Semua Bab Marked By Fate: Bab 1 - Bab 7

Grin, grin, grin, grin.The alarm wouldn’t shut the hell up.I groaned and slapped around blindly, hand smacking the nightstand until I found the damn thing and hit it. Silence. Thank the Moon. My eyes were still closed, my body glued to the thin mattress like I could sink through it and vanish. I didn’t even need to look to know it was still dark outside—no one else in the world was up at this hour unless they had a death wish or, like me, they were cursed with omega duties in the Alpha’s house.Five in the morning. Every single day.No wolf. No rank. No future. Just me and the bottom of the pack, kissing dirt with a smile.I laid there for another minute, staring at the ceiling even though I couldn’t see it. The air was cold and stale. It smelled like wood and forgotten dreams—whatever that smells like. I could hear the quiet wheeze of the heater trying to work. It didn’t. It hasn’t in years.Whatever.I sat up slowly, every muscle in my back stiff from the rock-hard cot. My room wa

I just prayed—silently, desperately—that the teacher would walk in and give me something else to focus on.Not because I thought he’d protect me. That wasn’t his job, apparently.He’d seen me get cornered before. Heard the things they said. And he'd done nothing.But if he came in and started droning on about pack history or wolf law or whatever bullshit lecture he had planned today, maybe I could pretend, just for a little while, that I wasn’t here. That I was somewhere else.Anywhere else.I shifted in my seat, arms crossed tightly over my chest. My skin itched with sweat and bleach and embarrassment. I could smell myself—no one else probably noticed, but I did. I smelled like work. Like submission. Like omega.And that was blood in the water.Ava leaned backward from her desk in front of me, just enough to whisper over her shoulder, “You should sit outside, you know. You reek.”I stared down at the graffiti scratched into my desk. Someone had carved a wolf’s head there once, deep a

They laughed harder.A couple of them whispered my name with fake concern, others mimicked the way I stood, like I was some circus act. Ava’s snort cut through the chaos like a blade, and of course—of course—she stood up, all smooth grace and smug confidence.“The Alpha bond is the final element of legitimacy,” she said, like she was reciting from the godsdamned textbook. “A wolf without a mate cannot ascend the Alpha throne. Without that sacred bond, the leadership is considered unstable, unfulfilled, and vulnerable to challenge. That’s why tradition insists the Alpha be mated before coronation.”A beat of silence.Then applause.Actual applause.I wanted to sink into the floor.“Very good, Ava,” the teacher said, smiling like she’d just solved world hunger. “Thank you.”She gave a slight bow before sitting back down, shooting me a quick smirk over her shoulder. Victory, sealed.I sat back down slowly, resisting the urge to facepalm so hard I knocked myself out. Stupid. I hadn’t hear

My room was exactly how I’d left it. Small. Dim. Mine.The bed creaked as I dropped my bag onto it. I headed straight for the bathroom, already pulling my shirt over my head as I walked. Rhea had made herself at home on my mattress, sitting cross-legged with a piece of paper in her hands.“Look!” she said, holding up her drawing. “This is the T-Rex! I gave him fangs like a wolf.”I peeked from the bathroom door and grinned. “He’s terrifying. You’re getting too good at this.”“I know,” she beamed.While I showered, she kept talking—bouncing between her field trip stories, her opinion on cafeteria pizza (gross), and which classmate she thought might secretly be a witch.I listened. Mostly. Threw in a “yeah?” and “no way” when needed.She didn’t seem to notice—or didn’t care—that I was half-tuned in.She just wanted me there. That was enough.Dinner was quiet.Just the three of us at the table. Rhea chattered between bites, Lilian added in soft encouragement, and I stayed mostly silent,