PROLOGUE
PROLOGUE
THE WORLD WAS A VERY UNFAIR PLACE...
"Make sure she didn't escape!" a rogue barked as I raced through the forest, thorns and vines sinking into my bare feet.
I didn't dare stop. Not because I was afraid to die, but because I was afraid of leaving my poor sister in the hands of my wicked parents.
"I promise you, you'll regret it by the time we catch you!" another barked.
There were four of them. Two had shifted while two were in their human forms. I didn't have the power like them to shift. I had been born without a wolf; my whole life I'd been treated like nothing by my family because of it.
They had hidden it a secret until that day. I'd overheard them plotting to sell me off to the Alpha who had put a decree that all wolfless she-wolves should be brought to him for a great reward.
Two silvers were worth more than their own daughter.
I wiped the tears sliding down my cheeks— the world electrocuted me.
I stumbled to the ground when I hit an obstacle I hadn't sensed. I gasp. Before I could get back to my feet, hands gripped me and pinned me down.
I struggled, only able to see a golden swift of air through my blindness.
"Let go of me," I yelled as they forced my face into the soil. "Please."
"Blind b*tch!" one barked, sending his foot into my spine. "Your father would have to pay more for not informing us that his blind daughter was this troublesome."
I sobbed, my hands digging into the soil as they stomped on me, pain electrifying my organs. I have to go meet my sister. What if Father found out the truth about her?
I couldn't let her go through that.
I tried to free myself but they were too strong.
"George!" someone whispered, someone who wasn't one of the rogues.
They all stopped hitting me and turned their direction toward the stranger.
"Tyla!" George exclaimed. "What were you doing here? What if someone saw you?"
My breath hitched. Tyla? I forced myself upright, trying my best to sense who it was, but my blood had drained my abilities.
"I don't care! I came to pass a message."
My sister.
"Tyla," I shouted, my heart gleaming with hope. I tried to stand but my bruised bones forced me down. "Look, it's me, Elfin. You shouldn't be here—run now!"
"Shut your mouth!" one of the rogues barked.
"That's no way to speak to my sister!" I felt her walk toward me. She crouched down. "Oh my, look what they did to poor Elfin."
"You should run now, Tyla. These men are very bad."
She laughed. "No, my dear, they are only here for you, not me."
"Change of plans!" she declared. "I had just found out the only reason the Alpha was seeking a wolfless she-wolf was because he was looking for his mate. I couldn't possibly let my sister go to him. For that reason you'd have to do something very bad to her."
My body trembled. This wasn't my sister. It couldn't be.
"Make sure she dies miserably and her body is untraceable!"
"Tyla—"
The word barely left my mouth when I was yanked from the ground. My fingers brushed against her skin and it shattered my heart. She was the one. She... she—
I didn't move or breathe or feel anything as the rogues tore off my clothes. I heard nothing but the echo of the only hope I had lost.
This was really all I was, Elfin Woods, a wolfless female whom the world despised.
I reached into my pants and took out the bottle of poison I kept there. I may have never won my whole life, but I wouldn't die like a coward.
I emptied the bottle into my mouth before the rogues could stop me and instantly crashed to the ground.
This was certainly not the end.
