Chapter 1

I was back to the day I chose my son. This time, I walked past my own flesh and blood and picked the runt no one wanted.

Everyone said I was the most pathetic omega in the pack.

The day I gave birth, the Luna took my son and never gave him back.

But I told myself it was fine.

Catherine was the Luna, my boy would have a better life with her than he ever would with me.

Then I took a blade for the Luna during a rogue attack.

The Alpha said I'd earned a reward and let me choose one of the pups in the pack house to raise as my own.

So I asked for my son back. I asked for Julian, and Catherine had to hand him over.

I raised him until he was twenty, and that year the Alpha named him heir.

That same night, Julian forced a cup of wolfsbane tea down my throat.

He looked at me like I was filth. "If you hadn't dragged me away from the Luna, I would've been named heir years ago. All you ever did was hold me back."

When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day I'd chosen him.

Alpha Alaric sat at the head of the hall. "Evelyn has shown her loyalty to this pack. She may choose one pup to take into her care."

I followed his gaze.

Five boys stood in a line.

Julian was at the front, dressed sharp, the Luna's golden child. He looked at me with something close to disgust.

Last time around, I'd been so blinded by the joy of getting him back that I missed the contempt in those eyes.

I closed mine and swallowed the nausea rising in my throat, then looked past him to the others.

At the very back, below the dais, a scrawny kid stood with his head down.

That was Silas. His mother Lillian had tried to seduce the Alpha and been executed as a traitor, and after that he became the runt nobody wanted.

The other wolves said he was sullen and strange, that he lived worse than the omegas in the pack house.

I looked at that boy standing there all alone and something in me just broke.

I knew what it felt like to be thrown away.

I took a deep breath and raised my hand, pointing at Silas.

"Alpha, I want him."