Chapter One
Layla
The scalding broth was dripping down my arm in burning rivulets.
"Damn it," Sophia said, zero apology in her voice as she set the empty bowl back on the counter with exaggerated grace. "Can't even dodge, mutt?"
The group of beta families' girls around her snickered like a flock of mean little birds.
The pain shot up my forearm, hot and sharp, tiny blisters already bubbling up. I bit down hard on my tongue until I tasted blood—just to keep from crying out.
Diana was growling low in my chest, my wolf snarling, begging to lunge, to rip, to tear every single one of them apart—
"I'm sorry, Miss Sophia." We didn't have the right to fight back.
I bent down, picked up the dropped ladle, and somehow my voice came out flat and steady, like it belonged to somebody else. "I'll clean this up."
"Move faster, puppy." Sophia stepped right up to me, hooked a finger under my chin, and forced my head up. "After all, Kayden's coming home tonight."
Kayden.
My heart stuttered.
I'd never forget that day. Kayden Blackwood—the Alpha heir who lived in a different universe from mine—had given me a sliver of kindness on the worst night of my life. Even knowing I was nothing, even knowing it was pointless, I still…
Sophia's nails dug into my skin like claws, yanking my attention back to her.
"What're you thinking about?" She leaned in, lips curling into that predator smile. "Stay in your dump where you belong. Don't even dream of going anywhere."
No—no, I had to see him. Even if it was just from a distance…
I tried to turn my head, but her grip tightened.
"Remember last time? The whipping?" Her smile vanished, replaced by something twisted and sick. "This time it'll be ten times worse."
That had been my second brush with death.
Last winter, because I "ruined" Sophia's dress—just a splash of mud—I got tied to the post in the pack square and lashed twenty times in front of everyone. Hybrid healing sucks. The scars are still ridged across my back. Ten times that…
"I won't leave, Miss Sophia."
For twenty-five years, I'd known exactly how to survive. If I didn't bow and scrape like a good little pet, Sophia—Elder Bennett's precious daughter—could crush me like a bug and nobody would blink.
"Good girl." She let go. I crumpled to the floor as their fancy shoes stepped over me, over my clothes, and then they were gone, heels clicking away like nothing had happened.
The kitchen went dead quiet.
I started sucking in air, these ragged, wheezing gasps that sounded like a broken purr, but my lungs felt like they'd been punched through. No matter how hard I tried to breathe, it wasn't enough.
Then the tears came, splashing onto the tiles. I finally let myself sob out loud.
Real classy, Layla.
Diana whined, offended that I'd call us pathetic. In her mind, we were the best.
The best.
I let out a bitter little laugh, wiped my face with the back of my hand, and dragged myself up off the floor. My legs were shaking. I stuck my arm under the faucet; cold water hit the burn, and I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth.
