The Alpha’s Christmas Mate

Snow fell in slow, silent sheets over the pack grounds, blanketing everything in white. Lanterns glowed along the carved stone paths, casting warm golden light over the Winter Solstice celebration. Laughter drifted from the Great Hall as wolves danced, drank, and celebrated the one night each year the Moon Goddess was said to truly listen. Tonight, wishes were being made. Promises whispered. Fates sealed. Everyone was celebrating. Everyone but me. I scrubbed frozen blood from the stone steps on my knees, my fingers burning as icy water soaked through my thin gloves. The red smeared against white in ugly streaks before disappearing beneath the brush. My uniform was little more than linen and shame, offering no real protection against the cutting winter wind that sliced through my skin. Inside the hall, music swelled—drums, laughter, the stamping of boots in time with celebration. The smell of roasted meat and spiced wine drifted through the open doors. None of it was meant for an omega like me. “Faster, Faye.” I flinched at the sharp voice behind me. Beta Mara stood with arms crossed, her heavy fur-lined cloak wrapped snugly around her shoulders. Steam curled from her breath as she looked down at me like I was something unpleasant she’d stepped in. “This is a celebration, not a pity show,” she sneered. “If you’re going to be useless, at least be invisible.” “Yes, Beta,” I whispered, lowering my head. Invisible. That was what I had always been. I was born under the Winter Solstice Moon—something the elders once whispered meant great destiny. The Moon was brightest on my birth night, they said. The power thick in the air. The stars trembling. But destiny never came for girls like me. Instead, I was left on the pack steps as a newborn, wrapped in bloodied cloth with no name, no mother, no scent of family. The pack took me in out of obligation, not love. I grew up beneath their feet—fed, housed, trained just enough to be useful. An omega without rank. Without a mate. Without protection. Tonight only proved it. When the steps finally gleamed white again, I gathered the empty buckets with numb fingers and headed toward the servants’ corridor to refill them. My joints ached, my muscles trembling from the cold and exhaustion. As I passed the council chamber, I meant only to walk by. But the door was cracked. And my name fell from their lips. “…she’ll be traded after the festival,” one elder said. My steps slowed. “To the Frostclaw Pack?” another asked. “Yes. Their Alpha wants an omega with winter-born blood. It will strengthen negotiations before the border wars.” My breath hitched. Traded. Like property. Like livestock. My knees nearly gave out beneath me as I staggered back from the door. My hands shook so violently the bucket slipped free, clattering loudly against the stone. Crimson water spilled across the floor, pooling at my feet. I didn’t care. I couldn’t. They weren’t just controlling my labor anymore. They were selling my future. Sending me to a pack known for cruelty, for breaking omegas into silent shadows of themselves. No one would protect me there. No one ever had. I ran. I didn’t stop to clean the spill. Didn’t stop when someone shouted after me. Didn’t stop when the courtyard guards turned at the sound of my rushing footsteps. The forest swallowed me whole as I fled into the night. Snow whipped into my face as I crashed through the tree line. Branches clawed at my arms and tore at my hair. Ice burned through the thin soles of my shoes. My breath ripped from my chest in desperate, jagged gasps—but still I ran. Until the music faded. Until the lantern lights vanished. Until all that remained was the Moon. I burst into a small clearing and collapsed to my knees, lungs on fire, heart slamming violently against my ribs. Snow soaked through my uniform as I crumpled forward, trembling violently beneath the open sky. Above me, the Winter Solstice Moon burned silver and full—ancient, watching, listening. The tears came without restraint. Hot. Broken. “I don’t want to be alone anymore,” I whispered into the cold, my voice shaking. “I don’t want to be traded. I don’t want to be owned. I just… I just want to belong somewhere. Please… just once… let me matter to someone.” The wind stilled. The forest went unnaturally silent. The Moon flared. Not in light. But in power. The air thickened around me, pressing against my skin as if the world itself were holding its breath. A deep, ancient heat surged beneath my flesh, racing through my veins like wildfire. My wolf—usually quiet, frightened—suddenly slammed against my bones in a panic. I cried out as the power rushed through me, unfamiliar and overwhelming. And far to the north… A powerful Alpha lifted his head. ⸻ Kael Blackthorne stood alone atop the fortress overlook, the Winter Solstice fires burning below him like a sea of gold and red. Laughter echoed through the stone corridors behind him, but he remained apart from it—watching, ever watching. Alpha always had to watch. The pack celebrated beneath him. Unmated wolves danced. Warriors drank. Hope was thick in the air like smoke. And yet his wolf was uneasy. Restless. Kael frowned as a strange pressure rolled through his chest. Then— The scent hit him. It was faint. Distant. But unmistakable. Raw snow. Winter blood. And something impossibly familiar. His wolf surged violently to life, slamming into his ribs with a roar that rattled his bones. Mate. Kael’s breath left him in a sharp hiss. Impossible. He scanned the dark forest beyond the walls even as the bond flared to life inside him, hot and demanding, pulling hard in one direction. South. Into the trees. His wolf paced furiously beneath his skin, howling with urgency. She was close. She was real. And she was unguarded. Kael turned sharply toward the stairs leading down from the overlook. Without another word, he launched into motion. ⸻ Back in the clearing, the power faded as suddenly as it had come. I collapsed forward into the snow, shaking uncontrollably, my heart racing wildly in my chest. The forest creaked softly as if waking from a held breath. I didn’t understand what had just happened. Only that something in the world had shifted. And it had shifted because of me. I dragged a trembling breath into my lungs as a strange warmth lingered beneath my skin, unfamiliar but not painful. My wolf stirred again—different now. Alert. Aware. The snow at the edge of the clearing crunched. My head snapped up. A presence approached through the trees—fast, powerful, unrestrained. Fear clenched around my ribs. Then his scent hit me. Pine. Smoke. Winter storm. The forest parted. And the Alpha stepped into the clearing.