I ran down the dimly lit dormitory hallway, my breath coming in ragged gasps as if the oxygen at Silverwood had turned into shards of glass slicing through my lungs. Every step felt heavy. My heart pounded not from exhaustion, but from the electric shock left behind by Kaelan Draken’s touch. The scent of pine forest and storm still clung fiercely to my skin, creeping into my pores, and worst of all, my soul seemed to want to howl back at it.
He sensed it. He smelled me, my mind screamed hysterically.
I slammed the door to my dorm room in the west wing, a cramped den I shared with two other Omegas. Thankfully, the room was empty. My roommates were probably busy sucking up to the elites in the cafeteria, trading away their dignity for the illusion of social protection.
I locked the door at once and leaned my back against it, then slid down until I was sitting on the ice-cold floor. I looked at the fingers I’d injured that morning. The cuts had closed perfectly, without a trace. A Luna’s regeneration was both a miracle and the most obvious curse. If I wanted to remain a shadow, I had to destroy every sign of this perfection.
With trembling hands, I reached into my bag and pulled out a small glass bottle filled with thick purple liquid that reeked. A mixture of sulfur and corpse plants. Scent-Nullifier.
I rose and glared at myself in the mirror. In the eyes of the world, I was an Omega with no future. But beneath this skin, I was the Moon Luna they were hunting. An anomaly of power capable of shutting down any Alpha’s instincts. I dripped the liquid onto my wrists and neck.
“Aaakh...” I winced. A burning sting spread instantly, leaving my skin red and lightly blistered.
The wild-lily scent and moonlight Kaelan had praised earlier slowly died, replaced by a sharp, nauseating chemical stench. I had to do this. If they found out who I was, they wouldn’t treat me like a human being. They would chain me up and turn me into a weapon of mass destruction.
“Kaelan Draken...” I whispered bitterly, staring at my foul-smelling reflection. “Out of millions of wolves, why did it have to be the son of the devil who slaughtered my mother? Why does fate enjoy spitting in my face so much?”
Night fell over Silverwood. A crescent moon appeared in the sky, casting silver light that seemed to call my blood to rise. Restlessness crawled beneath my skin like thousands of insects. I needed air. I needed earth.
I slipped outside toward the dormitory’s back garden, where Silver Birch trees stood like white ghosts beneath the moonlight. I walked barefoot, letting the wet grass cool my emotions. But my calm shattered when a shrill laugh pierced my ears.
“Look at this. Isn’t this the trash left behind in class earlier?”
It was Sesilia. She stood beside the stone fountain with her pack. In her hand, she held my notebook, its pages stained with ink. My heart sank. It wasn’t just paper. Inside were sketches of my mother’s face, drawn with tears every night.
“It’s nothing but disgusting scribbles and the stench of poverty,” Sesilia sneered. She sparked a flame and set the corner of the notebook on fire. “A trash Omega like her has no place here. Kael only felt sorry for her because she looked like a wounded dog. Kael is mine, and he’d never look twice at trash like you.”
I watched the flames begin to devour the sketch of my mother’s face. The face that had already begun to fade from my memory was now turning to ash.
Don’t move, Alea. Remain a shadow, my logical mind whispered.
But the wolf inside me awoke with a roar that thundered through my mind. A wave of frigid energy exploded from the center of my body. The wind, calm only moments before, suddenly howled, shaking the tree branches with unnatural force.
“Huh? What was that?” Sesilia jolted, her hair whipping wildly in the sudden storm. “Why did it suddenly get so creepy?”
I stepped out of the darkness. My normally brown eyes now glowed with a sharp, deadly silver light. My voice emerged low, trembling with Luna power.
“Give it back. My book.”
Sesilia went deathly pale, but her arrogance outweighed her fear. “Oh, the little rat’s biting back? You want this? Take it!”
She threw the burning notebook into the fountain pool. The flames went out, leaving behind paper that was torn to pieces and soaked through.
“Oops. My hand slipped again,” Sesilia laughed shrilly, though her legs were trembling.
I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream. I simply stared at her with a look that froze the air around us. The water in the pool began to tremble violently, forming sharp ripples as if it wanted to explode toward her.
“You...” I took one step forward. “You have no idea what you just destroyed, Beta Girl.”
“What are you going to do about it, huh?!” Sesilia raised her hand, ready to slap me.
But before her hand could touch my skin, a much larger, veined hand caught her wrist in midair. The pressure was so strong that I could hear her bones creak softly.
“That’s enough, Sesilia.”
Kaelan Draken emerged from the darkness as though he were part of the shadows themselves. His face was cold, more like a statue of death than a human being. His eyes flashed electric blue, enough to make anyone’s courage falter.
“K-Kael? I was only teaching this Omega a lesson...”
“Leave,” Kaelan ordered. That one word carried such powerful Alpha Command that Sesilia and her friends instinctively dropped to their knees before scrambling up and fleeing in a panic.
Deadly silence fell between us. I immediately knelt at the edge of the pool, reaching into the cold water to retrieve what remained of my book. The paper had turned to pulp. My mother’s face was gone forever.
“That’s all I had...” I whispered brokenly. My tears fell, making ripples in the murky water.
Kaelan stood behind me. I could feel his gaze boring into my back. “That wind... and the vibration in the water,” he said hoarsely. “That wasn’t Beta magic. That was nature’s authority.”
I didn’t answer. I continued clutching the paper pulp to my chest.
“And your scent...” Kaelan frowned, inhaling greedily before covering his nose. “Now you smell disgusting. Like chemicals and rot. You did this on purpose, didn’t you? You burned your own skin just to hide your identity from me?”
I stood and turned around. My face was swollen from crying, but my eyes burned with silver fire I was no longer fully hiding. “Why do you care, Kaelan Draken? I’m just trash at your school. Why didn’t you just let them destroy me?”
Kaelan stepped forward, closing the distance until I could feel his hot breath against my forehead. He gripped my shoulders with enough force to nearly crack my bones. “Because my wolf hasn’t stopped howling since he saw you! He wants to tear apart anyone who touches you, but at the same time, he thinks you’re the greatest threat to the Blackwood family!”
He leaned closer, his eyes locked on my trembling lips. “Tell me, Alea! Who are you really? Why does my blood feel like it’s burning every time you’re near me?!”
Before I could answer, a sharp whistle split the night.
“LOOK OUT!”
Kaelan reacted at lightning speed. He pulled me into his arms and spun us around until his back faced the forest.
An arrow with a gleaming silverhead sank into Kaelan’s upper arm. He groaned loudly, the growl of a wounded wolf bursting from his throat. Black blood seeped from the wound—blood infected with silver.
“Silver...” Kaelan hissed, his face paling as his eyes grew even more feral.
Five black-robed figures emerged from behind the Silver Birch trees. They had no wolf scent. They smelled of metal, weapon oil, and death. The Hunters.
“That girl belongs to us, Alpha Blackwood,” the leader of the black-robed figures said in a cold, flat voice. “Hand her over, or we’ll send the future Alpha’s head to your father in a wooden box tonight.”
I froze in Kaelan’s arms. They knew. The hunters who had slaughtered my clan had found me.
Kaelan tightened his embrace, shielding me with his large body as though I were the most precious treasure in the world. His fangs lengthened, his nails became sharp claws, and his blue aura exploded with such force that the ground around us cracked.
“Touch her,” Kaelan growled, his voice now entirely that of an enraged monster, “and I’ll make sure even hell feels sorry for what I’m going to do to you.”
Amid the threat of death, I realized the most terrifying thing of all: I was no longer afraid of Kaelan. I was afraid of the fact that I felt safest in the arms of my sworn enemy’s son.