Alpha's Lies, My Freedom

The morning of my eighteenth birthday arrived with the same gray drizzle that had been falling for three days straight. I pressed my face against the cool window of our small cottage, watching droplets race down the glass like tears I refused to shed. Today was supposed to be different. Today was supposed to change everything.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart." Dad's voice carried from the kitchen, rough with the chronic pain that never seemed to leave him anymore. I turned to find him leaning heavily against the doorframe, his left shoulder—the one that never healed properly after saving Alpha Axel—hanging at that familiar awkward angle.

"Thanks, Dad." I managed a smile, though my stomach churned with anticipation and dread in equal measure. Eighteen. The age when every werewolf's inner wolf was supposed to emerge, when the transformation that defined our very existence should finally claim me.

But as the hours crawled by, nothing happened. No sudden surge of power, no voice in my head welcoming me to my true nature, no shift in my senses that would mark my entry into full werewolf society. By noon, the absence felt like a physical weight pressing down on my chest.

The whispers started before I even reached the pack house for the evening meal. I caught fragments as I walked the familiar path—"cursed Graham bloodline," "what did you expect," "probably not even a real werewolf." Each word struck like a physical blow, but I kept my chin up, my mother's warrior pendant heavy against my throat.

"Look who finally decided to show up." Anaya's saccharine voice cut through the dining hall chatter as I entered. She sat at the high table beside Alpha Axel, her perfectly manicured fingers resting possessively on his arm. "How was your special day, Skylar? Any... developments?"

The hall fell silent. Every eye turned to me, waiting for confirmation of what they already knew. I felt my cheeks burn as I shook my head, the simple gesture feeling like a confession of failure.

"A late bloomer at eighteen," someone muttered from the back. "That's not late—that's broken."

"Maybe the Moon Goddess made a mistake with that bloodline," another voice added, barely concealing cruel amusement. "First her mother dies playing hero, then her father gets crippled, now this."

My hands clenched into fists, but I forced them to relax. Getting angry wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't bring my wolf, wouldn't heal my father, wouldn't restore the respect our family had lost along with my mother's life.

"That's enough." Alpha Axel's command silenced the room, but when I looked up hopefully, his dark eyes held no warmth. Only the cold duty of a leader maintaining order. "Skylar will find her wolf when the Moon Goddess wills it."

The words should have been comforting, but his tone made them feel like a dismissal. I ducked my head and made my way to one of the back tables, where the omegas and unmated wolves sat. My new place in the hierarchy, it seemed.