On my wedding night, my husband Kael forced me to drink liquor laced with a heat inducer, then threw me into a rogue den. The drug plunged my body into a state of shameless, uncontrollable need. I was pinned down by those feral rogues who had lost all reason, their bodies slamming into mine again and again in waves of agony. And Kael simply stood to the side, watching with a cold smile. As I drifted toward unconsciousness, I could not understand how I had gone from a bride that everyone envied to a she-wolf that anyone could use. That year I was eighteen years old, and my father, Alpha Howard of the Red Moon Pack, had decreed that I would be assigned as Kael’s chosen mate. I had counted down the days to the ceremony with a full heart. Because Kael had rejected his fated mate for me, and had sworn before the entire pack that he would be faithful to me forever. Everything shattered so fast, the fall from bride to pack whore taking no more than half a night. I dragged my ruined body back to Red Moon Pack, and my wolf told me we needed an answer. I needed my mate to tell me why, but what I received was not an explanation. It was exile. My entire family was destroyed along with me, and my pack was renamed Autumn Moon, the name Kael’s pack had carried before it was wiped out. I knelt in the mud. Kael tilted my chin up, his gaze cold. “If your father had not framed my father, my pack would never have been slaughtered by rogues.” “One hundred and eight wolves in my family, all destroyed because of your father’s greed.” “I endured years of humiliation in Red Moon Pack, living like a stray dog, all so that one day I could make your entire bloodline pay in full.” “What you owe me has only just begun to be repaid.” Red Moon Pack was erased from existence. I was stripped of my name and my identity, discarded into the most desolate stretch of the border, reduced to the most degraded shared omega in the entire outpost. Five years later, Kael came to inspect the border. I was draped in nothing but a sheer, tattered piece of gauze, straddling a Beta’s lap with lazy, provocative eyes. I took a mouthful of sharp liquor and passed it mouth to mouth into the man’s lips in full view of everyone present. The moment I turned my head, I met his cold, indifferent gaze. Kael sat in the seat of authority, and the look he gave me was thick with contempt. Five years apart, and he had not changed at all, still carrying the sharp composure of a top-tier Alpha, the arrogance of someone born to command written into every line of his face. It was nothing like the filthy, broken creature my father had brought back to the pack all those years ago. I curved the corner of my mouth, my gaze lazy and provocative. “Alpha Kael, looking at me like that, does it mean you want me to serve you the same way?” Kael’s face darkened as he let out a cold snort. “A degraded omega, fit to serve me? You don’t find yourself disgusting, but I find you filthy.” I ignored his contempt and leaned against the Beta with deliberate softness, letting my fingertips trail across his chest until his breathing grew ragged. The Beta exhaled roughly, plastering on a fawning expression as he looked toward Kael. “Alpha Kael, she’s the best piece we have out here, the kind that knows how to pull a man apart. If you don’t want her, I’ll take her out right now.” The room erupted in laughter. The warriors mocked without restraint. “Shev’s been too long at the border. Looks like he’s desperate for a release.” “As if Alpha Kael would want something like that. You’re the one getting lucky in the end.” “I heard Leah used to be the heir of Red Moon Pack. She’s a plaything now, but there’s still that proud streak underneath. Bet she’s a different kind of ride. Shev, leave some for the rest of us when you’re done.” I buried my face in Shev’s chest with a show of shy hesitation, using it to hide the humiliation burning behind my eyes. Five years of living worse than death, drowning in degradation, and I had never once been able to go numb to it. The wolves at the border were rough and careless, and no one would ever treat a traitor’s daughter with anything resembling tenderness. Every time they threw me out, I was covered in wounds. The worst time, I lay in the snow through an entire night and nearly did not survive it. My body was a map of bite marks and lash scars without a single unmarked patch of skin. The pain reached all the way into my bones, but I had no choice except to endure it in silence. No one cared how badly a worthless omega was hurt. I had thought about dying, more than once. But I could not. My younger sister Mia had been exiled alongside me. Her wolf had not yet awakened, and her body had been weakened by the silver dust that seeped into her blood the night our pack was destroyed, slowly eating through her healing ability from the inside. As long as I stayed alive and kept these wolves satisfied, I could earn enough to keep her going. I smoothed the pain out of my expression and gave Beta Shev a slow, seductive smile. “Tonight, whatever you want, I can give it to you.” Shev had already lost what little patience he had, and he scooped me up and headed for the door. In the next instant, someone seized my wrist and wrenched it hard. I cried out and fell, sprawling across the ground before I could rearrange my expression into something safe. Kael looked down at me with eyes full of vicious intent, and he drove his boot into me and sent me rolling across the floor. —
The taste of blood filled my mouth. I bit down and refused to let myself make a sound. After years of navigating these brutal border wolves, I knew better than anyone that crying and begging brought no mercy. It only made things worse. I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and let my smile grow more inviting. “So Alpha Kael likes it rough. I promise I can give you exactly what you want.” Kael fixed his crimson eyes on me without blinking. After a long pause, a cold smile surfaced at the edge of his mouth. He pressed his boot down on my chest and held me flat against the ground. “Leah. A few years gone, and you’ve sunk to this. I really did underestimate you.” Sunk. But when I had tried to die alongside my parents, he was the one who arranged everything and made sure I ended up thrown into the border outpost instead. I still remember kneeling in front of my parents’ bodies and begging him to give me a clean death, while he wrapped his hand around my throat and let his smile go cold. “Die? It won’t be that easy.” “Your father destroyed my entire pack, but he left me alive, and then played the generous savior by taking me in and bringing me into Red Moon Pack, forcing me to swallow my rage every single day while the hatred ate me alive.” “He wouldn’t give me the mercy of a quick end. So what gives you the right to die?” “Leah. Children pay the debts of their parents. I will make sure you can neither live in peace nor die in peace.” Now I was exactly what he had intended me to be, and yet he still looked at me with that disgust. Seeing that I kept my jaw locked and made no sound, the fury in Kael’s eyes deepened. He ground his boot harder against my chest, and the thin gauze I was wrapped in tore apart beneath it, leaving me exposed, the last scrap of dignity shredded along with the fabric. I reached to cover myself by instinct, but he grabbed me by the hair and wrenched me upright. Alpha Kael let his mouth curve in a cold, deliberate arc, his eyes full of cruelty. “Cover what? There’s no one in this room who hasn’t seen you like this before.” “Get on your knees. Let me see exactly how far you’ve fallen.” I ran my tongue over the bleeding corner of my mouth, then knelt at Alpha Kael’s feet with a look of perfect compliance, bending forward and pressing my face against his shoe like a broken stray. “Whatever Alpha Kael wants to do, I can take it.” “If you want me to be your dog, that works too. Why not have someone bring a chain and collar, and walk me around on a leash?” Kael gripped my jaw and forced my face up. His eyes were full of something I could not read. After a moment of silence, he raised his hand and struck me hard across the face. The corner of my eye split open and my vision flooded red. I smiled as though nothing had happened. “Does that feel better, Alpha Kael?” “If it’s still not enough, you could always have someone bring a whip.” Kael kept his face blank as he took the handkerchief a wolf guard held out and scrubbed the blood from his fingertips, his expression flat but his tone soaked in contempt. “Filthy. Leah, why don’t you just die.” I pulled one corner of my mouth up in something that was almost a laugh. “Alpha Kael seems to have forgotten. You’re the one who said I would be allowed neither peace in life nor rest in death.” “You were so afraid I might find a way to die that you had Mia sent here alongside me.” “And it was you who told the people here that if I ever died, she would take my place.” “Her wolf is unstable and the silver dust from the night our pack was destroyed is still in her blood, eating through her healing from the inside. The only reason she’s still alive is that the wolves here are reasonable enough to give me a few copper coins when I perform well, so I can buy her medicine.” “So how could I ever dare to disobey you? You have made sure I can neither live nor die on my own terms.” “If Alpha Kael feels any pity for me at all, why not let me serve you for a night. With your resources, whatever you give me will be more than what I earn from the others.” The moment the words left my mouth, a gold coin struck me across the face. —
The force of it was enough to leave half my face swollen and hot. But I did not cry. I smiled and bent down to pick up the gold coin, pressing it tight against my chest with both hands. The day Red Moon Pack was purged, I held my parents’ severed heads and wept until I nearly lost consciousness. I had no fight left in me then, only the single desperate wish to die. When the pack guards raised their blades toward me, I closed my eyes and refused to move out of the way. It was Nara, my father’s lover, who threw herself in front of me and took the blow with her own body. Her daughter Mia was right there beside us, screaming as someone tore her clothes from her body. Nara did not even look. She only held me tighter and reached up to wipe the tears from the corners of my eyes. “Leah, Alpha Howard and the Luna were always so kind to me. I have no way to repay that kindness except this.” “Please. If there is even the smallest chance of surviving, do not let it go.” I assumed she wanted me to survive for Mia’s sake, but her smile was full of a grief that ran too deep for that. “Your sister has always been sickly. If she dies, she dies. But you are different. You are the only one who can make sure this debt in blood is never forgotten.” I watched Nara be cut apart in front of me. She would not release her hold on me even at the very end. I could not leave a debt like that unpaid. So when I learned that Mia had not died, that she had been sent to the border outpost as well, I bit down until something cracked, and I let go of the idea of dying. I could be used and degraded until nothing clean remained. But I wanted Mia to live with her dignity intact. Alpha Kael would never know that a single gold coin thrown carelessly at my face was enough to keep Mia alive for half a year. Mia had been growing weaker by the day, and I could not afford the moonlight herbs that might have helped, so I could only brew ordinary herbs to keep her breathing a little longer. Every day Mia drank the medicine I made without complaint, smiling at me like nothing was wrong. But I knew she spent every night writhing in pain. I had already planned to do whatever it took today to satisfy the border warriors and earn enough for her medicine. I had not expected to walk straight into Alpha Kael. I pressed my forehead to the ground in practiced gratitude, gathered the coin, and began making my way toward the door on unsteady legs. Behind me came his voice, cold enough to stop blood. “Stop.” “When did I say that coin was yours to keep?” I turned around, numb all the way through, and when I saw the hatred in his eyes my whole body began to shake. I was still forming the words of a plea when the corner of his mouth curved into something amused. Alpha Kael reached over and picked up a meat cleaver, then sent it skidding across the floor to land at my feet. “You can keep the coin. But I should get something in return.” “I never operate at a loss. Since you are willing to do anything for money, how about this: one finger for one gold coin.” Kael and I had grown up together, and he knew I had always been afraid of pain. What he did not know was that after years at this border outpost, I had been pushed to the edge of death more times than I could count. The pain of losing a finger was nothing to me now. I picked up the cleaver and gave him a smile that had nothing behind it. “Alpha Kael is being so generous. I wonder, if I cut a few more, would you give me a few more coins?” While he stared in shock, I raised the cleaver without hesitating and took off three fingers in a single stroke. Blood poured out in a rush, but my smile did not waver. I held back the pain that flooded through my bones all the way to their roots and prepared to collect what I was owed. Then a soft, sweet voice drifted in from outside the door. “Kael, Ella has been waiting so long, I had to come find you myself.” My head snapped up and I found myself looking into a face I knew too well. Ella was dressed in fine, expensive clothing, barely resembling the girl from five years ago. She threw herself into Kael’s arms, and the look she directed down at me as she turned her gaze was full of triumph. “Leah. What are you doing here?” “What happened to your fingers? You’re bleeding so much. Kael, I’m scared.” Kael covered her eyes gently with his hand, and when he looked at me he made no effort to hide his revulsion. “Don’t look, Ella. It’s too filthy.” I could not hold back a laugh that came out wet with tears. When I had first been assigned to Kael, Ella was my personal attendant. The night our pack was destroyed, I was afraid of her being caught in the fallout, so I freed her from service, gave her everything I had, and told her to run as far as she could. She had not run at all. She had found her way into Kael’s pack, and into the place closest to his heart. The world turns in ways no one can predict. She was the one standing above me now. I looked away without expression and pressed my forehead to the ground in front of her. “Leah greets the Luna.” “This was Leah’s fault for frightening you. Please punish me however you see fit.” Ella bent and helped me up, her smile full of provocation beneath a mask of sweetness. “Leah, what a thing to say. How could I ever punish you?” “We shared so much together. When I was your servant I spent plenty of time being scolded by you.” “Seeing you end up somewhere like this, Ella truly hurts for you.” She reached out and took hold of my injured hand with a smile, and then squeezed it hard. Every nerve lit up at once and the pain nearly took me off my feet. On instinct I pushed her away. The force was nothing, but she staggered backward and went down hard, her hand landing directly on the blade and opening a shallow cut across her palm. Kael swept her into his arms, his eyes red at the edges with concern. He turned and drove his boot into my chest. “Leah. You are the lowest shared omega in this outpost, and you dare lay hands on what belongs to me. It seems I have been far too lenient with you.” —
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