Pearl's POV

They made me mop the floor with a broken broom and a bleeding hand.

"Faster, omega," Mara, the Beta's daughter said as she kicked over the bucket. Dirty water spilled across the marble floor I'd just cleaned.

I didn't flinch. Flinching only made her smile.

I wrung my hand to stop the blood from staining the pack's pristine tiles.

That was the first rule : no Omega filth must touch what the Alphas walked on. The second rule? Obey. The third? Stay silent, even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts.

I was born in this pack. Raised behind its walls. Fed like a stray, treated like an infestation. My mother died giving birth to me, a weak omega pup who should've died too. My father? No one ever spoke his name. Some say he was rogue. Others say he ran the moment he smelled what I was. Either way, the message was clear : I wasn't wanted. Not even by the Moon Goddess.

Until he came of age.

Alpha Kael.

The future of the Moon veil Pack. The youngest Alpha in a century. Power in his blood, thunder in his voice, and face carved from every girl's dreams including mine.

I tried not to look at him when I served at the table, when I scrubbed the floors outside the training grounds or when I knelt by the kitchen fires while the others laughed. But I always felt his eyes. Watching. Flickering. Flicking away.

And then... one day, he didn't look away.

I tripped while carrying a tray of glasses. They crashed to the floor, wine spreading like spilled blood. My knees hit the ground hard. I waited for the slap, the curses, the punishment.

But instead, Kael's voice cut through the gasps.

"Stop."

Everyone froze.

I looked up slowly. He was standing there, golden eyes unreadable. Sharp jaw, broad shoulders, every inch of him radiating dominance and fury but not at me.

He bent, picked up a shard of glass, and tossed it aside.

"Get up," he said.

My hands trembled. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. I didn't mean to —"

"I said get up."

I did. Slowly. Expecting the worst. But it didn't come. Not then.

"Follow me," he said.

And I did.

We ended up in the old east wing, a part of the pack house no one used anymore.

He turned to me there, his gaze softening as they fell on my bleeding hand. "Are you alright?”

Before I could answer, he loosened his silk necktie and wrapped it around my hand, adding pressure to his hold. "You're going to be okay, Pearl."

My heart skipped a beat whenever he said my name. The mate bond. The one between us, though impossible, was something I cherished. We had found out I had summer last year and at first, I was skeptical and thought it impossible. That I was just an omega. But Kael told me he wanted me.

He stepped closer. "No one will treat you this way ever again after I make you mine."

His scent, dark cedar and winter frost, wrapped around me, intoxicating and terrifying. Every part of me screamed yes. My wolf stirred, clawed, and sang. Kael would make me his Luna.

"I swear I will take care of you," he added, reaching out to brush my hair back.

The next few weeks followed in a blur.

Kael kept me close. Touched me when no one looked. Whispered things that made my heart skip and my wolf whimper. Promised things — softly, secretly, never quite fully.

He never kissed me in daylight. Never held my hands in public or told me he loved me out in the open. And I thought... Maybe he just needed time. Maybe he was afraid of what the pack would say if they found us together. I was just an omega after all.

But that would end tonight. Because tonight, he promised he'd make me his.

Tonight, I stood at the edge of the ballroom, heart in my throat. The Full Moon Ball, Kael's celebration now that he was officially declared Alpha. My fingers were raw from scrubbing the chandeliers and my back ached from hauling crates but I stood still, just to see him.

Tonight, he'd tell them.

Tonight, I won't be a secret anymore.

The music swelled and the crowd parted as Kael walked in, wearing midnight black armour and a silver crown on his short, blonde hair.

A smile crept to my lips and I applauded as he sauntered into the room. My brows furrowed when I realized he wasn't alone. Someone was with him.

A woman.

He had a woman on his arm and not just any girl.

A soft gasp unconsciously escaped my lips when our eyes locked.

Mara?

Kael was with Mara. The Mara I told him hurt me just to see the colour of an Omega’s blood. The Mara who had tormented me since I was a child. The Mara I hated. That he claimed he hated.

Sapphire dress, high-born air and smooth, pale hands curled into his like it belonged there, Mara looked ethereal and Kael looked at her like she was everything.

Then, as if sensing me, he glanced my way and smirked.

I froze.

That was the same smirk he gave me behind closed doors. Only this time, it was that of mischief.

To my horror but to the crowd’s delight, he leaned in and… kissed her.

I stood there and watched as Kael drew Mara closer. His kiss wasn't a polite kiss. It was a claiming one. The kind that said "Mine". The kind him and I had just shared.

Something inside me snapped.

It wasn't a sound. It was a sharp silence, deafening and final.

My stomach dropped and my wolf whimpered, curling in on herself as if she had been kicked in the stomach.

My eyes filled as Kael pulled away and looked at me. Kael looked right at me and he smiled a slow, cruel thing. The truth had never been so clear.

He'd known what he had done.

This… whatever this was… had always been the plan.

My vision blurred and I let the tears slip down my cheeks before I could stop them.

All this time, I thought I'd finally found someone who loved me and didn't see me as livestock. All this time I had been foolish, stupid enough to believe him.

My chest ached and I turned to leave because there was a snow point staying here. My heart was already in pieces, the man I was in love with didn't love me and I felt so numb.

I had barely taken a step when suddenly, a searing pain stabbed through my chest. I doubled over, clutching my ribs, gasping.

The mark.

The mate mark. It was burning. Like it was being severed.

No. No, no, no.

Not here.

Not now.

And then I saw him, Kael, across the ballroom.

He knew what he was doing.

He wanted me to feel it.

Because tonight wasn't just about his crown.

It was about my end.

I was going to be rejected, not in secret, but in front of everyone.

The whole pack would watch.

And I would have to stand there and let him do it.

Like the worthless Omega he always knew I was.