Bonded to Alpha Darius

The sun had barely risen over the Old Blood Moon Pack territory when Elara Robin was already awake.

There was no luxury of sleeping in — not for an omega. Not for her.

She sat up on her small bed, the worn mattress creaking beneath her, and stared at the ceiling for a moment before swinging her legs over the side. The room was modest. Four plain walls, a small window, and the few things she and her sister Lily had managed to hold onto after their parents died. It was not much. But it was home, and Elara had long stopped wishing for more.

She washed up quickly, pulled on her clothes, and headed to the kitchen. The morning routine never changed — cook breakfast, eat, survive the day, come home. Repeat. It was not the life she had dreamed of as a little girl, but it was the life the pack had given her, and omegas did not complain. Not out loud anyway.

She cracked four eggs into the pan and listened to them sizzle. Outside the window the pack territory was slowly waking up. She could hear children running between the houses, adults calling out to each other, the low hum of pack life moving forward the way it always did regardless of who was struggling and who was not.

That was the thing about the pack. Life moved on with or without you.

Elara had learned that lesson young.

She set the plates on the table just as Lily's bedroom door creaked open. Her older sister shuffled into the kitchen looking exactly the way she always did in the morning — hair everywhere, eyes half closed, moving purely on instinct toward the smell of food.

"You're up early again," Lily mumbled, dropping into her chair.

"I'm always up early," Elara replied, sitting across from her.

Lily looked at the plate, then looked at Elara. That expression crossed her face — the one that mixed love with worry in equal measure. She wore it often when she looked at Elara. Had worn it more and more since their parents passed two years ago, leaving the two of them to figure out the world on their own.

"You don't have to cook every morning," Lily said.

"I like cooking," Elara said. "Eat before it gets cold."

Lily ate. Elara ate. The silence between them was comfortable in the way that only happens between people who have been through real pain together and come out the other side still holding on to each other.

Elara stared at her plate and tried not to think about school.

She failed.

Her stomach tightened the way it always did on mornings like this. The moment she stepped through those school doors she would stop being just Elara and become the omega again. The target. The girl was either ignored or used as a punching bag to make themselves feel smaller than she was.

And at the center of all of it was Cara Thorne.

Beautiful, cruel, untouchable Cara Thorne — younger sister to the most powerful alpha in all the packs and mated to Orion Silas, the alpha's own beta. Cara had decided early on that Elara was beneath her, and she had made it her personal mission to remind Elara of that fact every single day.

Elara did not know what she had ever done to deserve that level of hatred. She had asked herself that question so many times that she had stopped expecting an answer. Some people just needed someone to look down on. And omegas were always the easiest target.

"Hey." Lily's voice cut through her thoughts. "Where did you go just now?"

Elara blinked and looked up. "Nowhere. I'm fine."

Lily gave her that look — the one that said she did not believe a single word of that but was choosing not to push. "You know you can talk to me."

"I know." Elara pushed back from the table and picked up her plate. "I always know that."

She washed up, grabbed her bag from the hook by the door, and stepped outside.

The morning air of the Old Blood Moon Pack territory hit her immediately — cool and sharp, carrying the scent of pine and earth and something ancient that she had grown up breathing without ever being able to name it. The pack's land was beautiful if nothing else. Rolling hills stretched out beyond the rows of houses, and in the far distance, the thick forest marked the border where the territory ended and the wild began.

Elara walked with her head slightly down and her pace steady. Not too fast — that looked like running. Not too slow — that invited attention. There was an art to moving through the pack unseen and she had mastered it over the years.

Other pack members passed her on the path. Most did not look at her. A few did, their eyes sliding over her with that familiar mixture of indifference and mild disdain that she had come to associate with her rank. She was used to it. She barely felt it anymore. Or at least that was what she told herself.

She had come of age recently. Her wolf had fully awakened — she could feel it now, a steady presence inside her that had not been there before. Restless. Searching. Her wolf wanted things that Elara was almost afraid to want for herself.

A mate.

The thought surfaced quietly the way it always did. A fated mate. Someone chosen specifically for her by the Moon Goddess Selene herself. Someone whose soul matched hers in ways that went deeper than words or rank or any of the things the pack used to measure a person's worth.

Elara wanted that more than she had ever wanted anything.

But she was an omega. And she had lived long enough in this pack to know that the good things rarely came easily to girls like her.

She adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder and kept walking.

One foot in front of the other.

Head down. Shoulders straight.

She had no idea that everything she had ever known was about to be turned completely upside down.