Chapter 3 Why me

SIENA

The path back to the servants' quarters felt endless.

Each step I took was heavy, like I was dragging the weight of the entire pack on my shoulders. The cold air wrapped around me like a second skin, but I hardly noticed. My thoughts were louder than the wind, spinning, crashing, choking me.

You'll marry soon.

It's your duty.

This is what the contract demands.

Alpha Lorenzo's voice repeated over and over in my mind, no longer a statement, it was a sentence. Like I'd been judged and locked away without even getting the chance to speak.

The marriage was arranged. Decided. Signed.

And I was the last to know.

I wasn't ready. How could anyone be ready to marry a man who looked at them like they were a task on a to-do list?

Lorenzo hadn't looked at me with love. Or sympathy. Or even interest.

His eyes held nothing.

Not anger. Not hate.

Just... emptiness.

A silent, hollow void that made me feel small. Insignificant.

I stopped walking as I reached the old stone bridge that crossed over a quiet stream. My hand reached out to touch the edge of the stone railing, the cold biting into my palm. But I welcomed it. At least it made me feel something. Something real.

My chest was tight, my breaths shallow. Everything around me felt so loud, the wind through the trees, the water beneath the bridge, the thudding of my own heartbeat, but inside, I felt numb.

Why me?

Of all the girls in the pack. Strong, graceful, beautiful girls. Why choose me?

I wasn't special. I was a shadow on the wall, always there but never seen. The one they all looked past. I didn't have a family name. I didn't have strength. I didn't even have a voice loud enough to be heard.

I was the lowest of the low. An omega girl who didn't belong anywhere.

And now, I was supposed to marry the Alpha?

The idea was absurd. Cruel. A sick joke from the Moon Goddess herself.

I clenched my fists, feeling the rough edge of the stone dig into my skin. It grounded me. Kept me from falling apart.

But the tears still came.

I didn't sob. I didn't wail. They just spilled silently down my cheeks, traitorous drops that carried all the things I couldn't say aloud. All the fear. All the confusion. All the loss.

I don't want this.

"You look like you lost your soul."

The voice cut through my thoughts like a blade. Cold. Familiar.

I didn't need to look up.

Mara.

Of course, she'd show up now, like a wasp drawn to blood.

She was leaning against a tree a few feet away, arms crossed over her chest, her expression unreadable but her tone sharp with amusement. She was always watching, always waiting for the right moment to strike.

"What do you want?" I asked, my voice low, raw.

She shrugged, pushing away from the tree and taking a step toward me. "Just checking on you. You looked... broken."

I blinked at her, unsure if I wanted to laugh or scream. "Well, congratulations. You got what you wanted. I'm broken. Happy?"

"Not yet," she said with a grin that didn't reach her eyes. "But almost."

I turned my face away from her, wiping the tears from my cheeks before she could see them. But I knew she already had. Mara missed nothing.

"You thought being chosen by the Alpha would be this magical fairytale, didn't you?" she continued. "Sorry to disappoint. You're not a princess, Siena. You're the pawn."

My jaw tightened. "I never asked for this."

"But you got it anyway," Mara said, stepping closer. "And you'd be stupid not to use it."

Her words caught me off guard. I turned to face her again, frowning. "Use it?"

"You heard me." She tilted her head. "Do you think girls like us get chances like this? Ever? You've been invisible your whole life. But now? Now, you're the future Luna."

I stared at her, the title sounding foreign on her tongue. Luna. It didn't belong to me. It belonged to the girls who wore silk and perfume. Not those of us who scrubbed floors and lived in silence.

"You don't understand," I said. "He doesn't care about me. I'm just part of some deal."

"And you think that matters?" Mara snapped, eyes narrowing. "This isn't about love, Siena. It never was. This is about survival. And for the first time, you've been handed a lifeline. Don't be stupid enough to throw it away."

I flinched at her tone. But her words settled in me like stones. Heavy. Cold.

"You think this is a gift?" I whispered.

"I think it's an opportunity," she replied. "You've always been nothing here. Just another nameless face. But this? This makes you someone."

Someone.

That word again.

How many times had I wished to be seen? To be heard? To matter?

But not like this.

Not by being forced into a marriage with a man who didn't even blink when he told me I was his future wife.

"You could have, respect," Mara added, her voice dropping to something softer. "You could have, respect. For once, people would have to look at you when you spoke. They'd have to listen."

I looked down at my hands. Scarred from work. Calloused from years of being useful to everyone except myself.

"I never wanted power," I said quietly.

"Well, maybe you should start," Mara snapped. "Because if you don't take it now, someone else will. And you'll be right back where you started, scrubbing floors and waiting for scraps."

She stepped even closer, her presence overwhelming, her voice sharper than before.

"Do you really want to spend the rest of your life forgotten?"

Her question hit me like a slap.

No.

I didn't want that. Not anymore.

But wanting something didn't make it feel right.

The silence stretched between us, thick and uneasy.

Then I made the mistake of speaking.

"Maybe... maybe this is my way out," I whispered. "Maybe this is my only chance to be... someone. The Luna."

Mara's laughter cut through the night like a blade. Cold. Loud. Cruel.

"Dream on," she spat. "You think they'll ever see you as one of them? You'll never be more than the omega who got lucky."

I stared at her, stunned.

And just like that, I saw it clearly.

She hadn't come to encourage me.

She hadn't come to offer advice or wisdom.

She'd come to gloat. To watch me flail. To remind me that even when I was given something, it could be taken. That I would never be enough.

She turned and walked away, her figure disappearing into the shadows like she had never been there at all.

But her words stayed.

Lingered.

You'll never be more than the omega who got lucky.

I leaned on the bridge again, but this time, I didn't cry.

I didn't scream.

I just stood there, letting the cold sink deeper into my bones, until I couldn't tell where the night ended and I began.

I wasn't sure what this marriage meant.

I wasn't sure who I would become.

But I knew one thing.

There was no going back.

I turned away from the stream and walked toward the servant quarters again, slower this time. My legs felt weak. My heart was even weaker. But I kept moving.

Each step was a goodbye to the life I'd known.

And maybe, just maybe, a step toward something I didn't understand yet.

But whether it would break me or build me?

Only time would tell.