Eleanore Avery POV:

I was a hollow thing, a doll with its stuffing pulled out.

Two guards dragged me from the cell, their grips bruising on my arms. The sudden sunlight was a physical assault, forcing my eyes shut. I didn't feel the sharp stones cutting my bare feet as they hauled me along a desolate path. The pain in my soul had consumed everything else.

They brought me to a cliff's edge. The wind was cold and sharp, whipping my thin prisoner's shift against my legs.

Kade was there, waiting. And nestled against his side was a petite, familiar figure.

My stepsister. Dayse Avery.

She was dressed in a beautiful gown of emerald green, a stark contrast to my rags. A sweet, vicious smile played on her lips-a smile I had never seen before.

"Hello, sister." Dayse's voice was as soft as silk, and just as cloying. "You look pathetic."

My numb mind struggled to process it. "Dayse... you too?"

She giggled, a light, tinkling sound that grated on my raw nerves, and tightened her arm around Kade's. "Betrayal? I'm simply taking what should have been mine all along. Why should a foundling, a stray picked up from the dirt, have everything?"

The confession spilled from her lips, coated in years of hidden resentment. It was she who had suggested using me to Kade. It was she who had been secretly lacing my food with herbs for years, suppressing my aura, ensuring I would present as a weak, wolfless Omega.

The last bit of warmth in my heart turned to ice. The architect of my weakness, the source of my shame, had been the girl I called my sister.

Kade cut her off with an impatient wave. "Enough chatter. The Avery pack has been cleansed. It's time to send her on her way."

"Cleansed?" The word jolted me from my stupor. I looked up, my eyes burning. "What did you do to my family?"

Dayse's smile widened with sadistic glee. She described the slaughter in vivid detail, her words painting a picture of blood and fire, of my parents' last moments.

A roaring filled my ears, and the world went white. My family. My pack. Gone.

I stopped screaming. I stopped struggling.

My eyes were empty, void of all feeling. Then, something new and terrifyingly dark began to burn in their depths.

I started to laugh. A high, unhinged sound that made the guards flinch.

"Kade Alexander. Dayse Avery." I spoke their names, each syllable a drop of venom, using the last of my life's breath.

"I, Eleanore Avery, swear by my soul and my blood. I beg the Moon Goddess for a second chance..."

My voice rose, a curse echoing in the wind.

"I will become a ghost that clings to your fate! I will watch you lose everything, be betrayed by everyone, and fall into the dirt! You will suffer a thousand times the agony you have given me today!"

Kade's face paled. He ripped a sword from a guard's scabbard and lunged.

The blade pierced my heart.

As my consciousness faded, a cool, silvery light enveloped me. A voice, ancient and compassionate, yet cold as the void between stars, resonated in the core of my soul.

I grant it.