by Susan Hayes
Rath
Mina Carter
Susan Hayes
Contents
About the book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Bonus Content - Kinn
About the Authors
MINA CARTER & SUSAN HAYES
Alienalphas.com
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. It is fiction so facts and events may not be accurate except to the current world the book takes place in.
Copyright © 2021 Mina Carter & Susan Hayes
Rath (Book 2 of the Omega Collective series)
First Print & E-book Publication: May 2021
Cover Design: Mina Carter
Editor: Amanda Brown
Published by: Three Owls Publishing
About the book
He’s everything she knows to fear… but the alien warrior is her one chance to survive.
Injured, lost, and on her own, Savannah is at breaking point when help finally arrives. His name is Rath, and he’s one of the enemy… only he doesn’t act like it. He’s sexy, gentle, and his touch makes her ache for things she’s never wanted before...
He’s one of the beasts that conquered Earth - a dangerous alien in the service of a cruel and powerful Overseer. If he claims her, she’ll lose everything. So why does she yearn for his touch?
Catching his mate was the easy part… keeping her will be the fight of his life.
When Rath discovers a rare female hiding in the wastelands he knows he has to save her. She’s weak, wounded, and his… even if she doesn’t know it yet.
The law says he cannot claim her. His enemies want her for themselves. Rules won’t stop Rath from claiming his mate, and no enemy will survive if they try to take her from him.
This series contains hot, growly aliens on a mission to find their mates - and a group of women determined to free their planet... and themselves.
1
There was food. It was half hidden in the ruins of a building, but it was there. She could smell it.
Savannah bit her lip as she hid in the shadows of a building opposite and watched the unguarded pack. Night had fallen, which was the only reason she’d crept this close with every instinct on alert. An alpha was in the area, but he was noisy and easy to avoid. As were the obvious traps he’d laid for her before—some sort of meat cooking over an open fire, left unattended, or cakes left next to an open pack.
She snorted at the memory. He must think she was stupid if he thought she couldn’t spot such an obvious trap. Her mother had drilled it into her from a young age that omegas stayed hidden, always. Being an omega herself, Leia had taught Savannah how to hide, even when nearly in plain sight, how to use the shadows to her advantage and... her hand moved down to touch the mercy on her thigh... and she’d picked up how to fight if necessary along the way. Not that an omega had much chance against an alpha. The most they could hope for was to trigger the beast and end up dead in the aftermath. If not... that’s why the blade was called a mercy.
So she stayed motionless as she watched the backpack. She’d already been here an hour and she was prepared to stay in place a couple more, just to make sure the pack she watched was not one of the traps laid out for her. She didn’t think so, but it was better to stay hungry and wait than to move too soon and lose the only thing she had left.
Her freedom.
She’d already lost that once. The Lord Overseer’s messengers had announced the ban on the claiming of omegas. That had been a trap, too—a lie sent out to lure the women out of hiding. Savanna hadn’t believed it for a second, but others had. Another omega had been in the town center when she’d gone for water. She should have known better. She should have turned back the moment she saw her. One omega might slip past the alpha’s sense of smell but two together was too much, especially when they were low on scent-blockers. If she had listened to what her mother had taught her and turned back, she wouldn’t have been taken, but they needed the water. So she’d decided the risk was worth taking.
She’d been wrong.
Her recollections of the raid were little more than scattered fragments. Terror. Panic. The roar of the alphas. The screams. Something heavy had thumped against the side of her head and everything went dark.
That blow saved her. Unconscious for the journey to the alphas’ outpost, she must have been out cold when they’d come to claim the others. Their terrified screams as they were claimed and knotted by one alpha after another had woken her. Dazed and unsteady, instinct had still kicked in and she’d crawled back into the shadows to hide. The building they’d been kept in was a ruined factory with plenty of hidey-holes. And, wonder of wonders, a way out. She hadn’t believed it as her heart pounded in her chest, but she’d managed to wriggle through the tiny gap into the outside world, tearing her leg on something in the process.
Then she ran.
That had been almost a week ago. Maybe. The wound in her leg had steadily gotten worse, and she’d lost track of the days. Now the dull, steady throb threatened to overwhelm her. If she didn’t eat something and get help soon...
She shoved the thought from her mind and focused on her goal. The pack. Food. Then she could work out her next move.
She didn’t move until darkness had fallen completely. She remained still for another half hour, eyes wide and ears peeled for any signs of movement. The alpha that had claimed this section of an old ruined city had been moving around earlier this afternoon, but he’d kept to the paths he’d cleared. As long as she avoided those, she should be good.
Waiting until the moon disappeared behind the clouds, she slid from cover and darted across the gap to her objective. Her heart pounded in her ears. At any moment she expected a roar to fill the air and to be grabbed from behind.
It didn’t happen. The night was quiet, and she let herself breathe a sigh of relief as she crouched beside the pack. It was partially hidden. She tugged it out from beneath a bit of broken board slowly to avoid noise.
Her prize in her grasp, she retreated into the shadows again. Only when she was curled up inside a small space beneath a shattered wall did she open her treasure to see what she had found.
Her fingers touched unimaginable softness first, and she pulled out a blanket of thick, warm material that made her feel the cold even more. She wrapped it around her shoulders and burrowed deeper into the softness before returning her attention to the rest of contents.
Food! Nothing like the cakes or cooking meat she’d been tempted by before. These were field rations. The squares were sealed in some kind of foil she had to tear at with her teeth and fingers. Once it was opened, she crammed a bit of the soft cake into her mouth and moaned. She didn’t know what it tasted like and she didn’t care. It was food.
A canteen lay at the bottom of the pack and she pulled it out while still chewing. She pried the lid off and held it in both hands, sniffing at the contents. Water. She took a sip to confirm it was untainted and then drank half the container in long, greedy swallows. Her stomach cramped and she forced herself to stop drinking. Too much and she’d throw it back up. She couldn’t afford to do that.
Carefully, she tightened the lid back on the canteen and put it back in the pack. She did the same with the unfinished ration, sealing it up in the foil as best she could before putting that away
as well. Making sure the blanket was wrapped securely, she looped her arms through the backpack in case she had to run. She wasn’t leaving it behind. It was the only way she had to survive.
Knees drawn up, she rested her cheek on the top of the pack and closed her eyes. Already she could feel the shivers setting in. The wound on her leg wasn’t right. She knew that, but she’d been through this kind of thing before. She would survive or she wouldn’t. That wasn’t her decision to make. All she could do was focus on what she could control. And right now, that meant sleep. A couple of hours was all she needed, and then she would move again.
Her eyes fluttered closed finally and she drifted off...
Finally.
The little omega had proven herself to be far more cunning than he’d expected. In fact, she wasn’t acting like an omega at all, but his sensitive sense of smell told him that’s what she was. Even though these Terran omegas weren’t the ones he was used to, the scent was unmistakable.
A’rath of the H’thor clan sat watching from his vantage point across the street for hours, in turns amused and amazed by the little human’s stubbornness. She had ignored every trap he’d set, and even now she was wary. She had to be starving and he knew she was wounded. He’d seen the way she limped, her pale face drawn and shadowed with pain and fever, and he caught the trace of blood on the air.
No omega should be on her own like that. It was wrong. She needed protection. His protection.
It had taken everything he had not to track her down and capture her by force. The only thing that had stopped him was the utter fear on her face the other day when she’d almost walked into A’rett, his brother. He’d been about to step out of the shadows, trapping her between them, but at the scent of her terror he’d paused, only to have his instinct backed up by the fear in her eyes as she’d run like a frightened little rabbit. She hadn’t seen him, almost brushing by him as she ran, but he’d been entranced from that moment.
Unfolding himself from his vantage point, he dropped down to the ground as lightly as he could. He heard the smallest crunch of stone underfoot and he froze, his gaze cutting to the huddled little form. Her breathing had altered, her instincts still trying to warn her even though he’d laced the water with a mild sedative and antibiotic. He’d been careful with the doses. She was so tiny he didn’t want to overdose her and kill her.
He stayed motionless until her breathing lengthened out again and then moved closer on silent feet until he stood over her. Crouching down, he lifted a hand, about to brush the hair away from her face.
Then, unexpectedly, she opened her eyes.
The moon came out from behind a cloud, and for a moment he could see her clearly. Elfin features almost lost beneath the dirt and grime, her silver-blue eyes gleamed in the moonlight. She made a soft sound and shifted deeper into her makeshift burrow, but the drugs had dulled the edges of her reflexes.
“Hello, little one.” He crouched in front of her, blocking her escape. “You will come with me now.”
“No,” the word came out low and fuzzy. “Go away.”
He chuckled. “Not without you. You’re wounded and sick. I have soft blankets and a warm place for you to sleep.” He held out his hand. “Come. Now.”
Something flashed in her eyes, a moment of primal instinct. “No!”
He’d expected her to run, or cry, or try to hide. He hadn’t expected her to come at him with a blade. His surprise didn’t dull his instincts, and he dodged her wild swing easily, catching her wrist and disarming her in the same movement. In no version of reality was a tiny, drugged little human any match for him.
“No,” he said firmly, sliding the oddly curved blade away into a sheath strapped to his thigh.
She made a small sound, somewhere between pain and hopelessness, and he eased up on his grip before pulling her gently the rest of the way out of her little burrow. A small smile curved his lips as she tried to cling to the things she had, noting she fought hardest to keep the soft blanket. So he let her keep it, slinging the pack easily over one shoulder as he lifted her.
“Any more blades you’d like to try and stick me with, little one?” he asked with a slight growl.
“You took mine,” she muttered, her words slurring. “Gimme it back and I can try again.”
“You have no need for a weapon anymore. You have me.”
She gave him a sidelong look from beneath dark lashes but didn’t say anything.
The scent of her was intoxicating, branding his lungs with every breath and making him think things his little omega wasn’t ready for. Not yet. He’d have to wait, even if his cock was already hard enough to crush rocks and had been for days. The moment he’d smelled her the first time, he’d known she was his.
By the time he got her back to his lair, she was fast asleep. That suited him perfectly. He didn’t need any human, not even this one, knowing where he stayed. That information was too important. Only one other male knew this place existed—his brother, A’rett.
Rath endured the scans and security checkpoints he’d installed before finally climbing the stairs. He needed to get his omega secured as quickly as possible.
Standing at the threshold, he took a moment to look at the female in his arms. He was not the largest warrior—his bloodline had always run a little shorter than most of his species—but she was still tiny in comparison. His brow creased. She was too light and the pinched lines of her face told him she needed nutrition.
He walked right through until he reached the sleeping area and laid her down gently. The sedatives had a good hold on her now, so when she opened her eyes, she didn’t tense up or try to escape. Instead, she just looked up at him with those big soft eyes as a tear streaked down her cheek.
“Please,” she begged softly. “You don’t have to do this. You could just let me go. I’ll say I never even saw you.”
“I do have to do this. You are an omega. You need an alpha’s protection.” He thumped a fist to his chest. “You will accept mine.”
She shook her head and another tear fell. “I don’t want your protection.”
Stubborn. His brother had warned him about that. These humans weren’t like other omegas.
“The choice is not yours,” he growled, growing irritated with her foolishness. Kneeling by the bed, he reached for her leg to check her wound. He could smell the wrongness even from here. But before he could touch her, she squeaked again and scuttled across the soft surface of the bed away from him.
“Please, no!” she gasped, disappearing off the other side of the bed with a thump.
“Xarthing female! Did you injure yourself?” He strode over to her side of the bed, worry warring with annoyance.
She was huddled in the corner, her back pressed to the wall and her legs curled up against her chest. She was panting and terrified, her eyes as wide as the full moon.
“Stop this foolishness. You are injured. I can help with that. It is that simple, shar’ai.”
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Why? And what’s a shar’ai?”
“Why? Because you are an omega. A shar’ai is a stubborn little creature who doesn’t know what’s best for her.”
Her gaze darted past him across the room toward the door, and he read her intention as clear as day.
“Don’t run, little one,” he warned in a low voice. “You won’t make it.”
She yanked her gaze back to his and he saw the fire there. “Says who?”
He bared his fangs and snarled. “Says me. You are my omega. You will obey me.”
Her mouth quirked up in a ghost of a smile. “And if I don’t?”
“Punishment.” He thrust out his hand to her. “Now, off the floor and back on the bed.”
The look she gave him was wary and sullen, but after one last glance at the door, she took his hand and allowed him to help her to her feet. The moment she put any weight on her injured leg, she winced, and he swept her into his arms and carried her back to the bed.
“Stay.”
> She cut him a look from under her lashes, and he tensed himself for her to run again. But she didn’t, letting him settle her propped up on the pillows and watching him warily as he reached for her leg. Before he could touch her, she hissed, tensing up. This time, though, he could tell it was because she was concerned about her leg, rather than because she was scared of him.
“It’s okay, little one,” he murmured in reassurance, his hands paused over her leg for a moment to let her get used to the idea. “I just need to look at this. You’re hurt. You know that. Don’t you?”
She did. He knew she did. She was more intelligent and aware than he’d have expected any omega to be. The way she’d moved, protecting her injured limb, proved that.
Watching him for long moments, finally she gave a small nod. His lips quirked, amusement filling him. The little omega had given him permission.
As if that changed anything.
He checked her injury gently, concern growing as he saw the extent of the infection and the unhealthy color of the skin around the wound. She wouldn’t have lasted much longer out there. He wasn’t sure how she was still on her feet. What he had on hand might not be enough to heal her completely, but it would be a start. A few days of rest and food would do as much for her as the medicine. Then, he’d need to take her to Zabor T’ah, the citadel he and the other members of his clan called home.
2
Savannah woke slowly, warm and comfortable. For a second she allowed herself to lie there, savoring the last moments of sleep. It was the only place either she or her mother were truly at peace, even if only for a little while. Then it hit her and her eyes snapped open.
