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Elise

My life is going to change today.

I'm finally 18 and ready for the coming-of-age ceremony. I can finally be mated to the one I've loved for so long.

Jared.

The coming-of-age ceremony is the time when the Alpha of a wolf pack will formally, in front of all their friends and family, select their one true partner for life. Their mate.

In our pack, turning 18 is truly a pivotal event. Families and friends come together to celebrate this new age of their kin, because not only are they have now seen as adults it means that they are finally fit to go out into the world and carve their own path.

And create a family of theirs.

Unlike Jared, who is loved and coveted by many, I'm his complete opposite. As an Omega and flat-out outcast in the pack, everyone else looks at me like I'm a plague. Whispering and sneering at me whenever I'm around.

It doesn't help that I'm dating the Alpha King of the pack, so you can just imagine the hateful looks I get at school.

But today. That will all change. Because Jared will officially be mine, and I'll be his. Forever and ever.

With a smile on my face, I put on the best-looking outfit I have out of hand-me-downs that my adoptive parents got for me. I step out of the basement that also serves as my bedroom and walks down the hallway, adjusting my worn-out bag over my shoulder.

If I don't move quickly, I'll be late for classes at school, and I don't need to give the teachers another reason to berate me. Being a straight-A student is the only other good thing I've got going for me other than my Jared.

I'm so lost in thought about what the day holds that I bump into the last person I want to see today. My stepsister.

She sneers, dusting off her shoulder with so much disgust. "Ewwww, don't get your useless Omega scent all over me, you smelly dog." As if her words aren't damaging enough, she shoves me backward so hard that my head slams against the wall behind me.

Stars explode in my vision, but I just shake my head and take a quick step around her.

"It's your birthday today, isn't it? Great, one less year out of the ones I have to spend with your sorry ass. Walk faster, but you can't escape what comes for sad freaks like you," she adds.

Her words are like daggers that cut into my brain and my back, but she has said worse before. She'll have to do better if she expects to ruin my day.

I silently wipe away the stubborn tear that escaped from my eyes.

No one cares about me in this shithole, except Jared. I can't wait for what comes later today. That's the only thing I have been looking forward to since four years ago when he told me that he'd officially choose me as his mate when I turned 18.

Absolutely nothing can ruin my day. Nothing.

—

Hair got pulled on again. Got spitballed by childish high schoolers. Another rumor about how I bewitched Jared because 'there is no way he can be voluntarily dating an ugly piece of trash like her' got spread around in class again for the fifth time this year.

Same old stunts. Same old standard bullying. These guys can't get any more original.

I cross off the acts in my head one by one on my way back home from school. The acts are so routine now that I list them out sometimes when I need to sleep. At least today I wasn't randomly groped by one of the jocks who would then say 'oops, sorry, I thought you were a boy,' after I would curl up in embarrassment.

But . . . There's this guy that's always staring at me whenever I pass by him in the halls. I'm not sure what Pack he's from, but he's usually so quiet and minds his business. The girls are always whispering about him and about how they'd love to do gross stuff that gives me the ick with him.

I think he's really nice though. He never bullies me, and once in a while, he even stands up to the bullies. No one ever questions him, so it makes my life easier on some days, but on other days, it makes people go harder on me the few times he isn't around to help.

It's funny how they think that I actually bewitched two of the most attractive men at school. I don't even know how Jared and that guy managed to notice me. Jared's a senior, and I'm a junior, so we never have classes together, so there's little he can do about the bullying because everyone acts innocent when he's in the room.

Still, though, it's kind of strange that I've never summoned the courage to ask the other guy what his name is. He never sticks around long enough for me too.

Maybe we'll meet again soon. Who knows?

Members of the Silver Moon pack are usually tight-knit, but not to those they consider outsiders like me. Till today, I still can't understand why the Ian family adopted me since they never seem to acknowledge my presence.

I open the front door to our home and step inside, eager to just get inside and prepare for the most important event of my life. I'd even left school early for this.

Something's not right, though. Even with my lessened Omega senses, I'm still able to feel the unsettling shift in the atmosphere.

I head up to my bedroom, taking slow steps as a precaution. Could my stepsister be back from school by this time?

Sounds come from inside my room, and the closer I get to it, the better I'm able to make out what the sounds are.

Flesh slapping together. Talking. Moaning . . .

Moaning!?

A distinct feminine voice—my stepsister's—reaches my ears. "Ah, yes. Right there. F*ck! Right there. Yes. Yes. Yes!"

What the hell? Is she actually . . . doing it in my bedroom?

I inch away from the door, more out of disgust than my innate hatred for trouble. I pivot on my heel, ready to find somewhere else to chill out until she's done when someone else speaks up.

My whole body stiffens.

"Shh. Keep it down, babe."

He answered with even louder moans, followed by, "Shut up and give it to me harder!"

"I'm the boss here, not you." He grunts with exertion, and my stepsister's moan nearly brings down the house.

A lump forms in my throat, and I forcefully swallow it down because I know that if I set it free, I'll never be able to keep it undetected.

No . . . It can't be.

"Oh, Jared, you're so big. I've never had one this—ah—big."

My legs give out, and I fall to my knees, eyes wide in unbelief.

No. Please, no. It can't be him. Silver Moon is a big pack, there has to be someone else with his name . . .

But no one else can have his voice as well. That, I'm sure of.

I don't want to admit it to myself, but the person relentlessly having sex with my stepsister is none other than...

My step-sister moans again in time with my thoughts. "Jared!"