The Lone Wolf Queen

In Academy, strength reigns supreme.

I am Athena, a born peak Alpha.

I once trusted love and loyalty, only to be betrayed by my fiancé, my best friend, and the weak Omega I sheltered.

They plotted my downfall, stole my glory, and left me to die in the abyss.

Blood tempered my wolf soul. I return colder, sharper, and unchained.

No more tenderness. No more mercy.

I will reclaim what is mine. An Alpha rises alone to the throne.

On Friday night, Caleb, Liam, and I gathered in the living room of my dorm suite as usual, discussing tactical assignments for our next combat class.

Ten minutes later, Lily pushed the door open timidly, carrying a woven vine basket.

"I picked some fresh wild berries by the edge of the forest." She placed the basket dead center on the coffee table, her voice trailing off into a soft, pleasing purr. "I wanted to share them with everyone... Sister, I washed them really well."

Liam smiled, a hint of pleasant pine scent rippling through his pheromones. "Thanks to our sweet little wolf. I was just getting thirsty." He reached out and picked up a cluster of red berries.

Caleb, sitting beside me, smiled dotingly as well and reached up to ruffle the top of my hair. "Athena, since your sister brought them out, just give them a try." He even commended her, carrying the magnanimous tone of a future brother-in-law.

That was until Lily picked up a single fruit from the very bottom of the basket and took a bite.

"It's hot... Brother-in-law, sister... I feel so terribly sick..."

Her voice shattered instantly. A deep flush, like a sparked wildfire, burned all the way from her neck up to her cheeks as her hands frantically clawed at her collar. The distinct pheromones of an Omega exploded without warning, flooding the entire living room with a cloying, sickly-sweet scent.

"Damn it, that's an Aphrodisia fruit." I practically sprang to my feet. The wolf inside me growled low, but my logic forcefully suppressed that primal agitation. My hand dived into my pocket for my phone. "Hold on, I’m calling Dr. Harris to bring over a heavy sedative right now—"

Smack!

A broad hand suddenly smacked my phone away, sending it smashing against the stone wall where it cracked into two pieces.

I whipped my head around, staring at him in sheer disbelief.

Caleb's eyes were already tainted with a dangerous layer of crimson. He let out a low roar, "There's no time! By the time the doctor gets here, her internal organs will be completely burned through by the heat!"

He didn't give me any room to react. Taking a massive stride over the coffee table, he scooped the painfully writhing Lily off the rug and heavily into his arms. Lily eagerly tilted her head back, tangling her slender arms fiercely around his neck as a sticky moan slipped from her throat.

Carrying her tight against his chest, Caleb turned and charged straight toward the end of the hallway—which was my bedroom.

Bang!

The door violently swung inward off its hinges under his heavy kick.

"Caleb!" I barked harshly. The oppressive aura of an apex Alpha inside me could no longer be contained; it violently poured out, weighing down the air in the entire room.

But a heavy hand clamped down hard on my shoulder, the grip so strong it was almost forceful. It was Liam.

"Athena, calm down." He lowered his voice, his brows twisting into a tight knot. "Your sister is an Omega, a pitiful little thing who can't even maintain a stable partial shift. If Caleb doesn't help her, she will literally die."

I violently shrugged off his hand and roared hoarsely, "And that's the excuse for my fiancé to mark my sister?!"

I took a large stride toward the bedroom doorway, but Liam stubbornly sidestepped to block my path. His voice dropped even lower, laced with a pleading tone. "Athena, don't do this. Think about your family's reputation—if the pack doctor gets here and this blows up, even if Lily is just your father's adopted daughter, this scandal will spread across the entire pack."

The door wasn't shut tight. Looking right past Liam's shoulder, I peered through that narrow crack. My bedsheets were already torn into a chaotic mess. Caleb had her pinned relentlessly to the mattress, dropping heavy, rough kisses along her flushed neck. The suffocating sweetness of their intertwining pheromones seeped through the gap in the door, choking me to the point where I could barely breathe.

Tears slipped silently down my face. Yet, for the sake of the family's dignity, I stood perfectly still outside the door. I didn't charge in hysterically; I simply clenched my fists, letting that sickening stench conquer my territory inch by inch.

Right at that exact moment, Lily’s hands clung tightly to my fiancé's bare back. Through that narrow crack in the door, she turned her head and looked straight at me.

She smiled at me.

It was an undisguised, triumphant smirk.

There was no kindhearted sharing; this had always been a long-premeditated hunt.

Early the next morning, I stood rigidly in front of the bathroom vanity when heavy footsteps padded heavily up behind me. I didn't even need to turn around to know it was Caleb. The familiar scent he always carried was now tainted with that sickeningly sweet pheromone I absolutely loathed.

He pushed the door open and stepped out. There wasn't a single shred of guilt on his face, nor any intention of avoiding my gaze.

"Last night was an absolute emergency." He leaned casually against the doorframe, his expression carrying a hint of exhaustion. "Athena, you've been strong since childhood. You're an apex Alpha. You can handle enduring a little grievance on your own. But Lily is different. She is way too weak—if I hadn't done that, she would have lost her life."

He reached out to pull me toward him, his tone laced with a sickening sense of entitlement. "As her older sister, and as my future Luna, you should be understanding of what I had to do for the greater good..."

"Don't touch me."

I stared at the mirror in front of me, glaring right at his hypocritical reflection. A wave of deep nausea surged from the bottom of my throat.

"Athena, can you stop making a scene?" Caleb's face darkened instantly, a layer of impatient hostility churning within his escaping pheromones. "You're actually getting jealous? She is a broken Omega who has to fight tooth and nail just to survive, and you insist on twisting this into something so disgusting?"

"I'm twisting it into something disgusting?" I spat. "Aphrodisia fruits never grow in ordinary woods. How could a 'defective' Omega like her manage to 'just happen' to forage that exact fruit, and then 'just happen' to take a bite right at this exact moment?"

A brief flash of uneasiness crossed Caleb's face. "But no matter what, she's still your adopted sister. Stop throwing a tantrum and think about your family's reputation."

I raised my right hand, pulling off the engagement ring he had personally slipped onto my ring finger, and casually tossed it into the trash can. Immediately after, I smashed my bare fist right into the mirror in front of me.

Crash!

Glass shards exploded everywhere, a few jagged, sharp pieces scattering directly across Caleb's boots. He flinched violently, taking a half-step back in pure shock.

"That bedroom, along with all the trash currently inside it, is yours now."

I lowered my eyes to stare at the ruined, splintered remains of the mirror covering the floor. My voice held absolutely no fluctuation.

"From this day forward, do not touch anything that belongs to me."