Alpha Father Traded His True Heir for His Bastard Daughter Now Karma's Ultimate Payback novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Toast
Calla leaves the Silver Prison for a feast honouring the half-sister who let her take the fall. She drops the heir's ring on the plate, and the victim's brother claims her as his debt.
The day I walked out of the Silver Prison, my father slid the pack heir's ring back onto my finger at the gate.
"Smile, Calla," he said. "The Council's photographer is watching."
I had been in silver for five years, and I could not lift my hand without the scar on my wrist pulling.
I smiled for the camera anyway.
My mother tucked my hair behind my ear.
"Whatever you hear tonight is for the pack," she said. "Trust us. We kept our promise."
They had promised me six months.
They drove me home without stopping, and the great hall was already lit for a feast.
Two hundred wolves stood when I came in.
Nobody said welcome home.
They looked at the scar around my throat, and then they looked at their plates.
At the head table, in a gold dress and the new sash of High Council Prosecutor, sat my half-sister Faye.
She ran to me and hugged me before I could stop her.
"Calla! You're out! I made them save you the seat next to mine."
She was the only person in that hall who smiled at me, so I sat.
Every Brennick has amber eyes, and mine are the same as my father's.
Faye's eyes were gray, the same as Mother's.
At the Council's table across the aisle sat a man with a broken nose and black hair.
He had not looked at me once.
I had never seen his face, but I knew his voice.
It was the voice that came through the courtroom door five years ago, asking the Council for the long silver.
Jasper Holloran, Alpha of Stonegate.
Mark Holloran's brother.
My father stood and tapped his glass.
"Tonight we honor my daughter Faye Netherton, the youngest High Council Prosecutor in a century. She closed the Holloran case."
The hall roared.
Jasper's jaw moved once, and he looked down at his hands.
Faye rose with her glass and her bright, easy smile.
"Alpha Stanton, Luna Judith, you're the only real parents I've ever had," she said, and my mother wiped her eye.
Faye turned to me.
"And my sister Calla. Thank you for taking the fall for me. I wouldn't be standing here without you."
Two hundred wolves clapped.
They thought she meant I had taken the blame for the pack's honor, and they thought it was beautiful.
Three people in that hall knew what she meant.
My father looked at his plate and smiled.
My mother's smile did not move at all.
A waiter put a paper in front of me, with a pen on top of it.
"A family formality, pup," my father said, warmly, so the pack could hear. "It names Faye as heir, before everyone, so the seat stays in the house."
"I'm the heir," I said.
"You've got a record," he said. "The Council would never let you hold it. Be reasonable."
"You told me six months, and then my seat back."
"You'd have signed anything in that car," my father said, very low. "That's why we asked you in the car."
Faye laid a hand on my arm.
"I'd hand it back to you in a heartbeat, sister."
"Sign, baby," my mother whispered. "It's only a name."
I looked at the pen.
Five years ago I had signed a confession on their word.
So I stood up.
My fingers had grown thin in silver, and the heir's ring slid off with no effort at all.
I dropped it onto my father's plate, into the gravy.
"I'm not your heir," I said. "You traded me for her."
The hall went silent.
My father's face went dark red. "Sit down, Calla."
I turned to the woman in gold.
"Faye. Whose knife was it?"
For half a heartbeat her smile did not move.
Then she laughed, and turned to the pack with her hands open.
"Five years in silver," she said, gently. "It does things to a wolf. Let's all forgive her."
A few wolves laughed, uncertain.
"Take my daughter upstairs to rest," my father said to the two guards at the door.
They started toward me.
"Council law," a voice said across the hall.
Jasper Holloran had risen from the Council's table.
He was taller than I'd imagined, and he looked at me for the first time with eyes the grey-green of river ice.
"The victim's family may claim the release debt at the hour of release. A year and a day of service." He picked up his coat. "I came here tonight to waive it. I've changed my mind."
"You can't," my father said. "She's my daughter."
"She's a convicted wolf of the Council, and I'm the dead man's family." Jasper did not raise his voice. "She comes with me."
I looked at my mother.
My mother looked at the tablecloth.
I'd rather owe a man who hated me to my face than sit with people who smiled.
I walked past the guards and out the doors behind the man who had asked for the long silver.
In the cold corridor, five years of silver numbness drained out of my skin.
Pine smoke and cold iron hit me from the man walking ahead of me.
My knees nearly went.
My wolf, silent since my second year in the cell, lifted her head and spoke for the first time.
Him.
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