Chapter 1

Qiana's POV

Three rogues circled closer, their red eyes locked on me.

I could still see Caleb and Dane running with Stella between them through the trees. Every second took them further away, their figures getting smaller and smaller until the forest swallowed them completely.

They were really leaving me here to die.

My ribs screamed with every breath I took, but that pain was nothing compared to watching my brother's back disappear into the woods without a single glance behind him.

This morning had started like every other family hunt. One week until Stella and I turned eighteen, one week until our coming-of-age ceremony. Dad had made his usual speech about tradition, about watching each other's backs, about family bonds being stronger than anything.

Apparently that didn't include me.

I thought back to the start of the hunt, when everything still felt normal. Dane had immediately taken his place beside Stella the moment we stepped into the forest. I'd watched him adjust his pace to match hers, watched him scan the trees for any sign of danger that might threaten her.

There was a time when he used to do that for me. When we were kids, we'd spend entire days in these woods together, racing each other to the highest branches, competing to see who could track a rabbit the fastest. Back then, his face would light up when he saw me coming.

Now all his protective energy went to Stella. Everything did. Her wolf could never fully shift. Over the years, it had only gotten worse. And as her condition deteriorated, everyone's obsession with protecting her had grown stronger.

Caleb had been the only one acting normal this morning, throwing his arm around my shoulders and grinning. "Think you can keep up today, or should I slow down for you?"

I'd shoved him playfully. "Please, you tripped over your own feet last month chasing that deer."

"That was one time!"

Then everything went wrong.

The rogues came out of nowhere, bursting from the tree line with that awful stench of decay and violence. One went straight for Stella. I didn't think, just reacted, driving my spear into its shoulder to redirect its attention. Suddenly all three of them were focused on me instead of her.

That's what I'd been trained for, right? Protect the weak. Take the hit so someone else doesn't have to.

Now I was the one bleeding out while my family ran in the opposite direction.

A rogue lunged at me. I tried to dodge but my broken ribs slowed me down just enough. Its claws tore through my arm, and I felt hot blood pour down to my elbow. My right leg gave out where another rogue had bitten clean through the muscle earlier. The bone hadn't broken all the way but I could feel the fracture spreading with every movement.

There was no way I could fight off three of them alone.

I linked my parents. Dad, please. Mom. I need help. I'm on the west side and I'm hurt bad.

Nothing came back. Just empty silence.

I tried again, pushing harder through the link. Caleb? Can anyone hear me?

Then I felt it happen, one by one. They were actively cutting me off. Closing their cuts of the mind-link completely. They weren't just not answering, they were deliberately shutting me out so they could pour all their focus into Stella.

Nobody was coming to save me.

The realization hurt worse than any wound. To them, I was fine. I was the strong one, the healthy one, the one who'd apparently committed the unforgivable sin of being born without complications. The one who'd stolen all the nutrients in the womb and left poor Stella struggling to survive.

I'd spent my entire life apologizing for existing, and this was my reward.

A rogue's jaws snapped inches from my throat. I forced my body to shift all the way into my wolf form, biting back the scream as my broken ribs ground against each other. Then I ran.

I headed north toward the cliffs, anywhere that wasn't here, anywhere I might lose them in the terrain. The rogues stayed right behind me. I could hear their growls, could feel their breath hot on my hindquarters. My vision kept blurring and refocusing as blood loss made my head swim. My injured leg left a trail of red behind me but I couldn't stop, couldn't slow down even for a second.

The ground disappeared beneath my paws.

It wasn't the cliff edge but somehow worse. The rain last night had loosened the hillside into a massive mudslide. I scrambled for anything to grab onto but my damaged leg couldn't support my weight. The mud pulled me down like quicksand, thick and suffocating. It filled my mouth, my nose, dragging me under.

This was really how I was going to die. Alone in the mud because my family had decided Stella's life was worth more than mine.

"There's someone down there!" A voice shouted from somewhere above me. "Help me pull her out!"

Hands locked around my scruff and hauled upward. I tried to see who was saving me but everything was spinning too fast. My brain registered the border patrol uniform right before the darkness swallowed me whole.

I woke up staring at a white ceiling. It took me a few seconds to realize I was in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines I couldn't name.

"Oh good, you're awake." A nurse walked over, "You got incredibly lucky. The border patrol found you right before you would have suffocated in that mud. Another ten minutes and we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"What's the damage?" My throat felt like I'd swallowed broken glass.

"Fractured right leg, three broken ribs, and a severe concussion. You're looking at a week minimum in this bed, possibly longer depending on how you heal."

A whole week. The coming-of-age ceremony was in a week. I tried to sit up and immediately regretted it as pain shot through every nerve ending.

"Your family hasn't arrived yet," the nurse said. "Would you like me to call them for you?"

The question made my chest tighten in a way that had nothing to do with broken ribs. I reached out tentatively link them, hoping maybe I'd been wrong before, maybe in the chaos I'd just missed their responses.

Still closed. They were keeping me locked out.

"Miss? Should I make that call?"

"They must be here. My sister was with them, they would have brought her to be checked over." I said.

Her expression brightened. "Oh wonderful! Then I'm sure once they finish up with whatever they're doing, they'll come straight to see you."

"No, they won't."

I said it with absolute certainty because I knew it was true.

The nurse's face went through several rapid changes as she processed what I was telling her. Confusion first, then understanding, then this awful pity. She squeezed my hand once, clearly having no idea what to say to that, and quietly left the room.

The silence pressed down on me. I stared at that blank white ceiling.

They'd chosen Stella. They would always choose Stella.

My entire childhood flashed through my mind in painful detail. Every toy I'd handed over because she wanted it and apparently deserved it more. Every friendship that had drifted away because Stella needed the companionship and I was strong enough to be alone. Every opportunity I'd stepped back from because her fragile health meant she should get first priority for everything.

Eighteen years of being told the same thing over and over. "You took all the nutrients in the womb, Qiana. That's why Stella came out so weak. You owe her. You'll always owe her."

Mom's voice saying those words, Dad nodding in agreement, the guilt settling into my bones like it belonged there.

But almost dying because they'd abandoned me in the forest? That was too much. That was a debt I refused to pay.

Something crystallized in my mind.

I was going to give them exactly what they'd always wanted. They could have Mom, Dad, Caleb, and their perfect little family dynamic, they could build their entire world around Stella without me.

Because I was done being the daughter who didn't matter.

I was done with all of it. I was going to leave and never look back.