Unwanted By The Pack, Claimed By The Alpha

As the lowest-ranking Omega, I spent six grueling months secretly caring for my adopted sister's comatose Alpha fiancé.

But the moment he finally opened his eyes, my sister shoved me into the shadows and tearfully claimed all the credit for his miraculous recovery.

My own parents eagerly backed her lies, secretly threatening to lock me in the basement to rot if I dared to expose her.

The Pack Elders praised her fake devotion, immediately preparing her grand Luna ceremony.

Even the Alpha's mother, who knew the truth, shoved a hush-money check into my hands and told me to run away before my sister's powerful family had me killed.

I stood trembling in my cheap clothes, watching the arrogant sister who had refused to even touch him now basking in the glory and wealth that were rightfully mine.

For eighteen years, I had been their punching bag, but I couldn't understand why my own family would so ruthlessly erase my existence just to protect her counterfeit image.

When my sister smugly ordered the guards to throw me into the woods like garbage, the Alpha suddenly unleashed his crushing aura.

He stared at the frozen crowd and demanded to know the one secret thing his Inner Wolf had craved while trapped in the dark.

My sister confidently blurted out a lie about premium steak.

Ignoring my parents' frantic warnings, I stepped right up to his bed and looked him in the eye.

"Blood-Fruit," I said clearly.

Chapter 1

Elara POV:

I stood in the deepest shadow of the grand Pack hall, my head bowed.

As an Omega, the lowest of the low in our stratified society, my function was to remain unseen.

I was a canvas for my Beta parents' frustrations, a servant to the Pack, and a silhouette that trailed my adopted sister, Selena.

Selena was a high-ranking Beta, the golden child of pure bloodlines, the cherished darling of our entire community.

She was also betrothed to Kaelen, the billionaire Alpha of the most formidable Pack in North America.

But tonight, *the carefully constructed edifice of the night's celebration-a thing of crystal flutes and polite laughter-crumbled into dust.*

Kaelen had been ambushed by Rogues-wolfless pariahs who haunted the borders.

They had wielded weapons laced with Silver, the one metal that seared our kind and arrested our rapid healing.

Now, the invincible Alpha lay upon a hospital bed, ensnared in a deep, irreversible coma.

The Pack Elders occupied the center of the hall, their faces etched with grim purpose.

They demanded Selena fulfill her marriage contract, move to Kaelen's territory, and there attend to him.

Selena scoffed, her perfectly manicured fingers crossing over her chest.

"I will not waste my youth wiping the drool from a vegetable," she sneered, her voice a sharp crack in the hall's oppressive hush.

"He cannot even shift. I refuse to be bound to a cripple."

A collective intake of air filled the room, but none dared reprimand the pampered Beta.

I kept my gaze fixed upon the floorboards, but my secret affliction forced it upward.

I possessed a rare, hidden faculty called Spirit-Sight, a legendary trait of the ancient White Wolf bloodline.

*My Beta parents named it a curse, a freakish mutation that made me a convenient vessel for their abuse. But tonight, it allowed me to perceive what no one else could.*

Hovering directly above the Elders, I saw a massive, translucent gray wolf.

It was Kaelen's Inner Wolf, his astral spirit, violently torn from its comatose physical vessel.

*The colossal phantom, a creature woven from smoke and rage,* was pacing the air, baring glowing teeth in absolute fury.

He roared, a sound that vibrated only in my skull, shaking the invisible firmament around him.

*"Two hundred million to the wolf who wakes me! Two hundred million and their freedom!"* the spirit wolf snarled to the unhearing assembly.

*My throat constricted as if stuffed with a fistful of dry leaves, trapping the half-drawn air in my lungs.*

Two hundred million dollars.

That sum was not mere wealth; it was sovereignty.

It meant an escape from my parents, a departure from this oppressive Pack, an end to being treated like chattel.

Before reason could chain my tongue, my mouth opened.

"I will do it," I said softly, stepping from the shadows.

The entire hall fell into a profound stillness.

Selena turned, her expression a mask of disgust and malicious glee.

"You?" she laughed, a high, grating sound. "A filthy, weak Omega presumes to care for an Alpha?"

She advanced on me and shoved my shoulder, a hard, contemptuous blow that sent me stumbling.

"Go on, Elara. A lowly servant is fit for nothing more than cleaning up after a useless invalid."

Above us, Kaelen's spirit wolf ceased his pacing.

The great beast lowered his massive head, his gaze fixed upon Selena with an intensity of pure hatred.

He was finally seeing her true substance-the greedy, hollow woman hiding behind a pleasing facade.

I ignored Selena's taunts and walked straight toward Seraphina, Kaelen's mother and the former Luna of his Pack.

The Luna was the mother of the Pack, the female leader who guided her people with wisdom.

"Please, Luna Seraphina," I bowed my head respectfully. "Let me take my sister's place. I have years of experience caring for the sick."

It was a polite fiction for having been forced to clean the sickbeds of other wolves my entire life.

Seraphina looked at me, her eyes bloodshot from weeping for her son.

She needed to stabilize their massive business empire's stock prices, and a broken engagement would bring a terrible stain upon their Pack.

She grabbed my rough, calloused hands with her soft ones.

"If you can wake my son, I promise you will be the daughter-in-law of our family," she swore, her voice trembling.

My Beta parents rushed forward, eager to be rid of the daughter who brought them only shame.

"Take her, please! She is yours now," my father said, waving his hand as if casting off a bag of refuse.

They pushed me toward Seraphina's guards, affording me no chance to pack my meager belongings.

I looked up one last time.

Kaelen's spirit wolf was staring toward the high-vaulted ceiling, howling a vow to the Moon Goddess, the creator of all werewolves.

"I swear it, Goddess. When I wake, I will give this Omega her millions, and I will tear Selena apart."

I swallowed, a strange warmth blooming deep in my chest.

I could only hope this arrogant, furious phantom would honor his word.