“You’re not even ashamed, are you?”

That was the first thing out of Ruvan Diaz’s mouth the moment I stepped out of the car. Not a hello. Not a question. Just that.

I didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink. I simply shut the door of Thorne’s car behind me, the click echoing too loudly in the tense, dry air.

“ra?” Co blinked at me from her perch in the chair, a grotesque version of royalty with a maid massaging her shoulders like she was Empress of the Moon. “You’re–alive?”

“Disappointed?” I asked, a brittle smile tugging at my lips. “I know you would’ve preferred a coffin?

Ruvan’s eyes twitched. “If you’re alive, why show your face here? Weren’t the rogues enough of a hint that no one wanted you?”

“No one,” Co echoed, snorting, her fleshy arms folding as if to shield herself from my presence.

Behind them, Orik practically tripped over himself trying to disappear behind a hedge.

I crossed my arms. “You didn’t even try to get me back.”

Ruvan mmed his fist onto the car hood with a snarl. “Because you weren’t worth the money!”

Mi chose that moment to spill dramatically from the car like a tear–stained tragedy.

“Mom! Dad! You have no idea what I went through in Blood Moon. ra’s made it her mission to torment me. She even–she even tried to hurt me at the cliff!”

I stared nkly at her performance, unmoved.

“She’s after our money,” Orik piped up from behind a tree, “I bet she’s crawling back here because she spent all of it trying to seduce Alphas.”

Mi nodded fiercely, “She’s just here for what’s left in your bank ount!”

“You tter yourselves,” I said tly. “If I wanted pocket change, I’d ask the guards outside your gate.”

SLAP.

Co’s palm cracked against my cheek like thunder, her breath heaving in outrage.

“You disgusting little rat!” she shrieked. “You couldn’t even get Olive into the army, and youe back here acting like you’re something?”

My cheek stung, but my re burned hotter.

“I used to think you were just cruelb,/b” I said calmly, “but now I

iSee /iit clearly. You’re pathetic.”

I caught Co’s wrist mid–air before she could p me again, and leaned in until my breath ghosted over her face.

“Touch me again,” I whispered, “and I will break your arm.”

Then I backhanded her across the face with the force of six months of buried fury.

Co stumbled, howling like an animal.

“You see this?!” Orik cried, waving frantically at Thorne as he stepped out of the car. “Alpha! She attacked our mother! She should be punished! She’s not even part of this family anymore!”

b1/3 /b

Tignored Orik. I stared directly at Thorne.

“She spat in my face,” I said inly. “If you’re here to defend them, save your breath.”

Thorne looked between me and the Diaz family like a man seeing a truth he’d ignored for too long. His brow furrowed. His jaw tightened.

“I thought…” he murmured. “I thought you had a good home.”

“You thought wrong,” I said sharply.

Mi clung to his side like a limpet. “Alpha, you can’t let her get away with this. She pped my mother! She’s made a scene in our pack!”

A sharp honk cut through the air.

All heads turned.

Rows of trucks and SUVs pulled up, tires crunching against the dirt. Doors opened. Uniformed soldiers stepped out and stood tall in formation.

“Gamma ra!” they saluted in unison, their voices thunderous enough to rattle the earth.

In the frontmost Bentley, the window rolled down with a low hum.

Cael leaned into the light, expressionzy but eyes sharp as daggers.

“Is someone giving my Gamma a hard time?” he drawled, one brow lifting.

Ruvan stumbled back instinctively. Co clutched her jaw, still reeling. Orik frozepletely, a stunned expression recin

Cael stepped out, fixing his suit cuffs like he was about to walk into a g–not a brewing storm.

“Because if that’s the case,” he added, voice cold now, “we’ll need to have a conversation. And I don’t do small talk.”

Thorne tensed beside Mi, but didn’t speak.

I took a step forward, raising my voice just enough.

“There’s no need,” I said clearly. “They’ve been handled.”

Cael’s eyes flicked to me and softened. “Just say the word.”

“I already did.”

Then I turned back to Co, who was still trembling with rage and disbelief.

smirk.

“You wanted ito /ierase me,” I said, my voice low and even. “But I’m not the girl you buried. I don’t need your name, your blood, or your blessings.”

“And I swear,” I added with one final re, “if you try anything again, I won’t use words next time.”

With that, I walked away from the only people who had ever called themselves my family.

And not one of them dared to follow.