PlotlumeI am the blood-bonded mate of Leon, the werewolf tycoon, and we have been estranged for years.
I live in seclusion in a Manhattan penthouse, and over time, more and more society heiresses have gathered around him.
Then his mistress, who died in an accident, entrusted her half-werewolf pup to me as she was dying.
The little girl tugged at the hem of my dress and called me, in a soft little voice, "Mommy."
That one word was all it took. My heart melted.
Years ago, because of Leon's enemies and the people around him, I lost my own child, and I could never have another.
So I decided to keep her with me for company.
But those reckless new favorites of his were sure I had long since been stripped of any real power as the pack's Luna.
At a party on the estate, they called the little girl the castoff's pet and sent her home in tears with a dog collar buckled around her coat.
"Her castoff mother doesn't even dare leave the house. What's she going to do about it?"
That day, I, who never left my home, did something nobody expected.
I put on my heels, stormed into the ballroom and slapped every face I saw.
I think they'd had it too easy for too long, so long they forgot one fact—
The pack's true alpha female was only too lazy to bite. She wasn't dead.
1
Rain hammered on the tin roof of a cheap walk-up in the lowest part of Manhattan.
A human woman named Erin lay on a ragged mattress covered in blood. A werewolf hunter's poison was eating away her insides.
She clutched the hem of my trench coat. Her fingers were black with blood.
"Ma'am, six months ago when Lily came down with the werewolf fever, it was the medicine and silver charm you sent anonymously that saved her life."
"Please, have mercy one more time..."
I stepped back half a pace, pulled my coat free and stood in the shadows in the corner of the room.
"Erin, you've come to the wrong person."
"I moved off the pack's estate long ago. I've lived alone in my penthouse for five years."
"I don't even see Leon. I can't protect the love child he left behind after a drunken night."
Erin broke into a violent fit of coughing. Black blood poured from her throat and soaked the filthy blanket under her.
Just then, my private phone vibrated in my pocket.
The screen lit up with a video call from the pack family's head butler.
I answered, and at once I heard a symphony and laughter and clinking glasses.
Leon's childhood friend Veronica leaned into the frame holding a glass of champagne, a priceless pink diamond necklace around her neck.
"Selena, it's Leon's birthday party. Why are you hiding in your apartment playing dead again?"
"Oh, right, I forgot. You're a broken she-wolf who can't even hatch an egg. You'd only embarrass yourself at a party like this."
"I hear that cheap human whore Leon used to play around with is dying tonight, and she left a little half-breed bastard behind?"
Veronica swirled her glass at the camera, laughing until she shook.
"Selena, since you can't have kids anyway, why not take that whore's bastard home and raise it as a dog?"
"One jinx and one mongrel. You'd be perfect together!"
In the background, Leon stood surrounded by several heiresses from the big financial families.
He heard what Veronica said and, far from stopping her, raised his glass and took a sip, silently letting the insult stand.
"Veronica, that's enough. Don't spoil the air at my birthday."
Leon said it lightly, then turned to adjust the shawl of the heiress beside him.
I hung up.
Erin, on the mattress, had heard every word on the speaker. Her whole body convulsed.
With every ounce of strength she had left, she pushed the thin little girl huddled shaking in the corner of the bed toward my feet.
"Ma'am! All I ask is that Lily get to live as an ordinary werewolf!"
"If she falls into the hands of those women on the estate, they'll torture her to death!"
I avoided Erin's bloody outstretched hand and backed toward the door.
"The estate is full of society heiresses now. Giving the child to them would please Leon more."
"I don't want any more ties to the pack. Find someone else."
I turned and gripped the rusty doorknob.
Suddenly I felt the faintest tug at the hem of my coat.
The little girl who had been huddled shaking in the corner had crawled over.
The fuzzy wolf ears on top of her head drooped timidly. There were still scabs on them where the hunters had grazed her.
A warm little hand timidly hooked around my little finger.
"Mommy..."
The little girl lifted her dirty face and called to me in a soft little voice.
The warmth of her hand made me go rigid. In that moment the blood stopped moving in my veins.
"Mommy, don't leave Lily. Lily doesn't eat much. Lily can scrub the floors herself..."
On the bed, Erin's eyes suddenly flew wide open. A last rattle came from her throat, and she was gone.
Her stiff hand fell, and a solid silver birth tag, stained with blood, dropped to the floor and rolled to the toe of my high heel.
I looked down at the tiny letters engraved on the back of the tag, and my breath caught.