Sophia's POV
Someone is braiding her hair too tight.
Sophia sits in front of the mirror watching a woman she doesn't recognize pull sections of her auburn hair into elaborate patterns. The style is supposed to make her look beautiful. Supposed to make her look worthy of an Alpha King. Instead she looks like a sacrifice dressed up in expensive clothes to make the sacrifice prettier.
The white dress hangs on a wooden stand behind her. Long and flowing and completely impractical for anything that involves actual living. It's the kind of dress brides wear. The kind that says surrender. The kind that says acceptance and submission and a promise to obey forever.
The kind that lies.
Sophia watches her own face in the mirror. She looks smaller than usual. Younger. Terrified. She tries to control her expression but her body won't cooperate. Her hands shake. Her breathing is shallow. Every nerve is screaming that something is about to happen that she can't take back.
Mira appears in the doorway and immediately dismisses the servant braiding her hair with a single authoritative look. The Beta female walks over and takes over gently, working through the tangles with more care than the servant showed. Her hands are strong but kind.
"You nervous?" Mira asks.
"Yes."
"That's smart." Mira finishes the braid and ties it off with silver ribbon that catches the light. "Come on. Let's get you in the dress."
Mira helps her into the white fabric. It's cold against her skin and heavier than Sophia expected. The dress is tight around her waist but loose everywhere else like it's designed to make her look fragile. Designed to make her look helpless. Which is the point probably. Omegas are supposed to look like they need protecting. Like they can't survive without someone stronger.
Sophia looks in the mirror and barely recognizes herself.
This isn't the girl who was traded away this morning. This is someone else. Someone important. Someone being presented to an entire pack like she matters. Like she's valuable.
The lie of it makes her want to scream.
"Listen to me," Mira says once they're completely alone. They're in a private chamber now. No servants. No witnesses. Just two females and the truth. "In about an hour you're walking into the great hall where hundreds of wolves are waiting. They're going to watch you approach the Alpha King. They're going to watch him take your hand. They're going to watch the elder bind you together with words that have been spoken for centuries."
Sophia knows this part. Everyone knows this part. It's the whole reason she's here.
"The mate bond is real," Mira continues. Her voice is serious. Steady. "When you meet your fated mate your wolf recognizes them before your human mind does. Your body recognizes them. Everything in you will want to surrender to it. The pull is almost impossible to resist."
"What if I don't want to resist?" Sophia asks quietly.
"Then you get to be happy. Then you get to have something most wolves never find." Mira meets her eyes in the mirror. "But if you do want to fight it..."
She trails off.
"Then what?"
"Then you're going to experience the hardest moment of your life. A fated mate bond is powerful, Sophia. It's like your body and your wolf know something your mind doesn't. They know they found their completion." Mira reaches over and squeezes her shoulder. "And fighting against that pull is like fighting against gravity. It's like fighting against nature itself."
"I don't want to be owned," Sophia whispers.
"Then don't be." Mira's eyes are fierce. "Being a mate doesn't have to mean being owned. It means being chosen. It means being important to someone. And honestly, if there's one thing I see in you Sophia, it's that you're capable of hard things."
They walk through the compound together and every warrior they pass stops to stare. The white dress announces what she is. The girl who was traded away this morning. The girl who's about to become Luna. The girl who should be grateful for the honor of being bonded to the Alpha King.
Sophia can feel their eyes on her like weight.
The great hall is massive. Cathedral ceilings that disappear into shadow. Black stone walls that have been standing for centuries. Hundreds of werewolves arranged in circles standing shoulder to shoulder. Alpha ranks closest to the center of the room. Beta ranks next. Gamma ranks scattered throughout. And in the back, barely visible, crowded together like they're not worth much space, the Omegas.
She used to belong there.
Her father sits in the middle section. He's wearing formal clothes but he avoids her eyes as she walks past. He's been avoiding her eyes for so long now that maybe he doesn't remember what her face looks like.
Vivian sits beside him and she's smiling that cruel smile like she's watching everything finally work out the way she planned. Like selling her stepdaughter to an Alpha King was always her goal.
The center of the hall opens into empty space.
And there's Kaden.
Sitting on a black throne like he was born to it. Wearing all black. Everything about him screams danger and power and absolute certainty that he's the most important creature in the world. When he sees her he stands immediately and the entire pack goes silent.
Not because the ceremony is starting.
But because the Alpha King just stood up like she's someone important enough to warrant his immediate attention. Like she matters to him already.
Warriors whisper furiously. Elders lean together exchanging looks. Even her father sits up straighter trying to understand what's happening.
Sophia walks forward and she can feel the pull between them getting stronger with every step. A current. A connection. An invisible thread trying to link her to him whether she wants it or not. Her wolf is waking up inside her. Stretching. Recognizing something.
She doesn't want to recognize anything.
The pack elder waits at the center of the circle. He's ancient and scarred from a hundred battles. He's witnessed hundreds of matings and he studies the space between her and Kaden carefully like he can taste the electricity in the air.
She and Kaden face each other.
And Sophia knows that in the next few moments her entire life is about to shift on its axis.