Daria's POV
My knuckles were bleeding again.
I slowly wiped them on my training pants, leaving dark smears on the rough fabric. The dust from the training yard stuck to every inch of my sweat-soaked skin. Every breath felt like fire in my lungs, and my ribs still throbbed from the last blow. But I pushed myself up anyway, forcing my trembling legs to hold my weight.
The mocking laughter started before I was even fully standing.
“Look at her. She actually thinks she can be a warrior.” Marcus, one of the pack's best fighters, didn't bother lowering his voice.
“An orphan omega? Please,” his friend snorted. “She should be in the kitchens where she belongs.”
I ignored them. I’d had years of practice ignoring the whispers, the sneers, the way pack members looked through me like I was invisible. My parents had died in the Great War when I was three, so I had no family or status. I was just another mouth to feed.
But I had a dream. Warriors were respected. Warriors mattered. If I could just prove myself strong enough, maybe someone would finally see me as more than nothing.
“Again.” Training Leader Garrett's voice cracked across the yard like a whip.
I braced myself, raising my fists as my tired arms shook. We had been at this for hours, and he had paired me against opponents twice my size, every single time.
The wolf he chose to face me wasted no time. His fist connected with my jaw, snapping my head back. A sharp pain immediately shot through my head, and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.
I hit the ground hard, dirt filling my mouth as my vision blurred. Somewhere above me, Garrett laughed. It was a cruel sound, empty of any warmth.
“Pathetic,” he sneered, his boot slamming into my ribs.
I gasped as the air was knocked out of my lungs, curling up in reflex to protect myself from the pain that shot through my side like white-hot fire.
“You are nothing,” he spat, grabbing a handful of my hair and pulling my head up. “Just an orphaned omega pretending to be a warrior. You disgust me.”
He raised his hand for another strike, and the pack… they just watched. Dozens of wolves were standing in the training yard, and not one of them moved. Not one of them spoke up. They never did. No one ever helped me. No one ever cared.
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the blow, but to my surprise, it never came. Instead, the air shifted, and a strong presence swept through the training yard like a storm, heavy and commanding. It was the kind of power that made every wolf instinctively bare their throats.
My eyes snapped open and I noticed the crowd parting, wolves stepping back without even thinking about it. And then I saw him.
The famous Alpha Lucius.
He walked forward with the confidence of a man who had never questioned his place in the world. Tall, broad-shouldered, and devastatingly handsome. His dark hair caught the sunlight, but it was his golden eyes that held me spellbound. They blazed with an authority that made my wolf whimper and bow inside my mind.
“What is going on here, Garrett?” His voice was low, deadly quiet.
Garrett's hand dropped from my hair immediately. “Alpha, I was just…”
“You were just what?” Lucius's gaze cut to him, sharp as a blade. “Beating a member of my pack into the dirt for sport?”
“She is weak, Alpha. She doesn't belong here.” Garrett's voice had lost its cruel edge. Now he just sounded defensive.
“That is not your decision to make.”
The temperature in the yard suddenly seemed to drop and wolves shifted nervously. I had never seen anyone speak to Garrett like this. He was known for being untouchable, cruel, the kind of wolf who enjoyed inflicting pain.
But in the presence of an Alpha, he was nothing.
Lucius turned towards me, his expression softening just a bit as he extended his hand. “Get up.”
A spark of hope flared in my chest, bright and desperate. Maybe, finally, someone saw me. Maybe this was the moment everything changed.
I slowly reached for his hand, and the moment our fingers touched, it felt like… lightning.
Every nerve in my body was overwhelmed with feeling. The world stopped spinning, and all I could feel was the place where his skin met mine, like a live wire connecting us. Energy pulsed between us, wild and untamed and absolutely right.
His eyes widened as the gold started to glow intensely. His breath caught, and his whole body went rigid.
“Mate,” the word tore from his throat, barely a whisper.
My heart skipped a beat as my wolf surged forward, howling with joy and recognition. “Mate. Mate. Mate.” The word sang through every fiber of my being. This was it. My salvation, my future, everything I had ever wanted and dreamed of, handed to me in one perfect moment.
The Moon Goddess had given me a mate. And not just any mate but an Alpha.
Tears welled up in my eyes, not from pain this time, but from pure, overwhelming relief. I wasn't nothing. I wasn't invisible. The bond between us felt alive, beautiful, and unbreakable.
But then his expression changed.
The warmth drained from his face as his jaw clenched. Those golden eyes went cold and… empty.
“No.” He stepped back, his hand falling to his side. “I, Alpha Lucius of the Blood Pact, reject you as my mate.”
“What? No. You can't… why?”
In a heartbeat, the bond between us cracked. I felt it shatter inside my chest, jagged pieces tearing through me. Pain ripped through every inch of my body, like claws tearing me apart from the inside out. My wolf howled in anguish. Breathing became impossible, and my mind went blank.
My legs gave out, and I hit the ground hard. But somehow I barely felt it. Blood pooled in my mouth, and as I coughed, it splattered across the dusty ground, a clear red against the earth.
The pack gasped. Someone shouted. But the sounds were distant and muffled, like I was underwater.
My vision grew hazy as darkness slowly crept in at the edges.
The last thing I saw before the world disappeared was Lucius walking away, his back straight, his steps confident, leaving me broken and abandoned in the dust.
Why would the Moon Goddess give me a mate, only to have him destroy me?