Page 7 of The Demon's Pet

Maybe if I went that way and just kept running… But then the border enforcers would just find me and bring me back for my own good.

But if I went to the ceremony…

I shook my head. The idea of standing in a white dress while the alphas assessed me, each choosing the mate they wanted, while I had no say in it because I should just be grateful to find an alpha to protect me…

It was all so ridiculous because, if they kept all the alphas in check, I wouldn’t need to be protected at all.

But I wasn’t allowed to bring up issues like that. Not if I wanted to stay out of the stocks, which were used for public shaming.

I sat up on the bed, pressing my hands into the scratchy quilt my mom had sewn for me. I walked to the window and looked down over the waving gold curtains of wheat swaying in the last light of the sun.

The moon would rise soon, and the ceremony would start.

I glanced at the white dress hanging on the door to my small closet. I should put it on. Comb my hair. Fucking try for once to at least attract the least terrible alpha.

The problem was I hadn’t seen a single boy who’d been given the title of alpha that hadn’t turned into a bullying, conceited little snot.

Even the ones I’d thought highly of before had turned into something else with the title of alpha.

For some reason, there were no alpha females. I found that odd, but I’d been constantly reassured that women were considered and just not found to be the right match due to the will of the celestials.

Still, it seemed weird to me. The women of the pack were strong and resilient like the men. In wolf form, a female beta was as strong as a male beta. But alphas, once blessed by the celestials, had power that set them apart from other wolves.

The whole situation was hopeless for an omega like me.

I shoved open the window and threw one leg over the windowsill, climbing out and clinging to the frame as I looked beneath me. It was only about ten feet down, and there were soft bushes that would break my fall, so I jumped, hoping for the best.

The bushes cushioned me enough that my butt only felt a dull thud and my head was jolted, but I was otherwise unharmed by my fall.

I glanced up at the window, still open.

I’m sorry, Mom. But you let me down too.

I was nobody’s slave. I was going to get out of here.

My wolf had always been a fast runner. There was a chance that some of the border enforcers would be assigned as guards at the ordination meeting before the mating ceremony. This might be my chance to run.

If I was fast enough, if I found a gap where they couldn’t reach me, just maybe I could escape.

Where I was going or what I was doing, I didn’t know.

My decisions at the moment were guided by sheer desperation and a lack of options rather than reason.

I crouched on the ground and focused, letting the scents on the wind reach me and thinking of my wolf.

She’d come to me on the full moon of the year I’d gotten my period. She was another presence inside me, quiet and calm. I felt her, but never with words. A touch of celestial power inside me.

“Let me shift,” I murmured.

My back hunched as I felt my spine change. All my bones popped and cracked, but there was no pain due to the magic of the gods inside us. The ability to transform matter. My snout elongated, giving me fierce canines and a nose that could smell for miles.

Many scents assaulted me instantly as my hands turned to paws, and dark-brown fur sprouted all over me, finishing my transformation into my wolf.

I was larger than a normal wolf but not the size of an alpha who’d been ordained by the celestials.

Tonight, before the mating ceremony, the celestials would bestow “blessings of power” on the chosen alphas, sealing their fate as more powerful than anyone else.

I hated seeing their smug faces.

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