ZARA'S POV
The kick to my ribs woke me up.
I gasped, curling into a ball on the hard floor of my cupboard. My hands flew to my side where pain exploded like fire.
"Get up, you worthless Omega!" Marcus's voice boomed through the thin door. "The floors won't scrub themselves!"
I bit my lip to keep from crying out. Crying only made it worse.
"Yes, sir," I whispered.
His heavy footsteps walked away. I waited until I couldn't hear him anymore before I let myself breathe.
My cupboard under the stairs was so small I couldn't even stand up straight. It was barely big enough for the thin blanket I slept on. No pillow. No warmth. Just darkness and the smell of cleaning supplies they stored in here with me.
I was twenty-three years old, and this had been my bedroom for eighteen years.
I touched my ribs gently. Probably bruised, but not broken. I knew the difference by now.
Through the floorboards above my head, I heard laughter and music. The Harvest Moon Ceremony was starting. The biggest party of the year, and I wasn't allowed to go. I never was.
I closed my eyes and remembered last year's ceremony. I'd been locked in here then too, listening to Clarissa laugh and dance while I bled from where Helena had hit me with a wooden spoon for burning dinner.
Clarissa. My stepsister. The girl who got everything while I got nothing.
She wore beautiful dresses. I wore rags.
She ate fancy meals. I ate scraps.
She slept in a warm bed. I slept in a cupboard.
She had parents who loved her. I had—
I stopped that thought. The Reeds weren't my parents. They never were. My real parents died when I was five. I barely remembered them anymore, just flashes of warmth and love and then... blood. So much blood.
The Reeds took me in after that. Everyone thought they were heroes for adopting a poor orphan Omega.
If only they knew the truth.
A sharp pain suddenly shot through my chest, and I sat up so fast I hit my head on the low ceiling.
"Ow!" I rubbed my head, but the pain in my chest didn't stop. It felt like... like someone was pulling me. Calling me.
My wolf stirred inside me for the first time in years.
I froze. My wolf never moved. Never spoke. I thought maybe I was so weak that I didn't really have a wolf at all.
But now she was awake, and she was... excited?
Mate, she whispered in my mind. Our mate is here.
My heart stopped.
No. That was impossible.
But the pull got stronger. I could feel him upstairs. At the ceremony. Right above me.
My fated mate was here.
I'd dreamed about this moment since I was sixteen. The moment when my mate would find me and save me from this nightmare. He would see my worth. He would love me. He would take me away from the Reeds and their cruelty.
I'd held onto that dream through every beating, every insult, every night I cried myself to sleep in this cupboard.
And now he was here.
The pull was so strong it hurt. My wolf was clawing inside me, desperate to get to him.
I looked at the cupboard door. It wasn't locked tonight—they were all too busy with the party to remember to lock me in.
I could sneak out. I could go upstairs. I could find him.
But if the Reeds caught me...
I touched my ribs again where Marcus had kicked me this morning. If he caught me at the ceremony, it would be so much worse than a kick.
But my mate was up there. My fated mate.
The Moon Goddess herself had chosen him for me. He would protect me. He had to.
I made my decision.
I slowly pushed open the cupboard door. It creaked, and I froze, waiting to see if anyone heard. But the music was too loud. No one was paying attention to the Omega in the cupboard.
I crawled out, my legs shaking. I hadn't eaten since yesterday morning—just a piece of stale bread—and I felt dizzy.
But I had to do this.
I crept toward the stairs, staying in the shadows. The house was empty. Everyone was in the main hall for the ceremony.
I needed a dress. I couldn't go to the ceremony in my dirty servant clothes covered in stains and holes.
Clarissa's room. She had dozens of dresses. She wouldn't miss one old one.
I snuck into her pink bedroom—so different from my dark cupboard—and opened her closet. I found a simple blue dress she hadn't worn in years. It was still nicer than anything I'd ever owned.
I changed quickly, trying not to look at myself in her mirror. I didn't want to see my too-thin face, my dull brown hair, my scared brown eyes.
Wait.
I looked closer at the mirror. My eyes... were they glowing?
No. Just a trick of the light.
I took a deep breath and headed toward the ceremony hall. With each step, the pull got stronger. My wolf was practically howling inside me.
Mate! Mate! Mate!
I reached the big double doors. Music and laughter poured out. I could smell food—real food, not scraps—and my stomach growled.
My hand touched the door handle.
This was it. My whole life was about to change.
I pushed open the doors and stepped inside.
Everything stopped.
Every single wolf in the room turned to look at me. The music cut off. Conversations died mid-sentence.
They could all smell it. The mate bond activating like lightning in the air.
My eyes scanned the crowd, searching, and then—
I found him.
He stood across the room, tall and powerful and so beautiful my breath caught. His dark hair, his strong jaw, his ice-blue eyes that were staring right at me.
Garrett Kane. The Alpha heir. The most powerful unmated wolf in the pack.
He was my mate.
Joy exploded in my chest. My wolf sang. This was everything I'd dreamed of—
Then I saw his face change.
Shock. Confusion. And then... disgust.
He looked at my borrowed dress. At my thin arms. At my Omega scent.
His lip curled.
"No," he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. His voice was cold, harsh, final. "This has to be a mistake."
My world started to crumble.
And beside him, I saw Clarissa step forwa
rd with a smile that promised this was only the beginning of my nightmare.