They Broke My Wolf for Her

On my eighteenth birthday, my family dragged me to a witch.

Not to celebrate. Not to witness my wolf's awakening.

To extract my memories.

Cold iron cuffs locked around my wrists and ankles. A strange metal circlet pressed against my skull, connected to the witch's altar by pulsing silver threads.

Rosalie had been missing for five days. And my family was convinced I'd hidden her somewhere.

"I'll ask you one last time." My father's voice cut through the dim chamber. "Where is she?"

Alaric Varen. Alpha of the Varen pack. The most powerful wolf in three territories.

And right now, he looked at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

He shoved a leather journal in my face. Rosalie's diary.

"Read it."

When I didn't move, he read it for me. "'Isolde might kill me. She's been getting worse. I'm scared of what she'll do.'"

He threw it at my feet.

I'd seen that diary before. I knew every poisoned word in it.

"I didn't—"

"Five days ago, Rosalie sent me a mind-link." His jaw tightened. "Three words. 'Save me, Father.' Then nothing. I can't sense her anywhere. I can't find her."

His eyes bored into mine.

"You did something to her. You hid her. And you're going to tell me where."

I wanted to laugh.

Rosalie had planned this perfectly. The diary. The mind-link. The disappearance.

She'd set the trap, and I'd walked right into it.

"I don't know where she is," I said. "I've told you a hundred times—"

"Liar."

My brother Caspian moved before I could react. His palm cracked across my face. I tasted blood before I hit the ground.

"You backwater trash." He grabbed my hair, yanked me back up. "Still playing innocent?"

Blood filled my mouth. I'd bitten my tongue.

Caspian had never liked me. Not since the day I came back.

Three years ago, my parents finally found me—their real daughter, stolen as a child and raised among humans. They brought me home to the pack, and Rosalie welcomed me with open arms.

At least, that's what everyone saw.

"Three years," Caspian said, counting on his fingers. "Three years of watching you make Rosalie's life miserable. The first day you came home, you humiliated yourself in my car and then yelled at her for trying to help. When Mom was injured, Rosalie stayed up all night caring for her while you slept like the dead. And now—"

He grabbed my jaw, forcing me to look at him.

"Now she's gone. Because of you."

I'd tried explaining before. Dozens of times.

No one ever believed me.

"Caspian." Our mother's voice, thin and tired. "Don't hurt her too much. It might affect the extraction."

She walked over and wiped the blood from my lip with her sleeve. Her touch was gentle.

But her eyes were red from crying. For Rosalie.

"Just tell us where she is," she whispered. "Please, Isolde. I haven't slept in five days. I can't eat. If something happened to her..."

Her voice broke.

I stared at her.

This was the most attention she'd given me in months.

"I don't know," I said quietly.

My father exhaled sharply.

"Fine." He turned to the witch waiting in the shadows. "Begin the extraction. I want to see everything she's hiding."

The witch stepped forward.

"Alpha Varen." Her voice rasped like dead leaves. "I must warn you. The girl just turned eighteen today. Her wolf hasn't awakened yet. Her spirit is... fragile."

"So?"

"Memory extraction requires a stable spiritual foundation. For someone like her—unawakened, vulnerable—there's a limit." The witch paused. "Three extractions. Four at most. Beyond that, she risks losing her memories entirely. Perhaps even her wolf."

"I don't care about her wolf." My father's voice was ice. "I care about finding my daughter."

The witch hesitated. "The damage could be permanent. She might—"

"Did I stutter?"

Silence.

"No, Alpha."

The witch turned to me. Her pale eyes seemed to look through me, into me.

"Relax, child. Fighting will only make it worse."

I didn't fight.

What was the point?

Rosalie had won. She always won.

The witch began chanting. The metal circlet grew warm against my skull.

"One more thing," my father said suddenly. He stepped closer, looming over me. "If you cooperate—if you tell us where Rosalie is—I'll give you money. As much as you want. And you can go back to the human world. We'll never bother each other again."

The human world.

Every muscle in my body locked. My vision went white at the edges.

"No." The word came out before I could stop it. "Not there. Please. Anywhere but there—"

"See?" Caspian sneered. "She'd rather stay here and play princess than help us. Greedy little—"

"Enough." My father waved his hand. "Start the extraction."

The witch's chanting grew louder. The silver threads connecting me to her altar began to glow.

Pain lanced through my skull.

And then—

The world dissolved.

Colors bled together. Sound warped and twisted.

When everything settled, I was sitting in a car. A sleek black sedan.

Caspian's car.

And beside me, holding my hand with a bright smile, was a girl with golden hair and sparkling eyes.

Rosalie.

"Welcome home, big sister!" she chirped. "I made you something special—a welcome drink! I spent all morning on it. Try it, try it!"

I watched my past self take the cup.

I watched myself smile, grateful, trusting.

And I knew exactly what came next.