A Queen's Rise From The Flames

Rogue Gone Mad Darbie Slap! "Apologize to your sister for being such a pathetic loser and ruining her perfect reputation." Apologize. I’ve been doing that since the exact day I got here. My entire life was nothing but a huge, cosmic mistake that I just had to keep apologizing for, over and over again. The sting on my left cheek was throbbing in sync with the thud of my heart. I didn't have any tears left to cry, so I just kept my eyes glued to the floorboards, staring at the shoes of my adoptive father, Alpha Richard. "I'm waiting, Darbie," Richard growled, his voice vibrating through the walls of the pack house. "Your sister worked for months on her presentation for the academy gala, and you managed to ruin the entire night just by showing up. Do you have any idea how bad it looks for the Bloodmoon Pack to have a worthless, unawakened mutt like you around while Tiffany is trying to shine?" "I was just standing by the refreshment table," I said quietly. "I didn't touch her." "But you existed near her!" Richard roared, slamming his fist onto the dining table. "You distracted the judges! Tiffany tripped over her own gown because she was stressed out by your disgusting, pathetic presence!" It was honestly laughable. Tiffany had tripped because she was wearing five-inch designer heels she couldn't walk in and was too busy flirting with a high-ranking warrior to look where she was going. But in this house, if Tiffany breathed wrong, it was somehow always my fault. I didn't say that, though. I just bent down, picking up the rag to finish wiping the punch stains off the floor from Tiffany's public wipeout. "I'm sorry, Tiffany," I muttered to the floor. "I'm sorry for ruining your perfect reputation." "Oh, it's fine, Daddy," Tiffany said, her voice dripping with that fake, sweet-as-sugar tone she used whenever she wanted to look like an angel. "Darbie didn't mean to be an embarrassment. She just can't help it. It's in her biological blood, after all." I kept my head down, but my jaw clenched. Then, I noticed my photograph lying just an inch away from her right heel. Sure, it was a faded, torn piece of paper, but it was also the only thing I had left of my biological parents. It must have slipped out of my pocket when Richard struck me. My heart locked in my throat. Please don't look down, I thought. Please, just walk away. Tiffany looked down. A nasty smirk flashed across her face for a split second before she deliberately shifted her weight, grinding the sharp point of her heel straight into the center of the photo. I heard the paper tear. She twisted her foot, shredding the faces of the only two people who had ever actually loved me. "Oh, oops!" Tiffany squeaked, stepping back and covering her mouth with her hands. "I totally didn't see that there! I'm so sorry, Darbie. I ruined your little trash picture." A sudden wave of rage flared up deep inside my chest, I could feel something wild clawing at the edges of my mind. My wolf. Since my eighteenth birthday a few weeks ago, she had been growing terrifyingly powerful. Sometimes, it felt like she was a tidal wave trapped behind a crumbling brick wall. But I forced her back down. Giving in meant showing them what I was. Showing them what I was meant they would find a way to destroy me. Staying invisible was the only way I was going to survive long enough to escape this hellhole. "It's fine," I whispered, my hands trembling as I reached out to scoop up the ruined pieces of paper. "It doesn't matter." ★ The next day at Alpha Academy wasn't any better. I tried to keep my head down as I walked across the courtyard, but bad luck seemed to follow me anywhere I went. "Hey, look, it's the pack charity case," a loud, mocking voice called out. I stopped. Tiffany and her little clique of toxic friends were leaning against the walls near the campus rogue-containment grid. The grid was a section of the courtyard where the academy kept wild rogues locked up in cages for the advanced combat classes to study. It was a dangerous place to hang out, but Tiffany loved it because it made her look brave. "Are you still crying about your little picture, Darbie?" Tiffany sneered, stepping out to block my path. Her friends laughed, crossing their arms as they crowded around me. "You know, you really don't belong at this academy. This place is for real wolves. Not omegas who can't even shift." "I'm just trying to get to class, Tiffany," I said, eyeing the cage just a few feet behind her. Inside, a huge, mangy grey rogue wolf was pacing back and forth, its yellow eyes, bloodshot and dripping with foam. "You should move away from the cage. The guard isn't here." "Oh, what, are you scared?" Tiffany mocked, taking a step backward to intentionally lean against the control panel of the containment grid. "This thing is secure. Unlike you, the academy actually has high standards—" A metallic screech cut her off. Tiffany had leaned too hard and her bag had caught on the emergency release lever, forcing it downward. The warning lights on top of the cage instantly flashed from blue to red. "Wait, what is that?" one of her friends screamed. The door of the cage slid upward with a loud groan. The rogue wolf didn't hesitate as it leaped out of the cage, its paws slamming onto the floor of the courtyard. Tiffany froze, her face turning white as she let out a piercing shriek. She tripped backward, falling flat on her butt as the rogue locked its hungry yellow eyes right onto her throat. Merely looking at it, you'd know it was more than ready to tear her to pieces. Her friends fled, screaming ‘Rogue’, leaving Tiffany all alone. I didn't think, neither did my brain register the fact that she had spent her whole life torturing me. My body just moved on instinct. I stepped directly in front of Tiffany, putting myself right between her trembling body and the lunging beast. The rogue leaped, its jaws wide open, aiming straight for my face. Instead of throwing a punch or trying to run, I opened that locked box inside my mind. I just let out a very small fracture of my true aura, directing it like a laser beam straight at the rogue's mind. The effect was instantaneous. Mid-air, the rogue's eyes widened in terror. The momentum carried its body forward, but the second its paws hit the ground in front of me, it froze. The bloodthirsty rage vanished from its eyes, replaced by a primal panic so severe that the beast began to tremble violently from head to toe. Whimpering softly, the wolf slowly, agonizingly lowered its head until its snout was pressed flat against the cold floor. I took one slow step forward, looking down at the shaking creature. I leaned in just close enough so only it could hear me, and whispered a single, quiet word. "Run." The rogue didn't need to be told twice. It let out a pathetic yelp, scrambled backward on the stones so fast it nearly tripped over its own paws, and threw itself back into the depths of its cage, pulling the door shut behind it as if trying to hide from a monster. The courtyard fell into a dead silence. The only sound was the frantic breathing of Tiffany, who was still paralyzed on the ground behind me. I stood there in the center of the quiet courtyard, my breath even, slowly pulling my aura back into the locked box before anyone else could feel it. I took a deep breath, preparing to turn around and check on my sister, but a strange sensation made me stop. I slowly tilted my head upward, my eyes traveling past the courtyard up to the high balcony overlooking the training grounds. My heart did a violent flip. Standing at the railing, looking straight down at me, were the academy's three apex Alphas—Gideon, Jax, and Kaelen. They were the most powerful, ruthless heirs in the entire region, men who never showed a single ounce of emotion. But right now, all three of them were staring down at me with wide, stunned eyes, utterly paralyzed by the impossible submission they had just witnessed from a girl who was supposed to be a nobody.