Omega Bound Chapter 296

Ayla

The auditorium hums with unease long before Thane takes the podium. I can feel it in my chest, the ripple of tension running through the pack bond. They don’t know what’s coming, not yet, but they can sense change, and change can make a pack restless.

I sit on the stage with the others. Damon steady as ever, Amani tight-shouldered beside him, Raven perched sideways across Cyrus’s lap like she owns both the chair and the man under her. Cyrus has one arm looped around her waist, smirking at something no one else finds funny. His other hand strokes absentmindedly over the scruffy opossum clinging to Raven’s thigh, its beady eyes glinting in the light. The picture would almost be domestic if not for the odd pet and the shifters that own it.

Then Thane steps forward.

Every sound cuts off like a blade. My bond hums with the pressure of him—Alpha of Alphas, commander, protector, the man who holds my heart. But to them, to the pack, he’s the storm they can’t look away from.

He scans the room once, letting silence settle like dust, before he speaks. “Our history has been twisted,” he says, voice carrying to every ear. “We were taught that only Alphas marked, that she-wolves were receivers, not givers. That was a lie.”

The words crack through the crowd like lightning.

Thane doesn’t flinch. “We uncovered records. Proof. Once, she-wolves marked their mates too. The bond was balanced, equal. Whole. Somewhere along the way, that truth was buried, whether by ignorance or by design. But I won’t let it stay buried. Not in this pack. Not in any pack under my authority.”

My chest swells with pride, even as the weight of his words sinks into me.

I feel the room shift. Shock. Skepticism. Curiosity. Shifters glancing at their mates, hands brushing over claimed necks, wondering what it would mean to carry a mark.

Thane’s hand tightens on the podium, his eyes sweeping the room until no wolf dares look away. His voice is steady, but beneath it is steel.

“You want to know why this truth was buried? Why your mothers, your grandmothers, your bloodlines were all told they could not mark their mates? It wasn’t fate. It wasn’t the natural order. It was fear.”

He lets the word hang there, sharp and cutting.

“Fear of what it meant if she-wolves had that much power. Fear of what it meant if their bite mattered as much as an Alpha’s. If she marked him, if she bound him fully, he couldn’t keep his weaknesses hidden. She’d feel his doubt. She’d taste his lies. She’d know every crack in his armor. And too many males couldn’t stand that. They didn’t want a partner. They wanted control.”

Thane leans forward. “So they took it. They cut the truth out of us. They burned the scrolls, rewrote the records, taught pups a new story. Said only Alphas mark. Said anything else was dangerous. Said it was against tradition, against the fates themselves. But it wasn’t tradition. It wasn’t holy. It was theft.”

Thane lifts his chin, gaze sweeping the room. “You don’t have to take my word for it. At this time, I will ask Amani to come forward. Amani is Damon, my beta’s mate who will soon be our newest pack member.”

Amani freezes. I catch the flicker of panic in her eyes, the way her fingers twist in her lap. Damon leans close, murmuring something soft. His hand brushes hers, steadying her, and she nods once, rising to her feet with stiff shoulders.

She steps up beside Thane, her voice quiet at first but gaining strength as she speaks. “In my old pack, we were taught both sides mark. Always. That’s how I knew… that’s how I knew I’d leave my bite on Damon someday. I thought everyone knew. I thought it was normal.”

Murmurs ripple through the crowd. Some skeptical, some relieved. Proof from another she-wolf. Proof this isn’t just Thane rewriting the law to suit himself.

Amani swallows, glancing once at Damon before finishing. “It makes the bond stronger. Whole. I believe that with everything in me.”

Damon rises to his feet then, his calm voice carrying like a stone dropped in still water. “I can confirm that. Our bond deepened the moment her bite sealed it. I don’t need history books to tell me what I’ve lived and what I felt.”

For a moment, the hall is hushed, the truth sinking in. Wolves stare, processing, whispering. The air hums with potential.

And then Cyrus, of course, ruins it.

He leans forward, Raven still sprawled on his lap, and raises his voice so everyone can hear. “So what I’m hearing is we throw a bite orgy.”

Amani scowls at her brother. Damon’s palm scrubs over his face. I cover my mouth, but laughter bubbles anyway, traitorous.

Raven doesn’t laugh. She flips her knife once and smacks the flat of it against his chest. “Say bite orgy one more time and I’ll carve it across your ribs.”

The opossum chooses that exact moment to hiss and climb higher onto her shoulder, glaring at Cyrus like even it’s disgusted.

Cyrus beams like he just won a prize. “See? Foreplay with an audience. Can’t beat it.”

The entire front row groans in unison.

Cyrus is tightening his arm around her waist like she might bolt. She doesn’t. She never does, but he may always have a low simmering fear of it.

Thane clears his throat, and the sound cracks like thunder. Instantly, the room falls silent again, though Cyrus still looks far too pleased with himself.

His voice sharpens, each word like stone against stone.

“Some packs remembered. Some, like Amani’s, never let the old ways die. But most? Most gave in. Most accepted the lie because it was easier. Because one-sided power is easier to carry than balance. And with every generation, the lie sank deeper until it was law.”

He breathes once, the air heavy in the silence.

“They called it protection. They said it kept she-wolves safe, obedient. But we all know what it really did. It silenced them. It left them with half a bond when the fates had always meant for them to have the whole. And I’ll tell you this: any Alpha who fears the bite of his mate is no Alpha at all. He’s a coward. A fraud. A wolf hiding behind a lie.”

The crowd stirs, some murmuring. She-wolves look at their mates, touch their own necks, and nod in agreement.

“This isn’t a game,” Thane says, voice edged now. “This is truth. This is strength. And this pack will honor it. Every mated pair will seal their bond properly.”

The finality in his tone brooks no argument. The bond hums through me, fierce and unshakable.

I glance at the crowd, at shifters staring at one another, at hope mingling with shock. At the slow ripple of change starting here.

For a moment, I close my eyes and breathe it in. His certainty. The pack’s shifting pulse. My own wolf, proud and sharp inside me.

History isn’t just being uncovered. It’s being remade.