All Chapters of GIVEN TO THE WRONG ALPHA: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The branding iron hit my shoulder before I finished screaming the Moon Goddess’s name.Flesh sizzled. The smell of my own burning skin filled my nose. The entire Royal Court of Duskbane watched in silence.“Hold her down,” Prince Caiden said. His voice was bored. He didn’t look at me. He watched my sister Lyra like I was a stain on his boot.Lyra stood beside the obsidian throne in a silver gown that cost more than my village earned in a year. Her hands were clasped at her chest. Her gray eyes were wide and wet like she was the victim.Two royal guards pinned my arms to the stone altar. The High Priestess pressed the iron deeper into my flesh. The sigil of “Unmated” branded me as packless. Worthless. The mark they give omegas who commit treason.I hadn’t committed treason.Five minutes ago I knelt on this same altar because the Moon Goddess spoke. Her voice came from inside my ribs. It filled the temple, filled the mountain: “Wren Holloway, Omega of the Hollow Pack. You are the fated

The marsh stank of rot and copper.Draven set me down behind a dead tree. “Stay. Don’t breathe loud.”I could walk now. The leash was gone. I still felt hollow. “I’m coming.”“No,” he said. “Witches smell omega. You’re bait I’m not using.”“You called me your mate,” I said. “Mates don’t get left behind trees.”His eyes cut to me. “Mates who can’t fight get killed. Can you fight?”I thought of scrubbing floors. Dodging kicks. “No.”“Then stay.” He pulled a blade from his spine. Long. Black. “If I’m not back by moonrise, run south. My second will find you.”He left. No sound.I counted to ten. Then I followed.The marsh was fog and black water. Trees grew sideways. I heard chanting.I found them in a clearing. Caiden. Lyra. And her.The witch.She wasn’t old. She was young. Beautiful. Bald. Symbols carved into her scalp. She stood in a circle of bones.“—the bloodline heir,” Lyra was saying. “That was the deal. You remove Wren, I get Caiden, and you get the firstborn.”“You failed,” the

The pups cried for three days.All over the territories, dead pups took first breaths. Healed. The healers called it miracle. The Alphas called it threat.Because if an omega could break a twenty-year curse, what else could she break?The answer came on day four.I woke bleeding. Not my palm. Lower.Draven was awake instantly. “Wren?”“Pain,” I said. “Inside.”He ripped the furs back. Blood. Too much.He roared for the healer.She ran in. Old. Wise. She looked. Went white. “The witch was right. Double curse. The firstborn takes the mother.”“I’m not pregnant,” I said. Panic.“You are now,” she said. “One day. The Goddess works fast when a bloodline is at stake.”Draven put his hand on my stomach. “No.”“The curse activates at conception,” the healer said. “To stop the Duskbane line from continuing. You broke the pup curse. She laid a mother curse. You birth the heir, you die with it.”I grabbed Draven’s hand. “Get it out.”“No,” he said. “There’s another way.”“What?”“We kill the wit

“My name,” I say, the words leave my mouth before I can stop them. The Summit doesn’t breathe. The boy’s silver eyes lock on mine. “Then run,” he says. Dusk hits, the sun dies behind the peaks, and the mountain groans. A crack splits the rock above the Summit field, black air bleeding out. Draven roars “Wren,” but I’m already moving. I run, stone cuts my bare feet, the path burns cold. The boy is faster, his chains don’t slow him as he leads me up the broken steps. “I didn’t say yes,” I snap. “I didn’t give my name.” “You will,” he says, “or they die.” The mountain splits open, not a door but a wound. Black air pours out, thick with old blood and older magic, iron and rot and roses. Draven crashes through the trees below. “Wren, don’t you dare.” I look down. Two hundred Alphas watch, Caiden on his knees, the High Priestess pale, the dead witch’s body still smoking. I look up. The mountain waits. I step inside, and darkness swallows me whole. The gate slams shut, cutting Dr

“Kill the Luna,” Harlow says. The rifles rise. Draven moves before I breathe, slamming into me, taking us both to the dirt. Bullets rip the air where my head was. “Duskbane,” Harlow shouts. “Stand down or she dies.” Draven’s body covers mine, his claws in the earth, growling. “You agreed to terms,” he snarls. “Terms changed,” Harlow says. “New intel. She’s not just Luna, she’s the Hollow Queen. The witch’s heir. We don’t negotiate with blood magic.” Blood magic. Someone told him that name. I twist under Draven, looking at the phone in Harlow’s hand. “Who called you,” I ask. Harlow doesn’t answer. He nods, and his men advance. Caiden steps between us and the rifles. “You shoot her, you start a war you can’t win,” he says. “Funny,” Harlow says. “That’s what your father said twenty years ago, right before he sold his daughter.” My father. Dead three years. Draven goes still. “Say that again.” “Gerald Holloway,” Harlow says. “He’s the one who called, said his daughter was com