Captive of the Alpha

by Laxmi Hariharan

  Scratches mark the creamy flesh of her inner thighs, and I clench my fists. I hurt her. I had wanted to get all of my frustrations out on her. Wanted to let her experience the force of my desire, my needs. At some point I had lost sight of the fact that she was vulnerable.

  I had been angry enough to try to prove her right—to fuck her out of my system.

  My breathing quickens. I had claimed her again…I had wanted to do it.

  If she doesn’t belong me, she belongs to no one else. I made sure of that. I may have started this entire sojourn to use her as a means of getting to Zeus…but she's going to be my downfall.

  Her chest is so still, her body so motionless… I lean over her and hold my finger under her nose. There’s a slight rustle of air against my skin, and my shoulders relax. The fuck is wrong with me?

  She has me all wound up, and the woman doesn’t realize it. She’s completely exhausted, thanks to the cruel ways in which I had taken her.

  I sink to my knees next to the bed.

  Her features are tense in sleep. There’s a furrow between her eyebrows. She’s unhappy, and what had I done? I’d redoubled my efforts to keep her tied to me. The emotions crowd in my head. What do I feel for her? Anger? A possessiveness? A need to protect? The flare of heat in my chest bursts into a flame. I need to make sure she doesn’t escape from me. Not until I find out if she’s pregnant.

  She has to be.

  I’d knotted her repeatedly over the last few days. There’s no way she couldn’t be…and if she isn’t? Then I’ll keep her here…I’ll find a way to inject her with a heat-accelerating drug, keep her in a perpetual state of needing me. Keep her high on sex and on endorphins so her body is sated. As for her will? She’ll never accept me, not after what I’ve done to her.

  But once she is pregnant, she won't leave.

  She has to start nesting; that is the only way to bind her to me.

  When Zeus comes for her...I'll find a way to keep both her and get my country back from him.

  And if she doesn’t stay willingly? Too bad. I’ll wear her down.

  Besides, once she bears a child, she won’t leave. Motherhood will shove all thoughts of escape from her mind.

  She makes a keening sound in her throat, and her fingers clutch at the sheets.

  I lean over her and purr. I draw out the most melodious sounds from deep inside of me, everything I am not able to tell her—my confusion, the grief of my past, the hope for something to call my own—all of it, I infuse into the notes.

  I swirl them around her body, let them sink into her blood. I keep purring, building a cocoon of sound around her. Her forehead smooths out, her shoulders uncoil, and her fingers on the sheet relax. She turns her face toward me, and her lips tilt up in a slight smile. I still don’t stop. I let the tone of my voice soothe her.

  There’s a soft knock at the door, and I frown.

  “Kayden?” Dom inches the door open, and I glance toward the exit, grunting my acknowledgement.

  His gaze averted, he speaks through the opening, “I held off the rest of the team, but you need to come and see this.”

  30

  Chloe

  Awareness creeps up my toes. I turn over on my back, and the muscles in my thighs protest. My biceps burn; my throat feels raw. My eyes flicker open. Silence surrounds me.

  It’s warm in the room.

  I crack my jaws open in a yawn, and a fiery ache tears down the side of my neck. I raise my right hand and cry out. The agony ratchets up in intensity. My hand falls back against the bed, and the blanket slips from my breasts.

  I bring up the fingers of my uninjured arm to the side of my neck. The touch sets off a drumming behind my eyes, and I groan.

  “You’re awake?”

  The voice echoes through my head. Sweat beads my forehead, and I turn toward the source. A woman leans forward in the chair placed at the far end of the room. She walks toward me, and I narrow my gaze.

  “Who’re you?”

  “Lisa.”

  “Who?” I frown.

  “I’m Dom’s daughter.”

  “Dom?”

  I hear her moving around, then the sound of water being poured into a glass. “Here.”

  I manage to open my eyelids, and the water appears in my line of sight.

  She holds out a pill.

  “I dare not come closer, else my scent might get onto the bedclothes, and, you know…”

  I swallow.

  Yeah, most omegas coming out of estrus would hate for a stranger to be so close to the nest, and after the marathon rutting session that I’d been subjected to, it would make sense that I would feel the same way.

  But this isn’t a nest.

  And I am not an omega who had been willingly mated.

  Her scent wafts over me, so different from the alpha’s musky aroma that my stomach lurches. Bile rushes up my throat, and I stuff the knuckles of my uninjured hand into my mouth.

  I bite the inside of my cheek until the sickness passes. When I open my eyes, she’s moved away to stand by the chair.

  She wrings her fingers in front of her. “I…I’d help you, but right now you’re better off if I don’t get too near.”

  “Whatever.” I take a deep breath and try to calm my stupid stomach. When I feel better, I look at her.

  She gestures to the side table. “I left the painkiller there for you. The chief was adamant that you take it.”

  “What’s in it, poison?” I lick my dry lips. “Though that would be too merciful of him. Is it to prolong my heat cycle so he can keep me helpless?”

  “Kayden is not as bad as you make him out to be.” Her mouth firms.

  “Oh, yeah?” I jerk my chin toward the throbbing mess of my shoulder. “What do you say to that?”

  “He’s a passionate man.”

  “A monster.”

  “An alpha who cares for his people.”

  “Enough to take a woman against her will and mate her, then arrange to exchange her back for them?”

  She pales. “He…wouldn’t do that.”

  I chuckle, and my throat aches. “Obviously you don’t understand him as well as I do.”

  “He…must have his reasons for what he did.”

  “Nothing excuses what he did to me.”

  “You…you must have done something to provoke him.” She bites her lips.

  “Right…that’s the oldest story in the book—one I did not think I’d hear from another woman, by the way.”

  Her glance skitters away, and I stare.

  “But then you’re in love with him, so I guess he can commit no wrong in your eyes.”

  She wrings her fingers, “Don’t presume to understand me, Omega.”

  Obviously, my guess was correct and now I’ve managed to piss her off, too. Which is not the thing to do.

  I could do with all the friends I can make right now, given the alpha is set to ruin every last one of my stupid dreams. A romantic that I had been. A mate who loved me. A home. A family of my own…none of it is in the cards for me, at least not in the way I want.

  “You’re right.” I swallow then squeeze my eyes shut. “I shouldn’t have said that. And I didn’t mean to be disrespectful to you…but...I am tired, and it’s not been an easy few days…”

  She huffs out a breath, then sinks into the chair. “You aren’t far from the truth either. Apparently, you’re insightful as well as beautiful. No wonder he wanted you for himself.” She twists her fingers in front of her.

  “He doesn’t want me…he wants what I represent.”

  She looks up at me. “And what’s that?”

  “A way to get back at Zeus. A willing pawn. An omega who can’t fight him, who knows only one thing. To be a breeder, hence…” A ball of emotion clogs in my throat, and tears prick the backs of my eyes. I will not cry, will not.

  “You need to believe he’s better than that. The Kayden I know…he’s been nothing but good to me.”

  “Perhaps it’s because I am n
ot one of his people.”

  “You are his mate.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything.”

  “How can you say that? Don’t you realize what it means to carry the claim of a man such as him?”

  “He doesn’t want me.”

  “That’s not what the evidence suggests.” Her gaze roams over the bed, and I know what she’s seeing. Soiled sheets, the scent of cum in the air, the evidence of our coupling rubbed into every inch of my body.

  I lurch up to sitting, and my head spins. “I need to take a shower.”

  “Take the painkiller first.”

  I shoot her a glance.

  “It is a painkiller, and it’s made of herbs. No chemicals. He wanted to make sure that whatever you take does not harm…” She flushes. “You know.”

  A cold feeling coils in my chest. “He thinks I could be pregnant.”

  “He hopes you are.”

  “That's what he wants…a child?”

  “He didn’t tell me that…” Her voice tapers off.

  “But you heard him talk about it?”

  She firms her lips.

  “Who was he speaking to?" I angle my head, "Does he go around sharing with his friends, assuming he has any?"

  “He was talking to my father, his second, and he does have many followers.”

  “But not many whom he trusts?” The thoughts whirl around in my head.

  “Oh, he trusts me.” She raises her chin and her chest heaves.

  She is lying. She isn’t over him.

  “You envy me?”

  “Don’t flatter yourself.” Her gaze narrows.

  Something in the angle of her head, the glint in her eyes makes the hair on my nape rise. It’s as if the innocent girl who’d come in is gone, and in her place is a woman shrewd and calculating, one who’ll not stop at anything to get what she wants.

  “Be nice to me because I have something else that you may prefer.” She dips her hand into the pocket of her dress and pulls out another pill that she holds out in her palm.

  I hesitate, my glance bouncing from her face to the innocuous tablet in her hand.

  “What’s that?” My brows furrow.

  “An abortion pill.”

  “Abortion—?” I stare.

  What in the blazes is she talking about?

  “This one is concentrated enough to work for up to a week after copulation.” She takes a step forward, and I scramble up the bed to put more distance between us.

  “I am not following.” I straighten my shoulders, and the sheets slip further to pool around my waist.

  Her glance rakes over my exposed breasts, and her nostrils flare. A harsh look comes into her eyes. Disgust? Hate? Perhaps, all of the above.

  “You are too weak for him.” She taps her boot-clad foot on the floor.

  “I am?” I mean, I know I am, but something about how she says it makes me want to refute her words. I don’t want her to see me helpless, and at her mercy. My gaze skitters around the room and alights on the door.

  “I’d be more than happy to allow you to escape.”

  “What?” My gaze snaps to her face.

  All expression is wiped from her features. “You don’t want his child. I don’t want you to have his child. Hence…” She jerks her chin toward the pill.

  “You’d risk his anger to allow me out of here?” I don't understand what the relationship, or lack of one, is between this woman and Kayden. But I’ve seen enough of Kayden’s dominance, the confidence with which he had handled my body, how he’d commandeered respect among his people, to know that he won’t let this go lightly. “He kidnapped me for a reason.”

  “Yeah, to negotiate a way to get back his land from Zeus.” Her lips curl. “Zeus will never agree to that. An entire country for an omega?" She snorts. "What was Kayden thinking?”

  “And you know that, how?” I tilt my head, looking, really looking at her for the first time.

  The light from the windows haloes her features, making her skin seem almost translucent. She seems delicate, tinier than me in height. Her curves are lush and draped in a thick woolen skirt and a long-sleeved shirt that’s tucked in. All in all, the outfit hugs her curves without attempting to be overt.

  It enhances the image of the good little girl that she wants Kayden to see. No doubt he swallows the act whole. Alphas. I snort to myself. They think with their dicks…me, being the primary example of that.

  She shakes back her long dark hair that curls in large whorls over her shoulders and around her face. Her skin glows, her gaze is wide. She's younger than she seems. Hmm. “You’re a virgin?”

  She pales. “Wha...what’s that got to do with anything?”

  I raise my shoulders and let them fall. I am missing something there, but what? Something about this woman doesn’t add up. “Why should I trust you?”

  She grins then, a baring of her teeth that gives her a sly look. So not that innocent after all. She’s calculating, strong, she goes after what she wants.

  “You want to hurt Kayden?”

  She throws her head back and laughs. “In a manner of speaking.”

  “Revenge then?”

  She straightens and stares at me, her face devoid of emotion. Those eyes of hers are dark pools of resolution. How had I thought that I could trust her?

  “What did he do to you?”

  Why does it matter to me?

  I had wanted to get away from him, and she is giving me a way out. I should take it and go…except something holds me back. I need to get to the bottom of what she has planned.

  I am done being a pawn in this political game of hate and revenge in which these alphas, and apparently also omegas in this clan, take part. If I am going to be used, I want to know what it is for, and oh, at the end of it, I am going to make sure that I get something out of it, too.

  “Nothing.” She folds her arms around her waist.

  “So it’s what he didn’t do then?”

  She glares at me. Her fingers close around the pill, and I am sure she is going to throw it on the floor and stamp on it. Instead, she squeezes her eyes shut and takes a deep breath. “Am I that easy to read?” When she looks at me again, the features of her face compose into a mask. “No matter. Soon you will be gone, and he will forget you.”

  “What do you mean?” My heart thuds.

  “Kayden has always thought I was a young, impressionable virgin.” Color flushes her cheeks. “The last may be true, and I may be young, but I am far from naïve.”

  “You have thought this through, haven’t you?”

  “I have had my entire life so far to plot how to get his attention. Only, for some reason, he fixated on you first.”

  I sweep my gaze over her face. She twists her lips, and her throat bobs as she swallows.

  “So not love, you are obsessed by the idea of him?”

  “Shut up.” She fists her hand with the pill inside it at her side.

  “Guess you want to be mated to the chief. Power…is that what turns you on?”

  She raises her fist, and I smile.

  She draws in a breath and lowers her arm. The emotions fade away from her face, leaving those smooth, unlined features in place. I blink at the transformation. This girl is a darn convincing actress.

  I yank up the sheet and tuck it under my armpits. Not that I am shy, but no way am I going to have this conversation with her half-naked. Not that covering myself up is going to help much, not when I am clearly at her mercy, but if she thought Kayden underestimated her, well, he doesn’t see me as a threat either. Clearly, the alpha is used to omegas fainting around him and doing his bidding. But not me. I may have submitted to him so far…but face it, it was only because I’d wanted to. Because I’d wanted to see exactly what kind of twisted, depraved things he could do to my body, how he could bring me to climax. My virginity was something I had been proud of; he had rid me of that…so, well, I’d had nothing to lose.

  “You have no idea what I am thinking.” Her voice
is low, and she rolls her shoulders as if preparing for a fight. And isn’t that what this is? A battle of wills? Each of us trying to further our agendas? The girl is focused, and so confident. Hell, I could do with a smidgen of that kind of self-assurance.

  I draw myself up and mirror the rigidity of her pose. “Don’t I?” I take in her stance. “You’ve loved him from afar, maybe even saved yourself for him. Made sure not to give in to the agony of the estrus. Hell, I bet you turned down other alphas purely because you were so sure you could lure him in. Maybe seduce him into claiming you.” Her jaw hardens, and I know I’ve found my mark. “Then, he disappears and comes back with me.”

  “You don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.”

  “He’s half out of his head with lust, it’s clear that he has claimed me.” I motion to the mark on my shoulder.

  She takes a step forward; her nostrils flare. Her shoulders stiffen, and she snarls, “It’s a fledgling bond; he’ll break it, and it will be as if you never existed.”

  “You forget I claimed him, too.”

  “No.” She gasps, and all color leaches from her face. ” And so what if he did…if you leave now…if you get out of here, you can put distance between the two of you and…and…” Her voice fades, and she curls a fist against her stomach.

  “Relax, Lisa.” I pretend to rub my nails on the sheet covering me, then survey them. “I was kidding you.” I peek up at her from under hooded eyelids.

  A breath whistles out from between her lips. She closes the distance between us, and thrusts out her fist.

  I duck.

  She misses me and stumbles before righting herself. Then she places the second pill on the side table. It’s blue in color. The painkiller is white. That is, if I believe her. Which I don’t, by the way. Everyone here is a conniving heel.

  "Take the pill…or not.” She raises her shoulders and lets them drop. “If I were you, I’d shower and eat to keep my strength up for the trip ahead.” She tosses the hair back from her face. “I’ll check everything is ready and come to get you in ten minutes.”