Nyx's POV – Year One
The punch came fast, but I was faster.
I ducked under my trainer's fist and swept his legs out from under him. He hit the mat hard, and I pressed my advantage—knee on his chest, forearm across his throat.
"Dead," I announced.
Marcus grinned up at me, showing the gap between his front teeth. "Six months ago, you couldn't even hold your stance. Now you're putting me on my back. Not bad, kid."
I helped him up, breathing hard. My muscles ached in that good way that meant they were getting stronger. Every day I trained—six hours minimum. Hand-to-hand combat, weapons, strategy, survival skills. Cain said if I wanted revenge, I needed to become someone the Four could never break again.
So that's what I was doing.
"Again," I said.
Marcus shook his head. "You've done twelve rounds. Your body needs rest."
"My body's fine." I bounced on my toes, ready for more. "Again."
"Nyx." Cain's voice cut through the training room. He stood in the doorway, arms crossed. "Pushing too hard makes you sloppy. Take a break."
I wanted to argue, but Cain wasn't the type you argued with. I grabbed a water bottle and collapsed onto a bench, watching other Shadow Council operatives train. They moved like deadly dancers—precise, controlled, beautiful.
I wanted to move like that.
"You're doing well," Cain said, sitting beside me. "Better than I expected."
"Not good enough." I flexed my hands. They were covered in calluses now, torn and healed a dozen times over. "The Four have been training their whole lives. I'm five years behind."
"You have something they don't."
"What?"
"A reason to win." His grey eyes held mine. "They fight because it's expected. You fight because you have to. That makes all the difference."
I touched my hair—still getting used to the silver-white color. Another mark of what I'd become. Another piece of old Nyx that was gone forever.
Good. I didn't want to be her anyway.
Year Two
"Focus." Cain's voice was sharp. "You're not trying to force it. You're trying to feel it."
I stood in the center of a dark room, eyes closed, breathing slowly. Around me, five operatives stood silent and still. My job was to sense their emotions without seeing them, without hearing them—just using the power thrumming under my skin.
"I can't," I said through gritted teeth. "It's not working."
"Because you're angry. Anger blocks everything else." Cain circled me like a shark. "You've spent two years feeding your rage. Now you need to learn control. A weapon that only knows how to destroy is useless."
I hated when he was right.
I forced myself to let go of the anger—just for a moment. Breathe in. Breathe out. Feel.
And suddenly, I could.
Emotions hit me like colors. Fear from the operative on my left—bright yellow, sharp. Curiosity from the one behind me—soft blue. Respect from the woman on my right—warm gold. Nervousness from the man in front—jittery green.
"North," I said, eyes still closed. "He's afraid. East is curious. South respects me. West is nervous." I opened my eyes, and they blazed violet. "And you, Cain, are testing me."
His rare smile appeared. "Good. Your empathy sense is developing faster than expected. Primordial Omegas can read emotions, influence them if they're strong enough. You'll be able to tell when someone's lying, when they're hiding something, when they're about to attack."
"Can I control what people feel?"
"Eventually. But that's advanced work." He gestured to the others, who left the room. "For now, let's see if you can handle your wolf."
My stomach tightened. I hadn't shifted since the night I woke up. Every time I tried, something inside me resisted—like my wolf was too big, too powerful, too other to let out.
"I'm not ready."
"You'll never be ready if you keep avoiding it." Cain's voice softened. "I know you're scared. But your wolf isn't the enemy, Nyx. She saved your life."
I closed my eyes and reached inward, toward that burning presence I'd been ignoring. The moment I touched it, power exploded through me.
My bones cracked and reformed. My skin rippled. For a horrible second, I thought I'd tear apart. Then everything settled, and I stood on four legs instead of two.
Cain's sharp intake of breath told me everything.
"Mirror," he said quietly.
I padded over to the wall-length mirror and stopped dead.
The wolf staring back at me was massive—easily twice the size of a normal omega. Pure white fur marked with silver patterns that seemed to glow. And my eyes... violet flames that lit up the darkness.
I looked like the ancient drawing Cain had shown me. Like a legend come to life.
We're beautiful, my wolf purred in my mind. Her voice was confident, powerful—everything I'd never been. We're death in a pretty package.
Year Three
The corrupt alpha's throat was under my blade before he even knew I was there.
"Move and you die," I whispered.
Alpha Marcus Greythorn froze. Around us, his guards lay unconscious—I'd taken them out one by one, silent as smoke. This was my first real mission: stop an alpha who'd been trafficking omegas across pack borders, selling them like livestock.
"Who are you?" His voice shook.
"Someone who's tired of watching alphas do whatever they want." I pressed the blade harder. "The Shadow Council sent me to give you a message. Release the omegas you're holding. Pay them compensation. And if we ever hear your name again..." I let violet light flare in my eyes. "We won't send a warning next time."
I knocked him out and freed the omegas myself—twelve women locked in basement cells, terrified and hurt. When they saw me, saw my glowing eyes and white hair, one of them whispered, "Are you an angel?"
"No," I said, breaking their chains. "Just someone who remembers what it's like to be powerless."
That mission changed something in me. Revenge against the Four was personal, but this... this was bigger. Every omega I saved, every corrupt alpha I stopped—it felt like I was saving the girl I used to be.
Maybe that's what Cain had wanted all along.
Year Four
"They're calling you Valdis now," Cain said, sliding a tablet across the table. "The white wolf who appears from nowhere. The omega who makes alphas kneel."
I scrolled through the reports. Twenty-seven missions completed. Zero failures. My reputation had spread through the underground—some feared me, some worshipped me, all of them knew better than to cross me.
"Valdis," I tested the name. "I like it."
"Good. Because Nyx Ashford needs to stay dead a little longer." He pulled up a new file. "We've intercepted communications between the Four Families. They're planning something big."
My heart jumped. "What?"
"An Alpha Summit. Six months from now. All four of them will be there, along with every major pack leader." Cain's eyes gleamed. "It's the perfect opportunity."
"For what?"
"To reintroduce yourself." He smiled. "Five years of training. Five years of becoming someone they could never break. Are you ready to face them?"
I thought about Kade's cold eyes. Damon's brutal strength. Ash's cruel words. Ryker's false kindness. Five years ago, they'd destroyed me.
But I wasn't that girl anymore.
"Yes."
Year Five – Present Day
I stood in front of the mirror in my quarters, studying the stranger I'd become.
Silver-white hair fell past my shoulders in waves. My body was lean muscle and deadly grace. My violet eyes held no fear, no softness, no mercy. I wore all black—practical for fighting, perfect for blending into shadows.
A weapon stared back at me.
"You leave tomorrow," Cain said from the doorway. "Everything's arranged. New identity, new background, invitation to the Summit. They'll never recognize you."
"Good."
He was quiet for a moment. "Nyx... once you start this, there's no going back. If they discover who you really are, if the mate bond activates—"
"It won't." I turned to face him. "I'm stronger than some biological connection."
"Are you?" His grey eyes searched mine. "Because I've been training you for five years, and I still see her sometimes. The girl who wanted to be loved, who hoped for rescue, who believed in happy endings."
"She's dead," I said flatly. "She died on that cliff."
"Did she? Or are you just pretending?"
The question hung between us like a blade.
"I'm going to destroy them," I said, each word sharp as glass. "I'm going to take everything they have—their reputations, their power, their futures. I'm going to make them feel what I felt." I stepped closer. "And then I'm going to walk away and let them live with it."
Cain studied me for a long moment. "All right. But Nyx? Remember what I taught you. The best revenge isn't about destruction. It's about showing them exactly what they lost when they threw you away."
After he left, I turned back to the mirror.
Tomorrow, I'd walk into a room full of alphas—including the four who'd tried to kill me. They'd look at me and see a beautiful, powerful stranger. They wouldn't know that stranger had teeth.
Not until it was too late.
I smiled at my reflection, and it wasn't a nice smile.
"I'm coming for you," I whispered to the ghosts of four boys who'd learned cruelty before kindness. "And you'll never see me coming."
My phone buzzed. A message from Cain: Summit guest list just updated. The Four will all be there. Along with their father figures—including Alpha Aldric Blackthorn. Bonus target?
My smile widened.
Alpha Aldric. The man who'd orchestrated my father's downfall, who'd ordered his son to break me, who'd tried to have me killed.
Bonus target confirmed, I typed back.
But as I set the phone down, something twisted in my chest. A flutter. A pull. Like my wolf had suddenly woken up and was reaching toward something far away.
No. Not something.
Someone.
Four someones.
My wolf's voice purred in my mind: Mates. Our mates are waiting.
"Shut up," I told her. "They rejected us. They're nothing."
Then why does your heart race when you think of seeing them again?
I didn't have an answer.
And that terrified me more than anything.