Forsaken by the Pack, Claimed by the Alpha

For three years, I have not known true sleep.

As an Omega, my only purpose was to be the Soul Tether for our comatose Alpha. A blood rune carved into my spine kept his soul anchored to the living world. If I fell into deep slumber, he would die.

But the pack's future Luna, Selene, despised me. Wielding her father's political influence, she breached my warded sanctuary, claiming I was a fraud draining the pack's wealth with a fake magical bond.

While my healers were dragged away by her personal guards, she forced deadly Wolfsbane poison down my throat.

"Dig out the root of that ugly scar," she commanded the surgeon.

As my body violently shut down from the poison, they carved the magical rune right out of my neck with a burning silver scalpel.

I screamed as the silver melted my flesh. The pack warriors just watched, mocking the absurd idea that a lowly Omega could hold an Alpha's life.

They didn't care that I had sacrificed my sanity and endured endless exhaustion for him. As the brutal extraction snapped our tether, the agonizing wail of the Alpha's dying soul echoed through the medical tower.

I fell into a freezing darkness, certain we were both dead.

But when I finally opened my eyes days later, I wasn't in the afterlife.

The Alpha had awakened, his god-like golden soul projecting over my bed. And he had just sentenced Selene's entire bloodline to death for touching me.

The reckoning had begun.

Chapter 1

Elara POV:

The penthouse ward at the top of the Blood Moon Pack medical tower was always cold. The ancient temperature-control wards kept it that way, preserving the heavy magic saturating the air. I sat in the center of the room, surrounded by glowing moonstones. I was an Omega, the lowest rank in our werewolf pack. But for the last three years, I was the most important prisoner in this building.

Carved into the base of my neck, right over my spine, was a Binding Rune. It was a complex magical scar, drawn with blood and ancient magic. This rune was a Soul Tether. It connected my soul directly to Alpha Kaelen.

He was the Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack, but his physical body lay in a deep coma in the adjacent room. A rogue attack three years ago had severed his soul from his flesh. Now, his soul lived as a golden projection, a ghost of light.

He could only survive if I stayed awake.

If I fell into deep sleep, his soul would fade.

If I stayed conscious, he lived.

My White Wolf bloodline gave me immense mental endurance. I could survive on micro-rest-brief moments of stillness that never crossed into true slumber. But the cost was absolute. A year ago, a junior healer miscalculated a potion's potency. My focus lapsed, and I slipped into true sleep for three seconds. In that brief window, Kaelen's golden projection convulsed violently while his physical form in the medical pod went into cardiac arrest. The entire tower screamed into red alert. I woke to healers pumping adrenaline into my veins and the Chief Healer's hands shaking as he restarted Kaelen's heart. That was the night I understood: my consciousness was the solitary thread keeping our Alpha from oblivion.

I was his anchor to the living world.

Right now, Kaelen's soul projection was far away at the Northern Sanctuary. He was attending a tribal meeting of the global werewolf packs. I sat on my cushion, feeling the warm pulse of his energy through the rune on my neck. His scent, like a wild thunderstorm and dark pine trees, filled my nose.

Suddenly, the heavy silver doors of the penthouse crashed open.

The sharp click of heels preceded her approach. Selene, a high-ranking Beta from the Iron Claw Pack, entered. She was also the self-proclaimed future Luna of our pack-a title she had claimed through political pressure from her father, not through any bond with Kaelen. A Luna is the Alpha's mate and the mother of the pack. Selene wanted that title desperately. She wore a dark velvet dress, looking like a gothic queen from the old centuries. Behind her, the night guards looked down at the floor.

"Get out," Selene snapped at the guards, her voice dripping with entitlement.

The guards hesitated, looking at me and the glowing moonstones.

"I carry the Elder's ring by decree of the alliance council," Selene said coldly, holding up a silver ring. "My father's forces guard your eastern border. Question me again, and I will have you reassigned to the front lines. Get out."

The guards exchanged a look of helpless frustration, then bowed and left the room, closing the heavy doors.

Selene walked toward the energy ward. She looked at the expensive moonstones and rare healing herbs around me. Her face twisted with deep jealousy.

"Do you have any idea how many millions you drain from this pack every month, you dirty little stray?" she sneered.

"Selene, please do not step into the circle," I said quietly.

"Shut your mouth!" she yelled.

She kicked a large moonstone out of the circle. The magical blue light in the room flickered and died. The warm connection on my neck suddenly turned freezing cold.

"What are you doing?" I gasped, grabbing my neck. "The Alpha needs the energy!"

Selene lunged, twisting her hand into my hair and violently dragging me out of the runic boundary. I cried out as my knees hit the cold marble floor. She pulled a small glass vial from her pocket. The liquid inside was dark green and smelled like rotting earth. It was Wolfsbane mixed with liquid silver. Wolfsbane is a deadly poison to our kind, and silver is our ultimate weakness.

"You really think you control the Alpha's life?" Selene whispered, her eyes manic. "You're just a dog playing a parlor trick."

Her fingers dug mercilessly into my cheeks, forcing my jaw up. I struggled, but I was a weak Omega outside my magic circle. She poured the burning green liquid down my throat. It tasted like ash and battery acid. I coughed, choking as the poison hit my stomach.

Instantly, a heavy, dark fog rolled into my brain. My White Wolf blood tried to fight it, but the dose was too strong. I felt something I had not felt in three years. Deadly, heavy sleepiness.

The Binding Rune on my neck suddenly flashed with a bloody red light. It was a warning. The soul connection was breaking.

Selene raised her hand and muttered a dark witch's spell. She slammed her palm over my rune, forcing the red light to die.

The heavy silver doors burst open again. Silas, the Chief Rune Healer of our pack, ran into the room.

"Stop!" Silas screamed, his pupils contracting violently, the reflection of the red warning lights trembling in his irises. He raised his hands, trying to cast a healing spell to keep me awake.

Selene spun around, her heavy boot catching Silas square in the chest and sending him crashing to the floor. "Guards!" she shrieked toward the door. "Drag this traitor from my sight! He interferes with official pack business!" Two of her loyal guards-men her father had placed in our ranks-rushed in, grabbing the stunned Silas by the arms and hauling him into the hallway, slamming the door shut behind them.

She stepped heavily on his hands, breaking his spell gesture.

"You are hurting the Alpha's lifeline!" Silas yelled from the floor. "If she falls into deep sleep, his soul will scatter!"

"Oh, please," Selene laughed coldly. "This whole 'Soul Tether' myth is just your excuse to siphon funds. An Omega's biology can't anchor an Alpha. It's a scam, and I'm ending it."

Suddenly, a loud ringing sound echoed in Silas's pocket. It was a communication crystal.

"The Sanctuary!" Silas panicked. "The tribal doctors are using the Mind-Link network! They are sending an emergency distress call!"

Mind-Link is our telepathic network, a way for wolves to speak inside their heads. Selene's face turned pale for a second, but her pride took over. She pressed her Elder's ring to the wall panel.

"Override communication," Selene commanded. "Block all Mind-Links from the Sanctuary."

"Are you out of your mind?!" Silas cried.

Selene ignored him. She looked down at me. I was trying to use my fingers to draw a wakefulness rune on the floor. My eyelids felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. Selene lifted her heavy boot. The sole of her boot was lined with pure silver dust. She stomped down on my fingers.

The silver burned my skin like a hot iron, melting my flesh. I screamed, the pain echoing in the empty room. But the pain was not enough to fight the Wolfsbane. My vision turned black at the edges.

Deep inside my mind, a very faint voice echoed through the fading connection.

Elara...

It was Kaelen's Mind-Link. His voice was weak, trembling like a dying flame.

Stay with me... please...

"I am sorry," I whispered to the empty air.

My eyes rolled back. The last thing I felt was the complete silence in my soul.

Far away at the Northern Sanctuary, Kaelen's golden soul collapsed onto the frozen ground and did not shatter-but simply ceased to be, like a flame extinguished by a sudden gust of wind.

And for the first time in three years, I fell into the waiting dark.