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Chapter One
Rain McDaniel vigorously scrubbed away the last spot of dirt on the marble flooring. Satisfaction filled her as she looked around the great hall of the Silverbite Pack House. Not a speck of dust in sight.
The hall could fit almost 500 people. Back in the good old days, as her pa used to say, the Silverbite Pack housed nearly 450 wolves. Territorial wars and internal challenges had reduced the pack to a tenth of its former size.
Despite her exhaustion, grief hit her out of nowhere as she remembered her poor father. Rain thought she’d buried her sorrow the day her father was cremated. Traitors didn’t earn gravestones.
She had gone to the crematorium and scattered her pa’s ashes alone. Even though four other alphas had sided with her father in his rebellion, they abandoned him after Felix cut his throat in the challenge circle.Pack loyalty doesn’t mean anything anymore.
Rambunctious laughter and howls brought Rain back to the present. A group of alphas entered the hall. Three of them. Dale, Bran, and Colin. Members of Felix’s inner circle. They were bare-chested, wearing only jeans, smelling of sun, sweat, and something sour. They probably just came from the run.
Rain shoved her sorrow away. She couldn’t afford to appear weak. As the daughter of a dead traitor, she held the lowest position in the pack. It didn’t help she was an unmated and single omega.
Her father used to protect her from the unwanted advances of pack bullies who had nothing better to do. Now, she was all alone. She could be vicious in a fight. Her father had taught her self-defense lessons, but in the end, an alpha or beta could best her in a real fight.
She could leave, but where would she go? She was born and raised on pack lands. The Silverbite Pack was all she’d ever known.
Wolves lived in packs, in communities. Loners and nomads existed, but those were special cases. Besides, other predators would seek her out once they found out she didn’t have the support of any pack. Where would she end up then? Dead and lying in a ditch somewhere?
“Look who it is, boys. Cinderella,” Dale said, spotting her first.
They walked to her as she slowly got to her feet, still clutching the rag in her hand. What irritated her was the muddy footprints they left on the floor. She woke up at 4:00 AM to polish this damn hall. As per Felix’s orders, she had to do it alone. It was only a little past lunchtime, and she had accomplished her task.
“Watch where you’re walking,” she said without thinking. “I spent hours cleaning this space.”
Colin, the biggest of the three and Felix’s favorite enforcer, fisted her dirty shirt and shoved her against the wall. “Omegas shouldn’t mouth off to their betters.”
Rain scoffed. A part of her knew it was time to disengage, but she couldn’t help herself. Rain was her father’s daughter, and Patrick McDaniel had taught her to hold her ground.
“Screw you and the horse you rode on, Colin. Everyone knows Felix only keeps you around because of your muscles.”
That remark earned a slap to the cheek. Pain seared up her skill. Blood filled her mouth from that one tiny blow. In the back of her mind, she knew how easily Colin could kill her. Hatred flashed in his eyes.
Unlike alphas and betas, omegas healed almost inhumanly slowly. Days like these, Rain couldn’t help but curse what she was. If she’d been born an alpha, despite the fact they were rare, she would’ve packed her meager belongings and left the pack after her father died.
If she’d only been stronger, if only … well. There was no use trying to wonder about the things she couldn’t change. Rain was what she was. An opinionated lowly wolf with no voice in the pack.
“What’s going on here?” a new voice demanded. Felix entered the hall, and he wasn’t alone. He had visitors with him.
Rain remembered him telling her he wanted the hall to sparkle because the pack was receiving guests. She overheard the other omegas talking earlier that morning. Felix wanted to become allies with a mid-sized pack up north. The Crimson Maw Pack.
She’d never been anywhere her entire life, but she’d heard of them. Kieran, the alpha leading that pack, had a fierce reputation. Enemies foolish enough to cross Kieran and his group of killers always ended up dead. Half of Rain’s pack mates didn’t want the Crimson Maw wolves as their allies, but like always, Felix’s decision was final.
Colin released her and turned to address Felix and his guests.
Rain slumped against the wall. She debated making herself as small and unnoticeable as possible. Other omegas did that all the time to deflect unwanted attention, but playing therole of a meek submissive had never been Rain.
“Just playing around with Cinderella here,” Bran said in a joking matter. “It’s nothing.”
Felix didn’t return his smile. Bran swallowed. At six-foot-seven, Felix was imposing as hell. He was built like a bodybuilder, and Rain had seen him kill challengers with those bare hands a number of times.
“Get cleaned up,” Felix said in a cold voice. “Don’t you three have duties to attend to?”
At that tone, the three alphas quickly made their exit. Felix looked at her like a bug he wanted to squash. She knew he never liked her. He only kept her around because despite her father being a traitor, their family had been part of the pack since its founding days.
“And you. Didn’t I tell you to clean the hall?” Felix demanded. He flicked his gaze to the muddy footprints left by his friends. “What have you been doing this entire time?”
