.“But I want two things in return.One billion in gold-backed funds transferred through the Pack vault.And a Blood-Severance Letter,sealed by Alpha and Luna,witnessed by the Council,declaring that I am no longer a Wyatt.”

The Wyatt ancestral study smelled of smoke,old parchment,and wolfbane oil used to preserve sacred documents.Above the hearth hung the Pack’s first Alpha’s pelt,whitened by age,the eyes replaced with onyx so they always looked awake.Beneath it sat the black table carved with the moon-phase runes that every Wyatt pup learned to trace before they learned to read.

I tossed the agreement onto that table.

The parchment slid over the carved symbols and stopped at the center sigil,as if the Pack itself had caught it.

My father’s aura snapped outward,a cold Alpha pressure that pressed against my lungs.He didn’t even bother to hide his anger.He raised his goblet and slammed it onto the stone floor with enough force to crack the base.

“One billion?”he thundered.“Do you want to bleed the Wyatt Pack dry?”

The glass shattered.A shard cut into my ankle.Blood seeped warm between my toes,staining the pale stone.

I didn’t flinch.Wolves were taught early that pain was information,not permission to be weak.

I lifted my head,met the eyes of the Alpha who had fathered me,and smiled.

“What?”I asked softly.“Is Adeline’s life not worth that much?”

For a moment,the fire popped.The onyx eyes above us gleamed.My mother’s hands tightened in her lap,but she didn’t speak.

My father stared at me as if he was seeing a stranger wearing my face.“Why are you suddenly agreeing to this?”His voice dropped into suspicion.“Don’t you love Brian Herbert the most?”

A laugh tore out of me,sharp and bitter.It pulled at my ribs and pain flashed white behind my eyes.I’d learned to breathe around broken bones,to speak around the ache,to keep my voice steady even when my body begged me to curl up and disappear.

Two weeks ago,it had been my twenty-fifth birthday.

In our world,twenty-five wasn’t just a number.It was the age the Pack considered a wolf fully claimed by the Moon,old enough for a formal bond,old enough to stand before a Council without being dismissed as a pup.

That night,I was taken.

Not by rival Pack warriors.Not by Council enforcers.By rogues.Unclaimed wolves and half-men who lived outside territory lines and sold their claws to the highest bidder.

Adeline Wyatt arranged it.

They broke three of my ribs with the lazy cruelty of men who enjoyed hearing bone give way.They whipped my back until the skin split open,until the sting became heat,until the heat became numbness.They laughed when my wolf tried to rise and protect me,then stuffed wolfsbane smoke into my face until my beast retreated,choking and terrified.

I’ve always had claustrophobia.A real weakness,the kind elders call“a human sickness.”They knew that too.

So they locked me in a room barely wider than my shoulders.No window.No moonlight.Just darkness thick enough to press against my eyes.For twenty-four hours I listened to my own breathing,to the blood in my ears,to the distant drip of water that counted time like a curse.

When I started losing hope,the door exploded inward.

Brian Herbert arrived with his men,the air shifting as his Alpha dominance hit the room.The rogues dropped to their knees like the Moon itself had commanded it.He strode straight to me,and when his gaze landed on my blood and bruises,his eyes filled with tears.

“Lilian,”he said,voice breaking.“Don’t close your eyes.We’re almost at the infirmary.Hold on a little longer.”

I clung to his scent,anchoring myself in it.Cedar,smoke,and something that used to make my wolf go quiet with trust.He carried me out like I mattered.

Like I belonged.

At the Pack hospital,the healers pressed silver-threaded bandages to my wounds and murmured prayers to the Moon Goddess.The moment I hit the bed,exhaustion dragged me under.

When I woke,pain slammed through my entire body like a second beating.My ribs screamed.My back burned.My wolf lay curled inside me,shaking,as if it didn’t trust the air yet.

I reached for the call bell.

And then I heard voices outside my door.

“The rogues who originally took Miss Wyatt have been caught,”an assistant reported.

“They confessed.It really was Miss Wyatt who hired them to stage the whole thing.”

My breath caught so hard I tasted blood.

Brian went quiet for a beat.Then his voice came,low and mocking.

“So Adeline was right then.”

His assistant hesitated.“But…why did you hire someone to keep Lilian locked up for another twenty-four hours?She was in bad shape when we found her.”

Brian’s reply didn’t hesitate at all.

“She loves playing the victim,”he said,cold as ice.“So I gave her a real lesson.”

“The rogues demanded ransom from Adeline.She panicked.She got a fever.She suffered.Good.”

He exhaled like he was bored.“I told them to rough Lilian up a little.Nothing fatal.She’s just too fragile.”

In my bed,my scalp prickled.A chill swept over me so thoroughly it felt like my blood had been replaced with winter.

So this was the truth.

Adeline had already blamed it on me,called it my scheme,and Brian believed her so completely that he decided punishment was deserved.He didn’t rescue me because he loved me.He rescued me because the story required a hero,and he wanted to choose which wounds I was allowed to have.

When I was eighteen,the Wyatt Pack brought me back from the outskirts like retrieving lost property.That was when I learned the truth about the“marriage”everyone whispered about.

It wasn’t romance.It was politics.

A Herbert–Wyatt alliance contract,written under moonlight ink,sealed with Alpha blood and Council witness.Everyone in London’s werewolf circles said Brian and Adeline were childhood sweethearts,raised under the same territory stars.They said he would choose her,because that was how these things were meant to go.

And then Brian chose me instead.

He pursued me relentlessly.He marked me with attention,with protection,with words that sounded like vows even before a ceremony.Adeline accused me of stealing everything meant for her,and Brian turned on her with a grim face.

“I only care about your sister,”he’d said.“You’ve enjoyed the Pack’s warmth your whole life.Lilian survived outside without asking for anything.Why are you making such a fuss?”

Back then,it had felt like safety.Like love.

Now I understood it had been temporary.A phase.A convenient rebellion.

Love that can expire was never love at all.

I drew a slow breath and pushed the memory down like a blade into a sheath.Then I looked back at my parents,still seated beneath the watch of onyx eyes and old pelts.

“Have you decided?”I asked calmly.

Mr.and Mrs.Wyatt exchanged a look.I saw it in their faces:not grief,not guilt,but calculation.They were weighing rumors about the Lloyd Pack,the wolves who didn’t forgive insult or weakness,the bloodline said to have descended from the first Moon-blessed Alpha.A Pack whose ceremonies were older than our laws.

After a long pause,my father reached for the quill.My mother finally spoke,voice thin.

“Fine,”she said.“In seven days,the funds will be transferred.The ceremony will happen.”

My father’s gaze sharpened.“But you will not reveal the exchange.Not to the Council.Not to outsiders.Not to anyone.”

As if silence could keep the Pack clean.

They signed.Then they pressed their thumbs into the ink bowl mixed with a drop of Alpha blood,leaving fingerprints beside the Wyatt crest.The agreement accepted.The transaction complete.

I grabbed the parchment and turned to leave.

Only then did my chest ache,deep and tearing,as if something inside me finally snapped loose from its last thread of hope.

They had never loved me.

The only child they protected was Adeline,their adopted daughter who didn’t even share our blood,yet wore our name like a crown.

Since that was the truth,I no longer wanted a Pack.Or a family.Or a mate.

I would give them exactly what they wanted.

Outside the study,I pulled out my phone and called a friend with eyes in places the Council pretended didn’t exist.

“Find every piece of footage that proves Adeline’s involvement in my kidnapping,”I said.

Then,after a brief pause,I added,“Also spread the news about the new cross-territory project.Get Brian to invest.Then cut access to the core technology and supply lines for both Herbert and Wyatt operations.”

In seven days,I would give them a gift they would never forget.

Back in my room,I gathered every photo of me and Brian.Every smile I’d trusted.Every moment that had once made my wolf settle.

One by one,I tossed them onto the floor and set them on fire.

The flames climbed fast,eating paper,devouring faces,turning my past into ash.

Watching the fire rise,I whispered,cold and steady,like a vow spoken under a moon that no longer belonged to me.

“This time…we’ll never meet again.”

Lilian’s POV

I packed in silence.

Not the kind of silence that comes from peace,but the kind wolves learn when they realize no one in the den is listening anyway.I folded clothes into my travel bag,tucked my documents into the inner lining,and slid the contract from last night between two pieces of stiff leather so it wouldn’t crease.Even my wolf stayed quiet,pressed low in my ribs like it was conserving strength.

When I stepped out of my room,the corridor smelled faintly of incense and old cedar.The Wyatt manor was awake,but it pretended it wasn’t.Doors stayed closed.Servants avoided my eyes.In this Pack,your value decided whether you were seen.

Then I spotted her.

Adeline leaned casually against the second-floor railing,as if she’d been waiting for me the way a predator waits for prey to step into open ground.Her hair fell in soft waves.Her robe was pale,delicate,innocent.Her scent was sweetened with jasmine to hide the sharper note beneath it,the one that always made my wolf tense.

In her palm,she held my engagement ring.

Brian’s ring.

The band caught the light with a cold gleam as she rolled it over her fingers,her smile smug and unhurried.

“Lilian,”she drawled,voice bright as honey,“was that kidnapping game fun last time?”

My grip tightened on my bag strap.I could still feel the darkness of that room.The walls too close.The air too thin.My ribs ached as if the bones remembered being broken.

Adeline tilted her head,eyes glittering.“You still haven’t learned your lesson,have you?No one will believe you.They’ll only believe me.”She smiled wider.“You’re nothing but a liar.”

I forced my voice into steadiness.“Give it back.”

“Oh,right.”She laughed softly,as if I’d said something amusing.“I forgot to tell you.”She lifted the ring higher,letting it swing between her fingertips like a charm.“The men who beat you were sent by Brian himself.”

My breath hitched before I could stop it.

Adeline watched my face with hungry satisfaction.“It was his punishment,”she continued,savoring every word,“for making me sick with your little self-made drama.”

My stomach turned.Even knowing what I’d overheard in the infirmary,hearing it spoken so openly,so casually,still felt like a claw raking down my chest.Like Brian’s hands were on my throat again,squeezing until I couldn’t breathe.

Adeline laughed louder,rubbing the ring as if polishing a trophy.Then her fingers loosened.

The ring slipped.

It clattered down the stairs with a sharp,metallic sound,striking step after step like a countdown.

“What did you just do?”The words ripped out of me before I could swallow them back.

My body moved on instinct.That ring wasn’t just metal.It was three years of a lie,and the last proof that I hadn’t imagined everything.I lunged forward.

But as I rushed past her,Adeline shifted.

She leaned into my path,blocking me with her body.Her lips curled into something colder than a smile.In one smooth motion,she grabbed my wrist,then guided my hand upward as if I were the one reaching for her.

She pressed my palm against her shoulder.

Then she screamed.

A piercing,theatrical sound that split the quiet of the manor like a blade.

Adeline threw herself backward,twisting as she fell,letting her body tumble down the stairs.Her robe flared like a wounded dove’s wings.She hit the floor hard,half-kneeling in a heap,hair scattered,tears already spilling as if she’d been rehearsing them all morning.

“Ah!”she wailed.“It hurts!”

Footsteps thundered from below.Heavy.Furious.Familiar.

Brian’s scent hit first,all sharp pine and dominance,the kind of Alpha presence that used to make my wolf lift its head with hope.My parents followed,their auras tight with righteous outrage.

From where they stood,they saw only what Adeline wanted them to see.

Me at the top of the staircase.

Adeline curled on the floor below,sobbing like a victim carved from porcelain.

Brian stormed up the last few steps,seized my arm,and yanked me forward.His grip bruised instantly,like his body remembered how to hurt me better than how to hold me.

“Lilian!”he shouted.“How could you push Adeline?”

“I didn’t push her.”My voice came out rough,controlled by teeth clenched so hard my jaw ached.“She fell on her own.”

My father’s face flushed red,his Alpha temper flaring hot.“Are you still lying?”he bellowed.“You know Adeline’s health isn’t good.How could you be so cruel?”

My mother stepped forward,her eyes like winter ice.She didn’t ask.She didn’t hesitate.She shoved me hard.

My lower back slammed into the railing.Pain shot up my spine and stole my breath.My wolf snarled inside me,not in rage,but in humiliation.A daughter shoved by her own Luna,like I was nothing more than a rogue dragged into their home by mistake.

On the floor,Adeline lifted her head slightly and clung to Brian’s shirt with trembling fingers,tears glistening in her lashes.

“Brian,”she whispered,voice weak and sweet,“don’t blame Lilian.Maybe I bumped into her and made her angry.Just…pretend I fell on my own.Don’t make things difficult for my parents.”

Her performance was flawless.It painted her as kind,and me as monstrous.

Brian’s expression darkened further.He looked at Adeline like she was fragile moonlight.Then he turned on me as if I were dirt under his boot.

He snatched up the ring where it had landed near the bottom step.For a heartbeat,it flashed in his hand,the stone catching firelight like a star.

Then he hurled it to the floor.

The ring shattered.The gemstone split.Fragments scattered like tiny,cruel teeth across the marble.

Something inside me twisted so hard it felt like my ribs cracked again.

Brian’s eyes burned with fury.“Why do you always hurt Adeline and then blame her?”he demanded.“Do you know intentionally harming someone can land you in prison for years?”

I stared at the broken pieces,at the ruin of something I once guarded like a vow.The man I had loved most was standing firmly at Adeline’s side again,defending her without a single question.

Slowly,a bitter smile spread across my mouth.

“You want to send me to the Pack enforcers because of this?”I said,voice shaking with cold anger.“Fine.Let them check the corridor runes.Let them pull the house footage.Let them see who staged this performance.”

I shoved Brian’s chest hard enough to make him take a half step back.

Then I raised my hand.

The slap cracked across Adeline’s face,sharp and undeniable,echoing through the stairwell like a verdict.

Adeline froze.Her fingers flew to her cheek.For a moment,she forgot to cry.

I leaned slightly forward,my voice low and viciously clear.“See that?This time,I really hit you.Now you can scream with proof.”

Brian’s shock lasted half a breath.

Then his palm struck my face with full force.

My head snapped to the side.Heat bloomed across my cheek.My vision flashed.

His eyes were cold when I looked back at him,colder than the night I was dragged into darkness.

“I haven’t even dealt with what happened last time,”he said,voice flat with contempt.“You’ve barely left the infirmary and you’re already targeting Adeline again.”

His gaze pinned me like prey.“I’ll send you to prison.You can stay there until you’ve reflected.When you finally understand what you’ve done,I’ll come get you.”

Before I could speak,his guards seized my arms.

Their hands were iron.Their auras pressed down,suppressing my wolf.They dragged me toward the doors of the manor as if I were a criminal.

Brian didn’t even look at me again.

He turned instead,gathered Adeline into his arms,and held her close.His expression softened with heartbreak as he murmured comfort into her hair.

It was almost impressive,how quickly he could become tender for the right woman.

At the Pack station,the cold stone and silver-lined bars smelled of disinfectant and old fear.The moment I was seated across the table,Brian arrived behind me like a storm that didn’t care who it soaked.

He tossed a confession document onto the table.

“Sign it,”he ordered,voice cold.

I picked up the pen.

My hand didn’t tremble.

I didn’t sign.

I ripped the paper into pieces instead,tearing slowly,deliberately,letting the sound of it fill the room like a warning.

Then I lifted my eyes to him and laughed under my breath,low and mocking.

“Brian,”I said quietly,“why should I sign something when I’ve done nothing wrong?”

My throat tightened,but I forced the words out anyway.“If you really want to put me in a cell,don’t hide behind excuses.I want to see how far you’ll go for Adeline.I want to see what you become when you decide I’m disposable.”

For a split second,his face looked…strained.Like something inside him tried to rise.

Then it vanished.He turned away sharply,jaw clenched.

“Lock her up,”he told the enforcers coldly.“Release her tonight.Let her reflect.”

He walked out without looking back.

I watched him leave,my eyes burning,my throat tight with tears I refused to shed in front of anyone who didn’t deserve them.

Between Adeline and me,he never hesitated.

Even when I was innocent,he always chose her.

And every choice he made pushed me deeper into the abyss,as if he wanted to see whether I would crawl back out…or finally stop trying.

In the cell’s dim light,my wolf stirred,not afraid this time.

Angry.

And awake.

Lilian’s POV

Brian had barely left when my parents arrived.

The iron-barred corridor seemed to shrink the moment they stepped into view,their Alpha and Luna pressure filling the space like suffocating fog.They didn’t rush to me.They didn’t ask how I was.They stood a few steps away,looking at me as if I were a stain that had finally refused to scrub out.

My mother spoke first,her tone clipped and cold,stripped of any maternal warmth.

“Lilian,admit your mistakes.As long as you confess properly,Brian will let you go.”

My father nodded beside her,eyes sharp,voice edged like a blade forged by Pack law.

“You’ve embarrassed the Wyatt Pack enough.Stop resisting.”

I couldn’t help it.A bitter smile tugged at my lips.

Ever since the day they brought me back into the Pack,I had been trained to lower my head.If I scored higher than Adeline in Pack academy exams,that was my fault.If I outperformed her in combat drills or strategy trials,that was my fault too.If I didn’t smile sweetly,didn’t act spoiled,didn’t play the obedient adopted sister she wanted me to be—every difference became another sin.

I had admitted fault for years.Until the words themselves had lost all meaning.

This time,I didn’t bow.

Swallowing the bitterness clawing at my throat,I asked calmly,“What’s the point of admitting anything now?”

I lifted my eyes to meet theirs,my voice steady despite the ache spreading through my chest.

“Should I admit that I didn’t push Adeline hard enough?”

The slap came before the echo of my words faded.

My father’s hand struck my face with a sharp crack,the force snapping my head to the side.Pain flared hot across my cheek,bright enough to blur my vision for a second.I tasted blood.

But I didn’t cry.

I straightened slowly,lifting my chin in stubborn defiance,and let out a cold,humorless snort.

“I was kidnapped,”I said hoarsely.“Locked up.Beaten.Nearly broken.And all you cared about was whether Adeline caught a cold.”

My wolf growled low in my chest,furious and wounded.

“Now she stages a fake fall,”I continued,voice shaking but unbroken,“and you force me to confess again.Tell me—am I just some stray you dragged off the street?Something disposable you can blame whenever she cries?”

Neither of them flinched.

They looked at me the way one looks at an enemy,not a daughter.A threat to the fragile balance they’d built around Adeline.

My mother’s lips pressed into a thin line.

“Ungrateful,”she snapped.“If you refuse to admit fault,then stay here.”

My father turned away first.

They left without another glance,their footsteps echoing down the corridor like a verdict already passed.

Before I could protest,the guards seized me.Their hands were rough,impatient,suppressing my wolf with iron collars laced faintly with silver runes.I was shoved forward,stumbling,dragged into a narrow holding cell deep within the Pack station.

The door slammed shut.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

Only a thin blade of light slipped through a narrow window near the ceiling,barely enough to remind me the world still existed outside these walls.The air was stale,heavy,pressing against my lungs.

My body began to tremble.

The walls felt too close.The ceiling too low.My chest tightened as if invisible hands were squeezing my ribs inward.Claustrophobia surged,violent and merciless,dragging memories of that dark room back to the surface.

“Brian…”I whispered instinctively,my voice cracking.“Brian…”

No answer came.

Only silence.Only darkness.

Time lost all meaning.

When the cell door finally creaked open,I flinched so hard my back slammed against the wall.Shapes filled the doorway—tall,broad-shouldered women with hardened expressions and the unmistakable scent of Pack enforcers who no longer cared about rules.

One of them smirked.

“Is that her?Miss Wyatt said to teach her a lesson.”

My heart dropped.

A short-haired woman stepped forward,cracking her knuckles with deliberate slowness.Panic surged through me.I backed away,but another fist tangled in my hair and yanked me down.

The floor rushed up to meet me.

Fists and boots followed.

Each blow exploded through my body,sharp and unforgiving.Pain radiated through my ribs,my back,my legs.Old injuries screamed as they were torn open again.I tried to fight back,but my wolf was weak,suppressed,my body still healing from the last beating.

I was no match for them.

I curled in on myself,arms shielding my head,biting down on my screams as they vented their cruelty without restraint.The world narrowed to pain and breath and the metallic taste of blood.

“Enough!”a guard shouted from outside the bars.“Stop it!”

Reluctantly,they stepped back.

I lay sprawled on the cold floor,barely conscious,blood soaking into the stone beneath me.My vision dimmed.My back burned where old wounds split anew,each movement sending agony through my bones.

Laughter echoed faintly as the door opened again.

Hands grabbed me.I was dragged out,my body scraping against the ground.Their mocking voices followed me like ghosts,but I didn’t have the strength to respond.

A full day and night passed.

Then,without ceremony,I was thrown out of the station.

Sunlight hit my eyes like a blade.I raised a trembling hand to shield my face,swaying as I forced myself upright.Step by step,limping and dizzy,I made my way to the hospital.

After my wounds were cleaned and hastily bandaged,I turned to leave.

That was when I saw them.

Brian froze the moment his eyes landed on me.Shock flickered across his face,genuine this time.He stared as if seeing me for the first time.

“How…”His brow furrowed.“How did you end up like this?”

For a heartbeat,something like heartache crossed his eyes.His hand lifted,as if he meant to help me.

I stepped back.

Before I could speak,Adeline rushed to his side,clinging to his arm like she belonged there.She looked at me with wide,worried eyes,perfectly rehearsed.

“Lilian,”she said softly,“Brian released you yesterday.Why didn’t you come home last night?And how did you hurt yourself so badly?”

She turned to Brian,voice gentle as venom.

“Don’t blame her.She probably just wants attention.Look at her—she’s really hurt.Let’s treat her first,okay?”

Her words worked instantly.

The concern vanished from Brian’s eyes,replaced by cold fury.He glared at me as if I were something repulsive.

“You’re doing this again,”he snapped.“Lilian,your lies are obvious now.No one believes you anymore.”

This time,I didn’t argue.

I simply looked at him,memorizing the face I had once loved with everything I had.His eyes were still beautiful—but empty of me.

He turned to Adeline,gently taking her hand.Without looking back,he ordered,“If she has the strength to hurt herself,she has the strength to walk home.”

Then,colder still,“Watch her.Don’t let her take a single shortcut.”

They walked away together.

I stood there alone for a long moment before forcing my legs to move.Each step burned.Each breath hurt.

And with every painful stride,one thought carved itself deeper into my mind,sharper than any blade.

I will make them pay.

All of them.