Chapter 4 The Power Awakens

Pain became everything.

It swallowed Ivy whole.

It tore through her veins, shattered her bones, burned through her soul.

She screamed.

The sound ripped from her throat, raw and broken, echoing violently through the vast Great Hall. Her knees slammed into the marble floor as white-hot agony detonated inside her chest. It felt as though something ancient had awakened inside her and was now tearing its way free.

Her wolf howled in terror.

The bond.

The rejection.

The shattering of something sacred.

It all collided at once, ripping her apart.

"Ivy!" someone shouted.

She barely heard it.

Her vision blurred, golden sparks exploding behind her eyes. The hall spun violently. Faces became shadows. Voices became distant echoes.

And then

Power surged.

Not the gentle warmth of omega energy.

Not the quiet resilience of survival.

This was something monstrous.

Something vast.

Something wrong.

A shockwave blasted outward.

Marble cracked.

Torches along the walls flared violently, flames bending toward her as if bowing. Warriors staggered backward, thrown several feet across the hall. Noble wolves slammed into pillars. The council's protective shields shattered like glass.

At the center of the chaos, Ivy gasped, her body arching as glowing runes ignited beneath her skin.

Rowan cried out.

The sound cut through the madness.

Ivy's head snapped up.

He stood frozen on the dais, his face drained of color. His aura once overwhelming, once crushing flickered violently around him.

And then it collapsed.

A strangled gasp tore from his throat.

His knees buckled.

"No" Rowan whispered, clutching his chest.

He dropped to one knee.

The Alpha King brought low.

A collective cry of horror ripped through the hall.

"What is happening?!"

"Protect the Alpha!"

"Kill her now!"

Ivy stared at him in terror.

She could feel it.

Power was pouring into her.

Not just energy.

Authority.

Dominance.

Alpha command.

She was draining him.

"No please stop!" she sobbed, clawing at her chest. "I don't want this!"

But her body no longer obeyed her.

The bond, broken and burning, had become a conduit.

Energy roared through her veins like wildfire.

Rowan groaned, collapsing fully to the floor, his hands braced against the shattered marble. Veins stood out sharply along his neck, his breathing ragged, uneven.

The once-invincible Alpha King was shaking.

Weak.

Helpless.

Elder Corvin slammed his staff down. "Witches! Containment circle now!"

Three witches rushed forward, chanting ancient words, their hands glowing as they attempted to erect a binding barrier around Ivy.

The power tore through it effortlessly.

Their circle exploded in a burst of blinding light, hurling them backward.

A scream ripped from Gloria Jay's throat.

She rushed toward Rowan, dropping to her knees beside him. "Rowan! Rowan, look at me please!"

But his eyes were unfocused, glassy with pain.

"I I can't feel my wolf," he rasped.

Gloria froze.

Her face drained of all color.

Around them, panic erupted.

This had never happened.

In the history of werewolves, an omega had never drained an Alpha's dominance.

Never.

Ivy's skin burned as the runes beneath it glowed brighter, crawling like living fire across her arms, her collarbone, her throat.

Her wolf was no longer howling.

It was roaring.

Ancient.

Feral.

Territorial.

Her scent shifted violently, no longer soft and submissive, but sharp, commanding, overwhelming.

Royal.

The entire hall reeled beneath it.

Wolves bowed instinctively, their bodies betraying them as her dominance crushed through the chamber.

Elder Corvin staggered. "Impossible..."

Rowan coughed, blood spotting his lips.

That was it.

The sight shattered her.

"No!" Ivy screamed.

She dragged herself across the broken floor, reaching for him. "Stop please take it back I don't want it!"

Her fingers brushed his.

The moment their skin touched

The power snapped back.

The energy collapsed into her body like a dying star, leaving a ringing silence in its wake.

The pressure vanished.

The flames settled.

The hall stilled.

Ivy slumped forward, collapsing beside Rowan, her body trembling violently as the last of the power sank into her bones.

Everything went quiet.

Deadly quiet.

Rowan lay unmoving.

His chest rose slowly, shallow breaths barely stirring.

His aura was gone.

Completely.

The Alpha King had no dominance.

No authority.

No power.

Only flesh and blood.

A broken silence spread across the Great Hall.

Then the whispers began.

"She drained him..."

"She stole his Alpha power..."

"She's a demon..."

"A monster..."

Terror.

Hatred.

Revulsion.

Ivy tried to push herself up, but her limbs refused to obey. Her body felt like shattered glass, every nerve screaming.

She turned her head toward Rowan.

His face was pale, strained, but alive.

Relief nearly crushed her.

At least he was alive.

"Seize her!" Elder Corvin roared.

Heavy hands grabbed her arms, yanking her away from Rowan.

"No-don't touch her!" Gloria screamed, throwing herself in front of Rowan.

"She did this!" one of the elders snapped. "She is a threat to the realm!"

"She must die," another growled.

Execution.

The word echoed in Ivy's mind.

Her heart clenched painfully.

Rowan struggled to lift his head. "Stop..."

The command was weak.

It held no power.

The realization slammed into him with devastating force.

For the first time in his life, his word meant nothing.

Shock flickered in his eyes.

Fear.

Something dangerously close to despair.

Ivy's chest tightened.

She had broken him.

Guards dragged her toward the exit.

Her strength was gone. Her body sagged uselessly between them.

She didn't fight.

She didn't beg.

She simply stared back at Rowan.

Their eyes locked.

The broken bond flickered weakly between them, pulsing with pain and something dangerously close to regret.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Then the doors slammed shut between them.

They threw her into a stone chamber deep beneath the palace.

Chains snapped around her wrists and ankles, cold iron biting into her skin.

The door slammed.

Darkness swallowed her.

Ivy slid down the wall, curling into herself as silent tears streamed down her face.

She didn't understand what she was.

What she had done.

What she had become.

But she knew one thing with terrifying certainty.

Her life as an omega was over.

Far beyond the Blackwood territory, ancient forces stirred.

Forgotten eyes opened.

Old blood recognized its own.

And deep within the shadows, a voice whispered her name.