Ethan huffs out a breath. “Sol?”
I nod but hold his gaze. “We got a head start. He must be less than a few hours away with a bunch of chosen troops.”
"How dare he let you leave unaccompanied?"
I stare and his brow furrows. "Let me guess you didn't give him a choice?" He turns on Mirela.
She reddens, "I may have...uh!...drugged his food."
His jaw firms, “Who’s guarding the stronghold?”
My back stiffens. “Whoever is left.”
"You left us wide open to an enemy attack." Ethan swears and rubs the back of his neck. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“I had no choice.” I square my shoulders. “The General’s and your lives are more important.”
“I hope for your sake, Omega, you are right.”
Yeah, me, too. I will not feel guilty for what I did. “You alphas." I toss my head, "You count your worth by power and omega pussy. It's all about saving face and damn the consequences.”
Ethan draws himself up to his full height. “I am not here to debate the ethics of the situation or what it means to be an alpha.”
I notice he doesn’t let go of Mirela either.
“Another time.” I turn to leave, then come up short.
Facing us is a contingent of Vikings.
Zeus
I stalk into the clearing, my arms held up in front of me to show I am unarmed. Every decision made in the last few weeks seems to come crashing down on me, and fuck, isn’t that a surprise? I snicker.
Me, Zeus, who’d lived life without caring about what the repercussions of my actions were, who'd lived for revenge, who hadn't cared what I had to sacrifice or give up as long as victory was mine…that Zeus… The wound in my shoulder throbs from where I took the bullet. My chest hurts from what I saw.
Ethan is dead. And...I feel like shit…Fuck.
There is a ball of emotion in my chest that grows bigger with every passing moment and I cannot understand why. I feel almost as bereft as when I'd lost my mother. The fuck is that about?
I'd sworn never to let myself be as vulnerable again, yet here I am grieving for the death of a man who I’d never trusted. I had given Ethan the position of my second because it was part of our deal.
He'd supported me in overthrowing Golan and taking over as General and in return I gave Ethan power. The reality is that I'd never treated him as more than just someone to tolerate. I had never gotten over the fact that he’d betrayed the very man he'd pledged to protect.
My rational mind had always insisted that Ethan would one day turn on me, that there was a reason why he’d sided with me to help me track down my omega. There had to have been something of benefit to him in all of this. I'd doubted him and he’d given up his life for me.
It’s that which makes me push on unarmed, to walk toward where Harald and his warriors wait for me.
I am not afraid.
I’ve faced death too many times to be scared.
A part of me realizes that I don’t want to die. Not now, not after I’ve found my omega. I’ll give anything, anything to hold her in my arms, to kiss her, ravish her, take her, protect her. I'd had my chance and I blew it. For I’d been too hung up on the fact that she made me weak. That she'd swept past my barriers and taken my focus off of what that had mattered to me so far. Revenge. For the past. For the injustice my father and this city had committed toward me. After I’d killed Golan, that emptiness in me hadn't diminished. Not until I’d scented her and taken her. And my life has not been the same since.
I’d found her. I’d also turned my back on her. And in a way…well, I deserved this. Liam was right. It's the only explanation for the emotions that swamp me. Betrayal, hurt, and what I suspect is remorse ball in my chest. I shake my head to clear it and come to a stop in front of Harald.
I left my weapons with Liam, but that had been to buy myself more time. I don’t want to die. I need to avenge Ethan’s death. In this moment, it doesn’t matter that I hadn’t trusted him—the man had helped me, had now given his life for me.
My gut churns.
Nothing like a healthy dose of revenge to get the blood flowing. To get the adrenaline pumping. To clear out all other emotions except for that hard edge of hate that pervades my mind. My vision tunnels. I narrow my gaze and stare at Harald.
“The fuck you want?” I crack my neck from side to side.
The Viking leader raises his chin. We are of the same height and almost equal in weight.
Even missing an arm he makes for a formidable opponent; and I am going to make sure he doesn't hurt her.
“You have some balls on you, General." He chuckles, "Or should I call you Zeus?”
I glare at the aging alpha, a pulse tics at my jaw.
“Not that it matters.” He cants his head, “A bastard by any name smells as rotten.”
I grunt. “Takes one to know one.”
His shoulders bunch, and I know he’s going to hit me. I duck, but his fist catches me in the side of the jaw.
White and red sparks jolt my brain. I stagger back and wipe the blood off of my lower lip. “Take me on one-on-one, and we'll see who wins.” I growl.
“Oh, the fire in your belly.” He shakes the matted hair back from his face. "I'd give anything for a chance to feel the extremes of emotions that fill your veins." His eyes gleam. "That lust which comes with being a prime specimen of an alpha, I want to experience it just one more time. Would you indulge me if I asked for a glimpse?"
A cloud of something dark and desperate assails me. He seems to be channeling Golan. I may have killed my father but damn if this fucker is not the same age and as depraved as my asshole old man.
“You knew Golan?”
He angles his head. “We were acquainted.”
“You were one of the alphas he loaned out my mother to.” As I say it, I know I am right. My heart hammers. My throat closes.
He grabs his crotch. “Your old man had impeccable taste, I’ll give him that.” He bunches his fingers and brings them up to his pursed lips. “The sweetest cunt she had on her.”
Red clouds my vision. White noise ricochets around in my head, filling it until I can’t think anymore. “You raped her.” She’d mentioned to me once, when she’d gotten very drunk, about how my father had loaned her out to the leader of the Vikings.
“Now hold on.” He taps a finger to his temple. “Did I rape her?” His features brighten, and he drops his arms to his sides. “I did what any red-blooded alpha would when faced with luscious pussy. I knotted her until she begged me for mercy. She screamed like a stuck pig…or is that a sow?”
Blood drums in my ears. My guts heave.
He leans forward and smacks his lips. “She enjoyed every second of it, I can assure you.”
“You beat her so much that you marked her. It’s because of you that she wore the scar on her face.” Images of this asshole taking my omega mother, again and again, while she screamed for mercy, ricochet around in my head.
“Any self-respecting alpha would have done the same.” He stabs a finger at me. “Surely you understand that.”
“It’s why Golan abandoned her. He couldn’t stand to see his property marked.” I fist my fingers at my side.
“And look at what that did." He chuckles. "She gave birth to you on the streets, and you learned to survive by your own wits.”
“You took away her beauty, her youth, her confidence in herself, everything.” My pulse pounds at my temples. My vision narrows.
“I gave you the means to hate, to draw on that inner fire inside of you that fuels you today. I gave you the gift of rage, son.” He peels back his lips.
It’s his version of being benevolent, in that very twisted way that is both familiar and cringe-inducing. “I am not your son,” I snarl out, and just for a second, I am back in that bedroom reeking of sex and unwashed bodies where I had killed Golan.
“Oh, but you well might have been. Both Golan and I had screwed your omega m
other around the time you were conceived.” He raises his one good hand and taps my cheek with it.
He’s doing it to entice me, to lure me into fighting him. I look too much like Golan for that to be true.
Anger tightens my guts. I cannot give in to it. I’d done so before, and it had led me to making mistakes. This time I need to see it through, need to understand exactly what he’s up to. “What do you want?”
“Your city, your council…your omega.” His gaze drops to my neck where the claiming marks peek out from under my collar.
“You’ll never get to her.”
As soon as the words are out, I know it’s a mistake. I drew his attention to her. I snap my jaws shut and grind my teeth hard to stop myself from speaking.
It’s a new feeling, this need to restrain myself, and if that isn't poetic justice, what is? Me, the alpha who’s spent my entire life following my instincts, who’s never held back from following my needs: for violence, for lust. For the most basic of needs. I curl my fingers so hard that the nails bite into my palms. The scent of copper reeks in the air, pain slashes up my forearm, and I focus on it. This I can deal with. This I understand. Revenge, hate, the extreme emotions that dictate you have to follow them where they lead you… I can work with that.
“You learn fast. Too bad you didn’t show some of this restraint earlier when you left your omega behind.” He thrusts out his chest. “You should have stayed behind to protect her, or left more of your men behind to keep her back.”
A cold sensation fills my chest.
No, it cannot be.
She is back at the stronghold, tied up, and I’ve charged Sol, my most trusted man, to guard her, and as I am thinking it, I know I am wrong. I know she’s in danger. The hollow feeling in my chest deepens. The mating cord which I’d blocked.
A bead of sweat runs down my back. “I’ll never let you get to her.” I charge at him.
Only for his men to grab my arms.
Another throws a rope around my shoulders, a third springs a chain around my legs. I am bound, unable to do anything but shuffle forward. “Don’t you fucking dare,” I growl at him.
“Or what will you do, eh?”
He raises his gaze to the side, and I follow it.
The scent of rain on dawn air fills the space. My hackles rise. No, it can't be. Not her, please.
Two of his men stumble into the clearing, dragging my omega between them.
5
Lucy
“Let go of me.” I yank my arm away from the grip of the Viking alpha who has me imprisoned. His fingers bite into my arms, and I groan.
The sound fills the air, and every alpha in the vicinity seems to stiffen. Oh hell! This is not what I’d intended. I hadn’t meant to be captured. I couldn’t be caught, and not by the Vikings, the very animals I’d managed to escape from with my clan in the first place. I’d been stupid to come in search of my alpha.
I had been sure that I was as strong as any of the alphas, that I too could take on danger… Well, guess what? I’d conveniently forgotten that very basic difference that nature had imbued in us. That they could take me and possess me, claim me, and yeah, ultimately breed me.
I hadn’t wanted to acknowledge that, not even when Zeus had tried to subdue my spirit. Truth is, that though Zeus had wanted to tame me, he’d never hurt me.
Everything he’d done to me…well, I had been an equal partner in it. I’d teased him and led him on, often pushing him over the edge, purely to see what he’d do to me after that.
I don’t dare raise my gaze to see him now.
I’d sensed him as these Vikings had dragged me here. I’d known they were taking me to him.
My breathing grows shallow and a hollowness fills my chest. The imprint of where the mating cord had once been throbs with something like anger.
Perhaps my body knows that my alpha is close, and every cell in me seems to spring to attention.
My very flesh aches to go to him.
I don’t want to show how much being in such proximity to him is affecting me.
Despite the fact that the clearing is packed with alphas, my senses are drawn to the large glowering alpha of alpha-holes standing there proudly. His vest is splattered with blood, and his eyes are wild. Every muscle in his body tenses as he tries to break away from the restraints that they have imposed on him.
“How dare you bring her into this?” He growls and my body cannot help but respond to the violence in his voice.
That fear and anxiety that pours off of him, rips through the space and clutches at me.
I want to moan, want to fling myself at him and…comfort him.
His shoulders bunch. His chest heaves.
He’s very afraid for me. More than that, he’s in a panic, a sheer, blind panic. I see it in the way he holds himself rigid. In the way every muscle in his shoulders strains as he flexes his arms.
“Now that’s the question, isn’t it?” Harald’s voice mocks Zeus.
He growls again, an agonized noise that plucks at my nerves, and despite the fact that I am surrounded by danger, despite knowing that these alphas here would pick up on any kind of response to Zeus, knowing all of that, I cannot suppress the shiver that ripples down my back. My womb contracts, and slick pools in my center.
The alpha holding me tenses. His gaze flicks over my face, down my body, over my chest. My skin crawls.
The other guy licks his lips, his gaze bouncing between me and Harald.
The wind blows, a light breeze that skims my skin, taking the scent of my arousal down in the direction of where Harald’s men have Zeus in shackles.
He peels back his lips and snarls.
At the same time, Harald raises his chin in my direction. “She cannot stop her excitement on seeing you, can she?”
“Don’t touch her.” Zeus lunges forward and flexes his shoulders. His biceps bulge.
The chains creak, then one of the bindings snaps.
He yanks an arm free and raises it at Harald who ducks.
Zeus’ fist scrapes Harald’s cheek before my alpha is yanked back with such speed that the chains tear at his skin and sparks fly in the air. The scent of copper grows heavy. His scent. His blood. I moan. I need to go to him and lick up the drops of blood that drip from him, run down his chest and onto the ground. My belly tightens and a chill coils in my chest.
“Don’t hurt him,” I croak.
My pulse thuds in my ears.
I can’t understand these sensations that course through my body. Why does the sight of Zeus hurt and bleeding seem to arouse me further? I want to throw myself at him and ask him to claim me again in front of everyone. In front of these animals who’ve torn my life apart.
My stomach heaves. Heat flushes my skin, followed by chills. “No.” This can’t be happening. My body can’t betray me like this. I can't be entering a heat cycle. I’d completed one when Zeus had left me, and that had been a week ago.
No, it’s my very sensitized body reacting to my alpha's proximity.
Zeus had primed me; he’d drawn out the omega part of me that is pure femininity.
He conditioned my body to need him whenever he is in the vicinity. I need to touch him. Feel his skin on mine. He had slammed down a barrier on the mating cord and left without completing the bond. Now, everything in me wants him to rut me. I need him to consummate our connection, to finish what he started and consolidate his claim.
What are the chances that the alpha who I had tried to assassinate, the one who’d seduced me and rutted me, is also my true mate?
The hair on the back of my neck stiffens.
Heat fills my rib cage. My chest pushes out, and my spine curves. It’s as if there’s an invisible force that’s pulling me to Zeus. I stagger forward, straining against the two alphas who are holding me.
“Let her go.” Zeus’ tone is strained.
“Only if you beg.” Harald licks his lips and his gaze flicks between me and Zeus. His brows draw down.
&nbs
p; Zeus’ muscles coil; his shoulders tense.
All of my instincts go on alert. Goosebumps pop on my skin. A chill runs down my spine.
“Don’t,” I gasp. “Don’t do it, Alpha.”
I sense every part of him is attuned to me. It's evident in the way he holds himself, angles his body, how his shoulders are turned toward me, yet every part of him fights against that same force that connects us. Try as he might, there’s no way that we will ever be rid of each other. Never.
His big body lowers. He drops one knee to the ground, then the other. “Leave her.”
Harald strokes his chin with his one good hand. “You’re forgetting something.”
A pulse ticks above Zeus’ jaw. He rolls his chin toward his chest and squeezes his eyes shut.
“Let her go…please.”
“I’ll do one better.” He leans forward on the balls of his feet. “I’ll let her come to you, and if the two of you put on a good enough show for me and my men, I’ll perhaps, spare one of you.”
6
Zeus
No way did he just say that, did he? I snarl. Anger fills my chest, and my vision tunnels in on Harald, until all I can see are those cold chips of his eyes. So lifeless. Why hadn’t I notice that before? I thought I didn’t have a heart, but this alpha…he is worse than Golan.
More dangerous, for he plots and plans.
The hackles on my neck rise. Had he planned this all along? Is this a trap I’ve walked into? But that can’t be possible, can it? “You allowed her to escape with her clan. You tracked her to Kayden, let him plot to sneak her into my stronghold… You waited all this time, until we both came to you, until you had us at our most vulnerable.” Blood pumps at my temple.
I want to yank at the chains that tie me and break them apart;
I am going to jump the berserker and…then what?
They’d kill me and her…worse, they’d abuse her.
Fear twists my gut, and a chill grips my chest. My hands and feet tingle. Every part of me goes on alert. I will die but will not let anything happen to her. When had that happened?
Owned by the Alpha Page 4
