Alpha King's Broken Mate

The Rite begins

BRISEIS

I never should’ve left the trees.

The moment I stepped back into the clearing, I felt it, eyes crawling across my skin like claws. I didn’t belong here. I was a stain on silk. A shadow dragged into the light where it had no place.

The Moon Rite was in full bloom now.

Dozens of packs had gathered. Tents in gold and crimson waved in the soft wind. Warriors lined up in ceremonial armor. Omegas, real ones, stood in flowing gowns, heads bowed, hearts beating fast in their chests. They smelled like violets and honey, pride and promise.

I smelled like ash and fear.

I kept to the edge, my hands clenched around the crusty Blackridge crest they’d given me. My heartbeat was deafening. Each step closer to the crowd made it harder to breathe.

The circle in the centre of the field, where the moonlight would soon fall, was surrounded by Alphas. And at the very top, seated in the carved black stone throne…

Him.

The Alpha King.

He hadn’t spoken yet.

He didn’t need to.

His presence rippled through the air like a storm. Even seated, he looked like a war come to life, broad shoulders wrapped in dark fur, gold embroidery tracing the edges of his cloak, eyes like ice sharpened into blades.

He was terrifying.

Cold.

Unreachable.

And somehow, looking right at me.

I froze.

No. No, he couldn’t be looking at me. He couldn’t even see me. I was just the stray they dragged in to laugh at. The mistake. The nothing.

I looked away quickly.

But it was too late.

Something in the air shifted.

I felt it before I heard it, his growl. Low. Dangerous. Possessive.

Heads turned. Murmurs started. Wolves stopped breathing.

And then I saw him rise.

The Alpha King stood, his cloak snapping in the wind behind him like the wings of a beast. Every pack member dropped their gaze. Even my own Alpha dipped his head slightly in respect.

But not me.

I couldn’t move.

Because he was coming straight toward me.

No.

I turned and ran.

Branches scraped my arms as I pushed through the trees, feet stumbling, heart racing. I didn’t know where I was going. Just away. As far from his eyes as I could get.

But I wasn’t fast enough.

Heavy footsteps thundered behind me, closer, closer, and then silence. I stopped, breath hitching.

And he was there.

Towering. Dangerous.

Watching me like a wolf who’d found something he didn’t understand but refused to lose.

“You,” he said.

Just one word.

I backed up, heart slamming against my ribs.

“I don’t know you,” I whispered.

His eyes narrowed. “But I know you.”

“No,” I shook my head. “You’ve made a mistake. I’m not anyone. I’m not…”

Please don’t say it. Please don’t claim me. Please don’t destroy me in front of everyone.

“You’re mine.”

The words landed like a death sentence.

I trembled.

This couldn’t be happening. The Alpha King, the strongest wolf alive, was claiming me? In rags? In bruises? In filth?

I glanced behind him, toward the clearing. And saw him.

Alpha Rolan.

Watching from the edge.

Rage in his eyes. Disgust. Panic.

I knew what he was thinking.

She was supposed to be a joke.

And now the joke had turned into a threat.

My stomach dropped. Because if I didn’t die here in this moment, I would later.

Whether by Rolan’s hand… or this King’s.

I looked up at the man in front of me, this godlike creature with silver eyes and a voice made of thunder, and I did the only thing I knew how to do.

I begged.

“Please,” I whispered. “Don’t do this. I’ll be punished. They’ll kill me. I’m no one. I can’t be your...”

“You’re not nothing,” he growled. “Don’t ever say that again.”

He reached for me.

I flinched.

But he didn’t strike.

He touched my cheek like it mattered. Like I mattered.

And for a moment, everything went still.

The trees stopped swaying. The clearing behind us fell silent. Even my wolf, so quiet for so long, stirred in my chest like she was waking from a long, dreamless sleep.

The Alpha King looked down at me with something I didn’t recognize.

Not pity.

Not hunger.

Something else.

Possession.

Fate.

Mine.

I stumbled back, panicked, desperate to escape the weight of that word.

And then I heard it.

“Alpha Orion,” someone barked behind us.

Rolan.

The clearing had caught up to us. Guards stood at the edge. Warriors from both packs were circling, curious, tense.

“She’s ours,” Rolan said, his voice sharp. “A servant. Nothing more.”

“No,” Orion replied, never looking away from me. “She’s mine now.”

The clearing exploded into whispers.

I felt every gaze like a knife in my back.

Tears stung my eyes.

The Moon Rite was supposed to be a celebration. A blessing.

For me, it was a curse.

Because now… the entire world had seen me.

And I didn’t know if that meant I was finally alive,

or already marked for death.

The clearing wasn’t silent anymore.

It was boiling.

Voices rose like a hive disturbed, snarls, whispers, disbelief.

“Did he say mine?”

“She’s a servant.”

“She’s not even shifted.”

“She’s… an omega?”

I wanted to sink into the ground. Disappear. Burn.

Every eye was on me now.

Not for what I had done, but for what I wasn’t.

I stood there, trembling, as Orion, the Alpha King, stood behind me like a wall of heat and thunder. Not touching me, but close. Too close.

I could feel his presence like a second skin. Dominant. Endless. It made my bones vibrate.

And I hated that it made part of me… ache.

Not with desire.

With longing.

Because no one had ever stood behind me before.

Not when I was knocked down.

Not when I bled.

Not when they laughed.

But now… he was here.

And I didn’t know why.

I didn’t know how.

I wasn’t a prize. I wasn’t worthy. I wasn’t even clean.

I was filth in a dress soaked with sweat, my lip still bleeding, arms scratched, soul scraped raw.

And yet, the most powerful Alpha on earth had looked me in the eye and said mine.

He meant it.

That was the worst part.

Not the eyes staring or the wolves whispering or the Luna from Blackridge hissing at her mate like she’d been personally insulted.

It was the way he said it like a truth written in blood.

And I,

I didn’t know how to carry that.

“I didn’t ask for this,” I whispered, mostly to myself.

I didn’t think he heard me.

But he did.

His voice was low. Like thunder in the distance.

“Neither did I.”

I looked up at him again. He wasn’t even looking at the others. He was just watching me. Not with cruelty. Not even with confusion.

With possession.

With certainty.

Like something ancient inside him had chosen before he even understood why.

Behind us, Alpha Rolan growled. “This is a violation of every rite law,”

“She is mine,” Orion said again, this time loud enough for every wolf to hear.

The ground went still.

Even the wind paused.

“She will be under my protection from this moment forward,” he continued. “Any wolf who touches her, speaks to her without my permission, or attempts to separate her from me… will answer to me.”

Whispers surged like a wave. Someone swore. Someone else gasped.

I couldn’t breathe.

Why is this happening to me?

Why now?

Why him?

Alpha Rolan stepped forward, red-faced, chest heaving. “You don’t understand what you’re claiming. She’s nothing. A disgrace. She hasn’t even—”

“Shifted?” Orion interrupted, finally turning toward him. “She doesn’t need to. I’ve already felt her wolf stir.”

I blinked. My throat closed.

What?

He felt… her?

Even I hadn’t.

Or maybe I had, and just didn’t know how to recognize it.

Rolan’s eyes locked on mine, burning with hatred.

“You ungrateful little..”

“I would advise you not to complete that sentence, She belongs to no one but me now,” Orion said calmly. “Try to touch her again, Alpha, and I will cut your tongue from your mouth and feed it to your heir.”

The silence that followed was absolute.

My knees buckled, but I didn’t fall.

I couldn’t.

Not now. Not when they were all watching.

Orion stepped forward. His cloak brushed my side.

“Stand tall,” he murmured, not as a command, but a quiet request.

I didn’t know why I listened.

But I did.

Somehow, I lifted my chin. I didn’t meet the crowd’s eyes. But I stood taller than I had in years.

It didn’t make me powerful.

But it made me seen.

And for the first time in my life… no one dared touch me.

The crowd didn’t move. No one dared. But the weight of their attention pressed on me like a thousand stones. I could feel the judgment rippling off them in waves.

Some of them looked confused.

Some looked furious.

Most… looked disgusted.

A few looked afraid.

Of me.

That part made my stomach twist more than all the others.

I wasn’t special. I wasn’t strong. I hadn’t even shifted. I didn’t know how to fight or lead or walk without flinching. I didn’t deserve to be feared.

So why… why was the Alpha King still standing beside me?

Rolan’s gaze stabbed into mine like a knife. I could feel the threat in it, like he was already imagining ways to make me pay for this humiliation.

He’d beat me when we got home. Or worse. Unless...

No. There was no home anymore, was there?

Because Orion had just… claimed me.

That wasn’t a declaration someone could take back. It was final. Binding. Unchallenged.

Except… it wasn’t a bond.

He hadn’t marked me. He hadn’t even asked.

He’d just decided.

And that was what terrified me most.

Because I’d spent my entire life being invisible, and now, suddenly, I was a prize in the middle of a war I didn’t understand.

“Come,” Orion said.

Just one word.

A command dressed like a promise.

I couldn’t move.

My feet were rooted to the earth like my body had finally realized how close I was to the edge of something massive, something that could either lift me out of this life or destroy me completely.

“I…” My voice caught. “I can’t go with you.”

“You already are.”

My breath hitched.

He didn’t say it unkindly. But there was no space for argument in his voice.

I looked around.

Every eye was still on me. Alphas. Betas. Omegas who looked like queens, with delicate chains at their throats and thick braids crowned with gold. Girls who had spent weeks preparing for this night, hair polished, teeth gleaming, wolves steady beneath their skin.

And here I was.

In a torn dress.

Bruised.

Ashamed.

Shaking.

Claimed.

A hum of magic rippled through the crowd suddenly, low and deep, like the earth itself had taken a breath.

The Moon had fully risen.

I felt it in my blood like a quiet ache, like the sound of a locked door cracking somewhere inside me.

And then it happened.

One by one, the other unmated wolves stepped forward into the clearing, those who had come hoping for a bond. The ceremony was beginning. The Rite.

But I stayed frozen at the edge.

“I don’t belong here,” I whispered.

Orion looked at me. Not as if I’d offended him, but as if I’d broken his heart just a little.

“You do,” he said.

Two words.

Spoken like a fact, not a comfort.

I looked away quickly.

“I’ll embarrass you,” I murmured. “Everyone’s watching. They all think you made a mistake.”

“I don’t care what they think,” he said. “I only care that you’re not standing alone anymore.”

My throat closed.

Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.

I couldn’t cry here. Not in front of them. Not in front of him.

So instead, I breathed.

One.

Two.

Three.

And then I stepped into the clearing with him.

The silence roared.

Dozens of faces turned. Lips parted. Eyes widened.

And I walked anyway.

Because he walked beside me.

Not behind me.

Not dragging me.

Beside.

And I didn’t understand what that meant yet. I didn’t trust it. I didn’t trust him.

But for the first time in my life…

No one could touch me.

And no one dared say my name like it was dirt.

Because now they all saw me.

And I wasn’t invisible anymore.