Knot My Usual Type (Feral Hearts Omegaverse #1)

Prologue 1 Wreck

Twenty years ago.

They came for me at dusk.

I remember that part clearly.

The sky was bleeding out behind the tree line, pine shadows stretching long across Forest Ridge Clan’s territory.

The air smelled like damp earth and dominance.

Like expectation.

Like something closing in.

I knew something was wrong the moment the birds went quiet.

Fifteen of them.

Fifteen Shifter males from my father’s private guard stepped from the trees in a half circle.

Some were my uncles.

Some were my cousins.

All were warriors sworn to my father.

And every single one of them was avoiding my eyes.

I was sixteen.

Just turned that day, in fact.

And I was already taller than most of them.

Already broader.

Already something they whispered about when they thought I couldn’t hear.

Monster.

Hybrid.

Wrong.

I didn’t force a shift.

I didn’t even snarl.

I just stood there in the clearing, hands loose at my sides, heart pounding—hard and loud.

“Stand down, Grayson,” one of them said.

I knew that voice.

Uncle Stefan.

I’d hunted with him since I was a cub.

“Why?” I asked.

No one answered.

I heard their hearts pounding. The sounds of their bones cracking as their inner Bears pushed them.

“Why, Uncle Stefan?” I asked again.

He didn’t answer.

They rushed me anyway.

It took all fifteen.

That’s the part I think about most.

It took fifteen adult males to bring down one sixteen-year-old boy.

They hit me high and low.

Claws raked.

Fists drove into my ribs.

Someone cracked a branch over my back.

My Bear surged forward, furious and wild, desperate to defend us—but I bit it down.

Don’t hurt them.

They’re Clan.

That was my mistake.

Chains slammed around my wrists before I could regain my footing.

Iron laced with magic and silver bit into my skin.

I dropped to one knee.

Then both.

Blood ran into my eye—my brown one.

The green one stayed clear.

They always stared at my eyes.

Like the two colors proved something.

My father stepped out of the trees when I was on my knees.

Edward O’Connell.

Alpha of the Forest Ridge Clan.

Perfect Grizzly lineage.

Pure. Untouched. Revered.

Until me.

My half-brother stood at his side.

Edward Junior.

He wore our family name like armor.

I wore mine like a sentence.

My father looked down at me like I was something dragged in from the gutter.

“I should have drowned you when you were born. After you killed your whore mother in childbirth,” he said flatly.

The words didn’t make sense at first.

I blinked up at him through blood and dirt.

“I—what?”

“I knew that Black Bear female was not worthy of my seed,” he continued, voice cold and carrying. “Weak blood. Corrupt blood. And look what she produced.”

He gestured toward me like I was evidence.

“An abomination.”

The word hit harder than the chains.

My brother smirked.

“You think we don’t see it?” Junior added. “See the way they look at you? You were always a mistake. And now you think you can challenge our father, that you can take my seat as Alpha, you worthless hybrid freak!”

My heart slammed in my chest.

I’d never tried to challenge anyone.

I’d never wanted the Alpha seat.

I just wanted to exist.

“You bring shame to my name,” my father said. “Hybrids are instability. They are chaos. The Forest Ridge Clan stands for purity and strength. You have neither.”

The Bear inside me roared then—not at them.

At me.

At my weakness.

At the way my body shook even as I fought not to shift and break the chains.

“You are hereby banished from the Forest Ridge Clan,” my father declared. “You will never step foot on my territory again. If you do, I will kill you myself.”

The words settled over the clearing like ash.

No one protested.

No one stepped forward.

No one looked at me.

I searched their faces anyway.

For something.

Anything.

All I found was relief.

Relief that it was me.

Not them.

My throat burned.

“What did I do?” I asked, the words coming out rough. “Tell me what I did wrong.”

My brother smirked.

My father’s gaze hardened.

“You were born.”

Silence followed that.

Heavy.

Final.

Something inside me cracked open then.

Not just rage.

Not just rebellion.

Defeat.

And understanding.

Hybrids weren’t welcome in our world.

The Grizzly Shifters of the Forest Ridge Clan sought purity.

Lineage.

Predictable, controllable strength.

I was Grizzly and Black Bear tangled into one body.

One brown eye. One green.

Shaggy hair that refused to tame.

A ferocious appetite that never quieted.

And power that coiled under my skin like it was waiting for something.

Waiting for me to stop holding it back.

Monster.

It was that power my father feared.

The chains felt lighter after that.

Because I stopped fighting them.

I lowered my head.

Not in submission.

In acceptance.

“Fine, I’ll go,” I said quietly. “I’ll go where I won’t be a danger to anyone.”

My brother scoffed.

“As if you have a choice, freak!”

My father turned away first.

They left me kneeling in the dirt until the sun fully died.

When the warriors finally unlocked the chains, none of them met my gaze.

I didn’t look back at the Clan’s territory as I walked away.

But I felt it.

The severing.

The tearing of something that had never fully wanted me.

That was the night I learned two things.

Something inside of me was wrong.

It was messed up enough that my own father tossed me out like so much garbage.

I wasn’t just a Shifter—I was a Monster.

And Monsters don’t belong in Clans.

They belong in the wild.

I swore that night I would never let my inner beast hurt anyone.

Never trust it.

Never fully unleash it.

Because if the Alpha and heir of Forest Ridge believed I was something dangerous?

Then maybe I was.

That was my burden.

Mine.

And I would carry it alone.