Chosen by the Monster, Crowned by the Alpha

Chapter Two: The Ceremony of Bonds

I never thought my birthday would end like this.

Not with whispers in my head, not with fog at the windows, not with the feeling that something ancient and angry had its claws deep inside me. But Kaia held me down—literally—and whispered over and over that I had to breathe, that I had to fight it. That I was stronger than this.

I wasn’t so sure.

The fog eventually pulled back, like it had tested me and decided I wasn’t worth eating alive. The whispers faded, but the voice inside me… it stayed. Silent. Watching. Breathing. I could feel it coiled behind my ribs.

Kaia made sure she cleaned up the house while she put me to bed, as soon as Kaia left the room I became haunted by my own self , I started missing my mom who had earlier ran away , the occurrence of the past events started eating me up.

I sneaked into the kitchen again to get a match, “ow,ow,ow “ it hurts but what can I do, it was the only way I could channel my emotional pain into physical pain and it worked for me.

Oh my God , why do I keep hurting myself this way , just look at my laps , I’ve ruined my beautiful skin, I must make sure no one finds out about this not even Kaia. My head hurts, my ears are hurting, I can hear the vultures caw from the forest. I heard howling , lots and lots of howling , I saw things which I have never seen in mystic falls just from the window of my room. I went to bed.

And when I looked at myself in the mirror the next morning, I saw something new in my eyes. Like a second reflection watching me from behind the first.

Why is moms bundle glowing , let me check it out ,

Ugh! Why is this stuff taking time to unwrap? I've unwrapped it before , I finally unwrapped the bundle she’d given me—a thick black cloak lined with silver thread. A mark stitched on the inside. Something inside me recognized that mark, I touched it and I started getting visions , I gasped, ahhh! Werewolves, dad , death.

On this night I knew I was also a werewolf and half human, I just had not activated my werewolf side, death? Do I have to kill someone before I activate that side , no!no!no! I said while sobbing , the fate of my life was in my hands and my parents were not there to help me get through it, Kaia heard me screaming and crying, she quickly came in , “what’s wrong Mary, why are you feeling sad again.”

I didn’t know how to explain to her that the mark I saw according to my vision was the mark of the rival alphas who banished my dad for marrying a human, the people who made my mom cry, who made me a stranger in the supposed world and pack I was supposed to be part of.

How do I tell her that I don’t claim that mark , That mark didn’t belong to me.

I was just Mary.

The girl who just found out Alphas and omega exists and I was an omega.

The girl nobody wanted.

Kaia stood speechless, and suddenly she started laughing,” oh Mary you’re hilarious.” I know we didn’t have anything to drink last night so tell me what side of the bed did you wake up from, go get in the shower Mary, freshen up then come downstairs.

I couldn’t believe that Kaia didn’t even think I was normal, she didn’t believe me and it’s fine, Kaia is just a human, she had been born and brought up on this side of mystic falls, I always knew I was different I just didn’t know I was gonna be this kind of different.

Kaia went downstairs, I took my mothers bundle and whatever had left of my belongings and fled. I kept on following the voice I could hear inside me until I got to a weird forest , the voice stopped and I guess I knew I had gotten to my destination. I marked a little territory there and I went to bed in the outskirts of mystics falls.

For the two nights I was there, I had not heard the voices within me until the third night. “Trigger the curse Mary , trigger it, the moons out tonight they sang.” My body felt heavy , my head spinning around, I could hear the beating in the forest like it had a heart, tonight I noticed the trees were tall and old, bark twisted like they’ve seen a thousand lifetimes. The air is thick with fog, not the kind you see in cheesy horror flicks—this fog moves like it knows things. Like it’s waiting for something… or someone.

I changed, I couldn’t see or hear anything, my eyes red and my heart wild , “Mary, Mary ! Where are you” I knew i recognized that voice I didn’t know it was Kaia because I was going through changes , I didn’t know myself at that point , I remembered her coming to me inside that fog , I tried to run because I was scared and vulnerable but the light of the full moon reached out to me , I didn’t run .

Instead I charged , I didn’t mean to do it , her last words were “Mary, why?” And Kaia Monroe was dead, the voices in me were happy , I couldn’t make out anything that was going on that night, I didn’t even know that I killed my best friend, my transition was complete and something inside me was awake.

Ahhhh! Ahhh! It hurts , I was transitioning and it hurt, I felt every bone in my body rippin, my skin crawled. Literally. Like it’s trying to run away before it’s too late. My back arches suddenly—sharp, uncontrollable. A popping sound echoes in the night, followed by a gasp. The bones in my spine stretch. One by one. Pop. c***k. Snap.

I dropped to my knees.

And now the real pain began, this wasn’t like the pain of the match I lit in between my legs, it was worse than fire, my blood was boiling, something was crawling up my throat, my nails darken, lengthen—looking like claws, my jaw splits open wider than it ever could. My teeth pushed past my gums that tear to make room. Blood dripped from my mouth, I tried to scream but my scream didn’t come out human.

I howled.

Along with other werewolves, I wasn’t the only werewolf there, turns out today was a ceremony of bonds, it was like a prom but make it wolf core, out of all the werewolves a wolf caught my attention, the fur on his body screamed royal , my mind wasn’t mine as it was the mind of the wolf , we all howled together and they disappeared almost immediately.

My clothes, where are my clothes? I asked myself , I woke up naked the next morning , having no recollection of what happened the night before. All I knew was that I had changed. While searching for my clothes I saw Kaia dead , “Mary, why?” Immediately I had flashbacks of Kaia saying that to me.

Oh my God , what have I done? I sobbed , I killed her, I killed the only person who had always been there for me , I couldn’t even look at her . The least I could do was to give her a proper burial but what about her parents what do I say to them? I won’t ever go to town again, Kaia died and I died with her. I’ve been chosen by the monster, the monster is me , I am that monster, I said while I continued sobbing.

I set up a little hut , right in the place where Kaia had died and I started living there. Whenever I got hungry I would go to the river a mile away and fish. It got to a point I had to hunt , the werewolf side came out and it was a bit useful, I had sworn never to use it because it made me a monster but as time went by I started seeing it as a good thing because it made me stronger and boosted my confidence.

***********************Lizzie’s Pov***********************

Lizzie, Lizzie ! A pack member screamed my name , “you have got to stop with this nonsense, there is no one in that forest , no one.” He said. Hello everyone, I’m Elizabeth, but people call me Lizzie , a beta , and a pack member of Nightshade Hollow from the little town called wolf crest.

I’d heard whispers about a rogue hiding out past the boundary line—past where the trees grew too thick and the wind started lying. Most said she was cursed, that the darkness clung to her like fog. Others said she was just feral. Untouched. Unclaimed. A ticking timebomb left behind by a mistake the moon had made.

Pack members like Cain , started up a group to gossip about me , they say I’ve gone kuku but I know what I’m doing ,they said even if there was someone there it would have been an accident.

But I didn’t believe in accidents.

I believed in the pull of fate.

And that night, as I tracked the scent of ash and grief deep into the forest, I found her.

Curled at the base of a tree, not asleep—just frozen, like she didn’t know how to move forward. Her hair was tangled with leaves, her skin pale and streaked with dirt and dried blood, her clothes barely holding together. And behind her, marked with fresh stones and wildflowers that looked hand-picked, was a grave.

A name carved into bark.

Kaia. Whoever she was, she meant a lot to the person we are in search of, I told the pack .

We decided to lurk around the forest to study our person of interest before we took any further step. We noticed our target was always talking to herself, she was always saying things like “Mary, your mom left you, you killed your only friend , who would ever want you? Maybe that’s why everyone left you.” I’m not gonna lie that made me feel so bad, she was going through it all, a wolf who had just transitioned on her own. I knew that because the death of her best friend would have triggered the werewolf curse.

Cain , a pack member constantly complaining about us being here , can we go back home now Lizzie , she’s just a broken wolf or person , there’s nothing special about her . Shush ! I shunned him, what do you men, we are not leaving her here, how would you know how she’s feeling? After all, you had your family by your side when you were transitioning.

We watched Mary as she did her little daily routine, waking up, fishing, hunting and lastly visited Kaia’s grave. I mean the little grave she had put up for her best friend. What a trauma that would be , killing your own best friend and having to bury her.

That night, she stood by Kaia’s grave again. The forest had gone still, but I didn’t sense danger.

Just… an odd shift in the air. Like the earth was holding its breath.

Mary whispered something I couldn’t hear, laid a necklace on the grave, then looked up at the moon.

And that’s when it happened.

Her shadow moved before she did.

It stretched… and twitched unnaturally. Like it wasn’t hers anymore.

I blinked—and it was gone.

A chill scraped down my spine. I turned to check the woods.

And saw him.

Just a silhouette.

A figure standing far beyond the trees. Cloaked in black. Watching her. Unmoving.

And then—barely audible, like the breeze had teeth—I heard it.

“She awakened. Too soon.”

I turned again.

But he was gone.

And the forest, once again, fell into breathless silence.