“I have something to say.”The pack had not even finished laughing at the rejection when I heard Raven’s voice, loud and sharp. My chest was still rising and falling too fast, I was still trying to breathe.Every eye in the field shifted to her. My stomach twisted and my heart skipped, already knowing she wasn’t about to offer comfort because I knew Raven thrived on my spectacle.“She’s hiding something from you all,”My eyes immediately got teary, cause I knew exactly what she was about to say. “Lila, the weakling Omega, is pregnant.” she blurted out without even blinking twice.Gasps broke out from the pack and I heard my name in whispers;Pregnant? With whose child?An omega carrying pups? Disgraceful.She thought she could be Luna while hiding this?“That is a grave accusation, Raven. Do you have proof?” Elder Thanon said watching everything that has been happening. “If you dare to speak lies during the sacred mate ceremony, you know the punishment is blood bound.” Another elde
For two days I perfected the art of being a ghost. I slipped past others like smoke, hiding in the corners of the kitchens or the forgotten shelves of the laundry. I ate in the kitchen when no one was around, I took the long way through the laundry corridors, to slip out when returning to my cottage while the other omegas gathered to gossip, not like they noticed anyway. I couldn’t bear the sneers, the whispers, or worse the looks of pity. I wanted none of it. It wasn’t hard. People already didn’t see me. Blending into nothingness just required less effort than usual.I sat on the creaky bed in my cottage looking at the simple plain dress I’m to wear this evening. Tonight is the mate ceremony, lanterns already being strung through the courtyard and the heavy scent of fresh pine covering the stale air of the Ranch. I couldn’t ignore the weight pressing down on me, the ceremony was supposed to be a night of promise but every year since the rogues and the witch came, it had turned int
I left Lunaris Hold without thinking and found myself heading straight towards Elena’s place rather than going back to my lonely cottage.I shoved Elena’s door open harder than I intended, my chest still ached from his words.Elena’s cottage smelled of herbs and warmth, but that comfort only made my chest ache more.Her cottage was small but alive, it felt like stepping into the heart of an old oak tree. The walls were lined with shelves that were packed with clay jars and filled with herbs, each one labeled with her neat handwriting. Bundles of sage, lavender, and wild thyme hung drying from the rafters, their soft green leaves brushed against my hair as I stepped inside.She looked up from the fire. “Lila?”“I didn’t mean to, but I broke a vase.” I slumped down to sit.“It was unintentional but he threw me out still,’ I said, my voice dull. “As if I was nothing but wasted air in his space.”Elena came and sat beside me, her hand on my shoulder.“I don’t know why it hurts so much,” I
I thought I had escaped her, I should have been focused on the task ahead which was dusting, polishing, sweeping every inch of the Alpha’s chambers until my back ached and my hands snapped. But the further away I walked from the courtyard, the louder the silence became. My hand was still tingling where Raven’s had grabbed me, but it wasn’t the burn I felt when she touched me that worried me…… It wasn’t even the voice, that strange, echoing whisper that hadn’t belonged to her, or to me, yet had curled inside my mind like it had always lived there.It was Raven's smug words, her smirk….. She knew my secret, what secret?? I kept wondering what she knew. My chest tightened at the thought. Did she? Did I even know it myself?. I really hope it’s not what I have in mind. I’ll be in deep trouble if anyone knows that. Each step toward the Alpha’s room felt heavier, my mind thought over every possibility, every meaning hidden in her taunt.As I pushed open the door of the Alpha’s room I tried
I woke with a sharp, stabbing pain just below my breast, the kind that tore a gasp out of me even before I knew I was awake. Initially, I thought it was the baby, maybe something had gone horribly wrong. My hand flew to my stomach, clutching the spot where the ache pulsed hot against my skin. I got up to observe my stomach in front of the mirror and that was when I saw it. A mark, faint but unmistakable, it looked like a crescent mark or more like a crown, it was hard to describe, but it shimmered on my stomach, light pulsing like it was alive. It looked different from the birthmark faintly carved on my collarbone since I was a child, only brighter and it felt stronger. That wasn’t there before.The Goddess… She's still here.The thought barely left me when I felt the air change, heavy and strange. The cottage felt crowded, as if someone had been standing in the corner a moment ago, watching.I swallowed hard, the glow fading as quickly as it came, leaving my heart still beating f
“Lila, you’re pregnant.”Elena, the pack’s healer and my guardian, had spoken those words when she was in the cottage earlier today. They cut through me like a knife, and they still rang in my ears long after she was gone.Pregnant? How could that be? I had never even been touched by a man.I sat up on the small bed in the tiny cottage the pack had given me, staring into space. My heart pounded so hard it echoed in my ears. The silence pressed in on me, I was all alone now.“I… I think you must be mistaken,” I had responded to her, my throat dry. “That’s not possible.”Elena had only looked at me with pity, her wrinkled hands clutching the herbal concoction she’d made earlier. “The signs are clear, my child. I know what I felt, what I heard. There is life inside you. A strong one.”Her words made the air heavy, and my skin went cold as they crashed into me. Pregnant. Me. A weak omega that has not even gotten her wolf, the orphan of the Silver Moon Pack that everyone pitied at best, an