Chapter 18

Aria

I was the adopted child.

The black sheep.

It hadn’t always been that way. My parents had adopted me because they couldn’t have their own child, and they adored me. I was once the light of their life, the one precious thing they had in this world.

But the doctors had been mistaken. Not long after my adoption, my mother had gotten pregnant after all. And with a real child now in the picture, I was quickly forgotten.

Sarah became their eternal light. And I was nothing more than the fill-in who had lost her one purpose.

With our parents neglecting me, I quickly became an easy target. It didn’t take long for Sarah to realize that I made a good punching bag, an outlet for her own frustrations. Since our parents always put her on a pedestal and never stepped in to defend me, Sarah gleefully bullied the hell out of me throughout our childhood and had no repercussions for it.

I hated her for it.

But mostly, I just hated our parents.

As soon as I turned sixteen, I emancipated myself and moved out. It wasn’t easy, having to get by on my own as a teenager, but it was better than the trauma I endured in that house.

Somehow, I managed to make do. I worked part-time jobs, freelance, side gigs to make as much cash as possible. Eventually, I was able to move out of the halfway home and get an apartment with some roommates, and over the years I managed to save up enough to get my own place.

Unfortunately, that meant that I had no time or extra funds to go to college.

But that didn’t matter much now, did it? I had a good job now, one with benefits and a chance of upward mobility.

Or so I thought. And yet, despite all my running, Sarah was here. Not only my coworker at Lunar Labs, but…

The girlfriend of my mate.

Mate. The word still felt foreign, but that didn’t make the situation hurt any less.

Dropping her shopping bags, Sarah slowly removed her sunglasses and perched them on the top of her head. “Well, I’ll be… Aria, long time no see!” Her voice was sweet, kind. But I knew what sort of venom was hiding in that pretty mouth of hers.

Darren glanced back and forth between the two of us. “You two know each other?”

“Know each other?” Sarah laughed before I had a chance to answer. “We grew up together! She’s my sister.”

“Adopted sister,” I clarified, fists clenching. But Sarah, either oblivious or ignoring my disdain, scurried forward and wrapped me in a warm hug. I didn’t hug her back.

Her grip was like a vise.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered in my ear.

Those words… There was a tremor to them. Fear. Although I didn’t know why she might fear me, the girl who she had tormented all those years. Perhaps she was worried I would tell Darren and she’d lose her cushy job or her chance to hop into bed with him.

“I work here,” I said simply, resisting the urge to shove her as we pulled apart. I wouldn’t say anything—not right this second, at least.

My darling sister visibly relaxed at that.

Darren, his face a mask of surprise, said, “Well… I guess introductions aren’t necessary, then.”

No. They weren’t.

Sarah laughed and sauntered over to him. To my horror, she leaned up on her tiptoes and… kissed him on the cheek.

Despite myself, I felt my blood boil at the sight of her lips on his skin, her slender arms coiled around his neck. That’s my mate, a deep, hidden part of myself hissed.

I quickly shoved the feeling down—whatever it was. Darren was going to unmark me, and we didn’t love each other; I shouldn’t have been bothered by this. The only thing that should have been bothering me was knowing that I’d have to deal with that snake slithering around my workplace and potentially ruining my chances at a decent job for once.

“I missed you so much,” Sarah cooed, pushing her lower lip out in a pout. “We have so much to catch up on…”

Darren’s throat bobbed, looking just as uncomfortable as I felt. Unable to bear it any longer, I took a step toward the door.

“I should get back to wo—”

“Mommy!”

Suddenly, a little form with chestnut hair came barreling into the office. Before I could move, Lucas was wrapping himself around my legs. For a moment, I pictured the way he used to lean up against me in his pup form just like this, and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Mommy?” Sarah untangled herself from Darren and clicked her tongue. “Aria… When did you get knocked up?”

I pursed my lips, but Darren replied before I could. “That’s my son. Lucas.”

Sarah’s eyes turned to saucers. “You don’t mean to tell me…”

“No,” I quickly said, my face burning. “He’s not my son.”

“Oh.” She turned to Darren. “I didn’t know you had a son named after that… that horrifying dog.”

My blood boiled at those words, and I rose from where I was crouched beside Lucas, prepared to set her straight. But then, something hot flashed through me, startling me—another presence.

“Don’t.”

I tried not to stumble where I stood as it hit me. That was Darren’s voice in my mind, clear as day. My eyes widened as I glanced over at him. Was this some sort of side effect of our mating? It had to be—but before I could dwell on it for too much longer, Sarah was speaking again.

“If she’s not your mom, then why call her that?”

“I can call my Mommy anything I want!” Lucas shouted defiantly, his small arms wrapping even more tightly around my legs.

There was a tense silence, and I could see Darren preparing to speak. But then Sarah was laughing and crouching down, holding her arms open to Lucas.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Lucas! You can call me Mommy, too!”

“Yuck!” Lucas made a gagging sound.

I nearly sputtered out loud.

Darren’s eyes widened, and I thought he might scold Lucas—or me. But then he turned to Sarah and said, “Can I have a word alone with you?”

Sarah nodded. Darren suggested that I take Lucas out to play, and so I did, if only to get away from my adoptive sister’s hateful gaze. Lucas and I stepped into the elevator and headed upstairs to the playroom, where we walked over to one of the pools. I sat down on the edge while I watched him, rubbing my cold fingers together.

“I hate her.”

Lucas kicked a stone, sending it skittering across that highly realistic forest floor. I looked down at him and couldn’t help but empathize.

“Why?” I asked, hoping that my sister hadn’t hurt him somehow.

“She always pulls on my fur,” Lucas grumbled. “It hurts! But she doesn’t care!”

“She does it on purpose?” I stopped in my tracks.

Lucas nodded. “She flicks my snout with her sharp nails when my daddy isn’t looking, too. She always acts so nice around him, but she’s really mean. Like a bully!”

I would have snorted, if it weren’t for the protective fury lancing through me. You can say that again…

“Hey,” I said gently, wanting to help Lucas take his mind off of things. “How about a game of hide and seek? I know it’s your favorite…”

Those big mismatched eyes, so much like his father’s, lit up like Christmas lights.

…

I stepped out of the elevator, still shivering somewhat from the cold air in the playroom. Now that Lucas isn’t stuck in his pup form, I should really ask Darren to turn the heat up in there, I thought as I made my way back toward my cubicle.

But before I could make it back to my desk, a familiar voice called out. “Aria, could you come here, please?”

I frowned as I slowly turned to see my sister waving to me from a nearby empty meeting room. She had a sweet smile on her face, a smile that hid the true monster beneath.

“What is it?” I asked shortly as I walked up to her. “I don’t have much time today.”

“I just want to talk for a few minutes… Clear the air, you know?”

Her words gave me pause. Was she going to… apologize? Curiosity got the better of me, and I followed her into the meeting room, slipping my hand into my pocket.

But once she closed the door behind us, she turned back to face me with an irate expression twisting her pretty face. There was the sister I knew so well. How foolish of me to think that she was planning on saying something nice.

“What did you do?” she snarled.

Shaking my head, I went to move past her. “Unless this is your version of ‘clearing the air’, I’m leaving.”

“No.” She stepped in my way, her hand shooting out to grab my hair. A choked gasp lodged in my throat as she forcefully yanked my head back, hot tears stinging my eyes. “You must be the reason he broke up with me. Did you fuck my boyfriend while I was gone or something?”

I blinked back the tears, my neck already aching. For a moment, just a moment, that fear I once felt as a child returned—hot and cruel and aching.

But… No. I wouldn’t take this anymore.

I wasn’t the helpless little girl I once was, subject to my sister’s tormenting. I had survived a pack of wolves. And for now, I was the Luna of a werewolf pack, and something primal within me was telling me to punish her for laying hands on me.

A snarl ripped from my throat as my hand shot out with unprecedented speed.

My fingers tangled in my sister’s hair, and I yanked.

Hard.