Three Mate Candidates Dumped Me For An Omega Chapter 02

Three Mate Candidates Dumped Me For An Omega Chapter 02

The river nearly took both of us.

When I dragged Silas Greymark to the shore, my dress was soaked, my hands were numb, and my wolf was snarling from the cold.

His scent was cold pine and winter air, sharp enough to clear my head.

I thought the first thing he would say was thank you.

Instead, he opened his eyes and asked, “Why did you save me?”

Only later did I learn who he was.

The Greymark Pack had raised generations of council scholars and pack strategists.

Silas had been born with a mind everyone wanted to own.

What he ate, what he read, who he spoke to, even which facial expression he was allowed to show–his pack measured all of it and called it love.

As a child, he thought discipline was normal.

As an adult, he realized it was a cage.

That night by the river, he looked at me with rain in his lashes and asked, “Do you know what it feels like to have no one touching your throat, but still feel like you cannot breathe?”

I did not understand everything.

But he looked like he would break if I said no.

So I nodded. “I understand.”

I wrapped my arms around him and gave him what warmth I had left.

Silas told me my lily scent was the first thing that ever made his wolf breathe freely.

Maybe I was too soft and too naive then.

So I brought Silas back to Silvermoon Manor.

He paid his rent by managing my books, feeding my cats, walking my wolfhounds, and keeping the staff from panicking whenever my temper cracked.

He never asked for more.

Until one dawn, after I had returned from a bad night of drinking and training, I kissed him without thinking.

By morning, he sat by the window with sunlight across his shoulders.

He did not turn around.

“If you need someone beside you, ” he said quietly, “choose me instead of those strangers.”

I looked at him sitting there, calm and beautiful and serious enough to make my heart stumble.

So I said, “Fine.”

Flynn Blackwood was different.

He was born into one of the richest warrior packs in the west, but pack wealth did not protect him from a cousin’s trap.

By the time I found him, he had been stripped of his signet, cut off from pack funds, and forced to fight in an underground wolf ring for people who wanted to watch noble blood fall.

When my guards dragged him out half-conscious, I bought the whole place and handed the owner to the patrol.

Flynn woke in my infirmary and tried to bite the healer.

I laughed so hard he threw a pillow at me.

After that, he stayed.

Kael Nightborne was worse.

He had once been called a prince in a small northern territory, but a blood dispute ruined his line.

His enemies sold him through a rogue auction, not for labor, just for humiliation.

His tendons had been damaged with silver wire so he could not shift properly.

He looked at the world like every hand reaching toward him held a blade.

I paid a fortune to bring him home.

For half a year, I hired the best healers, argued with the Elder Council, and waited outside his door every time silver sickness took him down.

He survived.

Then he became the coldest, proudest candidate in my manor.

The soul-link voices said they endured me just because I looked like Ruby.

But I never forced them to stay.

They were the ones who had knelt in front of my grandmother’s memorial tablet and accepted the candidate oath.

They were the ones who said they would stand beside me when I inherited Silvermoon.

They were the ones I saved piece by piece, and still chose to remain.

So why should I be the one who ended badly?

The thought made my chest go cold.

I ordered every room they had used to be packed.

Clothes, training weapons, books, scent-blocking tonics, everything.

If they wanted to collect their belongings, they could come.

If they did not, I would just throw it all away.

From now on, these men had nothing to do with me.

Once the order was given, I left the manor and drove straight to the Silvermoon administration tower.

Elara’s office was on the top floor.

She was my older sister in this world, but most days she looked more like the Alpha Silvermoon should have had from the beginning.

Calm.

Sharp.

Untouchable.

I pushed open the door without knocking.

“Elara, ” I said, still breathing hard. “Ruby is coming back. You need to be careful.”

Ruby the Omega.

She was a child my parents had raised after a debt between families, an Omega with soft eyes and a talent for making everyone protect her.

For years, my parents treated her like the moon itself had blessed our house.

Meanwhile, I, the blood daughter of Silvermoon, was treated like a problem they had to hide.

When I was 7, I had been locked in a dark room for three days because Ruby accused me of ruining a ceremonial gown.

Later, when her borrowed identity and older schemes were exposed, she tried to destroy me for good.

Elara and Grandmother Alarice had thrown her out of the territory together.

If Ruby was coming back now, then the story had started moving.

Elara did not look surprised.

“I know, ” she said.

She opened a drawer and placed a thick folder on the desk.

“There are things I did not want to show you before.”

“But now it is time.”

Inside the folder were records.

Messages.

Border pass requests.

Secret calls.

Transfers made through minor pack accounts.

Every page tied one of my candidates to Ruby.

Silas had sent Ruby private advice on how to petition the Council for return rights.

Flynn had arranged guards along the western road.

Kael had asked an old northern contact to clean up Ruby’s immigration trail.

Even Soren, the absent fourth candidate, had added his name to a quiet recommendation letter.

My fingers tightened on the paper until it bent.

Elara’s voice softened. “You were unstable before. I knew these men were not clean, but I also knew you needed to decide for yourself. Now I am giving the choice back to you.”

My eyes burned.

In two lives, very few people had ever protected me without asking me to pay for it.

“I will handle it, ” I said.

Before Elara could answer, my phone rang. It was the manor steward.

“Lady Sloane, ” he said carefully, “the three candidates have arrived.”

A pause.

“And Ruby Hale is with them.”

When I returned to Silvermoon Manor, I saw them before I even stepped out of the car.

Ruby stood beneath the old white oak by the front steps, wrapped in a pale cloak that made her look smaller and more fragile than she was.

Kael held an umbrella over her head.

Flynn carried her bag.

Silas held a warm drink between both hands, waiting for it to cool before passing it to her.

In front of me, they had always been proud, cold, difficult men.

In front of Ruby, all that sharpness melted into careful attention.

Ruby looked up when she saw me. A flicker passed through her eyes.

Then she gently pushed Kael’s hand away.

“Please don’t be like this, ” she said softly. “Sister Sloane will be mad if she sees us.”