Lorelei POV
Two weeks had passed since that night, and we had practically gone back to being strangers.
This was how it had always been.
For two years after the night of my eighteenth birthday. The night my parents threw a grand celebration for Callista alone while I was busy serving drinks.
That was when I felt it.
A tug deep in my chest. Sharp. Undeniable. Like a rope snapping taut.
I had turned my head and found him staring at me from across the hall, surrounded by elders and warriors, a glass forgotten in his hand. Those blue eyes locked onto mine, and for a heartbeat, the entire room disappeared.
Everyone had expected Callista to be his mate. It was practically written in the stars. She had crushed on him since we were children, following him around like a lovesick puppy, batting her lashes, touching his arm every chance she got. And Jaxen? He had always been a gentleman. Polite smiles for her. Respectful distance from me.
A Beta's daughter and the Alpha's heir. A perfect match, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself.
So, like every cruel twist fate had handed me, I expected him to reject me immediately. Publicly. Right there in the middle of the ballroom. I braced myself for the words, for the humiliation, for the pack to laugh at the cursed runt who dared think she could claim the heir.
But he didn't.
Instead, he ignored me.
For two whole months, he pretended I didn't exist until he couldn't take it anymore. And because I had never known what it felt like to be wanted, I let him. I accepted our secret. I was content with stolen glances and hidden meetings, even if we never went further than a kiss.
I was loved.
"Lorelei! Lorelei!"
The sound of my name snapped me out of my memories.
I blinked, staring down at my hands, red and raw from scrubbing heavy iron pots.
"Lorelei! Are you deaf as well as cursed?"
Mistress Huda, the head cook, stood over me with her hands planted on her ample hips. Her round face was flushed from the heat of the ovens, and her small eyes narrowed as if she had caught me stealing scraps again.
I straightened quickly, wiping my damp palms on the threadbare skirt of my uniform. "Sorry, Mistress. I was just—"
"Just daydreaming while the sun is barely up," she snapped. "Anyway, the Beta is demanding you in his quarters."
At that, my heart skipped a painful beat.
The Beta.
Beta Harlan. My father.
He almost never called for me. He believed that even looking at my face invited misfortune, so whenever he did summon me, it only meant trouble.
My entire body trembled as I walked the long halls leading to his quarters, each step heavier than the last. The moment I stepped inside, I was met with furious stares and cold expressions.
My mother, Elara, stood near the fireplace. Callista was beside her.
"You… you called for me, Beta," I said, lowering my head.
"What is this I'm hearing?" he demanded the second the door shut behind me. "That you were planning to run away with a lover? With my money?"
The accusation struck like a physical blow. My head snapped up, my eyes widening in shock. "What? No. I would never. I don't even have a lover, Beta. I've never left the pack grounds."
"Don't lie to him!" Callista shrieked, stepping forward. She looked radiant in her silk gown, every inch the perfect daughter. "I saw you, Lorelei. Whispering to a strange man near the south gate last night. You were clutching a bag, talking about leaving before the coronation."
She was lying.
I had been in the kitchens until midnight, scrubbing floors until my fingers bled.
I turned to my mother, searching her face for even a flicker of the instinct that should have told her I was innocent.
But Elara only looked at me with revulsion.
"How could you be so ungrateful?" my mother whispered. "After we spared your life? After we allowed you to stay in this house despite the darkness you were born with?"
"I didn't do it," I insisted, my voice cracking as I looked back at him. "Please, Fath—"
"You will not call me that!" Harlan roared.
He crossed the room in two long strides, his shadow swallowing me whole. "To the pack, I have only one daughter. You are a blight. A mistake the Moon Goddess made that I have been forced to correct every day of your life."
His hand shot out, grabbing my arm with a grip so tight it felt like the bone might snap. He dragged me toward his heavy desk, where a small box lay open. Empty.
"In this box was the family heirloom," he hissed. "A gift meant for Callista. It cost a fortune. It was locked in my safe, and now it is gone. Callista saw you near my study."
"I was never near your study!" I cried, panic clawing up my throat. Why couldn't they believe me just once?
"Why don't we check her room, Papa?" Callista suggested smoothly. "There's nowhere else she would have hidden it."
For a second, I almost agreed eagerly because I knew I was innocent. But the way her lips curved, the glint in her eyes, made my stomach drop.
Something was wrong.
My blood turned to ice.
Harlan's grip tightened until I gasped. "Fine. We'll search her room. Right now."
He yanked me forward, half dragging me down the corridor toward the servants' wing where my tiny attic room waited.
Every step felt like walking toward my execution.
My room sat at the very top, a cramped space beneath the eaves with one narrow window and a thin pallet on the floor. The door was never locked. Why would it be?
I owned nothing worth stealing.
Harlan shoved the door open so hard the hinges groaned in protest.
The room smelled of damp wood and lye soap.
My possessions were pitiful. A threadbare blanket. A cracked washbasin. A single worn dress hanging from a rusted nail. Nothing more.
Callista stepped in first, her gaze sweeping the space like a predator assessing prey. She moved straight to the pallet, then knelt gracefully and lifted the thin mattress.
And of course.
There it was.
A delicate golden necklace with a large emerald pendant that caught the weak light and scattered green fire across the walls.
My stomach dropped.
"No," I whispered. "That's not… I didn't…"
Callista lifted it between two fingers as if it were contaminated. "Look, Papa. Right under her mattress. She didn't even bother hiding it well."
Elara inhaled sharply. "Lorelei, how could you?"
Harlan's face darkened to a dangerous shade of purple. He released my arm only to seize a fistful of my uneven hair, yanking my head back so violently my scalp burned.
"You thief," he snarled. "You steal from your own blood? For what? To sell it and run away with a man?"
Tears spilled down my cheeks, hot and blinding. "I didn't put it there. I swear. Someone planted it. Callista, you know I didn't—"
She ignored me, turning to him with wide, innocent eyes. "I also have proof she was with a man," she said calmly, pulling out her phone.
My heart began pounding even harder, slamming against my ribs so violently it hurt.
Jaxen.
It had to be Jaxen. He was the only man I had ever been with.
If she had a photo. A video. Even a blurry shadow of us together. It was over. The bond would be exposed before he could protect me. Before the coronation. Before he could claim me publicly and end this nightmare.
Callista tilted the phone toward Harlan and pressed play.