Chapter 4

Annaliese’s POV~

By sunrise, the whole pack knew one thing: Alpha Cassian loathed me.

Before yesterday, I was invisible. That was the only good thing about being nothing , people didn’t look, so they couldn’t judge.

I walked around with my head down, and I was just… part of the background. Like the dirt on the floor. But yesterday changed everything. Now everyone looked. Now everyone talked.

I heard whispers and laughter that sounded very mean as soon as I stepped out. Followed by glances that burned through my skin.

“Did you hear? She tried to get into his wing. Like she belonged there.”

“He threw her out, didn’t he? Said she was filthy. Can you blame him? She’s got no wolf, no status… just nothing.”

“The Alpha actually looked at her and turned his face away. Like she smelled bad or something.”

I walked faster, my arms wrapped tight around myself, like I could hold my skin together. It hurt. Every word was a little cut. But the worst part wasn’t what they said. It was what I felt.

Deep in my chest, right where my heart beats, there was this… thing. This pull. This ache. Like a string tied around my ribs, leading straight to him. It hummed every time I breathed.

Every time I stepped closer to where he was. It was the bond.

But why was the moon goddess so cruel to me? She gave me a mate, just like she gave everyone else, yes. But she forgot to make him want me.

Why tie me to someone who wished I was dead rather than craving me?

I kept my eyes on the ground, trying to be small again, trying to go back to being nothing. But then the air suddenly changed. The noise stopped.

I hated that my body knew. I looked up, and there he was.

Cassian was standing up on the high steps on the training ground, tall and broad and terrifying as usual. He looked like he was carved out of something hard and cold. His hair was messy, his jaw tight, his face completely blank. Like he didn’t care about anything or anyone.

When he spoke, his voice rolled over us, loudly with no emotion at all.

“New rules,” he said, and everyone went dead quiet. “No wolfless omega comes within fifty yards of my wing. No wolfless servant steps foot near the training grounds or the war rooms. Anyone caught lingering or drawing attention… gets punished. We don’t have pests in this pack. We don’t tolerate nuisances.”

He didn’t look at me. He didn’t even say my name.

But every single person standing there turned their head and looked right at me.

My knees almost gave out.

I knew. I knew exactly what he had done. He wanted to put a fence around me. Box me in. Label me. He couldn’t stand that I was in his head.

And the whole time he stood there, looking like he didn’t care about anything… I felt him watching me.

It wasn’t like how a leader watches his people. It wasn’t like how a man looks at a stranger. It was heavier. Darker.

He watched me like I was a bruise he kept pressing with his thumb. Like he hated it, but he couldn’t stop touching it. Like he was scared I would disappear… and equally scared I would stay.

The pack got the message fast.

If the Alpha hated me, then making my life hard was loyalty. Hurting me was like giving him a gift.

They gave me a bucket and a rag and told me to scrub the main yard, right in the middle of everything, where everyone walked. On my knees, in the mud.

I did it. What else could I do?

I bent down, my dress getting soaked and dirty immediately, my knees cold and sore against the stones. I tried to focus on the ground, tried to just breathe and get it over with. But they wouldn’t let me be.

“Look at her crawl,” one of the warriors laughed, stepping right next to me and kicking a puddle so dirty, water splashed all over my hands. “Just like the filth she is. Bet you like being down there, huh? Right where you belong.”

Another one knocked my bucket over. All the soapy water ran back into the dirt I had just cleaned. “Kneel lower, trash. The Alpha’s watching. Don’t you wanna be good for your master?”

I said nothing. If I spoke, they called me rude. If I stayed quiet, they called me arrogant. There was no winning here for me.

Cassian’s posture instantly changed. Every time someone touched me, I felt the air get colder. He never moved. He never yelled for them to stop. He never came down.

But he watched like I was something valuable he didn’t want broken… even while he let them throw mud at me.

One of the she-wolves, she was tall, and beautiful, and strong, everything I wasn’t. She walked right past me as I knelt and slowed down and smiled this cruel smile. And shoved her shoulder hard into mine.

I fell sideways, my face went first into the thick, black mud.

I heard laughter explode around me. They Were loud and happy like they were all having the best day just because I was covered in dirt.

And my body… my stupid, traitorous body… reacted before I could even think. I hated it.

My head came up. My eyes searched the crowd automatically. I didn’t mean to. I couldn’t help it. That string in my chest pulled so hard it hurt, leading me straight to him.

I found him instantly. Cassian was already looking.

He was standing straighter than before. His chest was going up and down fast, like he’d been running. His eyes were wide. Dark. Wild. There is no other word for it.

He looked… scared. Or angry. Or something else, something bigger than both. For just one second, I saw it. That flash in his eyes. He cares. He sees me.

My heart did that stupid, painful flutter. Like maybe… just maybe…

Then his face changed.

It twisted up. His nose wrinkled in pure disgust.. Like he was looking at something rotting.

He looked right at me, while I was crying and covered in mud and he looked at me like I wasn’t worth the air I breathed.

And then… he turned his head away, slowly away like I never existed. The laughter got louder.

I wanted to die right there in the mud. I felt so stupid. So small. So… wrong.

The bond inside me didn’t understand. It didn’t know what hate was. It just kept humming, kept pulling, kept screaming for him while I wanted to claw it right out of my chest.

They dragged me away after that. Not to the omega quarters. Not to a bed. Not anywhere warm.

They took me to the back of the house. A tiny room with no windows. A storage closet. It smelled awful here.

They threw me inside and the door slammed. The lock clicked.

“This is where you belong,” they yelled through the wood. “Out of sight. Out of his way.”

I sat there on the cold floor for hours. Shivering. Hugging my knees. Wishing I could just fade away. Wishing I had never been born. Wishing that whatever force had tied me to him had just let me be nothing forever instead of making me his nothing.

Can I please just die? Please?

But I thought the day was over. I thought the worst part had already happened.

I was wrong.

The door creaked open. I didn't dare to breathe. It wasn’t a guard. It wasn’t a servant.

It was him.

Cassian stood in the doorway. The light from the hall behind him made him look huge, like a shadow that had come alive. He stepped in and kicked the door shut behind him.

The air in that tiny room changed instantly. It got heavy and hard to breathe. My heart hammered so hard I was scared he could hear it.

He looked… wrong.

His hair was messy. His shirt was undone at the neck. His eyes were black and wide and frantic. He paced back and forth in the tiny space, his hands clenched into fists, muttering things I couldn’t understand. Like he was fighting with something only he could see.

Then he stopped, spun around and looked right at me.

“Why can’t I get rid of you?” His voice was rough, broken, loud enough to make me flinch back against the wall. He came closer. Too close, and loomed over me until I had to tilt my head all the way back just to see his face.

“Why are you everywhere?! Why do I taste you in my mouth when I haven’t seen you all day?! Why do I feel you moving around like a weight inside my skin?! You are nothing! You are dirt! You are less than nothing! I HATE YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME? I HATE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING I HAVE EVER HATED IN MY LIFE!”

He grabbed my shoulders. His fingers dug in so hard I knew I’d have marks later. He shook me hard. Back and forth. Like he was trying to shake the bond out of me.

His face was inches from mine. His breath was hot and fast against my skin.

Then his eyes dropped down to my neck, where my pulse beats. His expression shifted. The anger was still there, but something else came up underneath it. His eyes went hungry. His mouth opened a little. His white and sharp teeth showed.

I froze. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t look away.

“I will kill it, he whispered. But it wasn’t to me. It was to himself. Like he was talking to a monster inside him. “I will kill this feeling… I will destroy it… even if I have to make you mine just to ruin you completely…”

He leaned in. His lips touched the skin right under my jaw. Just barely in a brush. And it felt like fire.

His sharp fangs grazed me. He was trembling all over. Fighting so hard I could feel it radiating off him. A low, raw and deep sound came from his throat. I half expected him to yell, MINE.

His hands moved. One wrapped tight around my waist, pulling me hard against him. The other tangled in my hair, yanking my head back, exposing my neck completely to him.

He groaned against my skin.

“Just one bite…” he gasped. “Just one mark… and it’s done… and I will hate you for eternity…”

He bowed over me. Covering me. Claiming me. His teeth pressed in. Just a little. I gasped. My eyes filled with tears. My soul screamed in half fear, half that stupid, cursed joy that this is him, this is finally us.

And then he froze. His eyes flew open. He looked at me and what I saw there… I will never forget.

It was horror. Pure, unfiltered horror. Like he had just realized what he was doing. Like he had just realized what I was to him.

He shoved me away so hard I hit the wall behind me. My head cracked against the stone.

He stumbled back. Breathing like he was going to be sick. He stared at his hands. Stared at me. Touched his mouth like he had poison on his lips.

“GET OUT!”