Chapter 4

Ivy POV

I didn't have to wait long. A soft knock echoed through my bedroom, and the delicate bead curtain parted. Darcie, Denisse's Omega maid, stepped in, holding an ornate velvet jewelry box.

"A gift from Miss Denisse for your engagement, Miss Ivy," Darcie said, bowing low.

She played the part of a respectful servant perfectly, but her scent betrayed her-a sour, pungent reek of deceit and nervous sweat. I recognized the velvet box instantly. It belonged to Dixie, my father's third concubine. Denisse had stolen it to frame me for theft alongside infidelity, ensuring I would be completely ruined.

"How thoughtful of my sister," I smiled, taking the box without a hint of suspicion.

The moment Darcie scurried out and closed the door, a sickly-sweet mist hissed from the air vents. Wolfsbane.

Beside me, Kaya gasped. Her Inner Wolf, highly sensitive to the toxic herb, immediately succumbed. She crumpled to the velvet rug, unconscious. The gas flooded my own lungs, and the familiar dizziness crashed over me. My vision swam. My limbs went slack.

But even as the darkness pressed in, something fought back.

A strange warmth pulsed in my chest-faint, foreign, nothing I had ever felt in my first life. It pushed against the wolfsbane haze, not enough to stop it completely, but enough to keep a sliver of my consciousness from drowning. I still couldn't move. I still couldn't open my eyes. But somewhere deep in the fog, a single thread of awareness held firm.

The Goddess's gift. It had to be. I had felt this warmth once before, when I first woke in my old bedroom, when I realized I had been sent back. At the time, I had been too shocked to question it. But now, lying paralyzed on the rug, I understood. The Moon Goddess had given me more than a second chance. She had planted something inside me. Something that was only beginning to stir.

I didn't know what it would become. I didn't know if it would save me or simply let me witness my own ruin. But it was more than I had ever had in my first life. And right now, it was all I needed.

I let my body go completely limp, my eyes shut, my breathing shallow. Through the haze, I heard the door creak open.

Two masked servants crossed the room. Rough hands grabbed my arms and hauled me up from the floor. I kept my body slack, my head lolling, as they carried me out into the cool night air.

They dumped me onto the damp earth beneath the Ancient Pear Tree. The smell of rotting leaves and wet dirt filled my nose. The warmth in my chest flickered weakly, keeping that single thread of awareness from snapping.

"Disgusting wolfless trash," a voice sneered from above me.

I kept my eyes shut, but I knew that arrogant tone anywhere. Denver Mason. He reeked of his newly awakened Dire Wolf, his Alpha ego practically suffocating the small, dimly lit clearing. He despised the idea of mating a girl who couldn't even use the pack's mind-link, viewing my very existence as an insult to his bloodline.

"Strip her," Denver ordered. "Make it look like she rolled around in the dirt with him. I'll go fetch the guests."

Footsteps crunched on the dead leaves as Denver turned his back to head toward the Grand Dining Hall. I heard the trembling, heavy breathing of Johnny, a wolfless estate servant, as he knelt beside me in the damp leaves. His shaking fingers fumbled at the collar of my pale dress.

The warmth in my chest surged.

My eyes snapped open.

Before Johnny could even register the icy glare of his prey, I moved. Years of brutal, blood-soaked warrior training under the legendary Gamma Gunnar surged through my muscles. I lunged upward, my hand clamping around Johnny's throat like a steel vise. With ruthless precision, I dug my fingers into his vagus nerve.

He didn't even have time to choke. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed into the dirt like a sack of stones.

I lay there for a moment, breathing hard, staring up at the bare branches of the Ancient Pear Tree silhouetted against the moon. The warmth in my chest was still there, steady now, like a second heartbeat I had never noticed before.

It was real. Whatever the Moon Goddess had done to me when She sent me back-it was real. I had no other explanation. I had been completely wolfless in my first life. No senses. No resistance. No warmth. But now, something had changed. Something was growing inside me, buried so deep that even the wolfsbane couldn't reach it.

I didn't know what it meant yet. But if the Goddess had given me a weapon, I was going to wield it.

I pushed myself up, brushing the soil from my dress. Watching Denver's retreating silhouette in the distance, a cold, lethal smile touched my lips. I swore to the Moon Goddess right then and there that this arrogant Alpha would pay dearly for his stupidity.

Dragging Johnny's unconscious body deep into the thickest bushes, I grabbed Dixie's jewelry box and melted into the shadows. I moved swiftly toward the Grand Dining Hall, slipping onto the dark terrace. With my White Wolf senses slowly awakening, the thick glass doors were no barrier to my hearing.

Inside, the banquet was suffocatingly opulent. The heavy, dominant scents of powerful Alphas and Lunas clashed in the warm air.

"Carlton, where is dear Ivy?" Luna Jean Mason asked, her voice laced with genuine curiosity and warmth.

My father, Alpha Carlton, stiffened. His Inner Wolf rumbled with irritation at my absence, feeling his pride wounded in front of his esteemed guests. "She is... still preparing, Jean. You know how girls are."

"Preparing?" Elder Augusta scoffed from the head of the table, her gray eyes flashing with disdain. "A wolfless disgrace lacks the basic discipline of our Pack. Josephine spoils her too much."

Across the table, Jackie and Denisse exchanged a fleeting, triumphant glance. They were practically vibrating with smug anticipation, waiting for the orchestrated scream from the courtyard that would declare me a ruined, filthy thief.

I stood in the darkness of the terrace, the stolen jewelry box cool against my palm. Let them bask in their false victory for a few more minutes. I turned my back on the glittering hall and slipped away into the night.