I stood at the back of the ceremony hall and watched Una’s world burn. Every confused gasp from the crowd, every horrified whisper, every accusing stare was a jolt of pure, delicious pleasure. This was better than I had ever imagined. So much better. The bruises on my face throbbed, a dull ache beneath the skin. The pain was a grounding force, nothing compared to the triumphant satisfaction bubbling in my chest. I’d done this to myself, slamming my own face against the cold tile of the bathroom wall until my cheek split and bloomed with color. I’d ripped the silk of my own dress, torn at my carefully styled hair. Each injury was a deliberate, calculated investment. And it was worth it. At the altar, Una stood frozen in my wedding dress, her face the color of bone. She looked as if she might be sick, and I savored the sight. Good. She should feel sick. She should be choking on the same terror and humiliation she’d forced on me my entire life, simply by existing. Most would call me the villain in her story, I’m sure. They’d see me as cruel to poor, sweet Una for no reason at all. But they didn’t understand. They hadn’t seen their mother’s face crumble with shame when their father brought home his pregnant, fated mate. They weren’t five years old, suddenly expected to call some strange Omega woman their stepmother. They hadn’t watched their own mother, a proud Chieftainess, be reduced to a discarded trophy. I remembered that day with perfect, searing clarity. Father’s clipped, unapologetic tone. My mother’s face. The way she tried to hold herself together for my sake, but I saw the cracks spreading across her composure like ice. She had been the Chieftainess of this pack. She had stood by my father’s side for years, had given him a daughter, had done everything a Chieftainess was meant to do. And in an instant, none of it mattered, all because some Omega appeared with a shimmering mate bond between them. The worst part was how everyone expected us to simply accept it. To smile and nod and welcome the interloper and her parasite child into our home as if they belonged. Every night, I prayed for them to die. I prayed the childbirth would go wrong, that the baby would be stillborn. I prayed for anything, a sickness, an accident, that would send them away and restore my mother to her rightful place at my father’s side. But Una survived, even if her mother didn’t—not for long. She came into the world small and fragile, with enormous doe eyes that ensnared everyone. Even as an infant, she was a magnet for attention. Pack members would coo over her in Father’s arms while my mother and I stood off to the side, forgotten. Una’s mother lingered for a few years, her weak constitution finally giving way. And when she passed, it wasn’t Father who was left to grieve alone. It was Mother and I, saddled with raising her child under the pitying gaze of a pack that no longer saw us. I thought, at the very least, Una would be born a Chieftainess. That would have been the final, bitter insult: the daughter of a common Omega holding a rank to rival my own. But fate, in one small mercy, made her an Omega, just like her pathetic mother. Weak. Submissive. Beneath me. Surely, that would be enough. My position was secure. I was the Chieftainess’s daughter, the pride of Brackenridge. I would make a powerful match and bring honor to our pack. Una would fade into the background, a footnote where she belonged. But she didn’t fade. That was the thing about Una that drove me to madness. No matter what I did to her, no matter how viciously I tore her down, she simply refused to break. She possessed a confidence that made no sense for an Omega. She should have been meek, quiet, desperate for approval. Instead, she walked through our halls with her head held high, as if she had every right to be there. And people loved her for it. They called her beautiful. Not in the way I was, of course. I had the classical features, the perfect symmetry, the elegant bearing of a true Chieftainess. Una had a plain, simple prettiness that people found… approachable. Comfortable. They gravitated toward her in a way they never did with me. I tried everything to shatter that infuriating confidence. I spread rumors. I made sure she was excluded from every important social gathering. I made cutting remarks about her and her dead mother. I reminded her, at every opportunity, that she was the daughter of the second wife, the usurper, the Omega who had ruined my mother’s life. Nothing worked. She just kept smiling that serene little smile, refusing to hate me for it. Then she found her fated mate. Liam. He was a Fian, nobody of consequence. Just another warrior with sculpted muscles, a passable face, and, I would later discover, a ten-inch cock. But he was her fated mate. The Moon Mother herself had supposedly chosen them for each other. And just like that, Una had something I didn’t: a cosmic, undeniable connection that made her special. I was eighteen and mateless, forced to watch my younger half-sister flaunt her destined partner around the pack. The injustice of it was a physical ache. Watching the way they looked at each other, knowing they shared a bond I might never experience, was intolerable. It wasn’t fair. None of it had ever been fair. So I decided to take him from her. It was shockingly easy. Liam wasn’t nearly as devoted as he pretended to be. A few lingering glances, some carefully placed touches, a few whispered suggestions that perhaps the mate bond wasn’t the only thing that mattered. He tumbled right into my bed. The sex was fine. Good, even. He was certainly skilled, and yes, the goddess Moon Mother had been generous with his anatomy. But the real pleasure, the intoxicating thrill, came from knowing I was defiling something that was meant to be hers. I had proven that her precious, sacred mate bond was meaningless in the face of what I could offer. Still, it wasn’t enough. Liam was just a Fian. Having him didn’t improve my standing or grant me any real power. If anything, sleeping with him was beneath me. I needed more. Then, when I was twenty-three, Stonehaven took a sudden interest in our pack. Alpha Declan. Everyone knew his name, his reputation. Cruel, powerful, dangerous. His pack was one of the strongest in the region, and an alliance with them would change everything for Brackenridge. It would elevate us from a struggling border pack to a force to be reckoned with. And of all the packs in the world, he wanted a bride from ours.

Chapter 4: A Calculated Revenge