Chapter 2

During my recovery, they took turns sitting with me — one at a time, never long, always finding an excuse to rush away.

I assumed they were simply busy. Pack Betas and Alpha heirs didn't have idle hours.

Then came the afternoon I needed the bathroom and no one was there. I dragged my IV stand down the hall alone.

Through the glass of the VIP recovery suite, I stopped.

Caden, who had just claimed an urgent pack council session, was feeding Rena a prawn dumpling with his fingers, laughing at something she'd said.

My parents and Eli were all there, watching her with the soft, helpless adoration I used to think was reserved for me.

Mom's voice filtered through the glass, warmly scolding. "Rena, you can't gorge yourself the moment you're healed. Dumplings are too rich."

Rena tipped her head back like a contented cub. "I can't help it. Dad makes them too well."

She pouted. "And all of you hovering around me is suffocating. How am I supposed to sneak snacks with four sets of eyes on me?"

For three days, I'd been eating takeout congee I ordered myself.

Rena had them there every hour, with Dad cooking her meals from scratch.

I turned away stiffly and nearly walked into the nurses' station. Through the partition, two nurses were whispering.

"You know the patient in 302? The one everyone calls the real daughter? Dr. Ashton specifically told me to keep her on extra nutrition supplements — building her up like a reserve. If Rena has a serious rejection episode, they'll need a full blood exchange from her."

I stood in the corridor for a long time, not moving.

My heart — the damaged, borrowed thing still beating in my chest — felt like it was cracking open again.

Why had it come to this?

There was a time when Mom would panic if I so much as scraped my knee.

She had driven herself into advanced healer certification just to take better care of me.

Dad had built the Ashton name from nothing, so I'd never go without treatment.

Eli had chosen pharmacology so my medicine wouldn't taste bitter.

They had even sheltered Caden's family from a rival pack's ambush — and that act of loyalty was how he and I first became entangled.

All of Northveil Pack had known it: the Ashton heir was cherished beyond reason. And Caden Voss had loved me since we were young.

Then I was stolen — held by a rival pack for seven years.

When I came home, they held my hands and said, "Rena being here means nothing. We took her in to build good karma for you. You are still our only heart."

I believed them. I opened myself to Rena as a sister.

But the warmth shifted slowly, then all at once.

If Rena stumbled near me, Mom's first question was whether I had pushed her.

When Dad cooked, every dish was Rena's favourite.

Eli redirected his entire research toward a cure for Rena's heart condition.

And Caden, in arguments, once snapped at me to be more like Rena — gentler, sweeter, less difficult.

Now they had carved my heart out to give it to her. And they planned to keep me alive as a walking blood reserve.

The grief hit like claws raking through the chest.

I wasn't careful. I slipped.

The fall cracked my surgical wounds open. I curled on the floor, gasping, and in a moment of pure instinct whimpered a single word into the tile.

"Mom…"

They came running — all four of them, the sound of their footsteps filling the hallway.

Mom reached me first. She hauled me upright and fixed me with a furious stare.

"Mara. I am so disappointed in you. You saw us with Rena, and now you're throwing yourself on the floor for attention? You're a grown wolf."