"I Want This Omega Banished!"

Hearing my name on that man’s lips, spoken with such vile intent, made my skin crawl. It was a desecration. I’d always been too fair, too slender for a pack wolf. My features were too fine, my lips too full, my hair a dark, unruly cascade that fell into my eyes.

They whispered I looked more like a woman than a man, and whispers like that were dangerous. They were invitations for predators, for disgusting men like the Beta with my mother, who looked at me and saw not a person, but a thing to be defiled, a curiosity to be broken.

A fresh wave of nausea rolled through me. I was almost glad my clothes were soaked in the foul stench of the laundry basin; It was a disgusting armor, but at least it kept people from wanting to touch me.

I followed the sounds of muted coughing and restless sleep back to the Omega’s residence. It was a single, long room in the pack house's cellar, damp and perpetually cold.

The beds were little more than thin mattresses on the floor, packed so tightly together there was barely a head’s width between them. But they left a gap around mine, an arm’s length of cold, empty floor that marked me as untouchable, an outcast even among outcasts. As I quietly lay down, trying to ignore the throbbing in my cheek and the ache in my back, a small head lifted from a nearby cot. It was my sister, Lira.

 For a moment, our eyes met in the dim light. Hers were wide, then narrowed with a familiar contempt. It was a look I’d seen a thousand times. She blamed me, I think. For our father’s death, for our mother’s sacrifices, for the curse that made us prisoners in our own bodies. As if I, a child when it happened, had any control over any of it.

Then, as if I were a ghost she’d accidentally seen, she quickly pulled her head back down, feigning sleep. They all despised me. The curse of my father’s name clung to me like a sickness, a poison that had infected even my own family’s blood.

Sleep was a shallow, fractured thing, filled with the scent of pine and rain and the memory of Kane’s hate-filled eyes. The mate bond was a constant, low-frequency hum beneath my skin, a confused jumble of my own terror and a faint, distant echo of his rage. It was like having a second heartbeat, one that wasn't my own, and it was driving me mad. I was adrift in a sea of misery when a hand shook my shoulder.

"Ren, Ren, wake up." 

I jolted awake, my heart hammering against my ribs. It was my mother. She was kneeling beside my cot, her face pale in the pre-dawn gloom, her beautiful features etched with a perpetual weariness. She was still the most beautiful woman in the pack, her curves full and commanding even in her forties, but her beauty was a currency she spent to keep us alive. I saw the faint bruise on her collarbone, peeking out from the neckline of her worn dress, and a fresh wave of self-loathing washed over me. This was my fault, too.

Before I could speak, she pressed a piece of warm bread into my hands. The sudden, intense aroma of yeast and sweetness filled my senses. I realized I hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, and a wave of hunger so powerful it made me dizzy washed over me. I looked up at my mother, at the dark circles under her eyes, and I knew exactly what she had traded for this bread. My father had been the most valued Beta, handsome and strong. My mother, the envy of every she-wolf. We had been a family of power and respect. Now... thinking about it was like pressing on a bruise that never healed.

"Ren, eat quickly," she urged, her voice a hushed whisper. "The Lycan King is visiting our pack today."

I blinked, trying to process the information. I then realized the room was empty. The other Omegas were already up, their cots empty. They were probably already being worked to the bone preparing for the royal visit.

"Those wretched women," I muttered under my breath, not caring if my mother heard. I tore off a piece of the bread and shoved it into my mouth. The flavor was divine, a sweet, doughy heaven on my tongue. I hadn't tasted anything so good in years. I ate ravenously as I followed my mother out of the cellar, the warmth of the bread a stark contrast to the coldness in my heart.

"The Lycan King?" I asked, my mouth still full. "Here? Why?"

My mother nodded, her eyes darting around nervously as we navigated the quiet corridors. "It's said he's come to choose a future Luna from the northern packs. I wonder which lucky girl will be chosen."

A flicker of something—hope, maybe—ignited in my chest. With the Lycan King here, the entire pack would be on display. There would be feasts, leftovers, a chance for scraps that were better than my usual fare. It was a pathetic thing to hope for, but it was all I had. The Lycan King was a figure of myth, a powerful, ancient wolf who ruled over all the packs. To have him here was a monumental event. And to think, he was nearly thirty and still mateless. It was a strange comfort to know that even the most powerful wolf in the world could be as cursed as I was.

As I emerged into the main halls of the pack house, the atmosphere was buzzing with an unfamiliar energy. Everyone was smiling, their faces flushed with excitement. Even some of the maids, who usually wore simple grey uniforms, had secretly changed into beautiful dresses, their eyes shining with vain hope as they dreamed of being chosen as the Lycan King's mate.

I almost laughed at the sight. It was pure wishful thinking. Everyone knew the northern packs had already put forth their most suitable candidate: Alpha Kane's sister, Catherine. It was a political match, a way to strengthen our pack's alliance with the royal family. The whispers said the Lycan King would never find his mate, so a political union was the only logical solution. Catherine was the obvious choice. I wondered if she was happy about it, being sold off like a broodmare to a King who didn't want her.

As the banquet drew near, I was tasked with carrying heavy crates of wine and polishing silverware, my back aching with every movement. I found a quiet corner in the grand ballroom, behind a towering potted plant, and finally allowed myself a moment of rest. I watched the servants scurry, the high-ranking members of the pack preen, and felt a profound sense of detachment. This was not my world. I was a shadow in it, a ghost with a mate bond to a man who wanted me dead.

But this rare moment of leisure was shattered the next second.

"Catherine, this is the omega who seduced your brother and said you're unworthy to be Luna."

The fawning, sickly-sweet voice was Vera's. I instinctively looked up, my heart sinking. Before I could even process her presence, a hand struck me across the face. It wasn't a slap like Vera's; it was harder, more brutal. The force of it knocked me sideways, and I crashed to the floor, my head spinning. I stared up in disbelief at the two exquisitely dressed people standing over me.

It was Catherine and Vera. One was Alpha Kane's sister, the other his mistress. A poisonous pairing.

Instinctively, my eyes searched the crowd for Kane. A phantom pull from the mate bond made my chest ache, a confused jumble of fear and a traitorous longing. But he wasn't there.

"Looking for my brother, are you?" Catherine's voice was like ice, dripping with aristocratic contempt. She was exquisitely beautiful, with long, golden hair cascading over her shoulders and piercing green eyes. At that moment, those eyes, the same color as Kane's, were filled with a pure, distilled hatred for me. She knew exactly who I was. I was the son of the murderer who killed her father.

"You shameless little hussy," she sneered, her lip curling. "How dare you even look at my brother, let alone try to crawl into his bed! A murderer's whelp like you, daring to taint an Alpha's bloodline?"

Before I could even defend myself, before I could say a word, a sharp-toed shoe slammed into my stomach. The air whooshed out of my lungs in a pained gasp. I curled into a ball, the pain blinding.

"Vera," Catherine said, her voice dangerously calm, her eyes never leaving mine. "I want this omega banished from the pack. "