FREYA's POV

I never set out to be queen.

I was happy on the battlefield. I'd earned my favor there. I was strong and fierce enough that people trembled in fear when they heard my name.

I was about to earn a whole lot more than just the glory that came with conquest though.

I was about to take the throne for myself.

All around me, my comrades raised their mugs into the air as they waited for the king to speak. I stared up at him, looking forward to the celebrations that came with a triumph of this magnitude.

I should have run while I had the chance.

"On this great day, we celebrate this incredible victory and I must thank one of our greatest warriors, Freya the Unstoppable. It was through her ingenuity that we defeated the people of Kaldar, who have long been the stewards of the Port of Skali, but no longer. Now we reign in their stead and they will speak of your honor and glory on the battlefield for years to come," the king exclaimed with an unmistakable sense of pride.

It had been my idea to feign a retreat, only to attack from our riverboats with a volley of fire arrows in the dead of night. Our enemy had been busy celebrating their false victory when we had attacked again and taken the entire town. And now, we were celebrating safely back within our city walls with the spoils of war that we had taken for ourselves.

"Hear! Hear!" the crowd roared. Men and women alike slammed their pewter mugs, splashing the wooden tables with copious amounts of ale and wine. The scent of alcohol permeated across the massive room and it only fueled the fires of celebration even more fervently than ever.

I still had blood on my gray leather tunic. I wasn't sure if I was ever going to be able to get it out. I honestly didn't know if I even wanted to. I took pride in it.

The crowd started to chant my name and I looked out across the room. I'd fought side by side with all of them since I was old enough to carry a sword and shield. Many of them still had the war paint from battle smudged on their faces. Much of their combat armor was flecked with blood and streaks of mud, remnants from a long and hard-fought war that finally appeared to have come to a close. Our city, the people of Valgertha, had achieved victory together and now we controlled a very important and centralized trading port that would provide food, drink, and whatever other supplies we could ever need from the rest of the world. We'd earned this celebration. Together.

I took a rather large swig from my mug of mead and slammed it back down on the table too before the cacophony of cheers, battle cries, and applause drowned out the king's words. Once it settled down to a dull roar, he began to speak again.

"Many of you have expected me to choose a wife and I have put that decision aside for many years in favor of conquest and war, but now that we have achieved this critical victory, I feel as though it is long overdue that I claim a woman to stand by my side," King Vageir continued, and gooseflesh popped all over my arms. I turned toward the king and he set his dark brown eyes on me. He said nothing, but his gaze said everything. I swallowed heavily, nervously awaiting what would come next.

He wouldn't dare, would he?

The longer he stared at me, the more I realized that he would because it was his nature. It was his instinct to claim a woman, even if it meant he had to just take her.

He was an alpha, a behavioral instinct that had been written long ago deep into the fabric of our DNA, a series of mutations that twisted and intercalated into the very foundations of our genetic makeup. His kind was made to subdue an omega, a woman who was instinctually fated to react to his powerful dominance and spread her legs with the need to breed. I'd heard rumors of cities far away that sought to subdue our feral instincts with medications and suppressants, but it wasn't like that here. We let nature take its course. In Valgertha, an alpha could claim an omega, and no one would ever interfere. It was a sacred part of our lives.

We embraced it all, just like we craved battle and the spoils of conquest, and the mud of the battlefield.

A very long time ago, the entirety of our planet was caught up in the Great War. Nations fought against the nations to control trade routes, money, and power. Many cities had been wrought with devastation and completely ruined. Several had been left to rot and had long ago been overtaken by nature. Hundreds of thousands of people had fought and died in that war until it all finally came to an end with the use of weapons that swept through the planet like a black cloak of death. It wasn't until much later that the aftereffects of those weapons began to present themselves on those who had managed to survive.

Humans were the most sensitive. A small number of men become stronger and more assertive in taking their mates. Some rare women succumbed to their rule and gave themselves over to be bred, but as more time passed these instincts grew to become stronger. Now our people were powerless against those mating urges. There was no fighting them once they took hold.

I stared at King Vageir. He gazed back at me, possessive and expectant. A sickening feeling billowed up from the very pit of my soul.

"I have chosen the woman that will stand by my side," the king continued. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment before opening them once more.

I wanted this to be a dream.

I didn't want him to continue because I knew what he was going to say before he even said it. I prayed for him to keep silent, even though I knew he wouldn't. There was one major problem with what he was about to tell our people. That wasn't a part of me because I wasn't made that way. I wouldn't bow to him and just let him use me. It wasn't in my nature. I was different than anyone else.

I was an alpha, a female one, and the only one known to exist among our people.