Page 13 of Sold to the Alpha Wolf

My heart sank even further into the recesses of darkness within my ribs. It had been a year, of course, and the man had fled after only a brief meeting. Maybe he honestly had no reason to remember me. But…

The call, the pull of our bond. Did he actually not feel a thing? I’d been taught so little about wolf unions and the like. Terrance wasn’t about to allow me a mate in the pack, and why would I find anyone outside of it? We didn’t interact with other wolves, which had always struck me as odd.

The likelihood of finding a mate within a small pack, only taking in the rare few, was slim. How were we meant to survive like that? But no one had ever talked to me about it. No one talked to me about anything.

Wait, why had the alpha said relinquished?

Flicking my attention back to Terrance and my mate, I watched them scowl at each other. Terrance’s alpha status was still crushing down on me, making it difficult to breathe at this point, and then it suddenly stopped as he reined it in.

Nearly collapsing to the floor, I heaved in a breath of fresh air, smelling the homey scent of burning wood and something vaguely spicy as I stood in this much cozier home.

The Edwards alpha took another step forward, his stare at last finding me, but only for a moment. He looked to Terrance again, and my alpha’s gaze burned hard as they silently battled with each other. I still didn’t entirely understand what I was doing here.

Did Terrance intend to share my services to fetch supplies? It was the only thing I was really good at, and my being without a wolf didn’t trigger the same concern from the humans. I was less of a threat to them, and if something did go wrong, stress wouldn’t force me into a shift.

My alpha eventually lowered his head, only a hair, but the entire room noticed the gesture. As my lips parted slightly in shock, Terrance grabbed me by the arm and shoved me forward.

“Here then.” I stumbled to the floor at the Edwards alpha’s feet. “I’ll do it if you are accepting this sacrifice of retribution.”

My heart skipped over itself, flailing as it tried to find a normal rhythm. I looked back at Terrance, my eyes burning as I struggled for air. His cold stare landed on me.

“You’re…you’re going to—”

“You are to be,” Terrance lowered his chin, looking under his brows at me, “the required sacrifice, Senna Richards.”

He stood once more, his voice now booming through the room. “Jet Edwards, will you take this sacrificial lamb as a means to uphold the peace? You may offer up her life under the blooded moon as our penance for your loss. I, Terrance Collins, give up my claim as alpha on this wolf so that you might take this breeding omega and extinguish the flame of hurt between us.”

The pulse at my neck was a furious beat, my heart nearly trying to tear itself from my ribcage. Terrance had started the process of removing me from the pack. Excommunication. And it burned across every nerve like a raw electrical charge.

“Do you accept!”

Terrance raised his arm forward, stretching it out to clasp hands with the Edwards alpha, with Jet.

Invisible, crushing weight pinned me to the floorboards. I forced myself to look up at the silver-haired wolf. My mate. He stared at his pack for what felt like eons, raking his green stare across each one of them. But his scan of the room came to a stop at Terrance, and he locked eyes with the enemy wolf.

Lifting his arm, Jet stole a glance in my direction before sealing his arm to Terrance’s.

“I do!”

No, no. How can you do this? Is he…Is he really going to fucking execute me? This can’t be happening.

Thunder cracked through my bones, and my alpha, my former alpha, looked down at me a final time.

“I renounce you from Pack Collins. You are excommunicated.”

Pain ricocheted through each of my limbs, and I hollered, whimpering as it wracked through me. I was freed from Terrance, his jagged, malicious nature pulled from my veins, and I spit a small mouthful of blood onto the floor.

A strange relief washed over me as that constant oppressive energy was removed. I wanted to be happy about being free of that asshole, but the reality of what was happening was so much worse.

I was packless. A lone wolf. And every fiber of my being recoiled from the searing pain.

Mateless. Wolfless. Packless.

Chapter 6 - Jet

This was the omega Terrance wanted to sacrifice. My stomach knotted into coils as I fought the urge to stoop to the ground and tend to her. He couldn’t see. That other alpha couldn’t see what Senna was to me. He’d have leverage I didn’t want him to have.

This was my opportunity. This was my chance to pull her into my pack.

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