The Weight of Destiny

While the upper floor of the Alpha's mansion simmered with silence and secrets, the Sangue Negro kitchens were an inferno of noise and smoke.

I was hunched over the cauldron when the air in the kitchen suddenly shifted.

For a second, the heat from the flames wasn't enough to stop a shiver from running down my spine.

My skin prickled — the same electric sensation as when Vane had touched me on the training ground.

I glanced up at the small stone window high on the wall that faced the main tower.

I couldn't see anything, but I felt it — an invisible pressure, a golden gaze that seemed to burn through the walls.

It was as though, for an instant, our breaths had met in the freezing wind outside.

I shook my head, trying to chase away the illusion.

I was just a servant scrubbing floors.

"Lyra! Stop daydreaming!" the supervisor's shout yanked me back to brutal reality.

I went back to stirring the stew, but the Omega women's gossip now sounded louder, more venomous.

Steam from the massive iron pots rose and fogged my vision, plastering strands of hair to my sweaty face.

The smell of venison stew and wild herbs filled the stone kitchen, but what really hung in the air was the poison of their words.

"Did you see how Laila came out of the Alpha's study today?" whispered Bera, a middle-aged Omega, as she chopped roots with vigor. "She was glowing. They say Alpha Fenris finally accepted what the Moon Goddess forgot to provide."

"It's about time," another agreed, wiping blood from the meat counter. "An Alpha without his Luna is an incomplete wolf. If the Goddess didn't send Vane a fated mate in all these years, it's because he should choose his own strength. And Laila is beautiful — a pureblooded Beta. She's the logical choice."

I kept stirring the heavy cauldron, my arms burning with exhaustion.

I'd convinced Mara to go rest in the cabin — her bones protested the cold, and I couldn't bear watching her get humiliated by the others for being "slow."

I'd do the work of both of us.

I would be invisible, as I'd always been.

But their words hit me like barbs.

Choosing a Luna? I thought, feeling a strange tightness in my chest.

They spoke as though the mate bond were a business contract.

But I knew — from what Mara told me on winter nights — that the bond was the soul of the pack.

An Alpha only reached his peak of power beside the one the Goddess had sculpted for him.

And if he makes Laila official and a month later, the true mate appears? The thought sent a chill through me.

That wouldn't just be a mistake — it would be a catastrophe. His wolf would spend a lifetime in agony, torn between duty and destiny.

I shook my head, pushing those thoughts away.

What did it matter what Alpha Vane did with his heart? He hated me. He wanted me off his land.

"Lyra! Stop daydreaming and clean those hides!" the supervisor barked, pointing at a pile of filthy pelts.

"Yes, ma'am," I answered quietly, keeping my gaze low.

I bent down to pick up the heavy work, feeling that familiar pang in my spine.

But this time, it wasn't just pain.

It was a whisper — a vibration that seemed to laugh at those Omegas and their gossip.

"Let them choose copper, little wolf... for gold is about to shine."

I didn't know what it meant, but as I scrubbed the floor with my knuckles white from the cold, I could only think of one thing: the solstice was close. And somehow, I sensed that nothing in the Sangue Negro pack would ever be the same after that night.

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