Page 27 of Sold to the Alphas

Her brow furrowed. “But I thought breaking the pact—”

“Comes with risks,” I finished her sentence. “Yes. It does. But it’s the only way to stop what’s coming. If we don’t act now, we’ll lose everything.”

She stared at me, her expression shifting between fear and understanding. “And what happens to you if you break it?”

I hesitated, thinking of the centuries of history behind the pact, the ancient magic that ran through the bonds everyone on the council had sworn to. The formation of the pact was folklore at this point, something every young wolf had been taught about. Elisabed already knew about the years of bloody war between rival wolf packs that destroyed our population. She already knew about the council founders, the strongest pack alphas who came together to pool their resources and stop the madness, creating the pact to ensure they could never betray each other.

It had saved our kind, but no one talked about the consequences. No one wanted to face that the council was corrupt because no one wanted to talk about what Elisabed was confronting head-on.

I swallowed and thought hard before admitting the truth. “Breaking it...it means madness. Those who pledged their loyalty are guaranteed to go feral, potentially affecting those in the proximity when it happens. We could be looking at hundredsof feral wolves all in one place, including us. But that’s why you’re here.”

Her lips parted slightly. I only caught a second of fear in her eyes before it turned to understanding, and her gaze dropped to the floor. “Because an omega’s purpose is to balance their alphas, which can keep you from losing yourselves.”

She was quicker than we gave her credit for.

“Exactly,” I said quietly, pulling the dagger from my belt and holding it out to her. “Take this. You should be able to protect yourself if you ever get separated from us.”

She hesitated only briefly before taking the dagger with a confident grip. She already knew how to use it—if the scars on Raol’s neck were anything to go by. Her fingers brushed against mine as she took it, and I felt a spark of electricity climbing up my arm.

“Keep it with you,” I said. “And don’t hesitate to use it if you need to. I’m assuming you know how to use it since you almost decapitated Raol.”

She choked on a surprised laugh and nodded, her grip tightening on the hilt. “Decapitated is not the word I’d use, but I might know a few things. Thank you for this.”

The words were simple, but the way she said them—soft, almost reverent—made something shift in my chest. August had been so scared the truth would terrify her and close her off, but she handled it with grace.

I didn’t trust myself to reply, so I guided her toward the bed. She settled into the blankets, patting the spot next to her as an invitation. I didn’t hesitate, lowering myself next to her as her body curled instinctively toward mine.

The room grew quiet as I wrapped my arms around her, her eyes filled with something akin to sadness, but before I could ask her about it, she closed the gap between us, pressing her lips softly against mine.

A growl rumbled on my chest, and I pulled her close as the kiss deepened. Her breath hitched, but she didn’t pull away. The world outside disappeared in that instant, and I felt the weight of everything lift off my shoulders for the first time. All that existed was her warm mouth and her soft body moving against mine.

When I pulled away, her breath was shaky, but her eyes were heated. She looked at me with an emotion I couldn’t quite read and slowly settled on the pillows, her breathing, slow and even as she drifted into sleep.

13

Elisabed

When I woke up, my head was spinning and my stomach was churning.

I tried to sit up, but the nausea overwhelmed me. My throat constricted, and I pressed a hand to my forehead, feeling the slow thrum of panic start to unfurl in my chest.

I closed my eyes and tried to take slow, steady breaths, but it didn’t help. The room felt too hot, the air too thick with my thoughts. I felt...wrong.

It wasn’t just the sickness gnawing at me. There was something darker brewing under the surface. What Marshall had told me last night kept looping in my mind, replaying over and over again like a song I couldn’t stop hearing.

I knew they didn’t want me for the same reasons any other omegas were desired. They didn’t see me as someone to love or even as someone who had a choice in the matter.

No—I was simply a means to an end. Marshall had made that clear. He hadn’t meant to, but the truth slipped out when he spoke of the war, the pact, the dissolution of everything that had held our world together. And now I was caught in the middle of it, my purpose defined not by any bond but by a necessity far bigger than myself.

The weight of it settled heavily on my chest, and I wished I could just disappear into the bed, into the sheets, anything to escape yet another new reality that seemed to close in around me.

I tried to clear my mind, but the thoughts kept coming.

Before everything went down with Raol, I used to work in a little shop on the outskirts of the pack, run by a former enforcer—a dangerous man who’d learned the art of using a blade before he’d hung it up. It wasn’t just the sharpness of his teachings I remembered. It was his lessons about the packs—their structure, the politics behind them, the reasons they’d formed alliances, and the unspoken truths that governed them. But he'd never spoken of the pact like Marshall had, never spoken of the war or the blood that would be spilled when it finally broke out.

My family—my sister—what would this mean for them? What would it mean for the rest of the packs if the alliance fell apart? The thoughts spiraled again, and I squeezed my eyes shut, my stomach lurching.

The door creaked open, and my breath caught.

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