Rejected Omega's Revenge

The scent hit me first—rogue wolves, their stench of decay and madness thick in the autumn air near the pack border. My heart lurched when I heard the terrified whimper. Tyler Grant. The alpha's nephew, barely six years old, frozen in the clearing as three rogues circled him like sharks around bleeding prey.

I didn't think. Couldn't think. My legs moved before my brain caught up, launching me between the snarling wolves and the trembling child. Without my wolf, I was nothing—just flesh and bone and desperation. The first rogue's claws raked across my shoulder, tearing through skin like paper. Pain exploded white-hot through my nerves, but I wrapped my arms around Tyler and held on.

"Run," I gasped against his hair. "When I tell you, run to the packhouse and don't look back."

The second rogue lunged. I twisted, taking the bite meant for Tyler's throat on my forearm instead. The agony nearly blacked me out, but I'd survived worse. Dane's death had taught me that some wounds never heal—these would just be scars on top of scars.

I don't know how I drove them off. Maybe they smelled my wolfless state and decided I wasn't worth the effort. Maybe Tyler's screams alerted the border patrol. Maybe the Moon Goddess—who'd ignored my prayers for three years—finally remembered I existed. When the rogues melted back into the forest, I collapsed into the dirt, my blood painting the fallen leaves crimson.

Tyler's small hands pressed against my face. "Miss River, please don't die. Please don't die like—"

Like Dane. He didn't say it, but the words hung there anyway. The pack loved reminding me how my true mate had died protecting others while I became the broken omega who couldn't even shift.

Darkness pulled me under before I could answer.

---

I woke to sterile white walls and the sharp bite of antiseptic. The pack infirmary. My body felt like someone had put it through a shredder, every nerve ending screaming. Bandages wrapped my shoulder and forearm, already seeping red at the edges. Through the haze of pain medication, I heard voices—Healer Morrison's clinical tones updating someone on my condition.

"Lucky to be alive. If those rogues had been serious about the kill—" His voice faded as footsteps retreated down the hall.

Lucky. Right. Lucky broken omega River, who'd survived another day in a pack that saw her as entertainment. I closed my eyes against the sting of tears, my fingers instinctively reaching for the spot where Dane's pendant should rest against my heart. Emmett had given it back after I'd begged—one of the few times he'd shown me anything resembling kindness. Or what I'd thought was kindness. Now I wondered if even that had been part of Nayeli's game.

The pain medication dragged me back toward sleep, but something felt different. Wrong. A pressure building behind my sternum, like a door I'd thought permanently sealed was beginning to crack open. Heat pulsed through my veins in waves, each one stronger than the last.

Then I felt her.

My wolf. Not the ghost I'd mourned for three years, but alive, furious, clawing her way back to consciousness inside my mind. The sensation was so shocking I couldn't breathe. Couldn't process. She'd been gone, buried with Dane in that rogue attack, and now—

*River.* Her voice echoed in my head, rough from disuse but unmistakably real. *River, I'm here. I never left. I've been waiting for you to be strong enough to find me again.*

"No," I whispered into the empty infirmary room. "You died. You died with him."

*I went dormant to protect you from the grief. But you just saved that pup—you remembered what it means to be a wolf. To protect. To fight.* Her presence grew stronger, more solid. *And River... we're not what we thought we were.*

The heat intensified, spreading from my core outward. My eyes snapped open as my vision shifted, the world suddenly sharper, colors more vivid. In the darkened window across from my bed, I saw my reflection—and gasped.

My eyes glowed gold. Not the amber of a regular wolf, but the pure, unmistakable gold of an alpha bloodline.

The infirmary door burst open. Healer Morrison stood frozen in the doorway, his clipboard clattering to the floor as he stared at me. At my eyes. At the power that must be radiating from me in waves now that my wolf had awakened.

"Impossible," he breathed. "You're... you're alpha-born?"

I couldn't answer. Could only stare at my own reflection as three years of lies began to crumble around me. I'd never been a broken omega. I'd been a dormant alpha, and everyone—including Emmett—had treated me like trash.

Before I could process this revelation, before I could ask the thousand questions screaming through my mind, I felt it. The mind-link. The one I'd been connected to ever since Emmett marked me as his chosen mate.

And through it, I heard his voice. Clear as if he were standing beside me.

*"God, Nayeli, you should've seen her face when I showed everyone those photos yesterday. The pathetic broken omega actually thought I wanted her."*

Nayeli's laugh echoed through the link, crystal and cruel. *"Three years, Emmett. Three years of her following you around like a desperate puppy. I'm honestly impressed you kept it up this long. Though I suppose having her warm your bed made the game easier to play."*

*"Please. She was convenient, nothing more. A bet's a bet, and you won. The wolfless omega fell for every lie. Though now that her wolf's apparently back—"*

*"Oh, that just makes it funnier. She really thinks that changes anything? She's still the same pathetic—"*

I severed the link before I could hear more, my wolf snarling inside my mind with a rage that matched my own. The heart monitor beside my bed screamed as my pulse skyrocketed. Healer Morrison rushed forward, but I held up a hand, stopping him.

Photos. He'd shown people photos. Of us. During pack meetings.

Three years wasn't a courtship. It was a game. A cruel, calculated game orchestrated by Nayeli Phillips and played by the alpha I'd given everything to.

My wolf growled, low and dangerous. *Make them pay.*

For the first time in three years, I agreed with every fiber of my being.