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MY STEPFATHER'S SON IS MY FATED ENEMY
img img MY STEPFATHER'S SON IS MY FATED ENEMY img Chapter 2 The life-debt
2 Chapters
Chapter 6 Marked img
Chapter 7 The First Hunt img
Chapter 8 Alpha's Shadow img
Chapter 9 The Weight of Secrets img
Chapter 10 The Council's Call img
Chapter 11 Training Grounds img
Chapter 12 Echoes of another Omega img
Chapter 13 The Man in the Shadows img
Chapter 14 Fractures in the Pack img
Chapter 15 Fault Lines img
Chapter 16 The Gathering img
Chapter 17 Aftershocks img
Chapter 18 Fault Lines Deepen img
Chapter 19 Lines in the Sand img
Chapter 20 The Cost of Recognition img
Chapter 21 The Sanctum Burns img
Chapter 22 After the Fire img
Chapter 23 Crossing Boundaries img
Chapter 24 Ridgefall's Wound img
Chapter 25 Echoes Between Packs img
Chapter 26 The Network Begins img
Chapter 27 Pressure Points img
Chapter 28 False Hands img
Chapter 29 Fault Tolerance img
Chapter 30 Bruises No One Sees img
Chapter 31 The Shape of Resistance img
Chapter 32 The Blind Side img
Chapter 33 Familiar Faces img
Chapter 34 After the Truth img
Chapter 35 Cracks in the Mask img
Chapter 36 Open Woods img
Chapter 37 After the Applause img
Chapter 38 Unsteady Ground img
Chapter 39 The Way Back img
Chapter 40 Fault Lines img
Chapter 41 Pressure Points img
Chapter 42 The Cost of Staying img
Chapter 43 What Fills the Space img
Chapter 44 The Shape of Letting Go img
Chapter 45 After the Storm img
Chapter 46 New Weather img
Chapter 47 A Different Kind of Call img
Chapter 48 Between the Lines img
Chapter 49 Tension Without Teeth img
Chapter 50 When Momentum Finds Its Feet img
Chapter 51 The Quiet Work img
Chapter 52 What Remains Unsaid img
Chapter 53 The Things People Choose img
Chapter 54 The Shape of Belonging img
Chapter 55 The Long View img
Chapter 56 The Weight of Tomorrow img
Chapter 57 Rituals for What We Love img
Chapter 58 What We Carry Forward img
Chapter 59 When the Past Knocks Softly img
Chapter 60 The Next Question img
Chapter 61 Leaving Without Leaving img
Chapter 62 What Comes Back Wi img
Chapter 63 The Shape of Return img
Chapter 64 When Staying Changes Shape img
Chapter 65 The Cost of Being Known img
Chapter 66 The Fracture Line img
Chapter 67 The Space Between Influence and Control img
Chapter 68 When the Story Outgrows You img
Chapter 69 The Season That Didn't Break img
Chapter 70 The Weight of Quiet Power img
Chapter 71 The Season of Stepping Away img
Chapter 72 The Things That Surface in Silence img
Chapter 73 A Place That Doesn't Know Her Name img
Chapter 74 The Kind of Strength That Doesn't Announce Itself img
Chapter 75 When You Are No Longer the Center of the Lesson img
Chapter 76 The Pull You Don't Expect img
Chapter 77 Where Power Doesn't Blink img
Chapter 78 The Echo That Follows You img
Chapter 79 When the Path Turns Back img
Chapter 80 The Shape of Home img
Chapter 81 The Center That Moves img
Chapter 82 The Weight of Being Watched img
Chapter 83 When Influence Outruns Intention img
Chapter 84 The Tension That Doesn't Announce Itself img
Chapter 85 The Cost of Being Known img
Chapter 86 What Stays After You Leave img
Chapter 87 When the Storm Isn't Political img
Chapter 88 After the Water img
Chapter 89 The Winter Problem img
Chapter 90 The First Cold Week img
Chapter 91 The Quiet Fracture img
Chapter 92 The Long Middle of Winter img
Chapter 93 The Wolves at the Edge img
Chapter 94 The Story That Travels img
Chapter 95 The Argument Winter Brings img
Chapter 96 The Coldest Night img
Chapter 97 The Crack in the Ice img
Chapter 98 When the River Breaks img
Chapter 99 The Circle Grows img
Chapter 100 The Circle Changes img
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Chapter 2 The life-debt

Lily's hands curled into fists at her sides. "I don't owe you anything."

Derek leaned against her door, blocking the only exit. In the afternoon light streaming through the window, his gray eyes looked almost silver, wolf eyes, even in human form. "Pack law says different."

"Pack law?" Lily's voice rose. "You attacked Luna! You hurt her so badly she couldn't walk for weeks!"

Luna growled, positioning herself between them. Her hackles rose, and her lips pulled back to show sharp white teeth.

Derek's gaze dropped to the wolf, and something flickered across his face. Not fear, regret, maybe. Or something else Lily couldn't name.

"I know what you think happened that day," he said quietly. "But you're wrong."

"I saw you!" The words burst out of Lily before she could stop them. "I saw you standing over her with blood on your hands!"

"You saw half the story." Derek pushed off the door and took a step closer. Luna's growl deepened, but he ignored her. "Three years ago, in the north forest, you found your wolf wounded. You saw me nearby. You assumed I was the one who hurt her, so you attacked me with a branch and ran away. That's what you remember, right?"

Lily's throat tightened. That was exactly what she remembered, the worst day of her life, finding Luna bleeding in the leaves, seeing this boy standing there with his hands covered in blood.

"But here's what you didn't see," Derek continued. His voice stayed low, controlled, but intensity burned underneath it. "Two rogue wolves attacked Luna first. They were trying to kill her because companions are valuable, worth a fortune on the black market. I heard her crying and came running. I fought them off, got bitten and clawed in the process. When you showed up, I'd just finished driving them away. The blood on my hands was mine and theirs, not Luna's."

"Liar." But Lily's voice wavered.

Derek held up his left hand, showing her the scar that ran from his thumb to his wrist. "One of them bit me here. I needed twelve stitches. I still have the hospital records if you want proof."

Lily stared at the scar. It was deep, vicious, the kind of wound that would have bled heavily.

"You're making this up," she whispered.

"Am I?" Derek tilted his head. "Then explain why Luna's injuries were claw marks from multiple wolves, not from me alone. Explain why I never reported you for attacking me, even though you left me bleeding in the forest. Explain why I convinced my father not to hunt down the 'rogue omega with an illegal companion' when the pack doctors started asking questions about my wounds."

Each word hit like a physical blow. Lily's mind raced, trying to remember details from that awful day. Had there been other wolves? She'd been so focused on Luna, so terrified, that everything else had blurred together.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth then?" she demanded.

"You were gone before I could speak. By the time I tracked down where you lived, your mother had already moved you both into hiding." Derek's jaw tightened. "I've spent three years making sure no one connected you to that incident. Three years keeping your secret."

"Then why bring it up now? Why threaten me?"

"Because..." Derek stopped himself. He turned away, running a hand through his black hair in frustration. When he faced her again, something dangerous glinted in his eyes. "Because pack law is clear. I saved Luna's life. Whether you believe it or not, that's the truth. And that means you owe me a life-debt."

"That's not..."

"It is." His voice went hard. "My father is Alpha. If he finds out about this, he'll have no choice but to enforce pack law. The life-debt is real, Lily. You can pay it willingly, or I can make it official."

"Why do you even care?" Lily's voice cracked. "What could you possibly want from me?"

Derek crossed the room in two long strides. He stopped close enough that Lily could see gold flecks in his gray eyes, could smell pine and something wilder on his skin.

"One year," he said. "You serve as my assistant for one year. You do what I say, when I say it. In exchange, I keep your secrets, all of them. Your mother's failure to register you. Luna's existence. What really happened that day in the forest."

"Assistant?" Lily's mind reeled. "What does that even mean?"

"It means you help me with pack duties. School projects. Whatever I need." Derek's expression gave nothing away. "It's better than exile, which is what your mother faces if the council finds out she hid you."

The threat landed like a knife between Lily's ribs. Mom. Derek wasn't just threatening her-he was threatening the one person Lily loved most in the world.

"You're a bastard," she breathed.

"I'm a realist." Derek stepped back, giving her space again. "Our parents just got married. We're family now, whether we like it or not. This arrangement keeps everyone safe and happy. You do what I ask, and no one needs to know about the past."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then tomorrow I tell my father everything. He's a fair man, he'll investigate. He'll find out your mother never registered you with the pack council, which is a serious crime. He'll discover you have an illegal companion. Best case scenario, you both get exiled. Worst case..." Derek's eyes flickered to Luna. "Unregistered companions are usually confiscated for the pack's safety."

"No." The word tore out of Lily. "You wouldn't."

"I don't want to." For the first time, Derek's cold mask cracked slightly. "But I will if you force my hand. Pack law exists for a reason, Lily. I can't ignore it, even for you."

Even for you. The words hung in the air, strange and weighted with meaning Lily didn't understand.

Luna whined and pressed against Lily's leg. Lily's hand dropped to her companion's head, fingers tangling in soft fur. Without Luna, she was nothing. Without Mom, she had no one.

She was trapped.

"How do I know you'll keep your word?" she asked quietly.

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