The door to my healing chamber burst open, and I knew peace was over.
Emily Bluey stood in the doorway, her face twisted with the kind of rage only a stepmother could perfect. I watched her from my bed, my body still aching from the silver bullets they had pulled out of me three days ago.
"There you are," she hissed, stepping inside. "Hiding like a coward while your family suffers."
I felt the temperature in the room shift. Alpha King Jack stood near the window with Richard, the pack healer, and two other wolves from his inner circle. I caught the way Jack's eyes turned cold, predatory. Emily had walked into the wrong room.
"You will leave here right now and come with me," Emily continued, ignoring everyone else. "The Keyamo pack brought the bonding ceremonial robes yesterday. You will marry their eldest son tomorrow morning. They are coming for you at dawn."
My stomach turned to ice.
"The Keyamo pack?" I whispered. "The drug runners?"
"You will do exactly what your father and I want because we gave you a home and shelter. We covered your mother's secret and raised you as our own. You owe us this debt, Aurora. The Keyamo wolves paid good money for a virgin bride, and you will not disgrace our family or make us homeless because you refuse to honor this arrangement."
Something inside me snapped.
"Stop your rattling, Emily Bluey." My voice came out stronger than I felt. "You are such a mean woman who thinks being cunning and scheming will always get you what you want. Can't you see my condition? I am in a healing bed after being shot. And the only thing that matters to you is marrying me off to some criminal pack? Do you have no shame?"
Richard stepped forward, but I kept going.
"If you and your husband took a loan from the Keyamo pack and you couldn't pay it, why use me to settle your debt? Are you insane? Do I look like cattle that can be sold off to the son of a notorious criminal? Marry your daughter Codysa off to pay your debt. I wasn't part of your family for over ten years. How can you come to me now and talk about marrying me off?"
Emily's face flushed red. "You must marry the person we choose for you. And I hope you are still a virgin, because he will prove your purity before the entire pack. Only after everyone sees the blood token will the debt be cancelled."
My vision blurred. "Water, please," I gasped.
Richard moved to help me, but Emily kept talking.
"You are coming with me right now, or I will expose your mother's secret. I will desecrate your mother's grave site in the pack cemetery. I will tell everyone what she really was."
That was the final straw.
"What secret?" I yelled. "I already know I am not a Bluey by blood. I know you both are not related to me. So what secret are you threatening me with? My mother died before my father married you. She must have told him something about my real father, and now you think you can use it against me?"
I grabbed the front of her dress and pulled her close, using every bit of strength I had left.
"But if you dare desecrate my mother's grave, I will kill you, Emily Bluey. And I will kill myself before the pack council catches me."
I bit down hard on her nose.
Emily screamed. "Somebody help me!"
I tasted blood but I did not let go. I bit harder, digging my human teeth into her flesh with all the rage I had been holding inside since my mother died.
"She's going to rip off my nose!" Emily shrieked. "Someone help me!"
I heard one of the wolves laugh. Good. Let them watch. Let them see what happens when you push someone too far.
"You can save her now," someone said. It sounded like Nonna, one of the female wolves.
But I pushed Emily away before anyone could reach us. Blood poured from her nose where my teeth had torn the skin. I spat blood onto her face once, then again.
"You can go desecrate my mother's grave now," I said quietly. "And you will feel the full heat of my wrath."
"Aria, calm down." Richard was there suddenly, pulling me into his arms. "You need to breathe."
"Mommy," I sobbed against his shoulder. "Mommy, I miss you."
"Throw this woman out of the healing ward," Jack's voice cut through the room like a blade. "And when you see her here again, treat her as a threat to the kingdom."
Two guards grabbed Emily by her arms and hauled her to her feet. She looked up then and saw Jack properly for the first time. All the color drained from her face. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out.
They dragged her toward the door.
"You must come and marry into the Keyamo pack!" Emily screamed as they pulled her down the hallway. "You must honor this arrangement!"
Her voice faded into the distance.
"You are bleeding, Aurora." Jack walked over to me. His hand touched my shoulder, and I felt the warmth of his palm through the thin fabric of my healing gown.
Richard checked my back where the bullet wound had been healing. "Your wound reopened. The stitches tore."
I did not care anymore. I held onto whoever was closest and let myself sob. My mother was gone. My stepfamily wanted to sell me like property. My real father was a mystery. And somewhere in this kingdom, the Keyamo pack was preparing for a wedding that would never happen.
"I need to use the restroom," I whispered when I could finally speak again.
Jack helped me stand and supported my weight as I walked slowly across the room. My legs felt weak. Everything hurt.
When I came back and lay down on the bed, I closed my eyes. I did not want to talk to anyone. I did not want to think about tomorrow or the Keyamo pack or the debt my stepfather owed.
But I could feel Jack's eyes on me, watching.
And somehow I knew that tomorrow would bring more trouble than even Emily could imagine.