Chapter 1

Isolde's POV

Where the hell was he?

I glanced at my phone for what felt like the hundredth time this morning, my fingers hovering over Kieran's name in my contacts. He'd promised to pick me up for our date at ten, and it was already past noon. This wasn't like him at all.

"Damn it, Kieran," I muttered, hitting the call button again.

The familiar automated voice informed me that the person I was calling was unavailable. Again. I tossed my phone onto my bed, frustration building in my chest like a pressure cooker about to explode.

Something's wrong, Lyra, my wolf, whispered in my mind. She'd been restless all morning, pacing in my consciousness.

I grabbed my keys and leather jacket, making my way downstairs. The house was unusually quiet for a Saturday, with most of the staff having the day off. Our once-impressive mansion in Emerald Valley District had seen better days. The crystal chandeliers that nobody dusted anymore, the antique furniture that was slowly being sold off piece by piece to cover my father's mounting debt—all painful reminders of our family's declining fortunes.

As I crossed the expansive living room with its fading grandeur, I heard her voice.

"Isolde!"

I froze, my shoulders tensing instantly. Taking a deep breath, I turned around to face my stepmother, her perfectly manicured nails tapping impatiently against her designer handbag—probably the last luxury item my father had bought her before Silver Moon Group started calling in their loans.

"Yes, ma'am?" I replied, the word "mom" never making it past my lips despite my father's insistence that I should call her that. As if a title could make her anything more than the woman who destroyed my parents' marriage.

"Go get Sybilla. I have something to tell her," she commanded, her eyes narrowing as she noticed my jacket and keys.

"Could you ask one of the staff to do it? I'm heading out. It's urgent."

Her perfectly sculpted eyebrows shot up. "Are you disobeying me?"

The threat in her voice was unmistakable. I knew exactly where this was heading—straight to my father's office with a completely distorted version of what had happened.

"No, I'm not... I was just saying—"

"Wait until your father hears about this," she said with a smirk, turning away.

"Fine! I'll get her," I called out, unable to look at the triumphant smile that I knew was spreading across her face.

My anxiety about Kieran intensified as I climbed the stairs leading to Sybilla's wing of the house. I tried his number again, the knot in my stomach tightening when it went straight to voicemail.

As I approached Sybilla's bedroom door, I heard sounds that made me freeze in my tracks. Moaning. Specifically, Sybilla's moaning, punctuated by breathy words.

"Oh my god, you're going to make me come!"

I stood there, paralyzed, as Lyra suddenly went on high alert within me.

"Why don't you break up with my sister and date me instead?" Sybilla's voice came through the door, clear as day. "I'm Dad's favorite. If you marry me, your chances of becoming the alpha of this pack are so much higher than if you marry Isolde."

My heart skipped a beat when I heard the male voice respond.

"I'm not doing this because I want to become alpha, Sybilla. I just love who you are. Your personality draws me in. You're the one I want to spend my life with."

Kieran. It was Kieran's voice.

"Don't say that. I know it's because I'm better at this," Sybilla giggled.

My head suddenly spun. My heartbeat thundered in my ears like a war drum. Kieran's last words cut through me like the cruelest of blades, piercing my heart. My chest heaved as my breathing became rapid and heavy.

Without thinking, I pushed the door open with such force that it slammed against the wall. My vision tunneled as I took in the scene before me—Kieran and Sybilla scrambling to cover themselves with the tangled sheets. Kieran's face drained of color like he'd seen a ghost.

"Oh, really?" I said, my voice shaking, tears threatening to fall as the star-shaped birthmark on my right shoulder burned with my emotions.

"Isolde, please let me explain! This isn't what you think!" Kieran stuttered, panic written across his face.

Sybilla's expression shifted from shock to smugness in an instant. "Isolde, what are you doing in my bedroom? Didn't anyone teach you to knock?" Her pale green eyes glittered with satisfaction.

"Your mother sent me to get you," I said, struggling to keep my voice steady. "What are you doing fucking my boyfriend?"

"Just fucked him. What are you going to do about it?" Sybilla crossed her arms and smirked at me, her straight blonde hair cascading over her shoulders.

She turned to Kieran, her voice sickeningly sweet. "Come on, Kieran. Why don't you tell her right now, to her face, that you want to be with me because I'm better?"

This wasn't the first time they'd betrayed me—I could tell from the casual way they interacted. And it wasn't the first time Sybilla had taken something that belonged to me. Just like her mother had taken my father from my mom. Dad hadn't allowed my mother to take me with her when she left, claiming she was "mentally unstable." He never declared her a traitor, but he never looked for her either. I'd always been an outsider in my own home in Emerald Valley.

"You're pathetic, Sybilla," I spat. "You like stealing other women's men, just like your mother. Like mother, like daughter, right?"

Sybilla's eyes narrowed. "You and your mother are both losers who can't keep a man! Men always know who's better."

"Really? Or is he only with you because you can offer him connections to Silver Moon now that your mother has Dad wrapped around her finger?"

"That's exactly what I can offer, and I'm proud of it," Sybilla sneered. "What about you? What could you offer him if he stayed with you? You're nothing, Isolde! Don't you see? All this time, you thought you were better than me because you have a college degree and those stupid fighting awards, but guess what? I've proven time and again that I'm better than you. I'm Dad's favorite child, your friends like me better, and your Kieran is happier with me. You have no value because you never learned how to please a man!"

Her words stabbed like countless knives into my self-esteem. I recognized her gaslighting for what it was, but it still hurt. This had to be a nightmare. I should be able to wake up from it.

"Isolde, please, let me explain..." Kieran reached out toward me.

I stepped back, my voice suddenly calm and firm. "We don't need to have any conversation, Kieran. I can see you've made your choice. Congratulations."

"I—" he began, but was interrupted by the chime of my phone.

A text notification appeared on the screen. From my father.

"I have a message from Dad," I announced, my voice hollow as I read the screen. "He needs both of us in his office immediately. Representatives from Silver Moon Group have arrived."

Sybilla leaped off the bed with lightning speed and rushed into the bathroom, her blonde hair flying behind her.

My heart raced with foreboding. Silver Moon Group—On paper, they were a Fortune 500 company with interests spanning real estate, technology, and finance—a global conglomerate. But those of us with wolf blood knew the truth: Silver Moon was the public face of the most powerful werewolf organization in existence, a network controlled by ancient bloodlines that secretly dominated the modern business world.. Something major was about to happen, and whatever it was, it couldn't possibly make this day any worse.

Could it?