one

Kaia’s POV.

The scent of damp earth and pine needles always felt like a second skin, but today, it was choked out by the metallic tang of sweat and the bruised ego of a warrior twice my size.

I shifted my weight, feeling the familiar, power in my thighs. People in the Silver Moon pack saw "plus-sized." They saw soft curves and a girl who took up too much space in a world that preferred its female Omegas to be willow-thin and easily tucked away. They didn’t see the corded muscle beneath the softness or the way my center of gravity made me an immovable mountain in the sparring pit.

"Again," I grunted, wiping a smear of mud from my forehead.

Lukas, a warrior who had spent the last ten minutes trying—and failing—to pin me, spat a glob of blood onto the dirt. "Give it a rest, Kaia. You’re an Omega, playing soldier when you should be prepping the feast for the Alpha’s return."

The familiar sting of the 'O' word flickered in my chest, but I didn't let it reach my eyes. In this pack, I was a glitch in the system. The daughter of the Beta, born with the DNA of a leader but the soul-scent of a servant. My first shift had been a disaster of expectations; instead of the terrifying wolf of a Beta, I had emerged as something... different. Something the elders whispered was a 'throwback' to a weaker era.

"If I’m just playing," I said, my voice low, "then it shouldn't be so hard for a 'true warrior' like you to put me on my back."

Lukas growled, a sound that started deep in his chest. He lunged, his form sloppy with rage. I didn't move until the last second. I stepped into his space, using his momentum against him. My hands gripped his forearm and shoulder, and with a twist of my hips, I sent all two-hundred-and-fifty pounds of him soaring through the air.

He hit the dirt with a bone-jarring thud that silenced the small crowd of trainees gathered around the pit.

"Yield?" I asked, looking down at him.

"Enough!"

The voice was like a bucket of ice water. I straightened my back, my heart sinking as I recognized the disappointed voice.

My father, Kaelen, the Beta of Silver Moon, stood at the edge of the field. Beside him stood my brother, Jace—the golden boy, the future Beta, and the person who currently looked at me like I was an embarrassing stain on the family rug.

"Father," I said, bowing my head slightly.

"You’re supposed to be in the kitchens, Kaia," my father said, his eyes not even lingering on the fact that I had just dismantled one of his best warriors. "The Alpha’s son arrives within the hour and the house needs to be in order."

"I finished my duties two hours early so I could train," I countered, though I knew it was useless.

"You’re an Omega," Jace sneered, crossing his arms. "All the training in the world won't change the fact that you'll freeze the moment a real threat shows up. You're built for comfort, sis, not combat. Stop making a spectacle of yourself."

A few of the younger wolves snickered. I felt the heat rise in my cheeks—not out of shame for my body, but out of a white-hot, suppressed rage. I was the top of the tactical classes. I had broken the record for the endurance run. But to them, I was just a girl who ate too much and shifted 'wrong.'

"Go," my father commanded, turning his back on me. "Clean yourself up. You smell like a common brawler."

I scrubbed the dirt from my skin in the cold wash-house, the water stinging the fresh scrapes on my knuckles. I looked at myself in the cracked mirror. I wasn't the standard of beauty here. My curves were deep, my arms thick, my face round.

It made me feel pathetic.

I pulled on a simple, charcoal-grey dress that fit snugly over my chest and flowed over my hips.

The pack square was buzzing when I arrived. The Alpha, Marcus, stood on the dais.

"He's here," someone whispered.

A black SUV pulled into the lot, and everyone held their breath.

I stood in the back, behind a row of taller Omegas who were already preening, hoping for a glance from the returning prince. I didn't care about royalty. I just wanted the ceremony to be over so I could go back to the woods, where the trees didn't care about my rank.

Then, the door opened and Killian Blackwood came out. He was taller than I expected, with shoulders that seemed to block out the sun and black hair. But it was his scent that hit me first. It wasn't the usual forest-and-musk of our pack. It was sandalwood, rain-drenched earth, and something dangerously like woodsmoke.

He was an Alpha in the purest, most terrifying sense of the word.

As he walked toward his father, his gaze swept over the crowd. It was a predatory look, one that sought out weakness and strength in equal measure. I leaned back into the shadows of the stone pillar, my breath hitching.

The rules were the foundation of our society: Alphas and Omegas are the poles of the earth. They shall not meet in the middle. Their blood is a volatile cocktail that threatens the stability of the pack. An Alpha mating with an Omega was seen as a degradation of the bloodline, a scandal that could strip a man of his title.

Killian stopped at the base of the dais. He greeted his father with a formal nod, but his eyes were restless. They kept scanning.

"My son," Alpha Marcus boomed, his voice full of pride. "The territory has missed its heir."

Killian said something in a low voice I couldn't catch, but then, his head snapped to the side.

His eyes locked onto mine.

It was like being struck by lightning. The world around us—the whispering pack members, my father’s stern face, the rustling leaves faded into a dull grey blur. There was only the gold in his irises, a burning, molten amber that seemed to see right through my dress, through my skin, and into the very core of the fire I kept hidden.

I should have looked away. An Omega should bow. An Omega should be invisible.

Instead, I tilted my chin up.

A smirk, barely visible, tugged at the corner of his mouth. He looked me up and down, his gaze lingering on the curve of my hips and the strength in my shoulders with an intensity that made my skin feel five sizes too small.

I felt a pull in my gut, a physical yank as if a golden thread had just been tied around my heart and he was holding the other end. My wolf, usually silent and brooding, let out a low, vibrating hum of recognition.

Forbidden, my mind screamed.

Mine, something deeper whispered.

"Kaia!" my father’s hiss broke the spell. He had noticed my defiance. He stepped in front of me, shielding me from Killian’s view, "Lower your eyes, girl. You're being disrespectful."

I dropped my gaze to the floor, my heart hammering against my ribs. "Yes, Father."

"Go to the hall," he muttered. "Now. Before you embarrass us further."

I turned and fled, but I could feel Killian’s eyes on my back the entire way.

The Great Hall was a chaos of platters and wine. I worked in the periphery, carrying crates of cider and arranging the long tables. My physical strength made the work easy, though the other Omegas giggled as they watched me lift barrels that usually required two people.

"Careful, Kaia," one of them, a girl named Elena, chirped. "You'll grow even broader if you keep that up. No male wants a mate he can't fit his arms around."

"I’m not looking for a mate, Elena," I said, setting a barrel down with a thud. "I’m looking to get through the night without hitting someone."

She rolled her eyes and fluttered away toward the head table where the Alphas would sit.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, the feast began. I stayed near the kitchens, coming out only to replenish the food. I tried to keep my head down, but I could feel him. Even without looking, I knew exactly where Killian was in the room. His presence was a pressure in the air, a gravitational pull that made it hard to walk in a straight line.

I was reaching for a silver tray of roasted meats when a hand moved past mine, gripping the handle.

I froze. The scent of woodsmoke and rain flooded my senses.

"That looks heavy," a voice rasped.

I looked up, and my breath left me. Killian was standing inches away. Up close, he was devastating. There was a small scar through his left eyebrow that only made him look more lethal.

"I can handle it," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. I didn't pull my hand away. My skin was buzzing where it was close to his.

"I don't doubt that," he said, his eyes dropping to my hand, then traveling slowly up my arm. "I saw you in the pit earlier today. Before the SUV reached the gates. You have a very... effective... hip toss."

My heart stopped. "You were watching?"

"I couldn't look away," he murmured. He leaned in closer, defying every social protocol we had. He was an Alpha prince, and I was the 'broken' Omega daughter of a Beta. We weren't even supposed to be breathing the same air. "They told me this pack had grown soft."

"I'm an Omega," I whispered, a warning to him—and to myself. "You shouldn't be talking to me."

"I've never been very good at doing what I'm told, Kaia."

He knew my name.

He reached out, his thumb grazing the line of my jaw. The touch was electric, a searing heat that ignited a hunger I had spent eighteen years burying. My inner wolf let out a needy whine.

"Killian," Alpha Marcus’s voice boomed from the head table, sharp with a note of warning. The room had gone quiet. My father was standing up, his face pale with fury.

Killian didn't flinch. He didn't even look away from me. He leaned down, his lips brushing against the shell of my ear.

"Hiding doesn't suit you," he whispered, his breath hot against my skin. "I think I’d rather see you in the light."

He pulled away, giving me one last, lingering look that promised a thousand different kinds of trouble, before turning and walking back to the high table with a lazy, arrogant grace.

I stood there, my hand still trembling on the silver tray, the mark of his touch burning on my face. The rules were clear. But as I looked at the Alpha’s son, I knew the quiet life I had built in the shadows was over.