The Alpha’s Little Omega

***Ava's POV*** "What do you mean you're rejecting me?" My voice came out strangled, barely above a whisper but the entire front courtyard of the pack house had gone dead silent. I stared at Alpha Liam Greene... my Liam, the man who had promised me the moon and stars... and felt the world tilt sideways beneath my feet. He stood on the raised stone platform where he would soon address the pack gathered for the moon ceremony. The fading sunlight caught the sharp green of his eyes but there was no warmth there anymore.. just cold calculation like I was a problem he finally found a solution to. "I mean exactly what I said, Ava. The Green Hill Pack needs a strong Luna. A Luna who can stand beside me, who can endure the demands of leadership. And you? You are not that person. You are an omega, sickly and weak. It's nothing personal." "Nothing personal?" The words tumbled out before I could stop them while my hands shook at my sides. "You've known I was an omega since the day we met, Liam. Seven years and suddenly it's a problem now? Can you hear yourself?" A murmur went through the crowd. I could feel their eyes on me... the pity, the curiosity and the barely concealed disgust from those who had always looked down on me. "I'm doing this for the good of the entire pack." His jaw tightened. "Green Hill needs strength. We need alliances with other packs,and protection against rogue threats. A sickly omega Luna serves no purpose at this time. Or In all that I mentioned, what help can you render?" What help can I render? Did he just ask me that? I was the one who guided his decisions and strategies, the one who entered the illness zones so he would not be exposed and contacted it, and the same one who went as his envoy to enemy packs to secure peace even when it cost me my safety and I was taken hostage for it. Now he is saying what again? I wanted to scream. Instead, I took a step closer, my heart pounding so hard I could hear it roaring in my ears. "Tell me the real reason," I hissed, low enough that the crowd couldn't hear. "Look into the eyes and tell me the real reason why you want this." Something flickered behind his eyes.. anger maybe.. or guilt but his expression smoothed over quickly. "I don't know what you're talking about." "Don't you?" My voice cracked. "You've been cold for months, Liam. Distant. And I bent over backwards trying to figure out what I did wrong. I gave you everything you asked for... everything. Late nights, early mornings, those... those private sessions where you wanted things that made me uncomfortable but I did them anyway because I loved you." His green eyes flashed with barely contained fury. "You think this is about s*x? You're delusional, Ava. The sickness is affecting your mind. You need treatment more than ever." "Right." I scoffed bitterly. "My sickness. The one that got worse the moment I started asking questions about your transaction with..." "Enough." His voice cut me off. "I won't stand here and listen to your paranoid delusions." Before I could respond, he raised his voice to address the crowd and I realized with dawning horror that this had been planned. Every word, every public humiliation was all intentional. Just to silence me. "People of Green Hill," Liam announced, his arms spread wide, "as your Alpha, it is my sacred duty to do what is best for our pack. You all know that Luna Ava has been unwell for some time now. Her condition has deteriorated significantly and she is no longer fit to serve as my mate or your Luna." I stood there frozen as the crowd absorbed his words. Some nodded and others exchanged glances but no one stepped forward for me. "It is with great sadness that I invoke the sacred bond between us," Liam continued and his voice took on the formal tone of the ancient rites. "I, Alpha Liam Greene of the Green Hill Pack, reject you, Ava Silverthorne as my mate and my Luna. The bond between us is dissolved." My knees buckled and I gasped as something inside me tore apart... a shimmering thread of light and warmth that had connected us for years, now snapping with brutal finality. The pain was white-hot and radiating from my chest outward until I couldn't breathe.. couldn't think. Liam's face flickered with something... regret? satisfaction?... but his voice remained steady. “No.” I staggered backward, shaking my head. “No, I refused to accept it!” “You won’t dare.” To you, our bond may be nothing but a cheap object you can discard at any time but to me…” Before I could finish, Liam's face darkened with anger. He strode forward and seized my wrist. “You don’t get to refuse,” he growled. “I am your Alpha and my word is law.” “And I am your Luna!” My voice rang across the courtyard. For the first time, I met his gaze without fear. “All these years, I’ve obeyed every command you’ve given me. I’ve stood beside you no matter what. But now?” I shook my head. “I refuse.” His eyes narrowed. “If you think rejecting me and burying me beneath false accusations will keep me silent about the crimes you’ve committed, then you’re mistaken, Alpha Liam Greene. As long as I am your Luna, as long as I remain…” “Luna Ava…” The familiar trembling voice cut through my voice and I stopped. Slowly, I lowered my gaze to Liam’s hand and noticed the voice was coming out from his phone. “Luna Ava, please save me. I am scared.” My entire body froze as I felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured on me. That…that’s Kira. Wh…what’s she doing… For a second, the world seemed to stop spinning. Then horror crashed into me. I looked up at Liam and disgust flooded every corner of my soul. I couldn’t believe he had fallen this low. Kidnapping Kira and using her as leverage. All to force me into accepting the rejection. How could he do this? "Now you must speak the words, Ava. Say that you accept the rejection." "I ..." My lips moved but no sound came out. The bond hung there, severed but not gone, still sending shockwaves of agony through my system. "Say it." His tone was low and almost gentle.. almost. Just for me to hear."It's easier if you just say it, Ava. Or I promise you her body will be delivered to you tonight as a gift for our wedding anniversary.” Through the blur of tears, I glared at him... this man I had loved since I was fifteen, this man who had been my entire world. He didn't look back at me with anything resembling love.. he looked at me like I was an inconvenience finally being dealt with. My nails dug into my palms. My wolf howled in agony. But Kira’s terrified voice echoed in my head. And I knew I had already lost. “I accept,” I whispered. The words barely left my mouth when the last threads of our bond snapped. I felt it go with the emptiness where his presence had lived in my soul for so long. A sob escaped from my throat but I barely heard it over the roaring in my ears. Liam smiled.. not at me... at someone behind me. "And now," he said, turning his attention to the crowd, "I have wonderful news. The Ravenglass Pack has blessed us with an alliance and with it, a new Luna." He extended his hand toward the gathering and the crowd parted like a sea of brown and grey uniforms as a woman stepped forward and my heart... which had already been reduced to shattered glass... crumbled a little more. Nadia Whitlock..?! I knew her by reputation and reputation hadn't done her justice. She had long dark red hair that cascaded over bronze shoulders, amber eyes that gleamed with something sharp and calculating and a graceful stride that spoke of confidence and power. She was a beta wolf, strong and fit, everything I could never be. She walked straight to Liam and placed her hand in his without a glance in my direction. "People of Green Hill," Liam declared, wrapping an arm around her waist, "I present your new Luna, Nadia Whitlock." The applause was thunderous, filling the courtyard, and assaulting my ears. I watched as Liam’s face leaned down and kissed Nadia soundly, right there in front of everyone and the crowd went absolutely wild. And I felt my heart shattering into a million pieces as I remember the same way he took my lips and promised me the entire world. And yet, here he was, doing the same for another woman. I stood there in the middle of the celebration, invisible, broken and totally alone, a drop of tear rolled down my eyes. * * The walk back to the pack house was dizzy and painful. I don't know how I made it up the stairs, through the corridors and into the bedroom that wasn't mine anymore. Everything around me moved in muted colors with sounds echoing as if from a great distance. "The Alpha said to move your things to the guest room, ma'am." I blinked at the young servant girl standing in the doorway, her arms full of my dresses. Behind her, two more servants were already packing up my belongings with efficient, apologetic movements. "Guest room," I repeated. "Yes, ma'am. Right away. The new Luna needs to move in." New Luna? I almost laughed as I remember him saying this room was decorated to fit my taste and only for me. I wanted to tell them not to bother. I wanted to tell them to leave everything, that I'd be gone soon anyway, that I couldn't bear to watch them fold my shirts and stack my books like I had never existed in this room at all. But I didn't say anything. I just stood there as they worked, until finally they moved everything into the guest room.. The guest room was smaller and colder. The bed was too soft in all the wrong ways and the windows faced the wrong direction. I didn't care. I just threw myself onto the coverlet and finally let the tears come. They came hard and fast, wailing sobs that shook my slim frame and I pressed my face into the pillow and let everything out... seven years of love, of devotion and of giving myself completely to a man who had never loved me back. I had been such an i***t. "You loved me when I was useful," I muttered into the fabric, my voice muffled and thick. "When I could bend over backwards and satisfy your... your demands. When I could play the dutiful little Luna and smile for the pack. But the moment I got sick, the moment I mistakenly stumbled upon your secrets..." A fresh wave of tears overtook me and my body trembled against the bed with my omega instincts howling in confusion. My wolf... a weak, sickly thing that had never really surfaced... was cowering somewhere deep inside me, feeling the loss of the mate bond just as strongly as I did. The room grew dark as the sun set completely. I didn't move to turn on a light.. I didn't have the energy. I just lay there, broken and defeated, replaying every memory of the past seven years. I didn't know how long I lay there, crying into the darkness. Time had stopped mattering. Eventually, my sobs quieted into occasional hiccups and I lay there exhausted and emotionally drained, staring at nothing. That's when I felt it.. a presence. My omega senses... weak and diminished as they were... tingled with awareness. Someone was there. Someone who shouldn't be..! I tried to move, to turn, to see... but a hand suddenly clamped over my mouth before I could even draw breath to scream…