THE CHOSEN
One thing I had learnt while living and surviving in the pack was to never make eye contact. Especially when you were someone like me.
Someone insignificant.,someone so unimportant that even an ordinary servant could look down on me without consequence.
I was useless to them, obviously.I lowered my gaze as I carried the heavy wooden tray toward the dining hall.
Dinner was one of the busiest times in the pack. The Alpha had returned from his daily duties, and it was our responsibility to make sure he was served the moment he arrived. Every member of the hierarchy had their place, and every servant knew theirs.
Mine was at the bottom.
Someone like me, with no power and no special ability, was seen as a burden. Even being a High Omega in the pack; the true blood of the pack,trusted to serve the Alpha and the most important members of the pack didn’t make me important.
If anything, it only made me feel more like an outsider.
Especially when I was constantly compared to the new helper who had been brought from another pack after the last battle between our territories.
At least she had something useful to offer.
I had nothing.
I stepped into the dining hall, the smell of freshly cooked meat, raw herbs, and warm spices following me with every step.
The room was alive with noise as children ran through the hallway, their laughter echoing against the stone walls. One of them suddenly darted across my path.
I stumbled.The tray nearly slipped from my hands.
“Careful!”I steadied myself just in time.Jake, one of the Gammas, glared at me as I carefully placed the food onto the table.
“You are literally useless,” he hissed at me. “You can’t even set food on a table properly. It’s a shame to even call you one of our own.”
His vicious stare lingered on me for a moment before he turned away and continued his conversation as if I didn’t exist.I swallowed the lump in my throat. Then I moved.
From one person to the next while serving clearing and attending to their needs.
Being treated like a servant by my own family was something I had learned to live with.Or at least, I had convinced myself that I had to.
“Still serving?”My hands paused as I looked up.
Amora stood near the doorway. She stood their breathtakingly, a long, deep emerald silk dress hugged her waist before falling gracefully to the floor. The fabric caught the warm glow of the candles with every step she took, making her look as though she belonged somewhere far more beautiful than this dining hall.Her dark hair, streaked subtly with silver, had been styled in soft waves that cascaded over one shoulder, perfectly framing her face.Then there were her eyes.Deep forest green.They settled on me, and for a moment, I felt as though she were looking at an ant beneath her feet.
But it wasn’t her beauty that made people notice her.
It was her presence.
Amora carried herself with the kind of confidence that came naturally to someone who had never once questioned her place in the world.Her shoulders were straightHer chin was slightly raised.Every step was graceful as she approached me.Every glance commanded attention, everyone adored her.
Unlike her , I was dressed in the same plain servant clothes I had been forced to alternate every three days. With flour still on my fingers, I couldn’t help but feel like a shadow standing behind the light.
“You should hurry,” she said standing close to me.A small smirk playing on her lips.
“The Alpha is about to announce something very important.”
She didn’t wait for my response as walked past me and took her place beside the Luna; my aunt.I took my eyes from her as I looked away getting a glimpse across the room, Grandma giving me a pitiful look that I pretended not to notice.
Instead, I turned and hurried back toward the kitchen.
We all knew what was about to be announced.It was no secret.Every pack in the kingdom knew.
Every year, once the young wolves reached their Awakening and successfully completed their transition usually between the ages of seventeen and nineteen, one main female wolf from each pack was chosen.
Only one,the strongest one,the most gifted one,the most beautiful.The one who could bring honor to her pack.
She is to be sent to the royal palace to participate in the Royal Selection, a sacred tradition held once every year for as long as i can remember.Some say it’s because the Alpha King was searching for his mate., some whisper there is a curse on the royal bloodline , a curse that ran for over a thousand years, but anyone found even thinking about that would disappear.
I remembered clearly the day of our transition that fateful day of my cousin and i , every one was excited especially me, even Jake; once my closest cousin, once like a brother to me, rushed and supported me waiting to see what kind of special gift i had acquired.
If only i was like the rest, may be i would have been treated better. Everyone transtioned to become powerful representatives , Jake joined the families as one of the gammas while Amora made the whole pack proud when she had both element manipulation and healing as her skills, her wolf magestic and powerful that the Alpha couldn’t help and applaud, a deep silver gray almost white around her chest with deep forest green eyes that still made me shiver. Gray which is always a signof wisdom and balance from the moon goodess. It Was so amazing
Then there was me, everyone expected an amazing exceptional transformation only to be met with a unique, odd and weird transformation , still at nineteen as of now i have no skill, i dont have super speed in my wolf form, not in my human form, i dont possess scent sight as the other wolf, nothing , not even strength. Thats what makes me an empty shell of a wolf. Other packs laugh at me, my own family fell ashamed to call me theirs.
My wolf form may look special but it’s just useless, a burnt copper orange with cinnamon along my back with pale molten gold , a form never seen before in my life. Some at forst thought it was special.
Well until they saw no sign of nothing, no special power, just a nuisance. And thats how i became a servant.My father couldn’t even protect me. How could he when he wasn’t the alpha , his brother was. As a Beta he just kept quiet. May be he resents me, may be he thinks my mother died because of me.
Moreover ever since my coming of age, I had been having strange dreams.
Dreams I couldn’t explain. Dreams that felt too real to be dreams at all, and no matter how hard I tried to ignore them.
They kept coming.Night after night.I had no idea what they meant. I had no one to tell.
And I certainly had no idea that one of those dreams would soon change my life forever.
