Chapter 1
585words
"You shouldn't be here," she sneered. "This ceremony is for real wolves."
I raised my head and met her eyes. "The Elder ordered everyone to attend, Kayla. I have as much right to be here as you do." My voice was calm but firm. Three years of humiliation hadn't broken my dignity—it had just taught me to hide my strength.
Kayla clearly hadn't expected me to talk back. She narrowed her eyes. "You dare speak to me that way?"
"I'm just stating facts." I tried to walk past them, but they blocked my path.
"I think you've forgotten your place," Kayla grabbed my hair, forcing me to look up at her. "A worthless nobody who can't even shift. No wolf spirit at all."
Her lie hurt me deeply. I actually had a wolf form. Many nights, I'd shifted into my wolf in the forest to mourn my father. But no one knew this secret.
*"Let me out, Lena. Let me teach them a lesson!"* My wolf spirit growled inside me, demanding to take control.
*Not now, Silver. Our plan is more important.*
"Maybe we should help her find her wolf spirit," one of Kayla's followers suggested, eyes gleaming with malice.
The next second, a bucket of ice-cold water drenched me, soaking my clothes. But it wasn't just water—it was mixed with wolfsbane, which burned my skin on contact. Wolfsbane is toxic to werewolves, causing severe burns even with external exposure.
I clenched my teeth, refusing to cry out. Over three years, I'd learned to endure pain and humiliation. But that didn't mean I would always endure it.
"Look, she can't even express pain," Kayla mocked. "Such a perfect little slave."
She grabbed my arm and pushed me down into the mud. "Since you like dirt so much, why not eat some?" She pressed her foot against my back, pushing my face toward the ground.
I could hear laughter around us, but no one stepped forward to help. In this pack, no one dared defy the Elder's daughter. Since my father's death, I had become the pack's laughingstock and punching bag.
"Eat it!" Kayla commanded. "Or I'll have you stripped naked at tonight's ceremony."
This wasn't an empty threat. Last year at the Moon Ceremony, she had humiliated another unpopular Omega girl the same way. That girl left the pack and never returned.
My tears mixed with the mud, but I refused to give in. My father's voice echoed in my mind: "No matter what happens, Lena, never surrender your dignity."
I turned my head, and despite having my face pressed into the mud, I looked directly at Kayla. My eyes burned with defiance, refusing to surrender even as tears mixed with the dirt on my face.
Kayla, enraged by my defiance, was about to press harder when a powerful Alpha aura swept across the square. All laughter stopped instantly.
"Is this how our pack treats its members?" a deep male voice asked.
I looked up through my mud-streaked hair to see a tall figure standing among the crowd. The new Alpha, just returned from abroad to take over the pack. His amber eyes flashed with anger. He was impossibly handsome, with a sharp jawline and broad shoulders that commanded attention.
Kayla immediately removed her foot and stepped back. "Alpha, I was just disciplining a disobedient Omega."
