by Jane Perky
Jed didn’t question him. “I’ll bring Philip to your suite.”
He ended the call and drove like a madman back to Rowland Towers. Isaac owned the entire forty-floor apartment building and used it to house his pride mates. He parked the car at the multi-story lot. Jed was already there, Philip next to him. He got out of the car, pulled the back door open, and carried Noel out. His two pride mates wisely didn’t speak yet.
“Jed, I’ll update you the first thing tomorrow. Philip, come with me. I want you see to Noel.” The Alpha’s orders were absolute. Jed gave him a nod. Judging by the tightness in Jed’s eyes, he knew the Beta wanted answers, but he wasn’t in the mood to give them tonight. Philip followed him to his floor, the penthouse suite.
The two lion shifters posted outside his front door greeted him. Once inside he lay Noel on the couch, and Philip knelt, placing his hands on Noel’s body.
“Alpha, I can’t focus with you hovering close by.” Philip was never one to mince words, but then again, a healer had a certain right to be bossy.
He growled but nonetheless took a step back and let Philip do his work.
“No broken bones, but something’s ruptured inside. One of his internal organs. This will take time.”
“Use some of my life force.” Philip jerked his head at that and stared at him.
“Alpha?” Philip asked, sounding shocked, probably because Noel was a stranger. Well, for now, Noel was just that but not any longer.
“Do it. Don’t question me again. Save his life, Philip.”
Philip frowned but nonetheless tugged on the pride bonds and siphoned some of his life force to speed up Noel’s healing. It took hours, but by the end of it, Noel seemed to be sleeping soundly. Isaac collapsed on the arm chair next to the couch, watching the rise and fall of Noel’s chest.
“Alpha, may I ask you something?”
“I’m exhausted, healer.”
“This Omega werewolf is clearly special to you, but the pride will have questions.”
“They always do.” He sounded tired to his own ears. After all, Isaac had moved his entire pride from their old home and thrust them into this new one. No, they agreed to followed him here, by their own accord. “There’s no claiming marks on the Omega, correct?”
“None and no pack tattoo either.”
“That’s all, Philip.”
“Very well, Alpha. I’ll leave you to it. I’ll check on him once more later.”
“Later?”
“It’s already morning, Alpha. Get some rest.”
“Philip? Keep this to yourself.”
“Of course, Alpha.”
Chapter 3
Noel relived the nightmare in his head. Cornered against the wall by three hyena shifters who wanted nothing but to use him, only to hand him to their boss after. A new toy to pass around.
He woke up, screaming until his throat turned hoarse. His heart beat erratically against his chest. That was no nightmare. It had been real. So had those claws, ripping at his clothing. Noel jolted in his sheets. No, these weren’t his sheets, but someone else’s massive bed. Oh God. Had it really happened? Did those three really rape him and now he was in the Bloody Claws’ pack house?
He looked down at his body, surprised to see all his bruises and injuries looked weeks old. Noel’s ass didn’t feel sore or torn either. So the rape hadn’t happened. Even so, he swore those hyena bastards broke something inside of him. His Omega genes wouldn’t have allowed him to heal this quickly, even with the assistance of a healer. Someone aided his recovery, but why and who?
“Hush,” an unfamiliar deep voice said. Someone big and warm slid into the sheets without him. Normally, Noel would’ve bolted if a stranger did that, but this time, he stayed put. The Omega wolf inside of him snarled in approval. He felt safe and sound, something he hadn’t experienced in ages.
Noel looked up, sucked in a breath to see the most striking pair of green eyes he’d ever seen on a man. Like emeralds. Those eyes framed a rough but handsome face. The stranger had a broken nose. Short gold hair.
There was something else about this giant. A big cat lived under the skin of this guy, but he was no average lion shifter either. Noel dared look downwards. The stranger hadn’t bothered with a top, and the hard lines of his body bore old scars and black ink. He shifted uncomfortably on the sheets, painfully aware of his thickening dick.
Noel could feel it in the air. This behemoth of a man commanded a certain kind of presence that made his very skin tingle, made all the hairs on his arms rise. The urge to bear his throat in offering, in submission, arose. The next thing Noel knew, he did exactly that.
“Alpha,” he whispered, not pulling away when the lion Alpha stroked his neck. The Alpha leaned in close, sniffed at neck, set the edge of his teeth there. This time, Noel moved away, terrified of his reaction to this man.
“Isaac,” he said. The events of the night before came back to him.
“That’s right.”
He fumbled for those memories, tried to ignore the events that occurred before Isaac came to rescue him. “You’re Isaac Rowland.”
Who in this city hadn’t heard of that infamous family name? Noel might not care about paranormal politics, but he paid attention to them. It had been all over the news when Sebastian Rowland, dangerous mob boss and Alpha to the Rowland Pride, the dominant shifter group in the city, had been shot dead. The press became ecstatic when Sebastian’s notorious younger brother, another Alpha, had returned to Crawford City to take over Sebastian’s broken pride.
“You know who I am. Good. Makes things easier.”
He nodded, unsure of what to say next. Hard men like Isaac didn’t just resort to random acts of kindness because they felt like it. Had Isaac happened to be walking by and decided he wanted Noel for himself? But why would a powerful man like Isaac be interested in someone like him? Worse, he couldn’t remember the last time any man had this effect on him.
Noel touched a healing scar on his arm, remembered thinking he’d healed far too fast. He’d never seen it but heard an Alpha shifter was capable of using some of his life force to save a someone in his pride, but he wasn’t a part of Isaac’s pride. Noel was an insignificant nobody.
Noel found his tongue. “Why do you say that?”
“I saved you, and now…” Isaac paused, smiled. That smile made him shiver, told him of dark promises to come.
“Now? I’m not very good with surprises.”
“You’re mine.”
Noel must have misheard those words. “You’re kidding.”
“No. I never joke and don’t play hard to get. I can read you like a book, Omega. You want to be owned. By me.”
“That’s not true,” he whispered.
The Isaac he remembered from the night before had been tender, incredibly gentle with him. Who was this devil in disguise? Noel should resist, put up a fight, but he had no urge to. The prospect of belonging to a man like Isaac, what would that be like?
“Your beating heart’s betraying how you really feel. You offered your throat to me without me asking you to, or did you forget that already?”
God. The nerve of this Alpha, but Noel had no way out either. He looked like he was in Isaac’s bedroom, but the closest window showed him sky and nothing else. Where the hell were they? Some kind of building? If so, a man like Isaac would have the best security system and experienced guards.
The Omega wolf inside him also had no intentions of leaving. It felt like his mouth had been stuffed with cotton. Confusion filled him. Noel didn’t know what to make of this deadly attraction he felt towards Isaac, a complete stranger. Noel needed to gather his thoughts. Put things into perspective.
“My brother,” he said, remembering Teddy must be worried about him.
“I already called him, told him you were with me.”
“Teddy believed you?” he whispered in disbelief. “He was fine with that?”
“I told him I’d take care of you from now on.”
“Last night,
one of the hyena shifters saw my driver’s ID,” he whispered. “It had my address on them. What if they go after Teddy?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve sent a man to watch him. Besides, two of your attackers are dead.”
“Dead?” he echoed. Fragments of memory floated back to him. So. He didn’t dream of that deadly golden lion ripping those punks to shreds. “I owe you my life. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. There’s a debt to be paid.” Isaac ran his big fingers up the length of his arm, but didn’t do anything else. Just that simple touch already had Noel hooked, told him Isaac was capable of both roughness and gentleness.
Noel took a deep breath. “I expected you to say that.”
Isaac raised one golden eyebrow. Noel had a feeling Isaac was the kind of man who had no trouble luring lovers into his bed. Somehow, that thought made him jealous, although he had no clue why. “Did you now? What else do you anticipate happening, little Omega?”
“I have no money. The only thing I own is this body,” Noel whispered. “You want my Omega genes.”
“Wrong. I want you,” Isaac said point-blank. The lion Alpha grabbed the sheet Noel used to conceal his naked body, and tugged it away, exposing the rest of him. “All of you.”
“All?” he whispered, unsure if he heard right.
“Your sweet body. Cock, balls, and ass. That sassy little mouth. The brain under that stubborn head of yours. Opinions. Your perfections. Flaws. Quirks. All.”
Those words took him aback because he’d never encountered any man who wanted him. The entire him, including all his flaws.
“Are you real?” he had to ask, gasped when Isaac tugged his arm, pulled him close, and took his mouth.
Noel went supernova. He didn’t know a kiss could be like this, searing and all-consuming. Electric pulses went down his body, right to his thickening cock, which Isaac reached for and squeezed. He moaned, rubbed himself against the Alpha were-lion, slightly shocked at his reaction to cave, to yield.
Isaac gripped his shoulder. When he parted his mouth, the Alpha lion thrust his tongue down his throat. Noel shut his eyes. So good. He wanted Isaac to keep kissing him, touching him. Do plenty other filthy things to him, and Noel knew he’d only beg Isaac for more.
Isaac pulled away from his mouth, leaving him panting, lusting for more. “Still think I’m in your head?”
“I could be dead, died in that alleyway,” he began.
“No. I’d never let anything bad happen to you. Ever again.” Isaac’s big and callused fingers on his cock felt warm. The Alpha squeezed and tugged at his dick, making him moan. “I like that sound. Make it for me again.”
A few strokes of his prick, and Isaac had him purring like a cat, even though he was a werewolf.
“We were talking about my debt,” Noel managed to say.
“That’s right, Omega. I meant what I said earlier. From now onwards, you’re mine to do as I please. I can’t have you wandering around the streets and having other men look at you. They’ll know you belong to me, and anyone who touches you dies.”
“That simple?” he whispered.
No. What was happening to Noel? Shouldn’t he struggle more, fight for his freedom? Freedom. What a laugh. Noel always felt like this entire city was a prison, a cage, and he had nowhere else to go. The only family he had left was Teddy. He was fool to think that once Teddy left for college, the predators of this city would leave him alone in peace. They’d keep hunting him down, thinking to use him.
Here was an Alpha capable of making his entire body sing, obey, and also offered his protection.
“Yes,” Isaac said. “All you need to do is stay with me. Forever.”
Chapter 4
“Forever?” Noel sounded outraged, but the defiance in Noel’s eyes only made Isaac rock hard.
He knew this particular Omega had claws. How else could Noel, an unbound Omega, survive living in the slums all these years? Sooner or later, the sharks would come out. Nab his Omega. Isaac needed to make his move first. Assert his claim. Isaac killing those two hyenas was similar to a proclamation of war. Letting that third one go in favor of saving Noel—that was sloppy. It had been a long time since he’d been careless, but Isaac could make this work.
Luring Russ Marsh into the open had been part of his goal anyway.
“Yes,” he told Noel simply.
“I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“Of course you do. I can have my driver send you back to your apartment, but then I’d need to withdraw my protection since you want nothing to do with me. Those hyena shifters might be waiting around the corner.”
“I never wanted anything like this to happen. Last night, all I wanted to do was go back home after my shift at the diner,” Noel murmured.
“The Apple Crumb diner, yes? I’ve already had a word with your boss. From now onwards, you’ll no longer be working there.”
Noel actually growled at him. Cute. “What gives you the right to make these kind of decisions for me?”
“Because I own you now. I won’t have you working at that shithole. You don’t need to work two jobs anymore, Noel.”
“You know about my other job, too?” Noel asked with narrowed eyes. “How?”
He spread his arms. “How? I’m Isaac Rowland. This city belongs to me. I know everything that goes around these parts. It was easy, doing a little digging on you.”
“You’re wrong about one thing.” Noel lifted his chin, looked right at him. Bold move, especially for an Omega.
“What’s that?”
“If you control this city, why would you allow the Bloody Claws gang do whatever they want?”
He snarled at that. “Those hyena shifters are about to be wiped off from the face of this earth, mark my words.”
Noel took deep breaths, considered his options. There was only one choice after all. Isaac left him no options. The Alpha lion shifter might have killed those Bloody Claws members, but they’d approached him first. If it weren’t for Isaac, he’d be dead in that alleyway or, worse, become the gang’s new plaything, discarded only after he’d outlived his usefulness.
Besides, it wasn’t so bad, becoming Isaac’s—what exactly? He didn’t know what his role would be, but Isaac’s protection would be indispensable.
“If I agree to this, my brother will be protected, too?” he asked.
“Of course. I’ll have someone make the arrangements, move him from that dingy apartment to a nicer one in the city, but you? You’ll stay here with me.”
“Where is here exactly?”
“Rowland Towers.”
He got off the bed, walked over to the window, and sucked in a breath, surprised to see the entire city at his feet. It didn’t surprise him that Isaac, with all the resources and money he had at his command, would build the tallest structure in the city. Noel was even more shocked when Isaac placed something comfy and warm, a blanket, over his shoulders and pulled him into a hug. He tensed at first, then relaxed against the big lion Alpha.
“Is it crazy for me to agree to an arrangement like this?” he whispered out loud.
Noel shuddered when Isaac pressed a kiss to the pulse point on his neck, then nipped at it. He groaned, not stopping Isaac from putting his teeth there, then biting him, not until Isaac drew blood, but it would definitely leave a very big hickey there.
“Think of it as a suitable business arrangement.”
“Nothing about this screams business to me,” he said. He twisted in Isaac’s arms, and the Alpha loosened his hold so Noel could look him in the eye. “Is that all I am to you, a transaction?”
Noel heard the anger in his voice, knew an Omega shouldn’t make demands of an Alpha, but he couldn’t help himself. Angry. He realized he was more angry at himself than Isaac, because he’d given in so easily.
Worse, he wanted to give himself up entirely to Isaac because no one had ever looked at him the way Isaac did. With consuming want and hunger. He’d surrender his body to his dominant and cocky lio
n shifter without a second thought and his heart wouldn’t be far along, but what would happen if Isaac got sick of him?
“You’re so much more than that,” Isaac said. “I’m obsessed with you, Omega. Enough to want to keep you.”
Noel told Isaac his fears. “And once you got tired of me and found a new pet to play with?”
Isaac snarled, tightened his hold on his shoulders. “We’ll talk then.”
The Alpha wouldn’t give him a straight answer, Noel realized, but it didn’t matter. He’d never forget the fact that Isaac used his own life force to save him. An Alpha wouldn’t just do that to every Omega he just met. An Alpha formed the core of any pack, was responsible for all his members, so Isaac sharing his life force meant something.
He slid the blanket off his shoulders, letting it fall to the ground, and rubbed his ass at Isaac’s groin. Hearing the Alpha’s snarl of frustration made him feel better already.
“Keep doing that, little Omega, and I’ll fuck you against this glass window.”
Was it wrong that those words turned him on?
Feeling mischievous, Noel did it again, only to feel Isaac’s hands tighten against his shoulders.
“You’re asking for it, aren’t you? Here I am, being so careful because you’re still healing, and yet, you’re being impossible.”
“I’m recovered. I feel at a hundred percent. Your healer did a stellar job.”
Noel turned around and fell to his knees as Isaac took a step back, smirked, then undid the button of his jeans, followed by his zipper. Noel reached for the denim and tugged it down, along with Isaac’s cock. The Alpha kicked his bottoms aside and took off his shirt.
He stared in amazement, admiring every hard curve and muscle of Isaac’s body. Moving his gaze to the package between Isaac’s legs, his mouth dropped opened. The Alpha lion shifter was hung, his cock long, thick, meaty, and already leaking pre-cum.
“Tell me, Omega. How many men have you fucked?”
Jesus. It shouldn’t surprise Noel that Isaac was this blunt. Then again, Noel would take an honest man over a liar any other day.
