ZARA'S POV
The air in the room felt electric, like right before lightning strikes.
Every wolf around me went completely still. Their heads turned toward me and Garrett, noses lifting to catch the scent that was impossible to miss.
The mate bond.
It smelled like destiny—like moonlight and magic and two souls recognizing each other across time itself.
An older woman near me gasped. "The Alpha heir's mate bond... it's activating."
Whispers erupted everywhere.
"Who is she?"
"Is that the Reed's Omega?"
"No way. That can't be right."
But it was right. I felt it in every cell of my body. This perfect, powerful man staring at me with those ice-blue eyes was mine. The Moon Goddess herself had chosen us for each other.
Garrett took a step toward me.
My heart exploded with hope. He was coming to me. He felt it too. He had to.
Another step. Then another.
The crowd moved aside for him like water parting. Nobody would dare stand in an Alpha's way, especially not when his mate bond was pulling him forward.
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. All I could do was stand there and watch the most handsome man I'd ever seen walk straight toward me.
This was really happening.
After eighteen years of hell, after all the beatings and the hunger and sleeping in that tiny cupboard, the Moon Goddess was finally rewarding me.
My wolf was singing inside me, so happy she could barely contain it.
Mate! Mate! He's coming for us!
Garrett stopped right in front of me. Up close, he was even more perfect. Tall and strong with broad shoulders. His face looked like it was carved from stone—sharp jaw, straight nose, and those eyes that seemed to see right through me.
"You," he breathed.
I nodded, not trusting my voice. Tears were already forming in my eyes. Happy tears this time, not the sad ones I usually cried.
He lifted his hand, and for one beautiful second, I thought he was going to touch my face. Touch me gently, the way nobody had in eighteen years.
Then his hand stopped mid-air.
His nose wrinkled.
"Omega," he said. Not a question. A statement. An accusation.
My stomach dropped.
"I... yes," I whispered. "But the bond—"
"Is a mistake," he finished, his voice turning cold. "It has to be."
Around us, the whispers got louder.
"The Alpha heir can't be mated to an Omega!"
"She's the Reed family's servant girl."
"This is embarrassing."
Each word hit me like a physical blow. I wanted to disappear. To sink through the floor and never come back.
But my wolf wouldn't let me run. She was still focused on Garrett, still believing he would accept us.
Tell him, she urged. Tell him we're meant to be together.
"The Moon Goddess chose us," I said, my voice shaking. "I feel it. I know you feel it too. The bond is real."
For just a second—one tiny second—something flickered in Garrett's eyes. Recognition. Maybe even longing.
Then it vanished.
"I don't care what the Moon Goddess thinks," he said loudly, making sure everyone could hear. "I will not be tied to an Omega. Especially not one like you."
One like me. Weak. Worthless. Nothing.
The words I'd heard my whole life, now coming from the one person who was supposed to see my worth.
My legs started shaking. "Please," I whispered. "Just give me a chance. Get to know me. The bond—"
"Will be rejected," a new voice said.
I turned to see Marcus pushing through the crowd, his face red with anger. Helena was right behind him, looking furious that I'd escaped her.
But worse—so much worse—was Clarissa.
She glided up next to Garrett like she belonged there. Her golden dress sparkled. Her perfect blonde hair shined. Her smile was pure poison.
"Poor little Zara," she cooed, her voice dripping with fake sympathy. "Did you really think someone like Garrett would want someone like you?"
She turned to Garrett and touched his arm. I watched his muscles tense under her fingers, but he didn't pull away.
"You can't possibly accept this bond," Clarissa continued. "Look at her. She's weak. Probably diseased from living in that cupboard. And she stinks like cleaning products."
Laughter rippled through the crowd.
My face burned with shame. I did smell like cleaning products. I'd been scrubbing floors all day.
"Clarissa's right," Marcus announced, playing to the crowd. "This bond is clearly defective. Garrett Kane, as Alpha heir, you have every right to reject it."
"No!" The word burst out of me before I could stop it. "You can't. The mate bond is sacred. It's a gift from the Moon Goddess herself."
Helena stepped forward and slapped me hard across the face.
The crack echoed through the silent hall. My head snapped to the side, my cheek exploding with pain.
"Don't you dare speak to your betters that way," Helena hissed.
I touched my burning cheek, tasting blood in my mouth. But I didn't back down. This was my mate. My one chance at happiness. I had to fight for it.
"Garrett, please," I begged, hating how desperate I sounded but unable to stop. "Just talk to me. Give us five minutes alone. Let me explain—"
"There's nothing to explain," Garrett interrupted. His voice was flat, emotionless, like I meant nothing to him. "I've already made my choice."
He turned to Clarissa and took her hand.
No. No, this couldn't be happening.
"I choose Clarissa Reed as my mate," Garrett announced to the crowd. "She's beautiful, strong, and from a good family. Everything a future Alpha needs."
Clarissa beamed up at him like she'd won the lottery.
And maybe she had. She was getting everything I'd dreamed of.
My wolf howled in agony inside me. The bond was pulling so hard it hurt, trying to drag us toward Garrett even as he chose someone else.
"As for you," Garrett turned back to me, his blue eyes cold as ice, "I, Garrett Kane, future Alpha of the Shadowmere Pack, officially reject—"
"Wait!" a voice shouted from the back of the crowd.
Everyone turned.
An old woman I'd never seen before pushed through the wolves. She wore strange clothes and carried a wooden staff. Her eyes—one blue, one green—locked onto me.
"Stop the rejection," she commanded. "That girl is not what you think she is."
Garrett frowned. "Excuse me? Who are you?"
The old woman ignored him. She walked straight up to me and grabbed my chin, tilting my head to examine my face.
"Brown eyes," she muttered. "But I smell... violet underneath. And this hair..."
She pulled off my brown contact lens before I could stop her.
My real eye color flashed—violet, glowing bright in the light.
The entire crowd gasped.
"Impossible," Marcus breathed, his face going white.
The old woman smiled and pulled out a strand of my hair. Where she touched it, the brown dye seemed to melt away, revealing silver-white underneath.
"Not a
n Omega at all," she announced to the stunned crowd. "This girl has Royal blood."