I thought I had escaped her, I should have been focused on the task ahead which was dusting, polishing, sweeping every inch of the Alpha's chambers until my back ached and my hands snapped. But the further away I walked from the courtyard, the louder the silence became. 

My hand was still tingling where Raven's had grabbed me, but it wasn't the burn I felt when she touched me that worried me...... It wasn't even the voice, that strange, echoing whisper that hadn't belonged to her, or to me, yet had curled inside my mind like it had always lived there.

It was Raven's smug words, her smirk..... She knew my secret, what secret?? I kept wondering what she knew. My chest tightened at the thought. Did she? Did I even know it myself?. I really hope it's not what I have in mind. I'll be in deep trouble if anyone knows that. 

Each step toward the Alpha's room felt heavier, my mind thought over every possibility, every meaning hidden in her taunt.

As I pushed open the door of the Alpha's room I tried to push aside every thought of Raven cause I had just only one thing to focus on right now and that's my chore in this room. 

I closed the door behind me and pressed my back against it for a second, closed my eyes and did a little prayer. 

I tightened my jaw and went directly to the Alpha's desk, the place where he spent most of his nights. The surface was filled with half-finished papers, an ink bottle, and the faint smell of leather. I arranged the papers, dust clung to the edges of the desk. My hands found the rag in my gown apron and as if by instinct immediately went to dusting. 

As I wiped, my thoughts slipped, I thought of the Alpha and days when we were younger, back into the days when my world was brighter. 

I could still see Kai as a boy, with his unruly brown hair and the stubborn grin he always threw at Raven when she tried to boss us around. 

I went back in time a bit, I was seven and they were ten when the field belonged to me, Kai, and Raven. 

The sun had been bright that day, spilling across the wide fields of Lunaris Hold. My bare feet slapped against the grass as I ran, breathless from laughing too hard, hair sticking to my damp forehead.

"Slow down, Lila!" Kai said to me, his voice was boyish yet firm. His small hand gripped mine when I almost tripped. "Don't let go.,If you fall, I'll pull you up. Always." 

Always. That word became a promise I carried in my heart.

Raven got angry whenever Kai pulled me behind him, rescuing me from her mini bullying.

"She's mine, Kai. She doesn't need you always rescuing her" Raven said "You're coddling her, she'll never be strong". 

But Kai would look at me, only me, and shake his head. "She doesn't need to be strong when I'm here."

That had been who Kai was, my shield, my protector. I had never felt weak with him. 

But years later, everything would change. 

I still remember the whispering fear in the pack when Kai and Raven turned sixteen. One of the elders got a premonition and it had spread like fire in dry leaves because it wasn't directed to just our pack:

There will come a wolf, the strongest Alpha in history. He alongside his Luna will stand against The Eclipse King (the rebellious brother of the moon goddess), The divine Alpha will be the breaker of curses and The savior of the goddess's kin. 

The name of the said Alpha was not mentioned and that silence was what terrified everyone the most. 

None of us slept well after that. Every parent looked at their sons with both hope and fear. Fear because we knew The Eclipse King would never let such a wolf live to fight.

Two years went by and everything was alright until the night Kai was to become Alpha. The night he turned 18, they were supposed to get their mates then because it was supposed to be our mate ceremony that year. 

But then the Rogues came, they were the creations of the eclipse kings they came in the night, visiting different packs. I remember the way they smelled, like filth and rot filling the air as screams tore through the ranch.

They destroyed everything on their part, the incident killed the previous Luna, Kai's Mum. They weren't werewolves. Something about them felt strange, different even like they weren't our kind. 

They weren't after everyone, they knew what they wanted. 

They were after the ones with a future too bright to ignore, they came looking for the future Alpha. 

And Kai was one of them,

Kai fought. Of course he did. Even at eighteen, his strength had begun to bloom, the power in his voice when he shifted was resistance like fire. 

But the witch was waiting. 

She didn't speak, she didn't have to but I'll never forget her. She wore a long black robe that seemed to swallow her whole body. She lifted her pale hands which were glowing like the moon, to bind him. Her eyes were cold and merciless, her hands twisting shadows around his wrists. 

I still see it when I close my eyes, the shadows dragging him into the dark, his voice hoarse from shouting in pain, eyes glowing pale blue as her hands marked him with something unseen. A curse. 

One that would turn him from the boy who once stood between me and the world... into the Alpha whose eyes I barely recognize now.

The sound of the vase shattering made my heart stop. I froze, staring at the sharp glittering pieces scattered across the polished floor. My hands shook so badly I didn't even dare to bend down and pick them up.

Kai emerged from the bathroom, towel draped around his waist, droplets trailing down his chest. His eyes landed on the shattered vase, then on me, and they hardened instantly.

"Pathetic," he muttered. His tone stung, "Can't even stand in a room without ruining something."

My throat closed. "I didn't me...."

"Don't bother," he cut me off, voice low and cold. "You're nothing but trouble. Out of my sight."

The words hurt worse than any punishment. I bowed my head, and left the room. I didn't cry until the door clicked shut behind me, until I was sure he couldn't see.

I left Lunaris Hold without thinking and found myself heading straight towards Elena's place rather than going back to my lonely cottage.

I shoved Elena's door open harder than I intended, my chest still ached from his words.

Elena's cottage smelled of herbs and warmth, but that comfort only made my chest ache more.

Her cottage was small but alive, it felt like stepping into the heart of an old oak tree. The walls were lined with shelves that were packed with clay jars and filled with herbs, each one labeled with her neat handwriting. Bundles of sage, lavender, and wild thyme hung drying from the rafters, their soft green leaves brushed against my hair as I stepped inside.

She looked up from the fire. "Lila?"

"I didn't mean to, but I broke a vase." I slumped down to sit.

"It was unintentional but he threw me out still,' I said, my voice dull. "As if I was nothing but wasted air in his space."

Elena came and sat beside me, her hand on my shoulder.

"I don't know why it hurts so much," I admitted. "I know I should be used to being unwanted. But today the way he looked at me, the things he said... it made me feel like I was less than nothing."

"Don't let those words weigh you down child." She said as she pulled me into a hug "You are not useless, and you have never been. Don't let a boy's tongue, no matter how powerful he may become, tell you otherwise." 

She pulled away, her sharp eyes scanning my face.

"How are you doing?" She asked softly

"I don't know honestly but I have had the weirdest day." I let out a shaky laugh, shaking my head.

The dream nudged at the back of my throat, but I swallowed it down.

I told her everything that happened: my run-in with Raven, how my hand burned inside but showed no scar when she grabbed me, told her about the voice I heard, and the secret Raven said she knew about me, one she wasn't going to keep. 

Elena didn't interrupt once. She only sat back, hands folded in her lap, her head tilting now and then as though she was listening to something deeper than what I was saying. 

When I finally finished my story, her sigh was long and heavy, she rose and moved to the single candle burning on the shelf. She watched the flame like it would give her some answers to questions I didn't know I asked.

When she finally spoke, her voice was low and slow  

"The voice you heard, do you know what exactly triggered it?" She turned facing me again

I tried to remember "Well, I heard it exactly when she held me, it said something about Raven being fire or flame.... I also saw something, like fire, destruction" I said still thinking 

"Hmmm" she came towards me again stretching her arm out "Here try..... touch me and see if you'll hear the voice again 

I laid my hand on her arm. Her skin was warm, lined with age, but full of strength. I waited a while but heard nothing, I felt nothing, no voice, no vision, no hum. 

I shook my head, embarrassed. "It's not working. Maybe I imagined everything that happened earlier."

Elena gave me a firm look, her brow knitting. "Hmmm I don't think you imagined that but, it's alright."

We sat quiet for a while, both of us lost in thoughts. 

"Elena," I said suddenly, my throat tight, "I almost forgot to tell you. There's... something else."

The way her gaze caught mine made me hesitate a bit. Even so, I still pushed the words out: "I, um... I got a new mark. On my stomach.."

"What mark?"

"I think it's a crescent, but it does not look like one though." 

She moved closer, her tone softening. "Let me see it, child."

I got up and with reluctant fingers, I lifted the hem of my gown. The glow seemed even brighter in the dimness of her cottage, silver light humming softly like it carried a pulse of its own.

Elena knelt, close enough that her hair brushed my arm, and her lips pressed into a thin line. She studied it in silence, tracing the air above it but never letting her finger touch my stomach .

"Elena?" My voice cracked. "What does it mean? Because when it appeared, I swear I felt... something. A presence. Like I wasn't alone." I decided not to mention that I felt it was the moon goddess.

"This feels different, nothing I've seen before ... This isn't ordinary. It hums with energy, even without me touching you. It almost feels like..." She cut herself off.

"Like what?" I pressed, unease choking me. 

"Like it's watching me back," she muttered. "Can I?" She asked to touch it and I nodded.

"It's alive, I feel it pulsing, like a heart beating." She pulled back and got up from her knees to stand facing me.

"What does all of these mean?" I was even more confused. 

"Lila, I cannot give you an answer. And that terrifies me more than if I had one. But listen to me well,  if anyone else sees this, they will not ask questions, they will draw their own conclusions and it'd be dangerous ones."

I tried to move towards the table, my legs fell weaker than I realized. I immediately held the table to steady myself, even the wood creaked under my palm. I thought I'd steadied myself but as I was about to move I felt my ankle roll and I stumbled forward. 

But before I could crash into the floor, "Careful!" Elena caught me, her hands closing over my wrists.

The moment her skin met mine, it happened.

I heard the voice, colder and sharper than before but clear:

The healer. Her hands heal. She carries their wounds as her own. She takes the ache, the burn, the break. The herbs obey her, the roots whisper her name. But she has only tasted the surface of her power.

My breath caught, my fingers clutching her sleeve. My vision blurred as the images spiraled in my mind, herbs burning until only ash was left, Elena bent down cradling a wolf's broken leg until her own arm bruised, her palms shining faintly as she pressed them over wounds.

Heat spread up my arm, not as painful when Raven had grabbed me but this was heavy, like I was carrying something that wasn't mine. A flicker of pain darted through my ribs and vanished, as though I'd borrowed it for her. 

I gasped and stumbled back, staring at her. That was when I noticed she was staring at me back with wide eyes like she had seen a ghost. 

"Elena," I whispered, still trembling from shock, "I heard it again. And this time... it wasn't about Raven. It was about you."

Her mouth opened, but no sound came. 

For two days I perfected the art of being a ghost. I slipped past others like smoke, hiding in the corners of the kitchens or the forgotten shelves of the laundry. I ate in the kitchen when no one was around, I took the long way through the laundry corridors, to slip out when returning to my cottage while the other omegas gathered to gossip, not like they noticed anyway. 

I couldn't bear the sneers, the whispers, or worse the looks of pity. I wanted none of it. It wasn't hard. People already didn't see me. Blending into nothingness just required less effort than usual.

I sat on the creaky bed in my cottage looking at the simple plain dress I'm to wear this evening. 

Tonight is the mate ceremony, lanterns already being strung through the courtyard and the heavy scent of fresh pine covering the stale air of the Ranch. 

I couldn't ignore the weight pressing down on me, the ceremony was supposed to be a night of promise but every year since the rogues and the witch came, it had turned into something else.

After the incident three years ago, we've not had a mate in the mating ceremony. A lot of people mumbled, they said the Moon Goddess had turned her face away from us. Others whispered that the witch had placed a curse on the pack. And every ceremony since then has been a mockery of what it used to be.

Three years in a row and not a single wolf got a mate. Three years of emptiness. Three years of us lining up like cattle beneath the moon, waiting for a sign that never came.

And me? This would be my second year. My second year of humiliation. My second year hoping that maybe the Moon Goddess would get me out of this place.

I told myself last year would be different. But my wrist had stayed cold, my skin bare and unmarked.

 And this year, I have zero expectations towards the mating ceremony. I'm attending just to fulfil all obligations because I know once my mate finds out of this pregnancy he'll reject me. 

I got up from the bed and I touched the faint birth mark on my stomach hidden beneath my clothes, the birthmark I didn't understand. 

I decided to get ready for the mate ceremony. 

*******

The path to the ceremony field seemed longer than usual,as I walked down the path, my steps became hesitant. My feet moved slowly through the grass.

The field was beautifully arranged, it seemed different from the last two years. It was brighter somehow, nearly cheerful in how it was set up. 

The chairs were arranged in perfect rows, the wooden chairs were neatly polished and set out for the she-wolves together on the left while the he-wolves were to be seated on the right.

The high platform at the center was where the Alpha and the Beta twins Alex and Zander sat , and their twin mirrored faces made them almost uncanny to look at. Both of them were tall and muscular,  they both had piercing dark eyes and sharp cheekbones. Alex carried a scar on his jaw, while Zander's skin was unmarked but equally commanding.

The elders of the pack were seated adjacent to the Alpha, Elena had sat with them, meanwhile the rest of the pack spread out across the field. I scanned the crowd for a moment because I had arrived there a bit late. Most of the young she-wolves had occupied the chairs, they sat murmuring quietly among themselves.

I caught Raven glaring at me, but I immediately looked away from her.

I found an empty chair at the very edge and slid into it with my hands on my lap. The seat was good for me, far enough not to be noticed and far enough to watch the ceremony unfold without involving myself in it. 

The moment the moon shined the brightest, Elder Thanon stepped forward with authority, he stood tall and stoic. His long grey robe brushed against the floor, he raised up his hand to silence the pack then folded his hands behind his back.

"Packmates," he began " Tonight, we gather to honor the bond of the soul, the bonds of mates.....  A mate is not merely a companion, but the soul intertwined as one. A mate is not just chosen, it is recognized. And yet each wolf may choose to accept or reject what is offered. But remember that rejecting someone doesn't free them, it ties them to the choice you make."

I could feel the words settling inside me, twisting in my chest.

"Rise, Pups," Tharon said. " And face one another."

My stomach tightened as the she-wolves and he-wolves stood up to line in a mix of order and anxious anticipation.

The she-wolves stood to the left while the he-wolves stood to the right facing each other, eyes scanning faces as if hunting for some hidden spark. 

The elders got up and stepped out to form a circle then they began chanting.  I had expected Kai to step into the field as he did the previous years since he had no mate but he remained seated. 

The chant was low, their voices rising and falling. The vibration settled in my chest, and without thinking I pressed my hand to my stomach, feeling the crescent mark pulse faintly under my palm. 

I tried to breathe, tried to steady the pounding in my chest as the ceremony gushed around me. The elders' voices lifted, chanting in waves that washed across the field. One by one the wolves were matched, a spark flared between them that I could feel with every fiber of my being, I could feel every spark and every spark of recognition. 

My hands trembled and the crescent mark on my stomach burned faintly beneath my gown. 

Then... it all stopped. The sparks thinned, and the energy in the field shifted

That was when I felt it, the pull, a sudden and impossible tug to ignore. It was like an invisible thread pulling me forward, my eyes moved about looking for something, someone even. 

And my heart kept beating against my ribs, that was when my eyes found his, he stood there frozen across the field looking at me. 

His brown eyes locked on mine, wide, sharp, unblinking. I felt the world go silent. The wings fell silent, the lanterns dimmed and the chants of the elder dissolved into silence. 

I heard it..... the voice, low and urgent, whispering in my head:

The Alpha. He is yours. You are his.

Kai's eyes widened, and he got up from his chair. His identical Beta twins exchanged startled glances, but he didn't falter as he walked towards me. He looked at me  like he had just remembered something he'd always known but was buried deep in his soul. 

"You're..." His voice shook, low and strained. "...mine?"

"Mine," I whispered, voice trembling, as the thread between us kindled into a pulse that the whole field seemed to feel. Heat, power, it all surged in one overwhelming heartbeat.

The chant had stopped and the crowd had gotten quiet, Kai locked eyes with mine. It felt beautiful, I could feel the warmth of belonging cause then it felt as though the moon goddess hadn't abandoned me. 

The silence that followed me getting my mate was deafening, then I heard murmuring.

 "She's his mate?"

"The Omega?"

That was when he said, "I reject you." without flinching. 

" I, Kai Sterling, Alpha of the Silver Moon park reject you, Lila Ashworth Omega of the pack."

It wasn't loud, but it was final.

Pain shot through me as I felt the bond snap, it felt like a claw tearing at my chest.

Elena gasped, her hand flying to her mouth, eyes wide and shiny with disbelief.

The voice in my head echoed incoherently:

No... flame... wrong path... pain

Then silence. 

The reaction of the rest of the pack was instant. Gasps, whispers, and the sting of laughter hidden behind palms. Some wolves shifted uneasily, others stared at me like I was cursed.

"I... I accept your rejection, Alpha." I spoke quietly, but everyone in the ceremony heard me.

Raven tilted her head, looking pleased, like she'd planned all of this and was enjoying the ending.

Kai turned away quickly, brushing me off like I didn't matter. But I saw his hand curl into a fist, a tiny pause in his step like he wasn't as certain as he wanted to seem. 

I just stood there, shattered