Chapter 2

Elena's POV 

“She went to look for a male… She’s unhappy for me because Golden chose me,” Mila cut in, her face suddenly serious.

I immediately thought of reporting what I overheard Mila and her mother, Camela, say. But no way. Camela knows how to make me look like a lunatic. Like I’m hearing things that never happened. I clenched my fist, anger foaming inside me, but forced myself to stay calm, even as the situation drained me.

“Nothing used to give her concern,” Camela pointed out flatly.

I stood still, rehearsing a lie I could tell. Something like I was at the pack house, performing my duties, tending to domestic chores and setting up the pack hall with others. But that seemed too much. What if they discovered the truth? My shame would be intense.

“I was beginning to think you were in the forest today. Alpha Varlok has ordered an inquiry about any she-wolf who might have been in the forest this afternoon,” father reiterated, this time brushing his eye ball with mine.

“Tell the truth! You were in the forest. It was around the same time he mentioned you were nowhere to be found,” Camela interrupted.

“He claimed the she-wolf is supposed to be his fated mate,” father added.

I was shocked to hear that. Fated mate? No. Even now, the thought tightens in my chest. “I was not in the forest father…,” I broke out, breathing heavily.

There is no way I could be his luna. He would kill me on our mating day. He is too forceful, too merciless, everyone knows that.

“Oh, that sounds good. You’d better confess and go to him to mark you. At least you’ll be a Luna, with some pride in your life before he kills you,” Mila said, laughing again and again.

“Father, that is the truth. I was not in the forest at any time today. So not me at all.”

“I have heard you, Elena. If you insist you didn’t go into the forest at that time,” he said, lips pursed.

“I want to be sure you are preparing for the coming Mating Run?” 

Camela cleared her throat. “Anyways, Elena, you will still have to prepare for Alpha Varlok. I’m sure he’ll be choosing between you and Mila, among other unmated she-wolves in our pack. But he will surely choose you, now that Mila is marked by his nephew.”

“I don’t want Alpha Varlok,” I said, and the tears came, sudden, uncontrollable. I had needed to see my mother, to hear something real, something that would steady me. I left them immediately, heading to her house.

My stepmother is my father's first wife. I have always known that this is the reason for her authority, Camela's cruelty and why my father had separated my mother from the house.

I barged into my mother’s house, my vision blurred with tears.

“Who’s in?” she called from the kitchen. I only whispered my name in response. 

After a few minutes, she came out and found me. Not sitting, just standing there, arms folded tightly.

“Elena! Please, sit. I think you have some complaints. Is it Camela and Mila again?” she requested.

I managed to sit, her guess confirming everything I had been holding inside. “Mother… please tell me why father had to separate you. And why Mila and her mother are so mean to us. I know I am used to being overridden because of my rank as an omega. But should being an omega trigger people's hatred for me?

“Elena…” she said softly, “give me some time. Let me check the kitchen.”

In no time, she had returned with a tray containing two dishes of sausage and bread and two mugs of berry wine. I remember how quickly she moved, as if delaying would unravel something fragile between us.

“Have this, my daughter,” she says, stretching the tray of delicacies toward me.

I lifted a dish and a wine, my fingers unsteady, though I tried to hide it.

“You see, I thought no one has said it to your ears, but they always use this story to measure me and you, no matter what we tried to do.”

She guzzles her wine halfway while I bite into my sausage. Even now, I can still taste it. The aroma was savory, almost cruelly comforting.

“Here it is.” She changed her sitting posture, as though bracing herself.

“Your father, the pack’s gamma, was out leading his warriors in a brutal war against another pack. My pack back then. The fighting was intense, bodies dropping everywhere. That same day, I was dragged in with the rest of my people after we lost.

After the papers were signed and we were sworn into your father’s pack, he brought me home. He performed a ritual, calling on the Moon Goddess to bind us as fated mates. And… It worked.

But in that house, Camela hated what your father did. She despised it. Still, she couldn’t do a thing to stop him.”

A pause… and then I noticed the tears forming in her eyes. Even now, that moment presses against my chest.