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Chapter 1
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“Isla, Arabella and Rhett have already completed the mate bond. Stop interfering,” her mother said gently, as if it were some kind of favor. “I’ve already booked your flight. You’ll stay in Veloria for the next few years. Once Arabella’s pup is born, you can come back.”
It wasn’t until that moment–staring at her parents‘ patronizing smiles–that Isla realized the real reason they were sending her away from the pack: to make sure she gave up on Rhett for good.
Even though Rhett Maddox, Alpha of Echelon Pack, was her fated mate… Arabella, her older sister, had fallen for him too.
So, their solution was simple: get Isla out of the picture. Sweep her under the rug. Discard her.
But she couldn’t let go. She had begged Rhett to listen, pleaded with her parents to come clean. Again and again, she tried to explain that Rhett was meant for her. That Arabella had stolen what wasn’t hers.
All it earned her was Rhett’s growing disgust.
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Even as she lay broken in the ER, she heard Rhett on the phone–voice cold and cruel faking it again? Tell her to stop trying to
ruin my Mating Ceremony with Arabella.‘
“}
“I’ll go,”
,” Isla said calmly, reaching out to take the plane ticket from her mother’s hand.
Her voice was too quiet, too composed.
Both her parents stared at her, shocked by how easily she agreed.
“You’re really going?” her father asked, narrowing his eyes. “You’re not planning something to ruin Arabella’s
Ruin it?
What a joke.
Rhett was hers to begin with.
ceremony, are you?”
But her parents had stolen him–gift–wrapped him for Arabella like he was just another thing Isla wasn’t allowed to have.
Twenty years ago, when Arabella was diagnosed with a rare bloodline disorder–one that left her weak and barely clinging to life.
Without hesitation, their parents conceived another child: Isla.
She wasn’t born out of love, but out of necessity. Her cord blood was the only match. She saved Arabella’s life… and from that moment on, she was expected to live in her sister’s shadow.
Because Arabella was “fragile,” Isla had to give up everything. Her room, Her friends. Her rightful opportunities. Her future
But there was one thing she refused to surrender.
Rhett.
Back then, he’d been a golden boy, Echelon’s pride, a flawless Alpha from a prestigious bloodline.
Until the accident.
After a tragic crash left him blind, the pack cast him aside, locking him away in an abandoned house at the edge of their territory.
Isla had stolen the spare key and snuck out every evening, climbing the wall just to be with him.
“I’ll come every day,” she whispered into the darkness.
To him, her voice–soft and honeyed–became the only light left in his world.
She never told him her real name. Instead, she’d trace the letters in his palm, slow and careful:
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Call me Arden.
He would gently brush her hair with trembling fingers, play melodies on the piano just for her, and on stormy nights, he’d press her cold hands to his chest, as if to keep her warm with his heartbeat.
The night before his surgery, he kissed her fingertips and vowed, “When I open my eyes again… you’ll be the first person I see. And then, we’ll finally be together. Okay?”
The surgery lasted twelve hours.
But when Rhett finally woke…
The first person he saw was Arabella.
Because their parents had drugged Isla the night before, slipping a sedative into her water after finding out Arabella had fallen for
Rhett too.
She’d slept through the entire next day.
And when she woke, the damage was already done. Arabella and their parents had lied, claiming it had been her–Arabella–by his side all those years.
And Rhett believed it.
”
From that day on, he fell for Arabella, accepted her as his mysterious “Arden,” and eventually, formed a mate bond with her.
Three years passed.
Isla tried again and again to make him remember–to prove that she was the one who had stayed with him in the dark. That she was the
one he loved.
But he never believed her.
Now, standing in front of her parents, Isla felt nothing but a bitter kind of amusement.
“You begged me to leave, and now that I said yes, you’re accusing me of plotting something?” Her voice didn’t waver. “Don’t you think that’s… a little messed up?”
“That’s not what we meant,” her father said awkwardly. “It’s just… if you’re set on going, that’s for the best. The flight’s in two weeks, so you’ve got time to get ready and tie up any loose ends.”
Viviana and Regis didn’t wait for her to change her mind. They rushed out of the room, visibly relieved.
Isla turned and went back to her bedroom.
The moment she closed the door, her phone buzzed.
It was a message from Rhett.
18 PM. Room 1808. Pack Hotel.]
She stared at the text.
Her fingers curled tight around the phone.
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