A hush fell over the room. Guests exchanged glances, with tightened lips.
The silent judgment was deafening.
Poor Linda, they thought.
So gentle... so forgiving... what a pity
And then, without a single word, their cold, accusing eyes turned to Niora.
The silence was louder each gaze a blade slicing through her.
She didn't need them to speak. Their thoughts echoed in the stillness, louder than words ever could
"Ungrateful."
"Cruel."
"Monster."
Their stares burned into her skin, branding her with names she didn't deserve
Niora forced a smile as she turned to Linda.
"I hope we can all be a happy family," she said softly.
"Happy birthday, Linda."
She stepped aside, her smile lingering just long enough to seem genuine.
No one stopped her. No one noticed the way her hands trembled.
The celebration carried on laughter, music, clinking glasses as if she were never part of it.
The rest of the night blurred into a nightmare.Gifts meant for Niora were passed over to Linda, and family heirlooms that had been promised to her were now embracing a stranger.
"That was mine," she whispered to Mary, her voice cracked and small.
Mary's reply was cold. "You've had years of love, gifts, everything. Linda has had nothing."
A pause, quieter yet more cutting "We still love you. We're keeping you. Isn't that enough?"
Later, Lucias found her standing in a coner at her own birthday party. Relief washed over Niora at least someone still remembered her.
"Lucias, I don't… I don't understand," she said, voice trembling. "This can't be real."
His gaze, however, moved past her to Linda an icy current crawling up her spine.
"We need to talk," he murmured, guiding her into the garden.
Niora's heart thundered, maybe he's about to mark me…
She looked back at the party. Linda watched them, her smile sweet yet cold.
A shiver chased down her spine. Maybe I was just imagination things. She thought to her self.
The garden had once been Niora's sanctuary a place where sunlight danced through leaves and roses whispered her secrets. But tonight, under the moonlight sky, it felt like a graveyard. The roses planted for her sixteenth birthday, once symbols of promise love and warmth, seemed like liars blooming from poisoned soil. She stood among them, feeling like an intruder in her own memory.
"Lucias," she whispered, her voice trembling with desperation, "please… tell me this isn't real."
Tears streaked down her cheeks. Her voice cracked like fragile glass, desperate for reassurance. She needed him to laugh and say it was all a prank.
But he didn't.
He stood there, arms crossed, expression unreadable cold, distant, unrecognizable.
"It's not a mistake, Niora," he said, his tone like smooth stone. "Your parents found their real daughter."
Her breath caught. "But that means I'm not" her words died in her throat. "I'm not a Blackwood?"
"No," he answered softly. "You never were."
The world tilted beneath her.
"But if I'm not a Blackwood… who am I?"
"Does it matter?" he shrugged. "You're no longer pack royalty. That's all anyone cares about."
His dismissal hit her like a blow.
"What do you mean?" she challenged, her voice firm even while her heart cracked.
Lucias diverted his gaze, a faint, cruel smile on his lips. "Seems you're an omega or worse, wolfless."
The cruelty of the word slapped her hard. Omegas were the lowest rank nearly invisible, powerless treatedike slaves in the pack. And wolfless? that makes things even worse.
"No," she whispered, shock still ringing in her tone. "That can't be. My wolf…"
Yes it was now past midnight. She should have felt it by now an awakening, a shift or at least a flicker of her aura. But there was nothing. Just emptiness.
She murmured to the dark, "I'm… wolfless."
She tried to call her wolf, just as her mother had taught her. She focused, reaching deep into her core, willing a flicker of warmth… a whisper of fur, teeth, something.
But there was nothing. Just silence. Emptiness.
Her heart thudded harder, panic tightening her chest. She reached for Lucias, her fingers trembling.
"Lucias…" her voice broke. "This doesn't change us, right? We've been through so much..." She tryed riching for his hand1
He stepped back, dodged her hand as though her touch was venom.
"Stop being delusional."
The words hit her like a slap.
"You said you loved me!"
"I said what I had to," he snapped. "To secure the alliance with the Blackwoods."
The truth unraveled before her, slow and suffocating.
"Now that you're not one of them…"
It settled in her like poison spreading through her bloodstream. The Blackwoods were practically royalty they were like a pack on their own known for their ancient healing magic. Every alpha dreamed of forging an alliance with them to strengthen their bloodlines and elevate their pack's power.
He never loved. He had loved her status.
"You never loved me," she whispered, voice raw.
Lucias scoffed, his gaze raking her like an open wound.
"Love? Look at you. Scarred. Weak. Wolfless. Who in their right mind would want you as a Luna?"
Each word pierced deeper than the last.
"I was going to marry you, yes," he continued with venomous calm, "but only to fulfill our grandparents promise. After the wedding, I would've locked you away somewhere out of sight. I couldn't bear to look at you."
Her breath caught. Her knees almost gave out.
"You used to trace my scar…" she choked out, tears spilling. "You said it was beautiful."
His jaw clenched. For a fleeting heartbeat, something flickered in his eyes hesitation. Regret?
Then it vanished, swallowed by cold resolve.
"You honestly believe we still have a future?" he sneered.
"Linda is the true Blackwood heir. She's strong, brave, pure, beautiful, mesmerizing. Everything you're not."
Niora's voice dropped to a whisper, hollow and shaking.
"You're leaving me… for her?"