Chapter 2

Pulling myself back to reality, I looked up at him with a bloodied, bitter smile.

"If this isn't enough for you, Alpha Gregory, I can smash another—"

"Enough!"

His eyes suddenly caught the small pill bottle that rolled out of my apron.

He snatched it from the floor before I could reach it, reading the faded label.

"Ten moonshade painkillers in one dose? Are you trying to kill yourself?"

Back when we were freshly mated, Gregory brought home one woman after another.

None of them played fair.

To climb into the Luna position, someone slipped an aphrodisiac into his drink.

I found him in heat and gave myself to him to neutralize the poison.

Yet when he woke up, he blamed me for drugging him—claiming that night made him miss his parents' frantic psychic screams for help.

From that day on, he unleashed hell on my birth pack, crushing Ridge Pack into dust.

I begged him to listen. I told him Mina was the maid who spiked his drink.

Mina squeezed out a few tears, and he believed every word she said instead.

That terrible night, rogue wolves raided his family's manor. His parents' distress calls vanished into thin air. By the time he broke out of the haze and rushed home, his parents were already torn apart in pools of blood.

Ridge Pack fell. Gregory rejected our bond, and I surrendered everything.

To hide from his pack's bloodthirsty vengeance, I lived on the run, starving in back alleys.

A few years later, Gregory actually sent someone with an allowance for me.

For the first time in ten years, he extended a hand.

Only for reality to slap me in the face.

To get that money, I had to kneel and apologize to Mina.

I snapped. I refused his charity and screamed through the Mind Link:

"Gregory, you blind idiot! I didn't drug you! It was that maid you brought into the house, Mina Clark!!"

Gregory severed the psychic link. That very night, humiliated beyond repair, my parents jumped off the sacred Ridge altar to their deaths.

I wept and begged on the streets just to bury my parents. But Gregory put a bounty of silence on my head—anyone who dared lend me a dime would face the wrath of Crimson Pack!

I had nowhere left to run. From an Alpha's fated mate, I became a dirty bar waitress.

Meanwhile, Gregory paraded Mina around every royal pack gala.

He even rented a luxury yacht for three straight days to celebrate her birthday, all to buy her a smile.

I watched their happiness through cracked screens, choking down dry bread with my tears for ten agonizing years.

Misfortune never came alone.

The pack healer diagnosed me with late-stage wolfsbane poisoning.

Paying off old debts drained every penny I had. I was completely broke, let alone able to afford the costly antidote.

I ended up pouring drinks in a borderline dive bar, only to run into Gregory again, his face stormy and dark.

"Samantha, you're unbelievable."

"I get that you poisoned me for power and wealth. But you framed Mina. You owe her with your life! How much money do you want? Tell me, and I'll burn it at your grave!"

I let out a broken chuckle as a tear slipped down my face.

Fine.

If he wanted my life as payback, he could have it.

Living like this was exhausting anyway.

I rushed into the bathroom to wash off the blood, but Gregory followed me inside. He shoved me against the wall, gripping my chin to kiss me.

He claimed it was "compensation."

I bit down hard on his hand until the taste of metallic blood filled my mouth, spitting it out on his shoe.

"Get the fuck away from me!"

Gregory's face darkened, his laugh cold and mocking.

"Tips? Bullshit, you're just desperate for cash. Five hundred bucks for one night with you—how's that?"

"Stop playing pure! Didn't you drug me years ago just to get your claws into my money?"

"Gregory! Keep your filthy hands off me! You make me sick!"

His fist slammed into the wall right beside my ear.

Enraged, he found new ways to humiliate me.

He ordered me to deliver a package to a cheap roadside motel room.

Gregory stood at the doorway in a bathrobe, scanning me up and down with cold amusement.

I knew Mina was lying in his bed.

I didn't care anymore.

I said nothing, dropped the bag on the floor, and turned on my heel.

Gregory cracked. He chased after me, grabbing my bruised arm.

"Hold on! Is that how you treat a paying guest?"

His voice carried a tremor of panic he couldn't hide.

Fresh blood soaked through the bandage around my arm.

The metallic stench of blood wafted out, churning my stomach with nausea.

Seeing my complete indifference, he slammed the door in rage.

"Get lost, then!"

Two days later, I showed up at the dive bar.

The manager hurled a termination notice straight into my face.

Then came the barrage of curses.

"How dare you mess with Mina? She sent people to tear this place apart! That's Alpha Gregory's favorite pet!"

"You're not getting paid a dime. Don't drag us down with you—pack your crap and get the hell out!"

A vicious spasm of wolfsbane ripped through my chest. I slid down the wall, gasping for breath.

I swallowed a dozen pain pills before whispering weakly:

"My fault. I shouldn't have provoked her."