CHAPTER 1 - The Beginning
1037 Words
The moonlight felt like fire on my skin.
I stood at the edge of the Moonstone Arena, my bare feet cold against the white marble.
Thousands of eyes watched me. Judging. Waiting. Whispering.
"She shouldn't even be here."
"An Omega? In the mate ceremony?"
"What a joke."
I forced myself to breathe. In and out. Slow and steady. My hands trembled at my sides, and I curled them into fists to stop the shaking. I had no right to be nervous. I had no right to hope. Omegas like me didn't get chosen. We didn't get mates. We certainly didn't get Alphas.
The pack elder raised his staff, and the crowd fell silent. The ceremony was beginning.
"Step forward, Seren Vale."
My name echoed across the arena like a death sentence. I walked toward the center, each step heavier than the last. The marble beneath me began to glow, soft silver light spreading outward in spiraling patterns. The Moon Goddess was watching.
I stopped in the center and lifted my eyes to the sky. The full moon hung above me, impossibly bright. My heart pounded so hard I thought it might break through my ribs.
This was it. The moment that would decide my entire future. Either I would be chosen, or I would spend the rest of my life alone. Worthless. Forgotten.
The elder began to chant in the old language. Words I didn't understand but felt deep in my bones. The crowd joined him, their voices rising and falling like waves. The marble beneath my feet grew warmer. The silver light brighter.
Then I felt it.
Heat. Searing, unbearable heat spreading across my chest. I gasped and clutched at my shirt, my knees buckling. The crowd erupted into cheers, but their voices sounded distant, muffled, like I was underwater.
"It's happening!"
"The mark!"
"She's been chosen!"
I looked up through the pain and saw him.
Cael Aurion. The Alpha. Golden-haired, broad-shouldered, perfect in every way. He stood at the edge of the arena, his left shoulder glowing with brilliant silver light. The mate mark.
The crowd roared. They chanted his name. Cael. Cael. Cael.
He smiled. Not at me. At them. At the adoration. At the power.
I tried to stand, but the heat in my chest intensified. It wasn't just burning anymore. It was tearing. Ripping. Splitting me in half. Something was wrong. This wasn't supposed to hurt this much.
Then the sky exploded.
A bolt of lightning cracked across the arena, so bright it turned night into day. The crowd screamed. I fell to my knees, my vision blurring. The marble cracked beneath me, spiderwebs of fractures spreading outward from where I knelt.
Through the chaos, I saw guards dragging someone forward. A man. Chained. Bloodied. His dark hair hung over his face, but I could see the scar along his jaw. A scar I'd only seen once before, years ago, when I was a child.
Riven Aurion.
The exiled twin.
The moment he entered the arena, his right wrist ignited with the same silver light. The mate mark. But it wasn't complete. It was fractured. Broken.
Just like mine.
I looked down at my arms and saw it. Two marks. One on each wrist. One glowing gold. One glowing silver. They pulsed in opposite rhythms, fighting each other, tearing at my skin like living things trying to escape.
The arena went silent.
Then someone screamed.
"She's marked by both of them!"
"Impossible!"
"The Goddess has cursed us!"
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. Inside my mind, something cracked. A voice. No. Two voices. Both mine. Both not mine.
One howled in rage, demanding blood and dominance.
The other whimpered in fear, begging to hide.
My wolf. My wolves.
I was splitting apart.
The pain doubled. Tripled. I screamed, and the sound that came out of my throat wasn't human. It was animalistic. Broken. Wrong.
Cael's voice cut through the chaos like a blade. Cold. Disgusted. Final.
"I reject this bond."
The words hit me harder than any physical blow. The golden mark on my left wrist flared once, then began to burn. Not with heat. With pain. With rejection.
The crowd turned on me instantly.
"Curse!"
"Abomination!"
"She's broken!"
"Kill her before she destroys us all!"
I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn't work. My wolves were screaming inside my head, clawing at each other, tearing me apart from the inside. Blood dripped from my nose. My vision blurred. I was dying. I had to be dying.
I looked at Riven. His grey eyes met mine for just a moment. There was something in them. Recognition. Grief. Rage.
And then he mouthed two words.
"Run. Now."
The chains around his wrists shattered. I didn't see how. I didn't see him move. One moment he was bound, the next he was free.
The guards lunged for him, but he was already moving, a blur of motion and violence.
Cael pointed at me, his face twisted with something between fury and fear.
"Seize her! She's dangerous! She'll bring ruin to us all!"
I didn't think. I just moved. My body exploded into motion, instinct taking over. I ran. Through the crowd. Through the screaming. Through the accusations and the hands reaching for me.
Someone grabbed my arm. I twisted free, my strength surprising even me. Someone else lunged for me. I ducked, and they crashed into the marble.
And then I was in the forest.
The trees swallowed me whole. Branches tore at my skin. Roots tried to trip me. My feet bled on the rocks. But I didn't stop. I couldn't stop.
Because behind me, I heard them.
The hunters.
Howls echoed through the night. Dozens of them. Maybe more. They were coming for me. Coming to kill me.
My wolves screamed inside my head. One wanted to fight. One wanted to hide. Neither knew how to save me.
I ran deeper into the darkness, my lungs burning, my heart ready to explode.
And somewhere in the chaos of my mind, a voice whispered. A voice that wasn't mine. Wasn't my wolves.
It was older. Colder. More powerful.
"You were never meant to be chosen, child. You were meant to choose.”
- Writer
