The Daughter They Didn't Want novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Engraved Inside
At the gift-giving two hundred wolves watch Sigrid's family drown her twin in moonstones and hand Sigrid a plain band with the price sticker on. At the Stone she takes it off and walks out. Her bank account is empty and a truck waits at the gate.
Two hundred wolves watched my sister lift her bonding bracelets to the light.
The pack hall was packed to the doors for the gift-giving, and every head turned toward the platform.
"Mom, look. Anders's name and mine are engraved on the inside."
Felicity tilted the platinum band, and the four moonstones flashed blue-white.
"Our little princess deserves the best," Mom said, loud enough for the back rows. "The whole pack is watching. If your jewelry looked cheap, people would talk."
The hall laughed warmly.
I stood three steps away in my ceremony dress, and nobody looked at me.
Dad pressed a black credit card into Felicity's palm.
"If Anders ever makes you cry, you come straight home," he said. "The Garrick house will always be open to you."
A week earlier he had told me something different.
"Once you're bonded, you belong to Northlake. Couples argue. Don't come running back over every little thing and embarrass us."
Felicity and I are twins.
I was born seven minutes first, and everyone has treated that as a job.
I was the strong one, the sensible one, the one who didn't need anything.
Felicity collapsed on the training field the day we first shifted, because of a heart rhythm disorder she was born with, and since then she has been handled like spun glass.
I bought my first car with four months of weekend shifts at the feed store.
Felicity drove it once and loved it.
My brother took my keys and told me the bus was fine.
Now Mom turned to me with a small paper bag.
"Yours, Sigrid. Hold out your wrist."
Inside was a plain silver band, thin as a bottle cap.
It looked like something from the rack at a gas station.
Mom fitted it on, and the clasp stuck.
"Tradition," she said, and her smile did not change. "The pin takes one drop of the bride's blood, for luck."
She pricked my finger before I could pull away.
A bead of red went into the clasp, and the clasp snapped shut.
Rowan Thorsen stepped up beside me.
He was Anders's older brother, the man I was supposed to bond with today, and he wore too much cologne.
He put his hand on my back and spoke quietly.
"Everything is arranged, Sigrid. The elders agreed to bond us both at one moonrise, it's simpler. After today you won't have to worry about money, or the pack, or your sister's health. We take care of it all. You only have to say the words."
I had worried about every one of those things since I was sixteen.
It was strange how kind that sounded.
I turned my wrist over to look at the clasp.
On the inside, where Felicity's band said Anders and Felicity in curling letters, mine had a small white sticker.
It said $12.99.
The woman next to me in the second row saw it too.
I watched her read it, and look at Mom, and look away.
Nobody said a word.
Rowan's hand pressed harder at my back.
"Smile," he said.
We walked out behind the hall to the Moon Stone, the ring of tall grey stones where every pack bond is spoken.
The whole pack formed a circle around us with the moon coming up red over the pines.
The Moon-reader, a very old woman with a cane, held out her hands for Felicity first.
Anders was shaking.
Felicity said her vow in a clear, sweet voice, and the crowd sighed.
The Moon-reader turned to me.
"Sigrid Garrick," she said. "Will you give your vow to Rowan Thorsen?"
Rowan smiled at me, sharp and possessive.
I looked at my mother, and she gave an impatient nod.
I looked at my father, who was already checking his watch.
My wrist stung where the clasp had bitten.
I thought about the car, and the keys, and the account at the bank that Dad called ours.
I thought about the sticker.
So I took the bracelet off and set it on the Stone.
The sound of the clasp on granite carried across the whole circle.
"No," I said.
Rowan's smile finally slipped.
"Sigrid," he hissed. "Don't do this to us in front of everyone."
"You did it in front of everyone," I said.
I stepped out of the circle, and two hundred wolves stepped back to let me through.
Dad's voice came from behind me, flat and cold.
"If you walk through that gate, your name comes off the pack roll tonight."
I did not turn around.
Mom's voice followed, lower, but I heard it.
"Let her go, Harold. She has nowhere to go. All her money is in our account."
My phone buzzed against my hip as I reached the gravel drive.
It was the bank.
The balance on the family account had been moved at six that morning, and the line beside my name said $0.00.
I stood there in my ceremony dress with nothing.
Headlights swung across the drive, and a black truck rolled to a stop at the gate.
The driver leaned across and pushed the passenger door open.
He was big, with dark hair and a scar through his left eyebrow, and I knew his face from the back of a room five years ago.
"Get in, Sigrid," Ash Thorsen said. "Rowan's wolves will be on this road in four minutes."
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend