Page 24 of Sold to Three Alpha Kings

“Wait…are you saying that…” Her voice trails into silence as the realization sets in. “That’s not—I can’t be an Omega. I told you, I’m shiftless. My wolf died before I was—”

“Did it die,” I ask, quiet, “or did someone tell you it did?”

She goes still.

“The healer said it ran dry,” she says finally, voice smaller now. “Starved before I was born, because something went wrong when my mother was carrying me. He never said dead outright. Everyone else just started saying it that way because it was easier.”

Dormant is not dead. I don’t say that part aloud, not yet. I don’t have enough certainty to hand her hope only to take it back later if I’m wrong. But something in my chest tightens at the thought regardless.

“Thank you for your time.” I straighten. “You’ll be fed tonight. Properly. I’ll see to it myself.”

She watches me with an expression I can’t fully name… more cautious than gratitude or trust.

I don’t have an answer for her yet. I’m not sure I have one for myself.

I leave before I do something foolish, like promise her more than I currently have the right to promise.

The conversation follows me the rest of the night.

I keep circling back to the sound of her voice going ragged with fear and holding steady anyway. The look in her clear blue eyes and the glimpse of that soft, thick thigh tucked away somewhere in the back of my mind.

***

Two days later, the other Kings and I meet up at the middle-ground palace. We sit at the long table that dominates the center of the room, sunlight streaming in through the large windows.

“My men tracked the traders’ route back to a village called Ashwick. Western edge of my territory,” Chris begins, his voice calm as usual.

“That matches what she told me,” I say.

His brow lifts slightly. “You spoke with her.”

Both Kings have their eyes on me, a hint of suspicion flickering in their gazes.

“I did.” I don’t elaborate, and neither of them pushes. Although Wayne has that grin on his face, the one he wears when he smells something fishy.

”What did your men find?” I ask Chris.

“Confirmation of the shiftless story. A healer in the village remembers her birth, remembers declaring her wolf dormant after her mother died delivering her.” He pauses.

“Does that also match what she told you?” Wayne teases, that pesky grin still retained.

I don’t respond because I know what he’s playing at.

Chris continues, “They found no shortage of people willing to describe her as useless. A family that treated her as unpaid labor. A village that considered her cursed, or close enough to it.”

Something in my chest tightens at that, sharper than I expect.

“My healer is examining her as we speak,” Wayne says, his eyes shifting between Chris and me. “We should get a report soon.”

The examination didn’t take as long as I expected. When the healer, an old man with long grey hair and a crooked staff, emerges, his expression is thoughtful in a way that makes all three of us go quiet before he even speaks.

“She’s an Omega,” he says simply. “Has been all along, in the sense that matters. Her wolf isn’t dead. It’s dormant—nearly starved to nothing, but not extinguished.”

Something flashes across Chris’s face. I’m not sure what it is yet.

The healer goes ahead to add, “A wolf that dormant wouldn’t have manifested a secondary sex at all under normal circumstances. She’d have gone her whole life shiftless, exactly as everyone believed.”

“Then what changed?” Chris’s voice is flat, but I catch the tension underneath it.