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Chapter 3 — Lisa

My name is Lisa Silvermoon.

And before anyone tries to paint me as the villain, let me be clear: I never lied about who I am.

People hate that. They hate it when you don't fake kindness, when you don't hide behind guilt or false humility. They prefer monsters dressed up as angels. I never needed that.

I was born knowing exactly where I fit.

While Luara cried about not being seen, I learned how to be watched. While she hid in baggy clothes, I learned to use my body as a language. While she silently begged for acceptance, I understood that the world respects those who ask for nothing.

It's not my fault she was born… wrong.

We'd been different since we were little. Very different. She was always too big, too slow, too sensitive. She cried over anything. I observed. I always observed. Weak people reveal so much when they think no one's looking.

Luara never knew how to compete. Never knew how to stand her ground. And in a pack, that's a death sentence.

My parents tried to balance things out. Tried to protect Luara as if the world were fair. But it isn't. And it's not my responsibility to pretend it is.

I never pushed her physically. Never had to. All it took was saying the right thing, at the right moment, to the right person. The rest followed on its own.

At the pack school, at Wolf Academy, I was always welcome. Teachers respected me. Students followed me. I knew how to smile. How to listen. How to time my words.

Luara never learned any of that.

She walked like she was apologizing for taking up space. Head down. Shoulders hunched. It's impossible to respect someone like that.

And then there's Kael.

Kael Draven was always different from the other boys. Even as a kid, he carried something in his eyes. A quiet certainty. A weight that didn't crush — it shaped. He was born to lead, and everyone always knew it. Including me.

While Luara confused a childhood gesture of kindness with eternal love, I watched Kael grow. Watched how others reacted to him. Watched how he reacted to power.

I fell for him the right way.

It wasn't some silly dream. It wasn't fantasy. It was admiration. It was desire. It was a choice.

Kael never looked at Luara the way she wanted. Never. He tolerated her. Sometimes not even that. And still, she insisted on gazing at him like he was something unreachable, sacred.

That always irritated me.

Because I knew he could be mine.

At the academy, things got clearer. Kael became harder. More demanding. Less patient with weakness. And I liked that. I liked it because it meant he was becoming who he was supposed to be.

Luara, on the other hand, stayed frozen in the same spot.

She didn't awaken her wolf. Didn't evolve. Didn't change.

And I got tired of pretending that didn't bother me.

That morning, when I came downstairs for breakfast and saw her sitting at the table, filling space with that dim presence of hers, I felt the urge to say something. Not out of pointless cruelty. Out of honesty.

"You still insist on going to the academy like something's going to change," I said.

My mother gave me that tired look, as if I were the one in the wrong for stating the obvious.

But I don't take back true words.

On the way to the academy, I walked a few steps ahead. I always did that. Not by accident. By choice. I don't share the spotlight.

When I slowed my pace, I knew exactly what I wanted to say.

"I'm in love with Kael."

I didn't raise my voice. Didn't dramatize it. Just said it.

I watched her face change. An almost imperceptible tightening. A heavy silence. That satisfied me more than I'd like to admit.

She needed to know.

She needed to understand that she wasn't just rejected by the world — she was replaceable.

Kael deserves someone on his level. Someone strong. Someone admirable. Someone who stirs something beyond pity.

And no, I don't feel guilty.

At the academy, I walked through the hallways and people greeted me. Laughter. Glances. Comments. Luara trailed behind, as always, pretending not to hear the things everyone said.

Sometimes I wondered why she insisted.

Maybe because she didn't know how to do anything besides survive.

I, on the other hand, wanted to live.

I wanted to be seen. I wanted to be chosen. I wanted to stand beside someone who carried power without apologizing for it.

Kael and I… we had chemistry. Always did. We talked. We laughed. He looked at me in a way he never looked at her. And that wasn't imagination. It was reading behavior. It was reality.

Luara lived on hope.

I lived on strategy.

And in the end, strategy wins.

I'm not cruel for pleasure. I'm honest by nature. If that hurts, the problem was never mine. The world doesn't reward those who hide away waiting for someone to take pity on them.

It rewards those who claim their place.

And I always knew exactly where to stand.

LISA — 20 YEARS OLD, TWO YEARS OLDER THAN LUARA

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