MIRA'S POV
The blood wouldn't come off.
I scrubbed harder, my knees aching against the cold marble floor. The soap burned the cuts on my hands, but I didn't stop. I couldn't stop. If Alpha Magnus saw even one red stain on his precious packhouse floors, I'd go without dinner again. Maybe breakfast too.
Fourteen days. Just fourteen more days until my eighteenth birthday. Until my wolf finally came. Until I could run so far that no one here would ever hurt me again.
"Still cleaning, omega?"
My stomach dropped. I knew that voice. Cold. Mean. Dangerous.
Darius Ashenclaw stood in the doorway. The future Alpha. The worst of them all. Blood dripped from his training clothes onto my clean floor.
"Almost done," I whispered, keeping my eyes down. Never look an Alpha heir in the eyes. That was rule number one.
"You missed a spot." He walked forward, his boots leaving bloody footprints across everything I'd just cleaned. On purpose. Always on purpose.
My hands shook, but I grabbed my brush again. "Yes, Alpha."
"Don't call me that yet." He crouched down next to me, so close I could smell the sweat and violence on him. "I'm not Alpha until my father dies or steps down. And he's going to live forever, isn't he?"
I didn't answer. Darius's questions were always traps.
His hand shot out and grabbed my chin, forcing my face up. His ice-blue eyes burned into mine. "I asked you a question, omega."
"Y-yes. The Alpha will live long," I stammered.
For a second, something strange crossed his face. Something almost like... pain? But then it was gone, replaced by the usual cruelty.
"Two weeks," he said softly. Too softly. "That's when you turn eighteen, right? When your useless wolf is supposed to show up?"
My heart hammered. How did he know? I'd been so careful not to tell anyone.
Darius smiled, but it wasn't nice. "Did you think I didn't know? I know everything about this pack. Including when the traitor's daughter thinks she's going to run."
"I'm not—"
"Shut up." He squeezed my chin harder. "You think your wolf will save you? You're weak, Mira. You've always been weak. That's why your parents died."
Tears burned my eyes, but I wouldn't let them fall. I wouldn't give him that satisfaction.
"My parents weren't traitors," I whispered, my voice breaking.
Darius's eyes flashed with something dark and angry. For a moment, I thought he might hit me. But instead, he just shoved me backward. My head cracked against the floor, and stars exploded in my vision.
"Clean this up before dinner. And Mira?" He looked back at me from the doorway. "Don't bother dreaming about freedom. You'll never leave this pack. My father will make sure of that."
Then he was gone.
I lay there on the cold, bloody floor and let myself remember. Just for a moment.
I was eight years old, watching from behind a tree. Mama held Papa's hand on the execution platform. They weren't crying. They looked... peaceful.
"The traitors will die," Alpha Magnus announced to the whole pack. "This is what happens when you betray your Alpha."
"We didn't—" Papa tried to say, but a guard hit him.
Mama's eyes found mine through the crowd. She smiled. Actually smiled. Then she mouthed three words: "We love you."
The silver blade came down.
I opened my mouth to scream, but someone's hand covered it. "Quiet, little one. Or you'll be next."
I shook the memory away and stood up. My head throbbed where I'd hit the floor, but I'd had worse. I always had worse.
I finished cleaning just as the dinner bell rang. My stomach growled, but I wasn't allowed to eat with the pack. Omegas ate after everyone else, if there was anything left.
Usually, there wasn't.
I was heading toward the kitchen to wait when I heard it. Voices coming from Alpha Magnus's office. The door was cracked open just a little.
"The girl turns eighteen in two weeks," the Alpha said. His voice made my skin crawl. "That's when she'll shift for the first time."
"And if she's really what you think she is?" That was Elena, the Beta's daughter. Darius's girlfriend. She hated me almost as much as he did.
"Then everything changes." Alpha Magnus laughed, low and scary. "A White Wolf hasn't been born in three hundred years, Elena. With that kind of power under my control, I could rule every pack in the country. Maybe the world."
My blood turned to ice.
White Wolf? What was he talking about?
"But what if she runs?" Elena asked. "What if her wolf is strong enough to escape?"
"She won't get the chance. I've made sure of that." Papers rustled. "I've already arranged everything. The moment she shifts, the silver chains go on. She'll belong to this pack—to me—forever."
"What about your sons? What if one of them—"
"That's been handled too. The witch confirmed the bonds are blocked. Even if Mira is their fated mate, they'll never feel it. Never know. And by the time the curse wears off, it won't matter. She'll already be mine."
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Fated mate? Blocked bonds? White Wolf?
What were they talking about?
"Sir, she's walking past the hallway," a guard's voice suddenly called out.
Footsteps rushed toward the door.
I ran. My heart pounded so loud I thought it might explode. I didn't know where I was going, just away, away, away.
But I wasn't fast enough.
Alpha Magnus's hand caught the back of my shirt, yanking me backward so hard I fell.
"Well, well," he said, smiling down at me like a wolf that just caught a rabbit. "It seems we need to have that talk a little earlier than planned."
He grabbed my arm and dragged me toward his office.
"Let me go!" I tried to pull away, but he was too strong. "Please!"
"Seventeen years I've waited for this moment, Mira Thornwood." His eyes gleamed with something hungry and terrible. "Did you really think I killed your parents for no reason? They were hiding something. And now..."
He threw open his office door. Inside, silver chains hung from the walls.
Waiting for me.
"Now," Alpha Magnus whispered in my ear, "you're going to tell me everything you know about White Wolves. Even if I have to beat it out of you."
The door slammed shut behind us.
And I realized with horrible, crushing certainty: I wasn't going to make it to my eighteenth birthday after all.