BELONG TO THE ALPHA

Just two hours before those terrifying electric blue eyes pinned her to the shadows of the grand hall, Elowen’s morning had been a blur of agonizing survival.

Her heart pounded an erratic rhythm against her bruised ribs. She pushed through the aching discomfort radiating deep inside her bones. Seeking a pack healer today would only invite more cruelty and suspicion. The pack house was a chaotic frenzy of frantic activity. Omegas rushed through the stone corridors, their arms loaded with fresh linens and polished silver. They scrubbed the floors to prepare for the new alpha's initiation ceremony and the terrifying overlord’s arrival. The air reeked of roasting meats and nervous sweat. The stakes were too high for mistakes. Any minor sign of slacking gave her abusers another excuse to torment her.

“What are you staring at?! Keep moving!”

Miss Morra snarled the command. The vicious senior omega glared at Elowen with deep, unmasked disgust. Morra’s round face contorted into a permanent scowl whenever she looked at the pack's biggest failure.

Elowen obeyed mechanically. She picked up her heavy wooden bucket of soapy water. She was hollow inside. She had stopped feeling physical pain, or any genuine emotion, a long time ago. She merely went through the basic motions of survival. Her body screamed for rest. Krovos had used her relentlessly until the early hours of the morning. He forced his heavy body onto hers over and over, ignoring her dry skin and torn muscles. Surviving his obsessive, suffocating cruelty drained every ounce of her life force.

Her mind flashed to a dark memory. Six months ago, the suffocating reality of her existence became too much. She tried to drain the life from her own body. She stole a sharp piece of shattered glass and sliced deep into her wrists, desperate for the quiet peace of death. But Krovos found her before her heart stopped beating. He healed her wounds. Then, he tied her naked limbs to a heavy iron bed frame for three straight weeks. He fed her just enough to keep her breathing, ensuring she couldn't ever escape him through death. The brutal restriction of those restraints broke something fundamental inside her. From that day on, her severe dissociation became her only functioning shield.

“Move faster, you useless runt!”

Miss Morra’s shrill scream echoed down the hall. Elowen ignored the ache in her chest and carried her cleaning supplies toward her assigned guest room on the second floor.

She pushed open the heavy oak door. Instead of an empty room waiting for fresh sheets, a thick stench of sex hit her face. Skaris, her stepbrother, was in the middle of the mattress. He had a naked omega pinned flat beneath him. Skaris thrust his stiff cock deep into the omega's wet cunt. His large hands squeezed and bruised the omega's bare breasts as he roughly swallowed her desperate moans with a bruising kiss.

Skaris froze mid-thrust. He ripped his mouth away from the omega's neck and glared at the open doorway.

“What are you staring at? Get out!” Skaris snarled savagely, his chest heaving as he was caught in the act.

Elowen stood in the doorway. Her expression remained deadpan. She showed no surprise, no embarrassment, and no shock. She simply stared at his exposed genitals and the panting omega beneath him for a split second. Then, she turned on her heel and pulled the door shut behind her. She left without uttering a single word.

Her robotic, apathetic indifference infuriated him.

“Where are you going?”

The naked omega whined in protest, reaching for his waist.

Skaris abandoned her on the messy mattress. He pulled on his trousers, shoved his arms into his shirt, and stormed out into the corridor. He needed to catch Elowen.

He spotted her drab gray uniform turning the corner. Skaris lunged forward. He grabbed her elbow with a harsh, bruising grip and shoved her hard against the hallway wall. The impact knocked the breath from her lungs. Skaris wrapped his thick fingers around her slender neck and squeezed.

To the rest of the pack, Elowen was nothing but a cursed runt. She was a rejected mate who failed to shift on her eighteenth birthday. The pack treated her like a walking plague. But that dark superstition never deterred Krovos from claiming her body every night. Nor did it stop Skaris's own sick, twisted fascination with her.

“Don’t you dare ignore me!” Skaris spat in her face.

Drops of saliva hit her pale cheek. Elowen didn't blink. She stared back at him with a deadpan, lifeless face. Her pulse beat steadily against his constricting fingers.

“You told me to leave. I left.”

Elowen replied in a flat, matter-of-fact tone. She didn't struggle. She just stated the sequence of events.

“Don't you talk back to me!”

Skaris screamed. The thick veins in his neck bulged, and his face flushed crimson.

If she possessed any remaining ounce of spirit, Elowen might have laughed at his volatile indecisiveness. He choked her for ignoring him, then screamed at her for speaking. But she felt no desire to mock him. The hollow void inside her chest absorbed his raging temper like a sponge.

“Careful, the alpha will be pissed if you leave a mark on me.”

She stated the fact flatly. Her voice lacked any trace of fear.

She knew with certainty that Skaris wouldn't dare make a real physical move on her. Krovos was fiercely possessive of his broken toy. Six months ago, Skaris cornered her in the kitchens and tried to force a kiss on her mouth. Krovos caught them in the act. He nearly ripped Skaris's throat out on the spot. If Alpha Vulturnus hadn't intervened, Skaris would be buried in the woods right now.

“Fuck you!” Skaris snarled. His fragile ego bruised under her chilling, dead stare.

“Let me go.”

Elowen raised her trembling hands and pushed hard against his broad chest. Instead of releasing her, his heavy grip around her neck tightened. The thick fingers dug into her windpipe, cutting off her air supply.