Celeste POV
My perfectly manicured nails dug into my hands as I watched my entire future walk away with that pathetic omega.
This couldn't be happening. This wasn't meant to happen.
I had planned everything so carefully. The kitchen fire this morning was just the beginning - a way to make Iris look careless and unfit. Then the ceremony would happen, she'd be paired with some weak omega boy, and tomorrow I would be revealed as Kieran's chosen mate.
Instead, the Moon Goddess had seemingly lost her mind.
"This is impossible," I hissed to my best friend Sarah as the crowd slowly left the wedding hall. "Multiple mate ties don't exist. They're fairy tales."
"But we all saw it," Sarah whispered back, her eyes wide with shock. "Those golden threads were real, Celeste. The Alpha kids all felt it."
I wanted to slap her for stating the obvious, but I needed friends right now, not enemies.
"It's dark magic," I said strongly. "It has to be. That little omega somehow tricked them with witchcraft."
But even as I said it, doubt came into my mind. I had felt the power in that room when the links formed. It had made my skin tingle and my wolf whimper with submission. That kind of magic was beyond anything a simple omega could do.
Unless she wasn't a simple omega at all.
I thought back to this morning, when I had snuck into the kitchen storage room after Iris left. I had been so careful, using a long stick to tip over the lights near the grain sacks. The perfect mistake that would make her look incompetent on her birthday.
But what if she hadn't been the real target? What if someone wanted to flush her out, force her to show her powers?
The thought made my blood run cold.
"I need to talk to my father," I stated, grabbing Sarah's arm. "Come with me."
We hurried through the pack house hallways toward the Beta's office. Other pack members were gathering in small groups, whispering about what had happened. I caught fragments of their talks as we passed.
"...never seen anything like it..."
"...prophecy coming true..."
"...Silver Wolf bloodline..."
Silver Wolf. I knew that term from somewhere, hidden in old lessons about pack history that I'd barely paid attention to. Something about ancient bloodlines and special skills.
I burst through my father's office door without knocking. Beta Marcus looked up from his desk, his face grim.
"Celeste, we need to talk," he said before I could speak.
"Daddy, you have to do something," I started, but he held up his hand to stop me.
"Sit down," he ordered in his Beta voice, the one that made my wolf automatically obey.
I sat, but I was quivering with angry energy. Sarah hovered by the door, looking nervous.
"The mate bonds are real," Father said bluntly. "I can feel the pack's energy shifting to fit them. This isn't magic or tricks. It's divine will."
"Divine will?" I laughed bitterly. "The Moon Goddess wouldn't choose some nobody omega over me. I'm Beta-born. I've trained my whole life to be Luna."
"And perhaps that training will serve you well when you find your true mate," Father said gently.
My true mate. Like I cared about some random wolf when I could have been mated to the future Alpha. When I should have been the most powerful girl in the pack.
"There has to be something we can do," I urged. "Some way to break the bonds or prove they're fake."
Father's face darkened. "Celeste, you need to listen very carefully. Iris Moon is not who we thought she was. Her bloodline goes back to the Silver Wolves, the most powerful werewolf family in our past. If she's truly awakening to those skills..."
"She's nobody," I interrupted. "She's been a kitchen servant for years."
"Hidden," Father amended. "Protected. And now that she's been exposed, very dangerous people are going to come looking for her."
As if called by his words, a messenger burst through the office door. The young fighter was breathing hard like he'd run all the way from the border.
"Beta Marcus," he gasped. "Alpha Damon needs you immediately. We've got movement on the north border. Large pack of rogues going straight for us."
My father stood up quickly. "How many?"
"At least fifty, sir. Maybe more. They're being led by..." the messenger swallowed hard. "They're being led by Viktor Shadowmoon."
The name hit the room like a lightning bolt. Even I knew that name from the scary stories moms told their pups. Viktor Shadowmoon, the rogue Alpha who had tried to take over pack areas across the country before disappearing twenty years ago.
"Why would he come here now?" Sarah whispered.
But I was putting pieces together in my mind, and I didn't like the picture they made.
"He's coming for her," I said quietly. "For Iris. That's why she was hidden all these years. That's why the ties formed today."
Father nodded grimly. "Viktor Shadowmoon has been hunting the Silver Wolf family for decades. He thinks that mating with a Silver Wolf will give him the power to control all werewolf packs."
The messenger cleared his throat nervously. "There's more, sir. We intercepted one of their scout texts. They know about the awakening rite. They know the Silver Wolf has been found."
My world tilted sideways as the truth hit me like a physical blow.
The kitchen fire this morning. The timing was too perfect. Someone had been watching, waiting for Iris to show her powers. And I had played right into their hands by creating the chaos that caused the early ceremony.
"Oh no," I whispered, fear washing over me. "Oh no, oh no, oh no."
"What is it?" Father demanded.
"The fire," I choked out. "I started the kitchen fire to make Iris look bad. But what if... what if someone asked me to do that? What if they needed a reason to move the service earlier?"
Father's face went white as he understood. "You were tricked. Someone used your jealousy to flush out the Silver Wolf before she was ready." The room spun around me. I had been so focused on killing Iris that I had led the most dangerous rogue Alpha in the country straight to her.
And right to my pack.
The messenger's radio crackled to life. " All units to battle posts. Enemy troops approaching fast. Estimated arrival in two hours."
Two hours. Viktor Shadowmoon would be here in two hours, and it was all my fault.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was what Father said next, his voice hollow with dread: "Celeste, there's something else you need to know. Something about why Viktor wants the Silver Wolf so badly." He paused, his hands shaking. "Iris isn't just any Silver Wolf descendant. According to the old family records... she's his granddaughter."
The world exploded into chaos around me, but all I could think was one terrible thought: I had just given the most powerful rogue Alpha in history his own granddaughter on a silver platter.
And now he was coming to collect her.