After My Alpha Made Me an Omega for His Mistress

Naomi's hand was still warm when I pried it open at 9:42 p.m. and found my bracelet inside.

The silver crescent moon pressed into her palm. She had held it so hard it left a mark.

My little sister lay on the healing ward floor. Her eyes were open. Her throat was a mess of black, blistered lines. Wolfsbane burns. I knew them. I had taught her what they looked like.

Above us, the banquet music kept playing. They were celebrating Sofia Warren, our new senior military advisor. I had voted against her in council. I had lost.

Selene howled inside my head. It was not a sound. It was a blade. My knees hit the stone, and somewhere far upstairs, I felt Adrian flinch through our bond.

"Luna." The old healer's hands shook as he held out a sealed envelope. "The compound matches a batch Sofia requisitioned last week. For poison defense, she said."

Three days ago, Naomi had whispered to me in the garden. *Her limp changes, Fel. Only when the Alpha is watching. I'm writing it down.*

I broke the seal. I read every word. Then I pulled out my phone and photographed each page, my fingers steady in a way that scared me.

Then I went upstairs.

---

The banquet hall smelled like roast meat and wine. And under it, on Adrian's skin, pine and metal. Sofia's scent, layered over his cedar smoke like a second coat.

She sat at his right hand. My seat.

I slammed the report on the table in front of him. Glasses rattled. The room went quiet.

"Arrest her," I said. "Naomi is dead. Wolfsbane. Sofia bought it."

Adrian read. His jaw tightened, one page at a time. Sofia touched her scarred shoulder and lowered her eyes, like a woman in mourning.

Then my mate stood, walked to the hearth, and tore the pages in half. Then in half again. He dropped them into the fire.

I watched the paper curl and go black, just like my sister's throat.

"Healer." His voice dropped into Alpha tone, heavy as iron. "You will never speak of that report again."

The old man bowed his head. His mouth closed like a door.

"Sofia Warren carries a life-debt for this pack," Adrian said to the room. "She is cleared."

"She murdered my sister!"

My Luna aura flared white. Selene surged up, snarling, teeth bared.

Adrian's aura hit me like a falling wall. My throat locked. Selene was shoved down, down, into the dark.

"You will not say her name inside my borders again," he said.

I couldn't speak. So I didn't. I raised my eyes to his and held them, and I let Selene's growl rumble low in my chest anyway, loud enough for the first row to hear.

He looked away first.

Sofia did not. Her lips curved, just barely.

---

They came for me at dawn.

Two warriors took my arms and dragged me into the stone courtyard. The whole pack stood in rows. Some looked at their shoes. Most looked pleased.

Adrian stood on the Alpha's platform. Sofia waited one step below him.

"I, Adrian, Alpha of Shadowfang Pack, reject you, Felicity, as my mate and Luna."

My mark burned white-hot. I smelled my own skin. Then the heat drained out all at once, and the spot went cold and empty, like a door closing on a room no one lived in anymore.

Selene howled once. Half the pack flinched.

Then she was gone. Not sleeping. Gone silent, the way a house goes silent after a funeral.

I fell. The stone was cold against my cheek.

"You are stripped of your title," Adrian said. "You are Omega now. Leave the Luna quarters by nightfall. And her name stays out of your mouth."

I pushed up on shaking arms. I did not ask him why. I did not ask him to take it back.

"You burned paper, Adrian," I said. My voice came out rough and quiet. "That's all you burned."

Something moved in his face. Fear, maybe. Then it was gone.

Sofia stepped up and laid her hand on his arm. Soft. Public. A claim wearing the clothes of comfort.

The warriors hauled me toward the stairs below the kitchens. My legs wouldn't hold me. My phone dug into my hip, hidden in my waistband, every photo still inside.

At the top of the steps, I heard Sofia's sweet voice behind me, low and pleasant.

"Have someone search her things before she moves them," she told the nearest warrior. "Every bag. Every pocket. Bring me anything with writing on it."