I bit my trembling lips. The pack believed I was wolfless-born-genetically defective, unable to shift or access the mental network-so even a low-ranking guard felt free to treat me like dirt.
Before he could take a step toward the booth, A black Maybach tore through the puddles on the private road. The gates swung inward, and the car stopped just inside the compound.
The rear window slid halfway down, revealing the cold, grim face of my biological father, Bryant McLeod-Alpha of the McLeod Pack, the man who had thrown my sick mother and me out years ago for his mistress.
I lunged through the gate and gripped the wet edge of his window. "Father, please save Mom! I just need eighty thousand dollars. I'll work like a slave to pay the pack back, I swear!"
Bryant's brows drew together in disgust. He shoved my wet fingers off the glass as if I carried plague.
"What does the life or death of that lowly mother of yours have to do with the Mcleod Pack? Keep your hands off my car."
Desperation choked my throat, and I tightened my grip on the doorframe, ignoring the sharp pain as my fingernails split against the metal trim.
The front passenger door clicked open.
Drema Mcleod stepped out under an expensive lace umbrella, wearing a custom waterproof trench coat.
As my father's favored younger daughter-born to the scheming woman who had ruined my mother's marriage-Drema had spent her whole life relishing every chance to trample on me.
Even the guards whispered about how the Alpha treated his second daughter like a princess while leaving his firstborn to rot.
She looked down with a vicious smile. "Sister, Father already said no. Why are you still clinging to the car like a stray dog?"
I glared back at her, pressing the small surgeon's callus on the inside of my right index finger hard against the wet window glass.
"This is between Father and me. Shut your mouth and stay out of it!"
A dark flash crossed Drema's eyes. Without warning, she tossed her lace umbrella aside, lunged toward me on her high heels, and reached out to claw at my shoulders.
My reflexes kicked in. I twisted my torso and stepped to the left, avoiding her hands completely.
Drema didn't slow down. She threw herself forward with a piercing scream.
"Ah! It hurts!"
She crashed straight into a deep mud puddle beside the driveway, soaking her designer dress in brown sludge.
Bryant shoved his car door open, rushed out into the pouring rain, and bent down to pull Drema into his arms.
"Drema! My good girl, are you alright?"
Drema is crying on Bryant's chest, "Father, I only wanted to persuade my sister to go home, and she shoved me..."
My eyes widened as rain blurred my vision.
"I didn't even touch her! She threw herself on the ground!"
Bryant didn't listen to a single word. He spun around, raised his right hand-still gripping his heavy blackwood cane-and swung his open palm straight across my face.
The raw force of an Alpha's strike knocked me off my feet and sent me crashing onto the rough asphalt, tearing the skin right off my palms.
Warm blood filled my mouth. I lay sprawled in the freezing mud as my suppressed inner wolf let out a low.
But I can't let her out now, not yet.
Bryant stood over me, pointing his cane at my head as he roared.
"You vicious little bastard! Not only is your bloodline defective, you dare hurt your own sister? Get off my territory right now!"
Peeking out from behind Bryant's shoulder, Drema shot me a triumphant sneer and silently mouthed two words: You lost.
I pushed myself up inch by inch on my muddy arms, the freezing rain washing over my swollen cheek , I locked my ice-blue eyes on the father and daughter before me, every trace of pleading gone.
I spat a mouthful of bloody water onto the pavement, "Fine, Bryant Mcleod. That slap just severed the last drop of blood between us."
Bryant let out a cold laugh, his face twisting with disdain.
"Severed? Coming from a useless piece of trash who can't even feel an inner wolf? Get lost!"
I didn't spare them another glance. I spun on my heel, forced my spine straight, and dragged my stiff legs away from the gates into the dark street.
Behind me, the Maybach's engine purred to life. The tires rolled through the water, splashing dirty droplets across my calves, but I didn't break my stride.
I wrapped my arms around my soaked ribs as I hurried toward Bryson's downtown apartment building.
He is my boyfriend,a secondary Alpha and my very last hope to save my mother's life.
If Bryson would just lend me the eighty thousand dollars, I was willing to swallow whatever pride I had left to keep my mother breathing.
I wiped the rainwater from my face with the back of my torn hand.
I rode the elevator to Bryson's penthouse, keyed in my birthday at his door, and as it clicked open, a wave of alcohol and sweet perfume hit me.