Rejected Omega, Crowned Luna Queen

Chapter 1

Karis' POV

"I can't marry him father! And you can't force me to! All my life I've sacrificed my happiness for this family, for you to accept me as your daughter even if you never did, but marrying the old rogue King is what I won't do this time around!"

I snapped, my voice rising well above everyone else in the room, echoing harshly against the cold stone walls as if even they recoiled at my defiance.

My father slapped me the second the words left my lips, the sharp crack splitting through the air, louder than the raging storm outside.

My head snapped to the side, the sting blooming across my cheek like fire, but I refused to let a tear fall. My step sister, Carissa smirked as she looked at me, her lips curling in satisfaction, her eyes gleaming with cruel delight as though my pain was the very thing that fed her pride.

"Who else do you expect to marry him then? Carissa?" My father's voice thundered, his presence suffocating, heavy with authority and anger that always seemed reserved just for me.

"She is the pride of this family! The only one who brings honour to my name and you? You wolfless and worthless thing?" He added, each word striking hard.

It was raining but his voice was still so loud that I could practically hear it over the storm, like thunder clashing against thunder, like the heavens themselves bore witness to my humiliation.

"I don't care whether Carissa is your favorite daughter or not! Or whether I am your disgrace! Find someone else who you'd pawn off as the rogue King's mate, I'm not going to be!" I snapped again, the words tearing out of me before fear could silence them, not even giving him the chance to speak again when I turned to leave, my chest rising and falling.

"The rogues will soon attack our borders if we do not go through this alliance! Recall the casualties we suffered the last time they did?" Carissa's voice blared

“ Are you willing to be this adamant instead of helping protect your own people and their lives? It's just a small sacrifice, as a beta's daughter, you should at least be courageous enough to do this for your people,"

Carissa, my step sister said from where she stood beside my father, her tone smooth and laced with false concern that barely masked the triumph underneath.

I paused, my hand tightening at my side as rage and hate coiled together in my mind, suffocating and burning me, threatening to consume every ounce of restraint I had left.

"You're also father's daughter, Carissa. Why don't you get married to him yourself?"

She scoffed, the sound sharp and mocking, as if shocked that I would even dare to suggest such a thing, as if the very idea was beneath her.

"Whatever happened to you, Karis? You were never like this and you always obeyed all of father's commands. I am a beta and I have already awakened my wolf, at least for being born an omega and a wolfless one at that, shouldn't you be doing this to compensate father for all the years he endured humiliation for your sake?"

I knew exactly what she was trying to refer to even without being told, as her words were digging into old scars, reopening wounds I had spent years pretending did not exist.

For years I have endured their meaningless requests all because they always guilt-tripped me with these same words. The same reminder that I was never enough.

I was nineteen and I had failed to awaken my wolf. When I turned twelve, which was the age marked for beta's children to awaken their wolves, nothing happened. Nothing at all.

While Carissa awakened a massive brown streaked wolf that made her get accepted into father's elite security guards team, I awakened nothing but silence. Just the crushing realization that something was wrong with me.

At sixteen I thought it would be better. I thought I would finally awaken mine and maybe she had only been dormant because I was still young years ago, that maybe I just needed time. I held onto that hope like it was the only thing keeping me alive but still there was nothing.

Eighteen was the last age for late bloomers and yet nothing still happened.

And with every passing year, with every failed awakening, I slowly stopped being a daughter in this house and became nothing more than a burden they were waiting to get rid of.

"You are nineteen years now, Karis. Wolfless and useless. You can't defend the pack nor is there anything good you would be able to offer to them! Getting married to the rogue King should at least be your way of showing me that you're not all that useless!"

My father, beta Maxwell added, his voice cold with each word pressing down on me like a sentence already passed, further buttressing Carissa's words.

I stood silently at the door as I stared at him, saying nothing, my fingers curling tightly against the wooden frame as though it was the only thing holding me upright.

I was useless but what about him? Years ago, my mother, his fated mate, who had helped him become the beta of the pack had died because of his betrayal. When he brought his mistress back home, she had had high blood pressure and later died, her body unable to bear the pain he had inflicted on her heart.

Since then, I was always at the mercy of his wife and my step sister, left to endure whatever cruelty they deemed fit, like I was nothing more than an unwanted shadow in their lives.

He never cared. After all, he considered me a disgrace and always favoured Carissa who was his golden girl, the perfect daughter in his eyes, simply because she was not an omega or wolfless like me.

"The rogue King has more than two hundred brides!! He is old and known for taking too many young she-wolves as his brides! Of what use is it if I am sent off to him for a marriage alliance? What change does that make that sending Carissa off won't do?" I asked as I turned for the last time, my voice strained but steady, waiting to hear what my father would say, hoping he would choose me.

A long moment of silence ensued in the room, before my father looked at me and spoke, his gaze devoid of anything that resembled warmth, cutting me down before Carissa even had the chance to.

"Carissa is destined for greatness, Karis. She's destined to become the mate to an alpha or the alpha King's heir. But you?" He scoffed, his lips curling with disdain as his eyes roamed around, searching for something to emphasize the gap he believed existed between us.

When he saw none, he raised his hand above his head.

"Carissa sits here," he began, his voice laced with pride, before lowering his second hand so low it almost touched his ankles.

"While you are here. You two can never be compared and a treasure like Carissa can never be married off to a man like the rogue King."

I forced myself to swallow down the bile that rose in my throat, the humiliation choking and burning its way down my chest.

"All my life I have done everything for you to accept me as your daughter too," I said, my voice trembling despite my efforts to keep it steady, as memories began to unravel in my mind. Everything I had done and had endured at their hands. Even the times I had taken the blame for Carissa's actions so her reputation wouldn't be ruined.

"I even had to undergo a chastity test in her place too, all because of how cheap she is with her body to wolves!" I added, the words spilling out as the rage I had buried for years finally began to boil over. The shame and pain, the injustice of it all clawing its way to the surface.

I remembered standing there, humiliated and judged, branded all for a sin that wasn’t mine. And yet, I had accepted it. I had accepted everything.

All because I believed agreeing to everything my father demanded would earn me his acknowledgement.

And now I knew that no matter how much I tried, no matter how much I broke myself to fit into the shape he wanted.

In his eyes, I would never be able to compare to Carissa, the daughter he chose, the daughter he loved, the only one who truly mattered.