Lara leaned down and kissed Aurora’s hair, but her eyes were distant — trapped in a past she refused to name.

Thunder rolled outside, deep and angry, like a growl echoing through the forest.

From the cracked doorway, Rowan stood watching.

He was ten years old. Aurora’s older brother. His sharp blue eyes glowed faintly in the candlelight — a subtle mark of his True Blood Alpha bloodline.

He didn’t understand why his grandmother’s words were soaked in hatred.

He only knew they made his cousin sister flinch.

Rowan clenched his fists.

No matter what Grandma said, he would never let Aurora fear what she didn’t understand.

Because he was one of them.

And one day… she would find out.

From that night on, hatred became her inheritance.