Chapter 2

The sting from the wound on my forehead pulsed with every heartbeat as I stood under the cold bathroom light, dabbing away the blood with a damp towel. The smell of disinfectant barely masked the metallic scent of my own blood.

Then the door flew open—slammed in with enough force to rattle the walls.

Alpha Lucas stormed in, reeking of cedar wood and fury.

Before I could react, his hand clamped around my throat and shoved me against the edge of the bathtub. Cold porcelain bit into my back. His blood-red eyes glowed with rage, feral and inhuman.

“Freya’s upset. You proud of yourself, Elaine?” he growled, his voice low and threatening.

I gasped, trying to pry his fingers from my throat, but I still managed to spit out, “She rejected you again, didn’t she?”

That hit a nerve.

His grip tightened as his other hand yanked open the front of my blouse, exposing the mark just beneath my collarbone. His eyes narrowed on the violet scar twisted like a bruise across my skin—the mark of a failed transformation.

He sneered. “A broken Omega... with a useless body and a sharp mouth. Quite a combination.”

I struggled, trembling as I reached toward the hidden pocket at my waist. My fingers brushed the silver handle of the dagger—my father's keepsake. The only thing I had left of him.

But Lucas saw it.

“Oh?” he smirked, catching my wrist easily. “You planning to kill me with your little toy?”

His voice dropped lower; his mouth brushing my ear. “Don’t forget the contract. You hurt me; you break the deal. And you know what that means, don’t you?”

That damn contract.

The memory flooded back all at once, suffocating me.

Three years ago, my mother had been dying. Her pain was unbearable—only a rare Moonlight Flower could soothe her symptoms in her final days. But I had nothing. No status. No family. And no hope.

I was the only Omega in the Snow Moon Pack who had failed her first transformation. I couldn’t shift. That made me less than worthless in their eyes.

I remembered the night clearly. I stood in the rain and stopped Alpha Lucas’s car, dropping to my knees on the pavement like a beggar.

“Please, Alpha Lucas. I need a Moonlight Flower. I’ll do anything,” I had pleaded, drenched and desperate.

He’d rolled down the window, leaned out, and stared at me like I was a novelty. My mismatched eyes must’ve amused him because he smiled.

“Sign a contract,” he’d said. “Be Freya’s stand-in for three years. Then we’ll talk.”

And just like that, I became his property.

A tool. A replica. A ghost of the woman he loved.

Now, in the bathroom, he ripped my waistband open with a snap and muttered, “If you're going to be a stand-in, then act like one.”

Tears welled in my eyes, not from pain—but from the utter humiliation.

It reminded me of that dinner.

Lucas had dragged me into a private restaurant room with his elite friends. I wasn’t allowed to sit. I just stood near the door, ignored and invisible until Roy, one of his closest friends, sneered at me.

“Well, look who it is. Elaine, the pack’s very own failure. The first Omega who can’t shift. You’re practically a myth.”

Another chimed in, “You here to beg Alpha Lucas for table scraps again?”

“She’s probably hoping to warm his bed tonight,” someone else laughed. “Even a defective Omega has dreams, huh?”

They laughed like hyenas, loud and cruel.

And Lucas? He didn’t say a word. Just watched. Silent. Cold.

“Come on,” Roy had taunted. “How about a little performance? Howl for us, sweetheart. Maybe if you're lucky, we’ll toss you a bone.”

“Yeah,” someone added. “Let’s see if she can act like a real wolf.”

The table roared with laughter.

I clenched my fists. “If Freya were standing here right now,” I asked quietly, “would you let them treat her like this?”

That’s when Lucas lost it.

He slapped me—so hard my ears rang and my vision blurred. I staggered back, dazed.

“You think you get to speak her name?” he hissed. “You’re nothing, Elaine. You’re just a cheap, desperate Omega who sold herself for a Moonlight Flower.”

I had bowed my head that night, blinking through hot tears.

“I’m sorry, Alpha Lucas. I was wrong.”

My mother had passed away peacefully, thanks to the flower he gave me.

So, this pain—this humiliation—was the price I had agreed to pay.

And now, I had to survive it.

No matter what.