The Omen of Bloodwood

1

The winter wind bit into my cheeks as I trudged through the thick snow. My boots were worn through the soles. The cold seeped into my bones but I ignored it. I had been ignoring pain for ten years.

Below me in the valley the Bloodwood pack house glowed with golden light. Tonight was the Moon Festival. Music drifted up the mountain mixed with the sounds of laughter and joy. I was not allowed down there. I was the Omen. I was the curse that brought the great sickness. Alpha Kaelen made sure I knew my place. My place was out here in the freezing dark guarding the borders while the rest of them feasted.

Today was my eighteenth birthday. Not a single soul remembered. I wrapped my thin jacket tighter around my shivering frame. I just wanted this shift to end so I could crawl into my freezing attic room and sleep.

Then it hit me.

It was a scent so intoxicating it made my knees buckle. Pine needles. Rich dark chocolate. A hint of fresh rain. The smell punched the air from my lungs. My wolf clawed at the inside of my chest. She was pacing and whining and throwing herself against my ribs.

Mate.

The word echoed in my head. The moon goddess had finally blessed me. After years of isolation and misery I had a mate. Someone to love me. Someone to take me away from this frozen hell.

I followed the scent. I could not stop myself. My feet moved on their own dragging me down the mountain and toward the glowing lights of the festival. The closer I got the stronger the smell became. It wrapped around my senses making me dizzy with hope.

I stepped out of the tree line and onto the manicured lawn of the pack house. Hundreds of wolves were gathered around roaring bonfires. They held cups of ale and danced under the full moon. I stood in the shadows shivering and searching the crowd.

The scent grew overpowering. It was coming from the grand balcony overlooking the courtyard.

I looked up. My heart stopped beating. The breath froze in my throat.

Standing on the balcony bathed in the silver moonlight was Alpha Kaelen.

He was laughing with his elite guards holding a silver goblet. He looked powerful and terrifying. And he smelled exactly like pine and dark chocolate.

No. I took a step back shaking my head. Please no. Anyone but him.

As if he heard my silent plea Kaelen stopped laughing. He stiffened. His head snapped toward the tree line. His dark eyes locked onto mine through the crowd. I felt the physical snap of the mating bond lock into place. It was a tether of pure energy connecting my soul directly to his.

I saw his eyes widen in shock. Then the shock melted away. Total pure absolute disgust took its place.

His upper lip curled into a sneer. He slammed his goblet onto the stone railing. The loud c***k echoed over the music. The entire courtyard fell silent. Every head turned to look at their Alpha. Then they followed his gaze right down to me.

I stood frozen in my ragged clothes trembling under the weight of hundreds of hateful stares.

Kaelen leaped over the balcony. He landed gracefully in the snow and stalked toward me. The crowd parted for him like the red sea. His aura crashed down on me heavy and suffocating. He was trying to force me to my knees but I locked my joints. I refused to bow.

He stopped barely two feet away. Up close the mate bond was screaming at me to touch him. My wolf wanted to submit to him. I forced her down.

"You," he spat. His voice dripped with venom. "The Omen. You are the rotting disease that killed my father. You are a stain on my territory."

I swallowed hard trying to keep my voice steady. "We are mates."

The crowd gasped. Murmurs of outrage rippled through the pack.

Kaelen laughed. It was a cold cruel sound that sliced right through my fragile hope. "Mates? The moon goddess must be punishing me. You think I would ever accept a cursed weakling as my Luna? You think I would let you infect my bloodline?"

Tears pricked the corners of my eyes but I refused to let them fall. I lifted my chin.

Kaelen raised his voice so the entire pack could hear. He wanted to humiliate me completely.

"I Kaelen Alpha of the Bloodwood Pack reject you Lyra as my mate and my Luna. You are nothing to me."

The words struck me like physical blows. The bond between us shrieked in agony tearing at my chest. But as the pain peaked something else happened. The heavy suffocating weight I had carried my entire life suddenly cracked.

I looked into his cruel eyes and spoke clearly.

"I Lyra accept your rejection."

The moment the words left my lips the invisible tether snapping between us shattered. The pain was blinding for a fraction of a second. Then it vanished completely.

Kaelen smirked victorious. He turned his back to me ready to walk away and celebrate his freedom.

But he did not get the chance.

As the broken mate bond dissolved into nothing the curse that had bound my soul for eighteen years dissolved with it. I gasped as pure blazing energy flooded my veins. It was not the weak spark of an ordinary wolf. It was the raw terrifying power of the moon itself.

The silver moonlight beaming down on the courtyard seemed to bend. The beams shifted away from the crowd and focused entirely on me. My skin began to glow with a blinding ethereal light. The ground beneath my boots trembled violently.

Kaelen spun back around. His arrogant smirk wiped completely away. His jaw dropped.

The suffocating aura he had tried to crush me with earlier was nothing compared to this. My power exploded outward in a massive shockwave. The entire front row of pack members dropped to their knees gasping for air. Kaelen stumbled backward clutching his chest as my power forced him down.

I was not an Omen. I was a Lunar Conduit. And I was finally awake.