Chapter 1 - The Broken Omega

The night I turned sixteen, the moon was bright enough to expose flaw and mercilessness. It hung above the Moonfall clearing like a silent judge, silver light spilling over the trees and onto the gathered pack members below.

I remember standing in the center of the teenagers of the moon fall pack, my heart pounding so loudly I was sure everyone could hear it. The air smelled of Pine and anticipation, laughter echoed through the trees. Tonight was the night . The night every child of the pack waited for. The night we would meet the other half of ourselves. Parents stood proudly at the edge of the clearing, waiting patiently to witness their children’s first shit. I stood in the center of the clearing with the other sixteen year olds, my hands trembling at my sides. Around me parents whispered encouragement to their children. I have learned not to look at familiar faces in crowds. My father was long gone and executed as a traitor before I could fully understand what betrayal meant. My mother had disappeared soon after, swallowed by rumors and silence. So I stood alone under the full moon, pretending I didn’t notice the empty space where my family should have been me

The moon Goddess was supposed to bless us at sixteen. Bones would crack, skin would split, fur would rise. And for the first time, we would meet the other half of our souls.

I waited for my wolf.

Around me, my peers began to tremble. Gasps filled the clearing. Their cries filled the night half agony, half triumph. Wolves burst into existence, howling proudly beneath the silver sky. The pack erupted in applause and cheers. I felt… nothing. No heat, no tearing bones. Just cold. I told myself it was delayed. That maybe I was simply different, my breathing grew shallow as the last of the teenagers shifted successfully. Wolves ran in circles, nudging their parents, basking in praise.

I was still standing there, still human.

The whisper began

“She hasn’t shifted. ”

“Is she scared?”

“Maybe it's delayed.”

I swallowed hard and lifted my face towards the moon. Surely it hadn’t forgotten me, surely I wasn’t invisible even to the Goddess who ruled us. I kept waiting. Hours passed, the moon climbed higher nothing happened.

The laughter grew distant. The Alpha finally approached me, his expression unreadable.

“Sometimess,” he said carefully, loud enough for the remaining onlookers to hear, “the Moon Goddess tests patience.” But there was doubt in his eyes.

That was the first night I understood what it meant to be alone. I walked back to my small hurt alone that night. No wolf waited inside my mind, no second heartbeat echoed in my chest. Only silence.

“Broken Omega,” Lyra Moonfall had called me earlier that day, laughing with her friends. “Even the Moon Goddess rejected me .”

The next morning, they began calling me wolfless.

By the end of the week, they had a new name.

BROKEN OMEGA.