ICE- The Alpha's Unwanted OMEGA
The captain is dead to the world. And I'm the only one holding the kill switch.
Ethan Carter, the "Glacier of Silvercrest," was the most feared Alpha to ever step onto the ice. Now, he's nothing but a shell-a broken, comatose legend trapped in his own body.
My life? It was supposed to be simple. Graduate, survive the pack's bottom-tier status, and pay off my father's ruinous blood-debts. Instead, the pack elders handed me a contract soaked in cold, hard malice: I am the designated "Stabilizer." My only job is to touch him, scent him, and keep his wolf from flatlining.
I thought I was just a glorified nurse. I didn't realize the Alpha was listening.
When Ethan finally wakes, he isn't the hero the Kingdom of Valeria remembers. He's a starving predator with amber eyes that burn holes through my defenses and a temperament that makes the frost in the mansion seem warm. He hates the bargain, he hates the pack, and-most dangerously-he hates the way his scent turns wild whenever I'm near.
He wants me out of his sight. I want to be out of his reach.
But in a pack built on secrets, someone is still trying to finish the job they started on his life. Now, the man who wants me gone is the only one who can protect me. And as the rink turns into a battlefield, I'm realizing the most dangerous thing about the Alpha isn't his temper... it's the fact that once he claims a mate, he doesn't know how to let go.
Frozen hearts are meant to shatter. But in the fire of this pack, we're both going to burn.
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Chapter 7
I watched the silver luxury sedan pull away, the tinted window gliding up to hide Ethan's unreadable amber eyes. Between my fingers, I gripped the packet of tissues he'd shoved toward me-his palm's lingering heat bled through the plastic, a stark contrast to the biting Valerian wind.
"Thanks," I muttered to the glass, but the car was already a streak of chrome against the snow.
By ten o'clock, I was standing in the lobby of Parker Athletics. The air was thick with the scent of old floor wax and anxious pheromones. It had been a month since the last payroll cleared, but this was a legacy pack franchise. Even with the vultures circling on social media, the staff stayed hunched over their desks, refusing to let the flame go out until the final buzzer.
If I hadn't seen the red ink on my father's private ledgers, I'd have believed the calm was real.
I followed our VP, Brandon Hayes, into the wood-paneled war room. Attorney Lucas Grant was already there, his briefcase snapped open like a jaw.
"I'm truly sorry for your loss, Collins," Lucas said, his voice dropping into that professional 'funeral' register. "Your father left specific instructions regarding his final testament. We should begin."
I sat, my spine rigid. Lucas slid a heavy vellum folder across the table.
"Andrew held the deeds to six training facilities located across the northern peaks... here are the titles. He also held three underground parking complexes near the stadium, eight retail outlets for team gear, and a fleet of twelve transport vehicles."
I stared at the list, a cold knot forming in my gut. I'd lived like a scholarship student while my father was sitting on a mountain of assets. Why hadn't he liquidated a single locker room to pay for the specialized healers he needed?
"Beyond the physical property," Lucas continued, his gaze drifting to the window, "he left the franchise to you. But Parker Athletics is currently bleeding out."
I looked at Brandon. "How deep is the wound?"
Brandon adjusted his glasses, his scent turning sour with stress. "The current deficit is a hundred and twenty-five million credits. If you claim the inheritance, you claim the debt. You'd have to sell every car, shop, and training center just to keep the lights on for another month."
I felt the air leave my lungs. A hundred and twenty-five million. Even if I sold my soul, I couldn't cover that.
"You can walk away, Collins. Let the pack reclaim it," Brandon said, his face a mask of gloom. "But this was Andrew's life's work. His wolf was built into these walls. Can you really watch the Silvercrest Wolves be dissolved into history?"
"Where are Denise and Savannah?" I asked, my voice trembling.
"Don't even look for your stepmother," Brandon spat. "She and her brother are half the reason we're in this hole. He's been skimming from the merchandise revenue for seasons. They caught a flight out of Valeria this morning. They aren't coming back until the collectors are gone."
I put my head in my hands. "I don't want to lose the legacy, but I'm an omega student with zero credit. Where do I find that kind of capital?"
"We hunt for it," Brandon insisted. "Our R&D team just finished the prototype for a new high-impact kinetic brace. If we get a bridge loan to launch it, we can flip the deficit. We just need a backer."
"Who would bet on a sinking ship?" I asked.
"The banks," Brandon replied. "And if they say no, we find a private shark. We have to try, Collins. If we fail, we fail. But don't you want to take one last shot?"
On the top floor of Silvercrest Holdings, the sun hit the floor-to-ceiling glass like a spotlight. Ethan Carter sat with his back to the light, his silhouette looking like a mountain range carved from granite.
He was scanning a dossier provided by Tyler Dawson.
"Mr. Carter, Parker Athletics is underwater by a hundred and twenty-five million," Tyler explained. "Andrew's widow and youngest daughter fled the kingdom this morning. It's a safe bet that Collins will surrender the keys. A hundred and twenty-five million is an impossible mountain for a boy like him."
Ethan's fingers tapped a rhythmic, predatory beat on the desk. He'd asked for the update, and Tyler knew better than to question why the Alpha was tracking a "discarded" mate's business.
"Let's put some skin in the game, Tyler."
Isabella Reed, the CFO, stirred her tea, her eyes gleaming with sharp amusement. "I bet Collins Parker shows up at Ethan's door before sundown to beg for the credits. He's the 'Consort,' after all. He's got the best leverage in the city."
Tyler shook his head. "The kid has too much pride. He won't do it."
Isabella chuckled. "You didn't see him last night. He shattered a bottle of '47 vintage in front of the whole pack and threatened to gut Chelsea. He might look like a stray, but he's got more bite than any Alpha in this room."
"Fine," Tyler sighed. "What's the wager?"
"If I win, you're on coffee duty for a month. If you win, I'll cover the whole department's caffeine tab."
"Deal."
By late afternoon, I'd been rejected by every major bank in the capital.
It wasn't as easy as Brandon made it sound. Eight calls. Two banks were already suing us. The others wouldn't even let me past the receptionist once they heard the name 'Parker.'
"Collins, look at this," Brandon said, shoving a thick technical manual into my hands. "This brace is a game-changer for injured skaters. I managed to land a dinner meeting with the directors of River City Bank and Silver Linings. Go home, put on something that screams 'Authority,' and sell them the dream."
"Why the dress-up?" I asked, exhausted. "Can't I just go as I am?"
"You look like you've been at a wake," Brandon noted gently. "In this world, if you don't look like a winner, they'll treat you like prey. Put some color in your face, Collins. Look like an Alpha's mate, even if you aren't feeling like one."
"I'll read the specs first," I said, grabbing the file.
At six in the evening, Tyler walked back into Ethan's office.
"Looks like we both lost the bet, Isabella," Tyler said, looking toward the CFO. "Collins isn't giving up, but he isn't coming here either. He's booked a private room at The Den with the managers of River City and Silver Linings."
Isabella's smile dropped. "Those two old wolves? They're notorious for 'mentoring' young omegas in exchange for signatures. He's walking into a den of vipers! Why the hell wouldn't he just ask Ethan? He's his husband, for Moon's sake. Does he think Ethan is more dangerous than those two sleazebags?"
Tyler glanced at Ethan.
The Alpha's face was terrifyingly dark. The air in the room suddenly felt heavy, like the pressure before a blizzard.
Collins was still Ethan's mate in the eyes of the pack. If he went to "negotiate" with men like that, it wasn't just a business move-it was a public slap to Ethan's dominance. If the word got out that Ethan Carter couldn't even provide for his own house, his rivals would pounce.
"Should I intercept him, Mr. Carter?" Tyler asked cautiously.
Ethan's fists clenched until his knuckles were white as ice. "Don't touch him," he growled, his voice a low, dangerous rasp.
He wanted to see just how far I'd go. He wanted to see if I was really reckless enough to trade my dignity for a dying franchise.
Isabella coughed, trying to break the tension. "Want to hit the lounge with us, Ethan? My treat."
Ethan's expression turned malicious. He slammed his laptop shut and pivoted his chair toward the door.
"Get the car," he ordered his guard, ignoring them both.
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9.3
Born into privilege, Eleanor never imagined her life could shatter in a single night. Then her father disappeared with his mistress, her mother fell from a building and slipped into a coma, and everything she once owned turned to dust.
Determined not to ruin Jonathan's future with her family's disgrace, she ended their relationship and became the bride of a man trapped in a vegetative state.
She believed that was the last time their paths would cross. But two years later, Jonathan pinned her in the dark and whispered, "Long time no see, my sister-in-law."
8.7
For eighteen years, I lived as the lowest Omega in the Silver Moon Pack, surviving only because Alpha Gideon took me under his wing.
But the moment his coffin was lowered into the ground, his wife and the new Alpha son immediately turned on me.
"Her presence has brought a curse upon us!"
Luna Lyra pointed a trembling finger at me in the freezing rain, blaming me for Gideon's sudden death.
She stripped me of my pack ties and permanently exiled me into the deadly wilderness with nothing but a wooden toy.
The entire pack watched with cold contempt as I was thrown out like garbage.
To make matters worse, the new Alpha later hunted me down in the woods, threatening to kill me just to steal the only thing Gideon had secretly left behind for me—an ancient, unreadable book.
I didn't understand why they hated me so deeply, or what terrifying secret this blank book held that made my own pack want me dead.
But the moment my foot crossed the pack boundary, an ancient, immense power I never knew I had snapped free inside my veins.
I was no longer their weak Omega.
And when I escaped deeper into the forest and crashed straight into the arms of a wounded Rogue, my destiny completely rewrote itself.
Because he wasn't just a Rogue, but the legendary Northern Alpha King.
And as his glowing golden eyes locked onto mine, our inner wolves roared the exact same word:
"Mate!"
9.2
When Alma's father stood in front of the bulldozers to protest, the energy company's thugs beat him half to death in the mud.
Instead of arresting the attackers, the police handcuffed her bleeding father and threw him into a cruiser.
"Stay back, kid," the officer barked, shoving Alma away.
Her father was denied bail and framed for assaulting an officer. The corrupt mayor just smiled and told her not to cause a scene. Meanwhile, the company mailed her weeping mother a severance check that barely covered a month of groceries.
Alma was forced to watch her family be completely destroyed by men with money and power.
Kneeling in the cold dirt where her father's blood had spilled, she didn't shed a single tear. The panic in her chest died, replaced by a cold, absolute hatred.
She realized that crying wouldn't do anything. In this world, justice didn't exist for the weak.
Years later, Alma stepped onto a prestigious Ivy League campus, her cheap backpack slung over her shoulder.
She was surrounded by the arrogant children of the very executives who ruined her life.
She lowered her head, hiding her dead eyes, and put on the perfect mask of a timid, helpless charity case.
Undergrad was just a training ground, and these elite kids were just her practice dummies. The hunt was officially on.
9.8
I was an arrogant, canceled reality TV star, trying to salvage my ruined reputation on a live broadcast.
But after I lost my temper and assaulted a cameraman, my furious grandfather chased me into our family's forbidden gallery, where I accidentally crashed into an ancient, sealed portrait.
The canvas shattered, and a terrifying woman with glowing golden eyes stepped out of the wall.
She was Cecil, the First Matriarch of the Marshall family. She caught a lightning bolt with her bare hands and crushed me to my knees with an invisible, suffocating pressure.
My grandfather, instead of saving me, groveled on the floor and abandoned me to her mercy.
"You are the disgrace that will end this family."
She hijacked my entire life, forcing me to act as her submissive baggage handler on my own survival reality show, broadcasting my humiliation to millions.
I didn't understand why this ancient monster was tormenting me. Why did she strip away my pride, treat me like a broken tool, and force me to endure the mockery of the very ex-girlfriend who had ruined my life?
But when those same cast members tried to corner me in the dark woods, Cecil stepped in front of me, her eyes locking onto the silver ring of the man mocking me.
"To catch the wolf, one must sometimes walk with the sheep."
That was when I realized she wasn't here to destroy me—she was here to hunt the parasites who had been secretly siphoning away my life force.
7.2
I am a top-tier Alpha from another universe, but a spatial jump error dropped me straight into a high-security military isolation chamber.
Right in front of me was a terrifying, silver-haired wolf-beastman Admiral, completely losing his mind to a lethal biological heat cycle.
To survive in this strange dimension where my powers were restricted, I had to pretend to be a helpless, terrified girl.
Surprisingly, my mere presence and scent instantly cured his incurable madness.
But this backfired horribly. He became obsessively possessive, treating me like a fragile, priceless treasure.
When I managed to sneak out to the city's lawless slums to gather intel and accidentally saved a dying panther boy, the Admiral went completely feral.
He brought an entire war fleet, blotting out the sky, just to "rescue" me.
He nearly slaughtered the boy out of blind jealousy, forcing me to throw myself into his arms and cry fake tears to stop the bloodshed.
"I'm taking you home. No one will ever hurt you again."
He brought me to his flagship's secret medical bay and ordered the Empire's chief doctor to run a full genetic classification test on me.
I panicked. If they discovered my true identity as an off-world Alpha, I would be dissected or executed.
I immediately commanded my AI system to fake my blood data, aiming for a perfectly average, forgettable Omega result.
But as the machine processed my blood, the alarms blared, and the system overloaded.
The old doctor fell to his knees in absolute worship, and the terrifying Admiral looked at me with wild, starving eyes.
My system had overcompensated. I wasn't registered as average. I was just classified as the only SSSSS-grade Omega in the history of the universe.
8.3
For three years, I was the lowest Omega in the Blackwood Pack, hopelessly devoted to my Fated Mate, Alpha Kaelen.
But when I was mauled by rogues and bleeding out in the freezing forest, I desperately begged him for help through our mate link. He crushed his wolf’s instincts to save me and sent back a chilling thought before severing our connection completely.
"She is a mistake. Silence."
He didn't just leave me to die. The next morning, he dragged me before the entire pack, publicly rejected me, and let his people strip me of my clothes and dignity. They threw me out of the territory with nothing but a scratchy burlap sack, expecting the deadly wilderness to claim my life by nightfall.
I thought my life was over, until I stumbled upon a hidden sanctuary in the woods and uncovered a horrific truth. I wasn't just a worthless Omega. I was the last surviving Matron Luna of the legendary Mooncrest Pack—a powerful pack that Kaelen's own father had brutally massacred decades ago out of pure jealousy.
He thought he had discarded a piece of trash, entirely unaware of the blood feud between our families. He didn't know he had just set me free.
Now, with my ancient powers awakening and my lost people gathering by my side, I am going to make the Alpha who threw me away pay for every drop of blood his family spilled.