Chapter 1

LAIKA

I woke from the noise outside. People were running, pushing things in their way. Screams, shrieks, and cries of children filled the air. I stood up from the ground, confused, and my whole body ached like it had been pierced with pins. This was from the torture my mate Alpha Khalid gave me earlier. He had whipped me for refusing to please him. I cried until I slept off on the cold floor.

I walked out of the room and saw people running in different directions, and Alpha Khalid was nowhere to be found. I was so confused, and no one cared to tell me what was happening. They all hated me anyway. But when I listened clearly. I heard what they were saying.

"The Titans are here!"

My heart sank into my abdomen. The Titan pack was the most feared in the whole of the wolf kingdom. They were Lycans and powerful warriors, enhanced in all ways and brutal. They usually raid other packs and take slaves for themselves. I had heard so much about them, but I had never experienced a raid. What has our pack done to be attacked? I made to join the other pack members and fled, but pain shot through my right leg, and I remembered that a heavy table had fallen on me when Alpha Khalid hauled me away earlier. Tears dropped from my eyes, and I limped away from the house.

I had no one in this pack. I was orphaned long ago and was from the lowest Omega tribe, seen as the weakest and the cursed. It was a curse to be an Omega in my pack and most packs, and I was the last Omega living. I shifted at three, which was exceedingly rare, and since then, I had been tagged as cursed. I had endured all the punishments my pack meted out to me, especially from my mate Alpha Khalid who thought it was a curse that I was his mate.

Everyone shifted and dove into the woods for safety, to escape the Titan warriors, but I couldn't even let my wolf take charge. She was as weak as I was, and it looked like she was not even present. I limped through the pack lands, watching the Titan warriors picking and hauling my pack members into their large cage, and wondered why no one had noticed me. Where was Alpha Khalid? Tears pooled in my eyes, blurring my vision. What was I to do? How will I limp myself away from this trouble?

As I thought of how to escape, a force pushed me down. I rolled on the ground, hitting my head on stones and pebbles until I lost track of reality. Before I passed out, my body was raised and floated in the air until I faded into nothingness.

~~~

I was awoken by a slosh of water on my face. I jerked up from where I lay and looked around. It was still dark, but a lantern glowed in the room. At first, I was confused, but when I saw some of my pack members bound in fetters like me, the memories of what had happened came back to me. A woman stood at the end of the cell or whatever place we were locked up with her arms folded across her chest, staring at us with ice, dead, blue eyes. Some hefty men served us meals. It was meager to them, but it was the largest meal I had eaten in a long time now.

"Why is that one not bond in fetters?" the woman asked once one of the hefty men dropped a plate in front of me.

"She is a cripple and can't even run if she wanted," replied the man.

I heard a snort and turned to see a lady from my pack covering her mouth and peeking at me. I was not crippled, and she knew it. I was limping after an accident caused by my ruthless Alpha Khalid. Thinking of him, I felt it was time to accept his rejection. He had rejected me in front of all the pack members, humiliating me in the worst viable way, and forbade me from accepting his rejection. I figured since I was with a new master, I should sever all ties and connections to him.

Without caution or thinking about the consequences, I spoke loud enough for everyone in the room to hear it. "I Laika Archer, an Omega of the Blue moon pack, accept your rejection, Alpha Khalid of the Blue moon pack. So be it." Once I was done saying those words, I felt lighter. All the heaviness in my chest eased, and I felt like a burden had been lifted off me. I was finally free from my worst nightmare. I was free from his sufferings.

But I didn't know what awaited me in this new place. I was used to slavery, anyway. I will still endure every torture meted out to me by them because I am used to torture now. I heard gasps behind me and turned to see my pack members staring at me in disbelief and their jaws dropping. They never knew I had such guts to reject the Alpha.

"Who permitted you to speak, cripple?" the woman barked.

I am not a cripple! I would have said if I weren't so weak, but I bowed my head instead in apology and pounced at my food, gobbling down as fast as I could before they changed their mind and ripped it away from me. I can't remember how long I had eaten something neat or hearty like this. I always ate leftovers in my pack, as the Alpha had decided it was my punishment. He always told me I was ugly and deserved nothing beautiful or happy and somehow, I believed that. He said I was bad luck, and that I was responsible for my parent's death. I never knew my mother, because she died giving birth to me and my father died when I was six while trying to save me from some rogues.

I had believed in Alpha Khalid because if I weren't cursed, my life wouldn't turn out as ugly as this.