CHAPTER 2: THE BREAKING POINT

I woke up the next morning to the sound of shouting.

My eyes flew open. The sun was barely up, painting my tiny room in grey light. But the noise outside was already loud. Angry voices. The thud of fists hitting flesh.

I threw off my thin blanket and rushed to my small window. Down in the training yard, two of the younger wolves were fighting. Really fighting. Not sparring. This was bloody and vicious.

My heart raced. I recognized them. Jason and Cole. Both seventeen. Both hotheaded warriors-in-training who'd been rivals since they were pups.

A crowd had formed around them, cheering and shouting. But no one was stopping it.

I pulled on my clothes and ran downstairs, my bare feet slapping against the cold stone. This was bad. Really bad. If they seriously hurt each other before Alpha Damon saw, there'd be hell to pay.

By the time I reached the yard, Jason had Cole pinned to the ground, his fist raised for another punch. Cole's face was already bleeding.

"Stop!" I shouted.

No one heard me over the noise.

I pushed through the crowd. "I said stop!"

Something in my voice must have changed because suddenly everyone went quiet. Even Jason froze, his fist still in the air.

I stepped into the center of the circle, my heart hammering. What was I doing? I was just an Omega. I had no authority here.

But I couldn't watch this.

"Both of you, stand down," I said, and my voice came out stronger than I expected. Almost commanding. "Now."

Jason blinked at me like he was waking from a trance. He lowered his fist and stepped back from Cole.

Cole scrambled to his feet, wiping blood from his mouth. Both boys stared at me with confused expressions.

"What's going on here?" a cold voice cut through the silence.

My blood turned to ice.

Beta Marcus pushed through the crowd, his dark eyes scanning the scene. When they landed on me, his expression hardened.

"Aurora," he said softly. Too softly. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I... they were fighting. I was trying to stop them before someone got seriously hurt."

"And you thought you, a wolfless Omega, had the authority to give orders to warriors?" His voice was deadly quiet now.

The crowd watched. Waited.

"No, sir," I whispered, dropping my gaze. "I'm sorry. I just thought..."

"You thought wrong." He stepped closer until I could smell the coffee on his breath. "Omegas do not interfere with pack business. Omegas do not give commands. Omegas certainly don't raise their voices in the training yard. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"These boys will be disciplined properly. You need to learn your place." He turned to the crowd. "Everyone back to your duties. Show's over."

The wolves dispersed quickly. Jason and Cole were marched away by two senior warriors.

Marcus grabbed my arm, his fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. "Come with me."

He dragged me back into the packhouse and down a hallway I'd never been in before. We stopped outside a heavy wooden door.

He knocked once.

"Enter," came that deep, commanding voice I'd heard yesterday.

Oh no. Not the Alpha's office again.

Marcus pushed me inside. Alpha Damon sat behind his desk, looking up from a laptop with those ice-blue eyes. He wore another expensive suit, this one charcoal grey.

"Alpha," Marcus said with a respectful bow. "I apologize for the interruption, but we have a discipline issue."

Damon's gaze shifted to me. Something flickered in his expression, too fast to read. "Explain."

"This Omega interfered with a warrior dispute in the training yard. She gave orders to fighters, disrupting pack hierarchy."

I kept my eyes on the floor, my whole body trembling.

"Is this true?" Damon asked me directly.

I swallowed hard. "They were fighting. Really fighting. I thought they'd kill each other if someone didn't stop it."

"And you decided that someone should be you?"

"I... yes, Alpha."

Silence filled the room. Heavy. Suffocating.

"Marcus," Damon said finally. "Leave us."

My heart stopped.

Marcus hesitated. "Alpha, I don't think..."

"I said leave us." There was steel in those words now.

Marcus bowed stiffly and left, closing the door behind him.

Now it was just me and the Alpha.

Alone.

I could feel his eyes on me but I didn't dare look up.

"Come here," he said.

My legs barely worked as I stepped closer to his desk.

"Look at me, Aurora."

The use of my name shocked me enough that I obeyed. Our eyes met and that same electric feeling from yesterday slammed into me. Stronger this time. My breath caught.

His jaw tightened. "What you did was foolish."

"I know, Alpha."

"You put yourself in the middle of a fight between two warriors who could have easily hurt you."

"Yes, Alpha."

"And yet they stopped." His eyes narrowed slightly. "They stopped when you commanded them. Why?"

I had no answer for that. "I don't know."

He stood up and walked around his desk. He was so tall, so powerful. Everything in my body screamed to either run or submit.

"There are rules in this pack," he said quietly, stopping a few feet from me. "A hierarchy that keeps order. Omegas don't give commands. They certainly don't give commands to warriors."

"I understand."

"Do you?" He stepped closer. Now I could smell him. Pine and winter and something dark and male that made my head spin. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you have no regard for your own safety."

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Sorry doesn't change what happened." He was close enough now that I had to tilt my head back to see his face. "Those boys could have turned on you. Hurt you. Killed you."

"They wouldn't..."

"You don't know that." Something flashed in his eyes. Anger? Concern? "You're not a warrior, Aurora. You're not even a regular pack member. You're..."

He stopped himself.

"I'm nothing," I finished for him. "I know what I am, Alpha."

His expression went hard. "Get out."

The dismissal stung more than it should have.

I turned toward the door.

"Aurora."

I stopped, not looking back.

"Don't do something that stupid again. Next time I won't be so lenient."

I fled from his office, my eyes burning with tears I refused to let fall.

The rest of the day passed in a haze. I buried myself in work. Scrubbing floors. Washing windows. Anything to keep busy.

But I couldn't stop thinking about those moments in his office. The way he'd looked at me. The way my whole body had reacted to his nearness.

It meant nothing. It had to mean nothing.

Around dinner time, I was setting tables in the dining hall when Vivian Sterling walked in with three of her friends. All gorgeous she-wolves in designer clothes.

They saw me and immediately started whispering.

"I heard about this morning," Vivian said loudly enough for me to hear. "Trying to act like you have authority? Pathetic."

Her friends laughed.

"I mean, we all know you're desperate for attention," she continued, examining her perfect nails. "But commanding warriors? That's a new low even for you."

I kept setting out silverware, pretending I couldn't hear her.

She walked over and knocked the forks out of my hand. They clattered to the floor.

"Oops," she said with a fake smile. "How clumsy of me."

I bent to pick them up.

"You know what I think?" Vivian crouched down so we were eye level. "I think you're jealous. You see me with Damon and it kills you inside."

My hands froze on a fork.

"Oh, did you think I didn't notice? The way you look at him?" She laughed cruelly. "Newsflash, Omega. He doesn't even know you exist. To him, you're just another servant. Less than furniture."

Each word was a knife.

"But don't worry," she patted my cheek hard enough to sting. "After the Mate Revelation Ball, when Damon and I announce our official engagement, you'll get to serve us champagne. Won't that be fun?"

She stood up and walked away with her friends, their laughter echoing through the hall.

I stayed crouched on the floor, gathering the forks with shaking hands.

She was right. Of course she was right.

Alpha Damon belonged to someone like her. Beautiful. Powerful. Perfect.

Not to a broken Omega who couldn't even shift.

That night, I lay in bed and tried to ignore the hollow ache in my chest. The Mate Revelation Ball was in two days. Two days until I turned twenty-two and officially became old enough to find my fated mate.

Not that it mattered.

Even if by some miracle the Moon Goddess had chosen someone for me, they'd probably reject me the second they realized what I was.

Who I was.

Nothing.

I closed my eyes and willed sleep to come.

But before darkness took me, I felt it again. That flutter deep inside. Like something stirring. Waking.

And this time, I could have sworn I heard a voice.

Soon, it whispered. Very soon.