Alpha Countdown Short Stories & Novels

"I’ve agreed to marry Alpha Valerian." My father, Alpha Nathaniel, remained bent over his war table for three full seconds before slowly raising his head. His dark eyes, hard as flint, locked onto mine. "You can't be serious." "I have never been more serious." Alpha Valerian—heir to the northern territories. Rumors are he hasn't opened his eyes since birth. A sleeping corpse with a beating heart. "They want a Luna from our pack to stabilize their territory and our alliance." "They demanded Nora," my father said stiffly, his jaw tightening at the mention of his illegitimate, favored daughter. "But you wouldn't like to tie your favourite daughter’s wolf to a cursed, motionless mate, would you?” I replied, keeping my tone entirely flat. "It settles the northern line," he murmured, his forehead muscles finally relaxing. "Very well. I’ll send word to their elders tonight. We’ll arrange the transport, the ceremony—" "I want payment." He paused. "What?" "I am selling my life to buy your peace and cover for Nora’s cowardice," I said, my voice cutting through the quiet room like steel. "I want half the pack’s treasury transferred to my personal lineage vault before I set foot outside our borders." His nostrils flared. "That would empty half our reserves." "Then I suggest you start counting." "And one more thing," I added, reaching for the door's brass handle. "Reassign Commander Lucian. Strip him of his oath to guard me and place him on Nora’s personal detail." He blinked, genuinely thrown. "Lucian? You spent three years fighting the council to make him your shadow. You intended to choose him as your mate." My hand tightened on the brass handle until my knuckles turned white. He didn't know. He didn't know that just an hour ago, I found my shadow guard—the man who swore to bleed for me—wrapped around Nora in the tactical room, whispering the same vows he once swore to me. Lucian had already chosen her. I was giving him the title

When I was eight years old, Kieran Blackwood, Alpha of the Ironwood Pack, saved me from a rogue wolf den. He adopted me and said he would protect me for life. When I was twelve, I met Beta Ryan Cross. He treated me as her own sister and also promised to protect me for life. But later, these two men who swore to guard me forever pushed me into the flames with their own hands. All to please their childhood sweetheart. But when I ran away from Ironwood Pack, the Alpha and Beta both went crazy.

My mate and my own brother both fell for a low-born Omega. My mate, Kael, kept delaying our Mating Ceremony. “Elara, you were born to be the perfect Luna. She… she has nothing. Just give it time, okay?” My brother, Liam, broke the vow he made to our dying mother. “Dahlia is so helpless, Elara. My duty to protect you extends to her. She needs it more.” On our birthday, Kael chose to comfort a hysterical Dahlia. On the anniversary of my mother's death, Liam was with Dahlia, getting her newly adopted pet treated at the vet. And when they stood on stage with her at the Wolf Summit, accepting the strategic planning award that was mine… I severed my link to the pack and left for good. But when they finally realized they could no longer feel my presence… The two men who cast me aside for a lowborn Omega tore the world apart, desperate for just one trace of me.

The werewolves launched a massive invasion of the Elf Forest had been burned, half my people were dead, and my parents were missing. The Elf Queen asked me to go to Damien Thorne and make him stop the war. Damien Thorne. Alpha King of the North, my True Mate, the boy I'd grown up with. His sister Sera was the youngest of the three of us, and my best friend. A year ago, Sera vanished after a secret meeting. I walked out of the forest alive. He didn't — and to him, that was proof enough. He went mad. He burned the sacred trees, slaughtered my people, turned every drop of his hate on me. But he still loved me. So I went. He locked me in his study and fucked me for nine days. Even when I slept,his eyes full of something I couldn't read — madness, and pain. On the tenth day, he kissed his way down my spine, so gentle I let myself think it wasn't too late. The next second, the dagger went into my shoulder blade, straight through the root of my light-wing. The pain detonated from my spine to the crown of my skull. "Shh. Don't scream." He pressed my face into the pillow. "These nine days were the warm-up. Tell me where Sera is." He locked me in the dungeon. He used my people's lives as a leash. He married another she-wolf. The cold-iron whip came down. Each welt sealed itself shut against the iron-poison's burn, then split open again. Every strike felt like a red-hot brand pressed into my skin and ground in. It would never heal. But every time I came close to dying, it was him who tipped the antidote down my throat himself. His fingers shook. His eyes carried a tenderness he hated himself for. The night he got drunk, he crushed me against his chest. "You think I love you, so you can do this to me. Tell me where Sera is, and I'll let you go." I couldn't say it.The moment I opened my mouth, it would burn to ash. I wouldn't have to keep this secret much longer. An elf away from the forest for one full year is dead. No exceptions. I had two days left.

Everyone in Phantom Pack knew their Alpha, Riven Drake, was devoted to me — completely and without question. No matter how slammed he was, he always called to check in, right on time, every time. But the night before our marking ceremony, he vanished. No call, no word, nothing. I lost all sense of him through our mate bond, and my gut told me he was in danger. I was ready to drop everything and go find him — body wrecked as I was — when he finally walked through the door. He came in holding a woman who reeked of him, barely able to stand, and dropped to his knees in front of me. "Natasha, Helen got hurt saving my life. I can't just let her die." To atone for his sins before me, he stabbed himself with a silver dagger. Then, not even an hour after our marking ceremony ended, I heard his Beta laughing with him: "Alpha, that aphrodisiac must've been something else. Helen looked like she was about to pass out." Riven's voice had a satisfied edge to it. "Yeah, I'll have to go easier next time. Don't want her cutting me off." "Anyway — my little troublemaker's calling." It hit me like a punch to the chest. I picked up my phone and called my brother. "Cole. I want to come home to Starlight Pack. Can you send someone in five days?" He sounded surprised, then happy. "Of course. I'll have someone there in five days." Five days. I was giving myself five days. Giving Riven five days. He thought I was just another werewolf. Thought he had me completely figured out. He had no idea I was something else entirely — a descendant of the Dragon Clan, something out of legend. I was never his to control.

I was the one who broke Kane Blackwood's heart. He was the Alpha heir, my boyfriend since we were kids, and I pushed him so hard that I drove him all the way to the Northern Stronghold. He stayed there for seven years. Now he was back. He had a new woman with him, and they were going to hold their bonding ceremony here, in our pack. That same week, the pack witch told me I had three months left to live. When my mother wheeled me outside to see him, Kane's mouth curled into that cruel, mocking smile I remembered too well. His dark eyes swept over me from head to toe, taking in the wheelchair, the thinness of my arms, the paleness of my face. "Well, well," he said, his voice low and sharp. "Seven years and you look like hell. Can't even walk anymore?" I tugged my sleeve down, hiding the scars—the silver tracings left by years of failed treatments. I kept my voice steady. "I fell. Broke something. It's nothing." He let out a short, cold laugh. "Right. Anyway, my bonding ceremony's coming up. You should be Vivra's maid of honor." I smiled back at him. I had gotten good at smiling through pain over the years. "Sorry, but I'm leaving soon. Somewhere far away." Then I patted my mother's hand. She didn't say a word, just gripped the handles of the chair and pushed me back toward the house. I didn't look behind me.

I was reborn on the night the Alpha lost control to dark magic, his heat spiraling out of his grasp. This time, I didn't become his remedy. Instead, I called his true love—my own sister. In my past life, I fell in love with Nicholas, the Alpha of our pack. When I learned he'd been cursed by ancient dark magic and couldn't control his heat, I made a choice I shouldn't have. I didn't push him away. A month later, I found out I was pregnant. As an Alpha, Nicholas needed an heir. The Council of Elders forced him to hold a marking ceremony with me. On the day of the ceremony, Leah couldn't accept it. She ran from pack territory. Rogue wolves attacked her. Before she died, Leah sent Nicholas ninety-nine distress signals through the mind-link. But Nicholas was in the middle of the marking ceremony—at my request—and never answered. Not once. Afterward, when the pack brought back what was left of Leah's body, his face remained eerily calm. But on the night of our pup's first full moon, he poisoned me with wolfsbane. Before I died, I heard his voice, cold as ice. "If you hadn't gotten pregnant, I wouldn't have been forced to mark you. I wouldn't have missed Leah's call for help. Her death is on you. And you're going to pay for it." When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the night Nicholas fell victim to the curse.

On our seventh anniversary, my Alpha, Alex Doyle, abandons me once again to care for Lily Hayes and her pup. "She lost her mate. Do you have any idea how hard it is to raise a pup alone? As the Luna of our pack, you should be more compassionate," he says, his brows drawing together. Certain I'll never leave him, he speaks with the confidence of someone who takes my devotion for granted. This time, I don't beg him to stay like I always do. Instead, I choose to be the bigger person and show Lily compassion. I'm even willing to give up my position as Luna and allow him to fulfill his so-called noble duties and promises to her. I sever our mate bond on my own and leave the pack's territory without looking back. But when I finally disappear into the depths of the forest, Alex, the Alpha who's always carried himself as if he's untouchable, completely loses his mind. With bloodshot eyes, he follows the faint traces of my scent and desperately begs me not to leave.

When I woke up from wolfsbane poison, I decided to scare my Alpha mate-to-be by pretending I’d lost my memory. “Who are you?” I asked. Nolan Hayes stepped back, putting distance between us. “I’m your sister’s mate-to-be. She hasn’t been feeling well, so she asked me to check on you.” I thought he was joking and turned to my adopted sister, Megan, who had just arrived. She immediately slipped her hand around Nolan’s arm. “Allison, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.” “Our bonding ceremony is in three days. You even promised to make my ceremony dress.” Mom and Dad rushed to the hospital when they heard about my memory loss. Clinging to one last shred of hope, I asked. “Is Nolan really going to be Megan’s mate?” Mom sighed. “Allison, their ceremony is just days away.” “You need to leave him alone. Your sister has a heart condition. She can’t handle this kind of stress.” Dad sounded relieved. “You used to chase after Nolan, insisting he could never be anyone’s mate but yours.” “Maybe losing your memory is a good thing. At least you won’t embarrass us in front of the pack anymore.” As he finished speaking, I felt the last of my hope drain away. Fine. Megan could have both my parents and Nolan. It’s time for me to leave the pack for good.

On the eve of my mating ceremony, I caught my parents and the entire pack holding a secret Luna ceremony for my Alpha fiance, Caden, and my adopted sister, Lydia. Lydia's biological parents had died saving mine. Now terminal wolfsbane poisoning had left her with three months to live, and her final wish was to be buried as the Luna of Blackridge Pack. Caden stood with his back to me, his voice soft and patient. "Lydia, don't worry. Before you leave this world, I'll give you everything a Luna deserves—the ceremony, the title, the place at my side. It's the least I can do for you." My father placed her hand in Caden's. My mother draped my Luna mantle over her shoulders, while my own brother struck my name from the Luna registry. Caden exchanged rings and vows with Lydia, then signed the record naming her Blackridge's first Luna. They all believed that because I was healthy, I had years ahead of me and should give this one chance to Lydia. I watched the ceremony to the end and deleted the message announcing my pregnancy. Later, I left with my unborn pup to become Frost River Pack's chief investigator, reclaiming the future I had surrendered for Caden. I left only my pregnancy report, mate-contract dissolution, and bloodline severance declaration. By the time Caden learned the truth, I had already crossed the northern border. His desperate call came too late.

The first time I found Kieran and his assistant, Talia, exchanging good nights through their private mind-link after midnight, we had our biggest fight yet. After that, when I asked him to keep his distance, he deliberately got even closer to her, determined to make me stop being so sensitive. He took Talia shopping for furniture for our future home, let her run beside him beneath the full moon, and when I was sick with a fever, left me alone while he took her to his family’s lodge. Every time I said something hurt me, Kieran pushed a little further. Eventually, I stopped asking. Kieran thought he had finally won. At the celebration for our new Alpha House, I pressed my palm against the entrance ward. Scent not recognized. His friends laughed. “Stop trying, Mara. Talia’s scent was registered days ago.” Then one of them grinned. “Kieran bet you wouldn’t make a scene. He said if you could handle this, you were finally ready to be his mate.” Everyone waited for me to explode. I stared at the red light and realized Kieran had gotten exactly what he wanted. I didn’t care anymore. “Then don’t register mine.” I turned toward the steps. “Cancel the mating ceremony too.” I was leaving anyway. There was no point in having the ceremony anymore.

The night I accidentally ended up in bed with my adoptive brother, Adrian, he had just broken his engagement to his childhood sweetheart, Ivy. Adrian was the Alpha of Blackwood Pack. Ivy was the late Beta's daughter, and the woman he had always intended to make his Luna. To protect my reputation and preserve his authority as Alpha, he was forced to complete a mate bond with me. Everyone said he treated me well. But every year on Ivy's birthday, he sat alone in his study until dawn. In the third year of our marriage, Ivy died of wolf-spirit failure. Only then did Adrian learn from the letter she left behind that she had seen us together that morning. The sight had haunted her for the rest of her life. He decided I had destroyed her. He severed our mate bond, drove me from the pack, and used his influence to close every road that might have kept me alive. Before I died, he sent me only four words. "You deserve to die." When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the night his wolf lost control. This time, I tore myself out of his arms, knocked on Ivy's door, and placed him in her hands myself. I smiled at the shock on his face. “Adrian, I won’t love you anymore.”

I have the same due date as Roxanne Coleman, the childhood sweetheart of my Alpha Mate, Sebastian Graham. However, her pup has been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. That means it will never be as strong as a normal pup and may not even survive its first shift. Even the healers advise her not to give birth. Just as I begin to pity Roxanne, Sebastian makes a request that shatters me. He asks me to give our pup to her. "Roxanne's pack is harsh on her. They demand she bear a powerful heir," he explains patiently. "If they find out her pup is born with a heart defect, they'll kill her. "Please, I beg you. Save her. Let her take our pup." I stare at Sebastian in disbelief. "Are you saying we should trade our healthy pup for her defective one?" Seeing how resistant I am, he doesn't answer. In fact, he doesn't need to. … A month later, during a prenatal checkup, Sebastian secretly switches my medical report with Roxanne's. I can't believe he truly plans to steal my pup for her. At that moment, I broke down completely. So, I sever our mate bond and leave with our unborn pup. While Sebastian frantically searches for me, I accept the Temple of the Moon's invitation and become the only one who can speak to the Moon Goddess and deliver her oracles. And my pup will be the next Chosen One. From that day on, Sebastian is nothing to me.

I was born able to see the colors of the bonds between wolves. The deeper the love, the closer the link came to crimson. When a heart began to waver, it faded to pale pink. When only habit and responsibility remained, it turned gray-white. When I was seven, my father brought another woman home, saying she only needed our pack’s temporary protection. From that day on, the link between him and my mother grew dimmer. My mother’s wolf fell silent, and her health deteriorated. The day she died, the light connecting them vanished. Years later, my brother marked his longtime girlfriend and formed a mate bond with her. Yet the light on his side was only pale pink. I warned him not to promise her forever if he did not love her. He insisted he would honor their bond and care for his mate. Less than six months later, he found another woman. After seeing so many links fade, I knew my gift never lied. I wanted someone who would keep choosing me, no matter how many years passed. Then I met Rhys Calder. He was the youngest head of security in the Greybridge Pack and a former border operative. Everyone said he was cold and exacting, a man who never allowed anyone close. Yet the first time we met, the link extending from him to me burned a brilliant red. After that, he picked me up from work every day, waited two hours for me in a storm, and once drove across half of Greybridge just to bring me flowers. Eventually, I accepted him. For seven years after we formed our mate bond, that link remained deep red. Rhys remembered that I loved the almond croissants from the bakery on the corner. He decorated the terrace himself on my birthdays. Every time he left Greybridge on an assignment, he brought gifts home for Jamie and me. I thought I had finally found the love I wanted. Then Rhys returned from a mission two weeks ago. When I helped him out of his coat, an unfamiliar rose scent clung to the fabric. At that moment, the link extending from him to me seemed to dim.

Ronan is the Alpha of Silverpine Pack. To protect Mara, the widow of the warrior who died saving him, and her young son, he repeatedly chooses them over his own family. The entire pack praises his loyalty and honor. Only I know that every promise he keeps to Mara teaches his own daughter to stop waiting for him. Then Ivy writes in an assignment at the pack academy: [My father is dead.] [He did not die at the border. He died at Mara’s house. Every time she called, he went to her and forgot how to come home.] Ronan finally realizes something is wrong and returns with a belated gift. What he does not know is that a summons from the Northern Crown has already reached me. In fifteen days, I will take Ivy home, reclaim my place as the Alpha King’s daughter, and accept my appointment as Northern Crown’s next chief healer, a future I once gave up for Ronan.

On the day of the mating ceremony, a crazed witch bursts in and points straight at me, shrieking, "Six years later, your Alpha will betray you!" Troy Hudson, my soon-to-be mate, turns livid. He swats the purple-glowing crystal ball from her hand, shattering it on the floor. "Nonsense! Estelle is my fated mate! I'll only ever love her in this lifetime!" After that, he becomes even more devoted to me. At the Moon Goddess' altar, he drapes the Luna shawl over my shoulders. He marks me with his scent so the entire pack knows I belong to him. Every full moon, he deepens the mark on my neck, whispering that I am his forever. I believe his love is unbreakable until our sixth anniversary. A box waits at our front door. Inside lies a pair of lace panties and a photograph. In the photo, Troy is pressed over his foster sister, Rue Youngblood, the wolf tattoo on his body glowing faintly. His hand grips her waist, his eyes burning with the same heat I've dreamed of a million times. And Rue? She's wearing that same pair of panties. On the back of the photo, written in ink as red as blood, is a line of pure provocation. "The Alpha's heart may belong to you, but his body belongs to me." Agony ripped through my chest, yet not a single tear fell. Instead, I rest my hand on my belly and quietly send word to the Witch Association. "I accept your invitation. Please help me vanish."

For seven years straight, Alpha Callum stood me up at our betrothal ceremony during the Moonlight Festival. The pack mocked me as a delusional she-wolf. “Since when did an Omega think she stood a chance with an Alpha? She must be delusional.” But it wasn't some fantasy I'd invented. Callum was the one who had promised me, time and again, that he would propose to me in a grand ceremony. At the eighth Moonlight Festival, Callum stood me up once again, leaving me alone beneath the Moon Goddess Tree. Meanwhile, he took his childhood sweetheart Isabella, the Beta’s daughter and the pack’s Saintess, to see the aurora. Later, he sent me an apologetic message. “Isabella was upset. I only went with her to take her mind off things. Don’t read too much into it.” “The elders still won’t allow me to take an Omega as my Luna, but they’re close to giving in. Give me one more year, and I promise I’ll make you my Luna.” At the ninth Moonlight Festival, he finally approached me in formal black attire. Right in front of him, I set fire to the dress I had worn for him eight times—and to the diagnosis of terminal Wolf-Soul Decay Syndrome hidden inside it. “Callum, there won’t be a ninth chance.” Because in a few days, I would be dead.

At the Full Moon Festival, Edward asked me in front of everyone if he could have the opening dance with Sophia. I didn’t argue. I simply stepped aside and gave them the space. Edward froze for a moment, surprise flashing across his face as he looked at me. But in the end, he still took Sophia’s hand. Under the moon, the two of them danced gracefully . I turned and walked away. Not long after, my phone rang. “I told you Sophia gets shy easily. She just learned the dance, and she was too nervous to dance with another male werewolf.” “Can’t you stop getting jealous over nothing?” “Otherwise, I won’t dare tell anyone that you’re my future mate.” I smiled. He had no idea that just moments ago, I had accepted an invitation from the Northern Pack to become their herbalist Wolf. Later, we would never see each other again.

Three years ago, my Alpha mate, Grayson Blackthorn, has a dream in which he falls for an Omega who works at a flower shop and does countless things to hurt me for her sake. When I hear about it, I don't take it seriously. Instead, I laugh and tease him, "And then what?" Grayson pins me beneath him and kisses me fiercely. "Then, you got me drunk and tricked me into breaking our mate bond. By the time I woke up, you were gone, and I couldn't find you anywhere." He claims it's just a ridiculous dream, yet he starts avoiding alcohol, steering clear of every flower shop, and keeping his distance from every Omega. He even develops severe separation anxiety. It got so bad that our pack's healer, Ravenna Nocturne, has to intervene regularly. To put Grayson's mind at ease, I do everything I can to show him that I love him and depend on him more. Gradually, we forget all about that dream. On our fourth wedding anniversary, a seemingly pure and fragile Omega named Avery Darkcrest appears before me with a bouquet of white lilies in her hands. The flowers nearly send me into anaphylactic shock because of my severe lily allergy. The council demands that Avery be expelled from the pack, but Grayson steps in front of me to protect her. "Avery didn't do it on purpose. Don't make things difficult for her." As I watch him shield her with his body, I know that nightmare is beginning to come true. In the dream, Grayson leaves me utterly broken, and it takes me a long time to finally walk away. But this time, I need only five days.

I spent five years being Alpha Finn's hidden mate. He promised to announce me as his mate and Luna to the pack, but each time his 'best friend,' Adeline, showed up, I became an afterthought. Every time he betrayed me, he handed me an apology token with a promise never to fail again. And I forgave him every time. By the time Adeline finally returned to the pack, I was almost at a hundred tokens. And just as expected, Finn again chose her over me. This time, he expected that he would return, I'd forgive him, and we'd continue the cycle. Until he felt our bond disappear in the middle of the night and realized he had just signed away his mate. In terror, he ran after me, begging on his knees. But it was too late. Because just a few days before his final betrayal, I discovered something Finn had never known. I wasn't wolfless. I wasn't useless. And I wasn't going to be anyone's backup plan.