Bonded to Alpha Darius

The sun had barely risen over the Old Blood Moon Pack territory when Elara Robin was already awake.There was no luxury of sleeping in — not for an omega. Not for her.She sat up on her small bed, the worn mattress creaking beneath her, and stared at the ceiling for a moment before swinging her legs over the side. The room was modest. Four plain walls, a small window, and the few things she and her sister Lily had managed to hold onto after their parents died. It was not much. But it was home, and Elara had long stopped wishing for more.She washed up quickly, pulled on her clothes, and headed to the kitchen. The morning routine never changed — cook breakfast, eat, survive the day, come home. Repeat. It was not the life she had dreamed of as a little girl, but it was the life the pack had given her, and omegas did not complain. Not out loud anyway.She cracked four eggs into the pan and listened to them sizzle. Outside the window the pack territory was slowly waking up. She could hear

The house was quiet when Elara got home.She dropped her bag by the door, slipped off her shoes, and stood in the small hallway for a moment just breathing. There was something about crossing that threshold every evening that unknotted something inside her chest — like her body recognized that it was finally safe to stop performing and just exist without anyone watching or judging or waiting for her to stumble.She moved to the kitchen and filled a glass of water, leaning against the counter and staring out the small window above the sink. The sun was beginning its slow descent over the pack territory, painting the sky in shades of orange and pink that would have been beautiful if Elara had the energy left to appreciate them properly. She drank the water slowly and let the quiet of the house settle around her like a blanket.She heard Lily's key in the front door twenty minutes later.Her sister came in carrying two paper bags of groceries, her hair pulled into a messy knot on top of

The inside of the alpha's estate was nothing like Elara had imagined.She had expected grand and cold — the kind of place that announced its power in every corner and made you feel small the moment you stepped inside. And it was grand, there was no question about that. High ceilings, wide open rooms, walls that carried the kind of dark rich wood that only came with age and money and generations of the same bloodline occupying the same space. But it was not cold. If anything the sheer number of people packed into it had given it a warmth and noise that made it feel almost approachable.Almost.Elara stayed close to Lily as they moved through the entrance and into the main room where the party was in full swing. Long tables lined one wall loaded with food and drinks. Groups of wolves clustered everywhere — talking, laughing, moving between each other with the easy familiarity of people who had grown up in the same pack and knew each other's histories without having to ask. Music moved u