Broken Angel: The Complete Collection: A Dark Omegaverse Romance

by Penelope Woods

Ruby pants. “Now that you have shut that wicked mouth of yours, I will search for your beloved alphas outside. They are, however, dead, so you will come out empty-handed.”

  Rae keeps her mouth shut, but inside her head, she can hear her children screaming as if they are just feet away. Their unbridled tears cut into her heart, shaking the very core of her being.

  As soon as Rae’s sister turns to peer out the window, she notices the silver brush underneath her bed. Quicker than a hunted hare, she grabs the comb, pulling it into her breast.

  Ruby is still observing, now rather calmly, but her patience is likely running out.

  Standing, Rae winds her arm back, shuts her eyes, and brings the heavy, silver brush down against the side of her head.

  Her skull cracks. Her blood splatters. It paints the corner of the room like a Jackson Pollack art piece.

  Rae’s palm opens loosely, dropping the brush onto the fine rug beneath their feet. Frantically coming to terms with her actions, Rae huffs and lets out a nearly inaudible squeal. She didn’t plan on any of this, but her emotions got the best of her.

  Dropping to the floor, she cups her sister’s frail head, plugging the tiny cracks that leak the most blood. Turning away, she scours the room for anything to cover up her tracks.

  “I’m sorry,” Rae cries, smearing more blood across her face.

  Ruby is in rough shape. Her fingers twitch like a rodent’s sordid whiskers. Her eyes reflect white.

  “I killed her,” Rae murmurs. “I killed my sister.”

  There is no time for grieving. The rug is the best option to cover her crimes.

  But first, she pats her down, reaching into every pocket. Finding a set of keys and a blade, she pockets the items.

  She then rolls her sister into the woven throw, smearing the regal images of animals dancing and trotting between the tall, designed trees. She doesn’t have to be an icon. Without her sister, she can live.

  She can be a mother again.

  After her sister is tucked and rolled neatly, it takes some strength to push the heavy body underneath the bed. She inspects every nook and cranny for blood, excess fluids, hair strands, and even saliva, then cleans and scrapes what she can muster.

  Once finished, she runs toward her window and gazes out. It’s a big drop, but with the help of her bedsheet, she can cut the drop in half.

  She ties it to the window, tugging to make sure it’s safe. Slowly, she eases one leg out. Then two.

  She hits the ground with no issues.

  On the outside, the air tickles her neck and back. It reminds her of the freedom she felt with her alphas, now so long ago.

  Slowing down, she comes close to the barn. She presses her hand against the damp wood. A crack of thunder rings out above her head, and the quick trickling of water sinks into the slopes of her shoulders.

  Soon, she hears barking dogs. They will find Ruby’s dead body soon, but when they see that the queen was missing, they’ll comb the entire countryside.

  With no time to spare, she takes slow and methodical steps forward. She is determined to see who is there, if anyone. Soundlessly gliding across the dirt, she finally reaches the front opening of the rickety building.

  There is tense conversation inside.

  “I think about her every second,” a voice says.

  Rae’s heart flutters. She wants to extend her wings and scream mightily into the heavens. She recognizes that voice. Vash…

  Through the open crack of the barn door, she stares at the alphas as if she can barely recognize them. They all appear so different. Bushy and unkempt, they must have suffered brutalities she could only dream of.

  So has she.

  She tiptoes into the barn and carries a smile before stopping in front of Killian. His eyes peer into the nicks in the ceiling above. The stars shine bright enough to cover his face in a magical light.

  It only takes a few seconds, but Killian twists, trying to stand. Rae leans forward, placing the stolen blade to his throat as a joke.

  “Sit up and shut your mouth, filth.”

  It’s the first thing she can think to say, and she ends it by jamming her muddied toes into his lip.

  The three alphas jumped from their near-slumber.

  “You—You— It’s really you!” Killian exclaims.

  Lucas lunges forward, catching against the tight pull of his chains. “My God…”

  Rae stands tall, thighs perfectly set apart. Her body, soft and subtle like an untold secret, curves in front of their eyes, and she quickly feels the flood of longing, her deep lust carrying dewy slick toward her pussy lips.

  Confident, she falls to her knees, immediately ready to please her alphas. Obedient and hypnotized, allowing for their command and penetration, she not only pleads for them, she crawls and places her lips against the top of Killian’s pelvis as he rises above her in shock.

  He is her tower, her rock, her light at the end of a fucked-up tunnel.

  She opens her eyes and gazes at the other two alphas. She yearns to be consumed, to be held down, smacked, and juiced like a ripe piece of fruit. Now that she’s found them, she is ready to be saved, and she wastes no time in wrapping her small hand around the front of his pants.

  The thick girth springs hard, and Killian moans in response to the pleasure she gives. It may have been years since their last fuck, but she remembers just how slow to take it, the right amount of tongue to give and take.

  “I’ve been dreaming of this moment for years,” he says.

  Killian doesn’t even attempt to wipe the dirt from his face. Obsessively, he tastes her mouth and falls to his knees, sucking around each nipple.

  But then he stops. His face changes into anger.

  “Who messed up that pretty face of yours?” Killian asks.

  Rae wrestles his pants down. “Don’t worry about it,” she says.

  “I’m fucking worrying. Who’s skull do I have to smash?”

  “They all abuse me,” she admits, quickly suctioning her lips around the head of his cock like a bottle to ease his anger.

  “Other people handle you?” he asks.

  “Don’t ruin this,” she says. “I’m with you now.”

  So he doesn’t. Despite his anger, he does what he’s told.

  He forces the back of her head down until his inches fill her throat.

  “Take her,” Vash growls, yanking on his chains.

  Lucas jerks his cock, forearms flexing against the bright moonlight. “Come down her throat,” he orders.

  The expected and strained moan claws its way from Killian’s belly, stuttering like an engine. “I’m coming, honey,” he mutters.

  She feels the first wave of hot seed lie flat on her tongue, but more dense bursts warm her mouth, coating the back of her throat. Yes, she remembers the smell, the taste, and the slippery feel of alpha fluid, the milk that seeks to build life.

  She swallows, but what she wants the most is to climb on the alphas one by one, to sit and rock her hips back and forth for days. She wishes to close her eyes as they open her. Together.

  She misses what they used to have.

  Vash and Lucas finish their loads, but it’s enough. Her tongue, not enough. But there is no time.

  As his mind clears, he takes her chin and examines her face again. She knows she is beautiful, but the guards beat her. Her sister did, as well. They all did.

  Rae never wanted them to see her like this, but it was inevitable.

  “Tell me,” Killian says, lifting her chin. “Who did this to you?”

  She winces, suddenly feeling the pain from her sister’s blows. Then, she remembers every time Severin beat her, injected her with his medicine, or tormented her with his complex vision of the future. “They beat me. My sister. Severin. Sometimes, the guards join in if I act up.”

  “No one will touch you anymore,” Killian says. “You are our omega. We will protect you.”

  She places her finger over his lips and hushes him, tears soaking her eyes. “I
t’s me. I’m okay,” she assures him. “And I promise you. I’m not going anywhere this time.”

  Rae unlocks their chains.

  Vash stands, eying her silently. A single tear falls from his eye.

  She clears her throat. “Vash.”

  Vash. The first one to integrate her into the pack. He saved her from Cassian’s evil, clutching grip. He protected her when no one else would. But at the very end, everything fell apart. They thought they had it all, but they hadn’t expected Ruby splitting them apart.

  “Rae,” he says, gulping down the end of her name.

  She takes a step forward, but pauses. “Well…” she mutters, heart rocking against her chest. “Did you miss me?”

  Although he nods, he doesn’t exactly give the answer she wanted to receive. There is a lot on their minds. What happened in the facility was horrible, but losing her, his brother, and the world he grew up in couldn’t have been easy. He sacrificed everything for her.

  As Rae gazes at him, she wonders if he feels their separation the hardest.

  “We should get going,” Vash says. “Lucas, will you toss me the key?”

  Rae stands, tall and beautiful. Her naked body is tantalizing under the full moon, and she wants all of them to notice just how womanly she had become over the years that passed. When Vash fails to lift his eyes toward her full and motherly body, she feels it hard.

  “Why won’t you look at me?” she asks.

  Killian takes her hand and kisses up her wrist. “We see you. It’s just been… difficult.”

  “Two years,” Vash mutters. “Seven hundred and thirty-eight days. We were supposed to be free, together. We were supposed to have everything.”

  “Is this about what happened? Cassian was—”

  “Cassian was a piece of shit,” Vash interrupts. “But I can only blame myself for the world’s ills. It’s my family who caused this. I am as much of a parasite as him.”

  “You are not your brother,” she says.

  “I am my own alpha. But I don’t know what that means anymore,” he says.

  “No one knows who they are anymore. But we can’t give up. We can find a way out of this,” Rae says.

  Vash chuckles angrily and sits back down. “What is the point of continuing? Remember when the war ended? Another one began. A silent war. Even if we kill everyone in these towers, darkness will find a way back in.”

  Killian marches forward and kneels, snatching Vash’s chin. “This is rich, you playing the victim. Coming from you, I’d say that’s a first.”

  Vash steals his hand away, struggling back to his feet, only for Killian to swipe his ankles out from under him. “Don’t try to stand. You’re a victim, right? You belong near the worms, on the soil, ready to die.”

  “Both of you, stop it,” Rae snaps.

  Despite their disagreement, the alphas stop their bickering and wait for Rae to speak her peace. She holds her chin upright and walks right up to Vash, placing her hand against his chest.

  Vash nearly sinks at her touch.

  “It’s been hard on all of us, Vash. Please, you don’t need to be scared. I will protect you.” Then she turns and bows her head. “I will protect all of you.”

  “You are an omega in an alpha’s world,” Vash says. “You can’t protect us.”

  Rae sighs, ignoring the insult. “I know you don’t mean harm from your words, but they’re just not true. I have killed my sister, the Prime Minister of the New Republic. The last I saw of her, her head was bloody from my hairbrush. I rolled her in a carpet and placed her underneath my bed.”

  Vash clenches his fist and shakes his head slowly in defeat. “Then you really have damned us all.”

  “Don’t you trust me at all anymore?” she asks.

  The wind rustles, carrying hushed and animated voices from the towers to the barn. Killian runs to the side and peers toward the grounds. He can see guards running through the lit hallways.

  A woman’s cry rings out across the grounds. The three others follow his eyes and frantically search for an escape.

  “There is no time for discussions on trust. They’re coming,” Killian says.

  A voice closer to them than expected says, “Yes, and they’re right on time, too.”

  The old man who led them to the barn is back and wielding four rifles. Tossing them onto the ground near their feet, he moves the bales of hay.

  “You have really made a mess out of this. I thought you’d be gone by now,” he grumbles.

  When the alphas don’t help him, he pauses. “What are you doing? Take the weapons. We have places to go. Hurry.”

  “Explain yourself, old man,” Vash says.

  Pushing the last bay of hale aside, he reveals a set of bolt cutters and a narrow tunnel. He chuckles and wipes his hands clean. “There it is,” he says. “Our way out.”

  Exhaling, he jumps onto a ladder leading down. “Follow me or don’t. It is of no consequence to me.”

  “I’m going,” Rae says.

  The four of them look warily at the old man, but before they can argue any more about it, Rae climbs into the dark depths. The others follow her into the dark, rocky tunnel.

  The old man covers the opening with the hay and dusty plank. “We’ll wait here for a while until the coast is clear,” he says.

  As they cower in the darkness, the old man lights five small candles. He doles them out, one by one, until all of them can finally see a path forward.

  Killian wipes his hair from his eyes, leaning back against the icy cement wall. Above, pounding footsteps of the soldiers pass by. Their frantic calls bring a group of search dogs. They turn over every nook and cranny around the barn, but the old man assures them the soldiers won’t find them here.

  They keep walking.

  “You still haven’t told us who you are,” Killian says.

  The man removes the hood of his cloak. He has a gentle demeanor, but his eyes are dark with deep grooves of skin piling underneath.

  “Keep your voice down. They will hear you,” he whispers.

  His eyes lower to the flame. The wax has melted down the shaft, falling onto the top of his palm.

  Without flinching, he continues. “The entirety of my life has been dedicated to supporting Ruby,” he says, turning to eye Rae. “Your sister.”

  “You know her well, then?” Rae asks.

  The old man nods solemnly. “Known her since birth. Severin rescued her, but I was the one who taught her how to lead.”

  Confused, Rae clutches the end of the cloak he so kindly offers her. “Why didn’t she mention you to me? Was I too shocking a discovery?”

  “When Severin’s coalition built enough support to reform the Republic, she came to me with reservations. Foremost, she did not love Severin. Second, she could not bear children. This didn’t have to be a problem. After all, she was the one calling the shots. But emotions can tumble an empire. She panicked and lost a bit of herself every time she tried to conceive with him,” he says.

  Rae hides a faint smile. She knows it’s wrong, but her sister had wronged her so many times.

  Her sister took her children.

  Rae interrupts the man’s story. “Forgive me, but you did you actually like my sister?”

  The man smiles as if exhilarated by a distant memory. “Your sister was the most wonderful woman I knew.”

  “So what the hell happened?” Killian asks.

  “I urged her to move forward with the rebellion. She took the city and lost sight of what she set out to do. She was told she had a sister. Severin’s doing. And when it sank in that you were pregnant, she became an unfamiliar person.”

  “She wanted to kill me. Didn’t she?” Rae asks.

  The man quits smiling. “What makes you think she’s dead?”

  Sharp shivers run throughout Rae’s body. “Are you certain she isn’t?”

  The man glances at the rifle draped over her shoulder. “I am never certain of anything,” he says. “I just ask questions. I don�
�t pick sides.”

  Killian lurches forward, lips hovering over his candle. “Who are you?”

  “I am Virgil. I was once a preacher, although I don’t deal in the ways of God anymore. These days, I spend most of my time in the basement. It’s where Severin prefers me to live,” he says, sneeringly, lifting his disfigured hands.

  She points. “What happened to your fingers?”

  He doesn’t even attempt to hide the gnarled knuckles and bent fingers. “I have been treated exceptionally well by the Minister of Propaganda.”

  Rae does the only thing she is good at. She shows empathy. “I’m sorry, Virgil,” she whispers, throwing her arms around Virgil’s shoulder.

  She kisses his cheek tenderly.

  The three alphas are quiet. Years ago, this kind of behavior wouldn’t have gone unchallenged, but Rae had softened their hearts.

  Even Virgil seems a little off-guard. Affection is rare.

  “I didn’t expect you to be like this,” he says.

  “Like what?” she asks.

  “A mother. Not a real one, at least. I suppose there are plenty of mothers around still,” he says. “But there is something different about you. You remind me of own mother. Pleasant. This was before the first collapse. Before everyone changed into cruel beasts.”

  “I don’t know if I’m a good mother,” she admits. “I never got to raise my children.”

  Virgil nods, taking in a quick breath.

  At the end of the nearly limitless shaft, the sound of flowing water echoes. “Follow your heart, Rae. From here on out, it will not be easy. But, on the other side, you will find what you’re searching for.”

  “Nothing has ever been easy for me,” she says. “I’m ready.”

  “Good,” Virgil replies. “Then I will take you to your children.”

  Chapter Eight

  “Where the fuck is she?” Severin screams, face as red as the blood he saw pour from Ruby’s skull onto the operating table.

  “Do you hear me? I demand you find the bitch who ruined my fucking wife,” he shouts.

  But no one hears his cries except for the silent, snickering guards near his office. The palace is nearly empty. The soldiers were ordered to comb the nation, but judging by their lack of loyalty, Severin is not sure who to count on.