Chapter 4: Fall of the Starlights
Josie
The summons came at sunset.
My mother answered the call with a tight, bitter smile. My father barely looked up from his newspaper. Me? I just stood frozen at the sink, water running over a chipped plate I hadn’t realized I was still holding.
"The Alphas wants to see us," my mother said, like it was a dinner invitation. Like this wasn’t the moment everything would change.
I dried my hands slowly. "Why?"
She turned to me, lip curling. "Maybe they’ve finally come to their senses. Maybe they’ve realized what a stain you would be on their legacy."
I didn’t answer. I’d learned long ago that silence was safer than truth.
The walk to the pack house was quiet, but not peaceful. Every step felt like my bones were grinding together. The cold evening air couldn’t soothe the burn in my chest. My parents walked ahead, upright and smug, like they were already rehearsing the speech they’d give—just the poor, disappointed parents of a broken, impure omega.
The guards at the door didn’t even look surprised to see us. One of them nodded grimly and opened the door without a word.
The pack house was buzzing with quiet tension. Alphas moved like shadows through the halls, nodding respectfully at each other, avoiding eye contact with me. I shrank into myself, wishing I could disappear entirely.
We were ushered into a room with high ceilings and a long polished table. The air smelled like leather and power. At the head of the room, Varen sat with his arms crossed, flanked by Thorne and Kiel who sat on either sides of him. Dangerous. Deadly. And tonight, watching everything with razor-sharp focus.