Chapter 3

Hannah Price POV:

Walking down the corridor from the sitting room, I reached the half-open mahogany doors of the main study just as a teacup smashed onto the Persian rug inside.

I slowed my steps at the threshold. Kaelyn was sprawled on the floor with messy hair, her forehead pressed to the floorboards as she wailed. Behind his wide black-walnut desk, Alvan Sheppard's face was livid, veins bulging beneath his gray hair.

"Did the family raise you all these years so you could act like a lunatic?" Alvan roared, slamming his palm on the desk. "The selection spot at headquarters was set by the elders! Swapping brides is a joke!"

Kaelyn raised her tear-streaked face, her eyes burning with sick obsession.

"Uncle! Daryl will become the most glorious commander in the entire territory! Marrying him is the greatest help I can give our family! Please let me have him!"

Standing outside the door, I sneered inwardly. Daryl was a congenital wolfless waste who could not even connect to the pack Mind-Link—whenever a normal wolf projected thoughts to him, it felt like knocking on a hollow, silent wall. Kaelyn was fighting for an empty shell.

Sitting on a leather sofa nearby, Penelope rubbed her temples and spoke coldly.

"Alvan, since Kaelyn has made up her mind, forcing her to headquarters will only cause a scandal at the ceremony and disgrace our whole clan."

Alvan choked on his anger. I could tell he knew she was right, but the roster had already been submitted to Nightshadow Pack headquarters. Changing candidates required a legitimate excuse.

The timing was ripe. Taking a deep breath, I knocked lightly and stepped into the study with a trembling voice.

"Father, Mother, Cousin, please calm your anger."

Every eye in the study snapped toward me. Like a drowning woman spotting driftwood, Kaelyn scrambled across the rug and clutched my hem.

"Hannah! Tell Uncle right now that you volunteered to take my place at headquarters! Tell him!"

I shrank back as if terrified by her grip, looking toward Alvan with tears pooling in my eyes.

"Father... since Kaelyn loves young master Daryl so deeply, I cannot bear to see her hurt herself or bring shame to our house."

Seeing my submissive posture, Alvan's expression softened slightly as he sighed.

"Hannah, are you truly willing to take her place in the selection?"

"I am willing to share Father's worries," I replied, lifting my gaze before letting panic wash over my face. "However, Father, there is one fatal problem. The Alpha King's selection tests not only appearance, but conducts strict bloodline and status verifications."

Alvan raised a brow.

"What do you mean?"

"I was raised in the side courtyard, listed in the clan archives only as a marginal illegitimate daughter," I said, dropping my voice low with shame. "In our world, rank and entry to the royal court are strictly bound to certified bloodlines. If I step into headquarters with a lowly bastard title, the genetic inspectors will charge our family with disrespecting the throne in the very first round!"

Alvan's pupils shrank, and he sucked in a sharp breath. As an experienced elder, he surely knew how ruthless the old noble inspectors at headquarters were. Penelope also sat up straight, her eyes narrowing.

"Then what are you suggesting?" Alvan asked, his stern tone wavering.

I dropped to my knees on the carpet, touching my forehead to the floor.

"I beg Father and Mother to record my name officially under Mother's branch in the main genealogy book, granting me the status of a high-ranking pureblood legitimate daughter of the Sheppard family!"

"Out of the question!" Penelope snapped, her face darkening at the insult of adopting a concubine's child.

Kaelyn, however, screamed frantically.

"Aunt Penelope! Just say yes! It is only an empty title on paper! As long as she goes to headquarters to die in my place, who cares whose name she is under?"

At the words "die in my place," both Alvan and Penelope stiffened. Hiding my face against the rug, I smiled coldly asAlvan paced the floor in his heavy boots before stopping in front of his wife.

"Penelope, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures," Alvan said grimly. "Only under your name can she legitimately represent our clan."

Penelope's chest heaved, but looking between her hysterical niece and my kneeling form, she gritted her teeth.

"... Whatever the Master decides."

Alvan immediately pulled a gold-embossed genealogy contract from his drawer, wrote my name into the legitimate first-daughter line, and stamped the heavy clan seal onto the paper.

"From today on, you are the legitimate pureblood eldest daughter of the Sheppard family," Alvan declared.

"Thank you, Father! Thank you, Mother!" I bowed deeply, my fingernails digging into my palms inside my sleeves to contain my triumph.