CHAPTER 1

Liana pov

The night of the moon ceremony was approaching, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. It would be on a full moon, which meant that I could likely get my wolf and my mate.

Maa told me that my wolf was delayed because I was weak, and it would only come when I was strong enough to contain it. I had dedicated the last few months to getting better.

I made sure to always take my medication on time, and even though we didn't have much, I tried my best to eat well.

The air was chilly. The cold air blew on my face, ruffling my hair.

As I was approaching our home, I saw a crowd gathered in front of my house. My face creased in perplexity. My mother wasn't a very sociable person, so she didn't have many friends.

Why were all these people at my house? I wondered.

As I got closer, my heart almost leapt out of my chest. I could hear my mother's cries. I pushed through the crowd. My mother was kneeling in front of the city tax collector.

He had a scroll in his hand as he read our debts. He had an angry look as he read it. My mother was almost lying face down.

“What is happening? What are you doing?” My breath got caught in my throat.

I immediately rushed to her side and helped her up. I looked up at the tax collector, who had a disgusted look written all over his face.

The crowd was murmuring and judging us.

“Your debt has piled up way too much, and at this point, there's no way you can pay,” he said as he stared at us with utter disgust.

“I can. Please give me more time.” My mum was old. She had so many grey hairs sticking out. She couldn't stand for long. But she was kneeling because of this stupid man.

“By law, you are to serve in the Palace to repay your debts, or you'll be lashed in the market.”

“What? No!” I yelled as I grabbed my mother closer to my body.

“No one is touching my mother, not while I'm alive.” My breathing was heavy as I stared into the man's eyes.

“Such an insolent child, looking into a man's eyes like that. Such impudence.”

“Ana, please look down,” my mother reasoned, but I didn't.

I rose to my feet, all while looking him straight in the eyes.

“You can't do this to my mother. She has paid her taxes diligently throughout the years. Can't you see she's sick? We're trying to come up with the money.”

My fists balled beside me in anger. How dare he! The people around us murmured to each other.

“Guards, seize this insolent child.”

“No, please!” my mother yelled as she tried to reach for me.

Before I could even brace myself, two guards lunged forward. Their iron-grip fingers clamped down onto my shoulders, bruising the flesh right through my thin dress.

They shoved me forward, forcing me onto my knees. The sharp gravel of the dirt road bit mercilessly into my skin, but I refused to let out a cry.

"Let her go! Please, she is just a child! Take me instead!" my mother wailed, her frail body trembling violently as she tried to crawl toward me. A third guard stepped between us, his heavy boot pinning the hem of her worn skirt to the ground, keeping her at bay.

"Liana!" she screamed, a sound so broken it tore right through my chest.

The tax collector, a bloated man named Master Vane, stepped down from the stone threshold of our home. He stopped mere inches from my face.

He used the tip of his wooden cane to force my chin up, compelling me to look into his small, cruel eyes.

"You speak of diligence, girl, yet your house has not paid a single copper in six moons," Vane sneered, his voice ringing out loudly for the gathered crowd to hear.

"The law is absolute. If you can not pay with coin, you pay with skin. Let this be a lesson to any other vermin in this sector who think they can cheat the Alpha’s treasury."

The crowd murmured. Some looked away in shame, but most watched with hungry curiosity. In a pack where strength was everything, the weak were nothing more than entertainment.

"Strip her jacket," Vane ordered coldly.

"No! Please, mercy!" my mother shrieked, her voice cracking into a desperate sob. "She is weak! Her wolf hasn't even come yet! She won't survive it!"

The guards ignored her, tearing the rough fabric from my shoulders. The cool evening air hit my bare back, sending a violent shiver down my spine.

My heart was hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. No, I thought, closing my eyes tightly. Don't cry. Do not give them the satisfaction.

Thwack!

The first strike of the heavy leather crop split the air, striking across my shoulder blades. A blinding, searing heat exploded across my back.

My breath hitched, a strangled gasp escaping my lips as the force of the blow nearly knocked me flat into the dirt.

"One," the guard counted out loud.

Thwack!

"Two."

The pain was a living, breathing monster, biting deeper into my flesh with every strike. Tears spilt over my eyelashes, burning my cheeks, but I clamped my jaw shut so hard my teeth ground together.

I could hear my mother’s frantic prayers, her weeping echoing in my ears, mixing with the rhythmic, agonising crack of the whip.

Five strikes. Seven. Ten. By the twelfth strike, my vision was blurring into a hazy, red tint. The ground beneath my hands felt unstable.

"Enough," Vane finally commanded.

The striking stopped, but the fire on my back raged on. I slumped forward, my forearms barely supporting my weight as I gasped for air, tasting metal on my tongue.

"A pitiful display," Vane remarked, tossing his scroll aside. He knelt down slightly, his foul breath hot against my ear. "Consider that your punishment for your insolence, girl. But the debt still stands. And since your frail mother wouldn't last a day in the palace, the law permits a substitute."

My eyes snapped wide open, the haze of pain momentarily clearing. "What...?" I choked out.

"You will be taken to the Royal Palace," Vane announced, turning to the crowd. "As a slave to the High Alpha’s household, to work until your bloodline's debt is cleared to the last cent."

A collective, horrified gasp rippled through the onlookers.

"No... No, not the palace!" My mother’s voice didn't even sound human anymore. It was pure terror. She broke free of the guard’s loose grip and threw herself over my bleeding back, sheltering me with her own body.

"Not the palace! Take everything we own! Take our lives! Please, Vane, I beg of you! Slaves who go to the palace never return!"

Her words struck a chord of ice in my chest.

Everyone knew the rumours. The Royal Palace of the Polaris Citadel Pack was a beautiful, gilded slaughterhouse for omegas and packless slaves.

The royal lineage was ruthless, ruled by a tyrannical Alpha who viewed servants as disposable property. Those sent there were worked to the bone, used for sport, or broken completely.

To be sent to the palace was a death sentence wrapped in velvet.

"The decree is signed," Vane said flawlessly, completely unmoved by my mother’s agony. "The carriage arrives at dawn. If she is not at the city gates, you will both be executed for treason."

He turned on his heel and walked away, the crowd slowly dispersing into the shadows, leaving us alone in the dirt.

"Maa..." I whispered, the word scraping against my throat.

My mother cupped my face, her hands shaking violently. Her tears mixed with the dirt and blood on my skin.

"My sweet girl... my poor, sweet girl. I am so sorry. I couldn't protect you. You can not go there, Liana. They will destroy you."

I wanted to comfort her, to tell her it would be okay, but the sheer terror of what tomorrow held choked out any words.

Hours later, I lay face down on my small straw mat inside our dark hut. My mother had done her best to clean my wounds with her trembling hands.

The room was pitch black, save for the pale moonlight filtering through the cracks in the wooden window.

The moon ceremony was in three days. I was supposed to find my wolf. I was supposed to find a mate who would protect me, a pack that would accept me. Instead, I was going to be chained.

Why am I so weak? The thought echoed bitterly in the emptiness of my mind. If only I had my wolf. If only I were strong.

Suddenly, a strange, suffocating heat blossomed deep within my chest.

It wasn't the fiery sting of the whip wounds on my back. It was different. It felt like a dormant coal suddenly being struck by lightning.

My breath caught. My heart rate skyrocketed, booming so loudly in my ears that it sounded like war drums.

A low, violent vibration rippled through my veins.

The air in the tiny room grew heavy, charged with a sudden, suffocating pressure. My skin began to prickle, and for the first time in my life, the faint scents of the forest outside, miles away, flooded my senses with overwhelming clarity.

Deep within the darkest, most locked-away corner of my soul, something massive, ancient, and fiercely feral slowly opened its eyes.

A voice, echoing with a power that vibrated right through my bones, resonated in my mind for the very first time.

“Let them lock us in a cage, Liana,” the voice growled, a vicious, golden tide of energy suddenly rushing through my blood, instantly numbing the pain on my back. “We will tear the palace down from the inside out.”