Chapter 1 The Cursed Omega

Ophelia's Pov

I woke up before the sun even thought about rising. I didn’t need an alarm. My stomach was already tight, waiting for the list of chores.

“Ophelia! Get up!” My stepmother, Amelia, yelled from the main house. Her voice was sharp, cutting through the quiet morning.

I stood up from my thin bed. My feet were cold on the floor. I pulled on the oldest clothes I had and hurried to the kitchen.

Amelia stood by the huge stove with her arms crossed. She didn’t look at me. “You’re slow today. The Alpha will be eating in an hour. If the coffee is cold, you will pay for it. Get to work fast and make it snappy, you stupid fool.”

“Yes, Stepmother,” I mumbled. I went straight to the coffee pot.

The day started like every other. I had to cook, scrub the floors, and polish. The pack members were already moving around the halls. When they saw me, they made sure I knew where I stood.

“Look at the Omega,” Beta Thomas’s younger sister, Lena, said as I carried a heavy bucket of dirty water past her. “Don’t spill that filthy water on the floor, Ophelia. It would probably blend right in with you.”

I kept my head down. I didn’t answer because silence was the rule.

“Such a weak wolf,” her friend whispered, loud enough for me to hear. “How has she even made it to eighteen? Cursed, I say.”

I tightened my grip on the handle. My hands hurt.

Later, I was sweeping the courtyard when Eve, my stepsister, walked by. She looked perfect, as always. She had long, flowing hair and always wore a smug look on her face. She was everyone's favorite.

“Ophelia,” she said, her tone dripping with fake concern. She paused right in front of my broom. “Do you think you’ll even show up at the ceremony tomorrow? It would be so embarrassing for you when you fail to shift. Imagine, a mate for you. Ewwww.”

I didn't answer her.

“I'm still trying to wonder how you are even alive to see your eighteenth birthday. You don't deserve to live. You don't even deserve the good things life has to offer.”

“Oh, really,” I replied, finally stopping what I was doing. “So, you are the one who deserves all the good things in life?”

“Watch your mouth, you weak omega. Don’t be rude,” she snapped. She pushed past me, knocking my shoulder hard. The dust from the broom scattered everywhere. “Now look at what you’ve done. Clean that up, and make sure the Alpha doesn’t see it. Make sure it's sparkling. He hates messy territory.”

She walked away, pleased with herself. I dropped the broom and felt the familiar burn behind my eyes. I just cleaned up the dust she made me spill.

I wanted to burst into tears but I held them back. This wasn't a perfect place for me to cry. I remember the day my life changed. I was only seven. My real mother was the only one who ever looked at me with love. She died of a fever the pack doctor couldn’t cure. A year later, my father brought Amelia and Eve into our house.

My father barely looked at me after that. I became the shadow.

My wolf, well, she was the biggest problem. Most young wolves start showing power early. Mine was weak with barely a whimper in the back of my mind.

I felt different from the others, like I was moving on a separate frequency. Sometimes, when I was completely alone, I would feel a strange energy buzz around me, an invisible pulse. I didn’t know what it was. It didn’t feel like wolf power, it felt older.

The other wolves noticed something was off, too. They didn’t know what, but they didn’t need to. They just called me cursed. It was an easier word than different.

Immediately, one date circled in my mind: The Moon Ceremony. It was tomorrow night and it turned out to be my eighteenth birthday.

It was the night the Moon Goddess revealed her pairings. The night a wolf’s destiny was sealed. I believed, with a desperate, stupid faith, that the Moon Goddess would give me a mate who would see past the dirt and the labels. A mate who would love me.

I imagined it constantly, being chosen, and ending up as a Luna. I would never have to cook another pack meal or scrub another floor. My mate would stand up for me. He would tell Amelia to stop screaming at me. He would take me far away from the Moon Pack. I could finally be free.

It was a ridiculous fantasy, but it was the only thing that made the hours of cleaning bearable.

After all my chores, I walked back to the servants’ quarters late that afternoon, feeling exhausted, when I saw the Seer. She was the oldest female in the pack, always wrapped in dark robes, and rarely spoke.

She was standing on the porch, looking straight at me. Her eyes were milky white and unsettling. Most wolves avoided her, but I couldn’t move.

She took a slow step forward.

“The moon watches you, child,” she whispered. Her voice was scratchy and dry. She didn’t smile. She didn’t look kind.

I stopped. “What do you mean?”

She leaned closer. “Your blood. It’s different. It smells old.”

I was confused. “I’m just an omega. How can my blood be different from the others?”

She shook her head slowly. “A mistake in the making. Your destiny is not here, Ophelia. It’s where the blood is forbidden.”

Then, she just walked inside, leaving me standing there. The hair stood up on my arms. I didn’t know what she meant by forbidden blood or mistake. Was she saying my weakness was a mistake? It made me uneasy.

---

It was the night before my eighteenth birthday and the ceremony. I was anticipating my birthday so much and I couldn't wait to know who my fated mate was. I was folding laundry in the hall.

“Look at her,” I heard a low voice hiss. It was one of the younger omegas. “She thinks she’ll get a mate tomorrow. She doesn’t deserve one.”

“She’s cursed. Whatever mate the Goddess gives her will reject her,” another omega whispered back.

The gossip didn’t hurt as much anymore. It was just background noise to me. I didn't allow any of those comments to weigh me down.

Then Annalise walked in. She was beautiful, arrogant, and Alpha Dominic’s current favorite. She wasn’t his fated mate, but she acted like his Luna.

She stopped right in front of me, holding a silk dress. “What are you doing, you dirty wolf?”

“Folding laundry, Annalise,” I replied quietly.

She smirked. “Thinking about tomorrow? Well maybe from tomorrow, you'll address me as Luna Annalise. Listen to me, Ophelia, you won’t get a mate. Dominic would never pick you. You’re mate-less trash. Save yourself the embarrassment and stay in your hole.”

“It’s not my choice,” I said, looking up. “The Goddess chooses. No one is greater than the Goddess.”

Annalise laughed, a sharp, unpleasant sound. “The Goddess has better things to do than bless garbage. You’ll be eighteen, unmated, and still a slave. Get out of my sight.”

I quickly grabbed the basket and walked away. The thought of facing the entire pack, only to be left unmated, made me feel sick.

I made it back to my room in the servants’ quarters. The moon was a sliver of white light in the sky. I knelt by the small window. I needed to pray.

I closed my eyes and focused on the only thing I felt connected to, which was the moon.

“Moon Goddess,” I whispered. My voice cracked. “I have done everything they asked. I have been silent. I have suffered. I have not asked for power. I have only asked for a home.”

Tears ran down my cheeks.

“Please,” I begged. “Let someone see me. Don’t let me be rejected and embarrassed in front of the whole pack. Don’t let me stay here. Give me a way out.”

I stayed there for a long time, letting the moonlight touch my face. I needed to believe. I had to. It was the only way I could walk into that ceremony tomorrow.

I stood up and walked towards my bed to sleep. I tried to sleep, but I was too nervous.

At midnight, the exact moment of my birthday, a shock of pure, white heat slammed into my chest. It wasn’t pain, it was power.

My eyes snapped open. The energy I sometimes felt around me was now inside me, surging. It felt like fire and ice at the same time. I gasped.

My weak, barely present wolf suddenly roared in my mind. It was a sound I had never heard from her. She sounded strong, demanding, and unmistakable.

The roar was instantly followed by a powerful, deeper voice that wasn’t mine, but was inside my head. It was a male voice, filled with both surprise and a fierce hunger.

“Mate…”