THESSALY POV
The soup was cold when it hit my head.
I gasped as chunks of potato and carrots slid down my face, soaking into my already-dirty shirt. The silver bowl clattered onto the marble floor I'd just spent three hours scrubbing on my hands and knees.
"Too slow, human." Luna Rowena stood over me, her perfectly manicured hand still raised from dumping her dinner on my head. "I asked for my floor cleaned an hour ago. You're completely useless."
My hands clenched into fists. Soapy water dripped from my fingertips. I kept my eyes down, staring at the puddle of soup spreading across the marble, ruining all my work.
"Sorry, Luna," I whispered through gritted teeth.
It was my twenty-second birthday. Not that anyone here cared.
Upstairs, music thumped through the ceiling. Laughter and cheering echoed down the grand staircase. The whole pack was celebrating the twin Alpha heirs, Caspian and Lucien Thorne. Tomorrow they'd officially become Silvercrest's leaders.
And me? I was scrubbing their floors. Same as every other day for the past seventeen years.
"Look at me when I speak to you," Rowena snapped.
I raised my eyes slowly. The Luna was beautiful in the way a snake is beautiful—smooth, cold, deadly. She smiled down at me, and I saw nothing but cruelty in that smile.
"Actually, I have wonderful news for you, Thessaly." She said my name like it tasted bad in her mouth. "Since you're turning twenty-two, you're officially an adult by pack law. No more temporary orphan status."
My heart started pounding. Something in her voice made my skin crawl.
"The Alpha and I have decided your permanent position." Rowena's smile widened. "You'll become a bound omega servant. That means you'll serve the Silvercrest Pack for the rest of your life. You'll never leave. You'll never be free. You belong to us now. Forever."
The world tilted sideways.
Forever.
I'd spent seventeen years in this pack, ever since my parents died when I was five. Seventeen years being the "charity case" human girl. The freak who couldn't shift into a wolf like everyone else. The servant who cleaned and cooked and took their insults and their cruelty because I had nowhere else to go.
I always told myself that someday I'd leave. Someday I'd be old enough to walk away and find my own life.
But Rowena just stole "someday" from me.
"Nothing to say?" Rowena tilted her head. "You should thank me. Most packs would've thrown out a useless human years ago. We're being incredibly generous, letting you stay and serve us."
Generous. Right.
My nails dug into my palms hard enough to hurt. Upstairs, someone turned the music louder. I heard Caspian's voice shouting something, followed by massive cheering. The golden twin princes, loved by everyone.
They'd made my life a nightmare since we were kids.
Caspian with his ice-cold insults and his cruel smirk. Lucien with his "jokes" that always left me humiliated. Their friends Dax and Kieran who joined in the bullying like it was a fun game.
And now I'd be their servant. Forever.
"Clean this mess up," Rowena said, gesturing at the soup. "Then report to my office. We'll do the binding ceremony tonight. I want it done before the celebration ends."
She walked away, her high heels clicking on the marble.
I knelt there in the puddle of cold soup, trembling.
Bound. Forever. No escape.
Something inside me cracked.
No.
NO.
I wasn't going to let them do this. I wasn't going to spend the rest of my life on my knees, scrubbing floors for people who treated me like garbage.
I stood up slowly. Soup dripped from my hair. My heart hammered against my ribs.
If I was going to escape, it had to be tonight. Right now.
But where could I go? I had no money. No family. No other pack would take in a random human girl.
Unless...
I remembered something I'd overheard once. Old omega wolves gossiping in the kitchen when they thought I wasn't listening. They talked about an ancient ritual at the abandoned Moon Goddess temple deep in the forest. A way to cut all ties to your pack. To become free.
It was dangerous. Maybe even deadly for someone who wasn't a wolf.
But anything was better than being bound to Silvercrest forever.
I ran.
Not to my tiny room in the servant quarters. Not to grab supplies or say goodbye to anyone. I just ran straight through the Alpha house, heading for the trophy room.
My wet shoes squeaked on the polished floors. Behind me, the party noise covered any sound I made.
The trophy room was dark and empty. Glass cases lined the walls, filled with ceremonial weapons from past Alphas. I grabbed a silver blade from the center case—old and heavy, with strange symbols carved into the handle.
An alarm didn't go off. No one shouted. I was invisible, like always.
I clutched the blade and ran out the back door into the night.
Rain started falling the moment I hit the tree line. Cold, heavy drops that soaked through my thin clothes in seconds. The forest was dark and terrifying, but I didn't slow down. I ran until my lungs burned and my legs felt like they'd collapse.
The Moon Goddess temple appeared through the trees like a ghost.
It was ancient, crumbling, covered in vines and moss. Stone steps led up to an altar under a half-broken roof. The whole place felt wrong. Powerful. Dangerous.
My hands shook as I climbed the steps.
Rain poured harder. Lightning flashed across the sky.
I stood before the altar, gripping the ceremonial blade with both hands. My whole body trembled—from cold, from fear, from rage at everything that had been done to me.
"I don't know if you're real," I said to the Moon Goddess, my voice breaking. "I don't know if you care about humans. But I can't do this anymore. I can't be their slave. I won't."
I pressed the blade against my palm.
"So either free me..." I sliced deep into my skin, gasping at the sharp pain. Blood welled up instantly, spilling over my fingers. "Or let me die trying!"
I slammed my bleeding hand down onto the altar.
My blood hit the ancient stone.
And the world exploded.
Lightning struck the altar with a sound like a bomb going off. White light blinded me. Power—raw, massive, ancient power—surged up from the stone and into my blood, racing through my veins like liquid fire.
I screamed.
My bones started breaking.
Pain like nothing I'd ever felt tore through my body. My spine arched backward. Something was happening to me, something impossible, something that hurt so badly I couldn't breathe—
And then I heard it.
A voice. Not from outside. From inside my own head.
Deep. Powerful. Female. FURIOUS.
"FINALLY. I thought you'd NEVER wake me up."
My wolf.
I had a WOLF.
But that was impossible. I was human. I'd always been human. Twenty-two years and I'd never shifted, never felt even a hint of a wolf inside me—
"You were SLEEPING, little queen," the voice growled. "But now you're AWAKE. And now... we're going to make them ALL pay."
My body convulsed. Fur erupted from my skin. My hands twisted into paws. Everything hurt, everything changed, everything broke apart and remade itself.
I was shifting.
For the first time in my life, I was shifting.
The last thing I saw before my vision went white with pain was my hand—covered in pure white fur that glowed like moonlight.
Then the transformation took me completely, and I stopped being human at all.