Page 8 of Alpha Marked

"I'm sorry, Omega. I'm so sorry," he whispered before fleeing out the door.

River shook from adrenaline, and everything stood still before she fell to the floor. Her mother rushed to her and grabbed onto River. Strider followed suit, and the whole room of shifters stared at them.

Cherry released her. "Are you okay? Is your wolf okay?"

River nodded. "Mom? Why did he call me Omega?"

"Yes, Cherry," said the Alpha. "I think you better tell all of us."

CHAPTERTWO

FOUR YEARS LATER

River turned off her torch and inspected her sculpture. The wolf's head was complete. She'd spent days trying to bend his spine right and make him as realistic as possible while he leapt off the rock. And now, with the head finished... she smiled. It was how she imagined her father's wolf.

River's phone rang, and she glanced at it.

Bianca.

She'd not seen her little sister in three months, which was about as long as she'd spent tied to her workshop sculpting.

"Hey, Sis."

Bianca squealed in delight, and River held the phone away from her ear. She spoke so fast that River fought to keep up. The only words River caught for sure were mating run, fated mate, ultra-sexy, and super-rich. The rest, River guessed.

It had been four years since the night when she'd been attacked and found out the truth. She'd heard about Omegas before. How special and unique they were, and how they were the only true mates of Lycan Alphas. And more than that, only a handful had been born in the last hundred years. Unfortunately, since Omegas were so rare and securely guarded by the Alphas who wanted them, little was known to shifters about them.

The night of the last mating run River had attended, the Alpha himself had taken River and put her in an apartment safehouse the pack owned in the nearest city. River hadn't known about the safe house until that night.

In fear the Lycan and the others he had brought would come back for her, every wolf at the mating run was ordered to scour the acreage between the pack village and the major surrounding cities, though they weren't told why. They marked every yard with their scents to try and mask River's. Strider had gotten her an apartment and signed her up for art school within a week. Then, he and Cherry had taken River to New York to start school the following month.

Her mom had burned all of River's belongings. And in the end, their house out of paranoia. She, Strider, and Bianca had moved into a new house several miles from the old one. Though River hadn't been there, she'd seen photos. It hadn't been as spacious as their home together, but Cherry and Strider had never been ones to prize material things– even though Strider had inherited money years earlier.

Bianca's rambling pulled River back to the present. She rubbed her forehead and switched her phone to the other hand.

"Bianca… Bianca… Bianca!"

Her sister stopped talking. "What?"

"I'm happy for you, sis. I am. Have Cherry and Strider met him yet?"

"No. I want you to meet him first."

A small surge of panic lit inside River. "But weren't they at the mating run?"

"Uh…" Bianca hesitated.

River scrunched up her face. "What did you do?"

"Nothing bad," she said. "A couple of the other unmated girls and I heard about a gathering up north, and we decided to check it out."

"Bianca!" River's heart raced.

Her wolf woke up and whined.

It's all right, girl. She's fine. We're fine.

"It's perfectly safe," said Bianca. "A dozen Alphas were there, and everything went perfectly."

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