Chapter 1 Blood and Ashes
Hazel
I slammed the door so hard the glass trembled in the frame. My hands were shaking. My throat burned. I couldn’t believe she was actually doing this.
“You can’t just sell me off like some—some freaking object!” I yelled, backing away from the woman who was supposed to protect me.
Aunt Rina didn’t flinch. Arms crossed, face carved from stone. “Watch your tone, Hazel. You should be grateful someone wants you at all.”
Grateful?
I stared at her like she’d grown horns. My heart thundered against my ribs, drowning out everything else. “Grateful to be handed over to some stranger like a sacrifice? What is wrong with you?”
“He’s not just some stranger.” Her voice dropped like a blade. “He’s an Alpha. And if you disrespect him, you’re dead. If we don’t give you up, we’re all dead.”
A hard chill broke down my spine.
She was serious.
I turned toward the window. The long black car was still waiting at the curb like something out of a nightmare. The man beside it didn’t move, didn’t blink. Just watched.
“I’m not even a wolf,” I whispered. “Why would an Alpha want me?”
Her silence said it all.
Then she muttered the words that crushed everything inside me:
“That’s exactly why this is happening.”
My stomach twisted. The floor swayed. I stumbled back from her, shaking my head. This couldn’t be real.
“You told me I was safe here,” I said, my voice cracking. “You said you’d look after me.”
“I did,” she snapped. “I took you in when your parents were killed. I fed you. I let you live here. But now I need something back.”
“Need something?” My voice sharpened. “What could you possibly—”
“I’m infected,” she hissed. “Bitten two nights ago by a rogue wolf. I won’t last another week. They said if I offered you to the Alpha, he’d give me the antidote. That’s the deal. Your life for mine.”
I froze.
She’d sold me… to live?
Tears stung my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Not in front of her.
“You’re a monster,” I whispered.
She just stepped aside, pointing toward the door. “Your ride is waiting.”
---
The drive to the Alpha’s mansion was silent. Cold. Too long and somehow not long enough.
When the car finally stopped, the driver opened the door without a word. I stepped out into a world that didn’t feel like mine anymore.
The mansion loomed over me like something alive — all stone and shadow and iron gates. And on the steps, watching me like a predator waiting for the right moment to strike, stood him.
The Alpha.
Black hair. Cold eyes. A presence that swallowed the air around him. My legs nearly buckled.
“Hazel,” he said, like he already owned me.
I lifted my chin. “I’m not yours.”
One corner of his mouth curved. Not a smile — a warning.
“Not yet.”
***
My mark burned that night.
I didn’t know it yet, but something inside me was waking up.
And Alphas?
They don’t take what’s theirs gently.
***
