If Zeus hadn’t revealed Ethan’s connection to him, I’d never have guessed.
“It’s not only that, is it?” Harald strokes his beard. He surveys Ethan from head to toe. “You’ve had me fooled this far, but clearly you are no alpha. You are a beta; it’s why you’ve backed Zeus every step of the way.”
Ethan squares his shoulders, drawing himself to his full height. He’s almost as tall as Zeus, but not. Almost as filled out as Zeus, but he isn’t. His build is much leaner, wiry. His features thinner. The skin stretches across his cheeks. “Apparently, even a blockhead like you sees the truth when it’s rubbed in your face. Except—” He tilts his head.
“Except?” Harald drops his hand to his side, reaching for the gun.
“It’s too late.” Ethan flings the sword at Zeus who raises his arm, catches it, and in a smooth move, thrusts it at Harald.
The blade slams into his chest.
His gaze widens. He chuckles, and blood dribbles from his mouth. He glances down at the sword, at the hilt that juts out from his chest. “He who lives by the sword must die by it.” His voice is strangely calm. "That goes for any weapon."
He raises his head, aims the gun at us, and shoots.
A scream boils up. A slight breeze flutters over my skin and Zeus shifts his position. His big body shakes.
The scent of burning flesh deepens and all of his muscles go solid.
White pain screams down the mating bond.
“No.” I raise my eyes to his.
There’s a look on his face I’ve never seen before.
It’s unguarded. All the masks are gone. There are no more barriers between us.
So much love floods down the bond, pure, unadulterated love, unselfish love, and tenderness, the kind that clouds my chest, filling it, overflowing it until I can’t breathe. “Zeus…” I try to say his name, but my voice is too dry.
He smiles.
His knot loosens inside me, and he lowers me down to the floor. His shaft pulses once. He pulls out and his cock slides free with a wet, sucking sound. His cum, my slick, the combined heat of our fluids gushes down my legs. “No.” I shake my head and cling to his shoulders.
“So fucking beautiful, My Mate.” One side of his lips lifts up in a smirk.
His big body sways, and I scream. “I am not letting you die on me, you hear me, Alpha?”
Those brilliant blue eyes spark at me, then the light fades out.
“Zeus, no.” I try to hold him up, but he’s too heavy for me.
His shoulders convulse.
He tilts his body, and I realize it's to hold his weight off of me so he doesn’t crush me when he falls. His big body slumps and he slides to the ground.
“I love you, you hear me?” I snarl.
14
Zeus
“I love you…” I see her lips form the words and I open my mouth to reply, to tell her that I love her, too, but no sound emerges.
The mating bond screeches in my chest. A pulse of fear floods the connection, and laced with it is this heat, this incredible will to survive.
It’s her will.
I’ve always knowns she was much more resilient than she looked, with so much fire, so much vitality that shines off of her.
It’s why our child will live, not only because I want it to, but because his mother’s one hell of a fighter. Like me. I want to hold on to life, to everything that it has to offer. My hopes my dreams…for my omega and my child, for both of them.
I close my fingers around her shoulders, and I know I am dragging her down with me, but I can’t help it.
My back hits the floor. Pain rips down my spine and overflows my cells. My entire body spasms. I sense liquid pool under my skin, scent the coppery smell of blood. My life is oozing out of me, and all I can do is watch her face, trace her features with my gaze.
Ethan’s face fills my vision.
“Take her.” I grasp her hand, and she tries to yank it from me. I tighten my grip so much I know it must hurt, but it’s the only way to make sure that she obeys. “Promise me you'll get her to safety.”
“I promise.” He takes off his vest and hands it to her.
She doesn’t notice. “Don’t you fucking talk like that.” She tightens her jaw. “I am not going anywhere without you.”
I jerk my chin at Ethan, and he slips the vest over her shoulders. A part of me hates that he gets to touch her. My guts lurch. I don’t want her to wear clothes that belong to anyone else. So what if he’s a beta? No one else’s scent gets to be that close to her skin. A growl rumbles up my chest, and the pain fades away for an instant.
Ethan glances at me. “Only until we get back to the stronghold. I want to make sure she is covered, so she’s shielded from the other alphas.”
Solomon comes racing up to us. He drops to his knees. “We’re getting you out of here, General.” He slides an arm under my shoulders.
Ethan takes my other side, and together they heave me to my feet.
“I am not letting you go.” She leans close to me, goes up on tiptoe and brushes her lips over mine.
Solomon freezes next to me. His gaze falls on her, and his nostrils flare as he scents the slickness that trails down her legs.
“Don’t you dare look at her.” My voice is harsh.
He draws himself up to his full height. “Well, then you need to beat what the bastard did to you, now don’t you?”
I freeze, all of my instincts going on alert.
Anger twists my guts, and my muscles respond to it. My vision clears, and the pain recedes. I yank myself away from Sol, and he steps back. So does Ethan.
“No one gets to come near her, you hear me? Not one of those losers in my Council. Not any of my men, and not the two of you. Not that I don’t trust you…”
“You don’t.” One side of his lips slides up as Ethan smiles.
“Yeah.” I grimace. “That’s right, I trust none of you fuckers, none except her.” I train my gaze on my omega.
She stands there, green eyes blazing. “Can we get the fuck out of here already, before you bleed to death?” She plants her hands on her hips.
I draw my lips back. “There’s just one more thing to do.” My heart races, my pulse pounds, and the pain in my back where the bullet smashed into me ratchets up as if indicating my time is up.
She steps forward, and I hold up a hand.
She pauses and fists her fingers at her sides. But mercifully, she stays quiet.
“If anything happens to me—”
“What the fuck—” she swears.
“Listen to me, Omega.” My voice echoes over the bodies scattered around us.
Someone coughs, then all noise dies down.
I take in a breath. “If anything happens to me, Lucy will take over the title of General.”
Ethan freezes. The tendons of his neck bunch, and a pulse beats at his temple.
Solomon gulps. “You…you sure, Zeus?”
She swallows and her gaze locks, with mine. She opens her mouth as if to say something, then purses her lips tighter and nods.
Thank fuck.
I turn to Ethan. “Nothing to say, Second?”
He angles his head, and his lips purse. “As you wish, First.”
Pain engulfs me, and I grit my teeth. A chill grips my chest and grows, spreading through me. I can’t feel my feet, my legs, my heart…my heart.
Everything goes white.
15
Lucy
The mating bond pulses, once, and goes silent again.
“No,” I scream and want to move toward him, but Ethan is already there.
He grabs Zeus’ shoulder, and Solomon takes the other side. They half carry, half drag him between them. I try to move and find my feet are too weak.
I take a step forward and stagger. Liam reaches out a hand to steady me.
“No.” My stomach twists at the thought of anyone else touching me. The scent of Liam’s alpha presence taints my skin. My guts heave, and leaning ove
r to the side, I am sick.
He waits until I right myself and wipe my lips. I square my shoulders and follow them out. Liam brings up the rear. I clamber into the massive SUV, and they place Zeus' body in the back. I cradle his head and hold him closely.
He’s so pale, so silent. My heart lurches, my head spins. “Don’t you die on me.” Tears stream down my cheeks and slap onto his face.
“You’re mine, Alpha.” I kiss his forehead and push back the heavy black hair, matted with blood and sweat. I kiss his eyelids, brush my cheek against the rough whiskers on his jaw. Mine, I pulse the thought at him and it echoes through the mating cord.
“Stay with me, Alpha.” I reach out to him again through the mating bond, but there’s nothing. Silence. An emptiness that scares me more than anything else. My palms go cold, and my feet seem to be fixed to the floor of the vehicle that’s speeding along. Sol’s driving with Ethan next to him. Liam stayed behind to clear up some of the mess.
Harald is dead. My clan is safe. I've completed what I set out to do. So why is there a burning emptiness in my chest?
My throat hurts and a pressure pushes down behind my eyes.
The only thing that matters to me is here, right here in my arms, only he is slipping away, and I don’t know what to do about it.
His skin is so cold. The color seems to have leached from his face. The rough dressing that Ethan had wrapped around his chest is already saturated with blood. His life is fading away in front of me. “Drive faster, Sol, faster.”
The vehicle speeds up, the countryside blurs past, and all I can do is fix my gaze on his face, try to anchor him to me.
“I can’t let him die, I can’t.” Tears trickle down my cheeks.
He doesn’t stir. A ripple of fear trembles down my back.
“There’s one thing you can do.” Ethan turns to me. “If you want to save him.” He hesitates.
“What does it look like?” I snarl. My chest hurts. The blood thuds at my temples.
His gaze falls to Zeus’ face then rises back to me.
“Tell me.” A sob catches in my throat.
“You can reach out to him through the mating bond and share your life force with him. Except…” His jaw firms. His gaze narrows, and he drums his fingers on the back of his seat.
“Now is not the time to keep anything back.” I wipe my cheek on my shoulder and try to focus on his face.
My head spins with the effort, but I don’t blink, don’t look away.
“Tell me.” I infuse as much authority in my voice as I can muster. I am not alpha, never will be. I don’t want to be, not when I have a prime specimen of alpha male in my arms. He’s alpha enough, macho enough for the two of us. But when he’s down, damn if I am going to let him slip away without at least trying. He thought I was strong enough to fill in for him when he’s not there. Well, I am going to do everything in my power to ensure that’s never a reality. “Now.” My voice echoes inside the vehicle.
His lips tighten. “If you do so it isn’t without risks.”
“Risks?” I frown.
“It means the bond will be irreversible. If something happens to him, you die, too, and trust me, he will not be happy when he finds out.”
“Can't wait.” I bare my teeth. The thought of Zeus awake and angry and raging at me…there would be no sweeter sight. My breath hitches in my chest.
“Just don’t tell him I gave you the idea.” He holds up his hands. But his gaze is serious, his features pinched.
“You want Zeus to live?” I frown.
“Very much.” He holds my gaze
“You love him…like a brother.” I sniff back my remaining tears.
“Now that may be stretching the truth a tad too much…” His gaze falls to Zeus. His jaw firms. “But yeah, the Bastard of the East End is the best leader we’ve got, and trust me, I don’t want to lose him. For a beta…like me, he’s the only way that I can partake of the leadership and not expose myself.”
“You have a selfish reason in telling me all of this.” I quirk my eyebrow.
“Completely selfish.” His lips twist. "Don’t delay, Lucy.” All emotion fades from his features.
I square my shoulders, and straighten my back. I place one palm over Zeus’ heart, and leaning in close, I kiss my alpha. I touch my forehead to his and tune in to him. I draw on all of my instincts, my past, all of my experiences, everything I’ve learned so far, and I open myself up to him completely.
I think back on how we met: his scent, his touch, how he first claimed me, how I’d bitten him, how he’d fucked me, knotted me again and again. He’d sunk his teeth into my throat, and later on the other side. The wounds swell up with blood, the skin around them bunches, pain flutters down my spine and I don’t stop.
I drop all of me into the bond and push it at him.
There’s nothing, then the cord bursts into fire.
It blazes a trail from me to him, flooding through him, pulling with it every last bit of my breath, my heart, my soul. All of it pours through.
I sense his shoulders heave, his breath rasping through his lungs.
I tighten my grip around his shoulders.
Heat slams into me, and I am sure every part of me is on fire, then there’s only smoke.
16
Zeus
A day later
“How dare she put herself at risk for me? She’s hurt, my unborn child is at risk, and it’s all because of you.” I stalk across the floor to the edge of the room to where Ethan stands, and smash my fist into the wall by his head.
My fist goes through the surface. There’s a creaking sound from above as a crack spiders up to the ceiling, to where the light that hangs from the ceiling creaks. Bits of plaster fall down to flow over us like snow.
Fucker doesn’t blink. “I trust venting your frustrations in a show of temper helped?” He tilts his head.
The man sounds so calm; there is no scent of fear around him.
“You should have been born an alpha, Second.” I grunt.
His features tighten, his lips thin. “You sure know how to rub it in, Zeus.”
“I meant that as a fucking compliment.” Now I am softening my words. Bloody fucking hell.
I cannot recognize myself anymore.
Maybe it’s time I stopped trying to hide my reactions for her, for Ethan, for those among my team who had put their lives at risk to get us out of there.
And to be honest, perhaps…I’d trust them with my life. But I cannot, will not, let any of them get close to her.
No matter that I had been out for hours as they’d driven us here, and had regained consciousness just as they had drawn up into the stronghold.
I had found my omega sprawled unconscious over me.
Her pulse had been weak, her breath shallow, and the mating cord between us had thinned to a thread of light. She’d seemed so cold, so silent, my heart had seized. I’d insisted on carrying her to the infirmary, no matter that my legs had wobbled under me, my muscles bunching, my chest heaving like I had run for miles. No one, no one gets close to my omega, no one takes care of her but me...and yeah the doc, and only because he’s beta and he’s the best in the city.
Yeah, so I had my men hunt him down and bring him here with his team. They huddle over her now, blocking my omega from my sight.
Fuck! If something were to happen to her...no, she is going to survive this. My Squirrel is strong and obstinate, she will get through this. She must. I clench my jaw.
“If this is your way of showing appreciation that I saved your hide...” Ethan clicks his tongue.
Right. I jerk my chin. “Thank you.”
“The Bastard of the East End swallowing his pride and thanking me? This has to be a first.” His lips curl.
“Better not get used to it.” I tuck my arms at my side.
“Nah.” He scratches his jaw, “I am going to be too busy watching you meet your your downfall, at the feet of a sassy omega, no less.”
I frown, and h
e raises his palms face up. “Truce?”
I rub the back of my neck. “Yeah.” I hold out my fist.
His gaze narrows then he nods. “Okay.” He bumps my fist.
I step around him toward the transparent partition that separates the waiting room from the examination room, where the doc and his team are checking her out.
I can’t get over how I’d woken in the SUV, with her slumped over me. I’d sat up, and her body had almost slipped to the floor, as if the life force had been sucked out of her.
And it had been. I’d done that.
She’d fed me her life breath down the mating bond, and I’d grasped on to it, had pulled it all into myself, used it to rejuvenate every part of me. When the doc had examined me, he’d glanced at me strangely, then confirmed what I already knew. My wounds were almost completely healed... thanks to her.
“Stop beating yourself up General." Ethan steps up to stand next to me.
I clench my fingers at my sides. A pulse tics at my jaw. In the spirit of trying to get along with him, I suppose I should hear him out, this once. “Spit it out, Second.”
“She chose to do it; she chose to share her life force with you.” Ethan steps up next to me and peers through the transparent wall.
And that, right there, is what’s annoying me. “She endangered her life. Put our child at risk.” Fear tightens my chest. I press my fingertips against the transparent barrier that separates me from my omega.
“She couldn’t have known the impact it would have on her.” Ethan places his hand on my shoulder and I don’t shake it off. Fucking hell. I am actually accepting the comfort he offers, and damn if that doesn’t feel right.
“She’s a fighter." His voice softens, "You forget that she brawls as fiercely as you.”
My lips twist. “You have no idea.”
Owned by the Alpha Page 8
