A Gift for the Three Alpha's

Chapter One - The Gift

The iron collar around my neck was cutting into my skin, but I refused to let them see me flinch. Three days in a prison wagon had left me dirty, hungry, and furious, but I kept my expression blank as the heavy gates of the Ironfang stronghold swung open before us.

My escort, Captain Korven, sat across from me with his sword drawn across his lap. He had made it very clear during our journey that any attempt to escape would end with my throat opened from ear to ear. The bastard had enjoyed describing exactly how he would do it.

"Remember what you are now, girl," he said as the wagon rolled to a stop in the massive courtyard. "You are a peace offering. Nothing more than a broodmare sent to keep the princes happy. Keep your mouth shut and do as you are told, and you might live long enough to birth their pups."

I nodded submissively, letting my eyes drop to my shackled hands. Let him think I was broken. Let them all think it. They had no idea who they had just brought into their home.

The wagon door flew open and sunlight flooded in, making me squint after three days in darkness. Strong hands grabbed my arms and dragged me out onto the cobblestones. I stumbled but caught my balance, keeping my chin up as I took in my surroundings.

The Ironfang palace was a fortress built for war, all black stone and sharp angles that seemed designed to intimidate. Banners bearing their snarling wolf crest hung from every tower, snapping in the cold mountain wind. This was the seat of power for the most brutal pack in the kingdom, and they wanted everyone who entered to know it.

A crowd had gathered to watch my arrival. Servants, guards, and courtiers pressed forward to get a look at the Omega who had been sent to service their princes. I could smell their excitement mixed with disgust. To them, I was livestock being delivered for breeding.

"Bring her forward."

The voice cut through the crowd noise like a blade through silk. I looked up and felt my breath catch in my throat. Three men stood on the palace steps, and even from a distance I could feel the raw power radiating from them. These were the Ironfang princes, the ones who ruled the Northern Territories with blood and fear.

The eldest, Darius, stood in the center. Everything about him screamed dominance, from his perfectly straight posture to the way he held his head. His black hair was pulled back severely, revealing a face that looked carved from granite. Scars marked his throat and hands, proof of countless battles won. His dark eyes swept over me with the cold calculation of a predator evaluating prey.

To his right stood Kael, and where his older brother was ice, Kael was pure fire. His copper hair caught the sunlight and his green eyes held a lazy amusement that somehow felt more dangerous than Darius's coldness. He was leaning against the stone railing with casual grace, but I could see the coiled strength in his frame, like a big cat pretending to sleep.

The youngest prince, Asher, looked barely older than my own twenty years. His golden hair fell in waves around his face and his blue eyes held something I had not expected to see from any of them: sympathy. He shifted uncomfortably as the guards forced me to my knees on the cold stone.

"So this is our gift," Darius said, descending the steps with measured footsteps that echoed like hammer blows. "The Omega who is supposed to seal our peace treaty with the Northern rebels."

He stopped directly in front of me, close enough that I could smell his scent. Pine and steel and something darker underneath. Alpha pheromones rolled off him in waves, a biological command for me to submit, to bow my head and bare my throat like a good little Omega should.

Instead, I tilted my head up and met his gaze directly.

The surprise that flickered across his features lasted only a second before his expression hardened into stone again. But I had seen it. He had expected me to cower.

"What is your name?" he demanded.

"Lyra Dane, Your Highness." The lie came easily. I had been practicing it for fifteen years.

"And you understand why you are here?"

"To serve the royal house in whatever capacity you see fit." The words tasted like ash in my mouth, but I kept my voice steady and respectful.

Kael laughed, pushing off from the railing to saunter down the steps. "Oh, I like this one already. She has fire in her." He began to circle me slowly, like a wolf stalking wounded prey. "Tell me, little Omega, are you untouched?"

Heat flooded my cheeks but I kept my voice level. "Yes, Your Highness."

"Perfect." Kael completed his circle and stopped behind me. I could feel the heat radiating from his body, could smell his scent of smoke and wild mountain herbs. "A virgin Omega, pure and ready to be claimed. Father would have been so pleased."

"Our father is dead," Asher said quietly, speaking for the first time. His voice carried a warning. "And she is not a prize to be won, Kael."

"Everything is a prize if you know how to claim it properly," Kael replied, his breath hot against the back of my neck. I suppressed a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold.

Darius held up a hand for silence. "Take her to the servants quarters. See that she is bathed, fed, and given proper clothing. Tomorrow we will discuss her duties in detail."

The guards moved to haul me upright, but I stood on my own, keeping my movements fluid despite the shackles around my wrists. I had learned long ago that showing weakness only invited more cruelty.

As they led me toward a side entrance, I caught Asher watching me with those troubled blue eyes. For just a moment, I wondered what it would be like to have an ally in this den of wolves. Then I remembered exactly why I was here and pushed the foolish thought away.

The princes of Ironfang thought they had been given a gift to play with. They had no idea they had just invited their destruction through their front gates.

The servant who escorted me was a stern Beta woman named Elena who clearly resented having to deal with me. She led me through narrow stone corridors that grew colder as we descended into the lower levels of the palace. The walls seemed to press in around us, reminding me that I was now trapped in the belly of the beast.

"This will be your room," Elena said, stopping before a heavy wooden door. She produced an iron key and turned it in the lock with a harsh scraping sound that made my teeth ache.

The room beyond was small but clean. A narrow bed sat against one wall, with a washbasin and cracked mirror on a simple wooden table. A single window, barred with thick iron, let in a sliver of gray afternoon light.

"You will take your meals in the servants hall," Elena continued, unlocking my shackles. The relief of having them removed was immediate, though I managed not to rub my raw wrists. "You are forbidden from entering the main palace without an escort. You are forbidden from leaving the grounds entirely. Break either rule and you will be flogged until you bleed."

I nodded meekly. "When will I see the princes again?"

Elena's face twisted with disgust. "That is not for you to ask, girl. An Omega's place is to wait until she is summoned. You would do well to remember that."

She turned to leave, then paused in the doorway. "Clean clothes will be brought within the hour. Make yourself presentable. You smell like a stable."

The door slammed shut and I heard the key turn in the lock. I was alone for the first time in days.

I sank onto the narrow bed and allowed myself exactly thirty seconds to feel the weight of my situation. I was trapped in the stronghold of my enemies, surrounded by people who would kill me without hesitation if they knew who I really was. But I was also exactly where I needed to be.

Rising, I moved to the small mirror above the washbasin. The face that looked back at me was carefully unremarkable. Brown hair that I kept deliberately unkempt, gray eyes that were neither beautiful nor memorable, features that would not stand out in any crowd. Perfect camouflage for what I really was.

I touched the small silver pendant that hung beneath my rough servant dress, hidden from view. It was the only thing I had left from my real life, the only proof of who I had been before the night my world burned to ash around me.

Lyra of House Moonspire. Last surviving heir of the royal bloodline. Rightful Queen of the Northern Territories.

The Ironfang wolves thought they had conquered my lands fifteen years ago when they slaughtered my family and burned our capital to the ground. But they had only conquered the shell. The heart of Moonspire lived on in me, and I had spent every day since that night preparing for this moment.

I was inside their walls now, past their guards and their defenses. They had brought me here willingly, never suspecting that the meek little Omega they had been gifted was the most dangerous person they would ever meet.

A soft knock at the door interrupted my thoughts. I quickly tucked the pendant back beneath my dress and called out permission to enter. A young servant girl came in carrying a bundle of clothes and a tray of food.

"From the housekeeper," she said, setting both down on the table. She looked nervous, probably because she had never been around an Omega before. "She says you are to wear this tomorrow when you report for duties."

I thanked her and waited until she left before examining what they had brought me. The dress made my stomach turn. It was designed to display as much skin as possible while maintaining the pretense of modesty. The neckline plunged to show the curve of my breasts and the hem would barely cover my thighs. The fabric was thin enough to become transparent when wet.

This was how they wanted me to appear before their princes. As nothing more than flesh for their pleasure.

I held up the dress and smiled grimly. Let them dress me like a w***e. Let them think I was just another broken Omega sent to warm their beds. The more they underestimated me, the easier it would be to destroy them from within.

I had spent fifteen years learning to fight, to kill, to become a weapon worthy of my bloodline. I could endure whatever humiliation they planned to subject me to, because I knew exactly how this would end.

The Ironfang princes thought they had been given a toy to play with. Instead, they had invited death itself to share their table.

The food they had brought was better than anything I had eaten in weeks. Fresh bread, cheese, fruit, and wine that actually tasted like wine instead of vinegar. I ate slowly, savoring each bite while my mind worked through what I had observed so far.

Three princes, three different weaknesses to exploit. Darius was the eldest, the heir, clearly the most dangerous of the three. But his arrogance would be his downfall. He saw enemies everywhere except in his own bed.

Kael was fire and passion, ruled by his appetites. That kind of man could be manipulated through desire, led around by his c**k if you knew how to play the game.

And Asher, the youngest, who had looked at me with sympathy instead of hunger. He would be the easiest to turn, if I could make him believe I was worth protecting.

I finished my meal and prepared for bed, washing myself as best I could with the cold water from the basin. Tomorrow would begin the most dangerous performance of my life. I would have to be everything they expected while hiding everything I was.

But as I lay down on the narrow bed and closed my eyes, I allowed myself one moment to remember why I was here. I thought of my mother's face as she pressed the pendant into my hand. I thought of my father's final words as the palace burned around us. I thought of everyone I had lost to Ironfang brutality.

Tomorrow I would begin to repay that debt in full.

The princes wanted a pet. I would give them a queen instead.