Chapter 2 The Alpha Who Called Her Mate
1882 Words
Freya stared at Jonas from across the glittering hall, her heart beating so hard it almost hurt.
He was standing at the top of the grand staircase, surrounded by applause, admiration, and the golden light of the chandeliers. Four years had changed him. He looked taller now, broader in the shoulders, more composed than the boy who used to climb trees with her behind the training field.
For one desperate second, Freya forgot the champagne soaking her hair and the cruel fingers locked around her wrist.
"Jonas," she tried to call, but her voice came out hoarse and thin beneath the roaring applause.
Berea's grip tightened sharply.
Freya winced and turned back to her. "Let me go. I need to speak to him."
That sentence made Berea's eyes turn cold.
Before Freya could react, Berea raised her hand and slapped her hard across the face. The sound cracked through the nearby space, sharp enough to make several guests turn their heads.
Freya's face snapped to the side. Burning pain spread across her cheek, and for a moment, she tasted blood at the corner of her mouth. The hall blurred in front of her eyes, but she refused to fall.
"Know your place," Berea hissed. "Alpha Jonas just returned. Do you really think anyone wants his welcome ceremony ruined by a filthy Omega thief?"
"I didn't steal your necklace," Freya said, pressing a trembling hand to her cheek.
Berea lifted her chin and glanced toward the guards.
"Take her away before she embarrasses the pack any further."
Two guards moved at once.
Freya's panic exploded.
"No!" She twisted hard, trying to pull free. "Jonas! Jonas, please!"
Her voice cracked as she shouted his name, but the music had started again, louder than before, and the announcer was speaking over the applause. The crowd's attention had already returned to their Alpha, to his perfect suit, his graceful smile, and the ceremony that mattered far more than one drenched Omega being dragged away near the side of the hall.
Freya saw Jonas turn slightly.
For a heartbeat, she thought his gaze might find her.
But a group of elders stepped forward to greet him, blocking his view completely.
The guards clamped down on Freya's arms and hauled her backward.
"Jonas!" she cried again.
No answer came.
Only Berea's soft laugh followed her.
Freya fought until her shoes scraped uselessly against the polished floor. Her wet hair clung to her cheeks, her uniform dripped champagne onto the marble, and the guests who noticed only looked away with practiced indifference. Some even smiled, as if seeing Beta Gilbert's daughter dragged out like trash was a satisfying piece of entertainment before dinner.
By the time the guards shoved her through a side door, the music and applause had become muffled behind the heavy walls.
Cold night air hit her face.
Freya stumbled onto the terrace outside the banquet hall. The Frostwood Pack House garden stretched before her under moonlight, elegant and silent, with trimmed hedges, white stone paths, and a large swimming pool glowing blue beneath the outdoor lamps.
One of the guards twisted her arm behind her back.
"Please," Freya gasped. "I didn't take anything. Let me explain to Alpha Jonas. Just let me talk to him for one minute."
The guard snorted. "You think Alpha Jonas has time for a debt-slave?"
The other guard looked her up and down with disgust. "Miss Berea said you stole her diamond necklace. If you don't want to be handed over to pack prison tonight, you'd better return it."
"I can't return something I never took!"
The first guard shoved her forward.
Freya lost her balance and nearly fell to her knees beside the pool.
"Miss Berea gave clear instructions," he said coldly. "She said the necklace must have fallen into the pool while you were trying to hide it. Find it."
Freya stared at him in disbelief.
The pool was large and deep, its water glittering dark blue beneath the lights. The night wind moved across the surface, sending small ripples toward the stone edge.
"You want me to search the pool?" Her voice trembled. "At night?"
"You heard me."
"My uniform is soaked already. I can barely stand. Please, I—"
The second guard cut her off with a cruel smile. "Then you'd better find it quickly before you freeze."
Freya took a step back, horror rising in her chest. "This is insane. There are cameras. There are people inside. You can't just—"
The first guard pushed her.
Freya screamed as she fell backward into the pool.
Cold water swallowed her instantly.
The impact knocked the breath from her lungs. For a terrifying moment, there was only darkness, bubbles, and the burning pressure of water closing over her head. Her soaked uniform dragged her down, heavy as chains, and panic clawed through her chest as she kicked desperately toward the surface.
When her head finally broke through, she sucked in a ragged breath.
The guards stood at the edge of the pool, looking down at her without a trace of pity.
"Search," one of them ordered.
"If you don't find it," The guard's expression did not change. "Miss Berea will report you for theft. With your father's debt record, no one will believe you. You'll be locked up before sunrise."
Freya's heart sank.
Pack prison.
For an Omega debt-slave, that was not just a cell. That was a sentence she might never escape.
She looked toward the glowing windows of the banquet hall. Through the glass, she could see shadows moving, dresses spinning, glasses raised in celebration. Somewhere inside, Jonas was smiling for his people, accepting congratulations, stepping into the future that had always been waiting for him.
And she was outside in the cold water, searching for a necklace planted by another woman.
"Vicki," Freya whispered in her mind, her teeth chattering. "Can you sense it?"
Her wolf was weak, exhausted, but still there. "The water is too cold, and there are too many scents from the garden. But there is something metallic below us. Near the left side."
Freya drew a shaking breath and forced herself to dive.
The cold seized her again.
She opened her eyes underwater, but everything was blurred and distorted by the pool lights. Her fingers brushed along the tiled bottom, searching between shadows and drain covers while her lungs burned. Twice she came up gasping, only to hear the guards tell her to go back down.
Her arms grew numb.
Her legs started cramping.
The slap mark on her cheek throbbed beneath the freezing water, and every breath felt like broken glass scraping her throat.
Still, she searched.
Because she had no choice.
Because if she failed, Berea would call her a thief, the guards would drag her to prison, and Jonas would never even know she had come to him for help.
On her fourth dive, Freya's fingers finally brushed against something thin and cold near the pool drain.
She grabbed it.
A diamond necklace shimmered in her hand.
Exactly where Berea had known it would be.
Rage and exhaustion twisted together inside her, but she had no air left to feel either properly. She kicked toward the surface with the necklace clenched in her fist.
When she broke through the water again, she was shaking so badly she could barely speak.
"I found it," she choked out, holding up the necklace. "I found your precious necklace."
The guards exchanged a glance.
One of them reached down and snatched it from her hand.
Freya dragged herself toward the edge of the pool. Her arms trembled as she tried to pull herself up, but her soaked uniform weighed her down, and her body had gone weak from the cold.
Neither guard helped her.
She tried again, fingers slipping against the wet stone.
Her breath came in broken gasps. Her wet hair covered half her face, and water streamed from her sleeves onto the terrace. She felt pathetic. Worse, she felt invisible.
Then the air changed.
At first, Freya thought it was the cold making her dizzy.
A scent drifted through the night, rich and intoxicating, cutting through the sharp smell of chlorine and wet stone.
Freya froze.
Her pulse jumped.
The scent grew stronger with every second, wrapping around her senses until the world narrowed to that single overwhelming pull.
"Vicki?" Freya whispered inwardly.
Her wolf surged awake with a force that nearly tore a sob from her throat.
"Mate."
The word hit Freya like lightning.
No.
No, that was impossible.
She had come here for Jonas. She had prayed for Jonas. She had built her last fragile hope around the boy she had loved for years.
But this scent was not Jonas's.
This scent was darker, colder, more dangerous, and far too powerful to belong to anyone she knew.
The guards suddenly straightened.
Their faces changed from boredom to fear.
Freya lifted her head slowly.
A man stood at the terrace entrance, tall and imposing beneath the moonlight.
He wore a custom black suit that fit his broad shoulders with ruthless perfection. His tawny hair caught the silver light, and his cold, piercing eyes swept across the terrace with the kind of authority that made even trained warriors lower their heads without being told.
He was devastatingly handsome.
But there was nothing gentle about him.
Everything about him felt lethal, from the hard line of his jaw to the controlled stillness of his body. A dangerous, oppressive aura rolled off him, heavy enough to make the air itself seem thinner.
The guards immediately bowed their heads.
"Alpha," one of them stammered, his voice shaking. "This Omega was caught stealing. Miss Berea ordered us to—"
The Alpha did not look at him.
His gaze was fixed on Freya.
Freya tried to pull herself out of the pool again, but her strength failed. Her fingers slipped from the wet stone, and she nearly sank back into the water.
In the next second, the Alpha moved.
He crossed the distance so fast Freya barely saw him. Strong arms reached down and lifted her from the pool as if she weighed nothing.
The cold air struck her soaked body, and she shuddered violently.
Before she could collapse, he pulled her against his chest.
Heat surrounded her instantly.
His scent crashed over her again, deeper and more consuming up close. Freya's body went weak in his arms, not only from exhaustion, but from the mate bond roaring awake inside her.
She raised her head with difficulty.
His jaw tightened as he looked at her wet hair, trembling lips, and the red slap mark burning across her cheek.
Then his gaze dropped to the debt collar half-hidden beneath her soaked Omega uniform.
Something dark and terrifying flashed in his eyes.
Freya's throat moved, but no sound came out.
The Alpha leaned closer, his voice low, rough, and full of restrained violence.
"Who did this to you?"
Freya trembled in his arms.
She did not know his name.
She did not know why the Moon Goddess would give her to a stranger who looked powerful enough to ruin kingdoms.
But before she could answer, his eyes locked onto hers, and the word left his lips like a claim written into fate.
"Mate."
- Writer
