Chapter 1: Omega of Tideclaw

"An Omega like you should know their place in this world!"

Hazel bit down on her trembling lower lip, holding in her tears as hard as she could.

Her bare back stung from raw pain caused by lashes of a whip decorated with thorns, and her wrists peeled from the tight rope holding them up.

"Yes, father," she muttered, feeling anger well inside her chest for perhaps the thirtieth time in just four days.

Hazel had been preparing for the arrival of the King of Lycans, the Scorpio Alpha, when in her anger at being repeatedly taunted for no reason, had slapped her stepmother across the cheek.

An act that should have gotten her head clean off her neck.

The whip came down again, and again. Alpha Lucian was going to ten, and he had only lashed her six times.

Hazel groaned and whimpered as the remaining four came in rapid succession, feeling the warm trickle of blood go down her back.

The Alpha of Tideclaw pack, the Gemini Celestial line, dropped the whip on the stone floor, exhaling heavily.

"That should teach you a lesson, markless runt. Next time you pull a stunt like this, I will skip the lashes, and go straight to killing you."

He threatened her before walking out of the dungeon.

The guards who had watched him deal out Hazel’s punishment scrambled to release her from the ropes, and the moment they did, Hazel ran past them, tears rushing down her cheeks.

But not merely in pain.

In rage.

In her world, the greatest possible offense was being born ’markless’.

A fancy term for ’wolfless’. ℯℯ𝑙.

To exist without the divine ink carved into your flesh at birth was to be a stain on the lineage. The realm was divided among twelve wolf packs, each tethered to one of the twelve celestial zodiacs. When a pup took their first breath, the stars sealed their fate across both hands: the sign’s Constellation etched into the inner left palm, and their designated Hierarchy—Alpha, Beta, Delta, or Gamma—burned into the right.

Unless you were like Hazel.

She ran down the tower, immediately heading to her poor excuse of a room, perpetually moist and occasionally inhabited by both rats and lizards.

Hazel in particular, had committed the most terrible offense.

As if being markless wasn’t bad enough, she had been born without a twin in a pack that dictated that twin Alphas rule as equals.

Which made her the perfect scapegoat for her father, and his new Luna, the mother of the twins, Eliza.

"Bastards. Bastards. All of them," she muttered to herself as she used a soft sponge and some water to clean up her bloodied back to the best of her abilities.

She couldn’t stay here and mumble. If she did, it would invite more misery and pain upon her. So best to keep it going.

After cleaning herself up, she strode out of her room, immediately heading to the kitchen where multiple servants, omegas, flurried about.

The King of Lycans was gracing Tideclaw pack with his presence after all.

Not much was known about him, but from the little Hazel knew, he was terrifying. Rumor had it he once ripped off a lycan’s head for merely looking at him the wrong way.

Hazel didn’t know why on earth he was coming to Tideclaw of all places, but it wasn’t her duty to question.

"Oh my goodness, Hazel. He whipped you again, didn’t he?" a soft voice called out, and Hazel didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

Emma.

Her brown eyes briefly flashed with tears, and Hazel scoffed. "I am fine, Emma. Please focus on your work," She pushed past the blonde and frankly her only friend in this hellscape. She didn’t mean to be rude, but the truth was she didn’t have the time to cry or even vent about what had been done to her.

The Lycan King was coming.

Nobody cared about the woes of a markless and failed Alpha descendant.

~

"All hail, Alpha Conan Valerius Black, of the Scorpio celestial line, King of all Lycans, and first of his name."

He was here.

Hazel bowed alongside the multitudes of servants and Tideclaw nobles at the feet of the Lycan king and his small delegation. They all stood in front of the castle of Tideclaw, the night air crisp and cool.

Even without a lycan, Hazel could feel the sheer power the Lycan King possessed.

He was a tall man, with shoulders so broad they struggled against the shirt he wore.

Jet black hair fell across his face, long and luscious, and his eyes were the same colour of his hair, black and almond shaped.

She had expected an old looking man with multiple scars scattered across his face, and perhaps graying hair.

Not whatever this was.

However, he had a scowl on his face, true to the image she had conjured up in her mind.

"My King," her father greeted, his hair rustling. "I hope the roads were kind to—"

"Enough of the garbage, Lucian," King Conan snapped, his deep voice sending chills down Hazel’s spine. Her eyes darted to where her step-mother stood in front of her children, and she could swear her legs were trembling.

Ha!

"I did not travel all this way for you to peel off my ears with incessant talk about my travels." The King continued, his scowl deepening. His eyes scanned the crowd, and Hazel felt her heart pick up.

"Where is my bride?"

Wait....

Bride??

Murmurs erupted amongst the servants, but were immediately shot down by the growl of the orange-haired man positioned behind the Alpha King.

Probably his Beta.

Hazel couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

The Lycan King had come all the way to Tideclaw for a bride?

Bride? Could he be here for Danielle? She thought to herself, trying to make sense of an otherwise confusing situation.

But then that would ruin the twin—

"Ah yes, forgive me. Hazel, please come forward."

Hazel felt her heart drop to the bottom of her stomach.

What?!