"If you die, the pack will find a use for the girl," he said coldly.
He took my marrow, stole my life's work, and left me for dead in a supply closet, convinced I was just a weak human with no leverage.
He thought he had won. He thought he had stripped me of everything.
But Julius made one fatal mistake. He didn't know who I really was.
As he walked away to celebrate with his mistress, I smashed through the mental barriers I had kept up for a decade.
I reached out across the void to the one man who could burn this pack to ash.
"Father," I screamed silently into the mind-link. "He's killing me."
The Alpha King's voice thundered back in my skull.
Julius thought he had crushed a human. He had no idea he just woke up the White Wolf.
Chapter 1
Florence POV:
Pain didn't just wake me; it resurrected me.
It started in my hip, a dull, drilling ache where bone met marrow, then radiated outward until my entire body felt like a bruised peach. The smell of antiseptic stung my nose, failing to mask the underlying scent of burnt flesh and old blood that clung to the hospital walls.
I tried to sit up, but a wave of agony crashed over me. The explosion at the pack's warehouse had been meant for Julius. I had pushed him out of the way. Again.
Just like ten years ago.
"Mommy?"
The small, terrified whisper came from the corner of the room. I froze. Ignoring the screaming nerves in my back, I forced my head to turn.
Ava. My five-year-old daughter. She was curled up in a plastic chair, hugging her knees, her eyes wide and red-rimmed. She shouldn't be here. She was supposed to be hidden at the safe house on the edge of the territory.
"Ava," I rasped, panic spiking my heart rate. "Baby, come here."
Before she could move, the door slammed open.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. The air suddenly reeked of ozone and storm clouds-the scent of Alpha Julius Carroll.
"You're awake," he said. His voice was devoid of warmth. It was the tone one used for a broken appliance.
"Julius," I managed to say. "Why is Ava here? She's not safe-"
"The pack is fine," he snapped, cutting me off. "But Kenzie isn't."
My heart stuttered. Kenzie Drake. The woman who had appeared a year ago, claiming to be a lost Omega with a rare illness. The woman Julius was convinced was his Fated Mate, mostly because she stroked his ego in ways I refused to.
"She went into shock when she heard about the explosion," Julius said, walking closer to the bed. He didn't look at me. He didn't look at his daughter. "Her condition has worsened. She needs a transfusion. A bone marrow transplant, specifically."
I stared at him, confusion clouding my pain. "I... I hope she finds a donor."
"She has," Julius said, his eyes finally locking onto mine. "You."
I froze. "What?"
"You are a match. The doctors tested your blood while you were unconscious."
"I just woke up from surgery, Julius," I said, my voice trembling with disbelief. "I have internal bleeding. Another procedure could kill me."
His expression didn't flicker. "Kenzie is a wolf. She is my future Luna. Her life takes priority over a human like you."
"And what about Ava?" I pointed a shaking finger at our daughter. "If I die on that table, who takes care of her? You?"
Julius glanced at Ava with cold indifference. "If you die, the pack will find a use for the girl. Or maybe the orphanage will take her."
The words hit me harder than the explosion had.
"No," I said, my voice shaking but firm. "I won't do it."
Julius's eyes flashed gold. The air in the room grew heavy, a physical weight pressing down on my shoulders.
"Florence," he growled. "This is not a request."
He leaned in. "I, Alpha Julius, command you to submit."
The Alpha's Command. The absolute law of our biology. My body betrayed me instantly. My muscles locked up. My head bowed, exposing my neck.
"Prep her," Julius ordered the doctor who had quietly entered. "Take as much marrow as Kenzie needs. If Florence flatlines... resuscitate her only after the bag is full."
"No!" I tried to scream, but the Command held my tongue. I could only make a choked sobbing sound as I looked at Ava.
Two guards grabbed Ava, dragging her out of the room as she screamed for me.
As they wheeled me out, Julius didn't even look at me. He was checking his phone.
I couldn't fight the Alpha Command physically. My body was a prison. But my mind was still mine.
I closed my eyes and reached out. I smashed through the mental barriers I had erected a decade ago. I reached across the miles, screaming into the void.
'Father,' I screamed silently. 'Father, he's killing me.'
For a second, silence. Then, a roar echoed in my skull, a sound of ancient, tectonic rage.
'Florence? My Little Wolf?'
'Help me.'
'Hold on,' the Alpha King's voice thundered. 'I am coming. I will burn his world to ash.'
The anesthesia mask covered my face. The last thing I saw was the fluorescent light above, blurring into darkness.