Chapter 2

I packed a few changes of clothes and took Mia back to my adoptive parents' home.

Once, every time I returned, my parents would come smiling to the door before I'd even stepped inside.

But today, my adoptive mother opened the door with undisguised loathing in her eyes.

"What are you doing back here?"

"Mom… I don't have anywhere to stay right now. I was hoping Mia and I could spend the night."

She let out a cold laugh. "This isn't a den for taking in outsider mongrels. Get out."

My chest seized. Mia shrank timidly behind me.

"Grandpa! Grandma!"

Her voice was soft, sweet—the way it had always been when she expected them to scoop her up.

But their faces were like stone.

"Don't call us that. We don't have relatives who drag the Blood Moon Pack's name through the mud."

I stood frozen.

In the space of a few short days, my daughter and I had been stripped of even the right to be considered family.

In my memory, my father used to shift into wolf form and let me ride on his back, telling everyone Willa was his precious treasure. My mother put me first in everything, forever bragging to other wolves about how clever and capable I was.

But the moment their long-lost biological daughter, Liane, was found, all their love for me evaporated overnight.

The pack trade resources I had painstakingly built up over the years were quietly funneled into Liane's name.

At first I comforted myself. Liane had wandered alone for so many years and suffered so much—it was only right to make it up to her.

Only now did I finally understand.

They had always resented me. Resented me for occupying twenty years of the love and resources meant for Liane.

Elias's cold, selfish words still echoed in my ears.

Just to vent Liane's spite, they'd sanctioned that farce of a public denouncement without a moment's hesitation, grinding Mia and me into the dirt.

Testing the waters, I tried:

"What if… that bloodline report was wrong? What if it was forged?"

My adoptive mother's expression froze. Her face hardened.

"You still want to argue in the face of hard evidence?"

My adoptive father chimed in.

"Isn't the clinic's bloodline verification proof enough? Do we have to catch you red-handed with an outsider before you'll admit it?"

A bone-deep chill ran through me.

They knew. They knew all of it was a lie.

And yet here they were, cursing me with the venom of true belief, nailing me to the pillory as the pack's whore.

My adoptive father frowned, his voice dripping with condescension.

"Fine. If you insist on staying here, then tomorrow you'll make a public apology to the entire pack."

"You'll admit to your affair with an outsider. You'll admit Mia is not Elias's biological pup."

"At the same time, you'll step down from the core management of the family enterprise, and every trade share in your name will be transferred unconditionally to Liane."

I could hardly believe what I was hearing.

"What do you want me to admit?"

"Mia is not a mongrel!"

My adoptive mother ignored me completely.

Just then, footsteps came down from upstairs.

Liane appeared, eyes rimmed red, looking as though she'd been through some terrible fright.

"Dad, Mom, please don't be so hard on my sister…"

She turned to me, her tone deliberately gentle.

"Willa, I know how much this hurts you, but our parents aren't young anymore, and our family has to preserve its reputation."

"You can't drag us down just because you had an affair."

Then she looked down at Mia, forcing a hint of pity into her eyes.

"As for whether the pup is really of Elias's blood… Elias is an Alpha. He won't hold it too much against you."

I opened my mouth to say something more, but my parents had already lost their patience.

They ordered the housekeeper to throw my things out the door.

"We raised you for twenty years. We were even willing to leave you a shred of dignity."

"Since you refuse to admit your mistake, then don't ever come back to this house again."