Chapter 1: I Became A Wolfless Omega

​"Look at her! Does she actually think a wolfless Omega like her stands a chance with Alpha Kano?"

​Mocking laughter echoed in the cafeteria hall, and they were certainly as cold as the red paste that slithered down my temple and dripped onto the desk.

​My head throbbed with a sickening ache, ears ringing as disorienting noise flooded my senses.

Around me were unfamiliar faces, unfamiliar air, a crowd surrounding me—danger? Decades of instinct kicked in before my brain could process the room. In unknown territory, everyone is an enemy.

My body immediately stiffened, and I shifted into a low stance as my hands twitched toward my waist for twin daggers that weren’t there.

​Only a pleated skirt greeted my fingertips. No blades. No leather armor.

​Where am I? The question finally registered. What is this place? And who stripped me of my weapons and defense?

​Before I could fully process my situation, a harsh sting exploded across my left cheek.

​SMACK.

I was stunned. How did I not register that hit? I used to be able to sense all sorts of attacks, so... What is going on? ​The physical shock snapped my head sideways and unlocked a flood of memories. My memories.

My name is Anarix. I was stolen from my parents at two years old, my village was massacred, and then I was raised by people who taught me to fight before I understood how to form a proper sentence. They raised me to be an assassin. By ten, the throne had claimed me. I became known as the Shadow Wolf, and for years I believed the people beside me were the closest thing I’d have to family.

But after I turned twenty, and my own partners put their blades in me on the Alpha’s orders.

I had died in a pool of my own blood.

So why was I here—wherever this was? Why was I being subjected to such humiliation with—I sniffed the air—tomato paste clinging to my hair and face?

If I had died, shouldn’t I at least have been sent to the Moon Goddess to be judged for all my transgressions in life? Just what sort of test has befallen me?

​Then, more memories fractured into my mind, but these memories clearly did not belong to me, and I had no idea why I was recalling them. Maybe I was struck by witchcraft? Stuck in a wolf’s illusion? I had no idea what was going on, no matter how hard I tried to think it over.

They belonged to a girl named Brianna, I believe. She was wolfless. An Omega who had never shifted, though at her age she’d already begun to wonder if she ever would.

Being an Omega was enough to make people look down on her. Being born into an Omega family made it worse. Her father was an Omega too, her mother was human, and no matter how hard her brothers worked, there was only so much a family like theirs could afford in the Grey Moon Pack. They were tolerated, barely, and opportunities were rarely handed to people like them.

She’d been lucky enough to get into this academy, but getting through the gates hadn’t meant anyone inside intended to let her belong.

The last thing I could make sense of was a rooftop. The morning air was cold. And then came the fall. She didn’t jump. Someone had pushed her.

She should have died on impact. Instead, somehow, she woke up and dragged herself back inside, bleeding and barely conscious, and sat down in front of an empty tray like nothing had happened — because if anyone found out what had really happened up there, it would only bring more trouble down on a family that couldn’t survive more trouble.

She’d died there anyway. Quietly, in the middle of a crowded hall, and no one had noticed.

"Hey! I’m talking to you, trash!"

​The girl in front of me snorted, swinging another vicious slap straight for my face.

​Now that I had sorted the ache in my skull, I could see her hand moving. She was far too slow. Painfully slow.

​My body moved before my mind did. I caught her wrist mid-air, locked my grip around her bone, stepped inward, and threw her over my shoulder.

​THUD.

​She slammed hard onto the floor with a screech, and the entire room went dead silent.

​I wiped the tomato paste from my forehead, looked down at the girl on the floor, and asked flatly, "Who are you? Are you the one who put this paste on my head?"

​Nobody spoke. Instead, a dozen students whipped out strange, glowing rectangular objects and aimed them straight at my face, and I immediately got on the defensive again.

What are those? ​Weapons? Spells? Artifacts?

​I didn’t wait to find out. My body moved forward so fast I was literally a blur.

I lunged at the nearest boy holding one of the glowing devices, my palm slamming into his chest to knock his center of gravity off before twisting his wrist to disarm him. The device clattered to the floor, and the boy let out a high-pitched shriek.

​"Brianna! What the hell are you doing?!" a girl screamed from the second row, and ​I froze.

I snapped my head toward the voice, my eyes locking onto her like a hawk on prey.

​Brianna?

​In two strides, I crossed the distance between us, reached over a desk, and hauled the girl up by her uniform collar. The fabric strained as I yanked her forward until her frantic, wide eyes were inches from mine.

​"What did you just call me?" I growled, my voice cold enough to freeze blood.

​The girl’s hands clutched uselessly at my wrists, her breath hitching in pure terror. "B-Bri... Brianna! I called you by your name! Let go of me! Are you out of your mind?"

​My grip loosened slightly, but I didn’t drop her.

​Brianna?

​The fractured memories in my head spun wildly, locking into place like heavy iron gears. The rooftop. The push. The struggling family. The quiet, powerless girl who had wished to disappear...

​"I’m... Brianna?" I whispered to myself, the words tasting completely foreign on my tongue. Is this... witchcraft?

​"That wolfless girl has completely lost her mind!" someone yelled from the back of the hall. "Someone call the teachers! Call the pack guards!"