Chapter 1 Silver Needle

"Agony."

That was the only word crossing Elena Callum's mind as a thick silver needle punctured her vein.

Freezing metal burned through her bloodstream. Vicious pain crept upward, traveling past her arm and stabbing deep into her ribcage. Elena gripped the edge of the metal examination table tightly. Her knuckles turned bone white. She fought hard against the breath trapped in her throat.

"Hold on a little longer, Elena. Your blood is the only sedative that works for Violet," Kael Arveth said coldly.

His hand pressed Elena's wrist flat against the freezing metal surface. The grip was brutal. He treated her more like hunted prey than his own fiancée.

"Kael, this is already the third vial," Elena whimpered. Her voice sounded hoarse, trembling with pain. "I feel so weak. My wolf is crying inside my head, Kael. She is in absolute agony."

Kael did not even bother glancing at Elena's pale face. His gaze remained locked straight ahead at the patient bed across the room.

"Stop being dramatic, Elena. You have always been a strong wolf since childhood," Kael stated flatly without a single ounce of sympathy. "While your sister is frail and sickly. Losing a little blood will not kill you tonight."

Elena laughed softly. The sound was incredibly hollow and bitter. It made the clan healer holding the transfusion tube flinch backward.

"A little blood?" Elena looked at Kael, her brown eyes welling with furious tears. "You call two years of being milked like cattle a little blood? I am your fiancée, Kael. I am the woman you promised to protect under the sacred pack tree. Are you completely blind?"

Kael scoffed harshly. He turned his face away, wearing an expression of utter disgust.

"That was in the past, Elena. The situation has changed now," Kael replied sharply. "Can you not see the terrible state Violet is in?"

From the bed across the room, a soft, raspy whimper echoed.

"Kael, please don't be angry with Sister Elena," Violet said with a weak cough.

Violet's thin right hand lifted into the air, clutching her rising chest. "If Sister minds, just stop the treatment. I would rather die than see you two fight because of me."

Elena stared intensely at her half-sister.

Around Violet's slender neck, a thin silver chain sparkled beneath the harsh medical room lights. A blue sapphire pendant in the shape of a teardrop rested perfectly above the girl's collarbone. It belonged to Elena's late biological mother, Eileen Callum. It was the only precious heirloom left of her mother.

When Kael turned his face away to scold the healer, Violet's fingers slowly reached up to touch the sapphire pendant.

Violet stroked the blue stone with deliberate, slow movements. The girl then looked straight at Elena. Behind her deathly pale face, the corners of Violet's lips curled up slightly. She formed a mocking, deceitful smile.

Elena clenched her fists tightly.

Tch.

Elena snorted in disgust. Her blood boiled witnessing such manipulative behavior.

Past memories slammed violently into Elena's head. Back when they were ten years old, Violet threw a hysterical crying fit. She rolled on the floor simply because she wanted Elena's master bedroom. Adrian, their father, could not stand seeing his stepdaughter cry. He immediately kicked Elena out that very night into a cramped, dusty attic room.

Not long after, Elena's finest silk dresses moved one by one into Violet's closet. The peak of it all happened when this heirloom sapphire pendant was forcefully taken by Selene. Her stepmother used the pathetic excuse that Violet was sick and needed the sapphire stone to calm her fragile soul.

Now, that parasitic woman was not only wearing her dresses, taking her room, and stealing her mother's pendant. Violet was also snatching her fiancé's attention and draining the blood dry from her body.

"Take that necklace off, Violet!" Elena hissed. Her voice trembled, holding back an overflowing rage. "You stole my room. You stole my dresses. And now you are wearing my mother's pendant while sucking my blood like a leech!"

"Elena! Watch your mouth!" Selene Callum snapped. The older woman had stood beside her daughter's bed the entire time.

Selene wrapped her arms around Violet's shoulders with a fake panicked look. The woman then glared fiercely at the clan healer.

"Open the valve wider! Do not let my daughter suffer listening to this crazy woman's ramblings!" Selene ordered.

"But Lady Selene," the clan healer spoke up nervously. His hands trembled over the silver pump lever. "Lady Elena's heart rate has dropped far below the safe limit. If we force another vial out of her, the wolf spirit inside her body could shatter tonight."

"I don't give a damn about that useless wolf!" Selene yelled loudly. Her eyes bulged with pure hatred. "Your job is to save my daughter. Violet is the future of House Veyrath! Follow my orders right now, or your neck will hang at the gates tomorrow morning!"

"Mom," Violet whined softly. Artificial tears began pooling in her eyes. She reached her hand out toward Kael. "Kael, my head hurts so much. The room is spinning."

Hearing that whimper, Kael instantly released his tight grip on Elena's wrist.

Without sparing a single thought for Elena, who was gasping through the pain on the examination table, Kael took long strides toward Violet's bed. The man sat on the edge of the mattress. He pulled Violet into his embrace, then stroked the girl's back gently.

"I am right here, Violet. Don't be afraid," Kael whispered with a voice so sweet and warm.

It was the exact tone he used to comfort Elena whenever she had nightmares in the past.

"I will not let anything happen to you. Stay strong for me," Kael continued softly.

Elena watched it all with a chest that felt smashed by a heavy boulder.

Physical pain from the silver needle draining her blood lost completely to the emotional trauma. Everything shattered seeing her own fiancé holding that thieving woman right in front of her eyes.

"Kael," Elena called out. Her voice choked in her throat.

Kael did not even glance in her direction. Even though in the past, whenever Elena fell or fell ill with a fever, Kael was always the first person to come protect her. He used to stay awake all night just to wipe her forehead with a cold towel.

"Look me in the eye, Kael Arveth!" Elena shouted with whatever strength she had left. "Tell me, what is the meaning of the ring on my finger if you keep holding that woman like a madman?"

Kael let out a long, heavy sigh. He turned to Elena with a look full of absolute disgust and exhaustion.

"Can you stop being selfish for just one day, Elena?" Kael said very coldly. "Your sister is dying right in front of you. Why are you still busy fighting over blind jealousy? Later, after Violet heals, I will take you to buy a new dress to compensate for the blood you gave her."

Elena laughed bitterly once again. Was this the true nature of the man she had loved all this time?

In Kael's eyes, her life and blood sacrifice could apparently be paid off with just a piece of clothing. All this time, sweet words and gifts were indeed only given to her after she finished donating her blood for Violet.

None of them knew the truth. Every night after donating blood, Elena's body shivered violently. She always suffered high fevers alone in her attic room, unable to sleep until morning came. Nobody cared.

"Selfish?" Elena screamed, her eyes blazing with fury. "You call me selfish after I gave my entire life for her? You bastard, Kael!"

Before Kael could respond to the insult, a deep and incredibly heavy voice echoed from the doorway of the medical room.

"Watch your mouth, Elena!"

Adrian Veyrath stood there in his stiff black suit. The middle-aged Alpha clenched his fists tightly, his face red with towering anger. Yet his eyes fiercely refused to look directly at his biological daughter's face.