Dark Water

Selene’s POV

The claiming ceremony was always like this every year. Alpha Rael chose who he would claim for the night. more like claiming them to do whatever he wanted to use them for. We all wore white. We were silent, waiting to be “chosen”. Though it felt a lot more like waiting to be used as objects of pleasure to them.

I had just come of age this year and I had already given up hope of being chosen. Not tonight. Not by anyone. I kept my eyes down and my scent low, just like Mother always taught me when she was alive.

I wasn’t here to attract an Alpha. I was here because I had no choice. An orphaned omega like me couldn't risk standing out. But fate…. Maybe fate had other plans for me. The grand doors of the hall creaked open. Silence fell across the room like someone had just done the unthinkable. I don't need to look up to know who has just entered.

Alpha Rael.

The atmosphere changed the moment he walked in. Growing heavier with every step he took. Wolves held their breaths as he passed. Every omega straightened. Some tried to meet his eyes, while others trembled.

I had heard of him…Crimson Moon’s most feared Alpha. They said his power had no match. The last time someone had challenged him, they were found skinned and left at the border as a message.

He was here in the flesh. And he was moving closer. My wolf stirred, restless. I kept my head down, even as his scent, which was too masculine and commanding, swirled into my nose. It wrapped around me like smoke, refusing to be ignored.

Then it happened.

A deep inhale and growled low in his throat. I blinked. No. No, it can’t be me he’s about….  His boots stepped in front of me. My breath stopped immediately. “Look at me,” he commanded, his voice low and final.

My eyes obeyed before I could think. I looked up…. Meeting the gaze of Alpha Rael. Everything else melted away. The hall. The whispers. The fear that had overtaken me. “You,” he said. And that was all it took for him to make a choice. In front of the entire pack, Alpha Rael reached for me, gripping my arm like I already belonged to him. Gasps echoed across the hall, but he didn’t care.

Pulling me through the crowd without a word. No one dared to stop him. The grand hall doors blurred as he led me up to a grand staircase, through a door carved with ancient ruins, leading to his chambers. I wanted to scream, to run, to demand to explain why the hell he had chosen a nobody like me. But my wolf was too stunned. My lips couldn’t even move to say anything. He opened the door, pushed it wide, and guided me in.

“Alpha Rael…”

“Don’t speak,” he growled. Pinning me with a look that silenced every other word I was about to speak. “You’re mine now. I claim what’s mine.” Before I could blink, he closed the distance between us.

His mouth captured mine in a brutal, possessive kiss. I gasped into him, my hands pushing to meet his chest. But he was unrelenting. His wolf was in control… dominant, hungry.

I had heard stories. Of how he tested omega’s. Of how he took them once and never again. But this was different. Rael stood behind me, the door clicking shut like a verdict.

I didn’t dare turn around. My fingers shake with the edge of my ceremonial dress, the silk too thin against the chill that settles in my bones. “You smell like nothing I’ve ever known,” he murmured against my lips, My breath stopping at the tone of his voice. It wasn’t gentle. It was deep, edged with something primal…something that made my wolf whimper low in my chest.

Then he was in front of me. One hand gripping my jaw, raising my face. His silver eyes locked on mine.” say something,” I whispered, even though I didn’t know why. Maybe I just needed to hear that I was more than a scent to him.

More than just for one night, but instead he didn’t say a word. He kissed me. Rough, unforgiving. As if I had just wronged him somehow by existing and tempting his instincts. His lips crashed into mine, his other hand gripping my hair.

I gasped, and he took advantage of it. Deepening the kiss until it burned. He lifted me…effortlessly, carrying me across the room as I clung to him, stunned by how strong he felt, how warm. 

He dropped me onto the bed like he was getting started to show how much he was in control. His lips trailed fire down my throat. “I’ll make you scream my name when I fuck you tonight,” he growled, taking off every piece of my dress one after the other.

That night, he took me… marking me with bruises and unforgettable moans I couldn’t get over. There was no love in it. No softness. Just hunger. Unrelenting and wild. A man at war with himself, and I was the battlefield, I didn't fight him. Because no one would dare make such a mistake. Also because something deeper… Something I couldn’t name had awoken in me. My wolf stirred with need, answering his call.

It wasn’t until later, minutes after the fire was deemed and his body lay heavy beside me, that the ache settled in my chest. I stared at the ceiling, feeling numb.

Rael slept soundly, his breathing slow and steady, like nothing had happened between us. Like I didn’t just give all of myself to him tonight. My fingers gripped the sheets as I curled into myself, silent tears slipping from the corners of my eyes.

I had just given him everything….. he would forget me by morning. But when morning came, I woke with the sunlight brushing my face, I found the side of the bed still warm. His scent lingered.

And to my utmost shock. The very next night…he returned. The second time was different with him. He didn’t say a word, but every move he made was less possessive, still urgent.

By the third night, I began to count the way he looked at me. When he undressed me this time, his fingers slowed just a little. His eyes stayed on me a beat longer.

And after, when I lay shaking under him, he didn’t stand up immediately. He stayed. Watching me. “You’re not like the others I’ve slept with,” he murmured, almost to himself.

My lips parted to speak, but I said nothing. I was too afraid to ruin this moment of hope for myself. His thumb brushed across my bottom lip. Then, just as suddenly, he stood. Disappearing into the shadows as he did for the past two nights.

I stayed up that night, pacing the cold concrete floors. My wolf stirred, restless. Confused. At how he stalked me at night like he hated that he wanted me. Like I was a weakness he couldn’t afford.

Each night, he came with fire in his veins and shadows in his heart. And each night, I let him in. Let him claim every part of me like I already belonged to him, And for the first time in years, I finally smiled. “I think you’re growing inside me, Rael,” I whispered into the silence of the night.

He was finally going to make me his……

Something he had never done with any Omega.