Eileen’s POV
“Chris!”
Relief surged through me the second he stepped through the rusty doors. “You came… I knew you would...”
Suddenly, the lead kidnapper grabbed Liora by the arm, violently dragging her forward to stand beside me.
“Mr. Vance,” the man sneered. “Two women. You can only take one.”
---
Today was supposed to be my engagement day.
It was meant to be the beginning of a life everyone called “perfect.”
Instead, I was here.
An abandoned factory in the western suburbs.
Across from me sat Liora Evans, also bound. Yet, even as masked men circled us like wolves eyeing their prey, the fear on her face seemed strangely… shallow.
I had endured hours of terror in this filthy warehouse, clinging to a single, desperate belief: everything could still be reversed.
Chris would come to save me and tell me, personally, that the phone call that brought me here wasn’t his doing.
And he did come.
I thought I was safe.
---
“One is your fiancée, and the other is her sister. Choose which one lives.”
The air instantly turned cold.
My breath caught in my throat as I looked at Chris helplessly.
He didn’t even hesitate.
“Liora,” he said calmly.
The single word shattered something inside me.
The kidnapper raised an eyebrow, clearly entertained.
“You sure?”His gaze flicked between us with open curiosity.
“Yes,” he said impatiently. “Kill the other one.”
My mind went blank.
“Chris…” My voice trembled uncontrollably. “What did you say?”
He frowned, clearly annoyed.
“I said—” his tone sharpened, slicing through the damp air. “let them kill you.”
A violent tremor wrecked my body.
“But… today was supposed to be the day I officially became your fiancée…” The words tore from my throat, trembling and pathetic.
“Why? Why do you hate me this much?”
Chris let out a low, breathy laugh.
“Hate you?”
He stepped closer, his immaculate leather shoe stopping mere inches from my bruised knees.
“To hate you, Eileen, you would have to actually matter.”
His gaze swept over me—over the ruined, cheap dress clinging to my body, over my tangled, messy hair—with unhidden disgust.
“Wake up. Since when does life ever turn into a real Cinderella fairy tale? You’re nothing but a genuine ugly nobody—someone no one has ever cared about.”
Every word drove the invisible knife straight into my chest. But he wasn't done. He wanted to make sure it scraped against the bone.
He reached out, his hand gently wrapped around Liora’s waist, pulling her firmly against his chest.
“A pathetic placeholder to appease the families until they finally allowed me to be with the woman I truly love.” The cruel mockery in his eyes vanished, melting into a sickening, genuine tenderness as he looked down at Liora. “She is the only one I ever wanted. Your role is over.”
Liora leaned against his chest, her eyes widening in mock horror as she looked at me. "But Chris... we can't just leave her." she whispered, her voice trembling with perfectly calculated innocence. "The kidnappers might..."
Chris gently stroked Liora's hair. "You're too kind, Liora. But she brought this on herself."
As he turned to guide her away, the lead kidnapper chuckled darkly. He stepped toward me, the cold glint of a switchblade flashing in his hand. "Well, I guess we can have some fun before we finish the job."
"No!" Adrenaline surged through my veins. I wildly thrashed against the ropes, ignoring the coarse fibers tearing my skin, and lunged forward. I fell to my knees, my bound hands desperately brushing against Chris's expensive trousers as I tried to block his path.
"Chris, wait! Please!" My voice broke, thick with humiliation and fear. "Take me with you!"
Chris stopped dead in his tracks.
For a split second, a foolish spark of hope flickered in my chest. Then, he looked down at the dirt on his pants, and his face twisted into an expression of absolute, venomous disgust—as if a diseased rat had just crawled onto his shoe.
Without a word, he pulled his leg back and kicked me.
The brutal force caught me right in the stomach. All the air left my lungs in a sharp gasp. I collapsed onto the cold concrete floor, curling into a tight ball.
"Don't touch me with those filthy hands!" he hissed.
My touch seemed to have completely destroyed his last shred of patience.
"I'll transfer one million right now," he announced, his voice echoing in the dead silence of the warehouse.
The kidnappers’ eyes lit up with greedy delight. "One million?"
"Yes." Chris stared down at my trembling body with chilling apathy. "Just make sure this disgusting woman disappears completely."
Liora gasped softly, hiding her face in Chris's shoulder as if frightened by the cruelty. But through the gap in his arm, her eyes met mine, and the corners of her lips curled into a triumphant, mocking smirk.
Without another backward glance, Chris wrapped his arm protectively around Liora and walked out of the factory.
The heavy, rusted doors slammed shut.
The moment the echo faded, the pathetic, trembling tears instantly vanished from my face.
So, Chris Vance really was rotten to the core. I had played the perfect, pitiful victim just to see if there was even a single shred of humanity left in him.
He failed the test. And that meant I didn’t have to pretend anymore.
If these thugs wanted my life… they would have to pay for it in blood.
But first, I needed them to stay blind—because only then would the game be interesting.
I closed my eyes, reaching for the wolf inside me. “Shift.”
Bones cracked and realigned. Fur sprouted across my skin. Within seconds, a brown wolf stood where I had been. But I deliberately suppressed my aura, forcing my form to appear small, thin, and dangerously weak.
The kidnappers burst into cruel laughter.
“An Omega?”
“Seriously? I thought we’d actually have to break a sweat.”
“Oh..You don’t even need to shift for this, girl.”
The leader sneered and shifted. His body expanded violently, thick black fur ripping through his clothes. A massive wolf, twice my size, landed heavily on the ground. The others followed, their bones snapping in a chorus of monstrous shifts.
Five massive predators surrounded me.
I lunged first, my claws slashing forward in a feigned act of desperation.
It was exactly what they expected. A massive paw slammed into my ribs, the sickening crack echoing in the warehouse. Pain exploded through my chest, but I bit down my whine. Another wolf sank its teeth into my shoulder, tearing flesh and sending hot blood spraying across the concrete.
The world spun as my body crashed hard into the dirt. I lay there, gasping, letting my blood pool around me. Perfect.
Thinking the game was over, the kidnappers shifted back into their human forms, laughing.
“Easiest one million I’ve ever made,” the leader smirked. “Let’s go. The wild wolves will finish the trash.”
Their footsteps began to move away toward the exit.
My vision blurred, the metallic taste of blood heavy on my tongue.
You must never reveal the White Wolf. My mentor’s ancient warning echoed in my fading mind. Only reveal it when you are strong enough to face the consequences.
It didn’t matter.
By the time this was over, they would all be dead.
There would be no consequences.
A cold, ancient fury surged through my veins, instantly burning away the pain. The dying brown wolf’s body began to violently tremble.
Then—a monstrous, ground-shaking howl split the night.
The kidnappers froze in their tracks.
“What the hell was that?” The leader turned around slowly, his sneer dissolving into pure horror.
The pathetic brown wolf was gone.
Standing in its place was a colossal beast, radiating an oppressive, suffocating aura. Its fur was as pristine and blinding as fresh snow. Silver eyes, glowing with ancient power, locked onto the trembling men.
The legendary White Wolf.
The leader’s arrogant smirk melted into absolute terror. “S-Shoot it!” he screamed, scrambling backward.
But before they could even blink, I moved.
I wasn't just fast; I was a blur of lethal white lightning. The man closest to me barely had time to raise his knife before my jaws clamped down on his arm.
CRACK. The sound of his bone snapping echoed exactly like a gunshot. He shrieked in agony, but I didn't stop. With a casual flick of my massive head, I tossed his heavy body across the room like a broken ragdoll. He crashed into a concrete pillar with a sickening thud and crumpled to the ground, completely out cold.
“Shift! Shift now!” the leader yelled, his voice cracking with panic as the remaining thugs desperately tried to summon their wolves.
I didn't give them the chance.
I lunged at the next one, my massive paw slamming into his chest. The sheer force drove him into the dirt, cratering the concrete beneath him. Blood sprayed into the air, but not a single drop dared to mar my snow-white fur.
The taste of their fear was intoxicating.
I turned my glowing silver eyes to the remaining three, baring my razor-sharp fangs, ready to tear them into bloody ribbons.
But at that exact second—
SCREECH! The deafening sound of tires tearing across the asphalt. Car doors slammed violently. Heavy, urgent footsteps rushed toward the entrance.
BANG! The rusted factory doors were kicked entirely off their hinges.