Omega Unleashed

Elena POV

"Murderer." Pack members spat at me as I busied myself with cleaning the hall.

I lowered my head further and cleaned faster, making sure to wipe away every trace of their mockery and their hatred of me.

That was all I could do, though. Fighting back would only get me punished; I had learned that the hard way, a long time ago.

Our pack, the Wind Borne pack, was preparing for a banquet to welcome the Alpha king, King Draven. And today, I was assigned to the cleaning of the hall.

It was not much of a difference from any other day in my life, honestly. I was always being assigned to do something. Sometimes, it was a task the paid servants found too tiring or something no one else wanted to do.

Something too gross, too below their station. Those kinds of tasks were dumped only on me, the pack's ever-ready trash can.

"You're cleaning so slowly." A pack member stopped in front of me, two of his friends behind him, cruel sneers curving their lips as they watched.

The pack member smiled, assured, confident.

Then he raised his voice. "You aren't trying to waste time in hopes you'll manage to sneak into the selection, are you?"

For a second, silence prevailed in the hall as numerous eyes turned in our direction. Then they started laughing.

I flinched as their laughter dug into my skin. Like the sharp edge of a knife in the hands of a butcher, it cut me open relentlessly, not stopping even as I bled.

"I'm not," I said quietly.

"You're not what?" The pack member asked, sneering as he looked at me. "You're not interested in being the Luna Queen?"

"No," I said, shaking my head.

"Good." He said, straightening back up. "You're nothing but a slave, don't ever forget that. You're not qualified to even mention the name of the Alpha king, let alone think about being his mate."

Alpha king Draven was 35 already, but he still hadn't found his mate, even though most wolves knew who their mate was at 16.

At first, rumours had floated around that his mate might be dead already, or maybe the moon goddess had not bestowed him a mate because of his cruelty.

He had been a warrior for his pack since he was a teenager, and with sheer willpower, little by little, he transformed his pack from a mid-sized pack to the largest wolf pack in the whole of North America. Now at the peak of his power, everyone expected him to take a mate in order to continue his legacy and bloodline.

Once, I had dreamt of finding my mate, too. Fantasized about it countless nights as I tried to imagine what it would feel like when I met him for the first time.

But now I knew no one would want me. To them, I was nothing but an outcast. A dirty stain on the name of the pack. A