2. Stella

Isabella POV

I turned around only to find Sloane, our severe head omega, boring holes into me with her gaze. The cold look in her eyes told me everything I needed to know: I was in deep trouble.

"Where is Beta Lyra’s breakfast?" she demanded, her voice cutting through the humid kitchen air like steel.

My eyes instinctively flicked to the floor. In the middle of my emotional breakdown earlier, I had carelessly left the silver tray resting right on the stone tiles.

"First you oversleep, and now you’re throwing a high ranking member's meal onto the ground," Sloane hissed, her disgust practically tangible.

"Alpha Kaelen will hear about this before the sun sets."

"No, please, don't," I choked out, a wave of pure dread washing over me. I knew exactly what kind of brutal punishment the Alpha handed down to insubordinate omegas. "It was an accident. I swear it won't happen again."

"I am entirely out of patience for your pathetic excuses, Isabella," she snapped. Before I could back away, her fingers wrapped tightly around my collar, dragging me forward.

"Please, just let me fix it!" I begged, stumbling blindly as she hauled me down the stone corridor.

"What is causing this disgusting racket?" a sharp, irritated voice echoed through the hallway.

𝖲𝗍𝖾𝗅𝗅𝖺.

Sloane immediately stopped, dropping her grip but keeping a watchful eye on me.

"It is Isabella, ma'am. She is completely useless, refuses to follow orders, and I caught her hoarding and stealing pack rations from the kitchen again."

Half of the accusations flying out of her mouth were blatant lies, but I kept my lips sealed. Denying it would only double my punishment.

"Stealing from the very pack that feeds you? You truly are a wretched creature," Stella sneered, stepping closer until her shadow completely engulfed me.

"I am so sorry... Mother," I whispered, shrinking back against the wall.

"Do not use that word to describe me. I am not your mother, and I never will be," she growled. In a flash of movement, she dug a sharp, extended claw directly under my jaw line. The stinging pressure made my entire face throb. "You are nothing but a broken, useless wolf."

With a vicious shove, she threw me away from her. My knees buckled, and I crashed violently onto the hard stone floor, a sharp ache radiating up my spine.

"Guards!" she summoned, her voice echoing down the corridors. Two heavily armored pack warriors materialized almost instantly.

"Take this parasite and lock her in the cells."

A violent shudder racked my frame. The last time I was locked in the dungeon was after Lyra laid her hands on me and I actually had the nerve to strike back. They left me in that pitch black hole for two days without a single drop of water or crumb of food.

"Please, Stella, don't do this," I whispered, hating how small my voice sounded.

"Now!" she barked at the executioners.

The warriors grabbed me roughly, lifting me off the ground as if I weighed nothing at all, and began the long march down to the packhouse depths.

With every step deeper into the sub levels, the temperature dropped, and my pulse hammered frantically against my ribs. A foolish, desperate part of me wished my father would appear at the top of the stairs to demand my release. But it was a dead dream. He didn't have a daughter anymore...he only had a political status to maintain.

The heavy iron door groaned open, and they threw me inside, the brutal impact against the concrete snapping me right back to reality.

As the darkness swallowed me whole, I pressed my back against the damp stone wall, wondering bitterly if this suffocating silence was actually better than the constant mockery and torment waiting for me upstairs.

But the silence didn't last.

The distinct, rhythmic click of heels echoed down the corridor, stopping right outside my cell. I tensed, my heart leaping into my throat.

"Unlock it," a sharp voice ordered the guard.

Lyra. They truly never missed an opportunity to break me.

The iron door swung wide, and she marched in, her face twisted in an ugly, furious scowl.

"You pathetic wench! How dare you barge into my private quarters? Because of your disgusting intrusion, Blaine left my room early!"

I stared up at her, an exhausted, numb feeling settling into my chest. Of course. This is about Blaine.

"You idiot, I am talking to you!" she shrieked, closing the distance between us. Without warning, her hand flew out, her sharpened claws leaving deep, burning lacerations across the side of my neck.

I flinched, the fiery pain causing me to stumble back into the shadows of the cell.

"Who do you think you are? You are just the spawn of a weak, miserable wolf," she spat, her words igniting a sudden, dangerous spark of rage deep inside me.

"Keep my mother's name out of your mouth," I retorted, the heat of my anger finally burning away my fear.

"Your mother isn't even half the female she was."

Lyra froze, her eyes instantly shifting to a volatile, glowing yellow as her wolf surged to the surface.

"What did you just say?"

I held her gaze, my blood boiling even though a logical voice in my head warned me I would pay dearly for this defiance.

"How dare you look down on her!" Lyra screamed. She lunged forward, grabbing me by the throat and lifting me entirely off the floor. Her grip tightened, cutting off my airway, but I bit my tongue, refusing to give her the satisfaction of hearing me choke.

"You are a wolfless disgrace who needs to learn her place."

She threw me hard against the floor and turned to the guard waiting in the threshold.

"Bring me the silver cuffs and a vial of liquid wolfsbane. It's time to teach this human a lesson she will carry to her grave."

Silver and wolfsbane. A cold dread pierced through my anger. Even without a wolf, high concentrations of silver and bane could cause severe chemical burns and systemic failure in my blood. If she used them on me in a closed cell, I might not survive the night. I needed to stall, to find a weakness to exploit.

I forced a breathless, mocking laugh from my throat.

"So the future Beta needs to rely on weapons and poison because she's too weak to handle a wolfless omega with her own hands?"

"Shut your mouth!" she shrieked.

"Am I striking a nerve, Lyra?" I pushed, fueling her volatile temper.

"The items you requested, Beta Lyra," the guard murmured, stepping into the cell with the agonizingly bright gleam of silver restraints.

"Drop them and get out, you idiot," she snapped at him.

She reached down to snatch the cuffs, but the moment her bare skin brushed the unshielded silver, she let out a sharp cry of pain, dropping them instantly. Her skin was already blistering, turning an angry, vibrant red.

"You are absolute fools!" she screamed, spinning around to face the guards. "Why didn't you bring me leather gloves?"

"Our apologies, Beta," one of the warriors muttered quickly. He stepped over my shaking form, lifting the burning heavy metal and violently locking the silver cuffs around my wrists. The agonizing heat of the silver immediately began to sear my flesh, and I ground my teeth together to keep from screaming.

"I am going to enjoy watching you break," Lyra whispered, a sadistic smirk returning to her face as she unscrewed the glass vial of wolfsbane.

She advanced on me, grabbing a fistful of my hair and yanking my head back before striking my cheek with her open hand.

"First, that's for violating my privacy."

Before I could even blink, her hand came down again, the blow rattling my teeth.

"Second, for having the audacity to speak back to me."

She struck me a third time, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth. "And third, for insulting my mother."

She raised the vial of poison, but I knew exactly what made Lyra insecure, and I was entirely done being her punching bag.

"You and Stella are exactly the same," I spat, wiping blood from my lip. "Thieves who take what belongs to others. She couldn't even wait a year after my mother died before sliding into my father's bed.

You are nothing but a bastard brought in to steal a lineage."

"Shut up!" Lyra roared, her voice vibrating with pure, unadulterated jealousy.

"Do you honestly think your father ever loved that female? He was with my mother long before your mother claimed they were fated. Don't blame us because your mother was too weak to keep her mate alive."

My fists clenched so hard my fingernails nearly pierced my palms.

"I wonder what Blaine would think if he saw you right now," I taunted, leaning forward despite the agonizing heat of the silver on my wrists.

"You look completely unhinged. Pathetic, really."

"I am going to end your miserable existence right here," she whispered, her predatory instincts completely taking over as her claws elongated into lethal points.

As she stepped into my space to strike a fatal blow, I subtly manipulated the angles of my wrists. Without a wolf's bulk, my bones were smaller, and the heavy silver cuffs slithered loose, dropping to the stone floor with a loud clang.

"You wretched bitch!" Lyra shrieked, completely losing her grip on her humanity as her large, brown wolf form surged forward to rip me apart.

Think fast. As her massive weight lunged through the air, I gathered every ounce of adrenaline flooding my system and threw my entire weight forward, shoving her mid air with everything I had left.

The force broke her momentum, sending her crashing heavily against the stone wall of the cell. The impact echoed through the small space.

Breathing heavily, I stood over her, my muscles tensing as reality crashed back in. I had just struck the future Beta of the pack while holding no rank at all. I was in deep trouble.