Cinderella among the wolves

olf-shifter

j

packs of Europe paraded their most eligible, unmated wolves. It was like a supernatural sin

tom. That's what you get when you're lower than an omega in the pack hi

, and flushed. After shoving the cleaning supplies back into their cupboar

the frosted window. Gold taps sparkled, and the jacuzzi-large eno

ey song or a crew of singing c

laughter-male, raucous, and irritating as hell-from the suite's living area. The second reaso

he morning scrubbing spotless. There they were, Fangley and Clawley, sprawle

udly. "We've got a list of c

nce, shooting a lazy glare bef

upposedly the responsible one, but when they wer

led, stained, and definitely not mine. I held them up. "Whic

nswering. Instead, he grabbed the remote and cranked up the TV volume.

es to slack off, why now? The alpha'

looking at me, "why ask a questio

opping his feet onto the coffee table. "We stocked the bars, u

s," Fangley added,

disappeared behind the cabinet. "Your 'share' was half-assed at best,"

physical labor like it might bite her. She gave orde

hrough his scraggly hair. "And w

nd. "Unless you want all thre

hell

ople I could've been stuck with, the pack administrator just had to assign me to w

ading with strength and fairness, until the Ember twins' father challenged him. He didn't just take my fat

omething to prove, he came out of nowhere and took Alpha Ember down in a

ren of a defeated alpha is one of the worst fates in pack politics. No on

ke dirt. Meanwhile, the twins, drunk on their father's power, made my life hell at th

y disgraced, and they'd been strippe

ll outranked me and my mom. That's how it wor

e, that som

, plunging the room into silence as the

e at me, their annoyance

e got one more room to finish. If we all pit

harp, the remnants of his old arrogance still intact. "Beowulf can call us omegas

ters," Clawley added, sneering,

you would have the guts

smooth. Their posturing was familiar-a throwback to

heir father's defeat had knocked them down the hierarchy, just as mine had left

to

ready endured? Punches, kicks, scratches, whippings, spit, humiliation-been there, done that. Pain didn't scare me anymore. It faded, woun

cking my path. Fangley on the left, Clawley on the right. My throat went dry

ur mouth shut," Clawley

before slamming my head into a locker back at the academy. They a

oice. "Ah, the golden days. Nostalgia's cute

angley spat, his voice dripping wi

mine to become alpha, and you two reminded me of it every damn day, I felt the

rling into something between a sneer

irect challenge to Beowulf, or sabotaging him by 's

is tone dripping with venom. "We

and mop in the corner. "I'd suggest warming up with

y arm, his grip just tight enough to

ked open, cut

d parade leader. "Oh, Wulfie," she cooed, her voice so saccharine it mad

he entere

quoise eyes locked onto me, and for a second, it felt like they stripped me b

, skin bronzed like he'd been kissed by the sun itself. And that body-shirtle

o years ago, in this very building, I'd had an encounter with him that still haunt

anked me back to the present. "I framed it with pine

acknowledgment, c

as omegas were expected to in the presence of a superior. My heart pou

lf was my fated mate. I'd been f

y. Nothing good could come f

ulf around the room, basking

whisper. "When Alpha asks about the second s

hed. "Frida

y to whip you,"

" I muttered, kn

oo entangled in supernatural politics as the Shifter King of Logris. That left t

I stepped forward to answer, relief f

kin gleaming under the hallway lights. He was one

-minute changes to the Fenrir statue," h

me off balance. "Let me handle that sc

wn the hall, I was lef

ed tones, glancing tow

they seriously planning t

they weren'