Page 1 of Sold to the Alphas

1

Elisabed

The council chamber was colder than I expected—the kind of chill that sank into your bones and stayed there. I stood in the middle of it, wrists bound, the leather cutting into my skin every time I moved. A low-ranking omega like me didn’t belong in a place like this. These halls were for decisions that shaped packs, not petty squabbles.

But what I’d done wasn’t petty.

The six alphas sitting in judgment made that clear enough. Their seats were raised and carved with intricate symbols of power, dominance, and bloodlines. I’d seen these symbols in books and on banners but never up close. Not until now.

The semicircle they formed gave me no escape. My heart pounded as I met their gazes one by one. Weston, with his thin-lipped sneer. Leonard, the eldest, his disinterest evident.Marcus, regarding me coldly. And, finally,them—the ones I’d heard whispers about long before I stepped into this room—the youngest alphas to make the pact and join the council.

August Ramsey sat at the center of the infamous trio, his blonde hair brushed back neatly, sharp green eyes pinned on me as if calculating how much I was worth. To his right lounged Finnley Barlow, a scarred alpha with dark hair and pale blue eyes, whose smirk promised danger. On August’s left was Marshall Goddard, a redheaded alpha whose dark gaze was colder than the stones beneath my bare feet. To join the council that ruled over all known wolf packs signified a power so beyond my reach I couldn’t imagine it, and to join as such young alphas themselves showed an insatiable ambition.

“You understand why you’re here,” August said, his voice low and steady, cutting through the heavy air.

I understood plenty. I understood that I was standing trial for doing what none of them had the guts to do. I understood that my life was worth less than dirt to these men, just like all the other omegas thrown at their feet for unfair judgment. My jaw tightened as I met his gaze. I wasn’t going to cower. Not here. Not now. “Yes,” I answer.

“And do you stand by it? Your little rebellion?” a smooth, almost amused voice cut in. My eyes darted to Finnley. He was leaning back deep in his chair, legs stretched out like he owned the room. His scars caught the dim light, twisting over his tanned skin like stories etched in flesh. He grinned at me, but it wasn’t friendly—it was the grin of a predator toying with its prey.

My throat felt like sandpaper, but I forced myself to speak. “I did what I had to do to protect my family.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

“Protect your family?” Weston scoffed. “You assaulted your alpha—a crime punishable by death—and you call it protection?”

I clenched my fists, the cuffs digging into my skin. Their judgment wouldn’t change what Raol had done—or what he planned to do. Everyone let that monster do whatever he wanted to me and any omega unfortunate enough to catch his eye. From calling me defective for having difficulty shifting for him to taking my hard-earned money, I suffered through it alone. But that was me; it wasn’t supposed to happen toher.

“Raol Carlisle is afuckingpredator. And if protecting my sister meant defying him, I’d do it again.” I snarled, trying to keep myself calm.

Marcus moved in his seat, his gruff voice cutting through the room with vitriol behind it. “Your alpha claims you attacked him unprovoked. That you were jealous of his attention to your younger sister.”

My lips pressed together as memories flooded my mind. Raol’s smug grin as he announced he was done waiting for my defective wolf to show up. The way he made sure I saw him look my sister up and down, eyeing her like she was nothing more than prey, like an omega for sale at an auction.

My hands had acted on instinct the moment he turned, but my heart had been ready to follow through.

“Jealous?” I ask, anger surging past my common sense. “He’s twice her age and wanted to mate her. She’s thirteen! That’s not attention. It’sdisgusting.”

The room fell silent, the weight of my words sinking in. For a moment, I thought I saw something flicker in August’s expression—Pity? Disgust?—but it was gone too quickly to be sure.

Finnley broke the silence with a low whistle. “Thirteen? That’s low, even for someone like Raol.”

“Disgusting,” Leonard muttered, though his voice lacked conviction.

I wasn’t surprised. None of these men stood for anything except their own power. That’s what this council upheld. Originally created to ensure peace between all packs, it now stopped anyone from fighting against disgusting alphas like Raol.

Weston didn’t even try to pretend to have a moral backbone. He simply sneered. “And you thought you’d solve this by challenging him? As if a lowly omega could stop an alpha.”

“Someone had to,” I said with a clenched jaw, my frustration bubbling to the surface.

They would never understand. This trial was proof I had no other choice. An alpha was the highest level of justice and authority in a pack. Only the council was above them, and time had only proven that this council was not interested in enacting justice in any way that mattered.

“Enough,” August said, his voice silencing the room. He turned his sharp gaze on me. “Even if your actions were justified, you broke pack law. That warrants punishment.”

I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes. The law. As if the so-called law had ever protected someone like me. Omegas weren’t people in their eyes—we were commodities. Tools for alliances and breeding stock to be sold at auctions the moment we proved too much to handle. The council could pretend to act for the good of all wolves, but everyone knew they only served the top few.

My voice was steady when I replied, “Laws written to protect alphas, not omegas. You’d all look the other way if he destroyed her life—because that’s what we’re for, right? To be mated off like cattle?”

There.Let them choke on that. It’s not like they can dish out any punishment worse than death.

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