They Tried to Break My Sister. Then I Woke Up Chapter 01
Because of an unusual Moon Blessing, my sister and I were born as a single Dual-Soul She-Wolf.
Two souls were born into the same werewolf body.
She was a gentle she-wolf who couldn’t bring herself to step on a bug.
I was the mad wolf who had once fought my way through three whole blocks of Eastside Rogues territory alone.
I’d lived free for twenty-three years.
To give my sister a happy life with her chosen mate, I willingly gave her full control of our body and entered Deep Sleep.
Four hundred days later, bone-deep cold dragged me out of Deep Sleep.
I opened my eyes to find myself wearing nothing but a thin, tattered sweater, five months pregnant and kneeling on a snow-covered gravel path outside the Blackridge Pack House.
Beyond the glass door, the warmth inside felt like another world. The long dining table was covered with steaming platters of meat and other food.
Paige Holloway, the childhood sweetheart of my sister’s mate, Gavin Blackwell, sat at the table eating a steak Diane Blackwell had personally served her.
Paige glanced at me and said lazily, “If you want to be part of Blackridge, you follow Blackridge rules. The most obedient she-wolves know better than to eat at the table.”
Her eyes dropped to my belly, and her smile grew sweeter.
“Especially when you’re only carrying a female pup.”
The man who had once sworn to cherish my sister now had an arm around Paige’s waist.
Gavin said carelessly, “Missing a meal or two won’t kill her. She only started all that depression nonsense because she’d had it too easy.”
Diane immediately nodded.
“She really thinks she’s some precious Luna.”
Her cold gaze swept over my stomach.
“Until she gives this family a male pup who can carry on the Alpha line, she doesn’t get a seat at the Blackwell table.”
Deep inside my mind, Audrey Vaughn let out a faint whimper.
Then she stopped fighting altogether.
I looked down at my cracked, frostbitten hands, rolled my stiff neck, and slowly stood.
A splitting axe leaned against the wall.
I grabbed it and kicked straight through the glass door of the Pack House.
If they didn’t want the gentle sister, then from now on, the mad wolf would teach Blackridge what “Rules” really meant.
…
“You’ve got some nerve! You dare break down a Blackwell door?”
Diane shot to her feet with a hoarse, wolf snarl.
She snatched up the basin of scalding diluted silver solution at her feet and hurled the whole thing straight at my face.
“I’ll strip the hide off you today and teach you some manners!”
My body reacted before my mind did. Instinctively, I lowered my center of gravity, ready to slip sideways the way I used to.
But the second I pushed off, a sudden downward pull wrenched through my lower belly.
By the time Audrey gave me back control of our body, months of starvation, freezing temperatures, and wolfsbane had already left it badly weakened. Its natural werewolf healing had been suppressed to almost nothing, and my stiff muscles couldn’t keep up with my reflexes.
There was no time to dodge.
I twisted my shoulder away at the last second.
The scalding silver solution grazed my left shoulder and splashed against the wall behind me.
The silver burned deep into my flesh.
Good.
I tightened both hands around the rusty axe, aimed for Diane’s head, and swung.
Just before the blade came down, Audrey’s terrified scream exploded inside my mind.
“Tess! Don’t! If you kill her, you’ll go to prison! The baby can’t be born in prison… please…”
Her consciousness slammed desperately against my control of our body.
My hands began to shake.
“Just look at yourself!”
I roared at her through our shared mind.
“The man you loved enough to die for is standing with his whole Pack while they tear you apart!”
“You backed down again and again. What did it get you?”
I gripped the axe handle and stared at the Blackwells in front of me.
“If backing down won’t keep you alive, then today I’ll tear straight through the entire Blackridge Pack for you.”
I ground my teeth and swore in our shared mind.
“Bang!”
The axe blade veered half an inch off course.
It buried itself in the center of the long dining table, splitting the thick wooden tabletop.
A pot of stew overturned from the impact, sending scalding broth everywhere and splashing over their faces and hair.
“Ah! My face!”
Paige screamed and crashed to the floor with her chair.
Gavin slapped the table and shot to his feet, pointing at me.
“Audrey! Paige came to see you out of kindness! What the hell is wrong with you now?”
He stormed over and tried to slap me.
“I’m going to beat some sense into you, you crazy she-wolf!”
I stared at him coldly.
As his hand came down toward my face, I drove my right leg up, leading with my knee and snapping through with my heel.
I’d used the move countless times in Eastside Rogues territory. It was simple, direct, and aimed exactly where it hurt most.
My foot slammed straight into Gavin’s groin.
“AARGH!”
His hand stopped dead in midair.
His eyes flew wide and instantly went bloodshot. Clutching his groin with both hands, he folded in half and crumpled to the floor.
All he could manage were broken, agonized gasps. He couldn’t straighten up.
“Gavin!”
Paige screamed and rushed over, wrapping her arms around him.
The second Diane saw her precious son doubled over from a kick to the groin, she completely lost it.
“You filthy little bitch! I’ll kill you!”
She grabbed the old corn broom from the corner and drove its stiff, jagged bristles straight toward my swollen belly.
Deep inside me, Audrey’s weakened consciousness instantly sensed that the pup was in mortal danger.
Her fear slammed into my consciousness.
The next second, a violent cramp twisted through my lower abdomen.
The body that had been weakened by months of starvation, cold, and wolfsbane suddenly locked up. My reaction came half a beat too late.
I was too late to dodge completely.
The jagged bristles raked across my forearm and opened a long wound.
The cut didn’t close the way a normal werewolf wound should. Blood welled up immediately.
Sharp pain raced up my arm.
So Good.
That little sting was enough to ignite the madness that had been buried in my bones for four hundred days.
I caught the broom handle and snapped it hard.
“Crack!”
The thick wooden handle broke cleanly in two.
Caught off guard, Diane stumbled a step forward.
I closed in, grabbed a fistful of her thinning hair, and shoved her face straight into the plate of stew soaked in chili oil.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
Diane’s screams came out muffled against the scalding oil as her arms and legs thrashed wildly.
Paige went deathly pale.
She abandoned Gavin and scrambled on all fours toward the Pack House entrance.
“Help… somebody help me! Help!”
I yanked the axe free from the table.
Without looking back, I hurled it behind me.
“Thunk!”
The blade buried itself in the doorframe less than half an inch from Paige’s toes.
Flying splinters grazed her calf, leaving a long, thin cut.
Paige froze.
Then a foul smell spread through the room.
Warm liquid ran down her thighs and onto the floor.
The same woman who had been sitting at the Blackwell table moments ago, mocking my sister and her unborn daughter, had just PISSED herself in terror.
