ZARA'S POV
"Royal blood?" Marcus lunged forward and ripped me away from the old woman. "That's ridiculous! She's just an Omega. A nobody!"
His fingers dug into my arm hard enough to bruise, but I barely felt it. My violet eye was exposed. My silver hair was showing.
Everything was falling apart.
"Give me back my contact," I said desperately, trying to grab it from the old woman. "Please, I need—"
"Enough of this circus," Garrett interrupted coldly. He looked at the old woman with disgust. "I don't care if she has purple eyes or green skin. She's still beneath me."
Helena rushed forward and shoved the brown contact back into my eye, hiding the violet. "She's lying," Helena announced to the crowd. "This crazy woman is trying to cause trouble. Our Zara is just a simple Omega. Nothing special."
But I saw the panic in her eyes. The way Marcus's hands were shaking. They were terrified.
Why?
"I know what I saw," the old woman insisted. "That girl has—"
"Security!" Garrett shouted. "Remove this woman from my ceremony. Now."
Two large guards grabbed the old woman and dragged her toward the exit. She fought against them, her strange eyes locked on me.
"Don't let them do this!" she screamed. "Child, you are more than they told you! Fight back! FIGHT BACK!"
The doors slammed shut behind her, cutting off her words.
Silence fell over the hall. Everyone stared at me like I was a strange bug they wanted to squash.
My heart pounded. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. The old woman knew something about me. Something the Reeds had hidden.
But what?
"Now then," Garrett said, turning back to me with cold eyes. "Where were we? Ah yes. The rejection."
"No," I whispered. "Please don't do this."
"Don't beg," Clarissa said sweetly, her smile sharp as a knife. "It's pathetic. You're pathetic."
She wrapped herself around Garrett's arm like she owned him. Like he was hers and not mine.
The mate bond pulled so hard I felt like my chest was being ripped open. My wolf was howling, begging me to run to him. To make him understand.
"Garrett," I tried one more time. "I know I'm just an Omega. I know I'm not what you wanted. But the Moon Goddess—"
"The Moon Goddess made a mistake," he said flatly.
Those words hit harder than any of Marcus's punches ever had.
The Moon Goddess made a mistake. With me. I was a mistake.
Tears poured down my face. I couldn't stop them anymore.
"I, Garrett Kane, future Alpha of the Shadowmere Pack," he began, his voice strong and clear so everyone could hear, "hereby reject you, Zara Reed, as my fated mate."
The words hit me like lightning.
Pain exploded through my entire body. It felt like someone had reached into my chest and was tearing out my heart while it still beat.
I screamed.
The mate bond that had just formed—the beautiful, perfect connection between us—shattered like glass. Each piece that broke felt like a knife stabbing into my soul.
My legs gave out. I fell to my knees, unable to breathe, unable to think. There was only pain. Endless, burning, impossible pain.
"You are unworthy of this bond," Garrett continued, each word making it worse. "Unworthy of this pack. Unworthy of me."
"Stop!" I sobbed. "Please, it hurts! It hurts so much!"
Nobody helped me. They all just watched.
Some looked uncomfortable. Most looked entertained, like this was a show put on for them.
Clarissa was smiling.
"I choose Clarissa Reed as my true mate," Garrett finished. "She is everything you could never be."
He pulled Clarissa close and kissed her.
Right there. Right in front of me while I was dying on the floor.
The bond gave one final, agonizing twist, and something inside me broke. Not just the bond. Something deeper. Something that had been holding me together all these years.
My vision went white with pain. I couldn't hear anything over my own screaming. Couldn't see anything but blinding light.
But I felt something else too. Something strange and powerful waking up inside me. Something that had been sleeping.
My wolf wasn't howling in sadness anymore. She was growling. Angry. Furious.
They hurt us, she snarled. They will pay. They will ALL pay.
Heat flooded through my body. Not the heat of pain, but something else. Something that felt like... power?
My hands burned. I looked down and saw my skin glowing. Actually glowing, like there was light underneath.
"What's happening to her?" someone in the crowd whispered.
"Is she having a seizure?"
"Someone call a doctor!"
But I wasn't having a seizure. The suppression spell the Reeds had used on me for eighteen years—the one I didn't even know existed—was starting to crack.
Marcus must have realized it too because his face went from red to white in seconds.
"Get her out of here!" he shouted. "Now! Before she—"
The pain reached a peak I couldn't survive. My body couldn't take anymore. The world tilted sideways, and darkness rushed in.
The last thing I heard before I blacked out was Clarissa's cruel laugh and three words that would haunt me:
"Goodbye, little Omega."
When I opened my eyes, everything was wrong.
I was outside. In an alley. Surrounded by trash and darkness.
They'd thrown me out like garbage.
My whole body ached. The rejection bond had left me feeling hollow, like someone had scooped out my insides.
But I was alive.
Barely.
I tried to sit up and gasped. My hands—they looked different. The skin was paler. And my hair... I pulled a strand in front of my face.
Silver-white. Not brown anymore. Pure silver-white, even in the darkness.
What was happening to me?
My wolf stirred, stronger than she'd ever been.
We are free, she whispered. The chains are broken. We are finally free.
"Free to die in an alley," I said bitterly. "Some freedom."
A footstep echoed behind me.
I spun around, fear shooting through me. Had Marcus come to finish me off? Had Garrett changed his mind and decided rejection wasn't enough?
But the man stepping out of the shadows wasn't Marcus or Garrett.
He was tall and dangerous-looking, with dark hair and eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness. He wore all black and moved like a predator.
A rogue. I could smell it on him—wild, untamed, outside of pack law.
I scrambled backward, my body too weak to run.
"Please," I begged. "I don't have anything worth stealing. Just... just leave me alone."
The man tilted his head, studying me with those glowing eyes.
Then he smiled. Not a cruel smile like Clarissa's. Something else. Something almost... respectful?
"Zara Nightshade," he said quietly. "I've been looking for you for a very long time."
I froze. "My name is Zara Reed. You have the wrong—"
"No," he interrupted. "Reed is the name of your captors. Your real name—your true name—is Nightshade. And you, little princess, are the last living heir to the Royal Bloodline."
My mouth fell open. "That's impossible."
"Is it?" He gestured to my silver hair, my glowing skin. "Do you feel like an Omega right now? Or do you feel like something much, much more powerful?"
I didn't answer. Couldn't answer.
Because he was right. I didn't feel like an Omega anymore.
I felt dangerous.
The man extended his hand. "My name is Darius Blackthorn. And if you want to s
urvive the night—if you want revenge on everyone who hurt you—you'll come with me. Now."