The Alpha's Secret Bride

The rays of the moon--often so dim and cryptic--gave an intense ominous edginess to the trees. One rarely sees these trees as comforting. The kind that whispers your name from a shadow and cruelly reminds you of everything you had tried to forget. That was the kind of life in the Nightshade Pack: shadows and silence. As for me, I was just this ghost that they could never fully get rid of.

My name is Lyra: Omega by rank, orphan by fate, and everyone considered me to be just a mistake. Or so they made me believe. I don't remember much about my parents save that they were killed during a rogue attack when I was scarcely able to shift. Some say it was an accident, whereas others whisper it was a betrayal. But nobody dared to tell me the truth.

I was raised by the Pack Mother, a severe elderly woman named Maela, who always smelled of dried herbs and bitter tea. She did her best to care for me, I think, but there was always something... keep-away-from-me feeling between us, as if she thought touching me for a little longer would somehow curse her. Perhaps she dreaded that I would grow up to be just like my parents-willful, defiant and ultimately doomed.

Nightshade was a harsh world. Ordered. Life was ruled by terror, and loyalty was a forgotten word. The Alphas spoke, and their words were law. Questioning them would be tantamount to signing your death warrant. I had learned early how to become invisible: how not to attract attention while moving across the room; how to clean up after a warrior who acted as though the gods had given him brawn to gloat about; how to take insults with a bowed head, clenched jaw, and silent tears.

"Omega trash," some would mutter. "Why is she still here?" "She's cursed. Bad blood."

I heard it all. Every name. Every accusation. And yet, I stayed.

Not because I was welcomed in, but because I had nowhere else to go.

That forest was my only escape. After finishing my chores, without anyone looking, I would run off to the woods behind the training field. I could breathe among the trees. I could run with the wind whipping in my face and picture a world where I was free. Where I was not a broken girl with a forgotten name but something more.

There were times I would daydream: a total shift. Not the half-shifts for which Omegas could labor, but a true one. Lies beneath my skin. She had a name, one that I dared not utter. Aira.

She was all I was not. Brave. Wild. Untamed.

"Is there any reason for you to stay here?" she would whisper inside my mind.

I never did have an answer.

The other Omegas shunned me. Among the low, I was the lowest. There were rumors: strange things happened when I was nearby; the wind moved when I was angry; I healed faster than any other; and my eyes glowed too brightly during the full moon. I didn't know if that was really true. I never cared. All I ever wanted was to belong.

But I never would.

Everything culminated on that day of the Choosing.

An Alpha worthy of visiting from one of the neighboring Packs would once a year visit Nightshade to watch over the trials. That would be the rigorous competition wherein young wolves demonstrated their strength, agility, and loyalty. The winners across these trials were offered the opportunity to work outside of the Omega quarters. Sometimes, they would be selected as guards or scouts. A way out, for someone like me.

I had been forbidden from entering. Omegas weren't allowed.

But in true Aira fashion, I went in anyway.

I sneaked in behind the last group. My heart hammered, my limbs trembled from adrenaline. The warriors laughed on seeing me set foot on the training field. Thaek jeered; one of them hurled a rock at my feet.

"Look who's playing warrior." "Should've stayed in the kitchens, mutt."

I shut it out, as I always had.

The trial was a gauntlet of tests for speed, stamina, and fighting ability. I was faster than most of the trainees because of all those runs I took in the woods. I had sharper senses. My body was lean and nimble. But it was the sparring that decided everything.

I was paired against Gunnar, one of the Alpha's trial favorites. Tall, cruel, and sneering forever.

"Don't go easy on her," the Alpha told him. "Let her bleed."

And so he did.

And I do too.

For the first time in my life, I opened up to Aira.

A sudden crack broke inside me when his fist connected with my jaw. I felt a rush of heat, a flash of light. My body acted on instinct. I ducked, swept his legs, and then rolled back to my feet, fighting like I had practiced for years, like my bones knew something my mind had forgotten.

He ended up on the ground.

And I was standing by while unscathed.

The crowd became silent.

The Alpha frowned.

Instead of congratulating me, I was punished. I had been locked away in the cellar for three days. No food. No water. Just darkness and damp walls. They said I had cheated. That I had used dark magic. That I was dangerous.

"Should've died with your parents," were Maela's whispered words while she had given me a crust of bread on the third night. "You bring nothing but chaos."

I couldn't answer.

What could I?

She was right.

That day forth, I became watched, isolated. The Pack grew colder. The warriors spat whenever I passed. The Omegas stopped sharing food with me. Even the children gazed at me as if I was some monster.

However, Aira mended all that.

"They fear you," she murmured in awe. "Because you're more than they can stitch into fences."

I wanted to believe her. I wanted to believe I wasn't broken, just different. That the discomfort in my chest was a sign of something more to come.

Another full moon came, unbidden, as I first felt its grip in my bones before it came to view in the sky. A force. A call leaning in the winds. I stood at the edge of the forest; the winds were playing with my hair. I knew I could not remain. Not forever.

One day, I would be out of Nightshade.

Not an orphan.

Not an Omega.

Only the girl who made it through.

The girl with a secret fire.

The girl whom the moon failed to ignore.

My name is Lyra.

And the story of my life was only just beginning.