Chapter two, CHILDHOOD FRIEND
987 Words
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Skyler learned quickly that being a female omega made her existence even more dangerous.
In Ironfang, male omegas were overlooked, used for labor and silence. But females? They were coveted Traded like currency.
Broken for obedience or breeding.
Watched with hunger disguised as authority.
Yet Skyler carried herself with a quiet dignity that unsettled those who expected tears and pleading.
She spoke little,obeyed when commanded.
Bowed when required.
But her spine never fully bent.
Her eyes sharp, observant, winter-blue missed nothing.
That was her first strength.
She listened.
While others complained, Skyler learned the rhythms of the pack the shift rotations, the hidden politics,
the grudges carried like old scars.
She memorized footsteps in corridors.
Learned which warriors lingered too long. Which voices sharpened before violence.
Knowledge became her shield.
Silence became her weapon.
"You are not weak," Sai whispered softly inside her mind one night,
as Skyler scrubbed dried blood from the training stones.
"we are surviving." Skyler thought
Skyler didn’t answer. she never did.
But she listened.
And so did Kaden.
He noticed her long before he admitted it to himself.
It angered him.
Skyler did not cower the way others did. When he corrected her, her chin dipped but her gaze never dulled.
When punished with extra labor, she completed it without complaint, muscles burning, teeth clenched, refusing to break.
And her scent…
It changed near him.
Not fear.
Not submission.
Defiance.
Kane felt it first.
"She does not bow," Kane growled inside Kaden’s mind.
"She endures." kaden replies with gritted teeth
Kaden scowled as he watched Skyler carry a crate twice her weight across the courtyard.
"She is an omega," Kaden snapped. "She should know her place."
"Her place is beside us", Kane replied.
"she is our mate, our Luna You feel it too."
Kaden turned away.
But he didn’t stop watching.
It was on the third full moon since Skyler arrival that Lyra Stormborn returned to Ironfang.
Lyra had grown up beside Kaden trained with him, bled with him, dreamed beside him.
She was a high-born beta, beautiful in the way warriors admired: flame-red hair braided with silver rings,
sharp amber eyes, confidence worn like armor.
Everyone knew her ambition.
She would be Luna.
She should be Luna.
people could say
The pack welcomed her with cheers and reverence. But Lyra’s attention fixed immediately on the quiet omega scrubbing blood from the stones.
Skyler felt it.
The weight of another woman’s gaze—measuring, dismissive, threatened.
"Danger," Sai whispered.
“So,” Lyra said later that evening, her voice sweet and sharp as a blade’s edge, “this is the slave omega I’ve heard so much about.”
Skyler lowered her head respectfully, but not enough to bare her throat.
“I am called Skyler,” she said softly.
Lyra’s smile tightened. “Slaves are called what they’re given.”
Kane surged.
Before Kaden could stop himself, a growl tore from his chest.
“That is enough.”
The hall froze.
Lyra turned, startled. “Kaden, I only meant—”
“She is under my protection,” he said coldly. “You will treat her accordingly.”
The words shocked everyone.
Skyler most of all.
Sai went utterly still.
"He chose us," Sai whispered.
"Even when he doesn’t want to admit ".
Skyler just rolled her eyes
That night, Lyra confronted Kaden beneath the old moon tree the same place where they had once sworn to rule together.
“You shame me,” Lyra hissed. “For a slave omega? You’ve changed.”
Kaden’s fists clenched. Kane paced inside him, restless and territorial.
“I am still Alpha.”
“And yet you deny your future Luna?”
"Luna", Kaden repeates the word like he is tasting it
Lyra’s eyes burned. “Or is she meant to warm your bed while I warm your throne?”
The bond flared like fire in Kaden’s chest.
"Say it," Kane growled.
"tell her Skyler is our mate"
"she is an omega" kaden protest
"but ours, moon doesn't make a mistake"
Kane continue, "I won't allow you to take this witch while we have a mate already you better choose now or you won't like the consequences" Kane finishes
“She is my mate,” Kaden admitted at last, voice low and furious.
Lyra froze.
Then she laughed sharp, disbelieving. “The moon has made a mistake.”
kaden didn't answer he just went back to pack house leaving Lyra alone
Lyra went to Skyler,
She was delivering herbs to the healers when Lyra cornered her in the corridor, eyes glowing faintly with suppressed rage.
“You don’t belong here,” Lyra said.
“and you will never belong to kaden”
Skyler lifted her chin. “Neither did I choose this bond.”
Lyra sneered. “You think love will save you? The Alpha will choose duty. He always does.”
Something inside Skyler snapped.
Not loudly.
Not violently.
But completely.
“I survived a pack’s fall,” she said quietly. “I endured chains. I learned silence so I could live.
Do not mistake my obedience for weakness.”
Sai rose within her.
"It is time," Sai whispered.
"Stop hiding."
"not yet" Skyler replies to sai in her mind
For the first time, Lyra hesitated.
Because Skyler’s scent had changed.
Not fear.
Not submission.
But the steady, unmistakable rise of an omega awakening to her own power.
That night, when Kaden found Skyler standing beneath the moon barefoot, silver light wrapping around her like a crown he finally understood the truth he had been denying.
Skyler was not a slave.
She was a storm waiting to break.
"She is not beneath us," Kane said quietly.
"She is our equal."
kaden remain silence, because now he knows ,if he did not stand beside her…
She would rise without him.
And Ironfang would never be the same again. 🌙🐺
- Writer
