Chapter 4: Marked as weak
904 Words
(Her POV)
The pack’s cruelty didn’t begin with words.
It began with silence.
I felt it the moment I stepped into the training grounds the next morning the way conversations stopped, the way bodies shifted subtly away from mine, the way eyes slid past me as if I were no longer worth acknowledging.
Rejected omegas were bad luck.
Everyone knew that.
I kept my head down and walked faster, pretending I didn’t notice the way a few wolves whispered behind their hands. My cheek still ached faintly where Selena had struck me, though the bruise would fade soon. Omegas healed slowly, but pain had always been my closest companion.
Still, something inside me felt… different.
Sharper.
Awake.
I helped prepare herbs in the infirmary that morning. Usually, it was a quiet place peaceful even. Today, the air felt tense.
One of the older she-wolves glanced at me with thinly veiled disgust. “Careful,” she muttered loudly to another. “Rejected mates bring misfortune.”
Her words struck like stones, but I said nothing.
Another wolf scoffed. “Imagine thinking the Alpha would want her.”
A few laughed.
My hands trembled as I crushed dried leaves between my fingers. I focused on breathing. In. Out. I would not break. Not here. Not today.
By the time I left the infirmary, clouds had rolled in, darkening the sky. The scent of rain hung low, heavy with promise.
I didn’t make it far.
A sudden shove from behind sent me stumbling into the dirt.
Gasps erupted around us.
I caught myself with my hands, skin scraping painfully against gravel. My heart pounded as laughter followed sharp, unashamed.
“Watch where you’re going, omega,” a wolf sneered.
I looked up slowly.
Three wolves stood before me lower-ranking but stronger, emboldened by my fall. One of them nudged the others with his elbow.
“She should’ve known better than to dream above her rank.”
Another added, “Rejected under the blood moon. That stain doesn’t wash off.”
Heat curled in my chest.
I rose to my feet, brushing dirt from my skirt, forcing my voice steady. “Move.”
They laughed.
“Or what?” one challenged, stepping closer. “You’ll cry?”
The familiar helplessness tried to claw its way back in.
I refused it.
Before I could respond, the air shifted.
The pressure came first—subtle but unmistakable. My breath caught as something deep inside me stirred again, responding not to fear… but to anger.
The ground beneath my feet vibrated faintly.
The wolves froze.
“Did you feel that?” one whispered.
I did.
My silver-grey eyes burned as power pulsed through my veins quiet, restrained, but very real. The sensation sharpened my senses until I could hear every heartbeat around me.
I took a step forward.
They stepped back.
Fear flickered across their faces, quickly masked by confusion.
“This isn’t over,” one muttered before they scattered, glancing over their shoulders as they went.
I stood alone, heart racing.
What was happening to me?
I had never been strong. Never intimidating. Never capable of forcing wolves twice my size to retreat without touching them.
My hands shook, not with fear, but with disbelief.
I turned away quickly, before anyone else noticed.
The pack house doors loomed ahead like judgment.
Inside, I felt it again the shift. The weight of eyes. The way conversations dipped when I passed. I was no longer just a rejected omega.
I was something else.
Something unsettling.
By midday, the whispers had turned sharp.
“She’s changing.”
“I heard she nearly snapped at a wolf.”
“Maybe she cursed the Alpha.”
I clenched my jaw and ignored them.
Until I couldn’t.
Near the outer grounds, as rain finally began to fall, someone deliberately stepped into my path.
Selena.
She smiled sweetly, though her eyes were cold. “You’ve been causing quite a stir.”
“I’m not doing anything,” I said quietly.
“Oh, I think you are.” She leaned in. “And I think it’s time you remember your place.”
Her words didn’t pierce me the way they once would have.
I met her gaze without flinching.
“I know my place,” I replied. “Do you?”
Something dangerous flashed across her face.
But before she could speak, a familiar presence settled over the clearing heavy, commanding.
Alpha.
I didn’t need to look to know Liam stood nearby.
My chest tightened traitorously.
Selena’s lips curved into a calculated smile as she stepped back, placing just enough distance between us.
Alpha Liam’s voice cut through the air. “What’s going on here?”
Selena answered smoothly, “Nothing at all. I was just reminding her of pack rules.”
I stayed silent.
Liam’s gaze fell on me.
For half a second, I felt it that pull. That ache. That impossible connection.
Then his face hardened.
“Go,” he said to me.
It wasn’t unkind.
It wasn’t gentle either.
It was dismissal.
Something inside me crystallized.
I inclined my head slightly not in submission, but in finality and turned away.
As I walked off into the rain, silver-grey eyes stinging, one truth settled deep in my bones:
The pack had decided who I was.
But they had no idea what I was becoming.
And soon—
They would regret turning their cruelty into my awakening.
- Writer
