Marked By Fate

Grin, grin, grin, grin.

The alarm wouldn't shut the hell up.

I groaned and slapped around blindly, hand smacking the nightstand until I found the damn thing and hit it. Silence. Thank the Moon. My eyes were still closed, my body glued to the thin mattress like I could sink through it and vanish. I didn't even need to look to know it was still dark outside-no one else in the world was up at this hour unless they had a death wish or, like me, they were cursed with omega duties in the Alpha's house.

Five in the morning. Every single day.

No wolf. No rank. No future. Just me and the bottom of the pack, kissing dirt with a smile.

I laid there for another minute, staring at the ceiling even though I couldn't see it. The air was cold and stale. It smelled like wood and forgotten dreams-whatever that smells like. I could hear the quiet wheeze of the heater trying to work. It didn't. It hasn't in years.

Whatever.

I sat up slowly, every muscle in my back stiff from the rock-hard cot. My room was a closet. Four walls, no personality. One dresser, barely standing. A cracked mirror I refused to look in most days. What was the point?

If you're wondering who I am-fine. I'm Selene. Eighteen in three days. Five feet of nothing special. Sleek black hair that does what it wants, hazel eyes that don't sparkle, and a face people only remember to sneer at. My wolf has never showed up

In a pack like Silver Claw, that makes me a joke. An embarrassment. The kind of girl people think it's okay to shove into lockers, dump their food on, trip in the hallways, whisper about like I can't hear them.

I hear everything.

My mom died when I was little. I don't remember her much-just the smell of her perfume when she hugged me and the sound of her humming at night when she thought I was asleep. She was warmth.

Dad... he tried. For a while. Then he met Lilian.

She was human, which was rare enough in this world, but somehow, she made him smile again. Made our house feel like it had walls instead of just shadows. I expected her to hate me, like everyone else did. I waited for it. But she didn't. She loved me. Really loved me. Not out of pity. She just... did.

Then Rhea came along-my little sister. Eight years old now, all sunshine and toothy grins, like the world hasn't bitten her yet. She's everything I'm not. She looks at me like I'm someone worth loving.

I'd burn the world down before I let anything happen to her.

I got dressed in the dark, like always. Same pants, same shirt, same tight braid pulling my red hair back so no one could grab it when they got bored at school. I knew how to dress for survival, not attention.

I moved through the hallway quietly, careful not to wake anyone. Lilian didn't deserve to be up this early, and Rhea-she needed sleep. She had a field trip today or something. I'd promised I'd try to get home in time to hear all about it.

If no one beat the crap out of me before then.

Outside, the cold slapped me in the face the second I stepped off the porch. The sun wasn't even up yet. Just that icy blue nothingness before dawn. My breath fogged in front of me, and the path to the Alpha's house stretched ahead like a trail of punishment.

Up the hill. Past the guards who never looked at me. Through the servants' door like the help I was.

The Alpha's quarters were all stone and glass, luxury stacked on top of power. Even the damn floor smelled expensive. I didn't belong there. But I still had to clean every inch of it like my life depended on it. Because it kinda did.

Kitchen. Dining room. Polishing the staircase banister. Scrubbing bathrooms used by people who wouldn't even spit in my direction unless it was on purpose. That was the routine.

And if I missed a spot?

They'd make sure I knew.

Some days it was verbal. Most days it wasn't.

They liked keeping me bruised and quiet. It made them feel stronger.

By the time I was finished, my shirt was soaked with sweat, my fingers red and raw, and the sun was finally dragging itself up over the treetops. I still had to get to school. Because gods forbid I miss a day of being reminded just how unwanted I was there too.

Silver Claw High. A beautiful blend of fake smiles, real claws, and endless reminders that I was less than everyone else. Classes were half normal subjects, half pack training. Everyone else trained with their wolves. I sat in the corner, watched them shift, and took notes like a loser.

"Selene," someone called as I stepped into the courtyard.

Damian

Of course.

He walked toward me with that swagger all the ranked wolves seemed born with. Twenty. Built. Dead eyes. The future Beta and current pain in my ass.

"Still no wolf?" he asked, like it was a joke that never got old.

I didn't answer. He didn't care about answers.

He leaned in, close enough for me to smell the arrogance on him. "Don't worry," he whispered, "maybe someone'll throw you a bone on your birthday. Or just put you down."

Laughter followed. His, and the two other idiots who hung off his shoulders like accessories.

I walked away. Didn't flinch. Didn't cry. Not in front of them.

I waited until I was in the bathroom, stall locked, fingers gripping my backpack so hard it hurt.

Three days, I reminded myself. Three more days. Eighteen.

If my wolf didn't come by then... I didn't know what would happen. But I had a feeling I wouldn't survive it.

Not in this pack.

The other omegas showed up not long after me, all of us dragging ourselves through the cold like ghosts that never left the pack house. No one spoke. There wasn't much to say. We were all exhausted, all stuck at the bottom of the same shitty food chain, all barely hanging on.

Head Omega Miriam came in a few minutes later, pinched as always, already barking orders before the front door had even clicked shut behind her. She acted like she ran the whole damn world, but really, she just ran us. And she loved it.

"Selene your cleaning the upstairs-Alpha's quarters again," she snapped, flipping through the clipboard in her hands like we were names, not people. "And do it right this time. I won't have Marissa complaining about streaks on her mirrors again."

Streaks. On her goddamn mirrors.

I bit my tongue and nodded. No point arguing. I didn't want to draw more attention than necessary. Just get through it. Get out.

The rest of the girls split off to scrub the kitchens, polish the entryways, handle the bathrooms that would be used by wolves who wouldn't even wipe their own paws if they shifted indoors. There was no glory in being an omega. We weren't the ones people bowed to. We were the ones people stepped over.

The Alpha's rooms took forever. Sheets had to be pressed, floors scrubbed to gleam like glass, curtains steamed even if they weren't dirty, and everything had to smell like pine and sandalwood or Marissa would lose her mind. I didn't even have time to breathe, let alone eat anything before rushing back out of the house, heart pounding as I realized the clock was already pushing past 8:15.

Late. Again.

I sprinted down the gravel path that led from the Alpha's estate to the main road, my boots slipping in the wet dirt as I tried to make up time. The wind bit at my face. My shirt stuck to my back, damp with sweat and effort, and the stink of bleach clung to my skin like shame.

By the time I made it to school, I was a mess.

Hair sticking out from where it had fallen loose from my braid. Shirt wrinkled, stained at the cuff. One knee of my pants ripped from kneeling too hard on the stone floor. I looked exactly like what I was-an omega who'd just spent the morning scrubbing toilets.

And of course, right as I stepped through the school gates, I spotted ava.

Perfect Ava. Tall, blonde, eyes the color of a glacier-sharp and cold. The beta's daughter. Everyone thought she was beautiful. I thought she looked like a knife.

And she was already heading straight for me.

I didn't even have time to dodge. She slammed into me, shoulder-first, knocking the breath right out of my lungs and nearly sending me to the ground. Her friends were right behind her-Talia, Mel, Dana-all laughing, like this was the best part of their morning.

"Oops," Ava said sweetly, brushing nonexistent dust off her pristine white blouse. "You should really watch where you're going, Selene. Or are your human eyes not working today?"

I didn't answer. I just kept walking.

That pissed her off more than anything.

"You know, it's kinda sad," she called after me, her voice sugary and cruel. "Almost eighteen and still no wolf. Maybe the Moon Goddess just skipped you altogether. Maybe you're not even meant to be one of us."

Her friends giggled.

I kept walking.

Don't give them what they want.

I made it to the classroom and slid into my seat at the back, biting the inside of my cheek hard enough to taste blood. I could feel their eyes on me, like fleas crawling over my skin. I didn't look up. I didn't want to see the smirks, the whispers behind hands, the gleam of superiority in Ava's eyes like she'd won something.

I just prayed-silently, desperately-that the teacher would walk in and give me something else to focus on.

Not because I thought he'd protect me. That wasn't his job, apparently.

He'd seen me get cornered before. Heard the things they said. And he'd done nothing.

But if he came in and started droning on about pack history or wolf law or whatever bullshit lecture he had planned today, maybe I could pretend, just for a little while, that I wasn't here. That I was somewhere else.

Anywhere else.

I shifted in my seat, arms crossed tightly over my chest. My skin itched with sweat and bleach and embarrassment. I could smell myself-no one else probably noticed, but I did. I smelled like work. Like submission. Like omega.

And that was blood in the water.

Ava leaned backward from her desk in front of me, just enough to whisper over her shoulder, "You should sit outside, you know. You reek."

I stared down at the graffiti scratched into my desk. Someone had carved a wolf's head there once, deep and jagged. I liked to trace the lines with my finger when I needed to stay calm. Today I didn't touch it. Today I didn't trust my hands to be steady.

Laughter.

I clenched my jaw hard.

One more day. One more minute. One more breath.

The teacher finally walked in, older wolf with greying hair and a limp he never explained. He dropped a stack of papers on the desk and started writing on the board without a glance toward us.

I could still feel Ava's stare on the side of my neck.

But at least I had something to look at besides her face. Something to think about besides the fact that I didn't have a wolf. That I might never have one. That my birthday was in three days, and every second felt like it was tightening a noose around my throat.

If it didn't come-if my wolf didn't show-I was done. Officially marked as a failure.

Some packs kicked wolfless members out. Others let them stay and suffer.

Silver Claw? They liked to make examples.

My nails dug into my palms as I stared blankly at the notes on the board. I didn't take them. I didn't even see them. I was too busy thinking about how many more mornings I could survive like this. How many more bleach-soaked uniforms, how many more smug insults, how many more fake apologies masked as accidents.

Something had to give. Eventually.

Either me, or them.

The thing is... Ava isn't just some random mean girl with pretty eyes and a mean mouth. No. She's the Beta's daughter. That means something in Silver Claw. It means power. It means immunity. It means she can rip someone's hair out in the hallway and still get praised for having "spirit."

And her older brother? He's next in line to be Beta after their father steps down-once Leon takes the Alpha title, that is.

Leon.

Gods, that name.

The moment it crosses my mind, I can feel my stomach twist in that ridiculous way I hate. The same way it does every time I see him. Because Leon isn't just some powerful wolf. He's the wolf. The one every girl in this gods-forsaken pack dreams about. He's twenty-one. Tall, broad-shouldered, with that midnight-black hair and those eyes that look like they were carved out of onyx. Cold. Distant. And he carries it all like he was born with the world under his heel.

Which, let's be honest, he kind of was.

Leon's father is the current Alpha, and one of the fiercest leaders Silver Claw has ever had. But tradition binds even the strongest. And here, in our sacred, rule-bound little hell, no wolf can take the Alpha throne without finding their fated mate. The bond has to be sealed before the title is passed down. That's how it has always been

So, Leon is still waiting to find his.

While everyone else watched

Some wolves find their mates early, just after their first shift. Some don't find them until their mid-twenties-or not at all. For Leon, the whole pack is holding its breath. The longer he goes mate-less, the more pressure builds. Everyone wants to be the one. Girls throw themselves at him like he's the Moon Goddess reincarnated in leather jackets and growls.

And Ava? She's made it her life's mission to convince everyone-including herself-that she's the chosen one.

Her birthday's in three days.

Funny. Mine is, too.

The irony could kill me.

She's everything I'm not. Tall, perfect, vicious in all the right ways. Blonde hair that always falls in perfect waves no matter the weather, ice-blue eyes that command attention, and a voice sharp enough to slice through steel. She walks into a room and people move. I walk in and people don't even look up-unless they're checking if I've tripped yet.