The Unwanted Omega: Claimed by the Shadow Alpha Chapter 12

The Unwanted Omega: Claimed by the Shadow Alpha Chapter 12

Ember POV: 

The garden was filled with laughter and bubbles. 

“Mama! Look!” 

Lily, my three–year–old daughter, ran across the grass. Her 

little legs pumped furiously. She tripped, scraped her knee, 

and immediately sat up.(2) 

Before she could cry, a soft green light glowed from her 

palms. She touched her knee. The scrape vanished. 

“I fixed it!” she squealed. 

“Good job, baby,” I smiled, clapping. She had the healer’s 

gift, just like me. But 

me, she would never be 

punished for it. She would be cherished. 

Derek came up behind me and wrapped his arms around 

my waist. He kissed the mark on my neck. 

“Happy birthday to our little wolf,” he murmured. 

“She’s perfect,” I said, leaning into him. 

The party was winding down. The guests–members of the 

Shadow Pack, scientists from my team, friends–were 

starting to leave. 

“Alpha,” a perimeter guard mind–linked Derek. “We have 

two intruders at the East Gate. They aren’t crossing the 

I knew who it was. 

“Let them stand,” Derek replied. 

After the last guest left, I walked to the gate. Derek walked with me, his hand gripping mine. 

Ryker and Axel were there. 

They stood on the public road, outside the pack territory markers. It had been two years since the press 

conference. 

Axel was in a wheelchair now. Ryker was pushing him. 

They looked like ghosts haunting a graveyard. 

When they saw me, Ryker straightened up. He reached 

into the pocket of his worn–out coat. 

“We… we heard it was her birthday,” Ryker said, his voice 

trembling. “We brought gifts.” 

He held out a small box. 

“It’s a protection crystal,” he said. “Top grade. Carved with 

ancient runes. It… it keeps nightmares away.” 

It was the same kind of crystal I had bought him with my savings twenty years ago. The one Willow had thrown in 

the trash. 

Axel reached into his lap. He held a long, flat box wrapped 

in silver paper. 

“And this,” Axel wheezed. His breathing was labored. “For 

you. I know… I know it’s late. Twenty years late.” 

I took the boxes. They felt heavy. 

I opened the long box. Inside was a dress. It was made of moonlight silk, shimmering in the dusk. It was the dress I 

had begged for when I was eighteen. The dress they bought for Willow instead. 

“It’s beautiful,” I said. My voice was flat. 

“We worked hard to find it,” Ryker said, a desperate 

eagerness in his eyes. “We thought… maybe next time, we 

could come in? Just to see her? From a distance?” 

I looked at the dress. It was just fabric. It meant nothing. 

“No,” I said. 

The word hung in the air, sharp and final. 

“Ember, please,” Axel wept. “We are dying. Look at us. We 

have paid for our sins.” 

“You are paying for your choices,” I corrected him. “There 

is a difference.” 

I looked at the guard. “Open the gate for a moment.” 

The guard buzzed the gate open. I didn’t invite them in. 

“Thank you for the gifts,” I said politely, like one speaks to 

a delivery driver. “Drive safe.” 

I turned around. The gate clicked shut behind me. The 

lock engaged with a heavy thud. 

I walked about ten paces up the driveway. 

There was a large recycling bin where we put the party 

wrapping paper. 

I stopped. 

I felt their eyes boring into my back. I knew they were 

watching through the iron bars. 

I lifted the lid of the bin. 

I dropped the crystal inside. Clunk. 

I dropped the silk dress inside. Swish. 

I closed the lid. 

I didn’t do it out of malice. I didn’t do it to hurt them. I did 

it because I didn’t want old ghosts in my house. I didn’t 

want their guilt staining my daughter’s happiness. 

I heard a sound from the gate. A strangled, broken sob. It sounded like an animal dying in a trap. 

I kept walking toward the warm light of my home, where my husband and daughter were waiting for me.