Rescued by the Blackridge Alpha

Chapter 2

By sunset, the rain clouds from the night before had disappeared completely. Silvercrest looked almost beautiful.

Lanterns hung between the trees and cast warm pools of light across the courtyard. Long tables stood around the fire pits, covered with white cloth and bowls filled with late-summer flowers. Someone had scattered silver ribbons through the lower branches, and every time the wind stirred, they caught the light.

I stood close to one of the trees with a cup of wine in my hand and wondered how long I had to remain visible before Cook considered my attendance legitimate.

“You look miserable,” Lottie said beside me.

I grimaced. “I’m having a wonderful time.”

“You’re hiding behind a tree.”

I glanced over my shoulder. The trunk was admittedly rather close. “I’m standing beside a tree.”

“Of course." There was something playful in her voice that I didn't quite like, so I ignored her and took another sip. By doing so, the green fabric of my dress caught my eye.Cook had won the argument about the dress. Naturally.

The dark green fabric fitted more closely around my chest than I preferred, then fell loose from my waist to my ankles. Lottie had spent half an hour pinning my hair up, only for several strands to escape before we even reached the courtyard.

Apparently, my hair shared my feelings about formal occasions.

Lottie had also tried putting something red on my lips.

That had ended when I threatened to bite her.

Nia had been disappointingly supportive of the idea.

“You do look pretty,” Lottie said.

“I look like Cook dressed me.

Lottie smiled into her cup.

Around us, the rest of Silvercrest was settling into the evening. Children ran between the tables while their parents pretended to stop them. Warriors gathered near the largest fire, already arguing loudly about something. Several older wolves had claimed seats close to the wine barrels with the sort of efficiency that suggested years of experience.

Everyone had gathered in roughly the same places they always did. Nobody had assigned them.

They didn’t need to.

The Alpha family and council stood near the front. Beta families gathered around them. Warriors spread out behind those groups. The rest of the pack filled whatever space remained.

People liked to say Silvercrest functioned because everyone knew their role.

Including me. I had known mine for as long as I could remember.

Omega.

It wasn’t a word anyone needed to throw at me daily. There were subtler reminders. Different entrances. Different tables. Work that needed doing before celebrations began.

Things became easier once you stopped expecting them to be different.

The one part that felt truly difficult to me, was the fact that my aunt and uncle, the two people who raised me, had a much higher social status than me.

But even their role in our pack was nothing compared to the one my cousin currently held. Rosalie.

My gaze wandered toward the front of the courtyard.

Alpha Garrick stood speaking with two council members. Even relaxed, he somehow seemed larger than the wolves surrounding him. His dark hair had turned grey around the temples, but age had done little to soften him. He had led Silvercrest for almost thirty years, and every part of him seemed accustomed to being obeyed.

Caden stood several feet away.

He had changed since that morning.

The black trousers remained, but he now wore Silvercrest’s formal jacket over a dark shirt. A silver wolf had been embroidered across the left side of his chest, marking him as Garrick’s heir.

Not that anyone needed reminding.

Caden had the same height as his father. The same broad shoulders. The same irritating ability to stand among twenty other people and still look like the person everyone should be watching.

Rosalie stood beside him. Right where I expected her, right where she was supposed to be. Ever since her wolf matured into the gorgeous beta that she was.

She wore pale blue. Her blonde hair fell down her back in carefully arranged curls, and she looked exactly like someone who had been preparing to become Luna since childhood.

Which she had.

Rosalie knew pack law. She attended council meetings. She could name every allied Alpha for miles around and apparently spoke three languages.

I knew how much rosemary Cook needed for twenty pounds of venison.

We all had our strengths.

Something moved inside me.

I frowned. What is it?

Nia ignored me.

Lottie, however, followed my gaze, and a knowing smile appeared on her face. One so thick I could feel it without looking at her. “You’re staring at Caden," she whispered.

“I was looking at Rosalie,” I said, taking another sip of wine.

“That isn’t better.”

I lowered my cup and glanced at her. “I wasn’t looking at either of them.”

“Of course not.” Lottie turned toward me, clearly enjoying herself now. “You just happened to spend the last minute staring in their direction.”

“They’re standing directly in front of us.”

Her eyebrows rose. “They’re fifty feet away, Maren.”

I looked across the courtyard again. Caden was still talking to one of the senior warriors, while Rosalie stood close enough that her arm brushed his whenever she moved. There were dozens of people between us, which admittedly weakened my argument.

“And yet,” I said, returning my attention to Lottie, “somehow visible.”

She laughed and bumped her shoulder lightly against mine. “You could just admit you think he’s handsome.”

“I have eyes. That doesn’t mean I want him.”

“Half the unmated women in Silvercrest want him.”

“Then his odds are excellent without me.”

Lottie laughed again, but I barely heard her. Something had shifted beneath my ribs. Nia, quiet for most of the evening, had suddenly raised her head.

She moved restlessly beneath my skin, brushing against the edges of my consciousness before turning and moving again.

Nia?

Nothing. I lowered my cup slightly. This was not like her. Instinctively I knew something was wrong.

A strange warmth had started spreading through my stomach. It wasn’t unpleasant. Not exactly. But it came without warning and seemed to intensify with every breath.

The smells around me sharpened.

Smoke from the fire. Wine. Pine. Wet earth, still damp from last night’s rain.

And something else.

I inhaled again.

“Something wrong?” Lottie asked.

“I’m fine.”

She studied me for a moment. “You don’t look fine.”

“I’m just warm.”

It was a poor explanation. The evening had cooled considerably since sunset.

Nia paced faster.

My pulse followed.

Before I could decide whether I should leave, the bell rang. Conversation slowly faded across the courtyard. Children were pulled back toward their families. Cups were lowered. Even the musicians stopped playing.

Alpha Garrick stepped forward.

“Silvercrest,” he said.

His voice carried easily across the courtyard. Everyone turned toward him.

I did too, though Nia seemed to have little interest in our Alpha.

The Founding Ceremony followed the same structure every year. Garrick would speak about the wolves who had first settled these lands. He would remind us of the values they had built Silvercrest upon. Blood, loyalty. Duty.

Then Caden would stand beside him for the ceremonial toast.

I had heard the speech enough times to know most of it. Usually, I listened while carrying platters between the tables. Tonight, I barely heard a word. Nia, however, moved closer to the surface as Garrick began the invocation.

I had expected that much. Every wolf in the courtyard would be restless by now. The ritual called to them, thinning the barrier between human and wolf until scents grew sharper and instincts harder to ignore.

What I hadn't expected was Nia to freeze. The change was so abrupt that my body tensed. One moment, she was pacing. The next, there was nothing.

No movement, no irritation. Not even the quiet awareness that normally lingered between us.

Nia? I tried again.

Her attention snapped toward the front of the courtyard.

I followed it without thinking.

Caden was no longer watching his father. He was looking at me. For a moment, I wondered whether I had imagined it.

Then his expression changed. His eyebrows pulled together. His lips parted slightly. The hand hanging beside his body curled into a fist. Something tightened low in my stomach.

Caden stared at me as if he had never seen me before.

And had he really? I was one of dozens of Omegas who moved through his home every day. I served meals and carried laundry. I even sorted supplies. People like Caden rarely had a reason to remember my face.

But he saw me now. His eyes flashed gold. My breath caught.

His wolf was breaking through.

Nia surged toward the surface with such force that I stumbled backward. Wine spilled over the side of my cup, splashing across my fingers.

Lottie reached for my arm. “Maren?”

I barely noticed. A scent moved through the smoke. It was like cedar, rain. Something warm and darker underneath.

I knew that scent.

Of course I did. Caden had lived in Silvercrest all my life. I had passed him in hallways. Served him food. Stood near enough to smell him countless times.

But never like this. Never so clearly.

My body recognized him before my mind caught up.

Caden’s jaw tightened. Rosalie touched his arm and said something I couldn’t hear.

He didn’t look at her. The gold remained in his eyes. His wolf was fighting its way closer to the surface.

And Nia— I had never felt anything like her reaction. Joy rushed through our connection. Pure and immediate.

It overwhelmed everything else so completely that my eyes stung. Nia pressed forward, desperate to close the distance between us.

Then something answered. But it was not in words. It was a pull; a presence.

The unmistakable awareness of another wolf reaching back toward mine.

I stopped breathing.

The Moon Goddess couldn’t possibly—

“Maren,” Lottie whispered beside me.

I couldn’t answer.

Across the courtyard, Alpha Garrick was still speaking. Several people had started glancing toward Caden, apparently noticing that their future Alpha was no longer paying attention.

Rosalie followed his stare. Her eyes found me.

The confusion on her face lasted only a moment.

Then she looked back at Caden.

I knew what wolves looked like when they found their mates.

Everyone did.

I had watched it happen twice before. Once in the kitchens, when Anne had dropped an entire bowl of soup after recognizing one of Garrick’s guards. Another time, during a midsummer gathering, when a visiting wolf had walked straight through a conversation to reach the woman fate had chosen for him.

Caden looked at me as though the Goddess had just sentenced him to death.

But if this was truly decided by the Moon Goddess; why did he not seem pleased?

And why did I feel like I had to run away? My stomach turned cold.

His expression hardened. The gold in his eyes flickered.

Nia, however, softened. Completely unconcerned with the horror spreading across Caden’s face.

She didn’t understand rank. She didn’t care that Rosalie had been trained to become Luna. She didn’t know that Caden and I had barely exchanged more than a handful of words in twenty-three years.

To Nia, none of that mattered. There was only one truth.

One certainty so complete that I felt it settle into my bones before she ever spoke.

Mate.