Page 1 of The Demon's Pet

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“Hey, omega, come give me a kiss.”

I raised my head, staring through the straggled, dark strands of my hair at the smirking, obnoxious face of Zane, one of my worst bullies.

Then again, as the omega of my village, almost everyone had a reason to bully me, so rankings could sometimes be relative.

In any celestial wolf haven, we were expected to follow strict rules from the time we were born.

Without them, the pack would cease to function, or worse, the celestial enforcers, the archangels, would come to wreak havoc on any apostates.

And bless those who followed the rules.

I stared at the ground, chest painfully tight and heart ramming against my ribcage, and went over my possible options as Zane continued to taunt me from the other side of the road.

I didn’t have to look up to know he was handsome. Blond. Tall. Athletic, though still slim.

All his life, things had been handed to him.

All because he was an alpha.

“Hey, omega, look at me when I’m talking to you.”

I told myself to calm down, stay cool. It never did any good to escalate things in these situations. Even if I managed to fight off one alpha or beta, they would group up and enforce the pack dynamic.

And why not? They weren’t at the bottom of it.

“Look at me, or I’m going to make you look at me,” Zane snarled.

Alpha power. He’d use it on me, forcing me to bend to him.

We don’t have to listen, something murmured inside me.

I’d always had this little rebellious voice that crept up at these moments to try to persuade me to go against the pack.

But if I stuck up for myself, they’d take away my ability to shift for a week, locking me in a collar.

The only moments of freedom I had were when I was allowed to shift and run through the endless acres of tall grass and wildflowers outside my cottage.

I’d seen collared omegas, and I had no desire to be one.

Not even the mated kind.

I’d rather die than be on a leash.

“You’re an omega,” my mother had said. “That means someone will always be in control of what happens to you.” Her weary eyes, deeply lined and drained by her own life as an omega, begged me to accept it easily.

I never could.

From the second I’d found out I was an omega, I’d been fighting it. Ignoring advances from alphas. Fighting betas who were bullies.

Someone else running my life? I’d never allow that.

They’d have to gang up and kill me first.

Which wasn’t impossible, since stoning got reinstated last year as a punishment for unruly omegas.

“I’m going to have fun punishing you for this infraction, omega bitch,” Zane said, losing his patience. I could scent his stress in his sweat. My failure to submit to him had pricked his fragile, bloated ego.

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