Oops! The Alpha Heard My Thoughts

Avira 's POV

“Avira, I have to tell everyone something. My mate isn’t you. It’s Seraphina.”

That was the first thing my boyfriend Lysander said to me at the tribe gathering on the night of the full moon.

The night wind whipped my skirt against my calves. I stood by the bonfire, yet I couldn’t feel a trace of warmth.

People in Gray Valley all said that on the night of the full moon, the Moon Goddess would guide loving werewolves to their mates. As long as the moonlight fell on the hands they held together, the two people destined for each other would receive the Moon Goddess’s blessing and stay together forever.

I had thought that kind of happiness would be mine tonight.

But what Lysander brought me was news that he wanted to break up with me.

“And she’s the daughter of the Silvermoon family. My father also needs this marriage to secure his position,” he said in a low voice. “You know that. I’m an adult now. I should do something for my family.”

As he spoke, he turned his gaze to Seraphina, who stood in the front row. She wore a silver-white gown, a moonstone at her throat, beautiful as an idol carefully enshrined.

Silence fell first. Then came a wave of hushed discussion.

Some looked at me with pity. Others seemed relieved for Lysander, wearing expressions of blessing, as if they hoped that after leaving me, he could finally live a good life.

A low-ranking Omega who had no family backing, no land, and her parents’ debts on her shoulders, who worked as a cook in a little tavern, was never supposed to dream of becoming a noble’s partner.

“You promised me you’d stay with me forever,” I heard myself say.

Lysander’s expression stiffened for a moment, then quickly returned to that restrained apology.

“But at the time, I thought we would have a mate bond. The truth is, we don’t.” He took a bag of silver coins from his pocket. “I know this is unfair to you. This is compensation. You can use it to pay off your debts, then leave Gray Valley and go anywhere you want.”

Very moving. Wonderfully said.

I’d give this whole performance eighty out of a hundred.

The missing twenty points were because the male lead wore such a mournful face, as if he were the one being abandoned.

The pouch was heavy. I took it, weighed it in my hand. There was enough money in here to let me work at the tavern for half a year.

Lysander watched me as if trying to find reluctance, collapse, or pleading on my face. Or perhaps he expected me to have enough backbone to throw the pouch back at him.

Sorry to disappoint him.

I looked up and smiled at him, then accepted it readily. “Thank you. You’re very generous.”

Lysander hesitated for a few seconds, then smiled too. “You’ve always been so understanding.”

Heh.

I almost wanted to laugh.

What was I supposed to do if I wasn’t understanding? Rush up right now, tear open his collar, and ask him who was it that swore to me on the snowy plains last winter that even if we turned out not to have a mate bond, it wouldn’t matter, that he would pay off my debts and marry me?

Not worth it.

Still, Lysander had broad shoulders, long legs, and a handsome wolf form. He had originally been the best option I’d picked for myself. He came from a Beta warrior family. He wasn’t especially clever, but he worked hard. If he got chosen for the castle guard in the future, there was no reason we couldn’t have lived a prosperous, steady life.

A pity. None of that was mine now.

I felt regret for about three seconds, then tucked the money pouch inside my skirt.

Gray Valley didn’t have only one unmarried warrior. Rowan from the guard, Damon from the hunting grounds, Hale who escorted merchant caravans... they were all decent partner candidates. I had to leave myself more than one way out.

That didn’t make me fickle.

I was an Omega wolf girl with no one to rely on. After my parents died, all they left me was a pile of debt and an old drafty house. I understood early on that if I wanted a life with even a little hope in it, I had to plan every step for myself.

So choosing an excellent partner was also part of my life plan. A girl at the bottom like me had to survive first before earning the right to talk about love. No matter how pretty the promises sounded, once the granary ran empty and creditors came knocking, they were useless in any real sense. Better to start now and find someone who could build a better life with me.

Lysander wasn’t the first Beta in the entire Gray Valley pack to betray a promise, and he wouldn’t be the last.

He was actually fairly decent. At least he gave me a sum of money to compensate for the five years we had spent together.

As I put the money away, someone behind me failed to hold it in and laughed out loud. Seraphina’s expression shifted. Lysander looked even more embarrassed.

I had no interest in helping them save face. I turned and left.

Five years for a bag of silver coins. I’d taken a loss, sure. But at least from now on, I wouldn’t have to worry about Lysander’s future anymore. Once I paid off the debts and saved enough travel money, I’d head south, find a place where winter didn’t freeze your ears off, and open a small restaurant.

But just as I reached the stone steps, a horn sounded without warning.

Several black-armored riders came through the snow. The banners snapped in the night wind. The man at the front rode on the back of an enormous black wolf, a black cloak covering his shoulders and back, Alpha pressure spreading all around him.

The instant he raised his eyes, the clansmen who had been laughing and talking around the bonfire all lowered their heads together. Even the flames seemed to shrink.

It was Kylan, the legendary Alpha King, the man who held the highest authority in the entire Gray Valley pack and controlled other people’s fates. He could tear apart any warrior he considered disloyal with one hand, or sentence an entire family to exile without changing expression.

I secretly raised my head and took a careful look at him.

Face, ninety-eight points.

Body, ninety-nine.

Temper... negative one hundred.

Final recommendation: keep a safety distance of at least fifty paces. Preferably with a city wall in between.

“The Alpha King has come to join our moon feast.” Elder Marlow, who had organized the banquet, stepped forward on his silver staff, smiling like an old fox. “The royal city cannot go on forever without a Luna Queen. Please choose a girl to your liking and mark her.”

Everything went still for a moment. Only he dared say something like that on the strength of his seniority.

Then, as one, the unmarried wolf girls all edged half a step forward.

Some lowered their heads and bared the side of their necks. Some silently adjusted their appearance. They said nothing, but their eyes made it perfectly clear: choose me, I can bear the strongest heir.

I stood at the back, nearly rolling my eyes to heaven.

The elder really had too much free time.

If I remembered right, the man had just returned from the border. He had just won a battle, hadn’t even dismounted, and they were already urging him to marry. Ridiculous.

What, if the Alpha King didn’t mark a girl tonight, would Gray Valley’s royal city collapse tomorrow?

These old men wanted to meddle in heaven and earth, and even who slept with whom had to be arranged by their own hands. They should each be handed a broom and sent to sweep the snow off the city walls, so their heads wouldn’t be so full of what happened in other people’s beds.

“Enough.”

That deep voice pressed down over the wind.

I froze at once.

Kylan’s dark golden eyes were fixed on me, his gaze deep, like a lock on prey, staring until the back of my neck tightened.

The people beside me immediately retreated, eager to draw a line between themselves and me.

I touched my face on instinct.

Had I accidentally said all that out loud just now?

No.

Marlow followed his gaze toward me, his expression pausing. “The Alpha King has taken a liking to... Avira?”

Lysander’s face changed too.

Kylan ignored them. He leaped down from the black wolf’s back and walked toward me step by step. The heels of his boots crossed the frozen earth. The sound was not loud, yet every step landed on my heartbeat.

He stopped in front of me and looked down at me.

I did my best to steady myself and didn’t step back.

I couldn’t lose nerve. At least not in front of my ex-boyfriend Lysander.

“What’s your name?”

“Avira.” I swallowed and forced out what I believed was a very professional smile, making my low birth clear. “My surname isn’t worth mentioning. I’m an orphan now, and I work as a cook at Gray Valley Tavern.”

His lashes seemed to move slightly.

Dead silence all around.

My heart dropped hard.

I was done for. He wouldn’t think I was talking back to him and plan to throw me to the wolves on the spot, would he?

The next moment, Kylan raised a hand, pointed at me, and spoke in a voice so calm it carried no rise or fall at all.

“The castle is short one maid. Avira, report to the castle tomorrow.”