Maya's POV
The soup bowl slipped from my hands and crashed to the floor just as Alpha Drake walked into the dining room.
Every conversation stopped. Every eye turned to look at me standing there like an idiot with soup splattered around my feet. My face burned with embarrassment as I dropped to my knees, hurriedly trying to clean up the mess.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, not daring to look up. "I'm so sorry."
But something was wrong. The quiet stretched too long. I could feel everyone staring at me, but it felt different than normal. Not the normal annoyance or pity I was used to. This felt... powerful.
I risked a glance up and gasped. Alpha Drake was frozen in the doorway, his silver-blue eyes locked on me with a look I'd never seen before. Behind him, Marcus looked worried. The pack elders seemed confused.
"Maya," Alpha Drake said, and his voice sounded strange. Rough. "Stand up."
I scrambled to my feet, my heart beating so hard I was sure everyone could hear it. What was happening? Why was everyone acting so weird?
"Alpha, I'll get someone else to clean this up," Beta Harrison started to say, but Drake held up a hand to stop him.
"No." Drake's eyes never left my face. "Maya can handle it."
But he didn't move away. He stood there watching me as I picked up the broken pieces, and I could swear I felt heat coming from his body even though he was several feet away.
When I finished cleaning, I straightened up and nearly fell. The room felt different somehow, like the air was thicker. And the weirdest thing was happening - I could smell things more clearly than ever before. The candles on the table, the wine in the cups, and something else. Something that smelled like pine trees and danger and made my stomach quiver.
"Bring fresh soup from the kitchen," Martha ordered from behind me, but her voice sounded far away.
I nodded and hurried out, glad to escape all those staring eyes. But as I walked through the halls, more people stopped to look at me. Pack members I'd worked alongside for years suddenly acted like they'd never seen me before.
"Maya?" Jenny, one of the other cooking girls, grabbed my arm as I passed. "Are you okay? You smell... different."
"Different how?" I touched my arm where she'd grabbed me. My skin felt warm and tingly.
"I don't know. Stronger. More..." She wrinkled her nose, looking for words. "More like an adult, I guess."
An adult. Today was my eighteenth birthday. Was this what happened when omega dogs became adults? Did we all change somehow?
In the kitchen, I ladled fresh soup into a clean bowl, but my hands were shaking. The burn on my leg from earlier didn't hurt anymore, which was weird. And I felt more awake than I had all day, like every nerve in my body was buzzing with energy.
"Hurry up!" Martha snapped. "The Alpha's waiting."
I carried the soup back to the dining room, walking more carefully this time. But as soon as I entered, the same thing happened. Every talk died. Every person turned to stare.
This time, I kept my eyes up instead of looking at the floor. And what I saw made my breath catch.
Alpha Drake was watching me like I was the only person in the room. His nostrils flared slightly, and his hands gripped the edge of the table so hard his fingers were white. When our eyes met, something electric seemed to pass between us.
I'd looked at Alpha Drake before, of course. Everyone in the pack had. He was impossible to overlook - tall, handsome, powerful. But I'd always felt invisible around him, like a mouse running around the feet of a lion.
Now, for the first time in my life, I felt like he really saw me.
"Your soup, Alpha," I said, my voice coming out steadier than I expected.
As I set the bowl in front of him, our fingers brushed. The touch sent a shock through my whole body, and I jerked my hand back. Drake's eyes widened, and I knew he'd felt it too.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
I stepped back, but I couldn't seem to look away from him. Something was pulling at me, making me want to move closer instead of farther away. It was the weirdest feeling - like my body knew something my mind hadn't figured out yet.
"Maya." Marcus's words cut through whatever spell I was under. "Could you help me with something in the kitchen?"
I blinked and realized I'd been standing there looking at Alpha Drake for way too long. Heat rushed to my cheeks as I mumbled an excuse and followed Marcus out of the room.
"What's wrong with me?" I asked as soon as we were alone in the hallway. "Everyone's acting so strange, and I feel..."
"Different?" Marcus finished. He looked worried and sad at the same time. "Maya, you're eighteen now. Your wolf is fully grown."
"So?"
"So your smell changed. You don't smell like a child anymore. You smell like..." He paused, like he didn't want to say it.
"Like what?"
"Like a woman. A woman who's ready to find her mate."
My mate. The words sent a thrill through me that I didn't understand. Every wolf dreamed of finding their true mate, but I'd never really thought it would happen to me. Omegas generally mated with other omegas. We didn't get fairy tale loves.
" Is that why everyone's staring?"
Marcus nodded reluctantly. "Your new smell is... powerful. It's affecting all the unmated guys in the pack."
"All of them?" My voice came out as a squeak.
"Maya." Marcus grabbed my hands, his face serious. "You need to be very careful tonight. When a female wolf's scent changes like this, it can drive males crazy. Especially Alphas."
Alphas. Like Drake.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying maybe you should go home after dinner service. Lock your door. Don't go to the pack party tonight."
"But it's my birthday," I argued. "I've never been to a real pack party before."
"That's exactly why you shouldn't go." Marcus looked more worried than I'd ever seen him. "Maya, promise me you'll be careful. Some guys might not take no for an answer when you smell like this."
Before I could reply, Head Cook Martha appeared in the hallway. "Maya! What are you doing standing around? The Alpha wants to see you in his office. Now."
My heart stopped. "His office? Why?"
"How should I know? Just go!"
Marcus's grip on my hands tightened. "I'll come with you."
"No," Martha said firmly. "He asked for Maya alone."
I looked at Marcus, seeing my own fear mirrored in his eyes. But I couldn't refuse a direct order from the Alpha. That would be like signing my own death sentence.
"It'll be okay," I whispered, though I wasn't sure I believed it.
As I walked toward Alpha Drake's office, my new adult senses picked up his smell getting stronger with every step. Pine and risk and something wild that made my heart race.
I knocked on his door with shaky fingers.
"Come in," his deep voice called.
I opened the door and stepped inside, and Alpha Drake looked up from his desk. When he saw me, his eyes went totally black.
"Close the door, Maya," he said, his voice rough with something I didn't recognize.
As I reached for the door handle, I realized with increasing fear that I was about to be alone with the most dangerous wolf in the pack.
And something about my eighteenth birthday had just made me attractive to him.