Chapter One: The Noose

Ivy

The moment Alpha Brian summoned me, I knew something was off.

He never called for me. Hell, he barely acknowledged I existed, unless it was to remind me I wasn’t good enough.

Earning the female Gamma title had been a miracle, one I bled for.

I trained harder, longer, fiercer than anyone else just to be seen.

My knuckles split open on training posts until they were raw. My muscles screamed after dawn runs while the rest of the pack still slept. I clawed for scraps of recognition.

And in the end, all I got was the title.

Not the role. Not the trust. Just the hollow crown that mocked me.

Brian made sure of that.

Every mission that mattered went to someone else. Every strategy session, closed before I reached the door. Every council meeting, my voice cut off before it touched the air.

“You’d only fail,” he’d say, each word a drop of venom sliding through my veins.

Gamma in name. Ghost in practice.

Nixon, the male Gamma, never let me forget it. His smirk said everything his mouth didn’t need to: You don’t belong here.

Maybe he was right. Maybe this path was never mine. But what else was left?

I was born a Mooncrest, and that name had been a curse since the day my father betrayed his Alpha and paid for it with his life.

If that had been the end of it, maybe we’d have been spared.

But disgrace doesn’t die with the guilty; it seeps down through the bloodline, staining everyone it touches. My mother, my brother, and I lived under that shadow ever since, branded with sins that weren’t ours.

If Brian had the choice, he would’ve thrown me out years ago.

So when he summoned me to his office, no warning, no reason, I braced myself.

Heart pounding. Thoughts racing.

Had someone finally found an excuse to drag me down for good?

I walked in ready for anything.

Except hope.

Brian didn’t rise from behind his desk. Didn’t even fully look up.

Just flicked his gaze over me with that cool indifference that cut sharper than hate.

“Good morning, Alpha,” I said, my voice taut, my body straight as a spear.

A curt nod. Nothing more.

Once upon a time, he would’ve smiled.

Once, he would’ve reached across the distance between us and pulled me close, his whisper brushing against my skin as he promised forever under moonlight.

We had dreamed out loud, him as the future Alpha, me as his Luna. A pair bound not just by fate but by choice.

Those dreams shattered the night his father died.

Shattered by my father’s hand.

Since then, Brian had erased me. Rewritten history so we never existed. The love that once belonged to me was poured into someone else, like I’d been nothing but a placeholder for the real thing. Pretending I never mattered was easier for him.

But I didn’t get that luxury.

“Ivy,” he said at last, tone clipped and cold. “You’re being assigned to the ACSC. Undercover sting operation.”

Just like that. No buildup. No explanation.

The Alpha Council Security Committee?

Elite level. Out of reach for wolves like me.

Even seasoned officers prayed for a chance at ACSC work. And me? I hadn’t been trusted with a single mission in years.

If this was a joke, it was cruel.

If it wasn’t, it was insane.

The Beta should’ve been chosen. Emily, with her pristine record and perfect pedigree, should’ve been chosen. Anyone but me.

“You’ll be working undercover at The Obsidian,” Brian continued, steamrolling over my silence. “As a dancer.”

The words hit harder than a blade to the gut.

The Obsidian.

My stomach dropped.

That place wasn’t a club; it was a kingdom of shadows. A den where the rich, the powerful, and the corrupt bled together in smoke, lust, and dangerous secrets. Even its name was whispered like a curse.

The Obsidian belonged to the Thorn Brothers.

My pulse roared. The Thorns weren’t just alphas; they were predators wrapped in silk, men who didn’t kill their enemies, they erased them.

Sending me there wasn’t an assignment. It was a death sentence.

“You’re to investigate the Thorn Brothers,” Brian said, voice flat as a decree. “Gather everything you can. Report only to your ACSC handler.”

The protest slipped out before I could stop it.

“You can’t be serious.”

His eyes narrowed, ice shards glinting beneath his lashes.

“With all due respect, Alpha,” I pushed, forcing control into my voice, “this operation requires a professional. I haven’t had a single mission since I earned my rank. I don’t have the experience. Beta Emily, ”

His growl cracked through the room like thunder, rattling the glass.

“Who made you Alpha?”

My breath froze. No answer could save me.

“You swore to serve without question,” he snapped, his voice sharp enough to cut flesh. “And now you dare dictate to me?”

He rose from his seat, his shadow swallowing mine whole.

His eyes burned, not with love, not anymore, but with years of bottled fury.

“I told you once to find something useful to do with your life,” he said, low and dangerous. “But you clung to fantasies of honor, muttering about redemption. Your father’s name. His sin. His betrayal.”

He sneered. “Well, here’s your chance. And just like the useless mutt you are, you’re begging me to send someone else.”

My throat tightened.

“If you refuse,” he continued, words slow, deliberate, venomous, “you forfeit your rank. And I’ll make sure the Mooncrest name is wiped from this pack completely. Your family will be exiled. Your mother. Your brother. No roof. No protection. Prey in the wild.”

The silence after that was heavier than rage itself.

Now I understood.

This wasn’t opportunity. It wasn’t redemption.

It was punishment.

He wasn’t giving me a mission.

He was handing me a noose,

and daring me to tighten it.