Chapter 48: Confronting the Pack Portrait
(Amber's POV)
The silver bat felt heavy in my hands as I stood before the massive portrait hanging on the wall of the Chase Pack House. My chest heaved with each labored breath, my vision blurred with unshed tears of rage.
"You never wanted me," I whispered, staring at my twelve-year-old self in the portrait.
The painting had been commissioned when Victoria was eighteen, the year of her werewolf coming-of-age ceremony. I remembered that day clearly—Victoria's tearful plea to "truly become part of the Chase Pack," and my parents' immediate decision to replace the old pack portrait with this new one.
"You always chose her." I gripped the bat tighter, feeling my claws extend.
Inside me, Cora howled with a fury that matched my own. My wolf
