Winter’s POV

Muffled sounds invaded my senses, and blurred images of several faces hovering above me appeared as I fluttered my eyes open. I was lying on the cold hard floor, but I could tell I wasn’t in my room, neither was I on the corridor I last remembered myself lying at. The last thing I remembered seeing was a big blue wolf…and….

I blinked my eyes again, and they refocused slowly. A headache pulsated in my forehead.

I shifted slightly.

“She’s awake. She’s awake.”

I heard overlapping voices around me as I managed to sit up. Just as I raised my face, my eyes widened in shock at the sight of where I was. Why was I lying at the center of the square? That, too, surrounded by dozens of eyes. My heart thumped in my chest from fear and confusion. Embers from the standing lamps cackled in the stillness of the night.

My eyes met the fiery large ones of the Alpha where he was seated in his tiger skin chair, graced on both sides by his mate, daughter, beta, and a few other chiefs I didn’t quite recognize. With a cold shiver coursing through my nerves, I immediately lowered my gaze and sat up to a kneeling position in reverence. I awaited whatever it was that was going to befall me from that point on; I didn’t even understand what was going on.

“She showed the sign of the seed?” The Alpha’s voice boomed in the square, sending everything else into silence.

I shuddered.

What sign? What…seed? What the hell was going on? Tears stung my eyes, and I grit my jaws to hold myself from collapsing from the weight of tension I was feeling.

One of the shrine keepers stepped forward from a cluster of others and bowed themself gently, “Yes, Alpha. It was definitely a sign of the seed. I have confirmed it myself.”

I frowned slightly and watched as tiny ants moved around in the cold sand just a few inches from my knees. Why was he saying I showed a sign of the seed? What seed? The same Alpha seed they were holding the ritual for? That was impossible; there was probably a mix-up somewhere.

The high-pitched sound of the Alpha laughing rented the air, sending extra layers of goosebumps and beads of sweat to my skin.

“Ridiculous,” he muttered amidst cackles, “an omega showing a sign of the seed? Are you trying to mock me, old man?” His voice was gruff and more serious.

The old man knelt down, “Impossible, my Lord. I could never think of mocking you. Several others also witnessed it. With your permission, I will prove it.”

My heart thumped so hard in my chest that I could hear it. I had all kinds of thoughts as to what my fate probably held that strange night. I just wanted to return to my room.

“Go on,” the Alpha permitted, and before I could process anything, strong hands grabbed me, and I was taken to the altar.

Although I didn’t resist (how could I have?), I was merely whimpering with sobs as they pushed me down to the front of the bonfire, burning bright near the make-up shrine. The heat emanating from it made everything hurt twice as much, and I sobbed even louder, pleading in my head for them to let me go.

The man came to where I was laid, chanting some words I didn’t understand. I could feel all eyes boring holes into my body. He continued chanting and brought a red-colored stone with a very smooth surface, placing it in front of me. I sniffled, wondering what was going to happen next.

“Put your hands on it, child,” he told me.

I complied, stretching out my shivering hands and placing it on the stone. The man then started dancing around the fire. All of a sudden, he stood still; the murmurings from the onlookers hushed as well. The silence deafened me and I continued shaking in anxiousness.

Just then, there was a surge of heat coursing through my body, and my hands started growing bright blue. My eyes widened in shock and fear as I watched what was unfolding. Gasps ran through the crowd; even the Alpha stood up from his seat in astonishment.

I couldn’t believe my eyes either. Did I really have the foretold alpha seed that was believed to save the pack from future danger? Did the moon goddess somehow make a mistake by passing it on to a lowly omega like me? I emitted shuddering gasps as the lights shining from my hands glowed brighter.

The same large wolf I had seen earlier appeared beside me. There were louder gasps of shock from everyone. So, I had not been hallucinating anything earlier. It was real. No, this had to be a dream. I wanted to somehow disappear from the scene and never return because I knew deep down that whatever was happening to me at that moment could end up making my life even worse.

“She’s the chosen one, Alpha!” The old man declared.

The Alpha, his shocked gaze still piercing me, walked closer. I averted my gaze to the ground and didn’t move from where I was. In seconds, his large frame was now looming over me. I shook with fear again.

“Stand up, child,” the Alpha said calmly, and I obeyed, although the weakness of my knees threatened to send me crashing back down to the floor any minute.

It was my first time standing so close to the alpha or hearing him address me personally. I only ever saw him from afar. I wondered what he was going to do to me now. My throat was dry.

“What is—”

The alpha’s words were suddenly interrupted by a familiar voice that always made my stomach recoil.

Janna, the Luna of the pack, cut in sharply as she stood up from her seat, “Preposterous! She can’t be the chosen one.”

The Alpha frowned, slightly turning to face her as if to hear out her point.

“I have no idea what sorcery this wench displayed just now, but don’t you dare say she’s the chosen one, you old fool!” She scolded the man.

“My lady, I—”

Janna quickly approached the Alpha, grabbing his thick arms.

“Don’t tell me you believe these people, my love. Does it make any sense that an omega would have the seed? Calling her a chosen one would be the same as mocking the goddess,” she seethed with spite.

“Mother is right,” Dorra added. “This girl is not from our family. She doesn’t have our precious alpha blood running in her veins. So there’s no way she’s the chosen one. She could be a witch.”

“Shut your mouth before I shut it for you. I didn’t ask for your insight, did I?” the Alpha warned Dorra sternly.

“I’m sorry, Father,” she answered. I knew Dorra was probably cursing me with all her might right where she stood. And if I managed to leave this place alive, she would torment me because of it.

“She should be sent to the black woods instead for trying to pose as the chosen one and mock the goddess with her witchcraft,” her mother suggested.

Hearing that I might be sent to the black woods made me lose it. I fell on my knees and sobbed, begging.

“Please…. please, my lord, don’t let them take me to the black woods. I—promise I’m not a witch. I didn’t do….I didn’t do anything.” I swallowed, mucus poured from my nose alongside tears as I rolled in the dust.

“I’m just a lowly omega…I’m no chosen one…. I just…I just want to go back home….to my sick mother…please. I promise I won’t return. I’ll live as if I’m dead…I beg of you,” I cried my eyes out, coughing.

“Take her away,” he commanded.

My cries went louder as I pleaded desperately for my life. Being sent to the black woods was as good as being killed. Every pack had a ‘blackwood’ of its own. It was a home of evil spirits that fed on werewolves, and no one ever survived it.

The old man who watched with pain in his eyes as I was about to be dragged away laid himself flat on the floor.

“Alpha!” He called in a shaky voice. “I have served this pack as a priest all ninety-four years of my life. Wouldn’t I know the chosen seed if I saw one? We all saw the blue wolf. That’s the mother’s sign. Wouldn’t we be bringing a curse on ourselves if we killed her seed?”

“She’s an omega. None except Alpha clans can carry the alpha seed, let alone an omega. That’s always been the custom, and you, of all people, should know that,” The Alpha answered gruffly.

I was watching with fainting breaths, my arms held tightly by strange men ready to take me away.

The old man raised his balding head to look at the Alpha, “Yes, I’m aware an omega cannot bear an alpha seed, and that moon goodness will not make a mistake,” he paused. “It’s either I’m a liar,” he now looked in my direction.

I shriveled.

“Or that girl is an alpha’s blood.”

I felt the weight of those last words biting deep into my chest and sending a blow of tension into the silence that enveloped the square.