Chapter 20 Mo
Mo
Five years ago
Iwake up with Sophie’s soft snores coming from the bunk below me. I stretch my muscles, still aching from yesterday’s punishment.
Outside our window, pack members are milling about and starting their daily chores. I’m not part of that; I never have been.
The other teens tend to avoid me. They say I’m too rough, too loud, too dirty.
Sophie, however, fits in seamlessly with her gentle ways and her sweet smile.
She is always perfectly put together and ready to offer a helping hand or a kind word.
People say they don’t understand how she could have such a feral younger sister.
They aren’t wrong; I would always rather be out exploring the woods than making small talk with people who only tolerate me because I’m Sophie’s little sister and an omega.
I slip out of bed and pull on my clothes as quietly as I can, but then my stomach growls, reminding me I skipped dinner last night after Alpha Mark called me “unruly” in front of everyone, then made me clean the entire hall by myself.
Fuck him. I’d rather starve than go back to that dining hall right now.
“Mo?” Sophie’s sleepy voice comes from above. “Where are you going?”
“Out,” I say. “I’ll bring you back some berries.”
She sits up, blonde hair a tangled mess around her face. Even like this, she’s prettier than I’ll ever be. “Don’t go too far, okay? Alpha Mark was really angry yesterday.”
I snort. “When isn’t he?”
“I mean it, Mo. He was talking about more discipline.”
A chill runs through me. I know what kind of discipline Alpha Mark believes in. I’ve got the scars to prove it.
“I’ll be careful,” I promise. “Go back to sleep.”
I slip between cabins, avoiding the main paths where I might run into someone who’ll send me back. At sixteen, I know I should be helping with chores, not sneaking off into the forest. But the forest is the only place I can be myself.
I’m almost to the tree line when I hear footsteps behind me.
“Running away again?”
I spin around, ready to fight, but it’s just Stuart. Tall, broad-shouldered, with dark hair always falling into his eyes. Eighteen and already one of the best hunters in the pack.
“I’m not running away,” I say, crossing my arms. “I’m just getting breakfast.”
He grins, and something warm flutters in my chest. I squash it immediately.
“Mind if I join you?” he asks.
I narrow my eyes. “Why would you want to do that?”
Stuart shrugs. “Maybe I like your company.”
“Nobody likes my company.”
“I do.”
I stare at him for a long moment. He doesn’t look away.
“Fine,” I say. “But keep up, or I’m leaving you behind.”
His smile widens. “Yes, ma’am.”
We head into the forest together. I move fast, expecting him to fall behind, but he matches my pace easily. We don’t speak much at first. I show him my favorite berry patches, and he helps me gather enough for Sophie and me.
“You’re good at this,” he says as I navigate the underbrush.
“At what? Picking berries?”
“At everything out here. You look like you belong.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I don’t say anything.
Stuart doesn’t push. He just follows me, helps when I ask, and stays quiet when I need silence. By the time we head back, my basket is full, and something has shifted between us.
“Same time tomorrow?” he asks as we reach the edge of the compound.
I hesitate. “Why?”
“Because I want to see you again.”
I nod once, then slip away before he can see the blush creeping up my neck.
Stuart is waiting for me the next day. And the next. And the next.
At first, I’m suspicious. No one seeks out my company voluntarily, especially not someone like Stuart. He’s popular, respected, the kind of wolf who could have any girl in the pack. But he keeps showing up, day after day, with that easy smile and those warm brown eyes.
“I see you, Mo,” he says one afternoon. “The real you. Not the mask you wear for everyone else.”
I look away. “There’s no mask.”
“Isn’t there?” He reaches out slowly, giving me time to pull away, and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “I think there’s a lot more to Moira than she lets anyone see.”
I flinch at my name. “Don’t call me that.”
That’s what my mother used to call me. “It’s just Mo.”
His hand lingers near my cheek. “Mo, then.”
“Your sister likes me,” he says one day as we sit by the stream, our feet dangling in the cool water.
“Sophie likes everyone,” I say.
“Not like she likes me.” He grins. “She told me I’m good for you.”
I splash water at him. “She should mind her own business.”
“She also said you smile more now.”
He catches my chin with his finger, turning my face back to his.
“I like your smile,” he says softly.
And then he leans in and kisses me. His lips are warm and gentle, and my whole body lights up. I’ve never been kissed before. Never wanted to be until now.
When he pulls back, his eyes are dark and serious. “Was that okay?”
I nod, unable to form words.
“Good,” he says. “Because I plan to do it again.”
And he does. Again and again, each kiss better than the last. Each day with him is better than the day before.
For the first time in my life, I feel like I belong somewhere. Not in the pack necessarily, but with him, with Stuart. In the space we create together, where I don’t have to pretend or fight or run.
A month passes in a blur of secret smiles and stolen kisses. Is this what happiness feels like? This constant warmth that makes me want to laugh for no reason?
“I want to show you something,” Stuart says one afternoon, taking my hand.
He leads me deeper into the forest than we’ve ever gone before, to a small clearing full of wildflowers.
“What is this place?” I ask.
“I found it one day and thought of you.” He turns to me. “I love you, Mo. I’ve never felt this way about anyone.”
“I love you too,” I say, and I’ve never felt happier in my entire life.
* * *
My arms are pinned behind my back as two guards drag me from my bed.
“What’s happening?” I ask, but they don’t answer. They haul me up the stairs and across the cold stone floor of the main hall. My knees scrape against the rough surface, drawing blood. I can feel every crack in the stone.
“Please,” I cry out. “I didn’t do anything!”
The entire pack is here, their faces blurring together as I’m hauled forward. Some look away. Others watch with hungry eyes.
Then I see Stuart. He’s standing near the head alpha’s throne, and relief floods through me. Stuart will fix this. Stuart will tell them this is a mistake. Stuart loves me.
“Stuart,” I say. “Stuart, help me. Tell them I didn’t do anything.”
He doesn’t move. Doesn’t come toward me. Doesn’t say a word.
And then he smiles. But it’s different now—wrong. His eyes slide to the boys standing in the crowd, and they’re grinning too, and something cold settles in my stomach.
“Stuart. What is going on?”
Alpha Mark rises from his seat and steps closer. My wolf whimpers, trying to make herself smaller.
“I made a promise to your sister,” he says. His fingers grip my chin, forcing me to look at him. His nails dig into my jaw. “That I wouldn’t touch you until you were eighteen.”
His eyes sweep the crowd, then come back to me.
“But word is you spread those legs for Stuart here. If you’re so keen for cock already, we’ll put you on rotation, omega.”
Rotation.
My breathing goes wrong. Short, fast, too fast, and I can’t slow it down. My chest won’t expand. I’m gulping air, but none of it reaches my lungs.
I look at Stuart. Waiting for him to defend me. To tell the alpha it wasn’t like that. That he loves me. That what happened between us was real. That he wants to be my mate.
He’ll save me.
Instead, he winks.
“Stuart,” I say, my voice breaking. “Tell him.”
“Tell him what?” Stuart says to the room. “That she’s so desperate for attention, she’ll believe anything? Tell her she’s pretty, tell her she’s special, and she’ll do whatever you want.”
My legs give out. The guards are the only thing holding me upright. A sound comes out of me that I don’t recognize. Not a scream. Not a word. Just something breaking.
I look at him. The boy who held me while I told him about my mother. Who kissed me and said I was beautiful. The boy who said he loved me in a clearing full of wildflowers.
He’s already looking away. Already bored.
I gave him everything I had, and it wasn’t even worth his attention.
He shrugs. “The boys and I had a wager,” he continues, turning to his friends, who nod and grin. “To see who could make the omega spread her legs first.” He pauses. “And I won.”
Sophie pushes to the front of the crowd. Her face is streaked with tears, her eyes wide with terror.
The head alpha doesn’t look at her. “Strip her,” he commands.
“NO!” I scream, thrashing against the guards’ grip.
“No, please, Alpha,” Sophie begs. “She didn’t—”
“Silence.” His voice echoes through the hall. “I will not be disobeyed.”
Rough hands rip at my clothes. Cold air hits my bare skin, and every eye in the room is on me. I try to cover myself, but they yank my arms apart and hold them there.
Nobody helps me. Nobody moves.
I look at Stuart. “You said you loved me.”
“How could I love something this… feral?” He looks at his friends. They laugh. He doesn’t even have the decency to look ashamed.
The head alpha circles me. The stone floor is freezing against my bare feet, and I can feel him behind me before he speaks, his breath on the back of my neck.
“Did you enjoy it?” he asks, so quiet only I can hear. “Did you like having him inside you?”
His hand is in my hair now, yanking my head back. “Stupid girl. Did you really think he wanted you? Omegas are for breeding, not for loving.”
Bile rises in my throat. I swallow it down because I will not give him the satisfaction of watching me throw up on his floor.
“No!” Sophie screams. “Please, no! I’ll do anything!”
The head alpha smiles at her. “You already do everything I ask, little dove. But your sister needs to learn her place.”
He turns back to me.
“It’s time for your punishment.” He snaps his fingers, and the pack’s beta medic approaches with something in his hands.
“I’m a fair alpha, so I’ll give you a choice.
Since you’re so eager to spread your whore legs, perhaps we should put that enthusiasm to good use.
Starting with me. Then whoever else wants a turn. ”
Stuart’s grin widens. The crowd goes quiet.
“Or,” the head alpha continues. He holds up a needle, and the beta beside him lifts thin strands of dark wire. “We ensure it never happens again.”
“Wolfsbane wire,” the beta medic explains. “Woven with the toxin. It won’t dissolve when you shift, and it’ll hurt every day until a medic professionally removes it.”
Some gasp. Others look away. Not one of them steps forward.
“Your choice, little bitch,” the head alpha says, his breath hot on my face. “Be the pack whore, or we’ll sew you shut until I decide you’re worthy of being opened.”
Sophie lunges forward, but two betas catch her. “Please!” she screams. “She’s just a child!”
The head alpha doesn’t look at her. His eyes stay on mine.
“Choose.”
I look at Sophie. Tears streaming down her face.
“The wire,” I say.
“What was that?” He cups his ear, mocking.
I lift my chin and meet his eyes. “I choose the wire.”
His face darkens. He wasn’t expecting that. Nobody in their right mind would choose the wires.
“So be it,” he snarls. “Hold her down.”
They force me onto my back on the stone floor. The cold of it shocks through my spine. I fight, thrashing and screaming, but there are too many hands pinning my wrists, my ankles, pressing my hips flat against the ground. Someone’s knee is on my chest. I can’t breathe.
They spread my legs and hold them apart. The entire pack is watching. Every person I have ever known is here, and when the head alpha notices some of them are deliberately looking away, he commands them to watch.
“Stop! Please!” Sophie’s voice is ragged, shredded. “Take me instead! Please!”
Alpha Mark ignores her. He puts on gloves, takes the first wire from the beta’s hands, and threads it through the needle. His movements are slow. Deliberate. He wants me to see every step.
“You’ll regret your choice, omega.”
The first prick of the needle pierces the most sensitive skin on my body.
I scream. Not a word, not a curse. Just a sound ripped from somewhere, animal and deep, a sound I didn’t know I could make.
White-hot pain tears through me, and my body arches off the floor so hard the guard on my chest has to press down with his full weight.
“Open your eyes,” the head alpha commands. “I want you to watch.”
The alpha command washes over me, and my eyelids snap open. I see the needle. I see his hands. I see my own blood on the wire.
“This is what happens when omegas forget their place,” he announces to the crowd as he pushes the needle through again. “This is what happens when I am not obeyed.”
I bite through my lip to keep the next scream inside.
Blood fills my mouth, hot and copper, and I swallow it because screaming is what he wants.
Each stitch is a separate agony, a fresh pierce followed by the slow, burning drag of wolfsbane through raw flesh.
My body tries to shift, to heal, but the alpha commands me to stop.
My wolf howls inside me, trapped, unable to do anything but feel what I feel.
Seven stitches. I count them because counting is the only thing keeping me from losing my mind.
Through tears, I see Sophie on her knees, sobbing. Her hands are reaching for me even though the guards won’t let her move. Our eyes meet across the hall.
I clench my jaw. I hold her eyes. I don’t look away.
She mouths something. I can’t hear her over the roaring in my head, but I can read her lips.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
When it’s over, the head alpha stands and wipes my blood on his pants. He looks down at me the way you’d look at a stain on the floor.
They drag me back to my cell and dump me on the stone. I curl into myself, trembling. Every breath hurts. The pain between my legs doesn’t stop. Every heartbeat pushes fresh fire through the stitches.
The cell is dark. The bolt slides shut. And somewhere above me, through the stone, I can still hear Sophie crying.
I chose the wire. I chose it. And I would choose it again.