Chapter 5

Laurel McKinley stirred awake as the flight attendant’s voice cut through the cabin, announcing their arrival. Her eyelids fluttered open, heavy with the residue of sleep that had claimed her almost the moment the plane lifted off. The exhaustion from the ordeal at the ER had drained her body, and the medicine had dulled her senses. It was the kind of weariness that seeped into her bones because of the many nights spent fighting battles she could never win. Sleep had been her only refuge, and even that had felt constantly stolen.

Now, as the wheels touched the foreign country, she realised she had crossed more than just miles. She had crossed oceans into exile. She had entered the fragile hope of a life severed from the chains she had left behind.

Her thoughts drifted, unbidden, to the day she had dreaded most: her wedding day. Even before the vows, before the binding words, she had known it would be a prison disguised as ceremony. The night before, she had tossed and turned, her body restless, her mind clawing at the walls of inevitability. Only exhaustion had finally dragged her into sleep, and even then, it had been a shallow, uneasy surrender.

The memory of her father’s announcement burned in her chest. The Knight Clan Alpha had demanded their union, and her father, humble and sincere to his clan, had agreed, but for her it was not love, not choice, but just a transaction. Business collaboration disguised in the form of family, a lifeline for a company teetering on the edge of bankruptcy because of a certain backlog. Her father had called it salvation. Laurel had known it was a sacrifice she had made just to save her father’s reputation in the clan as well as calm down the chaos in the company.

She remembered the way he had spoken of the Knight family, reverent and fearful all at once. He had left their clan years ago to live among humans, but the Alpha’s shadow had never loosened its grip. Defiance was not an option. Even as a man who had once carried Beta’s authority, her father could not raise his voice against the Alpha who had once been his benefactor. And so, he had offered his daughter instead, binding her to a fate she had never chosen.

She was a mere Omega according to what they would call her in the werewolf world. She knew her background well and had zero interest in going back to the Knight Clan, as she was aware that the whole Knight Clan would look down on her Omega status, but she was not a weak girl in the human world.

Her father belonged to Knight Clan tribe where the head Alpha was Alpha Abbot Knight and his son was Noah Knight the future Alpha of the Knight Clan.

Mr Abbot Knight was a ruthless Alpha who was feared by his enemies but loved by his clan.

Her father was once a member of the Knight Clan, who were the most powerful pack in the werewolf world and were feared and envied by many. The Knight Clan owed its name because of their strong Alpha heritage, but the true meaning of 'knight' was how they fought against their enemies and overcame them and became a great nation, and they were led by the great Alpha Abbot Knight, a man whose words were the final declaration in everything that went around the tribe. His voice could make a room full of people tremble. There were no negotiations with Alpha Abbot and no mercy for his enemies, those who tried to test him in war or went against him.

His son, Noah Knight, had inherited his father’s features and his dark and unfathomable looks. At that time he was not yet ready to take his father place as he was still in the making progress but there were talks among the tribes that Ralph, the future Alpha, had the look of a leader but not yet ready to lead the clan as he had many short coming and people feared that he would not become a good leader and at that time Alpha Abbot was in command and he was expanding his business around the world and that is why he came looking for his ex- second in command Beta Richard McKinley her father.

Her father was a warrior from a powerful clan and was always hunted by his enemies when fate led him to London, and that’s where he met her mother. Her mother, Louise, was the only daughter of an aristocratic family torn apart by greed and rivalry in the family. When she rescued him, she never imagined that act of compassion would ignite a love strong enough to defy centuries of werewolf tradition.

But Louise’s family had other plans. Pressured to marry a man chosen by her relatives, she faced betrayal from within her own bloodline. While he was still recovering from his accident at her mother’s residence, her father overheard their schemes and stormed into the room and declared that he and Louise were secretly engaged. Her mother was shocked, but she accepted his claim, knowing it was the only way to protect her.

What began as a desperate lie to protect her mother became a union that scandalized her entire family and enraged the Werewolf Clan he left behind, and the price of him marrying a human was to give his title away and leave his clan. Their love was both a shield and a weapon, binding them together against enemies who would never forgive their defiance.

Now, as their only daughter, she had inherited that legacy. Born of forbidden love, she carries the weight of two bloodlines and the danger of enemies who never wanted her to exist.

She had been intimately acquainted with her own history for as long as she could remember, as if it had seeped into her very bones. The history of her family, especially the way it orbited around the famous Knight clan, was a topic her father never seemed able to let go. Some nights, after too many hours spent staring at the refrigerator light, he would talk to Laura until dawn about the old days and the old loyalties, the sense of duty that did not dissolve with time or even with exile. Though her father had given up his clan and made a place among humans, the Knight name still loomed around their house as if it were a curse and a destiny rolled into one.

“Laura, honey, check out the news from the Knight Clan; Alpha Abbot has captured the barbarians.”

“Oh, great, little Noah has been enrolled in a foreign university.”

"Little Noah is back to his Knight Clan.”

“Alpha Abbot must be proud of his successor.”

“Alpha Abbot was attacked in broad daylight. Honey, I need to go and visit him.”

“Little Noah has all grown up; now he is taking care of his father.”

“Little Noah is expanding his business outside the capital. What a hardworking kid.”

And he would go on and on at home like a radio broadcaster on a daily basis, and she and her mother were so used to it that they would sigh at his longings, but they knew he would never leave them.

He could never truly leave that world behind. Laura observed his expressions every time he spoke about his clan. The way he still checked the moon as for a werewolf moon was that their center of the universe was the moon. He would also check the werewolf newsletter for any kind of problems relating to his clan. At first, she thought that her father was making her aware of his roots, but later he realized that her father had never let go of his desire to go back to his beloved Clan; it was her and her mother who were holding him back.

Her mother, Sara, had always encouraged her dad to visit his clan whenever he was free, and that was enough for her father. Once he had told them very strictly that he would never leave them no matter what happens.

He was powerless to defy his Alpha, though he was more powerful in the human world.

She, in contrast, had always considered herself biologically disinherited. In the world of werewolves, there was no insult more degrading than “Omega,” a word that implied not only a body but also a woman with no power. The label had followed her like a shadow at school, even among humans who could not possibly sense her difference.