Chapter 1The day I went to meet Kieran's parents at the Stormclaw Pack house, his mom laid out a whole table of raw meat.
Blood-rare steaks, organ meats, bone marrow—all the traditional wolf stuff that made my human stomach turn.
I was one of the few human mates in their pack's history, and being pregnant on top of that didn't help. Just looking at it made me nauseous. I barely touched anything.
I made up some excuse about work and got out of there fast, feeling their wolves' judgment the whole time.
Kieran sent a message through our partial bond: [I suddenly don't want to complete the marking anymore. Let's think about it. I only agreed to this because the pup came out of nowhere.]
The next day, I waited at the Elder's Hall until moonrise. Kieran never showed.
Briar posted on Instagram: [Couldn't even pass a simple pre-marking test... embarrassing. I'd never be one of those desperate humans trapping an Alpha with a pregnancy.]
She'd attached a photo of two hands clinking wine glasses. The guy's hand had this crescent-shaped scar on the knuckles.
I knew that scar anywhere—Kieran Stormclaw. When we were dating, I used to trace it with my fingers, calling it his battle mark.
So he was with Briar right now. My half-sister. Even his mom's sudden hostility was all part of some loyalty test.
As for the pup in my belly?
To them, was it just a trap to force an Alpha to stay?
But when we first found out about this pup, Kieran had held me so gently, his wolf purring under his skin, promising to be my mate for life.
If the pup's grandparents and father could all side with an outsider just to test their future human pack member—
And ignore their own grandpup's future instead of building a solid pack family with me—
Then I didn't want it anymore either.
That afternoon, I contacted a neutral clinic and scheduled a termination. I blocked Kieran's number and cut off all contact with the Emberfell pack.
I didn't forget to call my supervisor either and accept the transfer to the European branch.
When I got home that night, my mom called. Over and over.
After I hung up, she kept calling back. I only answered when my hands stopped shaking.
"Kieran told me everything. They were just testing you. It's tradition in high-ranking packs."
"I made a new group chat. Don't hold a grudge."
"Apologize to the Stormclaws right now and let's just move past this."
"Briar even cried over how you acted. How can you be so immature!"
My mom, Wren Emberfell, still played the part of the grateful human who'd been "blessed" with a wolf mate, but what she was doing disgusted me even more than Kieran did today.
I really wanted to ask her—was there anything else in her head besides 'be grateful they let you in'?
She seemed to have forgotten how Briar's mom, Vex Nightshade, had seduced my dad and wrecked our family.
The illegitimate daughter she'd hated for years was now doing the exact same thing as her rogue mother.
She was destroying my bond before it even formed, and my mom said: This is just a test, and I'm the immature one?
I stayed quiet on the other end for a long time.
I just listened to my mom go on and on, lecturing me and dragging up old history.
"You've had this attitude since you were little. Who do you think is going to put up with a defiant human mate..."
"I'm telling you, getting treated like this by the Stormclaws today is exactly what you deserve."
She didn't care that I had a pup in my belly. Didn't care what time it was.
She just kept talking in circles, preaching submission and bringing up every time I'd ever questioned pack traditions.
I knew that without getting my answer and consent, she'd keep playing mediator, bargaining and guilt-tripping me forever.
But this time, I wasn't buying it.
Chapter 2
Briar sent me a video through DM—clearly recorded without me knowing.
She said she wanted to let me know the whole situation, that it was just a test, like playing a joke on me.
But watching the people in that video plot this whole thing made my blood run cold.
Ravenna Stormclaw cut in: "Nyx has such a nasty temper for a human. No way my future daughter-in-law is waking up before dawn to prep pack meals. She'll never adapt."
Briar laughed right along: "That's exactly why we need this loyalty test—break my sister's stubborn human pride. What do you say, Kieran?"
"Leave it to me. Mom, listen—she can't handle raw meat at all. So just serve the whole meal traditional style—blood-rare, organ meats, the works."
"She doesn't have any real food phobias, does she? If she did, we could've pushed those too."
Fenrir Stormclaw had a tiny bit of conscience left: "Forget pushing actual phobias. No need to go that far."
But then he added right away: "Still, I agree with you. This future pack member pushes back way too much on our ways. Imagine her raising our grandpup to reject wolf culture—who could accept that?"
I watched my mom speak up hesitantly in the video: "I'm not sure about this. I'm the one giving my daughter away, and she still has to go through a loyalty test?"
But when everyone turned to stare at her, she immediately backed down, shrinking.
"I'm not saying I'm against it. It's just... Nyx is stubborn as hell. I'm worried if we push too hard, she won't see it as tradition, and things could blow up."
Everyone went quiet for a second, but soon the Stormclaws went right back to planning the menu.
As they talked, they all treated it like some harmless joke, even though this was no playful pack ritual.
After watching quietly, my mom seemed to decide to go along with it too.
"It's fine, she's my daughter. No matter how mad she gets, she'll only lash out at me. Just do the test. Even if she pushes back, I'll talk her down."
Kieran's laugh rang out clear, mixing with Briar's. They sat so close in the frame that they looked like the perfect Alpha-Beta couple meeting the parents.
But my mom wasn't selling out her daughter for nothing: "I agreed to let my daughter go through your loyalty test, so you have to help get my son Flint into the pack timber business."
At that, Fenrir and Kieran exchanged a knowing look, both flashing smug smiles.
Honestly, I'd gotten used to it—the pack hierarchy rules, and my mom's blatant favoritism toward her wolf-blooded son.
I just thought that now, with me getting bonded and joining a new pack—
A normal mother would at least fight for her daughter's position and have my back.
She always said: "Mom gave you life, but your mate bond is a human woman's second chance."
The Stormclaw Pack used to hold a seat on the Regional Wolf Council, and Fenrir had been a high-ranking enforcer.
Later, when Kieran started his security company, his success came entirely from his family's pack connections.
So when I first met Kieran in college, she kept pushing me to lock down this powerful Alpha mate ASAP.
She even changed her old ways of controlling and criticizing me.
She stopped limiting my freedom, gave me more space, even bought me clothes that weren't the conservative stuff she usually insisted on.
Deep down, I held onto hope for my mom, believing she still loved me. People grow and change—she was young when my dad broke her, and she wouldn't forever be the mom who taught me to accept scraps.
But I endured it all until today, until this moment, to finally see the truth.
Turns out in her eyes, my disappointing brother's spot in a pack business mattered way more than my bond.
The people in the video reached a unanimous decision.
Briar saw I was quiet and hadn't replied.
She sent me a message.
[Haven't finished watching yet?]
[I told you it was just a loyalty test. You're young too—don't be such a sore loser.]
If I'd known, I would've just gone to work today.
Why did I have to lose my perfect attendance bonus just for a bonding ceremony with Kieran?
But I'll have to take another day off tomorrow.
The unwanted pup in my belly, just like me, still needs to be taken care of.
One last time.
Chapter 3
Early the next morning, my mom showed up at my door with breakfast.
She immediately started playing the caring mother.
"Mom, I'm not eating breakfast today."
"How can you skip breakfast? Still mad about yesterday?"
I didn't tell her about the termination appointment—I knew she'd lose it—so I just said I was meeting friends and would grab something later.
"You're not working today?"
"Ugh, you should've told me earlier. I could've had Kieran take you to the Elder's Hall today. He's got Council business though—Alpha duties come first, you know. Guess the bonding will have to wait."
Looking at her, I felt like I was staring at a stranger.
Or maybe I just never really knew her at all.
And honestly? I don't want to anymore.
Seeing my blank expression, she switched tactics and went full guilt-trip mode.
"I'm doing this for you! You're pregnant now. Even if times are different, it still looks bad for a human to be carrying an Alpha's pup unmarked. And you're so damn stubborn."
"The bonding can happen later. We're all pack anyway."
I cut in, annoyed. "Does Flint really need them that badly for the timber job?"
"Not really. He's just a low-level worker. Even if he does well, it's a few thousand a month plus a small bonus."
I laughed bitterly. "Right. So he could work anywhere."
"It's not the same! The Stormclaws have connections to help him move up. He's not like you—you can handle anything."
Then she caught herself, realizing how bad that sounded—how obvious her favoritism was. She backtracked fast. "I'm just thinking about both of you, you know."
With that, she made some excuse and bolted.
I'd scheduled the termination for early morning anyway, so I couldn't eat. Plus, the so-called "motherly love" sitting on my counter was just frozen crap from a chain breakfast place.
On my way out, I changed the door code and deleted her fingerprint.
She barely visited anyway. This morning, she'd tried the wrong code three times before calling to wake me up. I'd snapped, "Can't you just use your fingerprint?"
She'd said, "I forgot which finger you saved."
If it wasn't for the Kieran situation, she wouldn't be playing doting mom at all.
I bet after today, she'll conveniently forget the code and fingerprint again next time.
Before she left, I couldn't stop myself from asking one last thing.
"Mom, when I was little, I used to wonder if you were really my biological mother. But I grew up looking exactly like you, so I stopped asking."
"Now I'm still curious though. We're both human women mated into wolf packs, but you don't seem to feel anything for me. Don't you see that I'm just another version of you?"
She didn't get it. Didn't want to. She just sighed while putting on her shoes.
Looking at me like I was a bratty kid throwing a tantrum, she said, "You're still giving me grief over that loyalty test."
I said, "Yeah. Just because of that test."
But I wouldn't be fighting with her anymore after this.
I knew she'd never try to understand me. If she could, she would've woken up a long time ago.
Over ten years ago, my dad's pack won some territory dispute. The settlement gave him three properties and over two million.
Just when we thought life would finally be good, Dad suddenly confessed he had a rogue wolf on the side—and they had a daughter.
He said, "I can't just abandon them."
Right after he moved that woman into our neighborhood, Mom—desperate to prove herself—went through fertility treatments at her age and gave birth to a son. A wolf-blooded son.
But Dad's heart was already gone. He barely came home. Eventually, just so Briar could get into a good school district,
he convinced Mom to agree to severing their bond, promising they'd re-bond once Briar's schooling was sorted.
That re-bonding never happened. That's when Mom slowly realized she'd been dumped.
I was seven, just starting first grade. I was asleep when Dad made one of his rare visits home.
Mom grabbed a kitchen knife, putting on a whole show like she was ready to fight him to the death.
He beat her bloody. I ran over and grabbed his leg, but he shoved me off. I crashed into the wall and got a huge lump on my head.
My little brother doesn't remember any of this—he was just a baby crying in his crib.
After Dad left,
Mom yanked me up, slapped me across the face over and over, and asked with this twisted, scary look:
"Why didn't you try harder for Mommy? When Daddy was beating me, you should've taken the knife and cut yourself!"
Terrified, I just kept repeating, "Mommy, I'll make lots of money when I grow up! I'll be so good! Please don't leave me!"
"Please! Don't leave me!"
That terror haunted me for the next twenty-plus years.
Whenever I finally felt numb, or even started to feel safe for a second, it would crawl back into my dreams to remind me.
And because I was so obedient and scared,
Mom got to have the perfect, dutiful daughter.
I never dared ask her for money—every cent came with strings.
I didn't dare embarrass her either. I couldn't even let my grades drop below Briar's, because that would make it look like her human kid was weaker than Vex Nightshade's half-wolf daughter.
Dad refused to give us money, only tossing over pathetic child support.
So I scraped by. My worst month, I survived on just over two hundred for everything.
At school, I lived on free soup and rice. A teacher finally questioned Mom, and she claimed I was just "too considerate" and she felt bad for me.
Yeah, I felt so bad for her. But she never seemed to feel the same for me.
Some of the older pack members pitied me as I got thinner while my wolf-blooded brother got more spoiled.
They'd ask Mom, "How can you stand seeing your daughter so skinny?"
She couldn't answer, so she'd just cry and say I didn't like to eat.
But I didn't dare eat. Didn't even dare take an extra piece of meat.
"Save it for your brother. He needs it for his wolf."
My eyes would burn, but I couldn't say a word.
After the pack members left, Mom would slap me a few times.
"What are you crying for in front of pack?"
From that day on, I barely cried at all.
I found another way to lie to myself—telling myself I couldn't hate my mother.
I always thought Mom just had it too hard, so I needed to be understanding.
But I've been understanding for over twenty years.
She's used to it now. Assumes I'll definitely be understanding this time too.
