Chapter 2

But the moment she came back, my fate started changing too.

Seraphina had a gift for making people like her.

She knew exactly what to say. And that fragile, innocent act of hers?

It worked every time.

She won the whole pack's sympathy in just a few days.

The elders saw how weak she was and ordered me to take care of her.

But over time, she started treating everything I did for her like it was only natural.

As if I owed it to her.

She grew more disrespectful by the day.

Whatever was left between us had turned to ice.

Now, watching her hide behind Liam with that innocent look on her face —

I just shrugged.

She thought I was going to snatch the griffin back.

So she instinctively took a few steps away.

"Ava, I've never asked you for anything. Not once.

Can't you let me have this one thing?

You already have everything, so why do you keep coming after me?

Do you really have to push me this far? Will you only stop when I'm dead?"

She liked to act helpless. But she was sharper than she let on.

She knew exactly what that griffin was—a powerful fire-aligned spirit beast.

If she bonded with it, her strength would rise fast.

That was why she was willing to drop all pretense and fight me for it openly.

She braced herself, ready for me to make a move.

Too bad for her, because I couldn't even be bothered to look at her.

I walked straight past her, picked up the black cub everyone else had rejected.

I held it close and stroked its fur.

"It's okay, you're okay now. I'm taking you home."

I had barely made it a few steps.

Liam stepped in front of me and threw out an arm to block my path.

"Ava, enough. How long are you going to keep this up?

You're seriously choosing that worthless thing just because you're angry?

Do you want our whole pack to become a joke to every other pack in this territory?"

I immediately covered the cub's ears in my arms and thought,

Don't listen. Just some fool running his mouth.

I walked right past him and threw one line over my shoulder.

"We'll see who the real joke is. It's way too early to call it now."

Honestly, it was almost funny.

The griffin was gifted, sure — but griffins were also notorious for being arrogant,

hot-headed, and impossible to handle.

If Seraphina wanted to make herself miserable, that was her problem.

Because I wasn't leaving empty-handed.

I was walking out with an ancient power this pack had never seen.

And we were going straight to the top.