Rejected Omega, Chosen Luna

Omega Mina POV They killed my parents in 60 seconds. The east wind blew west, and it smelled wrong. Like metal. Like fear. Like blood. Goosebumps rose on my skin, tickling the fur under my clothes. My wolf, Asha, was clawing at me from the inside. Danger. Run. Now. But I couldn’t run. Not yet. “Eyes up, Omegas!” Commander Vance barked from the center of the training field. His voice cracked like a whip. “Today we hunt for the pack. Today we prove we’re not useless.” Useless. That’s what they called us. Omegas. Weak. Mellow. Submissive. The bottom of the food chain and everyone reminded us daily. The grounds wobbled under my feet. My vision spun. The sun was too bright. The smell of sweat and dirt and other wolves was too much. My chest felt tight, like someone was sitting on it. “Are you alright, Mina?” Jada, the girl beside me, touched my arm. Her fingers were cold. Her face was blurry. “You’re pale. Like paper.” “This is my first time having a panic attack in over ten years,” I whispered. My voice sounded far away, even to me. “The last time was when Grandma died. I think... something’s wrong. Something’s really wrong.” Jada’s brow furrowed. She knew me. We’d grown up chasing each other through these woods, both Omegas, both invisible. “Drink.” She shoved a water bottle into my hands. The plastic crinkled. “Breathe. In. Out. Commander said you can sit out if you need to.” I nodded and stumbled to the sidelines. The grass was damp under my knees. Asha was snarling. She hated sitting out. She hated weakness. We are wolves. We hunt. We don’t hide. I pressed my palms to my eyes. “I know,” I told her silently. “But something’s off.” My favorite part of being a werewolf was the hunt. The high. The adrenaline. The wind in your hair and the earth under your paws. The chase. The kill in one clean bite. It made me feel like I mattered, even as an Omega. But today my body felt like lead. Like I was drowning on dry land. For an hour I watched. Wolves lowering their backs. Pouncing. Tearing. Bringing back deer and rabbit in their jaws. Blood dripping from teeth onto the soil. Strength. Power. Everything I didn’t have. I tried to breathe. In. Out. The water tasted like copper. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Commander Vance gathered us after. His boots were muddy. His shoulders were broad. He looked at us like we were tools, not people. “Good work. Omegas are meant to support. Don’t try to be what you’re not. This pack has balance for a reason. Alphas hunt. Betas guard. Omegas cook, heal, and stay out of the way.” He looked right at me. His eyes were ice. “No kill today, Mina?” I swallowed. “No, sir. I was... dizzy.” He hissed through his teeth. The sound made Asha flinch. “Pathetic. An Omega who can’t even stand. What use are you to this pack?” Shame burned hot in my cheeks. I bowed my head. “None, sir.” “Then go home. And pray the Moon Goddess gives you a spine before next hunt.” I walked home fast before he could lecture me more. The path was weirdly quiet. No birds. No crickets. Just the sound of my own breathing and Asha’s low growl in my head. Whispers. Groups of three and four huddled by the fences. Eyes on me. Then quickly looking away. My stomach dropped. This wasn’t normal. In our pack, when people whispered, it meant death. My heart started palpitating when I saw them. Two of Mom’s friends on my porch. Maren and Elise. Their faces were red. Their eyes were swollen. Maren was holding a piece of fabric. Mom’s shawl. The blue one with silver thread. “What’s wrong?” I ran to them. My legs felt like they might give out. “Where are my parents? They were supposed to be at the meeting hall.” One of them grabbed me. Elise. Her hands were shaking. “Baby... there was a pack meeting earlier. Wolf hunters attacked the village. At dawn.” My pulse skyrocketed. The world tilted. “Attacked? Where are they now? Where’s Mom? Where’s Dad?” “We don’t know.” “You DON’T KNOW?!” The scream tore out of me. Asha surged forward, claws out. “What do you mean you don’t know?!” “They got your parents by the field, Mina.” Maren’s voice broke. She pressed Mom’s shawl into my hands. It still smelled like her. Like lavender and smoke. “The hunters came through the east treeline. They killed them. They took their bodies.” The world dropped out. No. No. No. The ground wouldn’t stop moving. Asha was howling inside me, grief and rage tearing her apart. My knees hit the dirt. The shawl clutched to my chest. “They’re gone,” Elise whispered. Tears fell on my hair. “I’m so sorry, baby. We tried. The Alphas tried. But there were too many hunters. And they had silver.” Gone. In 60 seconds, everything was gone. Mom’s laugh while she cooked. Dad teaching me how to track. The way they looked at me like I was enough, even as an Omega. I couldn’t breathe. The panic from earlier was nothing compared to this. This was drowning. This was being buried alive. A snarl cut through the air. Low. Deep. Not mine. Not Asha’s. My head snapped up. From the tree line, 20 feet away, stood a wolf. Massive. Black fur. Eyes like molten gold. An Alpha. Watching me. Not attacking. Just... watching. The air went cold. The hair on my arms stood up. Something in my chest pulled, then snapped. A cord I didn’t know was there, breaking. Asha went silent. For the first time in my life, my wolf had nothing to say. The Alpha turned and vanished into the trees. And I knew, with bone-deep certainty: This was just the beginning. They thought they buried an Omega today. They had no idea what they created.