1: The Spare

Fern

I was born wrong.

Not twisted or sickly or weak, just wrong in the way that matters most to an Alpha who wanted a son.

For months before my birth, the pack celebrated me as a boy. They called me the heir before I ever drew breath. My name was spoken with pride in council chambers and training yards. I was meant to be the son who would carry my father’s legacy, the male who would secure our bloodline and lead our pack into the next generation.

Leo, the Alpha of our pack, wanted a boy.

Desperately.

So when I was born, and the midwife announced “It’s a girl,” the story of my life ended before it ever truly began.

They still named me Fern. My mother, Iris, insisted on that much. She said it softly, like an apology, like something she was afraid would be taken away if she spoke too loudly. Fern.  Just like the plant, small, green, and forgettable. Something that grows in the shade of stronger things.

I never lived in the Alpha wing. Not really.

I was sent to the Omega quarters before I could walk. The excuse was practical enough that no one questioned it.

“The Alpha household is busy. The child will be better cared for there.”

What they meant was that I was no longer worth the space I occupied. So, the Omegas raised me.

They taught me the only things they knew.  They taught me how to scrub stone floors without scratching them, how to fold linens tight enough to pass inspection, how to keep my head down and my voice softer than my footsteps. They fed me when they could, wrapped me in spare blankets when winters grew cruel, and taught me early that survival depended on usefulness.

I learned quickly.  I learned how to work and how to please the people who were supposed to be my family.

By the time I was ten, I was expected to earn my keep like any other Omega. By fifteen, I was indistinguishable from them in everything but blood. And blood, it turns out, doesn’t matter much when you’re a disappointment.

I never got my wolf.

Most children shift between twelve and fourteen. There are signs before it happens: restlessness, heat beneath the skin, heightened senses. I waited for them like a prayer, but they never came.

The pack healer examined me twice a year until I was sixteen. After that, even curiosity faded. The verdict was always the same. 

At my last visit, my father stood outside the door, waiting for the answer. 

“Some are simply born without the blessing,” the doctor told him, and my father walked away.

I had no wolf, no rank, and no future. 

Grace, my older sister, shifted early. Her wolf was strong, silver-furred, and beautiful. She was everything I wasn’t, everything I was meant to be, just packaged correctly. She trained with the warriors, dined with our father, and walked the pack grounds with the confidence of someone who had never been forgotten.

I watched from the edges.  I always do, and this morning is no different.

I rise before dawn, long before the Alpha household stirs. The Omegas are already awake, moving quietly through the halls. I tie my hair back, pull on a simple dress, and start my chores without being asked.

Stone floors first. Then the kitchens. Then I haul the laundry from the Alpha wing, Grace’s clothes included. They are soft fabrics, well cared for, not like the rags that I receive. I fold them carefully anyway. I always do my work well. It’s safer that way.

No one thanks me.  No one ever does.

By the time the sun crests the trees, my hands ache, and my back burns, but I don’t slow. I finish scrubbing the last stair just as voices begin to rise in the Alpha corridor.

That’s when I know.

Council day.  How could I have forgotten.

I rinse my hands, dry them on my apron, and move to leave, until I hear my father’s voice through the thick oak door of his office.

Just like always, he sounds calm, controlled, and authoritative.  But there is an edge to his voice that pulls me closer to his office. 

“…the alliance is necessary,” Leo is saying. “Blackmoor has been pressing our borders for months.”

Another voice responds, one of the elders, by the sound of it. “And the terms?”

There’s a pause. The kind that stretches just long enough to matter.

“The second daughter will suffice.”

My steps slow as I stop in front of the office door. 

I shouldn’t stop. I know better than that. Eavesdropping is dangerous, even for someone like me, especially for someone like me. But my feet won’t move. My body goes still, like it’s bracing for a blow it already knows is coming.

“She’s unbonded,” the elder says carefully. “And wolfless.”

“That makes her ideal,” my father replies. “No complications. No divided loyalties.”

There is no resistance. No argument on my behalf.  Just agreement.

I press my palm against the wall to steady myself. The stone is cold, grounding. Familiar. I’ve scrubbed this corridor so many times I could map every crack with my eyes closed.

Inside the office, they keep talking. Logistics. Borders. Trade. War avoided with the exchange of something expendable.

Of someone expendable.

They don’t say my name.  They never do.

A strange warmth blooms beneath my skin, sharp and sudden, high on my thigh where the scar has always been. I suck in a breath, fingers curling into my apron. It’s never hurt before, not like this. The sensation is brief but intense, like a warning flare burning out too quickly to understand.

I swallow and force myself to breathe.

Whatever they’re planning, it’s already decided. I’ve lived long enough in this pack to recognize inevitability when I hear it.

I step back from the door just as it opens.

Alpha Leo emerges, tall and immovable as ever. His gaze flicks to me, assessing and distant. He doesn’t look surprised or concerned.

Just… done.

“Fern,” he says, as if tasting the name costs him something. “Come inside.”

The council is waiting, and I already know that I am no longer meant to stay.