Chapter 3

POV: Ava Miller

I was floating in a void. It was cold, dark, and silent.

*Is this death?* I wondered.

*No,* a voice whispered. It resonated through the emptiness like the clash of wind chimes and rolling thunder. *This is the beginning.*

Pain flared again, a sharp hook pulling me back to reality.

I gasped, my eyes flying open.

I wasn't on the highway. I was in a small, dimly lit room that smelled of dried herbs, burning sage, and old wood.

"Easy, child," a soft voice said.

Maya.

She hovered over me, her face pale and drawn. Her hands were glowing with a faint, pulsing green light-hedge magic. Maya wasn't just a Beta; her grandmother had been a witch. It was a secret she kept guarded with her life to avoid persecution.

"Maya?" I croaked. My throat felt like sandpaper. "Am I...?"

"You were dead," Maya said, her voice trembling. "For three minutes, your heart stopped in the infirmary. Ethan... he told them to put you in the morgue. He said you weren't worth the resources to revive."

Rage flickered in my chest, but it felt different now. It wasn't the hot, chaotic fire of heartbreak. It was cold. Controlled. Sharp as a blade.

"How am I here?"

"I stole you," Maya whispered, her eyes darting to the door. "I sensed it. Your wolf... she wasn't gone. She was changing."

I looked down at my hands. My skin seemed to glow with a faint, pearlescent sheen. The pain in my leg was gone. I pulled back the blanket. The skin where the bone had snapped was smooth, without even a scar to mark the trauma.

"The Rejection," Maya explained, wiping sweat from her forehead. "It didn't kill you. It unlocked something."

I closed my eyes and looked inward.

My wolf was there. But she wasn't the small, grey wolf I used to be.

She was massive. Her fur was as pristine and white as fresh snow on a mountain peak. Her eyes were pools of liquid silver, ancient and knowing.

*White Wolf,* I thought, the realization hitting me like a lightning bolt.

The White Wolf was a legend. The direct lineage of the Moon Goddess. A symbol of purity, healing, and unfathomable power.

"They think I'm dead?" I asked.

"Yes," Maya said. "They buried an empty coffin this morning. Ethan didn't even attend the funeral."

"Good." I sat up. The room spun for a moment, then steadied. I felt strong. Stronger than I had ever felt in my life. Every sense felt dialled up to eleven; I could hear the heartbeat of a mouse in the walls.

"You can't stay here, Ava," Maya said, handing me a backpack. "If Ethan finds out you're alive, and what you are... he will try to use you. Or kill you."

She was right. I was a threat now.

"I have a plan," Maya continued. She pulled out a folder. "New ID. Cash. A bus ticket to the city on the border of the human territories."

I looked at the ID card. The face was mine, but the name was different.

Olivia Carter.

"Olivia," I tested the name on my tongue. It sounded strong. Independent. It sounded like a survivor.

"Here," Maya handed me a small vial of liquid. "This will mask your scent. To anyone who passes you, you'll smell like a regular human. You have to take it every day until you learn to control that..." She pointed at me. "That raw power radiating off you."

I took the vial, clutching it like a lifeline. "Thank you, Maya. I don't know how to repay you."

"Just live," Maya said, tears welling in her eyes. "And one day, come back and burn this place to the ground."

I hugged her tightly. "I will. I promise."

Under the cover of darkness, I slipped out of the pack lands. I didn't look back at the Pack House. I didn't look back at the dorms where I had suffered.

I walked until my feet hit the pavement of the city limits.

I was no longer Ava Miller, the rejected Omega. I was Olivia Carter. And I had a wolf inside me that could challenge a king.