Chapter 1

Nine years after Jesse Marlow's mother had me raped and destroyed my family, I limp into the clinic to abort the rapist's baby — and the half-blood Alpha-heir who let it all happen walks in wearing a doctor's coat.

I freeze for half a second. Then I keep walking.

My left sleeve is empty. It's been empty for nine years. I pin it up every morning like other women pin up their hair.

Jesse looks up from the chart. His face does something — a flinch, a crack, gone before I can name it.

"Wendy."

I don't answer. I drop my appointment slip on his desk.

"I'm here for an abortion. Today, please."

He doesn't pick up the slip. He just stares at it like the paper might bite him.

"Your body's not strong," he says quietly. "An abortion will hurt you. Are you sure?"

His voice is the same. Soft. Careful. The same voice that told me I was a slut in front of our whole class. The same voice that walked away while his mother burned my life down.

I look at him. Really look. He's tall now. The half-blood thing they used to whisper about — it shows. His shoulders are too wide for the coat. His eyes are too gold for a human's.

So Crimson Fang Pack didn't kill him after all. They just polished him up.

"Yes," I say. "I'm sure. The sooner the better."

He picks up the slip. His hand is shaking. He's trying to hide it and failing.

"Why are you doing this?" he asks. "Your husband — he's not good to you?"

My husband.

I almost laugh. He thinks I have a husband. He thinks some man somewhere wakes up next to me and calls me his.

I don't correct him. He's nobody. After today he goes back to being nobody.

"Just book the surgery, Dr. Marlow."

He flinches at his own name in my mouth.

He examines me in silence. Cold stethoscope. Cold hands. Hands that used to be warm when I was seventeen and stupid and thought he hung the moon.

"Today," he finally says. "We'll do it today."

They wheel me into prep. A needle slides into my vein. The room starts swimming.

A nurse pokes her head in and whispers something to Jesse. He doesn't even hesitate. He drops everything and walks out.

Through the fog I hear the nurses talking like I can't hear them.

"Dr. Marlow's so sweet to his girlfriend. She's got a little cold and he runs."

"Yeah. Not like this one. Comes in alone for an abortion. No man. You can tell what kind she is."

My eyelids twitch. I can't open them. I want to tell them. I want to say it.

I'm not a slut.

I used to be Jesse Marlow's whole world.

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