Chapter 1

Leah’s POV

“Ha! Look at her. You really thought you’d get in, Leah?” Clarissa laughed right in my face.

Zoey, Becca, and Abbie burst into laughter with her, loud enough to attract the attention of everyone gathered around the admissions board. A few people glanced at me before quickly looking away. Nobody wanted to become Clarissa’s next source of entertainment.

I stared at the board behind them.

My name still wasn’t there.

I checked it again anyway, moving my eyes down every column as if the letters might rearrange themselves out of pity. Leah of Mooncreek. I had written it on my application, on the recommendation requests I’d practically begged people to consider, and on every scrap of paper I’d used to plan the future I wanted. But it wasn’t on that board.

“Aw, what’s wrong?” Clarissa asked, putting on a fake pout. “Did you find out you couldn’t whore your way into Royalwood?”

“Maybe she thought she could suck her way through the entrance exams,” Becca said. “Thankfully, Royalwood isn’t a place for whores like her.”

Abbie snickered. “Please. Look at her. Who would even want her?”

“Someone with terrible eyesight, probably,” Zoey added, and they all laughed again.

My throat tightened. I swallowed before any of them could notice. I wasn’t going to cry in front of these girls. Not today. Not after all the times they’d laughed at me for daring to apply in the first place.

I had worked for this. I had trained until my arms shook and my legs felt like they might fall off. I had practised my strikes until my knuckles were sore, studied the academy’s requirements, and asked anyone who might listen for a recommendation letter. Some people had laughed. Others had looked at me with that familiar expression people wore when they wanted to call you stupid but thought they were being kind by staying quiet.

A wolfless omega at Royalwood Academy? Ridiculous.

Royalwood trained the best warriors in the kingdom. Most students came from Alpha families, royal bloodlines, or families with connections powerful enough to get their applications noticed. People like me weren’t supposed to dream about the place. We were supposed to understand our position and stay in it.

Apparently, I hadn’t understood the assignment.

“Well?” Clarissa leaned closer. “Are you going to cry?”

I dragged my eyes away from the board and looked at her. “Why would I cry? I’m just trying to figure out how the academy managed to reject me and still admit someone whose entire personality is to cling to an Alpha who would rather fuck a raccoon than mate you.”

Zoey made a startled noise. Becca’s smile faltered. Clarissa’s face tightened.

“What did you say?”

“I said the board is doing a wonderful job of holding up the wall. You should try it sometime. It might give you a purpose, since it seems you lack one so much.”

A couple of people nearby snorted. Clarissa’s cheeks reddened, and for a moment, she looked as if she might slap me. I almost hoped she would. At least then I’d have a reason to hit her back.

“You think you’re funny?” she snapped.

“No. I think I’m rejected. You’re the one making a whole celebration out of it. Should I get you a cake? I can write ‘Congratulations on Having No Life Besides Poking Your Nose into Other People's Business’ on it.”

Her minions went quiet. Clarissa stepped closer, but I was already turning away. I’d spent too many years letting people like her take up space in my head. I wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of seeing how badly this hurt.

“Go on, walk away,” she called after me. “It won’t change what you are. A wolfless orphan. A burden Mooncreek has been carrying for years.”

I kept walking.

“You’ll end up a breeder or a cleaner,” she continued. “If the pack is generous, maybe they’ll let you become an outcast. We’re tired of carrying useless people like you.”

Her words followed me across the courtyard, but I refused to turn around. If I did, she’d see the truth on my face. I was hurt. Of course I was hurt. I had spent more than ten years dreaming about Royalwood, and now one miserable board had made it look as if those years meant nothing.

But Clarissa didn’t get to decide what I did next.

I found a quiet stretch of wall beyond the crowd, where the noise from the admissions board faded. My legs suddenly felt too weak to hold me up, so I slid down until I was sitting on the ground, knees drawn up. I pressed my lips together and stared at the dirt between my boots.

Was this really it?

Was I supposed to give up a dream I’d carried for most of my life because a group of people had decided I didn’t belong? I had known the odds were terrible. I’d known what everyone would say. I had applied anyway because there was always a chance, no matter how small, that someone would look at my combat record and see what I could do instead of what I lacked.

Maybe I should have listened to them.

The thought settled over me, heavy and unwelcome. Then I shook my head.

No.

I wasn’t going to give up because a letter said no. I was good at combat. I knew that. I could fight better than plenty of people who strutted around with their wolves and acted as if the beasts did all the work for them. If the academy wouldn’t accept my application, I would go there myself. I’d find someone willing to watch me fight. I’d make them listen.

All I needed was one person to give me a chance.

“Enough standing around!” the matron’s voice cracked across the courtyard. “Everyone assigned for service, move to the assignment grounds. Now!”

My stomach dropped.

The assignments.

Today.

I scrambled to my feet, suddenly aware that I’d been so focused on the admissions board that I’d nearly forgotten the other decision waiting for me. Every wolfless woman who had reached the required age was being assigned a role. Cleaner. Breeder. Or, if the pack considered you too useless to keep, outcast.

I started towards the grounds, trying to work out how I could escape before they called my name.

The answer didn’t come. A sharp crack split the air, followed by a burning lash across my back.

“Move!” the matron barked.

Pain shot from my shoulder blades down my spine. My breath caught so hard I tasted it in my throat. For one awful second, my body refused to move. Then I stumbled forward, one hand flying to my back. The sting spread beneath my clothes, hot and vicious, and each step made the fabric drag against it.

I wanted to turn around and hit the woman with her own whip. I wanted to ask if she had mistaken us for livestock. Instead, I clenched my jaw and kept walking, because another lash would not help me escape my assignment.

The grounds were crowded. Some women stood stiffly with their faces blank, as if they’d already accepted whatever fate was handed to them. Others cried openly. One girl clutched her mother so tightly that the matron had to pull them apart. Near the front, a woman assigned as a breeder looked as if she might faint.

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t spend my life as some f*ck-toy baby machine for someone, cleaning their floors, or being treated like a burden passed from one person to another.

And a breeder?

I would sooner slit the throat of the person they assigned me to than let anyone decide my body belonged to them. They would have to drag me there unconscious, and even then, I’d find a way to make them regret it.

“Silence!” the matron shouted.

The crowd quieted in uneven waves. She stood before us with a ledger in one hand and her whip in the other, looking down the rows as if she were inspecting a batch of damaged goods.

“Some of you should be grateful the pack is willing to give you any use at all,” she said. Her gaze passed over us and stopped on me. “And some of you look too skinny to be useful for anything.”

A few people laughed nervously.

I stared straight ahead. Of course I looked skinny. I’d spent half my life training and the other half trying to get enough food to keep up with it. But I could scrub floors well enough, if that was what they wanted. I’d do it for a short while, keep my head down, and then escape to Royalwood. This wasn’t the end. It couldn’t be.

The matron checked her ledger, then raised her voice.

“Leah of Mooncreek.”

My fingers curled into fists. “Here.”

She looked me up and down, her mouth twisting as though she still couldn’t imagine what anyone would want with me. Then she glanced at the ledger again.

“Despite your appearance, it seems someone has found a use for you after all.”

My stomach tightened.

Please, not a breeder. Not a breeder. Let me scrub every floor in this pack if I have to. I only need time to get away.

The matron lifted her chin and announced, “You have been assigned as a breeder.” Her words struck me. “To... Alpha Roman?”