Kira's POV

The plate crashed to the floor, spilling food everywhere.

"Clumsy freak!" Chelsea hissed, her green eyes sparkling with hate. "Can't you do anything right?"

I dropped to my knees, trying to clean up the mess before anyone else noticed. My hands shook as I picked up broken pieces of the fancy dish. Blood dripped from where a sharp edge cut my finger.

"The cursed one strikes again," someone whispered behind me.

"She killed her own mother. What do you expect?"

"Poor Marcus. Good thing he's picking a real mate tonight."

The words hit me like punches to the stomach. I kept my head down, pretending I couldn't hear them. But every harsh word burned into my heart.

Twenty-four years old, and still they blamed me for something I couldn't even remember. My mother died giving birth to me during a terrible storm. The pack never let me forget it.

I stood up with the broken pieces, my cut finger still bleeding. The Harvest Moon party was in full swing around me. Everyone laughed and danced while I served them food like a helper. Like I wasn't even part of the pack.

But I wasn't really part of the pack, was I?

My eyes found Marcus across the crowded room. He stood tall and strong, his sandy brown hair catching the moonlight through the windows. He was talking to Sarah, the Beta's daughter. She was everything I wasn't – beautiful, popular, strong.

Marcus hadn't looked at me once tonight. Not once.

For ten years, I'd hoped. Dreamed. Prayed to the Moon Goddess that maybe, somehow, he'd see me as more than the cursed omega who killed her mother. That maybe he'd understand we could be mates.

But hope was a dangerous thing for someone like me.

"Kira!" Chelsea's sharp voice cut through my thoughts. "Stop looking and get back to work. Unless you want everyone to see how pathetic you are."

I turned away from Marcus and headed to the kitchen. My wolf, Ember, stirred weakly in my chest. She'd been quiet for so long, I sometimes forgot she was there.

He doesn't want us, I whispered to her in my mind.

I know, she whispered back, her voice full of pain. Maybe we should leave.

Leave. The thought had crossed my mind a thousand times. But where would I go? I had no money, no friends, no family except for Chelsea – and she hated me. The human world didn't want vampires. Other packs wouldn't take in a doomed omega.

I was stuck.

In the kitchen, I put more food onto trays. My hands moved automatically while my mind wandered. What would it feel like to be normal? To have a mate who loved me? To fit somewhere?

"Kira." A deep voice made me jump.

I spun around to find Marcus standing in the doorway. My heart stopped. He was here. In the kitchen. With me.

"Alpha," I whispered, dropping my eyes. "I'm sorry about the plate. I'll pay for it somehow."

"Look at me."

Slowly, I raised my eyes to meet his. They were the same warm brown I'd fallen in love with as a youth. But now they looked... sad?

"You don't have to pay for anything," he said quietly. "Are you hurt?"

He was looking at my cut finger. Without thinking, I hid it behind my back.

"It's nothing."

He stepped closer. I could smell his scent – pine trees and rain. My wolf stirred again, hoping.

"Kira, I..." He stopped and shook his head. "Never mind. The reveal will happen soon. You should watch from the kitchen."

My heart sank. "Of course, Alpha."

He started to leave, then turned back. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

Sorry? Sorry for what?

But he was already gone.

I stood there, confused and hurt. Sorry for picking Sarah? Sorry for never noticing me? Sorry that I existed at all?

Through the kitchen doorway, I could see the pack gathered in the main room. Marcus walked to the middle, Sarah beside him. She glowed with happiness and pride.

"My pack family," Marcus's voice boomed over the crowd. "Tonight, under the Harvest Moon, I choose my mate and your future Luna."

The crowd cheered. I pressed myself against the kitchen wall, trying to become unnoticeable.

"Sarah Williams, daughter of our Beta, will stand beside me as we lead this pack into the future."

More cheers. Sarah smiled as Marcus took her hand. They looked great together.

I felt something crack inside my chest. Not my heart – that had broken long ago. This was something greater. Something that made Ember whimper in pain.

But then Marcus raised his hand for silence. "However," he said, his voice carrying across the room, "there is one more thing I must address tonight."

The crowd quieted, curious.

Marcus's eyes found mine across the room. Even from the kitchen, I could see something dark and determined in his face.

"Kira Thorne," he called out. "Come forward."

My blood turned to ice. Why was he calling me? This wasn't part of picking a mate. This was something else.

"Kira!" he called again, louder this time.

Everyone turned to look at the kitchen opening. I had no choice. On shaking legs, I walked into the main room. The crowd split around me like I had some terrible disease.

I stopped in front of Marcus, my head down. I could feel hundreds of eyes on me, judging me, hating me.

"Look up," Marcus ordered.

I raised my eyes to his face. What I saw there made my stomach drop. This wasn't the sad, gentle Marcus from the kitchen. This was the Alpha, cold and strong.

"For ten years," he revealed to the crowd, "this omega has lived among us. For ten years, we've shown kindness to the one who killed her own mother during birth."

No. No, no, no. This wasn't happening.

"But mercy has its limits," Marcus continued. "Tonight, I officially reject Kira Thorne as any possible mate. I reject her before the Moon Goddess and before this pack."

Pain burst in my chest like lightning. The mate tie I'd dreamed of, even though we'd never been true mates, snapped like a broken chain. I gasped, falling to my knees as pain tore through me.

But Marcus wasn't done.

"No one wants an omega who killed her own mother," he said, his words echoing through the suddenly silent room. "No one wants broken goods. No one wants the cursed one."

The crowd burst in cheers and laughter. Someone threw food at me. Someone else spat.

I knelt there, broken and bleeding inside, as the pack I'd served my whole life hailed my destruction.

But then something impossible happened.

Power exploded from my chest like an explosion. Golden light poured out of me, washing over the entire room. Every person it touched suddenly stood straighter, stronger. Wounds healed quickly. Tired wolves felt energized.

The cheering stopped. Everyone stared at me in shock and fear.

I stared at my own hands, shining with impossible power. What was happening to me?

"Dark magic!" Chelsea screamed from somewhere in the crowd. "She's using dark magic! She's been working with rogues!"

Panic spread through the room. People backed away from me like I was poison.

But I could barely hear them. My power was rising, building, threatening to tear me apart from the inside. Ember was howling in my thoughts, but her voice sounded different. Stronger.

I had to get out. Now.

I stumbled to my feet and ran toward the door. Behind me, Chelsea was still yelling about dark magic and rogues and danger. The pack was believing her. They always believed her.

I burst through the front door into the rain that had started during the party. Rain struck at my face as I ran into the dark forest.

Lightning flashed overhead, and for a moment, I could have sworn I saw golden eyes watching me from between the trees.

But that was impossible.

Wasn't it?