The Crimson Pure Blooded Alpha

Chapter One Red River Pack — April’s POV

The scent of smoke always lingered in my dreams.

Not the cozy kind from a fireplace, but thick, choking ash—burning wood, searing flesh, and screams that never stopped. I’d jolt awake every morning with my fingers clutching the sheets and my throat raw like I’d been screaming too. But when I tried to remember why, the images faded like mist.

All that remained was the fire. And the fear.

The shrill blast of the packhouse bell dragged me from the last wisps of sleep. I sat up in my cot—if you could even call it that. A thin mattress on the floor of a linen closet, surrounded by bleach, dust rags, and rusted mop buckets. My joints ached from the cold seeping through the concrete, and my back protested as I stood.

“Omega!” a voice barked from down the hall. “We’re out of hot water, again! If my shower’s cold tomorrow, I’ll skin you.”

My name was April, but I doubted most people here remembered that. I was just “Omega.” A title spat like an insult. A role forced on me when I was only six—dropped at Red River’s gates, nameless and silent, wrapped in b****y blankets.

They said I was abandoned. Lucky to be taken in.

I knew better.

The fire had taken something from me. Something important. I could feel it in the way my heart beat too hard under moonlight. In the way my wolf—Ari—growled when the alphas walked too close. She didn’t understand submission. She hated it.

And lately... so did I.

I dressed quickly, braiding my long crimson hair over one shoulder to keep it from dragging in the mop water. My hands were raw from scrubbing floors, and my right wrist still ached where Beta Kyle had yanked it last week for being “too slow.” The mark was healing, but the bruise bloomed dark and angry.

Just make it through today, I told myself as I left the closet and stepped into the main hall.

Chores blurred together. Scrubbing, serving, scrubbing again. I moved like a ghost through the corridors of the packhouse, careful not to make eye contact, careful not to speak unless spoken to. The others sneered when I passed, some shoving me out of the way with elbows or trays.

“You’re lucky we let you live here,” one sneered as she passed, a warrior trainee with cruel eyes. “If Alpha Victor had his way, you’d be buried out back.”

Victor.

The thought of him made my stomach turn. His scent—a mix of pine and copper—lingered in the air like a warning. I avoided his gaze at all costs. I learned that the hard way. His idea of discipline was... personal.

But no matter how many times he whispered that no one would ever want me, that I was just an unwanted orphan with a defective wolf, something deep inside me refused to believe it. Ari did not purr for him. She growled. And when I looked at the full moon, sometimes I felt like I belonged to something far older. Something he couldn’t touch.

By noon, my back was soaked with sweat as I carried trays into the great hall for the alpha summit. Pack leaders from all over would be arriving soon. I wasn’t allowed to speak to them, of course. Just serve and vanish.

Still, my hands trembled slightly. Something was coming. I could feel it in the air—like the crackle before lightning. Ari felt it too. She hadn’t stopped pacing inside me since I woke up.

Why do I feel like I’m waiting for something? I wondered as I polished silverware until I saw my reflection staring back—blue eyes ringed with shadows, full lips pressed in a line, bruises hidden under long sleeves.

I didn’t look like anyone special.

But deep down, I knew I was.

That night, the dreams came again.

Fire. Screams. A rose blooming in blood. A woman’s voice calling my name, desperate and broken.

I woke up gasping, heart racing.

And this time, I could’ve sworn I heard a man’s voice too—deep, rough, whispering my name like a vow.

“April…”

I looked around my tiny room, the mop bucket still in the corner. No one was there.

But the air smelled strange.

Warm.

Spiced.

Like cinnamon.

I take a deep breath and continue cleaning. I'm just glad at least one thing was off my chest. Victor Blackwood, was my mate. It disgusted me and I hated him. Of course he rejected me because I'm a Omega but what made it worse was he did it while he was f*****g a beta she-wolf in his office. after that I haven't seen him, at least not when I'm out and about cleaning and being everyone's slave.