Chapter 1

Annaliese’s  POV~

The world was beautiful for everyone else. For me, it was just cold and hard and endless pains.

I didn’t even know why I was still alive. I had been waiting for years to die, somehow I kept breathing.

I laid here for a moment, gasping for air that felt too heavy to breathe, and wondered why death wouldn’t just come quickly and take me. I was so tired.

Tired of the pain, tired of the cold, tired of waking up every single morning just to suffer all over again. It felt like I had been living this way forever.

For eighteen years, I had lived in this pack, and for eighteen years, I had been invisible. No one ever spoke to me unless it was to give an order or spit out a curse.

No one ever looked at me unless it was to push me out of their way, kick me when I walked past, or spit at my feet like I was something worse than dirt.

I slept on the cold stone floor of a storage shed, wrapped in rags that barely kept the frost out. I ate scraps that even the pack dogs turned their noses up at, and I worked until my hands bled and my legs gave out under me.

I told myself I deserved it. I reminded myself of it every single day, over and over, until it was the only truth I knew. That I was weak. I was useless. I have no wolf, no family, no name. I was nothing.

Being treated like dirt was the only thing I was good for. Sometimes I wondered if I would just fade away one day, just disappear into the air, and nobody would even notice I was gone. Maybe that would be the only mercy I would ever get.

I spat more blood onto the floor, the taste of it was thick and sickening in my mouth.

My cheek throbbed so bad I could barely see out of one eye; they had kicked me too hard, right in the side of my face, and I could feel the empty space where one of my teeth used to be.

Every time I moved my jaw, a sharp pain shot right through my head, but I didn’t dare make a sound.

My entire body was shaking. I was on my knees, my dress torn and soaked, my hands scraped raw as I scrubbed my own blood off the stone floor with a dirty, wet rag.

The three Betas stood around me, circling slowly and lazily like wolves waiting for their turn to tear into prey. They were grinning. Watching me suffer was the best part of their day.

The first one stepped forward and kicked the rag right out of my hand, sending it skidding across the floor out of my reach. I gasped, my chest heaving, and more tears spilled over.

 I didn’t even try to wipe them away; crying only made them laugh harder.

“Look at that,” he said, his voice was cruel, like he was pointing out something disgusting. “Your blood is already seeping into the cracks, Omega trash. You see that? It’s dirty, just like you. The Alpha hates dirt. He hates mess. And he hates weakness more than anything else in this world.”

He leaned down, tilting his head, enjoying the way I flinched away from him.

“If this floor isn’t spotless, shiny enough for him to see his reflection in by the time he walks in here… well, you know what happens. We’ll beat you worse than we already did. We’ll make you wish you were never born. And believe me, little thing, we can make it hurt a lot more than it does right now.”

I swallowed hard, my throat burning, and crawled forward on my hands and knees to reach the rag.

My ribs screamed in protest as I moved, they had kicked me there too, their heavy boots kept digging in over and over until I thought something inside might break.

 It was true. Wolfless creatures like me were only meant for entertainment. We were things to be used, to be passed from one stronger person to another, to be broken and thrown away when we got boring.

Everyone knew how ruthless the Alpha was. He had zero tolerance for anything less than perfect, and especially for omega trash like me.

If he saw even a speck of blood on his floor, or if he saw me limping or crying, he wouldn’t ask questions. He would just punish me, and it would be worse than anything I had ever felt.

 So I lowered my eyes, kept my head bowed as low as it would go, and started scrubbing again until my palms burned, trying to erase every trace of myself before he came.

But the pain was everywhere. My lip was split open and swollen, my head throbbed like someone was hitting it from the inside, and every breath was painful.

The second Beta moved closer, standing right next to where I knelt. He spat, a thick, wet glob of saliva, landing right next to my hand. I didn’t move. I didn’t dare.

“Wolfless freak,” he said, and the disgust in his voice was so clear, it cut deeper than the bruises on my skin. “You can’t even fight back, can you? You can’t even shift. You don’t have a wolf inside you, nothing to protect you, nothing to make you worth anything. What’s the point of you, honestly?”

The third Beta had been quiet all this time, just watching me with heavy, greedy eyes that felt like dirty hands crawling all over my skin.

He stepped around the others, crouching down low so his face was right in mine. He grabbed my chin roughly, forcing my head up, and his gaze dragged slowly over my face, my neck, down to where my dress was torn and thin.

He looked at me like I was something he was inspecting before throwing away.

“You know…” he said slowly, his voice thick with disgust and something worse, something hungry. “It’s actually disgusting how pretty you are. Look at this face… soft skin, big sad eyes… you look like you were made to be treasured. To be a high-ranking female. Maybe even a Luna.”

He smirked, and his fingers tightened painfully on my jaw.

“But look closer. There’s nothing inside. No wolf. No soul. No power. Just a weak, trembling little thing. You’re just a hollow shell.”

His hand slipped down, roughly and he tried to grab my breast through the rags. I gasped, my whole body jerking in horror, and I instantly twisted away, scrambling backward to get out of his reach.

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to cover my skin, trying to hide from his eyes. “DON’T TOUCH ME! PLEASE, JUST LET ME BE—!”

He moved faster than I could see. His big hand swung out, and the back of it smashed hard against the side of my face.

CRACK.

My head snapped sideways so hard I saw stars. The pain exploded across my cheekbone and up into my eye. The force of the blow sent me stumbling backward. I fell, my shoulder hitting the bucket of clean water I had been using. It tipped over with a loud crash, spilling everything across the floor.

I didn’t care about the mess. I scrambled away on my hands and knees, sobbing openly now, dragging myself across the wet, dirty floor until my back hit the cold wall.

I pulled my knees to my chest, shaking so hard my teeth chattered, holding my stinging face, tears pouring down my cheeks.

He stood up slowly, laughing deep in his throat, and stepped over the spilled water like it wasn’t even there. He loomed over me, looking down like I was something he had stepped in.

“Look at you crawl. Just like the filth you are. You think because you have a pretty face, you get to say no? You think you have the right to pull away when someone better than you decides to touch what belongs to the pack, you wolfless trash!”

Before he could say another word, a loud voice rang out from the far end of the hall.

“ALPHA CASSIAN IS COMING FOR INSPECTION! EVERYONE BE READY!”

The change was instant. All three Betas froze. They didn’t even glance at me again. They scrambled away in a panic, straightening their clothes as they went.

I couldn’t breathe. The name alone made my blood run cold. I broke down completely, sobbing harder than before.

My hand shot up, gripping the small silver pendant hidden under my rags so tight my fingers ached. It was the only thing I had left, the only thing that felt even a little bit like mine.

Then I limped away as fast as my bruised legs would carry me, dragging myself toward the shadows at the far end of the corridor, desperate to be gone before he turned the corner.

———————-

I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday morning, just a few crumbs I’d found thrown out by the kitchens, and my stomach twisted in on itself with hunger.

But no one cared. I was sent to clean the entrance hall late that night, my legs shaking so bad I could barely stand.

As I scrubbed the floor on my hands and knees, my mind kept drifting, like it always did when I was alone with my thoughts. I’d seen them, you know. All mated pairs. Walking through the pack grounds, smiling, touching each other gently, like they were the only people in the world.

My throat tightened, and I had to bite my lip to keep from crying again.

Who could ever want me? I was broken and empty. There is nothing inside me to love. No wolf, no strength, no beauty that matters. I wish the Moon Goddess had never made me.

I was so lost in my misery I didn’t hear anything at first.

The air in the hall changed instantly. It went cold, heavy, thick with a kind of power that made my skin prickle. I froze where I was, my head bowed low, my heart racing.

I knew who it was. Everyone knew that presence.

Alpha Cassian Blackthorn walked in.

He was tall…so tall he seemed to fill up the whole space, his dark aura rolling off him like a storm cloud.

At twenty-six, he was the strongest Alpha in the north, feared by every pack for miles around. Just being near him felt dangerous, like standing too close to a fire.

I pressed myself lower to the floor, terrified to even breathe too loud. I thought he would walk right past me. But he stopped, right in front of me.

My whole body went stiff. I didn’t dare move or look up.

But then, I slipped. Just a little. My balance shifted, and before I could stop myself, my eyes flicked up, just for a second.

And I looked right at him. Our eyes locked.

It felt like something snapped. A sharp, blinding jolt shot right through my chest, so strong it made me gasp, like lightning had struck me right where I knelt. My soul seemed to scream instantly.

Mate!

My heart sank. No. God… no no no… it can’t…

But his face didn’t soften. It hardened. His grey eyes turned icy , looked down at me and filled with pure, unmasked horror.

He didn’t say a word yet. He just stared at me like I was the worst thing he had ever seen in his life.

And it was then I knew, whatever had just happened… was going to be the end of me.