All Chapters of Breeding The Broken Alpha: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

One

Three Years Ago, Ironwood Pack Territory.The ceremonial clearing smelled of blood and jasmine.Sera Vane stood at the edge of the moonlit circle, her hands were trembling inside the pockets of her only clean dress. The fabric was thin, secondhand, pale blue with a stain on the hem she couldn't quite scrub out. She'd borrowed mascara from another omega and immediately smudged it. 'Don't cry. Don't hope. Don't embarrass yourself.' she reminded herself again and again.Around her, the Ironwood Pack gathered in a loose ring consisting of two hundred shifters, their eyes gleamed gold and amber in the torchlight. There were also wealthy families in dark silks, enforcers with scars crossing their throats, and Omegas like her, pressed to the back, completely invisible.Tonight was the Claiming Moon, the night when unpaired wolves over twenty were brought before the pack to scent their fated mates.Sera had never believed she'd find one.Twenty-one years old. Orphaned at twelve when her moth

Two

Present Day: Verance CitySera poured whiskey with steady hands. Four fingers, no ice, a flick of the wrist that sent the amber liquid spinning before it settled, she'd perfected this. She slid the glass across the sticky bartop, and the grumpy regular, a werewolf from the Southside crew, grunted his thanks."You're a gem, Ser." He said."Sera," she corrected smiling. "Not Ser. Not Serena. Sera.""Whatever." He knocked back the whiskey in one gulp. "Same time tomorrow?""If the roof doesn't collapse." She wiped down the bar with a rag that smelled of bleach and old beer. "You know how landlord Thursdays go."The Rotted Oak was a dive, the kind of place where the floorboards creaked, the neon sign flickered, and the clientele had more scars than teeth. It sat on the border between Verance City's human district and the shifter underbelly, it was a grey zone where everyone pretended not to notice claws under gloves or eyes that glowed in the dark.Sera had worked here for two years.No o

Three

POV: Caelan IronwoodSix Months Ago: Ironwood Pack TerritoryThe first time Caelan felt her again, he was drowning, not metaphorically, literally. There had been an assassination attempt; poison in his whiskey, a rogue shifter with a silver blade, and a plunge through the ice of the frozen river behind the pack house. The water was black and endless and cold enough to stop his heart.He should have died, but instead, he felt her.Sera. The omega who was supposed to be his mate. He'd felt a pulse, a heartbeat. He'd felt a golden thread connecting his chest to somewhere far, far away; Verance City, he'd learn later, and she was alive. His mate, the very one he'd rejected. The one he'd dreamed about every single night for three years. The one they'd been searching for.Her fear hit him first; she was having a nightmare, something about blood and mud and teeth, and he felt every second of it. Her terror was somehow his terror. Her grief was his grief.And somewhere beneath all that pain

Four

The explosion tore through the van like shrapnel through flesh.Sera hit the floor. Something heavy landed on top of her; Caelan. His body was a wall of muscle and bone, blocking her from the debris that sprayed through the ruined doors."Stay down," he ordered.She didn't argue, not when they were clearly under attack. And her head still felt heavy, she was trying so hard to keep her eyes open.Through the smoke, she saw figures leaping into the van. Blackmoor's enforcers; red eyes, extended claws. They moved like wolves, all hunger and violence.Caelan shifted mid-lunge.His wolf was massive, easily three hundred pounds of silver-furred muscle. His jaws closed around the first enforcer's throat and tore. Blood sprayed and the body dropped.The second enforcer lost an arm.The third grabbed Sera and she screamed and kicked, trying to free herself. But the enforcer's grip was iron. He dragged her toward the hole in the van's back, toward the waiting SUVs.No, no, no.Her wolf stirred.

Five

POV: Caelan IronwoodCaelan didn't go to his office on rturning, instead, he went to the training yard.The night air was cold. The moon was hidden behind clouds. He stripped off his bloodied shirt, rolled his shoulders, and began to drill.Punch. Block. Kick. Sweep.Over and over, until his muscles burned. Until his lungs screamed. Until the scent of honey and whiskey faded from his senses. But it didn't really fade.It clung to him like smoke. Like the bond he couldn't sever, couldn't complete, couldn't control.He hadn't knotted in three years.His body refused other females. He'd tried, the first time, his wolf had gone limp the moment he entered her. The second time, he'd thrown her out of his bed before they'd even started. Her scent was wrong. Her touch was wrong. Everything was wrong. He eventually learned that no other female could please or satisfy him.But Sera, her scent.....Focus.He drove his fist into the training post, causing wood to splinter.The primal omega gene,

SIX

Three days passed.Sera counted them by the meals left outside her door; breakfast, lunch, dinner, delivered by silent enforcers who never met her eyes. She ate little, her appetite was completely down the drain. Slept less, spent most of her time at the window, watching the dying forest and waiting for her cat to arrive.Wreckage came on the second day.Finn carried the carrier inside, set it on the floor, and left without a word. The orange tabby emerged slowly, sniffed the air, and immediately jumped onto the bed. He did not seem to care that they were prisoners, or at least he didn't seem to notice. He simply curled into a ball and began to purr.At least someone is comfortable.On the third night, Sera heard footsteps in the hallway, not Finn's. She'd learned to recognize his tread, they were efficient and unhurried. However, these footsteps were heavier and more authoritative.Caelan....She moved away from the door, positioning herself behind the armchair to put as much distace

SEVEN

The next day, Sera had been led out of the room by Finn, claiming he wanted to show her around the pack, he wanted to show her what it'd become. The tour lasted four hours.Finn walked her through every corner of Ironwood territory, she took in how bad the situation was; the crumbling walls, the empty warehouses, the nursery where pups cried from hunger their mothers couldn't satisfy. He didn't lecture or try to convince her of anything. He simply showed her the truth, and let the truth do its work, and perhaps that had been the intention all along, to show her how much that pack was suffering so she'd willing want to help.The nursery was the worst.Sera stood at the doorway completely frozen, as a dozen pups under the age of five lay on thin mats. Their faces were pale, their eyes were dull. The faint glow of shifter magic that should have pulsed beneath their skin was barely visible, it was just a flicker, like a candle about to die.She stared at them and she just couldn't unders

EIGHT

Her heart pounded heavily as she looked around quickly; the room was dark, the fire had burned down to embers. Wreckage was sitting at the foot of the bed, watching her with wide green eyes.And her body was on fire. She felt like she was literally burning up."No." She pressed her hand between her thighs. Her underwear was soaked completely. Slick dripped down her legs when she shifted, and her body cried out in need. "No, no, no....."Her wolf stirred again, stronger this time, like she could bear the heat."Mate....."Sera doubled over, clutching her stomach. The heat wasn't fully established yet, but it was coming. She could feel it building like a wave, gathering strength, preparing to crash over her and sweep away everything she'd built to protect herself.Three years. She'd gone three years without a heat, three years without her wolf. And now it was all coming back.Because of him! Because he'd brought her back. Because his scent was literally everywhere, because his voice

NINE

She could hear footsteps in the hallway, and she knew Caelan was coming, she knew he was so close, she could feel it.Her heart hammered against her chest so quickly and heavily, she felt like she was going to faint. Her wolf screamed with joy, and her body arched toward the door, toward his scent, toward him.No, no, no..... She was literally crying now, she hated this, she hated how quickly everything was happening, but her body didn't care.The footsteps stopped outside her door, and the three sharp raps followed impatient."Sera."His voice was rough, almost strained. He knew exactly what was happening in here. She could hear the effort it took for him to stay on the other side of that door and not barge in immediately.She didn't answer, she couldn't, not when her throat was too tight and her breath too ragged."Sera." He said, louder this time. "I can smell you. Open the door."Every instinct she had screamed at her to do it, to crawl across the floor, to throw the door open,

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