The Alpha’s Sold Omega (Alaska Alpha Wolves #4)
Chapter 1 - Thane
I tap my index finger on my glass full of orange juice, my tongue hardly absorbing the tart mixture, because truthfully, I’m in desperate need of something much stronger than a drink suitable for kids.
A stray blue balloon floats past me, capturing my attention and pulling me away from the birthday party.
In some ways, the party serves as a gentle reminder that time isn’t waiting for us to get our ducks in a row, but my mind drifts to a pair of eyes I’ve yet to find, and with a heavy-hearted sigh, I return my attention to the party when the chorus of the birthday song is sung for the one-year-old in front of a cake adorned by burning candles.
I can see the underlying dread behind the smiles on everyone's faces, the worry they're trying to hide. Alpha Elias and Luna Aurora’s son, Emile, turned one today, and that means we’ve been dealing with the threat of demons from the underworld for almost twenty months.
It’s far too long to be wrestling with something that threatens werewolves, especially our pack, but I’m the last sub-alpha of the Snehvolk pack who hasn’t found his fated mate.
Defeating the demons for good depends on me finding my fated mate, since Luna Yvonne once prophesied that it would take the gathering of four witches to help Elias's son lock the demons out of our world.
Yet, none of us knows how to proceed with fulfilling the prophecy, or how I'm ever going to find my fated mate.
All I have to go on is Luna Rissa's vision she shared with my friend and her mate, Brooks, a few months ago.
I swat at the blue balloon floating past me as if purposely coming back to serve as a reminder that the only lead I have on my fated mate is the color of her eyes.
Rissa and Brooks saw it in their shared vision—crystalline blue eyes that held so much ferocity that Rissa's heart skipped a beat before the vision ended, claiming that she sensed the fourth witch's sovereign powers without knowing who she was.
I've been on the hunt for those ferocious blue eyes ever since, but I've only been meeting dead ends. As a fellow subordinate alpha under Alpha Elias's governance, I'm supposed to be in charge of the hunting rotations, my skills and knowledge making me the head of hunting.
But searching for my fated mate feels like I'm failing dismally at something I'm supposed to be great at.
Grunting under my breath, the sound is swallowed by the final cheers of the party before Elias and Aurora blow out the candles on their son's cake. They're doing their best to keep their spirits thriving, as the main alpha and luna of Snehvolk, to uplift the spirits of their people.
Perhaps the disappointment I sense from them is simply a projection of my inner self-loathing, because finding my fated mate is proving more difficult than I expected.
By the time slices of chocolate cake are passed around, baby Emile becomes restless, yawning to signal that it's his time to sleep. Luna Aurora excuses herself to take him away, and Yvonne and Rissa tag along when Yvonne and Dawson's six-year-old, Gio, says he's tired, too.
With the witches gone, the four alphas of the Snehvolk pack are left to entertain the remaining guests. To my relief, the party soon comes to an end with most of the parents taking their kids home, until the only ones left were the alphas and the elders who'd attended the party.
“I could use a stiff one…” Brooks murmurs, voicing the way I've been feeling all night.
Conceding with a thoughtful nod, I scan the room, picking up on a rising tension despite there being fewer guests now.
Shrugging it off, I decide that it's just the way I'm feeling, like there's pressure that threatens to crack me open, especially in the presence of the elders and the alphas, as if there's a spotlight on me.
Clearing my throat, I turn to Elias in an attempt to deflect it.
“I'm gonna go down to the cellar and get us something to unwind with,” I suggest, and Elias nods. Dawson, one of the four subordinate alphas and one of my closest friends, offers to join me.
As we leave the main dining room, the pressure hangs on my shoulders and hardly subsides as we get to the underground bunker in Elias's house that leads to the cellar.
The secret room was built for his mate, Luna Aurora, after she'd accidentally burned his original house down with her untamed magic.
Back then, she was a newly emerging witch, the first of three in Girdwood, and hardly had a clue how to use her gifts.
It was soon discovered that her magic was the only thing powerful enough to combat the demons, joined later by Yvonne's and Rissa's.
“You alright, buddy? You've been awfully quiet all night,” Dawson comments when he catches me staring a little too long into the room where the witches train.
Clearing my throat, I snap out of my stupor and see the concern written in his eyes.
“Yeah…yeah, I'm fine, Dawson,” I say, tearing my gaze from the crystal amethyst ball in the center of the witches’ training room. “It's just that it's been almost two months, and I have no idea where to find her.”
Dawson chuckles nervously as he opens the cellar door, turning to me with a grimace. “Maybe you're trying too hard,” he suggests with an arched brow. “You're the expert in hunting, I know that, but the fated mates thing defies logic.”
Frowning, I consider what he's said for a moment. I've always relied on logic to get me through my tasks, but maybe this doesn't require it.
“Are you saying I need to trust my instincts, rather than my mind?” I ask, to which Dawson shrugs.
“It's how I found Yvie in Sunrise. I didn't think I'd find her there.
Heck, I wasn't even looking for her back then. But I found her, rescued her, actually, and it turns out she had my kid, too. Say…” Dawson turns slowly, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“You didn't get any she-wolf pregnant, did you?”
I snort, rolling my eyes as I grab a bottle of bourbon from the shelf and march out of the cellar.
“Wouldn't you just love it if you weren't the only one who knocked someone up?” I chuckle, and Dawson grimaces.
“Can't blame me for hoping,” he chuckles back nervously. “But then again, I have no regrets that Yvie had my child. We found our way back to each other, and now we're a family.”
“Yeah, well, I'm happy for you, buddy,” I sigh as we pass the witches’ training room again on our way back up. “But that's not the case for me. I’ve been rather…careful.”
Dawson accepts this with a thoughtful nod as we return to the living room, where Brooks has already lined up a few empty glasses that need filling. As I pop the cork and discreetly scan my surroundings, I'm once again left to feel like the spotlight is on me when the elders gather around the table.
The lightheartedness of the main alpha's son's birthday party is gone, and the air becomes dense with palpable tension that settles in the base of my spine as I take a seat beside my grandfather.
What began as a celebration has quickly turned into a meeting, especially since the elders are planning to meet with another council across the states.
The threat of demons has forced us to search for allies outside of Alaska, to implement safety measures, and provide a safe haven for Snehvolk if the need arises.
“This is not an ideal time to travel, but it's been months since the demons have attacked. We have to make our move now,” Elder Silas, Alpha Elias's grandfather, sternly declares.
“I should be the one meeting with other packs,” Elias murmurs, his eyes focused on his hands intertwined in front of him.
“You can't risk leaving the pack unprotected, or falling victim to demons out there,” Elder Caius reminds him.
“I know,” Elias sighs. “Aurora and Yvonne have already prophesied that our four witches will help Emile take the demons down. I need to be here when that happens.”
Elias's eyes flit to me, a flicker of expectation flashing through his hazel eyes. He doesn't have to speak to communicate his question, prompting me to clear my throat right after I've gulped down the contents of my glass.
The welcomed burn of the liquor lasts long enough for me to feel less apprehensive.
“I have two more packs in the south to check before I extend my search outside of Alaska,” I inform Elias.
“Do you really think she'd be that far?” Brooks asks with a raised brow, and I shrug.
“Well, if you guys had given me more than just the color of her eyes, I might have been able to narrow it down. You're sure you didn't see her face?”
Brooks shakes his head. “Only her eyes. But like I said before, it was more about the feeling. She was very powerful.”
“And I have yet to find that feeling, either,” I scoff, and Dawson pats my shoulder reassuringly.
“You will find it, brother. Trust me, we all have.”
Dawson's reassurance does little to quell the unsettled feeling in my gut, especially when I turn to find my grandfather speaking to Elder Silas, and I wonder if he's gotten over his disdain for low-ranking omega werewolves.
Perhaps part of my delay in finding my fated mate is knowing that, just like the other witches in Snehvolk, my fated mate is bound to emerge as an omega, and I'm not sure how my grandfather will receive the news.
Surely, he knows by now that my fate is similar to the other alphas in the pack, whether it's because of the recent demon threat or not. Elias, Dawson, and Brooks all found their fated mates at the bottom of the pack hierarchy, but those women emerged as powerful witches.
Is that enough to win over my grandfather's acceptance? Or does he still hang onto the personal grudge he had against my mother? He'd always claimed that her being an omega was the reason for my parents’ deaths.
The weight of his voice echoes in my skull even now, like a shadow I can’t outrun.
My mother’s laughter, soft and warm, never seems to drown out his harsh judgment, not even in my memories.
I rub the rim of my glass with my thumb, pretending to listen to the elders trade strategies, but all I hear is Charles’s disapproval, spoken in whispers only I can hear.
If my mate is truly an omega, if she is the fourth witch we’ve all been waiting for…I’ll have to stand against my grandfather. Against the man who raised me when my parents couldn’t. The thought coils in my chest like a steel band, squeezing until I can barely breathe.
“Thane.”
Elias’s voice snaps me back, and I meet his steady hazel eyes. There’s no judgment there, only expectation—and the bone-deep exhaustion of a leader trying to hold his people together. “You said two more packs in the south?”
“Yes.” My answer is rough, scraping the back of my throat. “If nothing turns up, I’ll widen the search. Maybe Canada. Maybe even farther.”
Silas leans forward, his ancient gaze sharp as broken glass. “You’d best move quickly. Prophecy waits for no wolf.”
Brooks smirks faintly, pouring himself another drink. “Don’t let him scare you. You’ll find her.”
Easy for him to say. He found Rissa when he wasn’t even looking.
Same for Dawson with Yvonne. Even Elias, brooding as he is, stumbled across Aurora at her lowest point—when Snehvolk was ready to use her as a sacrifice to keep the demons away and protect the pack—and somehow, he helped her become the witch who saved us all.
Meanwhile, I’ve chased every lead, followed every half-whisper of blue eyes, and come up empty.
Maybe Dawson’s right. Maybe logic won’t win this hunt. But instincts are slippery things, and mine are tangled between duty, fear, and the echo of my grandfather’s voice.
The elders’ conversation shifts to logistics—alliances, safe havens, fallback strategies—but I hardly hear them.
My focus drifts to the window, where the moon hangs swollen and silver over the dark Alaskan sky.
Somewhere out there, my mate exists. Somewhere, those crystalline eyes are waiting to meet mine.
And until I find her, every breath I take feels like failure.
I drain the last of my bourbon, the fire of it sliding down into the pit of my stomach, where dread already smolders. Then I set the glass down harder than I mean to, earning a sharp glance from Grandfather Charles. I don’t return it.
Instead, I rise to my feet, nodding once at Elias. “I’ll leave at first light. I won't be returning to Girdwood until I've found her.”
A hush falls over the table, the weight of my words sinking in. The elders exchange looks, but no one stops me. Because they all know the truth—until I find her, none of us can rest.
And neither can I.