THE OMEGA WHO KNEW WHY THE ALPHA’S WIVES DIED

Chapter 2

Camila's pov

Tonight was the night of the Awakening Ceremony.

It was my twenty-second birthday, and the entire pack was here. Hundreds of people stood around the central stone altar. A massive bonfire burned in the middle of the circle, sending orange sparks high into the dark air.

I stood at the edge of the crowd, wearing a simple white robe. My hands were behind my back shaking.

This was the Altar of Judgment. Every teenager in our pack stood on this altar when they turned sixteen. They touched the sacred Moon Stone, prayed to the Moon Goddess, and transformed into their wolf for the very first time.

I was not sixteen, I was twenty-two. This was my final chance. If nothing happened tonight, I would never turn into a wolf. I would be a broken Omega forever.

I looked at the front row of the crowd.

My father, Alpha Richard Taylor, stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. His face was like ice. He did not look at me with love, he looked at me like I was a dirty stain on his clean white floor.

Next to him stood my brother, Marcus, and my cousin, Isabella.

Isabella wore a beautiful red coat. She looked at my plain white robe and sneered. She leaned over to Marcus and whispered something, then they both laughed softly.

My heart was hurting, my own family hated me because I was weak.

I shifted my eyes to the right, past my laughing family to see Ethan standing there, just like he promised. He wore a dark blue jacket. When he saw me looking at him, he smiled gently. He nodded his head and touched his chest, right over his heart.

'I am right here with you,' his warm eyes seemed to say. 'I love you no matter what.'

I took a deep breath. Seeing Ethan gave me courage. I squeezed the tiny silver ring he gave me, hidden deep inside the pocket of my robe. I was not alone, Ethan loved me.

"Step forward, Camilla Taylor!" the Pack Elder shouted. His loud voice echoed across the quiet clearing.

The crowd went completely silent. Everyone watched me as I took my first slow step toward the stone altar.

Whispers broke out among the crowd as I walked.

"Look at her."

"She is twenty-two years old."

"She is taking up our time for nothing."

"An Omega who cannot even grow a wolf."

I kept my head down and walked up the three cold stone steps. The Moon Stone rested on top of a marble pedestal. It was a smooth, glowing rock that was as large as a football.

"Place your hands upon the stone," the Pack Elder commanded.

I swallowed the dry lump in my throat. I looked at my father one last time. He glared back at me with cold, hard eyes. Then I looked at Ethan. He smiled and gave me a small thumbs-up.

I reached out my trembling hands and laid my palms flat on the cold Moon Stone.

I closed my eyes and prayed. 'Please, Moon Goddess. Please give me a wolf. Just a small wolf. Anything. Please do not leave me broken.'

For five long seconds, nothing happened. The rock was just cold stone under my skin.

Then, everything went horribly wrong.

A sharp spike of heat shot out of the stone and directly into my hands. It was not normal fire. It was a strange, terrifying burn that raced up my arms and straight into my chest.

"Ahh!" I gasped, trying to pull my hands away.

I could not move, my palms were glued to the Moon Stone.

The fire inside my chest exploded. It felt like my blood turned into boiling oil. My bones did not break or shift like a normal werewolf transformation. Instead, my insides were tearing apart. My heart pounded against my ribs like a trapped bird.

"Camilla?" the Elder's voice sounded strange and far away.

My eyes flew open. I could not control my body anymore. The whole world turned a bright, blinding silver. People in the crowd gasped loudly.

"Her eyes!" someone screamed. "Look at her eyes!"

My eyes were glowing silver like the moon itself. The heat inside my skull grew so hot that I thought my head would split open.

*BOOM.*

A loud noise erupted inside my head. It sounded like a thunderstorm crashing inside my brain. I fell backward off the altar, my knees slamming hard against the sharp stone floor.

"Ahhhh!" I screamed, clutching my head with both hands.

The agony was unbearable. But the strangest part was the noise. It was not just pain. It was a deafening roar of hundreds of different voices talking at the exact same time.

'She is embarrassing us again.!'

'Look at the freak.!'

'Why doesn't she just die already?'

'What a useless girl.'

'I want to go home, this is boring.'

'She is so ugly.'

The voices slammed into my brain like heavy waves hitting a rock.

I pressed my palms tight against my ears, but it did not help. The voices were not coming from the air outside. They were coming from inside my own mind.

I groaned, lying flat on the cold ground. The burning heat slowly started to fade, but the loud noise in my head remained. The hundreds of jumbled voices began to separate into clear, distinct words.

I opened my eyes, panting for air, and looked up from the ground.

I looked at my father. His lips were pressed together into a tight, quiet line. He was not speaking out loud. His mouth was completely closed.

Yet, I heard his voice ring out crystal clear in my mind:

*A waste of bloodline. Twenty-two years of wasting my food and money on a broken useless thing. She is not my daughter. She is a total disgrace to the Taylor family name.*

My heart froze in my chest. I stared at his face. His lips did not move, but the cruel thought echoed inside my head again and again.

I quickly looked over at my cousin, Isabella. She stood next to my brother, putting a fake, sad look on her face for the public to see.

*Finally!* Isabella’s voice shouted inside my brain, filled with evil joy and smug triumph. *Finally, everyone sees her for the useless broken thing she is! No more hiding. She has no wolf. She is garbage!*

My breath hitched. I pushed myself up onto my hands and knees.

I didn't awaken a wolf tonight. My body had not transformed. The Moon Goddess had not given me a wolf shape.

Instead, she gave me something far more terrifying. I could hear the secret thoughts of everyone around me. Every lie, every cruel joke, and every hidden hatred was ringing inside my ears like a loud bell.

The world had suddenly become painfully loud. Every fake smile in the crowd revealed a nasty lie. Every sad expression was fake.

Panicked, I searched the crowd for the one person who truly cared about me.

My eyes locked onto Ethan. He was pushing his way through the shocked crowd, running toward the stone steps with a look of worry on his face.

*Ethan,* I thought, tears flowing down my face. *Please help me, Ethan.*

He stopped right in front of the altar. He reached his hand out toward me, looking like a brave prince coming to save me.

I reached my hand out to touch his, desperate for his comfort. But as my fingers almost touched his jacket, his real thoughts flooded straight into my mind.

*Oh great,* Ethan's thought echoed inside my head, cold, fake, and full of disgust. *The pathetic loser failed. Now I have to pretend to care about this worthless girl in front of the whole pack.*

I froze instantly. My hand stopped in mid-air.

I looked up into Ethan's bright blue eyes. Outside, he looked like he loved me. But inside his head, his thoughts kept speaking, loud and clear:

*I cannot wait until tonight is over so I can go back to Isabella's bed. Camilla is so stupid. She actually thought a real man like me could ever love a wolfless freak.*