“An unshifted weakling belongs in the shadows.”
Ariella’s fingers tightened around the edge of the table.
For a moment, she wasn’t sure whether she had heard her mother correctly, because surely Cassandra Hayes couldn’t have said something that cruel in front of the entire pack, not on the day that was supposed to be her twentieth birthday, not while Ariella was sitting right there listening to them discuss her future as though she were some defective product waiting to be returned.
Then the room erupted into a low murmur.
She pretended not to hear them, atleast like that, their words wouldn’t hurt her.
The main pack living room was overflowing with wolves, every chair occupied and several more standing along the walls, their attention fixed on the long table where the Hayes family sat beneath the weight of the discussion.
Ariella Hayes sat at the far end of the long table, practically in the shadow of the kitchen door.
Ariella had always known she was the one who didn’t belong, yet she was forced to sit between everyone.
Twenty years old, the sixth and last of the Hayes sextuplets, and still the only one without a wolf.
While her brothers had shifted between fourteen and sixteen, becoming the pride of Black Ridge pack, she had stayed exactly the same.
No scent, no wolf, she lacked basics to be classified as an Alpha.
The pack called it the dilution of the bloodline, and after years of whispers and sideways looks, she had started to believe them.
Her brothers occupied the center of the table like five pillars of everything the Hayes family had spent years building.
Atlas, the oldest by seven minutes, sat at their father’s right in a crisp button-down, his attention fixed on his phone as though the conversation beneath him was nothing more than another business meeting.
Duty-bound as always, he hadn’t looked at her once.
Asher leaned back in his chair wearing a black hoodie, spinning a switchblade between his fingers instead of touching the fork beside his plate.
Every few seconds his eyes slid toward her, and that nasty little smirk appeared on his face as though watching her humiliation was the best birthday entertainment he’d received all year.
Aiden stared into his wine like he hoped it would open a portal and swallow him whole.
He always looked slightly ill whenever Ariella was in the room now, as though her presence reminded him of something he didn’t want to remember.
Axel sat beside him in silence, his broad shoulders rigid beneath his shirt.
His plate had been emptied methodically, but Ariella had seen him slip an extra roll into the pocket of his coat when no one was watching.He never met her eyes, not in public.
Then there was Arlo, the closest to her in age.
The only one whose rejection still hurts like a fresh wound.
His golden eyes, identical to hers, kept finding her across the table before dropping away again, carrying all the words he couldn’t bring himself to say:
I’m sorry.
I can’t.
Please understand.
Ariella hated that she still understood him.
Her father stood near the fireplace in the same work flannel he wore whenever he was handling business for Black Ridge Security, his expression carved from stone.
Her mother sat in the recliner beside him, legs crossed elegantly, manicured fingers resting against her wineglass.
Neither of them looked at Ariella.
Beta Reyes, her father’s right hand man, stood in the center of the room with a folder in his hands.
“The arrangement has already been finalized,” he announced.
Ariella’s stomach dropped.
She had been expecting the conversation.
But hearing the word finalized made something inside her go cold.
Reyes continued without hesitation.
“We’re past the point of waiting.
Ariella is twenty.
No scent, no wolf.
The council has made it clear the Hayes line is considered weak because of it.
That even the moon goddess has cursed the bloodline.
Deals are falling through.
Respect from the other packs is slipping.
The proposals for you boys have already started drying up.
We need to fix this.”
A ripple of discomfort moved through the room again.
Asher didn’t even try to hide his grin.
“About damn time we did something about it.”
Atlas’s voice was ice.
“Watch it.” But there was no real heat behind it.
Just the cold calculation of an alpha who’d already decided his sister was an acceptable loss if it saved the family’s rep and their company’s bottom line.
Their father didn’t speak.
He just sat there, stone-faced, like Ariella had stopped being his daughter the day she failed to shift.
Her mother’s perfectly manicured nails tapped once against her wine glass before she stilled them.
Neither of them looked at her.
Only Arlo flinched.
Reyes continued like he was reading from a spreadsheet.
“The solution is straightforward.
We’ve arranged the marriage with Alpha Grimshaw of the Ironfang Pack.
It locks in the northern territory deal and gets the stain off our name.”
Ariella felt something inside her crack.
“So I’m the problem.”
No one corrected her.
That hurt more than if they had.
Her mother’s nails tapped once against the wineglass.
“You’ve had twenty years to change things.”
Ariella’s eyes burned.
“Change what?”
Her mother didn’t answer, she didn’t have to.
Everyone in that room knew.
The wolf she had never shifted into.
The part of herself they had spent years treating like a disease.
Ariella looked down at her hands, they were shaking.
She curled them into fists beneath the table.
Reyes continued, his voice as emotionless as though he were discussing a corporate acquisition.
“The marriage will take place in three days.”
“Three days?”
“Yes.”
Ariella stared at him.
“I’m supposed to marry a stranger in three days?”
“Alpha Grimshaw isn’t a stranger.”
A bitter laugh escaped her.
“I’ve never met him!”
“You know enough.”
“I know he’s a cruel Alpha with a reputation for tearing apart anyone who crosses him.
”
A few wolves shifted uncomfortably.
Asher’s grin widened.
“And now he’s getting you,” he muttered.
Ariella turned toward him.
“Right…the only one worth sacrificing.
Though, looking at you, I’d say he’s missing out on a far more expendable option.”
“What did you say?”
Ariella turned toward him, a chilling smile playing on her lips.
“I said, perhaps the Alpha would prefer a real challenge, not just some loudmouth who thinks they’re safe.”
“Enough!”
Atlas’s voice cut between them.
Ariella looked at her oldest brother.
He finally met her eyes, but there was no anger there.
That would have been easier.
There was only calculation.
“The arrangement protects the family,” he said.
“The family.” Ariella repeated the words slowly, tasting the bitterness of them.
“So that’s what I am?
The sacrifice.”
Her father’s jaw tightened.
“Ariella.”
She turned toward him.
“You knew.”
He said nothing.
“You all knew!”
Her voice cracked.
“You sat here, ate dinner, watched me turn twenty, and none of you thought I deserved to know that you had already sold me to another Alpha?”
Her mother sighed.
“Don’t make this more dramatic than it is.”
Ariella stared at her.
“More dramatic?”
“Yes.” Cassandra’s expression remained cold.
“You’re being given a purpose.
You will become Grimshaw’s Luna.”
Ariella’s stomach twisted.
“And if I don’t want to?”
Her mother didn’t blink.
“You don’t have a choice.”
Ariella felt the crack form somewhere behind her ribs, clean and final.
She’d known it was coming.
The whispers in the campus hallways, the way her boyfriend Jay had been ignoring her, the way her friends suddenly “forgot” to invite her to pack runs.
But hearing it announced like a business transaction in front of everyone still stole the air from her lungs.
She pushed her chair back.
The scrape of wood on tile cut through the silence.
Every head turned.
For once, they were all looking at her.
Ariella stood up slowly, her hands shaking at her sides.
“You’re not even going to talk to me about this first?”
Her mom looked up from her phone, her tone cool and clipped.
“There’s nothing to talk about.
This is what has to happen.
Personal feelings don’t change that.
This fixes it for everyone else.”
Ariella’s voice rose as she responded, “Right, even if I die, none of you care.” She paused, swallowing the knot in her throat.
“And for the record, it fixes it for you,” she stated.
“Not for me.
I didn’t choose this.
I didn’t ask to be the one who never shifted.
But the second it happened, you all decided I was the reason the family was falling apart.”
Her dad sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.
“This isn’t up for debate, Ariella.
The pack comes first.
Always.
Your leaving is the only way to stop the damage.”
“Damage I caused, right?” she shot back.
“You’ve said it enough.
I ruined the bloodline.
I made my brothers look weak.
I cost you respect.
But none of you ever stopped to think that maybe the way you treated me after I failed to shift was part of the problem.”
Atlas finally spoke.
“It doesn’t matter how we got here.”
Ariella stared at him.
“It matters to me.”
“The company and the pack need stability.”
“And apparently I’m the instability.”
Asher leaned back in his chair.
“At least you’re finally useful for something.”
Atlas shot him a warning look.
Ariella’s eyes burned into him.
“Congratulations.” Her voice trembled with anger.
“You finally found a way to make my birthday a memorable one.”
No one answered.
So Ariella gave them the only gift she had left.
“Happy fucking birthday to me.”
She turned and walked out.
Voices erupted behind her almost immediately.
Someone complained about her language in front of the elders.
Someone else muttered that she had finally grown a pair.
Ariella didn’t slow down.
She kept her chin high until the heavy front doors of the lodge shut behind her with a solid thunk.
Only then did she let herself breathe.
Her room was a converted storage space at the end of the hall.
Small.
Cold.
The window didn’t seal right and the Wi-Fi sucked, but it was far enough from everyone else that they could pretend she didn’t exist.
She slammed the door behind her and pressed her back against it.
For several seconds, she remained standing there.
Then her knees gave out.
She slid slowly to the floor.
The tears came hot and angry, spilling down her cheeks despite every attempt she made to wipe them away.
She hated crying.
Crying didn’t change anything, it never had.
Ten years of memories played behind her eyes in cruel succession.
The six of them as children, curled together in the nursery after their first shifts, five proud wolves surrounding the one girl who couldn’t become one.
Arlo sneaking her rides through the forest.
Axel leaving little gifts outside her door whenever the instructors had been too harsh.
Even Asher, before resentment poisoned whatever love he had once possessed, carrying her home on his shoulders after she twisted her ankle.
And Atlas.
At thirteen, he had sat beside her beneath the old oak tree and promised that family would always come first.
I’ll protect you, Ari.
She had believed him.
Every promise felt like another wound now.
And every single one of them had broken that promise the moment their precious reputations began to suffer.
A soft knock sounded at the door.
Ariella wiped her face viciously.
“Go away.”
Another knock.
Then Axel’s low voice, barely audible.
“Ella.
I left something for you.
Outside the window.”
Footsteps retreated before she could answer.
Ariella waited until it was quiet, then cracked the window.
A small bundle wrapped in a plastic grocery bag waited on the sill—two slices of her favorite cheesecake from the kitchen stash and a matte-black folding knife with a note rubber-banded to it.
The handwriting was his.
>Eat.
You’ve not eaten for the past few days.<
She stared at the words until they blurred.
Even now he couldn’t defend her in front of them.
She ate the cheesecake because she’d need the calories where she was going, then slipped the knife into the pocket of her hoodie.
From under her bed she pulled the beat-up backpack she’d quietly packed over the last week—beef jerky, a couple of water bottles, thermal blanket, the thick coat Axel had left outside her door two winters ago, and the only photo she still kept of all six of them as kids, grinning in the back of their dad’s old pickup.
She looked at that photo for a long second, then tossed it into the trash can.
Welcome to Ariella’s story!
If Chapter 1 has already made you angry on her behalf, trust me… we’re only getting started.
If you enjoyed it, please vote, comment, add the book to your library, and send a little gift if you can.
Every little bit of support helps this book grow and motivates me to keep those chapters coming… Now I need to know… WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOUR FAMILY SOLD YOU OFF LIKE THIS?
See you in Chapter 2!