1 The Trap

My eighteenth birthday came by quickly. I was hoping it would drag by as every other year since getting rejected by Caden Caldwell.

Everyone had a high school crush and mine was the famous Caden Caldwell, the soon-to-be Alpha of the fifteen packs in the region. I thought I was only wasting my time. Caden would soon find a mate, better and presentable than me. Someone fit for the title of a Luna of the Regional Packs.

Someone more appealing. And, I could swear that I was far from being that person.

However, it still came as a huge shock when Caden Caldwell rejected me before eye witnesses the size of the whole pack. And considering that we had shared an intense make-out session where he had confessed how he wanted to fuck me badly, it was hard to believe he would reject me. Awfully so.

I tried to fight the pain that had accompanied Caden's rejection so hard but, I failed each time I remembered how he had lured me into the school locker room, finger-fucked me right there beneath the showers of the locker room and confessed to wanting me.

With the way Caden had regarded me with so much lust, caressing my lips and whispering dirty talks into my mouth, I assumed he would jump to accept me as his mate the minute he made the discovery.

However, it was the exact opposite that happened. Caden had rather gazed at me with so much disgust and revealed that I irritated him.

That was when my world came crumbling. Physically and mentally.

Caden made a mess of my life via that rejection. He became the bane of my existence.

I loathed Caden with everything in me.

So, I decided to move out of the pack before my loathing came to ripping his throat with my weak claws or bashing the head of his wife, the new Luna.

Though, I didn't know what she looked like, I guessed she was pretty. Extremely gorgeous with perfect curves unlike my slender ones. I imagined she had milky skin and appeared very wealthy, unlike my pale and bony skin.

I didn't even know her or know what she looked like but, I loathed her as much as I did Caden.

I didn't need to know her before I loathed her. She just had to be Caden's choice to qualify for my hatred. She just needed to exist.

It was shameless that a guy who I had just been briefly intimate with would affect me that much.

Well, if finger-fucking me beneath the shower and nibbling on my nipples could be considered as a brief intimacy.

Caden took the entire territory of my thoughts. He invaded my thoughts every single moment, unprovoked.

He drove me mad. And just by a make-out session in the showers.

The horrible was that, I still wanted him. Even after his cold rejection, I wanted him to finish what we hadn't in the locker room that day. And that want turned into hatred.

Which was the more reason I made my decision to leave the Pack. Surely, a distance from Caden could bring a halt to the thoughts. The want. The hatred. The betrayal that clawed my chest. The fury.

Life at the Packhouse wasn't rainbows and sunshine, either. If anything, it was the exact opposite. Life as an Omega at the Pack was equivalent to a death sentence.

Omegas were dispersed to different pack houses for cleaning and tidying up, three times a week. They called it volunteering work which was hilarious because they would always beat up whoever dared deny them of the so-called volunteering work. Or we would be forced to engage in a challenge with the stronger wolves in the pack. The wolves who had spent their teenage training unlike us, the omegas, were deprived of that right.

The first time I was challenged to fight with a stronger wolf, which had been my last, my bones were broken for weeks. The healing process was a sluggish one since I had no wolf yet.

And, I still don't have one.

I always got envious of Tessa whenever I watched her speak to her wolf, enjoying the privileges attached to having a wolf.

So, someone like Tessa could slack off, take a few beatings, and heal in a few days. I, on the other hand? I would have to depend on a wheelchair or crutches if I so much as got late to work.

So, I hastened my steps towards Beta Smith's house - hurried and determined.

His house was a few strides away from the main packhouse - Caden's home - So, I always remembered to put on my hoodie whenever I was assigned to Beta Smith's house. The only nightmare that could replace the one I had of Caden rejecting me was bumping into Caden again.

I never want to have to face him ever again till I leave this pack.

My footsteps echoed in Beta Smith's mansion as I ascended the flight of stairs.

The house was always empty whenever I came by for my cleaning duties. I had made sure of that by waiting till later in the afternoon when I was sure nobody was home and everybody would be probably on about their day.

I was assigned to the bedrooms alone while the other omegas took the other rooms. So, my first stop was the second floor where the bedrooms were.

I walked into the master bedroom by the end of the second floor, a bucket and a mop in my grip.

Immediately I settled the bucket at the center of the exquisite bedroom, I hurried to the floor-to-ceiling window, throwing the curtain open to let the afternoon sun peek into the room.

It was my favorite place to clean. Mainly because of the brilliant sun that kissed my skin whenever I went on with work and the flowers perched by the corner I got to water.

Seeing the flower blooming by my care was one of the few things that brought a smile to my face.

I grabbed a flowering pot and started watering the flowers, humming excitedly as I did.

I will certainly miss this when I leave.

"I had assumed a ghost was behind the blooming of the flowers."

The voice, alighting from a corner of the room, had me jumping.

I knew that familiar voice like the back of my hand.

Damien. Beta Smith's son.

Damien was a close friend of Caden. He approached me first before Caden made sexual advances and got me to spread my legs.

Only that, he didn't confess until after Caden's rejection. So, out of fear that I would get a repeat of Caden's cruel rejection, I rejected him.

However, on the day he was leaving for town, I made a promise to give him a chance the moment he stepped his feet back into the pack, thinking I would have been long gone by then.

But, he was already back.

How can he be back so soon?

Damien suddenly pulled me into an embrace, palming the back of my head as he did. And since we were in a region where a hug from someone not your mate was almost a punishable sin, he quickly pulled back, clearing his throat awkwardly.

Well, intimacy with someone not your mate was a punishable sin by being banished from the pack and turned into a rogue for good. Established by our forefathers. Well, may they turn in their graves for establishing such a rule.

I questioned my sanity when I hadn't reported Caden for defiling me in the locker room and still rejecting me. That looked like the perfect revenge. He would be stripped of his title as Alpha of the pack and turned into a rogue. Then, we would both be miserable.

But, I watched him live his life freely as mine remained miserable.

"Are you okay?"

Damien's voice knocked me back to reality.

Distractingly, my eyes roamed over his body, wondering how they became so broad and muscular.

He looked more manly than the last time I saw him.

"I missed you but, I guess the feelings are not mutual."

I could hear the disappointment in his voice so, I quickly moved to nod.

"Nonsense. I've missed you too, Damien. It's been so long. How have you been?"

"Not good. Anticipating the day I finally got to get back to this pack and see you."

A smirk touched his lips.

Oh God. He should know.

"Damien, I–"

"I know." he quickly said. "You are leaving. Tessa told me."

Oh, Tessa that blabbering idiot! How did he meet her first?

"But, I still need to tell you something."

I frowned.

"I would like to make you my wife."

My frown deepened.

"I want to marry you. Think about it. If I marry you, you'd get the luxurious life you've never had as the soon-to-be Beta's wife."

"What if you meet your mate thereafter?"

"I don't want a mate. I want you."

What is he saying?

"Damien, are you drunk?"

I looked around for a glimpse of alcohol.

"River, I'm serious. Consider this, please. You'd have a luxurious life and you might be able to get your revenge on Caden."

That had me frozen on the spot. If there was anything I wanted more in this life, it was to get my revenge on that cold-hearted bastard. But, incapability to execute revenge had made me lay back, wallowing in the pain of the rejection, instead.

He was right. If I became the Beta Female, I would possess more power than I had as an Omega, have a wolf, and have the means to stand before Caden Caldwell.

I never thought I would be considering this but, I did as I walked home, nibbling on my bottom lip.

It was getting late, the sun slowly sinking into the sky and the pack house territory was rather noiseless.

The Omega quarters was just as it used to be - still, dark, and depressing.

Most of the other Omegas ran off a few months ago, leaving only me, Tessa, and Noah behind.

They chose the life of a rogue. Concisely, I would choose the life of a rogue. It was a way better fate than that of an Omega.

However, that would be unless I accept Damien's offer.

As ridiculous as it sounded, it was my only route of escape except the one where I chose to leave the Pack and become a rogue.

Furthermore, I could use this means to save Noah and Tessa from their fate as Omegas. This would be killing two birds with a stone.

A figure hovering over the kitchen stove had me freezing on the spot.

Uncle Derek?

Uncle Derek twisted off the stove and made two servings of the Broccoli pesto pasta into a white ceramic plate - one of the few plates that survived the vandalizing of other strong wolves - settling it on the kitchen counter.

He caught my gaze and gave me a heart-warming smile, opening his arms for me to walk into it for a hug. Without wasting a breath, a streak of tears staining my cheek, I ran into his arms, wrapping him in a soul-shattering hug.

Uncle Derek had been my legal guardian ever since the death of my parents. But, he was forced to leave a few months ago when the death of a mateless wolf got pinned on him.

I was his only alibi. I had stayed with him all through that fateful day, learning how to ride a horse like an obsessed bitch. But because he didn't want to bring me into the mess, he had asked me to say nothing, choosing to take the blame instead.

A few days later, he was missing. A farewell letter from him taking a space in between my favorite textbook.

"Are you not hungry?"

Uncle Derek eyed me as I continued swirling the pasta, refusing to take a bite.

"How can I eat when my fugitive uncle is sitting right across me."

"Little girl, I see your rumor has returned."

Uncle Derek jested.

"Wait, does that make me an accomplice?"

I teased, rolling my eyes dramatically.

"Just eat. We are going for a walk later."

My brows pinched.

"Is that…?"

"Yes, silly. Nobody will notice me with my new hairstyle, anyway."

"Uncle—"

"I'm leaving as soon as we return from the walk."

My jaw dropped. My grip on my fork tightened.

"I'm coming with you."

A frown touched his lips.

"No, you can't, kid. You still have school. You have friends and a life here." he pauses, and watches me. "Listen, don't you, under any circumstance, leave here. Life as a rogue is twice the torture of life here. Don't be deceived by the excitement of running away, okay?"

I stiffened.

"Okay?"

Uncle Derek repeated, sharply this time and I forced a nod.

The walk was silent but, refreshing. It felt good to stare at the star with your favorite person and the night breeze kissing your skin.

"Are you coming back?"

I finally let out the one lingering question at the back of my head.

"I don't know, kid. But, don't get depressed on my account. I'm fine, okay?"

He halts, grips my shoulder, and forces me to stare into his honey-brown eyes, a similar orbs to my father's.

"You focus on your study and don't worry about me, okay?

I nodded.

So much nodding and speechlessness.

Uncle Derek suddenly took out a burner phone and checked for the time.

His he leaving already?

"Why not you go ahead? I will meet you."

I frowned but, complied anyway, walking past him in the dark forest.

Once I'm out of his sight, I stand beside a bamboo tree, leaning into it.

A movement alerts me and twisting around, three bulky men marched towards me instead of Uncle Derek who I expected it to be.

They were Pack warriors. Pack warriors' scents were the strongest and easiest for me to detect.

They were the Alpha Caden men. Caden.

What could they possibly want? Perhaps, it was past curfew and I hadn't noticed.

The men stopped before me and without wasting a breath, one of them knocked me down.

As my eyes slowly shut down, I saw a familiar figure approaching the men, giving them an approval nod and staring at my figure with a disdainful gaze.

Only, I couldn't believe the familiar figure could be my uncle.

Uncle Derek.