After the Cursed Alpha Pup Died

Nora Crossa was born on a night when her mother—the Luna of the Crossa Pack—nearly bled to death in the healing center. From that moment on, everyone in the Crossa family called her a cursed pup, a little demon who would steal the family's good fortune. When she fell and split her forehead open, her father won a seat on the Alpha Council. When she nearly drowned, her sister became cheer captain. When she was locked inside a storage room with a broken wolfsbane sample and lay unconscious all night, her brother took the championship at the Heir Training Camp. Nora once believed it was all coincidence—until seven days before her fourteenth birthday, when she overheard her father, mother, and brother discussing plans to hurt her once more before her birthday, all to secure the North Ridge resource rights, the heir investiture, and her sister's competition qualification. From that moment, a countdown began in Nora's heart. In seven days, she would turn fourteen—the age when she was supposed to awaken her wolf spirit. Yet during those seven days, she continued to be ignored by her family, framed by classmates, humiliated by her sister, and used by her parents. Naively, she believed that if she endured a little more pain, her family would love her a little more. Only too late did she realize that she was never their daughter in their eyes—only a tool to trade for luck. So she decided that on her birthday, she would give them her very last bit of luck. After she died, the Crossa family finally experienced all the pain she had endured for thirteen years. Her father lost his Alpha authority. Her mother was stripped of her Luna title. Her brother lost his inheritance. Her sister had all her honors revoked. And Nora only met her own white wolf spirit after death. She was never useless, never wolfless—she simply hadn't lived long enough for her wolf to find her.