—- When they arrived to check on her, the Stormveil Packwalked into chaos. “You always loved me!” Eris had shouted at them. “So why did you send all your money to that bitch, Vera?!” Then she grabbed a blade. She stabbed Dax. He survived-but his healing was forever damaged. His wolf form slowed. His strength, dulled. That was when everything broke. Finally, my parents had to see her for who she really was. They cut her off. But Eris didn’t disappear. She found someone new to feed off. Cain.
He took her in. Despite everything, despite what he’d promised me. But she never told him she’d caught an STD from her reckless flings at Wolfsbane Academy. And she gave him her disease. —- Ina fit of rage, Cain killed her. Eris-once the darling of the family-died in blood. Dax was left broken. And Cain… imprisoned. I stared at the names in the report, but I felt nothing. I closed the file and turned back to my work. I didn’t return to Ashveil Pack.
I stayed at the outpost- where my strength was earned, not inherited. Here, I wasn’t just a shadow. I was Vera. The warrior they respected. The wolf who didn’t need to rely on anyone else. They gave me the space to grow, to rise as I always should have. They respected me-not because of my bloodline, but because of what I could do. When my name appeared in the trade reports, my family came to find me. They couldn’t even get past the gates. The guards turned them away. And so, they mourned.
The daughter they had tried to silence. —- The sister who had once begged for their love. The wolf they thought they controlled. They would mourn me forever- The one who no longer needed their name to rise.
