Nah

The Omega

Becca's POV

"No, that is not something you can order!" Shaking my head at Ronan, I said. Panic mingled with astonishment, causing my chest to rise and fall unevenly. My eighteenth birthday was coming up tonight, and he couldn't be the one to give me the punishment order. He was unable to. I wouldn't allow that to occur.

Kattie purred in a lovely yet deadly voice, "Are you now attempting to give the Alpha-in-waiting orders, Becca?" She turned slightly to bring attention to herself and ensure that everyone else could hear. "Observe her as she attempts to respond."

There were instant murmurs.

"Teach her something!"

"She treats an illegitimate Beta's daughter with such disdain!"

"Slap her! Now is the ideal moment to do it!

All of the wolves in the field raised their voices at once, demanding loudly that Ronan punish me. From all sides, the sound of their rage pressed in. Nobody raised their voice to defend me.

And I didn't require an explanation.

I wasn't a member of their class, after all. Even the position of servant was superior to mine. I was accustomed to this kind of treatment because I was wolfless, an omega, and even worse, the illegitimate daughter of a defenseless woman who had been called a w***e by everyone. I'd learned to keep quiet about it.

But after everything we had discussed, I didn't think Ronan could possibly treat me this way.

The voices of the audience fueled his every stride as he started toward me. Hope briefly ignited in my chest. I believed that his purpose was to remind everyone of who I was to him, to shield me from their animosity, and to drag me away from them.

However, Ronan gave me a loud slap on the cheek when he got to me.

I was surprised by the blow, and my head snapped to one side as my face exploded with pain.

His eyes met mine, icy and strange, and he said, "How dare you insult the Beta's daughter and try to give me orders?" He gazed at me as though I were unimportant, a stranger, beneath him, and not the same man I had spent the night with—the one who had embraced me and murmured promises in my ear.

I was rooted to the ground by shock.

How could he be so disrespectful to me? Given that I was also the Beta's daughter, albeit an illegitimate one, how could he have this kind of look? Being aware of all we discussed?

Something abruptly and sharply touched my wrist as he turned to leave and called for the females and guards who would escort me outside to be punished.

I was freed by a slight gleam.

Before my thoughts could react, my body did. I had a weird feeling that was like an allergy, like something was waking up inside of me. Immediately after, waves of horror swept over me.

My breath stuck in my throat as I gazed up.

My wrist had a glowing mark that was linked to another.

Ronan owned it.

I was bound to his wrist by a glowing thread that pulsed softly between us. As everyone stood there in startled silence, gasps broke out all around us.

Slowly, everyone's attention turned to Kattie, who was still and had a pale face.

As his partner, she had bragged herself. She had asserted the relationship, acted as though it were real, and persuaded everyone that she was fate's pick. And now the truth had come out in front of the whole bunch.

I was stunned by what had just transpired and stood there shaking.

But I knew deep down that it was what it was.

This is how the Moon Goddess wishes me a happy nineteenth birthday.

I had hoped that the Moon Goddess would at least give me a partner as restitution when I had reached the age of eighteen and failed to wolf out, as the last year for late bloomers had gone by.

She hadn't.

I had been secretly in love with this man for years, and she had tied me to him. The guy who also loved me. The man who had assured me that he would help me realize my ambition of becoming a racer once we were genuinely together.

My heart wrenched and my cheek burned, but at last fate had spoken.

I hurried in his direction, trying to get to him out of desperation. To remind him of what this meant for us, our love, and everything we had secretly shared, I wanted to touch his hand.

"Ronan..." Ignoring everyone around me, I called.

As if I were filth attempting to cling to him, he abruptly pulled my hand away before I could contact him. He had been the one pleading with me to give him a chance, proclaiming his love all the time, and promising to protect me no matter what, so I was shocked to be rejected.

He said, "Do you really believe that I could be fated to someone like you?"

I was struck by his comments and had to stop where I was, my legs suddenly immobile.

Despite the fact that Kattie wasn't his mate, he stepped past me and toward her, embracing her in a gesture of support and solidarity. More intense than any wound was the sight of it.

"Becca, you're an omega," he added icily. "Illegitimate and wolfless at the same time. "Even your own father would be embarrassed by it. You don't have the political connections I need in a Luna, nor do you have the traits I look for in a Luna.

"Ronan, I don't understand." He shouted those words in front of everyone, and I let out a little cry, my cheeks flushed with shame. Whispers and derisive looks spread like wildfire as the crowd stirred once more. At night, in private, I had always been the one he said he wanted, yet it seemed like he loathed me as much as they did.

He yelled, "I, Prince Ronan of Moonstone Pack, reject you, Becca Maxwell, beneath the full moon's gaze—because there is no way someone like you could ever become my Luna," his voice resonating throughout the field.

All at once, I felt the terrible, all-consuming ache of his rejection. I clutched myself as if I could keep my heart together as my legs buckled and I collapsed to the ground. Even offering my acceptance of his rejection was beyond my strength.

I was unable to comprehend it.

What had I done incorrectly? He was rejecting me, but why?

Even during our covert relationship, he had never shown disapproval of me or my standing before. He had often informed me that backgrounds didn't matter to him. He claimed that in order to keep me safe from adversaries, he kept us a secret. I thought he loved me, and I trusted him.

But it seemed like he had just ever used me as I watched him now. I went from loving to trusting to being naive.

I had also thought that my wolf would come out the day my fated mate marked me as his. However, after Ronan rejected me without even hesitation, I began to question whether my sleeping wolf would ever come out.

"Now that I think about it," Ronan said abruptly, in a kind but sarcastic tone, "how is it even conceivable that you become my mate?"

Once again, whispers and murmurs broke out among the audience.

Someone yelled, "Maybe she disguised her scent with evil magic and passed for the Alpha's mate."

"That must be the cause," Ronan said without hesitation. "The Moon Goddess would never pretend to be my partner in order to play such a terrible prank on me!"

A different voice shouted, "Or perhaps she stole her sister's smell in the hopes that it would make her the chosen one."

Each charge pierced deeper than the one before it as voices rose from all sides. Everybody had a hypothesis about how I had taken a mate connection that wasn't supposed to belong to me.

Ronan stood next to Kattie, who had a smug look on her face the entire time. When the mate bond originally developed, I could sense the anxiety on her face, but now that Ronan had rejected me and redirected the relationship, her features were filled with relief.

After a few minutes of the accusations and gossip, Ronan finally appeared weary of it all. He turned and left without even looking at me, not as the woman he professed to love or even as someone who used to be important.

Kattie came back after everyone had left, and I thought I was finally alone. She wasn't by herself, either.

Her faithful minions, the two girls who constantly assisted her in reminding me of my "position," as she liked to refer to it, trailed behind her.

"Now, what do you want?" Unsure of what to do, I glanced at her and asked feebly. Ronan had picked her and turned me down. Was there anything else she wanted from me?

He had ridiculed me, made me feel inferior to her, and humiliated me in front of everyone. What else remained?

"Kattie, what shall we do to her?" One of the females inquired.

Kattie looked at the girl with her chin up. For a few moments, they looked at each other in silence while I stood there, stunned and perplexed, trying to figure out what she was plotting.

In every aspect, Kattie was superior to me. She enjoyed a rich existence, the love of the people, and the affection of our father.

Why was she still upset with me for a crime I might not have known about when she had everything, even Ronan now?

What else might she want from me, then?

When she eventually gave the order, Kattie turned aside and walked off the field. "Deal with her."

Both of the girls stayed behind.

I was still on the ground when the first blow struck me hard in the gut, knocking the breath out of my lungs before I could even respond.