The Omega who became Queen

The Flame Ben

nan Tho

ked open despite the pain, there was fire in them. Not a plea. Not fear. Defiance. Even half-dead, she wasn't broken. That, more than anything, stirred something ancient in me. I shifted back, ignoring the burn in my muscles, and lifted her into my arms. She barely weighed anything. "You're safe now," I murmured, not expecting a reply. But her lips moved, cracked and barely audible. "Let me die... I have nothing left." "No," I said, voice colder than steel. "You're not allowed to give up. Not yet." It took three days for her to wake. In those days, I kept watch, barely sleeping. Ezra handled the politics in my absence, but I refused to leave her side. The palace healers did what they could, but it wasn't their skill that brought her back. It was her will. The woman clinging to life on that bed wasn't just an omega. She was something else. I didn't know what yet, but I'd seen warriors break from lesser wounds. I'd watched battle-hardened Lycans surrender under lighter betrayal. But this girl, no, this woman was still fighting. --------- Aria Quinn POV They say the strongest flames are born from ashes. If that's true... then I must be fire incarnate. Few days later, I opened my eyes in that silken, moonlit chamber, wrapped in warmth, wrapped in peace, I realized something I never thought possible. I was still alive. And worse I didn't know what to do with that. My body ached in a thousand places. My wrists were bandaged. My ribs were wrapped tight. My skin was clean, too clean, scrubbed of Kael's scent, of Bloodmoon's dirt, of my failure. But nothing could scrub away the humiliation. The betrayal. The look in his eyes when he threw me away like yesterday's scraps. "Rest," the healer had whispered when she left me. "You're safe now." Safe? I didn't even know what that word meant anymore. Two days later, I opened my eyes fully. And then there was him. King Ronan Thorne. The Lycan King. The man who'd stood between me and the abyss, wrapped me in his cloak, and carried me like I was something worth saving. He visited every night. Never stayed long. Never asked questions. Just sat in the chair across the room and watched me like he was w