I spent three years saving every single credit to buy the Moonlight Grass. It was the only herb capable of healing my damaged wolf spirit.
But the moment I walked through the door, my eldest brother, the Pack Alpha, snatched it from my trembling hands.
“Willow has a migraine,” Ryker stated, his voice devoid of warmth. “She needs this.”
I begged him. I told him it cost a fortune. I told him it was my only chance to finally shift.
But Axel, my second brother and the Pack Doctor, just adjusted his glasses with clinical coldness.
“Don’t be selfish, Ember. Willow is fragile. Your jealousy is ugly.”
They boiled my entire future into a tea for an adopted sister who was faking it.
Desperate to prove I wasn’t the villain, I spent my last emergency cash on gifts for them.
But when I handed Willow a silk dress, she smirked at me, stepped on the hem, and threw herself backward onto the carpet.
“My ankle!” she screamed. “Ryker, she pushed me!”
I rushed forward to help, but my bad leg gave out. I smashed my knee against the metal bed frame, blood instantly soaking through my jeans.
Axel didn’t check my shattered knee. He roared at me, “You vicious snake! You wanted her to trip!”
Ryker loomed over me, his Alpha Command crushing my lungs like a physical weight. “Get out of my sight.”
Bleeding, broke, and heartbroken, I dragged myself out into the storm.
They thought I would crawl to a friend’s house. They thought I would always be their punching bag.
Instead, I accepted an offer from the rival Shadow Alpha to join a top-secret research facility.
A fifteen-year lockdown. No contact. A complete erasure of my existence.
As I stepped onto the private jet, I looked down at the house one last time.
“Happy Birthday, brothers,” I whispered into the wind.
I hope you enjoy the silence when you realize the sister you tortured is gone forever.
The Unwanted Omega: Claimed by the Shadow Alpha Chapter 1
Ember POV:
Antiseptic and copper. The smell of a losing battle.
My shift at the pack infirmary had ended three hours ago, but I had stayed behind to organize the inventory. As an Omega with a damaged wolf, I had no speed, no strength, and no healing ability. All I had was my mind and my hands.
I dragged my bad leg up the steps of the Pack House. The old burn scar on my knee throbbed in rhythm with the cold wind. It was a reminder of the fire that took our parents and silenced my wolf, Sera, ten years ago.
I pushed open the heavy oak doors.
“Where is it?” Ryker’s voice boomed through the hallway.
It wasn’t just a question. It was laced with Alpha Command. My knees buckled instantly. My dormant wolf whimpered deep in my subconscious, terrified by the power of the Pack Alpha.
I looked up. Ryker, my eldest brother, stood at the top of the stairs. His eyes were flashing gold. Beside him stood Axel, my second brother and the Pack Doctor.
“Where is what?” I whispered, gripping the banister to stay upright.
“The Moonlight Grass,” Axel snapped, adjusting his glasses. “We know you bought the last batch from the trader today.”
My heart stopped.
I had saved for three years to buy that herb. It was the only ingredient capable of waking a dormant wolf spirit. It was my only chance to hear Sera speak again, to finally shift, to stop being the broken defect of the family.
“I… I have it,” I stammered. “It’s for my treatment. You know this.”
“Willow has a migraine,” Ryker said. His voice was cold, devoid of the warmth he used to have when we were children. “She’s sensitive. The pain is affecting her core.”
“A migraine?” I choked out. “Ryker, that herb costs five thousand credits. It restores soul damage. You want to boil it for a headache?”
“It’s not just a headache, Ember,” Axel interjected, his tone clinical but defensive. “Her vitals are erratic. Her scent is… fading. The Moonlight Grass stabilizes spiritual fluctuation. You wouldn’t understand the complexity.”
“Do not question me, Omega,” Ryker growled. The pressure in the air increased, heavy like a wet wool blanket. “Bring it to her room. Now.”
I wanted to scream. I wanted to tell them that Willow was faking it, just like she faked her twisted ankle last week. But the Alpha Command locked my throat. My body moved against my will.
I walked to my room, hands trembling, and retrieved the dried, glowing blue grass from its velvet box. My hope. My future.
I walked to the guest suite-the one that used to be Mom’s sewing room, now redecorated in pink silk for Willow.
Willow lay on the chaise lounge, looking perfectly healthy. When she saw me, she offered a weak, sugary smile.
“Oh, Ember,” she cooed. “Ryker said you had something to help me. You’re so sweet.”
I placed the herb on the table. My fingers didn’t want to let go.
Ryker snatched it up. “Get out.”
I turned and limped away. As the door clicked shut, I heard Willow giggle. “It smells like dirt, Ryker. Do I really have to drink it?”
I made it to my room before I collapsed.
My phone buzzed on the bed. I picked it up with numb fingers. It was an email.
Subject: Acceptance Notification – Project Silver Dawn.
Dear Ms. Ember Blackwood, based on your exceptional paper on Silver Poisoning pathology, you have been selected…
I stared at the screen. This was the most prestigious, top-secret research facility in the country. It was a closed project. No contact with the outside world for fifteen years.
It was an escape.
I walked to the window. Tonight was the Moon Festival. The pack was gathering in the square for the bonfire.
I reached out through the Mind-Link, the telepathic web that connected all pack members.
Ryker? Axel? Are we going together?
Silence.
Then, a sharp static noise. They had blocked me.
I put on my coat and walked to the square alone. The wind bit through my thin sweater. I saw them in the distance. Ryker was holding Willow’s hand. Axel was adjusting her scarf. They looked like a family.
I was the ghost haunting them.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Axel.
“What?” Axel answered on the first ring, annoyance dripping from his tone.
“It’s the festival,” I said, my voice shaking. “I thought… Mom and Dad always wanted us to light the first log together.”
“We are busy,” Axel hissed. ” The smoke triggers Willow’s asthma. We’re taking her to the clinic, then flying her out to Moon Island. She needs sea air.”
“Moon Island?” I gasped. “But… that’s our family retreat. You promised we’d go there for my birthday.”
“Stop being selfish, Ember,” Axel spat. “Willow is sick. You are just jealous. Don’t bother us.”
The line went dead.
I stood there for a long time. The festive drums started beating. Couples were dancing.
I wasn’t going to let it end like this. If they were leaving, I would say goodbye. Not for them, but for the little girl inside me who still loved her big brothers.
I took a taxi to the pack hospital.
I stopped at the gift shop. I had zero credits left after the Moonlight Grass, so I used the emergency cash I kept in my shoe.
I bought a crystal etched with protection runes for Ryker.
I bought a rare medical manuscript replica for Axel.
And for Willow… I bought a silk dress. Peace offering.
I walked up to the VIP floor. The door was ajar.
“She needs rest, Alpha,” Axel was saying gently.
“I know,” Ryker replied softly. “She’s been through so much.”
I pushed the door open. “Happy Moon Festival.”
The room went silent. Willow sat up in bed, her eyes widening. She looked at the bag in my hand.
“I brought gifts,” I said, stepping forward.
“Oh! Let me see!” Willow exclaimed, jumping out of bed with surprising agility for someone with a migraine. She snatched the bag.
She pulled out the dress. It was long, flowing, and expensive.
“It’s… okay, I guess,” she muttered, holding it up against herself. Then, her eyes flickered to Ryker. A sly grin touched her lips.
She took a step back, deliberately stepping on the hem of the dress.
“Ah!”
She threw herself backward. It was a theatrical fall. She landed on the thick carpet with a soft thud, but she screamed as if she had been shot.
“My ankle! Ryker, it hurts!”
I rushed forward instinctively. “Let me help-“
My bad leg caught on the edge of the rug. I went down hard. My knee, the one with the burn scar, slammed into the metal frame of the bed.
Crack.
Pain, white and hot, exploded up my thigh. I felt the warm trickle of blood soaking my jeans.
“Get away from her!” Axel roared.
He didn’t look at me. He didn’t look at the blood pooling under my leg. He rushed to Willow, who was sobbing dry tears.
“You vicious little snake!” Axel turned to me, his face twisted in rage. “You bought a dress too long for her on purpose! You wanted her to trip!”
“No,” I whispered, clutching my knee. “Axel, I’m bleeding…”
“I don’t care,” Axel snarled. “Get up. Stop acting like a victim. You are rotting from the inside out, Ember.”
Ryker stepped forward. He loomed over me, his shadow swallowing me whole.
“Get out of my sight,” he commanded.
I dragged myself up. The pain in my leg was nothing compared to the hole they had just punched through my chest.
- HOT NOVEL: Rejected Luna, Claimed by the King by Rabbit
The Unwanted Omega: Claimed by the Shadow Alpha Chapter 2
Ember POV:
The hospital corridor was long and sterile. Every step left a small bloody smear on the polished tile from my knee, but no one stopped to help. I was the pariah. The Alpha had commanded me to leave, and the pack obeyed the Alpha.
I could hear them through the thin walls of the VIP room.
“I want to go to Moon Island now,” Willow whined, her voice high and childish. “I don’t feel safe here with her lurking around.”
“We’ll go tonight,” Ryker promised. “I’ll have the jet prepped.”
“Can Ember come?” Willow asked. It was a trap. I knew her tone.
“Absolutely not,” Axel’s voice cut through the air like a scalpel. “She’s unstable. Her jealousy is toxic. She doesn’t deserve the sacred ground of Moon Island.”
I leaned against the wall, closing my eyes. Moon Island. The place where Dad taught Ryker to fish. The place where Mom taught Axel to identify herbs. The place they swore was our sanctuary.
Now, it belonged to a stranger.
The door opened. Axel stepped out. He stopped when he saw me leaning against the wall, clutching my bleeding leg. For a brief moment, his gaze snagged on the blood. A flicker of confusion crossed his face-a doctor’s instinct warring with his prejudice.
Then he looked at my face, and the wall slammed back down.
“Since you are here,” Axel said, checking his watch, “I need you to move your things.”
“What?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
“Willow needs the south-facing room at the Pack House. Ideally, the Master Suite, but Ryker is keeping that as a shrine to Dad. Your room has the best sunlight. It will help her recovery.”
My room. The room with the balcony where I grew my medicinal herbs. The room Mom had painted yellow because she said I was her ‘little sun.’
“Axel,” I said, staring at him. “That’s my room.”
“It’s a room in the Alpha’s house,” he corrected coldly. “You are a guest there. A burden, really. Pack your things. Be out of that room by tomorrow.”
Something inside me snapped. It wasn’t a loud snap. It was quiet, like a dry twig in winter.
“Okay,” I said.
Axel blink. He had expected a fight. He had expected tears. He didn’t know what to do with my sudden, hollow calm.
“Okay?” he repeated.
“I’ll move out,” I said. “Enjoy the island.”
I pushed off the wall and limped toward the elevator. I didn’t look back. If I had, I might have seen the confusion on his face. But I didn’t care anymore.
I went back to the Pack House. The servants watched me with pity, but they didn’t help. They couldn’t.
I went to my room. I didn’t pack everything. I took the photo of my parents. I took my acceptance letter. I took my hard drive with five years of research on the Silver Poison cure-my life’s work.
I left the clothes Ryker had bought me years ago. I left the medical books Axel had given me before he started hating me.
I packed one suitcase.
The next morning, I was standing in the foyer. The house was silent. They were leaving for the airport in an hour.
Axel came down the stairs, holding a stack of passports. He stopped when he saw the suitcase.
“Finally acting out the runaway drama?” he sneered. “Where are you going? To cry at a friend’s house until we beg you to come back?”
“I’m moving to the university dorms,” I lied. My voice was steady. “You wanted the room. It’s yours.”
Willow appeared at the top of the stairs, wearing the silk dress I had bought her. She twirled.
“Oh, Axel, look! It fits perfectly now that my ankle is better!” She beamed. She looked at me, her eyes mocking. “Leaving so soon, Ember?”
“Yes,” I said.
Ryker walked in from the kitchen, holding a mug of coffee. He looked at my suitcase, then at my face. His wolf, the giant black beast inside him, seemed to sense something was wrong. He frowned, rubbing his chest.
“You’re leaving on a family holiday?” Ryker asked.
“You didn’t invite me,” I reminded him.
“Stop being a brat,” Ryker grumbled. “We’ll be back in two weeks. Make sure the house is clean when we return.”
“I won’t be here,” I said softly.
“Good,” Axel snapped. “Maybe the distance will fix your attitude. If you aren’t back by the time we return, don’t bother coming back at all.”
“Okay,” I said again.
I turned to the door.
“And Ember?” Axel called out.
I paused, my hand on the brass handle.
“Don’t expect us to pay for your dorm. You’re on your own.”
“I know,” I whispered.
I opened the door. The sky outside was dark gray. A storm was coming.
“Roll,” Axel spat the word like a curse. “Get out.”
I stepped over the threshold. The heavy door slammed shut behind me, severing the warmth of the house.
I stood on the porch. I was homeless. I was broke. I was injured.
But for the first time in ten years, I was free.
- SHORT DRAMA: The Demon’s Revenge Chinese Drama Watch Online
The Unwanted Omega: Claimed by the Shadow Alpha Chapter 3
Ember POV:
The rain didn’t start as a drizzle; it began as a deluge. The sky opened up and dropped an ocean on my head.
I dragged my suitcase down the long driveway. The wheels caught in the gravel. My bad knee was screaming, the damp cold seeping into the bone.
I looked back at the house. Axel was standing on the second-floor balcony-my balcony. He was watching me.
The rain soaked my white shirt instantly, plastering it to my skin. I shivered violently. The water ran down my leg, mixing with the fresh blood seeping through my bandage.
Help me, I thought, projecting it toward the house. Please, just a ride to the station.
I felt the mental wall slam down. Axel had blocked the link again. He just watched, arms crossed, safe and dry under the awning.
My vision blurred. The loss of blood and the shock were taking their toll. I stumbled. The suitcase handle slipped from my grip. I fell onto the wet gravel, the sharp stones digging into my palms.
I couldn’t get up. My strength was gone.
Through the roar of the rain, I heard the front door open.
“Axel!” Willow’s voice. “She fell! Should I take her an umbrella?”
I lifted my head. Willow was standing there, holding a large black umbrella. She looked like a saint.
“No,” Axel’s voice carried over the wind, amplified by his Beta authority. “Leave her. She’s doing this for attention. If you go out there, you’ll catch a cold. Get inside, Willow.”
He grabbed Willow’s arm and pulled her back inside. The balcony door slid shut. The curtains were drawn.
I was alone in the storm.
I laid my cheek against the cold stones. So this is it, I thought. I die in the driveway of the house my father built.
Headlights cut through the darkness.
A sleek black car, an armored SUV, roared up the driveway. It wasn’t a pack car. It didn’t have the crest of the Silver Moon Pack.
It screeched to a halt inches from my head.
The door flew open. A man stepped out.
He didn’t run; he moved with a predatory grace that made the rain seem to slow down. He was tall, broad-shouldered, wearing a dark trench coat.
He knelt beside me. His hand touched my shoulder.
ZAP.
A bolt of lightning didn’t hit the ground-it hit me.
The moment his skin touched mine, the cold vanished. A heat, fierce and consuming, exploded from the point of contact. It rushed through my veins, waking up nerves I thought were dead.
My scent receptors, usually dull, were suddenly flooded.
Pine forests after a blizzard. Dark chocolate. Ozone.
It was the most intoxicating thing I had ever smelled.
My dormant wolf, Sera, who hadn’t made a sound since the fire, suddenly lifted her head in the depths of my mind. She didn’t whimper. She didn’t hide.
She roared.
MINE!
I gasped, my eyes flying open. I looked up into eyes the color of storm clouds-gray, swirling with silver flecks.
The man froze. His pupils dilated until his eyes were almost black. His chest heaved.
“Mate,” he growled. The word vibrated in his chest, deep enough to rattle my bones.
This was the Shadow Alpha. Derek. The most feared wolf in the continent. The leader of the technological powerhouse, the Shadow Pack.
He scooped me up as if I weighed nothing.
“Put her down!”
The balcony door flew open again. Axel was back. He leaned over the railing, his face pale. He had smelled it too-the change in the air. The arrival of a rival Alpha.
“She is a member of the Silver Moon Pack!” Axel shouted, his voice cracking. “You have no right!”
Derek looked up. Rain dripped from his dark hair, but his eyes were burning with a lethal fury.
“She is bleeding,” Derek’s voice was low, but it carried more power than Ryker’s ever had. It wasn’t just a command; it was a promise of violence. “And you are watching.”
“She is being punished!” Axel yelled, though he took a step back. “Leave her!”
Derek looked down at me. “Do you want to stay, little wolf?”
I looked at Axel. I looked at the closed curtains where Ryker and Willow were probably laughing.
“Take me away,” I whispered. “Please.”
Derek nodded. He turned his back on Axel, dismissing him as a threat. He opened the back door of his car and placed me gently on the leather seat.
“You can’t take her!” Axel screamed, panic finally entering his voice. “Ryker will declare war!”
Derek paused. He leaned against the car door, looking up at the balcony.
“Tell Ryker,” Derek said, his voice cold as the grave, “that if he wants her back, he can come to the Shadowlands and try to take her. But tell him to bring a coffin for himself.”
He slammed the door.
He got into the driver’s seat. The car was warm. It smelled like him-safety and power.
“Rest,” Derek said, looking at me through the rearview mirror. His eyes were softer now, filled with a pain I didn’t understand. “I’ve got you. No one hurts you again.”
As the car sped away, I looked back one last time. Axel was still standing in the rain, gripping the railing, looking smaller and smaller until the darkness swallowed him whole.