CHAPTER 2

Mooncrest Estate's silence was a heavy cloak, heavier than the stifling ceremonial robe. It had a smell of dust and forgotten memories, something comforting and terrifying at the same time. I ran my hand over the splintered wood of the staircase banister, the very same that I would slide down on as a child. My captivity was less a punishment than a return to a prison I'd broken away from long ago.

I walked to the grand room, where my parents, Calix and Lira, were painted above the chilly fireplace. My mom's eyes, identical to mine, glared back at me with defiance and sadness. I flopped onto a worn chaise lounge, the moonlit glow from the enormous window casting silver stripes across the ground. It was in this same room, years before, that the suffering had started. A chill coursed through my body, drawing me back to another day.

"Micah, wait up!" Ash's voice, a deep, authoritative one even back then, rang out down the corridors of Lunaris Academy.

I hid behind a pillar, book clutched against my chest. It was an old book of history, and I was trying to navigate my way to the Duskmire Library without being noticed. Being seen was always a risk. Being seen by them was a guarantee recipe for disaster.

Micah, my brother, walked over to stand in front of the four Alphas, a big smile on his face. A Beta, but powerful enough and loyal enough to be accepted as one of their own. They were his friends. And I was his sister. Something they enjoyed exploiting.

"Practice fields?" Micah asked, his voice loose.

Ash nodded, his gaze sweeping over the hallway. It was wolf sniffing its quarry. His eyes rested on me. I tried to disappear, but that didn't work. He had found me.

“Look what the wolf dragged in,” Zane Valez said, his signature smirk already in place. He was leaning against the wall, a picture of nonchalant cruelty. “Little Rhea Mooncrest, still clinging to those dusty books. What’s that you’re reading? ‘How to Get a Mate When No One Wants You’?”

The other two Alphas chuckled. Kai Wolfe stood next to Zane, quietly, his dark wise eyes observing. He didn't say a word, but his presence was as constricting as the others' verbal abuse. Blaze Draven, his fists already clenched at his waist, glared at me with raw contempt.

"Leave her alone, Zane," Micah replied, but his tone was far from sharp. He was torn even then, a Beta caught in the middle of his sister and his Alpha pack.

Don't worry, Micah," Ash said, walking towards me. "We're just being nice. Right, little Omega?" He took the book from me and flipped through its pages with a bored expression. "History of the Silverfang Pack. How exciting. Don't you have something better to study. you know, how to be a good Omega? Maybe some recipe book on cooking?"

My breath was stuck in my throat. "Give it back, Ash.".

He pretended to think about it, then shrugged, and with a careless flick of the wrist, knocked the book into a standing puddle of water from a dripping pipe. It splatted down with a pitiful sound. The pages instantly started to absorb the dirty water.

Blaze let out a big, raucous laugh. "Serves her right! Shouldn't have been in our way!"

“Now, Blaze,” Zane said, but there was no real reprimand in his voice. He winked at me. “Don’t worry, Rhea. I’m sure you’ll find another way to be useful.”

Micah's smile had vanished. "All right, that's it. Come on, boys." He shot me a quick, sorry look. He knew I was stung. But he also knew he couldn't beat them off without jeopardizing his place in the Alphas. He decided where he wanted to be. He always did. I stood there and let him walk away with them, their laughter echoing down the hall, leaving me with my waterlogged book and my pride wounded.

There was a sound in the big room that shook me out of my daydreaming. I sat up, heart pounding. The front door creaked open and shut. I knew without seeing who it was.

"Rhea." Micah's deeper, older voice, but with the same guilt, echoed in the doorway. He stood there holding a little, brown paper package.

"Wait here, in there," I was told. "Confinement." "What do you think you are doing here?" I said coldly.

He winced at the chill in my voice. "I brought food. Theon guards the estate, but they're not excluding me. yet." He placed the package on a side table. "Are you. are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I lied. "Just. revisiting some old memories. It's hard to do that when you're where you are now."

He dropped down on the floor in front of me, his knees bent. The moonlight emphasized the lines of weariness on his face. "I know what you're thinking about. I saw their faces. I saw their looks."

You saw how they fell," I amended. "But you did not see how they laughed at me a few years ago. You did not see what they did to me. And you never did anything to stop them.

His head dropped into his hands. "Rhea… I was such an idiot. I was so inexperienced. I was trying so hard to be one of them. To fit in. I was trying to be a Beta who wasn't the brother of the Omega.".

And you succeeded," I muttered resentfully. "You were friends with them. They admired you. But they treated me like dirt on their heel. Did it ever occur to you that maybe you shouldn't be best friends with people who treat your family like that?

"I know," he whispered, the rough whisper. "Theon. he told me. My position in society, the security of our family after Mother and Father died. all depended on my being accepted by the next leaders of the pack. I was trying to keep us safe. I was thinking that if I had them on our side, they wouldn't. wouldn't push it too far. I was wrong."

He finally looked at her, his eyes pleading. "Rhea, I'm sorry. I should have chosen you. I should have chosen us."

I felt a tear roll down my cheek. The dam of all those years of pain was finally breaking. "What's the point in choosing me now, Micah? After Theon paraded me around like a prize lamb, and they all crawled at my feet? And you stood there, helpless, as always."

"I am no longer helpless," he declared, his tone with resolve. "Theon thinks he has me cornered. He's already calling in the Council's authority to keep me away from you. He told me that the pack requires me to act as a diplomat between the Mooncrest name and the Alphas. To 'regulate' the situation. He wants me to appeal to them. To make them turn their backs on the bond."

My heart stopped. "Refuse the bond? Is that even possible?

"It's unprecedented," Micah conceded. "But Theon says the lunar bond can be overridden with a Council edict, if the Alphas are powerful enough to fight it. And they're being held now, too. To Alpha Row. Theon desires to break them. He desires to show the pack that he's in control. He desires to show them that Omegas like us can be ordered around."

He took a step closer towards me, his hand extended towards mine. "But I won't do it. I'll hold my ground. Theon is trying to turn you and them against me, but this time I have decided. I will protect you, Rhea. You are everything to me now. Theon wants to break you, but he has no idea what you are. He has no idea what your mother was."

A weak, genuine smile swept my lips. "He has no idea what my mother left me."

Micah's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"The lake house," I said, my voice a gentle whisper of a secret child. "Lira's Rest. Mother hid a journal there. She said it would guide me, if ever I truly needed it. I need it, Micah. And I need to get to where it is."

Micah looked at me, his eyes flicking between the portrait of our mother and the resolve in my eyes. "Theon will be keeping an eye on all of them. But… I'll help you. I'll try everything. This time, I won't be their friend."