They Forgot My Rank, So the Lycan King Claimed Me novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Envelopes

Two hundred dollars to her and twenty thousand to Poppy, an e-reader against a laptop; Poppy reads Nessa's rank card, turns it face down, and tells her not to show Mom.

After the courier left, Mom and Dad handed out two cash envelopes at the table.

Poppy opened hers and threw her arms around Mom's neck.

"I knew you loved me best!"

Then she turned to me, bright and curious. "How much did you get, Nessa?"

I opened mine.

"Two hundred dollars," I said.

Her whole face lit up.

She tried to cover it by looking worried about me.

"Mom and Dad probably didn't trust you with a lot of money," she said. "They put twenty thousand in my account instead."

"If you need anything later, just come to me, okay?"

Mom reached over and pinched Poppy's nose with a loving smile.

"That's your reward for pulling an Alpha rank," she said. "Spend every dollar on yourself."

Then she looked at me.

"And you scraped by with whatever rank you got. That isn't worth my breath."

"You've always been a step behind your sister, Nessa. Don't coast now that your internship is booked."

Poppy tugged on Mom's sleeve.

"Mom, any internship is a big deal for her. Please stop picking on her."

I should have hated Poppy.

She was the sun in every room, and everyone in it turned toward her.

But she was also the one who counted every crumb of attention I got from our parents.

And she was the one who stepped in the second Mom's voice went sharp.

Never fully kind, and never fully cruel.

Jared came in and set two gift boxes on the table.

A pink one for Poppy, a gray one for me.

I lifted the lid on mine.

It was an e-reader.

For one second something warm moved in my chest.

Then Poppy screamed with happiness and hung from his neck.

"Jared, you got me the new laptop! I knew you loved me most!"

Jasper whistled from the couch.

"That's twenty-eight hundred dollars, man. That's your whole enforcer bonus for three months."

Jared ruffled Poppy's hair and grinned.

"I don't care what it costs. She's my sister."

I was his sister too.

I had asked that exact question when I was small and cried about it more times than I could count.

Now the words would not even climb into my throat.

I put the e-reader back in its box and stood up.

I left the box on the table and walked toward my room.

Nobody noticed me go.

Only Poppy called after me. "Nessa? Are you okay?"

"Tired," I said.

Jared's voice hit my back, sharp and annoyed.

"That's just how she is. She walks around like she's at a funeral."

"Forget her, Poppy. Come look at your laptop."

Jasper laughed under his breath. "Nessa's just wired weird. Total buzzkill."

I shut my door and the laughing stopped.

I took the ceremony card out of my pocket and dropped it on the desk without looking at it again.

Then I lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

An hour later a quiet knock came at my door.

It was Poppy, with a glass of lemonade and her sweetest face.

"I came to say sorry about Mom," she said. "She doesn't mean it. Can I sit?"

I nodded, because it was easier than saying no.

She sat on the edge of my desk, swinging one foot.

"You're allowed to be upset, you know."

Her eyes dropped to the desk.

She picked up the card.

I had never shown it to anyone, and I did not stop her.

I watched her read it.

I watched her go completely still.

She read it again, and her lips moved.

Then she set it down very carefully and turned it face down.

"Probably a bad scan," she said, smiling. "They mix those up all the time."

"Don't show Mom, okay? She'll just fuss, and you know how she gets."

"Okay," I said.

She squeezed my hand and left the lemonade on the desk.

When she shut the door, I picked up the card and turned it over.

Mythical Silver Wolf.

It was not a bad scan.

I sat on the bed and thought about what I had just seen.

My sister had read the highest rank in history, and she had not been happy for me.

She had been afraid.

When I came out again, dinner was on the table.

Mom had gone all out.

Honey-baked ham, maple-glazed ribs, corn pudding with brown sugar on top.

Every dish was sweet, and every dish was Poppy's favorite.

I liked spicy food.

I had swallowed sweet food for eighteen years, and I was done.

"Mom, can I have the spicy roasted potatoes?"

She blinked and a line formed between her eyebrows.

"You were picky as a pup, and you're still picky at eighteen?"

"Be more like your sister. Poppy eats whatever I put in front of her."

I almost said it.

That Poppy never had to be picky, because Mom only ever cooked what Poppy liked.

That whatever I liked had never once made it onto Mom's list.

The words climbed to my teeth and stopped there.

She would call me dramatic.

She would say I was keeping score again.

I picked up my fork and ate the ham.

Across the table, Poppy was not eating.

She was watching me, and she was still smiling.

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