Chapter 2
“At this rate,” the Pack healer had warned me, “you won’t survive the moon cycle.”
Thinking about it now, there was nothing left to hold on to.
No Pack, no mate, no wolf, and soon, no life.
I didn’t go back to the healer’s den. Instead, I trudged toward the servants’ quarters in the Omega den.
It was the only place I had left.
I used to be the youngest Aura Weaver in the Pack.
But overnight, I became a reviled “Unclean,” stripped of any chance to advance.
Back then, the Alpha had declared righteously that he would investigate the matter for me and told me to wait for news in the camp.
But the days bled into one another, and I waited.
All I got in the end was rejection at every turn, ostracized by every high-ranking wolf until I had nowhere left to go.
Only today did I learn that the one who had destroyed my future…
It was my own father.
Walking up to the tool shed, I was about to grab a coarse brush for scrubbing the courtyard stones.
But the foreman called out to me.
He handed me a small pouch of shriveled berries.
“Here are your scraps for the month. Tomorrow… don’t bother coming in.”
I stood frozen, not taking it.
“Why?”
“It’s the Alpha’s order.” The foreman wouldn’t meet my eyes, masking his scent out of shame.
“He said that even though he formally disowned you, he won’t tolerate such disrespect.”
“He wants you to think about what you’ve done and stop being so ungrateful.”
I laughed.
I laughed until tears streamed down my face.
All these years, whenever they argued, I would spend the entire night soothing their tempers with my aura.
I was terrified I’d wake up one day to find the Pack broken apart.
Even when the Alpha tossed me leftover bones from his hunts instead of fresh meat.
Even when the Luna remembered every one of Lilith’s coming-of-age ceremonies but always forgot mine.
I thought if I was just submissive enough, I could hold on to this “family,” that I could earn a sliver of their affection.
But in the end.
They wouldn’t even grant me the dignity to fight for my own survival within the Pack.
I didn’t take the berries. I just walked away.
As I passed an upscale tavern at the border where human merchants traded, I remembered I hadn’t eaten all day.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to eat; I simply couldn’t afford it.
I didn’t even have the strength to draw power from the moonlight.
I sagged against a roadside tree, swallowing back the coppery taste of blood in my throat.
Until I saw two familiar figures.
Perhaps my gaze was too piercing, because the Luna saw me first.
The smile on her face vanished instantly.
“What are you doing here?” she snapped through our mind-link, terrified the elder beside her would overhear.
I looked at them and spoke aloud, my voice calm.
“I’m hungry.”
The Luna was taken aback.
I continued, “I’ve been cut off from all Pack resources. I have nothing to eat.”
The Alpha’s face darkened, his gaze as cold as a silver blade.
“So you run to the border town to make a scene?”
“Cora, what on earth do you want?”
“What do I want?”
I let out a soft laugh, but my voice was a broken rasp.
“It’s not what I want. It’s what you want.”
“Didn’t you say you were going to teach me a lesson?”
My gaze drifted slowly over their faces.
“Do you want me to bow my head, or do you want me to go and expose my throat in apology to Lilith?”
“Either is fine.”
“I’m willing.”
