Chapter 2: PACK DISGRACE

ALEX’S POV

I didn’t tell anyone what I’d seen.

Not the fifty men.

Not the crest of the Night Pack stitched across their sashes.

And definitely not the fact that I had understood the strange language that man had spoken.

By the time I got Shadow back to the stable, my hands were still shaking.

I had decided it was better to keep quiet.

Whatever business the Night Pack had in Lumere, it had nothing to do with me.

I already had enough problems to deal with.

I didn’t need to involve myself in whatever trouble they had brought with them.

Do you know what it was like to go hungry so your little sister could eat?

I did.

I’d had five years of practice.

I was in the kitchen when I found the piece of bread.

It was leftover from one of the food trays I’d cleaned up, and there was a little cheese embedded in it. It was stale, but I didn’t care.

I tore it into two pieces.

The bigger piece went into a small piece of cloth for Amy.

The smaller piece went into my pocket.

I’d eat it later.

I was already used to being hungry.

Today was my twentieth birthday.

I doubted anyone in the pack house even remembered.

My name is Alex, and if you’re wondering how a human ended up living in a wolf pack house, the answer was simple.

I was the daughter of the Alpha of this very pack.

My mother had been human.

She was one of the few humans who had survived the wars between wolves and humans. My father had found her, fallen in love with her, and decided that the rules of our world didn’t matter.

He had broken every rule for her.

And I had been born because of it.

The longer story was complicated, but I didn’t have time to think about it.

Not today.

I’d already nearly lost Shadow, and I certainly didn’t need to get into any more trouble.

I still had chores to finish.

I eventually found Amy crouched behind the pantry door.

The moment she saw me, her face lit up.

"Happy birthday, Alex."

She had a mouth full of cookies.

I stared at her.

"Amy."

She giggled.

Those were the cookies I’d smuggled to her earlier that morning.

I barely ate anymore, but whenever I managed to get something extra, I always gave it to her.

She needed it more than I did.

She suddenly threw her arms around me.

I hugged her back tightly.

My heart hurt every time I looked at her.

When she pulled away, she opened her little palm.

There was a white rose sitting in it.

"I got it for you," she said.

She smiled shyly.

"I know we don’t have much. But I know how much you like roses."

My eyes immediately filled with tears.

"Oh, Amy. You shouldn’t have."

White roses were difficult to find in Lumere, especially this close to the border with Duskmere.

I wondered where she had gotten it from.

But she was right.

They were my favorite.

"Thank you."

I took the rose from her and twirled it between my fingers.

For a moment, I forgot about everything.

The Night Pack.

The strange man with the cold blue eyes.

The way he had looked at me.

The way he had spoken in Faeskoll without knowing that I could understand him.

For that one little moment, none of it mattered.

I was twenty years old.

And this was the only birthday gift I needed.

"Here," I said, reaching into my pocket. "I got you something too."

I pulled out the piece of bread I’d saved for her.

Before I could give it to her, the pantry door flew open.

Gale stood there.

Her arms were crossed, and her eyes immediately went to the white rose in Amy’s hand.

She gasped.

"Is that my white rose?"

Before either of us could respond, she snatched it from Amy.

I stared at her.

Of course.

Gale had always been like this.

Once, she had been my best friend.

I had trusted her.

I would have shared anything I had with her.

But that was before my father died.

Before she took Shadow from me.

Before she married my stepbrother.

She had taken the things I loved one after another, and somehow, she always seemed happier afterward.

Apparently, the rose was next.

I stepped in front of Amy.

Gale’s mouth dropped open.

"You little bitch! How dare you steal from me?"

"I didn’t steal it," Amy said from behind me. "It was on the floor. I just picked it up."

Gale’s face twisted with anger.

"You little thief. I’ll slap those words right out of you."

She moved toward Amy.

I immediately shoved her back.

She stumbled and fell onto the floor.

"Don’t you dare lay a finger on my sister," I warned.

Gale stared at me in shock.

"Or you’ll regret it."

Before she could respond, Luna Elizabeth’s voice came from behind us.

"What," she said coldly, "is going on here?"

I turned.

Luna Elizabeth stood in the doorway, staring at her daughter-in-law on the floor.

Gale immediately got to her feet.

"She hit me!"

She held up the crushed rose.

"I caught them stealing the roses Trent bought me for the Gala, and then she attacked me."

Luna Elizabeth looked at me.

The hatred in her eyes was something I had become used to seeing.

When my father was alive, she had at least pretended to tolerate me.

After he died, she stopped pretending.

She and Trent, along with Peaches, had taken control of the pack house.

And they had made sure I knew exactly where I stood.

"I’ve always known how much of a miserable brat you are," she said.

She looked me up and down.

"You still think your father is alive? You still think you deserve special treatment here?"

I didn’t answer.

I didn’t have to.

Because at that exact moment, the piece of bread I’d hidden in my sleeve slipped out and landed on the floor.

Gale’s eyes immediately widened.

"That’s bread from my tray!"

She pointed at it.

"She stole my food too!"

I felt Amy’s little fingers grab the back of my skirt.

Luna Elizabeth stared at the bread.

Then she looked at me.

I knew that look.

I knew exactly what was coming.

She turned toward the two she-wolf guards standing outside.

"Grab the little brat this time."

My heart dropped.

"Since Alex won’t listen, perhaps when her sister receives ten strokes of the cane, she’ll finally have a rethink."