Mooncrest Estate's silence was a heavy cloak, heavier than the stifling ceremonial robe. It had a smell of dust and forgotten memories, something comforting and terrifying at the same time. I ran my hand over the splintered wood of the staircase banister, the very same that I would slide down on as a child. My captivity was less a punishment than a return to a prison I'd broken away from long ago.

I walked to the grand room, where my parents, Calix and Lira, were painted above the chilly fireplace. My mom's eyes, identical to mine, glared back at me with defiance and sadness. I flopped onto a worn chaise lounge, the moonlit glow from the enormous window casting silver stripes across the ground. It was in this same room, years before, that the suffering had started. A chill coursed through my body, drawing me back to another day.

"Micah, wait up!" Ash's voice, a deep, authoritative one even back then, rang out down the corridors of Lunaris Academy.

I hid behind a pillar, book clutched against my chest. It was an old book of history, and I was trying to navigate my way to the Duskmire Library without being noticed. Being seen was always a risk. Being seen by them was a guarantee recipe for disaster.

Micah, my brother, walked over to stand in front of the four Alphas, a big smile on his face. A Beta, but powerful enough and loyal enough to be accepted as one of their own. They were his friends. And I was his sister. Something they enjoyed exploiting.

"Practice fields?" Micah asked, his voice loose.

Ash nodded, his gaze sweeping over the hallway. It was wolf sniffing its quarry. His eyes rested on me. I tried to disappear, but that didn't work. He had found me.

“Look what the wolf dragged in,” Zane Valez said, his signature smirk already in place. He was leaning against the wall, a picture of nonchalant cruelty. “Little Rhea Mooncrest, still clinging to those dusty books. What’s that you’re reading? ‘How to Get a Mate When No One Wants You’?”

The other two Alphas chuckled. Kai Wolfe stood next to Zane, quietly, his dark wise eyes observing. He didn't say a word, but his presence was as constricting as the others' verbal abuse. Blaze Draven, his fists already clenched at his waist, glared at me with raw contempt.

"Leave her alone, Zane," Micah replied, but his tone was far from sharp. He was torn even then, a Beta caught in the middle of his sister and his Alpha pack.

Don't worry, Micah," Ash said, walking towards me. "We're just being nice. Right, little Omega?" He took the book from me and flipped through its pages with a bored expression. "History of the Silverfang Pack. How exciting. Don't you have something better to study. you know, how to be a good Omega? Maybe some recipe book on cooking?"

My breath was stuck in my throat. "Give it back, Ash.".

He pretended to think about it, then shrugged, and with a careless flick of the wrist, knocked the book into a standing puddle of water from a dripping pipe. It splatted down with a pitiful sound. The pages instantly started to absorb the dirty water.

Blaze let out a big, raucous laugh. "Serves her right! Shouldn't have been in our way!"

“Now, Blaze,” Zane said, but there was no real reprimand in his voice. He winked at me. “Don’t worry, Rhea. I’m sure you’ll find another way to be useful.”

Micah's smile had vanished. "All right, that's it. Come on, boys." He shot me a quick, sorry look. He knew I was stung. But he also knew he couldn't beat them off without jeopardizing his place in the Alphas. He decided where he wanted to be. He always did. I stood there and let him walk away with them, their laughter echoing down the hall, leaving me with my waterlogged book and my pride wounded.

There was a sound in the big room that shook me out of my daydreaming. I sat up, heart pounding. The front door creaked open and shut. I knew without seeing who it was.

"Rhea." Micah's deeper, older voice, but with the same guilt, echoed in the doorway. He stood there holding a little, brown paper package.

"Wait here, in there," I was told. "Confinement." "What do you think you are doing here?" I said coldly.

He winced at the chill in my voice. "I brought food. Theon guards the estate, but they're not excluding me. yet." He placed the package on a side table. "Are you. are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I lied. "Just. revisiting some old memories. It's hard to do that when you're where you are now."

He dropped down on the floor in front of me, his knees bent. The moonlight emphasized the lines of weariness on his face. "I know what you're thinking about. I saw their faces. I saw their looks."

You saw how they fell," I amended. "But you did not see how they laughed at me a few years ago. You did not see what they did to me. And you never did anything to stop them.

His head dropped into his hands. "Rhea… I was such an idiot. I was so inexperienced. I was trying so hard to be one of them. To fit in. I was trying to be a Beta who wasn't the brother of the Omega.".

And you succeeded," I muttered resentfully. "You were friends with them. They admired you. But they treated me like dirt on their heel. Did it ever occur to you that maybe you shouldn't be best friends with people who treat your family like that?

"I know," he whispered, the rough whisper. "Theon. he told me. My position in society, the security of our family after Mother and Father died. all depended on my being accepted by the next leaders of the pack. I was trying to keep us safe. I was thinking that if I had them on our side, they wouldn't. wouldn't push it too far. I was wrong."

He finally looked at her, his eyes pleading. "Rhea, I'm sorry. I should have chosen you. I should have chosen us."

I felt a tear roll down my cheek. The dam of all those years of pain was finally breaking. "What's the point in choosing me now, Micah? After Theon paraded me around like a prize lamb, and they all crawled at my feet? And you stood there, helpless, as always."

"I am no longer helpless," he declared, his tone with resolve. "Theon thinks he has me cornered. He's already calling in the Council's authority to keep me away from you. He told me that the pack requires me to act as a diplomat between the Mooncrest name and the Alphas. To 'regulate' the situation. He wants me to appeal to them. To make them turn their backs on the bond."

My heart stopped. "Refuse the bond? Is that even possible?

"It's unprecedented," Micah conceded. "But Theon says the lunar bond can be overridden with a Council edict, if the Alphas are powerful enough to fight it. And they're being held now, too. To Alpha Row. Theon desires to break them. He desires to show the pack that he's in control. He desires to show them that Omegas like us can be ordered around."

He took a step closer towards me, his hand extended towards mine. "But I won't do it. I'll hold my ground. Theon is trying to turn you and them against me, but this time I have decided. I will protect you, Rhea. You are everything to me now. Theon wants to break you, but he has no idea what you are. He has no idea what your mother was."

A weak, genuine smile swept my lips. "He has no idea what my mother left me."

Micah's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"The lake house," I said, my voice a gentle whisper of a secret child. "Lira's Rest. Mother hid a journal there. She said it would guide me, if ever I truly needed it. I need it, Micah. And I need to get to where it is."

Micah looked at me, his eyes flicking between the portrait of our mother and the resolve in my eyes. "Theon will be keeping an eye on all of them. But… I'll help you. I'll try everything. This time, I won't be their friend."

"The Council has convened," Captain Jex Rylan stated, his voice akin to the clang of a cell door slamming shut. "Rhea Mooncrest, step forward."

The Council Chamber, its vaulted ceiling and stone seats, was crypt-like. It was the Circle of Governance, where our pack's law was chiseled in stone, but it was more like an abattoir. Elder Theon Vale sat on the middle throne, with Elder Garrick Stonehelm and Elder Marla Fenwick on either side. Theon's gaze was a physical weight, crushing me. He saw me as not human but a problem to be solved.

"Rhea Mooncrest," Theon stated, his tone lacking warmth. "You have been called in to account for your part in the. disturbance. at the Omega Presentation. An interruption of this kind is an egregious transgression."

I stood my ground, Micah standing guardfully behind me. I felt his calming aura, a shield to keep out Theon's smothering presence. I kept the Elder's cold stare at bay. "With all due respect, Elder, the accident was not my fault. The bonds chose us. I did not choose them."

A rumble of discontent came up from the benches where the Alphas were sitting. They sat in a row, each of them guarded, their faces furious and humiliated. Ash's eyes, still smeared with that deadly gold, glared a hole right through me.

"Technicality," Theon growled. "The Alphas have all agreed that this. bond. was a misstep. An aberration. And as the Omega, it is your responsibility to bring about its severing. Have you made your decision?"

Marla Fenwick, the only female elder present, cut in. "The bond is holy, Theon. We have to be careful with this.".

"Warning is for the weak, Marla," Theon growled, silencing her. "This matter involves the future of our pack. One Omega cannot be allowed to disrupt the natural order." His eyes turned to the Alphas. "Ash Ryder, Zane Valez, Kai Wolfe, Blaze Draven. You speak for yourselves. Do you support this anomaly?"

Blaze Draven stood, a snarl of a wild one on his lips. "I will not do it! I would rather die than be mated to a Mooncrest. She is not strong. My pack and my honor demand that I refuse this farce. You are correct, Elder. It is a shame."

My heart, pounding with fear, stopped. Numbness washed over me, icy cold. I had known it was what I was anticipating, but to hear it, to feel it through the bond, was a shock. He did not like me. The bond, created to be a bond of love and destiny, was one of disgust.

"And you, Zane?" Theon prodded.

Zane Valez, for the first time in my recollection, wasn't grinning. His face was a deathly pale, haunted mask. "The bond… it's real," he confessed, his voice little more than a whisper. "But… I-I don't know. This isn't… this isn't what a mate bond feels like. It feels like a curse." He stared at me, a flicker of true fear shining in his eyes. "It's a mistake.

Kai Wolfe, ever the thinker, settled into his seat. "One of the first loyalties of an Alpha is to the pack. A bond that threatens the security of the Silverfang Pack cannot be allowed. Elder, I concur with Blaze. This bond has to be severed. I will do what it takes to sever it." His icy, logical tone was a hammer blow, slamming into me with a finality that was more painful than Blaze's out-and-out hatred.

"Ash Ryder?" Theon concentrated now on the most powerful of them all.

Ash had not spoken, risen slowly to his feet. His gaze was still on me. His mouth a thin, bitter line. "The bond is there," he stated, his voice a low growl that made me tremble. "And it's strong. But." He paused, his eyes flashing with an inner struggle. I felt the disorienting mixture of possessiveness and anguish coming from him through our connection. He was the one who endured it most deeply, the one most instinctively reactive. "But I cannot… I cannot let it stand."

Theon's grin was triumph in itself. "You see, Rhea? All four of our strongest Alphas agree. They've had their turn. Now, you. We need only your public denial to make this Council decision final. Do you, Rhea Mooncrest, deny the lunar bonding to Alphas Ryder, Valez, Wolfe, and Draven?"

The hall was silent, except for the anxious whispers of the pack members. I could feel their collective gaze upon me, their curiosity and their judgment. I remembered my mother, Lira, and the revolution in her eyes in that portrait. I remembered Micah's promise to me. And I looked at the four Alphas. The boys who'd turned my life into a living hell. The men who were now bound to me, and yet still so ready to be set free. I recalled the pain they had inflicted, and the pain they were suffering currently.

"No," I said, my own voice firm and unyielding.

The one word hung in the air, a peal of a new dawn. A gasp swept through the onlookers.

"What did you just say?" Theon's voice was a cold whisper.

"I said no," I repeated, my gaze sweeping across the Alphas, alighting briefly upon each of them. "I will not reject the bond. You can't force me to do it."

Blaze sprang forward, held back by two guards. "You cunning Omega! It's all a joke to you, isn't it? To embarrass us? To bring us to our knees? I deny you! I deny you! I DENY YOU!"

I felt a burning surge of agony, a brutal ripping in my heart, as Blaze's refusal echoed through the bond. It was a body blow, a hurt that left me breathless.

"Blaze Draven's refusal is on record," Theon sneered, his eyes blazing with anger. "But the bond requires a mutual rejection. And you, little Omega, are making this difficult.".

"Bond is my destiny," I stated, trembling slightly at Blaze's rejection, but my resolve unshakeable. "And it is sacred. You cannot profane a bond made by the lunar spirit itself with your laws."

Low hiss sliced through the tension in Kai's voice. "It is not destiny, it is sickness. A curse. And we will find a way to cut it, with or without your assistance. Your defiance will bring only more agony to all of us.".

"And what of my pain, Kai?" I bit back at him, the hurt and fury of all those years finally breaking to the surface. "What of the pain you and your friends inflicted on me? Of the pain you still inflict on me? Does that amount to nothing?"

Zane then finally broke his silence, a raw desperation in his voice. "Rhea… don't do this. You have to understand. You're our brother's sister. And we… we were cruel. We were in the wrong. But this isn't the way to get vengeance. Please. Let us go. Let this end."

"Revenge?" I laughed, a harsh, broken sound. "This isn't revenge, Zane. This is a sad twist of fate. But I am not the one who will break a sacred vow. Not after what happened to my mother."

"Your mother was an anomaly," Theon burst out, standing. "And so are you. Your obstinacy will not just destroy you, but it will result in ruin for our pack. The packmates are already talking. They see this for what it is: a sign of chaos. You are a threat, Rhea Mooncrest. And as a threat, you must be dealt with."

Micah stepped closer, his posture stiff. "Elder, you can't threaten her! She's a Mooncrest. She has rights."

"Rights which she is forfeiting with each aggressive word," Theon snarled. "This is my final offer, little Omega. You spurn the bond, and you will be detained on the Mooncrest Estate until your first heat has passed and your standing in the pack has been re-evaluated.". If not, you shall be robbed of your family name, your guardians, and you'll be subject to the guardianship and care of the Alphas bound with you. They'll have total right to enforce compliance upon you to do the will of the pack. Do you want that punishment?

"

I glared at the Alphas. Blaze, burning with a fierce anger. Zane, torn and frightened. Kai, planning his next move. Ash, his jealousy a burning, suffocating weight on my soul. They were my torturers. And now, Theon was prepared to give them complete control over me. It was a worse death than death.

"Theon, this is not fair!" Marla Fenwick cried out.

"The pack requires discipline, Marla. And this Omega is threatening it," Theon asserted, his eye a frozen warning to her.

I took a breath, the dust and rebellion bitter on my tongue. I looked at Theon, the Alphas, the murmuring crowd. And I spoke with every modicum of courage I could muster, the last dregs of my agony giving way to a fierce, searing fire. "Then I will lose my family name," I said. "Because I will not give up the bond. And I will not be governed by you, or by anyone else."

“Look at her. The Omega who believes she's a queen."

The whisper, sharp as a dagger, cut through the gentle hum of the Lunaris Academy hallways. It was merely the first of many. Every face I passed had some mix of pity, disgust, or morbid curiosity etched on it. My public refusal of the bond in the Council Hall had been the pack's gossip for two days. I was no longer the isolated Omega; I was the Omega who had tried to defy the future Alpha leaders.

I kept my eyes to the ground, my book bag gripped hard. I was on my way to Healer Mira's for my mandatory check-up. The bond was a constant, low-level buzz in my soul, a confusing mix of four various and opposing emotions. It was a curse I couldn't rid myself of.

Then, four shadows loomed over me.

I stopped dead in my tracks, my head rising slowly. There they stood, lining the hallway. Ash, Zane, Kai, and Blaze. The pack's top Alphas, and my bullies, now bound to me.

Ash’s eyes, a simmering mix of cold steel and golden sparks, were fixed on me. The possessiveness I’d felt through the bond was a palpable presence in the air, a thick, suffocating thing. His mouth was a tight line, but his wolf was snarling.

"You've got a lot of nerve, Mooncrest," Blaze snarled, his voice a low, furious mutter. He moved a step closer, his body rigid with an anger that was only just kept in control. "Humiliating us in front of the entire pack. What was the idea? To make us look weak?"

"The idea," I retorted, my voice trembling but my head held high, "was to not be ordered about. By you, or by anyone else."

Zane let out a short, hollow laugh that held none of his usual humor. "Not controlled? Rhea, what you did was a public declaration of war. You made fools of us. Do you have any idea what that does to an Alpha's reputation? To our honor?" He shook his head, dragging a hand through his hair. "This is a mess. A complete disaster. And for what? So you could feel powerful for five minutes?"

I wasn't trying to be powerful," I snapped, long-standing wounds of his teasing simmering again. "I was trying to live. Your Elder, Theon, was giving you permission to make me your personal possession.".

Kai, who had been quiet up until this point, spoke up. His voice was even, almost academic, and that served to make it all the more appalling. "Let us not be dramatic. The Elder's recommendation was in the pack's best interest. This… bonding… is an aberration. A disease. It is not destiny. It is a curse from which we must be released. Your emotional outburst only muddled the situation."

"Emotional outburst?" I stared at him in disbelief. His detached analysis was exactly what I'd always hated about him. He treated everything like a problem to be solved on a chalkboard, never a matter of heart or injury. "You were ready to humiliate me, to strip my name and my rights from me, and you call my response an emotional outburst?"

Ash finally moved, stepping closer. He didn't touch me, but his proximity—a smell of pine and rain—filled my senses, and the bond flared with a searing intensity. "Let's cut to the chase, Omega. You have a choice. You can repudiate the bond privately, and the Council will do everything in their power to break it, or… you can continue this uprising, and face the consequences."

"And what are the consequences, Ash?" I insisted, meeting his furious gaze. "More public humiliation? You trying to bully me into submission?"

He leaned in, voice a menacing whisper meant for my ears alone. "Humiliation is the least of it. If you will not end this bond, then we must learn to live with it. And a lunar bond means… possession. Ownership. You made your choice, Rhea.". You've bound yourself to us. Now you're ours. All four of us." The possessiveness in his tone was a brand, a deep-seated threat that sent a shudder through me. "And if you continue to defy us, you'll find that a bonded Omega has no say in her fate. The next time your heat comes back, you'll be ours. And we won't be as gentle as Theon was."

It was a cold, calculated threat. A memory I had spent so long trying to bury surfaced—a flashback to Ash and his friends cornering me in the academy cafeteria, spilling my food onto the ground, laughing as I desperately scrambled to pick it up. He was doing it again. Laying claim to what was mine and making it his.

"I am no one's property," I said, the words a raw whisper.

Blaze, his patience finally snapping, let out a frustrated growl. “Shut up! She won’t listen! She thinks she’s special!” He lunged, his hand slamming into my chest. The force of the blow was unexpected, sending me crashing backward into the cold metal of a row of lockers. The impact knocked the wind out of me. My book bag fell to the floor, its contents scattering.

The other three Alphas recoiled, their faces registering shock. They had not expected Blaze to resort to violence so quickly, not here, not in the middle of a school hallway. But for me, it was an old pain, a physical echo of every cruel word and every humiliating prank they had ever perpetrated. I saw the anger in Blaze's eyes, the fire of his rejection, and felt a second, more intense shock of pain along the bond.

My eyes blurred with tears of hurt and humiliation. This was it. This was the reality of the bond. It was not a fairy tale. It was a prison, and my wardens were the same ones who had imprisoned me long before the lunar spirit ever had. I looked at the three of them, frozen where they stood, and then at Blaze, his chest heaving with anger.

"I hate this bond!" he snarled. "I hate what you have done to us! I hate you!"

I pushed myself off the lockers, my back aching and my head throbbing. My trembling hands searched for my bag's scattered items. My history book. A tattered notebook. A photo of my mother, Lira, and her fierce, untamed smile. A tiny vial of soothing oil from Healer Mira. It was all a bitter reminder of my life before them, one of quiet survival that was no more.

I would not cry. I would not let them have the pleasure of victory. My voice, as weak as it was, had a new determination to it. "You can push me into a locker. You can threaten me. You can even hate me. But you cannot break what I did not create. The bond is there. It is part of me now. It is part of you. And you are just going to have to live with it."

"Don't push us, Rhea," Ash warned, his voice low and menacing. "We're not the same boys you knew. We're Alphas. And you're playing a game you can't possibly win."

I met his gaze, and for the first time, I felt the slightest sense of power, a tiny seed of control that had been planted within me. "Neither are you," I breathed. "And you're going to discover that."