"Mate."
The word hit me like a gunshot.
The entire pack hall fell silent.
Hundreds of wolves.
One word.
And it was directed at me.
My stomach dropped.
This had to be a mistake.
I was nobody.
No wolf.
No rank.
Just the pack's weakest servant.
Slowly, I turned around.
And there he was.
Alpha Kael.
Tall. Broad shoulders. Dark hair falling slightly over cold silver eyes that had never once looked at me before.
Until now.
His jaw tightened as if he was fighting something inside him.
"No," I whispered.
Gasps spread across the hall.
An omega does not reject an Alpha.
But I wasn't even an omega.
I was human.
Or at least… that's what everyone believed.
Kael stepped forward.
One step.
The air grew heavy.
Two steps.
My heartbeat went wild.
Three steps.
Now he was standing in front of me.
Close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his body.
"Look at me," he commanded softly.
My body betrayed me.
I looked up.
And the moment our eyes locked,Something inside me snapped.
A sharp pain exploded in my chest.
I gasped.
The crowd started murmuring.
Kael's expression changed from cold authority to something far more dangerous.
Possession.
"You feel it," he said.
It wasn't a question.
My knees weakened.
This wasn't possible.
I had never shifted.
Never felt a wolf.
Never belonged.
So why did my skin burn where his scent touched me?
Why did my heart respond to his voice like it had been waiting for it?
"I don't have a wolf," I forced out.
His lips curved slightly.
"You do," he murmured.
And then,Pain ripped through my spine.
I screamed.
The crowd erupted.
Bones cracked.
Skin burned.
And for the first time in my life I heard it.
A voice.
Soft.
Powerful.
Ancient.
Mine.
"My Alpha," the voice purred inside my head.
Terror flooded me.
Because I wasn't just shifting.
I wasn't just awakening.
The power surging through me Was stronger than his.
And if the pack realized that…
They wouldn't bow.
They would hunt me.
Kael's grip tightened on my arm as my eyes flashed gold.
Not silver.
Not blue.
Gold.
The color of a ruler.
His breath hitched.
"What… are you?"
I smiled through the pain.
"I think," I whispered, as the floor beneath us began to crack,
"You chose the wrong mate."