by Connor Crowe
I squared my shoulders, fixed the image of the orb in my mind, and stepped toward it. So far, so good. One step. Two steps. Another. I stood right in front of the platform, so close now the moving colors flashed spots in my eyes. I stretched my fingers. Reached out.
And then I touched it.
Surprisingly warm to the touch, I cupped the Eye of the Ocean in my hands. My heart hammered out a frantic staccato that echoed in my ears. My breaths lodged in my chest. But nothing happened. No alarms went off. No guards came rushing to attack me. No booby trap sprang and sent spikes raining down on me.
Nothing like that.
I’d simply waltzed in and taken the artifact. Something was seriously not right here.
I slipped the Eye into my bag and secured it against my waist. I headed for the door before my luck could run out but just as I reached the exit, I heard a strange, wailing sound that set my teeth on edge.
“Wait! No! Stop!”
I froze, listening. It was the first time I’d heard anyone else at all nearby, and they sounded like they were in trouble.
I pressed my ear to the wall and the sound of a scuffle reached me. More crying, kicking, running. And a crunching, bone-shattering fall.
Tired, terrified sobs.
“Please...don’t...”
The scent of a fellow omega’s heat caught my attention and I clicked together the pieces in my mind. Oh god. Someone was out there, an alpha most likely. And an omega, caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Another growl. Another cry.
I palmed the orb in my pocket as a war of values clashed in my mind. I could go. Hell, I probably should go. I could get the hell out while everyone else was distracted and I’d be home free with my prize.
But at what cost?
I was an omega, too. I knew how hard life had been for me, especially during my heats. I knew how some alphas didn’t know how to take no for an answer, and how I’d had to learn to protect myself.
I couldn’t leave him like that. It would haunt me forever, no matter how much money I made. I had to do something.
So I swallowed my fear, threw open the door and launched myself toward danger.
2
Felix
“Get your hands off him.”
I stood my ground as the leering alpha froze and turned to face me. He had a jagged cut down the side of his face and a sleazy, glassy look in his eye. Probably drunk. Beneath him was a whimpering, wriggling omega with a half-torn shirt and a bloody lip.
“Excuse me?” He rasped. The alpha’s eyes raked up and down my naked body, widening when he saw that I, too, was an omega. “Get out of here or you’ll meet the same fate.”
This guy probably gargled nails for breakfast or something, but I couldn’t just let him get away with it. I was naked, unarmed, and terrified—not to mention I was holding a very important stolen artifact.
I’d been in tough spots before, all part of the job. Just hoped I’d get out of this one alive. My eyes flicked around the periphery, looking for a weapon, a distraction, anything. I could shift back to fox form and attack, but I feared for the safety of the Eye if I did so. My hand brushed an old dusty jug on top of one of the storage crates. Perfect.
My fingers clasped around it and I launched forward, raising it over my head with all my might.
“Hey alphahole, I said get off him!”
He turned just in time to get a face full of glass. His nose crunched and blood spewed, splattering to the ground in the moonlight. The omega screamed and covered his face, using the momentary distraction to gain his feet. He looked at me with wide, terrified eyes, and I didn’t waste any time.
“Go!” I shouted at him. “Now!”
He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but the alpha blinked and shook his head, no longer dazed by the blow. He turned tail and ran, disappearing off into the woods.
And now that left me. Still naked. Still a thief. And still tangled up with a very violent alpha.
Shit.
The alpha looked even more haggard now with a bloody nose and a piece of glass still sticking out of his cheek. He didn’t seem to care, though, as he advanced on me with that same predator’s grin.
“Guess you’ll just have to do instead, pretty boy,” he growled. “I told you not to mess with what’s mine. What the fuck are you, anyway? Too small, too puny for a wolf.”
He swiped out a fist at me but I ducked and rolled away just in time, leaving him sprawling from the momentum. All the while, I clasped the bag holding the Eye to me as close as I could, praying it wouldn’t spill and reveal my secret…
“Come back here!” The alpha roared. I didn’t stop to look over my shoulder. I turned and made a run for it, my eyes set on the grove of trees marking the edge of pack lands. If I could just get there and lose myself in the forest…maybe shift and hide out till they were gone…
Too late.
The alpha pummeled into me and breath heaved out of my lungs as I fell to the ground. My face hit the dirt. My head spun. A vicious wolf shifter hovered over me, practically slobbering at my pain. I was sure it was the end for me, but then my bag flew away from my side and spilled open.
I watched in stunned horror, opening my mouth to scream but unable to find the air. The Eye of the Ocean rolled out of the bag, rolled across the dusty ground, until it came to a stop. Right beneath a studded leather boot.
I held my breath and traced my gaze upward. The alpha on top of me flew to attention, scrambling back to his feet immediately.
“What’s the meaning of this?” The newcomer asked, scowling first at my attacker, then at the Eye, then at me.
“We’ve got a thief on our hands, Cade.” the alpha sneered. “I was just doing my civic duty to apprehend him.”
Cade, dressed in some sort of guard’s uniform, wasn’t impressed. “Watch it, Galt.” He spat each word like poison. “I can’t keep covering for you, and if you hadn’t been…occupied,” he snarled, “maybe this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.”
That seemed to get through to him at last. His face blanched. He lowered his head in submission, exposing his neck. I should have used the momentary distraction to get up and run, but if I did that now, the Eye and everything I’d worked for would be lost.
Cade crouched down and picked up the Eye, staring for a moment into its luminous depths. “How the hell did he get in?” He growled at Galt. “You were supposed to be on watch.”
Galt visibly gulped. He opened his mouth to speak but Cade cut him off with a wave of his hand.
“You know what? Forget it. We’re taking him to Markus. Come on.”
Markus. Something about that name rang a bell deep inside me, like I’d heard it before but couldn’t remember where.
I yelped as Cade grabbed me by the arm and wrenched me up, forcing me to stand. My body cried out in pain from the chase and the attack, but I was too weak to shift now. Too weak to run.
Guess the Crimson Fox had finally been caught red-handed.
3
Markus
“Alpha Markus.”
“What is it?” I roused from my near-slumber, looking up to see the messenger in my doorway. Couldn’t a guy get some shut-eye? Not when you were the pack alpha of Nox Bay, apparently.
“There was an intruder on our lands. He tried to steal the Eye.”
That woke me up in an instant. I shot to my feet and watched the messenger with a wary glance. My heart tumbled over itself. Our most precious relic…without it our pack would be nothing. “Well?” I asked, not waiting for a response. “Did you catch him?”
“We did, sir. Awaiting your judgement as we speak.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face and yawned. “I’ll be right there. See to it that he’s properly detained.”
“Of course, sir.”
He left the room and I stood alone, watching my reflection in the mirror. It had been so long since we’d had any intruders on our land. Of course, we had a reputation to m
aintain as the biggest and most notorious pack out there. Those who stumbled across us never left for a reason, and I needed to make sure I impressed that same fear on our would-be thief.
I took a breath, smoothed my hair, and got dressed. An alpha’s work was never done.
“Come forward,” I called to the guards at the door. I’d taken up residence in the rough-hewn wooden “throne” in the pack hall and ordered the prisoner brought to me. It was all part of the theatrics, of course, but I couldn’t have anyone leaving the pack thinking that we were soft.
The iron-banded doors banged open and two guards stomped in, nearly dragging a smaller man between them.
Two things caught my eye immediately.
One: he was an omega.
And two: he was naked.
But when the sad, battered omega lifted his head and met my eye with such a fierce, defiant gaze, that’s when I lost it completely.
This was no mere petty thief. When our eyes locked I saw within him, all the way down to the depths of his soul. I saw his past, his anger, his heartbreak. It was this ability to read people, after all, that had gained me Pack Alpha status in the first place.
And when I looked upon this omega, I knew without a doubt in my heart that he was my fated mate.
Suddenly, “it’s complicated” didn’t even begin to cover it.
Only problem was, I had a job to do. A duty to my pack and my family. Nox Bay didn’t get to be the most feared and revered pack by going easy on intruders, but this...this was my mate. I knew it, sure as I knew the sun set in the evening.
I couldn’t exactly say that in front of a room full of my most trusted advisors and clansmen, though.
So I put on my most intimidating face, drew myself up to my full height, and approached.
My heart thudded in time with my steps as I drew near to the omega. His scent wove around me and through me, muddying my senses. In all my years as Pack Alpha, I’d never met someone so entrancing, and now here he was, a sworn enemy.
His tanned skin was lean and muscular with more than a few scrapes and scars. I wanted to trace them with my fingers, learn each of their stories. But that would have to be for another day.
I waved the guards away from him and they released his arms. The omega swayed slightly, but held his ground. His eyes, though—those maddening, gold-flecked eyes—never left mine.
“Tell me your name.” Not only because it was part of protocol, but because I wanted to feel each syllable on my tongue.
The omega coughed and winced, pressing a hand to his side. A long, bleeding scratch caught my eye and instantly my wolf cried out. I wanted to help him, to dress his wounds and make sure he never hurt again.
Where was all this coming from?
I shook my head, cleared my thoughts, and continued on.
“Tell me your name, boy.”
He finally broke eye contact and stared at the ground, a sigh escaping his full, pink lips. “Felix.”
Whether that was his real name or not, I didn’t know.
“And tell me Felix, what were you doing on my pack lands?”
He didn’t answer. The guards stepped toward him but I waved them off. No. I would talk to this one alone.
“You tried to take something,” I continued, pacing around him in a wide arc. “Something that belongs to me.” I could see that his hands were bound from behind with special cuffs. Kept them from shifting.
But he didn’t look like a wolf. What was he?
Still Felix didn’t answer. I didn’t blame him. Anything he said would likely only get him in deeper trouble at this point, and thieves like him were always trained not to talk.
“You know we don’t take kindly to intruders on our land here in Nox Bay. Surely you’ve heard the stories.” I rounded on him just in time to give him my most menacing glare.
Don’t think about him naked. He’s a criminal. A thief. He needs to be treated as such.
I forced out a breath through my nose and prepared to deliver the sentence. As much as it pained me, I had to do it. I could figure out this whole ‘fated mate’ business later.
“The rules are clear on stealing. We don’t tolerate it. Period. Usually we’d cut off a hand or two to teach you a lesson.”
Felix froze. I could feel the anxiety and fear coming off of him in waves, but kudos to him—he didn’t show it outwardly.
“But,” I said, measuring my words carefully, “I’m feeling unnaturally merciful today. I’m going to give you a choice, Felix.”
Because prisoners who thought they had a choice in their own demise were always more pliable, I remembered.
“You can stay here in Nox Bay as our prisoner and work off your crime, or I’ll have one of my men here cut off a hand and send you on your way. Pack life here is different than you’re probably used to, and I won’t promise an easy life, but if you do good work and are respectful of me and my pack, we won’t have any problems.”
By now the guards on either side of me were ogling at my show of trust in the young omega. They were right to be—usually we’d just punish the poor sap and move on, but something about this particular omega pulled at my heartstrings in a way no other man had.
“What’ll it be?” I asked him. I knew which one I secretly hoped he would pick, but…
Felix’s eyes met mine once more and within them I saw a myriad of emotions flash through in an instant. Fear, guilt, anger, defiance, those were all there—but there was something else trapped just beneath the surface. Something that called out to me. That called out to be claimed.
“You’re…” Felix spoke at last. “You’re not going to kill me?” His voice was ragged and dry, each word coming out like a cough. “Thought that’s what you guys did.”
Cade flicked a wary glance at me, his hand still on the butt of his weapon.
I towered over him, letting my alpha pheromones out to play just enough to mollify him, make him receptive to what I said next.
“Make your choice, omega.” The words came out as a growl that vibrated from my chest all the way down to my toes.
“I…don’t want to lose a hand. Please. I never meant to be a thief in the first place, I…”
“Save it,” I snapped.
The guards stepped forward, looking a little too pleased about manhandling the weakened omega. Pack or not, their shiny-eyed glances made me a little queasy.
“You’re dismissed.” I didn’t take my eyes off Felix, still kneeling naked and watching me with something between terror and awe.
First: he needed some clothes, or my wolf was going to go bonkers. And second: I needed to get him into his room and the hell away from me.
“Alpha Markus?” Cade asked, his eyes flicking to the prisoner.
“I said dismissed.”
They turned and left the hall, filing away with the rest of my team. Soon only the young omega and I were left in the throne room. I could hear his breathing quicken, hear the race of his heart thudding off the stone walls. I watched him for a moment, only a moment, and offered him my hand.
“Come along,” I commanded. “I’ll take you to your room now.”
His eyes widened at that, his mouth opening in a little circle of surprise. “You said I’m your prisoner.”
“You are. Now come on or I’ll have my men drag you.”
He gulped, his pretty little throat working, and I helped him to his feet, leading him out of the throne room and into his new life.
Goddess help me.
4
Felix
My heart thudded in time with my steps across the hard stone floor. My feet felt every ridge, every crack of the tiles. My bare skin prickled with a combination of goosebumps and sweat.
In all my years of work, I’d never been caught like this before. I’d been careless. I’d been stupid. And I knew that no help would come.
If anything happens in the field, they’d always told us, it was on us to get out of it. Couldn’t have a secret criminal syndicate blowing their co
ver by extracting an agent who’d fucked up, right?
I sighed and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. I focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
I should never have come here—but then again, it wasn’t like I’d had much of a choice.
We passed a series of long hallways and sturdy buildings. I craned my neck upward, trying to discern direction by the stars. Couldn’t. Too cloudy. I did, however, catalog possible exits and the places I saw guards. I’d need to know where I was going when I escaped.
And oh, I planned to. No one kept the Crimson Fox tied up for long.
I bit my lip and strained against the cuffs on my wrists. If I could just shift, I could flee. But try as I might, I couldn’t contact that part of myself. Like someone had thrown up a barrier deep within me, keeping me chained to this form.
Bastards.
“You will wake at seven o’ clock every morning. You will return to your room by ten o’ clock each night. You will have meals with us in the main hall, and you will report to me directly for your duties of the day. Are we understood?”
“Yeah,” I grumbled, though I wasn’t excited about having to see the infuriating alpha for work every day. From the moment I laid eyes on him, something had shifted within me. It was more than just the terror of being caught—this was something bigger. Deeper. And it scared the hell out of me.
When those asshole guards brought me before Alpha Markus, I’d known I was a dead man. No one crossed Nox Bay and lived. Why else had we never heard or seen anyone come back?
But then things had changed. Instead of killing me, they wanted to keep me...and that didn't make sense at all.
Rookie mistake, I thought to myself as we approached a locked door. A guard stood outside and gave the alpha a nod as we passed through.
"Here we are," Markus said, stepping back to let me view the room.
I don't know what I'd been expecting. Well, actually, I did. Some kind of dank cell with bars on the windows and a cold, wet stone floor. Basically, a dungeon.
