Chapter 1 up
“Kneel.”
The command struck the chamber like an iron lash.
I jolted, my knees slamming into the stone floor before my mind had time to rebel. Cold surged from the black tiles into my bones, creeping upward with deliberate cruelty—as if the palace itself wanted to teach me a single truth from the very beginning: I was not a guest.
I was property.
“Don’t look at him,” someone whispered behind me, their voice trembling. “If you want to stay alive.”
Too late.
I was already looking.
Alpha King Aethern sat upon his throne, one leg crossed in lazy dominance, his elbow resting against the armrest as though this entire scene were nothing more than afternoon entertainment. His body was massive—too large, too imposing to be called merely human. His presence crushed the air in my lungs, making each breath feel earned rather than given.
This was not ordinary fear.
This was instinct.
The Omega buried deep within my blood screamed for me to run—or to submit completely.
His dark eyes swept over me without emotion. There was no desire there. No curiosity. Only cold evaluation, like an executioner deciding the most efficient way to end a life.
“This?” he asked at last.
One word. Low. Heavy.
The room froze.
“T-this is an offering from Clan Eryndor, Your Majesty,” my clan elder answered hastily, panic woven tightly into his controlled tone. “An Omega who is… of no use to us.”
No use.
The word had followed me my entire life, so I wasn’t surprised. What shocked me was how easily it left their mouths—as if I were not their blood, their kin, their responsibility.
Aethern stood.
The sound of his boots echoed through the hall. Each step toward me felt like a countdown to my death. I wanted to lower my head, to shut my eyes, to do anything that might shield me from his gaze.
But my body betrayed me.
Instead of recoiling, I was bound in place.
“Lift your head,” he ordered.
I knew what refusal would cost me.
With shaking hands, I raised my face.
For a fleeting moment—just one—I saw something shift in his eyes. Not softness. Not anger.
Interest.
Dangerous, sharp interest.
Like a man who had discovered something that should not exist.
“Your name,” he demanded.
“Lyra,” I answered quietly. My voice was barely sound, yet the hall was silent enough that he heard it.
“What is broken in you?” he asked bluntly.
The question struck harder than any slap ever could.
My clan elder rushed to answer, desperation spilling through his words. “She is a failed Omega, Your Majesty. She has never entered a proper heat. She is not fertile enough. She is not—”
“Silence.”
One word.
The elder paled instantly and fell quiet.
The Alpha King turned his attention back to me, his gaze lingering longer this time.
“Do you know why you are here?” he asked.
I swallowed. “To die,” I said honestly.
Gasps rippled through the nobles. Fearful murmurs followed. No Omega spoke with such blunt truth before the Monster King. But I was tired. And if this night would end my life, I wanted to face it as myself.
Aethern’s lips curved slightly.
Not a smile.
More like the mark of someone who had found something amusing.
“Perhaps,” he said softly. “Or perhaps you will become mine.”
Mine.
The word churned my stomach.
I knew his reputation. Alpha King Aethern had no mate. No Luna. No mercy. The Omegas who entered his chambers never returned the same—if they returned at all.
“Take her,” he commanded.
Two guards moved at once, gripping my arms. I did not resist. Resistance would only hasten the inevitable. The grand hall disappeared behind me, replaced by a long, silent corridor drenched in shadow.
Each step carried me farther from the world I had known—and closer to a fate where even death felt merciful compared to the alternatives.
The chamber doors closed with a heavy finality.
I stood before him.
Alone.
Aethern removed his cloak and cast it aside without care. His dominant aura flooded the room, pressing down until my knees nearly buckled again.
“You are not trembling,” he observed. “Interesting.”
“I have nothing left to fear,” I replied.
He approached, closing the distance until his heat was undeniable. His fingers lifted my chin, forcing my eyes to meet his.
“You are mistaken,” he whispered. “You will learn what true fear is.”
Yet strangely—beneath the suffocating dread—something else stirred within my chest.
A small, dangerous certainty.
I would not break so easily.
And whether he realized it or not…
This night was not only about my destruction.
It was the beginning of something even the cursed Alpha King was not prepared to face.