Chapter 4

Ava's POV

"One million dollars. Give up your inheritance."

Rebecca pushed the check toward me. She had once been my father's business partner and was now my so-called stepmother. She looked at me like she was deciding which trash can I belonged in.

I picked up the check and slowly tore it in half in front of her.

"You..."

"I'm not signing anything." I tossed the torn pieces back onto the table and met her eyes. "If you want to buy my inheritance, at least find out what the Crawford family is worth first."

Rebecca's face twisted with anger. "How dare you speak to me like that?"

"You're sitting in my father's chair and spending my father's money." I leaned back in my seat. "Tell me why I can't."

Rebecca shot to her feet, the legs of her chair scraping sharply across the floor. A tall, broad man stepped out from behind her. He had blond hair, sharply defined features, and a cold, predatory look in his eyes.

"Ava, right?" he said arrogantly. "I'm Lucas. Your... brother."

He stretched the last word deliberately.

"My father only had one child," I said. "And it wasn't you."

The smile vanished from his face.

"Lucas, stop wasting time!" Rebecca snapped. "This pack is yours! She's only an omega who can't even shift. What right does she have to lead the Crawford Pack? Her father had a one-night stand with some omega, got her pregnant, and left this mess for us!"

"Mess?"

I stood and looked at Rebecca.

"You mean the mess worth tens of billions of dollars? The mess you're desperate to take, even if it means forging inheritance documents?"

Rebecca's lips trembled.

Lucas looked down at me. His Beta presence pressed against me like a wall.

A pack heir had to carry Alpha blood, and Lucas wasn't even my father's biological son. No one dared challenge the pack's rules.

"My father's will named me as his heir," I said without looking away. "I won't go against his will."

Lucas stepped closer. "So you're not only weak, you're stupid. Do you really think you'll leave here alive today?"

"Before you kill me, you'd better think about how you'll explain killing the legal heir to the pack council."

Rebecca's face twisted. "Kill her! Once she's dead, no one can stand in your way! She's an orphan and an omega. No one will come to avenge her!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, a group of guards in black rushed out of the estate and surrounded me.

I didn't step back. My heartbeat was deafening, but I forced myself to stay where I was.

Alvin suddenly moved in front of me, standing straight like a wall.

"Ma'am, you can't do this!" he shouted. "Ms. Crawford is the heir chosen by the Alpha!"

"Move, old man!"

"Alvin!" Fear tightened my throat. I tried to move toward him, but one of the guards blocked me and bared his teeth.

Then the sharp sound of brakes cut through the tension.

Every head turned.

Several black SUVs roared up and screeched to a stop in front of the manor gates. A dark-red moon emblem gleamed on every door.

Bloodmoon.

My heart sank. If the Crawford Pack ruled the East Coast, then Bloodmoon ruled the entire West. Why were they here?

The SUV doors opened, and a group of tall, battle-hardened wolves stepped out. The man leading them had a cold face and sharp eyes that swept over us.

Lucas went pale. Rebecca did too.

"Bloodmoon Pack? What do you want?" Lucas asked, unable to hide the tremor in his voice.

The man didn't even look at him. His gaze settled on me, studied me for a moment, and then he bowed.

"By order of our Alpha, we have come to escort our future Luna."

Luna? Everyone froze. My mind went blank too.

Rebecca recovered first. "What Luna? What are you talking about?"

He gave a cold snort, pulled a wax-sealed parchment from his coat, and opened it for everyone to see.

"Twenty years ago, the former Alpha of Bloodmoon and the Alpha of the Crawford Pack made an agreement: their eldest son and eldest daughter would marry when they came of age, uniting the strongest packs on the West and East Coasts."

He paused and looked at me again.

"Bloodmoon has now been informed that the Crawford Pack's only legal heir, Ava Crawford, has returned. Under the contract, she will marry our new Alpha, Adrian Thorne, and become the Luna of Bloodmoon."

Everything went silent.

I stood there, my mind blank.

A marriage contract. With an Alpha I had never met, from the strongest pack on the West Coast?

Rebecca and Lucas were white as paper. A minute ago, they had wanted me dead. Now I had suddenly become the future Luna of Bloodmoon, someone even they couldn't touch.

It was absurd.

The man rolled up the parchment and gestured politely. "After you, Ms. Crawford. I'm Oswald, Alpha Adrian's second-in-command. Our Alpha is waiting for you. Please get in the car."

Behind him, all the Bloodmoon warriors nodded to me at the same time. It wasn't fear. It was respect for the Luna they expected to serve.

I looked at my terrified stepmother and stepbrother, then at Alvin, who had been helped to his feet and looked just as shocked.

One thing was certain: I was safe.

But a new tension tightened inside me.

Now I had to meet the fiancé who had appeared out of nowhere. I knew nothing about Alpha Adrian, and a man with his power had no reason to honor an old agreement unless he wanted to.

Maybe he was ugly. Maybe there was something wrong with him. Why else would he agree to marry a divorced Luna?