My head swims, and a moan emerges from my mouth.
I grab the platform of the parapet. Can I do it? Can I take this final step? Or am I forever fated to be here, bonded to a man I know nothing about? Who knows my identity? Who probably suspects that I had an ulterior motive to have come this far? He’d found out my real identity but he still doesn’t know the real reason I am here. This is my chance. This.
My heart stutters. The mating bond pushes against my chest. He’s coming, he is. I don’t need to look over my shoulder to sense his presence.
“Lucia.”
His voice shivers over my skin. The mating bond stretches and pulls at me to turn around. I squeeze my eyes shut.
“Don’t…don’t come closer or…” Pain floods down the mating bond.
The fear that comes down the connection almost blinds me. It also confuses me. He can’t be afraid for me. He doesn’t care for me. But he’d walked away from me that morning and given me a choice. In this instant I know I’ve made a mistake. I’ve found the one person who finally recognizes what I am inside. Not any omega. Not a meek female. Not only a submissive. Someone who is his equal. Someone he won’t treat as another breeder, but one who he’ll want to please. He’d grabbed me from that room full of alphas, but he’d actually saved me from them. He’d taken me for himself, yet each time he’d also made sure to pleasure me. And his touch…his feel…his caresses. Desire tugs my groin, and slick gathers and drips from my core.
“I am not going anywhere, Lucia.”
Another pulse of heat trickles down the bond. There’s a yearning there. A need to fulfill, to take care of me that I had refused to accept. And now? It’s too late, it is. I turn to him.
“But I am.” I smile at him. Tears prick my eyes.
“Wait.” He flings out his hand and closes the distance between us.
I push back against the wall. The breath catches in my throat. My hands slide on the parapet, and then I am falling, falling. I think I scream, but I am not sure. The wind gushes past me so fiercely, so strong that my eardrums seem to rupture. Then there is only silence and pain that rips through me as I hit the surface of the water and sink under.
32
Zeus
“No!” My heart slams against my rib cage, and I race toward the parapet. I throw my leg over the wall, but arms seize me and yank me back. “Let me go,” I roar at the intruder.
I scan the river, searching for her. There is only the churning, swirling mass of water that is the treacherous surface of the Thames.
I can’t see her.
There’s no sign of her.
Another pulse of worry twists my guts. My stomach lurches, and my breath comes out in pants. My vision narrows. The hair on my skin pops. I grab the arms that restrain me and rip them off of me, then leap for the wall and jump over the side.
Keeping my arms close to my body, I hit the water and go through. Opening my eyes underwater, I look for her. Nothing. I don’t see anything. There is a ball of fire in my chest, squeezing my heart. I fall inside myself and reach for the mating bond and find it quiet.
So quiet.
Fear shudders down my spine. Surfacing up for another gulp of air, I then dive below, my gaze scanning the space. And again. My arms are so tired, legs so heavy I find the current overpowering me. Know I must swim to the riverbank, else I’ll likely drown, too.
Closing my eyes, I reach for the bond and stretch my consciousness out through it, searching, sensing, and all I find is white.
A silent whiteness so blank it could be a canvas that will never be painted on.
My guts twist, my stomach churns, but I can’t give up. How can I when the one thing that brought the color into my life is gone? Darkness closes in on me, the water tugs me down, and I try to push back, knowing I can’t give in to the tiredness, cannot let myself fall.
Everything I’ve faced to come this far seems to hit me. Images of my father, my mother…my followers, the need to destroy the city…all of it is chased away, and all there is, is her.
The sugary scent of her slick, the softness of her skin, the brilliant green of her eyes when she is aroused, the fear that rippled through her, the first time I’d seen her, her fighting me…submitting to me… The mating cord twinges, once, so faint I should have missed it except I’ve been waiting, waiting for that.
My eyelids fly open, and I aim for the faint light that filters through the waves, sinking through the green depths, the color so like her eyes. I am going to see again. I will see her safe, I will find her, rescue her, bring her back, and when I do, I am never letting her go. Never again. I push back strongly and rise to the surface. When I break through, my lungs expand, and I draw in huge gulps of air.
“Zeus.”
I look to the other side to see Ethan waiting for me.
It was him who’d tried to hold me back from jumping; no one else would have dared. Only he has the guts to face me, and I want to rage at him for trying to hold me back. Yet, when he wades out to grab my arm and hauls me to the shore, I don’t shake him off.
I am too tired, too overwrought, too anguished to think of anything else but her.
Reaching land, I keep walking, Ethan at my heels.
He touches my shoulder. “We’ll find her, Z.”
I stiffen, then jerk my chin.
Notice I don't admonish him for reassuring me. Me? The alpha who's never needed reassurances, who'd never have accepted comfort from another, hell, who'd never have revealed his vulnerabilities to himself let alone the world—that alpha; he's the man I used to be. I set my jaw and stalk forward. I am changing and there's not a damned thing I can do about it. It's her fault. The damned omega is softening me up. I'd almost flung myself into the river without caring for my life. I’ve never put myself on the line for anyone else, for no one except my mother. “Alert the troops, send out search parties, alert the guards along the river.”
“Now you insult me.”
I turn and narrow my eyes at him. “Fucking Second,” I snarl without heat. “Always one step ahead of me.”
He meets my gaze. “Of course, you’ll want to be part of the search party and head out yourself?”
I angle my head, not bothering to reply.
When I reach the bridge leading away from the palace, Solomon is already there with my armor.
I shrug into my suit. “Put out a reward.”
“Already done—”
“A million quid.”
There's silence. I shoot him a sideways glance, “Stop trying to second-guess me…Second.” I peel my lips back at Ethan.
His lips firm. “Of course, your omega is worth that and more.”
“Another million if she is found unwounded. I want her unhurt, if so much as a hair on her head is touched I'll set waste to this city, you understand?”
His features are frozen, all the expression wiped off his face.
He's going to protest that we are stretching our already lean financial resources to find a woman, I wait for him to say it, just so I can pick a fight with him, put him in his place. One excuse that's all I am gonna need to lay into this motherfucker. My fists clench.
Ethan's gaze narrows, then he angles his head, “Of course, General."
Bloody fucking hell! It seems I don’t need to explain to him exactly how much she’s come to mean to me.
Reaching the bridge, I slide into the armored car which Sol has brought around for me.
“She could be dead…” Ethan gets in the front next to me.
Sol takes the back seat.
I snarl, “She isn’t.” I start the armored vehicle and roar up the bridge.
“How do you know?” Ethan scratches his chin. “Ah, the mating bond.”
“You can sense her?” Solomon leans forward.
I shoot him a glance in the rearview mirror and he pales, then folds his arms over his chest.
Ethan turns to me, “You know what this means, right?” His voice is quiet.
“I am sure you
are going to tell me,” I grit my teeth.
I shouldn’t allow this degree of familiarity from him, but whatever.
We are going to search for her, and yet the fact that we are under so much pressure has brought down any walls there may have been between us.
There’s silence in the car.
When it has continued long enough, I curl my lips. “Say it fucking already.”
“It means”—he pauses for effect and turns to Sol—”he is aware of her through the bond. He can track her through the connection. It also means if one of them dies—”
I set my jaw. “The other dies, too.”
33
Lucy
I wake up with a gasp, sitting up so fast that the world spins around me. I am not sure where I am. The bed is rough under me, not as rough as some of the places I’ve slept, but different to the silks of the bed that I’d become accustomed to over the last few days…or is it weeks?
In Zeus’ stronghold, I’d lost track of time, and suddenly I can’t wait to see the outside world. One look…one glance to see where I am, enough to get my bearings. I swing my legs over, and when my feet touch the floor a pain shoots up my legs. My guts churn, and bending over, I try to retch, managing only to dry heave.
Footsteps thud toward me, and before I can straighten, hands grasp my shoulders, holding me as I cough.
The acidic taste of bile is in my nose, crowding in on my throat, and I rest my forehead against my knees.
I feel lifeless, like everything in me has been brushed out, like every part of me has been broken and then put back together again, only whatever has been formed now is something different, a body with which I am not quite familiar. I feel…discombobulated. Where did that word come from? My English tutor who had taught me in Russia, was from London, but her accent had been different to his.
“Zeus.” I breathe out his name, and the sound of my voice echoes hollowly in my ears.
The person holding me urges me to sit up. Soft hands pull back the hair from my face. A pair of warm brown eyes peer into mine. “You need to lie back, you are hurt, and your feet are not in great shape,” the woman says.
I glance down and wince. My feet are dirty, toenails dark around the corners. I don’t need to look at the underside to know they are scratched and bruised.
There’s blood smeared on the floor.
The scent of copper is suddenly too intense for me. My stomach twists; my chest heaves. “I am going to be sick again.”
The woman nods and springs up, dragging me up with her. She pulls me along to the bathroom. Every step I take hurts, but I’d rather bear the pain than be sick all over the floor.
The bathroom tiles are cool under my feet, and then I am doubled over the ceramic bowl in the corner.
I hold on to the rim and puke until it feels as if I’ve coughed up every single thing I’ve eaten in the last week. By the time I collapse back onto the floor, sweat beads my forehead. My chest heaves, and I can’t feel my legs or my hands for that matter.
A cold towel is pressed to my forehead, and I moan my appreciation. She holds it there with one hand, then offers me a glass of water. I try to take it from her, but my hands are shaking so much the water splashes all over the long shirt I have on. The mating bond coiled against my rib cage throbs, sending a pulse of pain shooting down my spine. I rub the skin over my chest. My gaze darts to the woman.
“You’re bonded to an alpha.” It’s a statement, not a question.
I frown. “How can you tell?”
She jerks her chin toward the wound on the side of my neck. Only then do I become aware that it’s bleeding again. My entire side screams with pain, and there are splotches of blood over the cloth covering my chest. “A shower. I need a shower.”
“You are too weak—”
“Please.” I let the glass slide from my fingers so it falls to the floor and rolls away. Reaching out, I grasp her arm.
She tosses her dark-brown hair over her shoulder. Her jaw hardens, and those warm eyes glow with understanding. “Let’s get you up.”
She rises and helps me to my feet.
She’s taller than me. Muscles weave across her arms. She’s wearing dark pants and a shirt. There’s a whiff of dominance around her that marks her out as alpha…almost.
Except she isn’t. The delicate features of her face, her soft touch as she staggers with me to the shower, the fact that she took me in… The concern that rolls off her says she must be omega.
“How?” I force the word through a throat that feels that it’s been sliced with knives.
“How do I manage to survive as an omega in a city full of alphas gone rogue?” One side of her lips twists. “We have much to catch up on…but first.” She helps me into the shower, turns on the warm water.
Then assists me in taking off my shirt and props me up. She proceeds to bathe the mating wound which has softened and oozes pus and blood under the hot water. By the time she helps me back into the bedroom and helps me pull on a T-shirt and drawstring pajama bottoms, I am shivering and hot at the same time.
My chest hurts. The mating cord whines and throbs, and there is a pounding at the back of my eyes that feels like it’s going to rip through my brain.
I don’t protest as she half carries me to her bed and shoves me under the covers.
The bed smells of that strange alpha-omega confluence. How the hell had she managed that? Most omegas yearn, to be born a beta, or better still an alpha or at least find a way to hide their smell. While this woman hasn’t completely succeeded, her scent is confusing enough to buy precious seconds by throwing an alpha off track. Enough to give you time to escape in a struggle. A few seconds, that was all it took for him to capture me; to make me his.
She tugs the blankets all the way up to my chin. “Sleep, recover, and we’ll talk more about what brought you here and how we can help each other.”
Something at the edge of my consciousness prickles at that. “Help each other? How can we?” I mumble.
She runs a cloth that smells of something fragrant, something that slides into my blood, calming the mating bond. Darkness tugs at the edges of my vision and I slide under.
When I wake again, there is a man in the room. “Zeus?” I crack open my eyelids.
The shape moves. The light shines over his face, a lean face so handsome it’s unmistakable.
Indigo eyes glow at me. So familiar, yet different. His lips pull back in a smile that is so pleasant it coerces you to trust him. I am not fooled.
He’s the predator here in this room, but I am done with being prey.
I try to rise, and the room spins around me. My heart thuds against my rib cage. This can’t be happening. I didn’t just escape one alpha only to be cornered by another.
The same woman who’d taken care of me earlier moves to stand next to him. ‘‘You promised you wouldn’t shake her composure, brother.”
“Brother?” I groan out the word, then swallow down the dryness in my throat and ask the question I should have asked earlier. “Who…who are you?”
Silly, trusting me.
I’d never stopped believing in the kindness of strangers. I’d simply accepted her help, and now here I am facing the biggest enemy of all. Kayden. Alpha of the Scots.
He rises to his feet. He’s almost as tall as Zeus.
I’ll always measure any man I meet against the prowess of my own alpha.
My alpha? Where did that thought come from? Why do I still think of him as mine?
I try to sit up, but my arms can’t take my weight. The woman who hasn’t yet told me her name sits on the bed and supports me. I pull away from her, but my movements are weak.
“I’m sorry I had to drug you, but it was the only way to make sure that you’d stay.”
“And I thought I could trust you.”
“It was for your own good, I promise, Lucy.”
“Who are you? How do you know my name?”
“Reena Kane. I am Kayden’s sister.”
“You called him here?” I cough. My pulse thuds in my temples. How do I evade Kayden? Assuming I did manage to escape, where would I go?
By now Zeus has alerted his troops and is no doubt searching for me. He may already be on his way to the city. My mating cord twinges and unfurls, insisting that Zeus won’t do me any harm.
Why would my very consciousness already be one with him?
Why does my instinct tell me to trust him…more than the man sitting opposite me?
The man who’d promised to help me, who’d sheltered my family?
“Where are the other omegas?” I focus my gaze on him, ignoring the way his figure weaves in and out of the picture in front of me.
“They are safe and waiting for you.”
“Safe?” I chuckle and cough again.
Reena rubs my back, and once more I try to sidle away from her. She lets me move out of her grasp, and I fall back against the pillows. My shoulders shake with the effort, and sweat beads my brow.
“Well, by the looks of what happened, they are safer where they are at any rate.” Kayden takes a step forward.
The alpha scent of his presence grates on my nerves. This is not the man I want. This presence is foreign, intrusive. It is hurtful to me, to what I could one day carry inside of me.
My throat closes.
Zeus had wanted to impregnate me. Could that have happened already? The mating cord thrums with emotions, and tears well up in my eyes. There’s passion and joy and a need to survive that ebbs and flows inside me. I’ve never felt like this before. Helpless and yet also hopeful.
Knowing he will come to me.
If I let him find me, I won't be able to resist him. I'd let him take me again and again, and I'd enjoy every second of it even as I hate myself. It's inevitable that I fall pregnant if I am not already.
I cannot let an alpha who took advantage of my heat cycle to bond with me, also plant his seed in me.
Fated Mates: Paranormal Romance Series Starters Boxset Page 48
