Chapter 1 The Alpha King’s Deal

My father selling me like cattle is something I never imagined. As I stood in Father's study, blood trickled down my arms as the iron shackles bit into my wrists. Another reminder that I was worthless in his eyes because I was born female, born omega. Born wrong.

“You should be grateful, Sera,” Father spat, his alpha voice making my wolf whimper inside me. “The Alpha King himself wants you. Do you understand what an honour this is?”

Honor. In my mouth, the word tasted of ash. I knew better than to look him in the eye, so I kept my eyes on the ground. My ribs still throbbed from the bruises from yesterday's punishment. “Yes, Father.”

“He arrives within the hour. You will not embarrass me. You will smile. You will accept whatever he offers. And you will never return to this pack.” He pressed his fingers into my jaw, making me raise my head.“You are no daughter of mine. You are a transaction. Nothing more.”

The door opened before I could respond. The temperature in the room dropped.

He walked in.

Alpha King Kael Thorne was everything the rumours promised and worse. Tall, impossibly broad-shouldered, with eyes like winter storms and a presence that made every instinct in my body scream to run. His wolf radiated such power that my knees nearly buckled. Scars traced across his sharp jaw and disappeared beneath his black collar. This was the man they called the Cruel King Alpha who had supposedly killed over a dozen omegas.

And my father had sold me to him.

“Alpha King Thorne.” Father bowed so low his forehead nearly touched his desk. “An honour to have you in my..”

“Where is she?” The Alpha King’s voice cut through the air like a blade.

Father gestured to me with disgust. “This is Sera. My… daughter.”

Those storm-grey eyes landed on me, and I forgot how to breathe. His nostrils flared as he scented the blood on my wrists, the fear in my pheromones. Something dark flickered across his face.

“Uncuff her,” he commanded.

“But Alpha King, she is not yet”

“Now.”

The single word held enough dominance to make Father scramble for his keys. The moment the shackles fell away, I cradled my bleeding wrists against my chest, trying to make myself smaller. Invisible.

The Alpha King moved closer. Each step is deliberate. Predatory.

“Look at me.”

My wolf should have obeyed immediately. Alpha commands were absolute. But terror had frozen my muscles.

“I said, look at me, omega.” His voice dropped lower, but somehow that made it more compelling.

Slowly, I raised my eyes to his face. Up close, he was devastating. Beautiful in the way a storm was beautiful, deadly and overwhelming.

“What is your name?” he asked.

“Sera Blackwood, Alpha King.” My voice came out barely above a whisper.

“Just Sera.” His jaw tightened as his gaze travelled over the visible bruises on my neck, the split in my lip. “Your father has told me you are available for a contract marriage. Is this what you want?”

Was this a test? Father stood behind the Alpha King, his eyes promising violence if I said the wrong thing.

“I want…” I swallowed hard. What did I want? Freedom. Safety. A life where I did not wake up wondering if today would be the day Father’s fists finally killed me. “I want to serve my pack’s interests, Alpha King.”

“That was not what I asked.” He leaned closer, and I caught his scent, pine and winter air and something wild that made my wolf stir with confused interest. “I am offering you a choice, Sera. Come with me to the Northern Kingdom, or stay here. Choose.”

“She chooses to come,” Father interrupted. “The bride price has already been…”

“I was not speaking to you.” The Alpha King did not even turn around, but Father stumbled backwards as if he had been physically struck. “Sera. Your choice. Yours alone.”

No one had ever asked me to choose anything.

I looked at Father’s red face, his clenched fists. I looked at the study where he had beaten me countless times. I looked at the pack house where I had spent eighteen years being told I was worthless.

Then I looked at the Alpha King, the man rumoured to be the cruellest alpha alive. The man whose previous omega brides had all died mysteriously.

“I choose to come with you.”

Something that might have been approval flashed in his eyes. “Then we leave now.”

“Now?” Father sputtered. “But the ceremony, the proper contracts”

“Will be handled by my legal team. The bride price will be transferred tonight.” The Alpha King pulled off his jacket and draped it over my shoulders. It swallowed me whole, warm and smelling of him. “Sera is under my protection now. If anyone from this pack contacts her without my permission, I will consider it an act of war.”

Father’s face went purple, but he said nothing. Even he was not foolish enough to challenge the Alpha King.

The King held out his hand to me. “Can you walk?”

I nodded, though my legs shook. I did not take his hand, I did not dare, but I followed him out of the study, down the hallway where pack members pressed themselves against walls to let us pass, out into the cold evening air.

A black SUV waited in the circular driveway, flanked by four guards who looked as dangerous as their king.

“Get in,” he ordered.

I climbed into the back seat. He slid in beside me, filling the space with his overwhelming presence. The door shut. The engine started.

We were pulling away from the only home I had ever known when he spoke again.

“You are afraid of me.”

It was not a question, but I answered anyway. “Yes, Alpha King.”

“Good.” His expression remained unreadable. “Fear will keep you cautious. Caution will keep you alive.”

My stomach dropped. “The rumours… about the omegas who died. Are they true?”

“Yes.”

The single word made my blood run cold.

“Then why did you…?” I could not finish the question.

“Because I need an heir. Three heirs, to be precise.” He turned to face me fully, and his eyes gleamed in the darkness. “I am proposing a contract, Sera. Bear me three children, and I will grant you your freedom. You will have wealth, status, and the power to go anywhere you wish. Live however you choose.”

“And if I cannot? If I die like the others?”

His jaw clenched. “Then at least you will die free of your father’s fists.”

The honesty should have terrified me. Instead, it felt like the first truthful thing anyone had said to me in years.

“There is something you need to know,” he continued, his voice dropping to something almost dangerous. “My wolf is… unstable. I cannot always control him. That is why the others died. He killed them during their heats, when their omega pheromones drove him into a frenzy.” His fingers curled into fists on his thighs. “I am summoning you to my office tomorrow night. My wolf wants to test you. To see if you will survive what the others could not.”

Horror crawled up my spine. “Test me how?”

“You will find out tomorrow.” He looked away, staring out at the darkening landscape rushing past. “Until then, you are free to explore the pack house. Eat. Rest. Heal. My staff will provide whatever you need.”

“And if I fail the test?”

His silence was answer enough.

I pulled his jacket tighter around myself, trying to stop shaking. I had traded one death sentence for another. At least this one came with the promise of freedom if I survived.

The Alpha King’s phone buzzed. He glanced at it, and something dark crossed his face.

“We have arrived.”

I looked out the window at the massive estate looming before us. The Northern Kingdom pack house was a fortress of stone and glass, beautiful and terrifying in equal measure.

My new prison. My new chance.

Tomorrow night, I will learn if I was strong enough to survive the Alpha King’s wolf.

Or if I were to die screaming like all the others before me.