Chapter 2

Caius's words were backed up by the other three.

They all jumped in to call me dramatic and ungrateful.

"You've always been hopeless at taking care of yourself. You need other people for everything."

"You were eight and still couldn't sleep alone. Fifteen and still too scared to walk through the Brooklyn East Shore wolf-gathering docks by yourself.

Even for Vera's graduation trip to Europe—the one she'd been looking forward to forever—you demanded the four of us be on call for you around the clock."

"Come on, Selena, you're twenty-three, not three. Do you really need to act like some pup that can't leave the pack, needing everyone to revolve around you every second of the day?"

Their accusations left me completely lost.

I wanted to explain, but I couldn't even figure out where to start.

After all, I'd always been "slow."

I couldn't accurately read a stranger's scent. I couldn't hold a stable wolf mental link. And I couldn't half-shift in a crisis the way a normal wolf-born could.

But I hadn't always been like this.

When I was eight, the North American Allied Packs held their Spring Covenant on Wilder territory.

Caius, Lucian, Darian, and Cedric—who were staying in the main Wilder house as tradition required—were kidnapped by rogue wolves from Sicily.

My parents found the trail but couldn't wait for the Federal Wolf Council. They led a rescue party immediately.

The four boys were saved. But my parents were brutally killed in front of me by those crazed rogues.

After that, I developed severe psychological damage.

I was afraid to be alone. Afraid to talk to strangers.

The moment I entered unfamiliar territory, I'd pick up strange wolf-scents and start shaking and losing control of my bladder.

Worse, I lost the ability to shift reliably. Other wolf-born could sense danger on instinct after coming of age, but my wolf felt locked somewhere deep inside my body.

It was the four of them who walked me through recovery, who helped me piece my way back into a normal life, bit by bit.

When someone made a joke about me being a "broken wolf girl," they used their families' connections to get that person expelled from school.

The thing they said most often was:

"Sena's parents died saving us. We owe her this."

"As long as we're here, even if Sena can never shift again, it doesn't matter."

Everyone envied me for being so lucky.

They said even a wolf princess only gets one guardian knight. I had four.

I believed it too.

Until senior year of high school, when Vera Carlisle—also an orphan—transferred into my class.

She said she was descended from a wandering wolf bloodline, abandoned by her pack, with no territory since birth.

The loneliness we shared made me feel for her. I found myself looking after her without even thinking about it.

The four boys told me they couldn't trace Vera's bloodline and warned me to keep my distance.

But at what point did they go from being suspicious of Vera to siding with her?

Was it when they secretly changed my college application to fulfill Vera's dream of studying design?

Was it after graduation, when they threatened to pull all wolf security from me unless I signed the papers to give Vera a permanent position at the jewelry company my parents had left me?

Or was it this European trip, when they staged a car accident so Vera could get solo photos, then left me standing on a French street alone to face the police and night-patrol?

I didn't know.

I took a deep breath and asked Caius.

"Fine. Let's say the pendant is just being kept with her temporarily."

"But you went to the police station. Why didn't you explain to the officers that I wasn't the one driving? That it was Vera?"

He answered without a second's thought.

"Under French law, driving without a license and fleeing the scene of an accident carries years in prison. Vera just graduated. If she got dragged into something like that, her life would be over."

My heart went completely cold.

I'd been telling myself that maybe Caius didn't understand French law, or that he genuinely just wanted to toughen me up and made a bad call.

Turns out he knew everything.

My voice came out hoarse.

"What about me? Did you ever think about what would happen to me?"

The other three jumped in.

"Stop being so dramatic. We told you—you're not the one who caused the accident. You'll be fine."

"And even if something happens, you're already a broken wolf girl. What difference would a few years in prison make for you?"

I listened to their mockery, fighting back the hurt, and asked Caius.

"Is that what you think too?"

He didn't answer that. He just said:

"Stop making a fuss. You're fine now, aren't you?"

"The graduation party is tonight. We need to help Vera pick a dress. We don't have time to coddle you."

I was about to say it was my graduation party too, but Caius hung up.

The French lawyer beside me looked at me with sympathy.

"Miss Wilder, would you like me to book you a flight back to New York?"

But France was so far from New York. The fastest flight would take over ten hours.

By the time I landed, the graduation ceremony would be long over.

I sniffled and turned him down.

"No, that's alright. Help me draft a lawsuit instead."