Ryker Vance POV:
The funeral rite for an Omega was a quiet affair. A small clearing deep in the woods, a simple stone altar, a handful of low-ranking pack members who had known Elian Thorne. I shouldn't have been there. The future Alpha did not attend the funerals of Omegas who died in accidents. But the cold, hollow space inside me had grown into an unbearable agony, a grief so profound and nonsensical it had driven me here, seeking an answer I couldn't name.
I stood apart from the others, under the shadow of an ancient oak, as an Elder placed a simple, unadorned wooden urn on the altar. Elian's ashes. The sight of it sent a tremor through me.
The Elder began the chant, his voice a low drone invoking the name of the Moon Goddess, asking her to welcome a returned spirit. The moment the first words left his lips, the pain slammed into me. It was physical. Vicious. A clawed hand reached inside my chest and began to tear my soul from my ribs. I dropped to one knee, a strangled gasp escaping my lips. My vision tunneled.
My mind, frantic for a reason, flashed back. A memory, sharp and vivid. Elian, years younger, his face flushed with nervous hope, holding out a bundle of painstakingly gathered moonpetal herbs. A traditional offering. Not to me, but to my family, a gesture of respect for the Alpha line. I hadn't understood. I had given him a curt nod and forgotten it a moment later. Now, the memory was excruciating. It was an offering from a mate.
Another memory ripped through me. Elian, just last year, his voice barely a whisper. *"I love you, Ryker."* I had looked down at him, this frail, quiet Omega, and I had felt nothing but a flicker of pity and annoyance. I’d dismissed him coolly, told him not to waste his affections on someone so far above his station. I had called it a foolish crush. I had broken his heart and walked away without a second glance.
"May his spirit return to the Goddess," the Elder intoned, his hands raised to the sky. "May his soul find peace."
The last word was a death knell. The final, invisible thread connecting me to that urn snapped. The agony crested, becoming a wave of pure, undiluted loss that shattered every defense I had. My inner wolf, silent since I’d woken to the dust on my windowsill, let out a howl. It made no sound, but it tore through my mind, a cry of such utter desolation that it brought me to my knees. And with that howl, a single, devastating word crystallized in the wreckage of my soul.
*Mate.*
The word was a brand on my soul. And with it, the memories became poison. Elian, stumbling in the training yard. The fainting spells I had called pathetic. The way he sometimes grew breathless after a simple chore. It wasn't weakness. It was decay. The legends the Elders spoke of in hushed tones, the warnings I had never believed, slammed into me with the force of truth. *Soul withering.* A mate, left unclaimed, fading like a flower starved of sun. He hadn't fallen from the cliff. He had let go. And I had pushed him.
A raw, broken sound tore from my throat. I staggered forward, past the shocked onlookers, and my hands closed around the wooden urn. It was still warm. Consumed by a regret so absolute it was a form of madness, I clutched the ashes to my chest, tilted my head back, and screamed a desperate, broken plea to the empty sky, to the Goddess I had never truly believed in. "Give him back! Give me a chance. Please."
The world dissolved into white light.
***
I opened my eyes to the sting of sweat and the smell of churned earth. The sun was high and hot on my neck. The air was filled with the grunts and shouts of young wolves, the crack of wooden practice staffs hitting shields. I was on my feet, standing on the familiar dirt of the youth pack training ground. My body felt… alive. Vibrant. Coiled with the restless strength of my late teens, a power I hadn't felt in years.
Disorientation warred with a desperate, impossible hope. My gaze swept past the faces of my peers, their younger features a jarring shock. I saw Drake Easton, his grin as infuriating as I remembered it at seventeen, waving me over. I ignored him. My eyes scanned the crowd, my heart hammering against my ribs with a frantic, desperate rhythm. Please. Please be here.
And then I saw him.
Across the field, practicing drills with a handful of other Omegas. He was younger, healthier, but still painfully shy, his movements lacking the confidence of the others. Elian. His light brown hair fell into his eyes as he parried a clumsy strike. He was real. He was breathing. He was *alive*.
The relief was so overwhelming it almost buckled my knees. The last thing I remembered was the crushing agony of a shattered soul, the cold weight of his ashes in my hands. Now, he was here. The Goddess had heard me.
I started walking. My pace was unwavering, my focus singular. I cut a straight path across the training ground, ignoring Drake's confused call of my name. The other trainees fell silent as I passed, their eyes following me. The future Alpha didn't cross the field during drills. And he certainly never approached the Omega section.
Elian saw me coming. He froze, his hazel eyes widening in alarm. As I drew closer, he visibly flinched, his head bowing, his gaze dropping to the dirt in a perfect, ingrained display of submission. The sight sent a fresh stab of pain through me—the pain of memory, of what I had forced him to be.
I stopped directly in front of him. He was trembling. I could smell the faint scent of his fear mingled with something else, something I had never been close enough to notice before. Forest floor and fresh rain.
Without a word, I reached out and gently took the practice staff from his hands. My fingers wrapped over his, our skin touching for the first time in this new life.
A jolt, sharp and electric, shot up my arm. *Sparks*. The undeniable, tell-tale sign of a mate bond making its first contact. I saw Elian gasp, his head snapping up, his startled eyes locking with mine. He felt it too.
The entire training ground was dead silent. Every eye was on us. On the future Alpha, who had just singled out a low-ranking Omega, his hand possessively covering the boy's. I leaned in close, ignoring the shocked gasps from onlookers, and inhaled his scent—the scent I had almost lost forever. My inner wolf, reborn from the ashes of grief, purred a single, possessive word in the quiet of my mind.
*'Mine.'*
