CHAPTER ONE: THE MOONSTONE CHOICE
The hall smelled of fear.
Not mine — theirs.
Hundreds of wolves stood shoulder to shoulder beneath the silver lanterns of the Moon Hall, whispering, pointing, staring. And all of it was aimed at me. Flora. The omega girl who should have stayed in the back of the village, sweeping floors and pretending she didn’t exist.
But today was the Choosing.
The night the Moonstone would glow for the next Luna.
And of all the girls in Redclaw Pack… I knew I was the last person anyone expected to step inside this hall.
“Keep your head down,” my aunt hissed behind me, shoving my shoulder. “If the Alpha sees you, he might think the Moon Goddess is playing a joke.”
A joke.
Yes. That was what I was — to them.
I lowered my head, clutching the sleeves of my worn dress. My heart thudded against my ribs as the guards pushed us into a straight line. At the center of the hall stood the Moonstone, a towering crystal pulsing faintly like a sleeping heart. And beside it…
The Alpha.
Alpha Kaelen.
Cold. Tall. Eyes like winter steel. He didn’t glance at any of us. His jaw was clenched so tightly I could see the muscle twitching. He looked like a man forced into a ceremony he would rather burn the world to avoid.
The air shifted.
Everyone straightened.
The Moon Priest lifted his staff.
“Let the Moonstone awaken!” he called.
A shimmering wave of light rippled from the crystal. Girls gasped and stepped back. The Moonstone searched, scanning the hall like a living thing.
It passed over the first girl.
Silence.
The second.
Nothing.
The third, fourth, fifth—
Then the light hit me.
A sharp sting cut through my palms. The birthmark on my wrist — the small crescent I had always hidden — burned as if someone pressed fire against it.
“No…” I whispered, stepping back.
The Moonstone brightened.
No. No, no, no.
The crystal exploded with silver light, swirling upward like a storm. Gasps echoed across the hall. Someone screamed. My aunt’s hand slipped off my shoulder.
The Moonstone had chosen.
And it wasn’t any of the trained daughters of warriors or betas.
It was me.
An omega.
Whispers erupted instantly.
“Impossible—”
“She’s weak!”
“Why her?”
“The Moonstone must be broken!”
I stood frozen, the light wrapping around me like chains of moonlight. My vision blurred, my knees shaking.
Then Alpha Kaelen finally looked at me.
His eyes widened — not in wonder.
In fury.
The air cracked as he stepped forward, voice low and dangerous.
“No,” he growled. “This cannot be right.”
The Moon Priest swallowed. “Alpha… the Moonstone does not make mistakes—”
“I reject it,” Kaelen snapped. “I reject her.”
The hall erupted again.
I felt something tear inside me — a sharp, stabbing pain in my chest — and my legs buckled.
My breath hitched.
The bond didn’t break.
It clung to me like invisible claws.
Kaelen’s eyes narrowed as the Moonstone burst into another flash of light. My vision dimmed at the edges. I tried to speak, to breathe, to run—
But the ground rushed toward me.
The last thing I heard before darkness swallowed me was the Alpha’s voice, harsh and cold:
“Get her out of my sight.”
