Chapter 2

VERALIN

The word didn’t make sense at first.

Heiress? I mean the next alpha was me?

Laughter died as the crowd shifted like a single entity, moving towards my direction.

Confusion and anger were written on most of their faces.

Even the sky turned heavy like a storm was about to break.

"What?"

My voice came out too small and broken, like the girl who used to hide in the closet.

"That's a mistake"

"It's not," he replied calmly, his eyes fixed on me.

“Alpha Mende amended the will three days before his death. Witnessed and sealed. You are his legal heir, Miss Veralin Mende.”

The crowd surged, their job was just to be spectators.

"LIAR"

Stepmom roared as she was pacing closer, shoving through the bouncers, her face twisted.

“You’re trying to steal what belongs to Drelia! She’s the legitimate daughter! The pack chose her!”

Drelia was already moving, eyes wild, chest heaving.

“Mom, get her away from him! She’ll ruin everything! She’ll sell the pack to the council!"

Two elders walked forward, their robes heavy with silver chains.

Elder Karr, who’d taught me to read the old laws. Elder Voss, who’d spat at my feet last winter.

“This is impossible,” Karr said, his voice shaking from fury.

“The girl is an omega. Unmated. Rejected. The bloodline requires strength. The pack requires an alpha.”

Great. My history of being rejected thrice had surfaced.

I wistfully stared at them, made downgrading comments on me, yet I couldn't even defend myself.

Voss nodded, his voice felt like a thorn. “The late alpha was weak in the end. This is his final insult to us.”

Hands grappled me, roughly and I whimpered.

It was stepmom fingers digging into my upper arm, to worsen the previous pain from broken glasses.

“Reject it,” she screeched in my ear. “Say the words now, before the pack sees you as a threat. Reject it, or I’ll make sure you disappear before dawn.”

My knees buckled.

The press was filming, ready for the tea.

Drelia’s eyes promised violence. Cade stood behind them, jaw tight, saying nothing. But his gaze said "do it".

Reject it. Go back to your desk. Go back to being safe, invisible, alive.

The thought was safe. Familiar. I’d spent 18 years learning how to make myself small.

But Urei’s voice interrupted, quite calculative and cautious.

“If you reject it now, it’s final. You’ll never get it back. And they’ll make sure you regret it.”

My wolf whimpered. Not from fear. From something worse.

Hope.

I looked at Drelia. She smiled when she thought I was broken.

At Cade. At the man who’d told me I was cursed every night for four years.

At the elders who’d rather see the pack burn than let an omega sit the throne.

And I realized something. I was already dead to them.

So what did I have to lose?

I wrenched my arm from Stepmom’s grip. Blood welled where her nails broke skin.

Shunning the sting, I declared;

“I accept,”

At first, I doubted if they heard as everything froze.

Drelia's mouth dropped, elder karr took a step back like I'd struck him.

“You can’t—” Stepmom started.

“I just did,” I cut off firmly even though there was a bit of fear in me.

The silence that followed was more inflamed than the screaming.

Urei moved closer, his expression was unreadable but his eyes were smiling as he opened the folder again.

“There is a clause,” he said, putting on his glasses. “If you do not present a bonded alpha as your consort within thirty days, the title reverts. Automatically. Irrevocably.”

The perfect timing for chaos.

“You can’t expect her to find an alpha in thirty days!”

“She’s rejected! No alpha would touch her!”

“It’s a death sentence!”

Drelia had recovered as she burst into laughter.

“Thirty days?” She stepped in front of me, close enough that I could smell her perfume over the blood on my arm.

“You have thirty days to beg on your knees for some stray alpha to ruin himself for you. And when you fail?”

She leaned in. Her voice changed to a whisper only I could hear.

“I’ll be the one signing your exile papers. Or worse.”

The crowd laughed with her. Spectators of course.

Cade finally spoke. His voice was cold, conniving.

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Veralin. You don’t have the strength for this.”

I met his eyes, this time not flinching but more bolder than the former.

“Then watch me.”

Elder Karr studied me like I was a problem he hadn’t accounted for.

“An omega cannot hold a pack without an alpha,” he reprimanded like a reminder “The laws are clear. Thirty days, girl. Fail, and we strip you of everything. Name. Blood. Life.”

My hands trembled as my breath hitched.

Thirty days.

To find an alpha who wouldn’t kill me for the title.

To find an alpha who wouldn’t use me and throw me away.

Urei drew closer to me again, holding out a sealed envelope. Wax is still warm.

“The alpha left you one more thing.”

I didn’t take it.

“Why me? Why now?”

Urei’s eyes moved to the crowd, to the hatred aimed at me.

“Because he knew you’d say yes.” he pressed on, beckoning me to take it.

Behind me, Drelia’s laughter hadn’t stopped as she was making jokes of me in front of everyone.

Cade, who was adjacent to me, certainly wanted an audience with me and stepmom, she was reeled in anger, claiming the council will cancel me.

In front of me, the envelope felt like a ticking bomb.

I didn’t reach for it.

Not yet.

But for the first time in my life, I didn't feel like running.

He placed it in my hand as I began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" I heard his voice while the bouncers cleared the media team from me.

"To think" I responded still puzzled as nothing was adding up yet.

He hated me, so why would he choose me?

"You better think it through and refuse it if you want to live"

I had reached the sedan car I borrowed from a colleague before turning to reply to my stepsister.

"I'm not dying, not today, drelia"

"Says the girl who's entering her coffin!"

I jumped inside the car before she'd reach me and slammed the door at her face.

Her hands were banging on the window and if she hadn't stepped aside, the car tyres would have crushed her legs because I'd ignited the engines to drive off.

As soon as I hit the road, I began to breathe, back there I was suffocated.

My mind was a blur, I was overwhelmed. I had gone miles before I noticed something.

In my car, the brakes weren’t working. It was tampered with. Adding to it, I was driving recklessly.

Fear swallowed me, as I cringed out, recalling Drelia’s last words.

Says the girl who’s entering her own coffin!

My grip on the steering wheel tightened as tears began to stream down my eyes.

How swift were they to tamper with the car?

I slammed my foot on the brake again. Nothing. The pedal went limp under my boot.

“Stop! Stop!” I hissed, yanking the handbrake. It shrieked, but the car only slowed a fraction before lurching forward faster.

The road curved ahead, guardrail gone, and the pavement edge loomed like a drop into nothing.

I wrenched the wheel, tires screeching, smoke burned my eyes.

For a moment, it felt like I’d made it.

Then the front bumper kissed the pavement, and I lost balance.