Chapter 3

I was six years old the first time my stepsister Serena tried to kill me.

She pushed me down the stairs and told everyone I fell.

My stepmother Helena smiled and said I was "clumsy."

My father didn't even look up from his paperwork.

After that, it became a game to them. How much could they do before someone noticed? Before someone cared?

The answer was: everything.

Serena broke my toys. Tore my clothes. Spread rumors that I was cursed, that anyone who befriended me would suffer. By the time I was ten, I had no friends, no allies, no one who would believe me if I tried to tell the truth.

Helena was worse.

She never hit me where it would show. Never starved me completely—just enough to keep me thin, weak, always hungry. She made me sleep in the basement when guests visited because I "embarrassed the family."

She told everyone I was a late bloomer. That my wolf would come eventually.

But I saw how she smiled when it didn't.

I saw how she looked at me like I was a threat that needed to be contained.

I never understood why.

I was nothing. A wolfless omega in a family of powerful alphas. What could I possibly threaten?

Now, lying in Kael's bed while Lyra's magic worked slowly through my broken body, I started to understand.

They knew.

They knew I wasn't what they said I was.

And they were terrified of what I might become.

---

On my eighteenth birthday, everything ended.

Serena was being courted by Dominic Blackwood—Kael's younger brother, Alpha of the Northern Alliance. A political match that would make our family the most powerful in five territories.

I was invisible, as always. Serving drinks at my own birthday party because Helena said I "needed to be useful."

Then Dominic looked at me.

Really looked at me.

And something flickered in his eyes.

"Who is this?" he asked Serena.

"No one." Serena's voice was sharp. "Just a servant."

"She has your father's eyes."

"She's nobody. A wolfless embarrassment. Father keeps her out of pity."

But Dominic kept watching me. All night. And when I went to the kitchen to refill a tray, he followed me.

"What's your name?"

"Elara." I didn't look at him. Alphas didn't talk to omegas like me unless they wanted something I wasn't willing to give.

"You're not a servant."

"I am what they say I am."

"No." He caught my arm. "You're not. I can sense—there's something about you—"

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

Serena's scream shattered the moment.

She stood in the doorway, face twisted with rage—and fear. Real fear.

"She's trying to seduce you! I saw her! She's been planning this for months!"

"Serena, I just asked her name—"

"GUARDS!"

What happened next was a blur.

Serena screaming that I'd tried to steal her mate. Helena backing her up, face smooth with practiced lies. My father looking at me with disgust—always disgust—saying he'd always known I was rotten like my mother.

They dragged me to the dungeon.

They broke my legs so I couldn't run.

They cut out my tongue so I couldn't defend myself.

And Serena leaned close, her breath hot against my ear, and whispered:

"Did you really think anyone would choose you over me? You're nothing, Elara. You've always been nothing. And now you're going to the Blood Moon Pack to be a toy for their warriors. Try not to die too quickly—I want you to suffer."

She kissed my cheek.

Then she walked away.

And they loaded me into a cage like an animal.

---

I finished writing and dropped the pen.

My hand was cramping. Tears blurred my vision.

Kael had read over my shoulder the entire time. Now he stood by the window, so still he might have been carved from stone.

"Lyra." His voice was deadly calm. "Leave us."

The healer fled.

Silence.

Then Kael turned, and his eyes were glowing so bright the entire room seemed bathed in red.

"The Northern Alliance Alpha." Each word was precise. Controlled. "Dominic Blackwood. That's who Serena is marrying?"

I nodded.

"My brother." A laugh—harsh, broken. "My baby brother is marrying the woman who did this to my mate."

I struggled to sit up. Grabbed the pen.

Your brother?

"The one who betrayed me ten years ago. The one who helped our father curse me and steal my birthright." Kael's claws were out again, shredding the curtains. "He took everything from me. And now he's taking HER?"

I don't understand—

"The wedding is in three weeks." Kael crossed to the bed, cupped my face in his hands. "Three weeks, Elara. Can you walk by then? Can you speak?"

Lyra's voice drifted from outside: "If I work day and night—perhaps. But why—"

"Because my mate and I are going to attend my brother's wedding." Kael's smile was savage. "And Serena Vance is going to learn what happens when you touch something that belongs to the Blood Moon King."

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