by Zelda Knight
(Owned Body & Soul)
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All bets are off when a hot Alien King has a sassy, curvy girl swept away to his galaxy!
As always with my bite-sized romances, there's no cheating, no cliffhanger & the HEA is guaranteed. Also, if you have an issue with hot times between the sheets, this book is not for you!
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Release Date: September 29, 2021
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Pre-Order Link: https://books2read.com/u/bzdKGG
Stolen Mate
(Omegas of the Wilds, Book One)
© 2021 Juliet Moon
Edited by Blue Crescent Books
About Stolen Mate
(Omegas of the Wilds, Book One)
I have one night to get as far away from home as possible before I’m traded to a pack of hungry wolves.
Each month, wolf shifters lost control over their minds and their bodies. Only an omega can fix that…
Unfortunately for me, omegas are rare, and I happen to be one. A single bite into my flesh each month is all it takes to cure an alpha of the Wild Nights.
Now, before my father can barter me off to be mated, used, and abused by a notoriously vicious pack, I have one night left to run. One night when all the shifters of my pack are taken by the wild wolf spirit within them, my two bodyguards included.
But Brighton and Caine have spent the last few years being more than just my protection; they’ve been my friends, my family, and the objects of my deepest desires. Leaving them behind is unimaginable, but what other option is there?
Stolen Mate is a steamy RH/Menage romance. It is the first in a series of standalone shifter RH romances.
Chapter One
MINA
My gaze flew to Brighton first. He sensed me right away, as always, and glanced over his shoulder. Our eyes met.
His were wide and strikingly blue, normally alight with mischief and humor. What I saw now was dull darkness that made my stomach hurt.
He turned away.
I sought out Caine second, having to swivel to see him where he stood, guarding the only door, the only way out of this room.
Caine was tall, brooding, filled with darkness. He was serious as always, gaze fixed to the floor. Even though he didn’t look at me, I knew he felt my gaze by the way he stiffened almost imperfectively.
Neither of them are okay with this. I’m not either.
My father, head alpha of the Briar Pack on the other hand, was delighted.
He had me sitting in the middle of the room, a strong hand on my shoulder, keeping me in place and on display for the Cliffmont Pack.
They’re a gruesome bunch and they smelled just as good as they looked.
Alpha Rafe, a shifter in his late fifties with half rotted teeth and a mottling of scars covering his skin, watched me with open lasciviousness. I couldn’t bear to meet his eyes, so I kept mine trained instead on my hands, clasped in my lap.
Eleven of them, including Alpha Rafe, were here to discuss the trade with father. Each worse than the last. When they took me, there would be even more of them.
I’d heard before that they shared only one omega between all the alphas of the pack—and it was a big one. Their reach went beyond the mountains. They were one of the largest packs I’d ever heard of, their numbers rumored to be around a thousand.
I blinked back a sudden sting of tears, forcing myself back to the present.
“She’ll do nicely,” Rafe breathed. As though I was already his.
He took a step toward me, his boots scraping across the hardwood floor.
I looked up just as a figure stepped between us.
Brighton. His strong back, blocking me from the Cliffmont Alpha was the most comforting sight I had ever seen.
“Not another step,” he warned.
Relief swamped me. For a moment, I was sure Brighton was going to sweep me up and run with me, Caine close behind him. They would take me as far away as they could, where I wouldn’t be used as a barter tool, where no other alpha could reach me but them—and then my father spoke.
“That’s right. She’s not yours yet,” he said. “First, we must discuss what you will offer us in return.”
Alpha Rafe grumbled and stepped back.
“Cliffmont Pack is not used to the Wild Nights anymore,” he said. “We will take the girl and give you border patrol in exchange.”
“That’s all?” my father demanded. “You think that’s enough for my own daughter? An omega is rare to come by. You don’t think I’ll just give her away, do you?”
“You will give us what we require!”
“Only if you meet our demands!”
“Alpha, with all due respect, does the girl need to be here for this?”
Caine’s deep measured voice pierced the argument. All eyes turned to him, mine included. He was watching my father. For a moment, his gaze flickered to mine, his expression unreadable.
My father cleared his throat.
“Take her to her room. Don’t let her out until the matter is settled.”
Nodding, Caine stepped toward me. He finally looked at me properly, his gaze so intense I could barely meet it as he grasped me by the arm, pulling me from the room.
Only when the door shut behind us did I realize that Brighton had followed.
My two bodyguards lead me through the hall, upstairs and directly to my bedroom.
Under normal circumstances, we would talk. Brighton, at least, would make some joke to lighten the mood. Today though, there was no room for small talk. Apparently, when your charge was being sold to another pack to use as a chew toy, it ruined the mood a little.
Unable to take it, I turned to face them both as we reached my door.
“Nothing funny to say about the situation?” I asked, shooting him a look.
Brighton didn't say a word. If I wasn’t mistaken, he looked distraught, and that was the most comforting thing I’d seen all day.
At least the man I considered a friend, the one who watched me and guarded me and cheered me up each day, the one I had grown to care so deeply about, didn’t like what was happening. Even if he wasn't going to do anything about it.
“Mina,” he started and then seemed unable to find words.
“It’s fine.” I managed a smile, but my lips twisted the wrong way at the last moment. “You’re just doing your job. Both of you are. I don’t expect anything more.”
I would love more, don't get me wrong, but I pursed my lips and kept that to myself.
To my surprise, Caine was the first to offer any sort of comfort with a warm, strong hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently.
“We won’t let anyone inside,” he said. And shut the door.
I blinked at it for a moment and then almost laughed.
He wouldn’t let anyone inside? Until a trade agreement was made, was that it?
I swallowed down the lump in my throat and went to my bed.
It was still a rumpled mess from this morning after a night spent tossing and turning. I laid on it, ready to resume the restless actions of my body while I waited.
My gaze flew to the window, to the swiftly setting sun.
It wouldn’t be long now.
Father had timed it in such a way to force the Cliffmont Pack leader to give in to his demands as quickly as possible or suffer another Wild Night.
As an omega, I was free from the plight that afflicted our kind. Each month Wolf shifters lost control over themselves, their minds and their bodies. Only an omega could fix that. There were so few of us that being mated had turned into a business transaction.
How lucky for me.
Father had always been proud of me, flaunting his omega daughter. Now I knew why. I was a big bargaining chip for him. Too bad that he'd decided the Cliffmont pack was the best place for me.
I'd heard all about them for years. Rumors that they went through omegas, using and abusing them until they were dead and gone and then moved on to the next one.
Until today,
I'd thought that those were just rumors but now I wasn't so sure.
I'd know soon enough.
Before sunset, the eleven men downstairs would come into my room and claim me. Would they just bite me? I wondered. Would they do worse? Would father not care in the least if he heard my screams? What about Caine and Brighton?
They’d been my personal bodyguards ever since first joining our pack almost ten years ago. Theirs had disbanded and the two lone friends had wandered until my father took them in.
I’d liked them at once. The love had taken a little longer to come.
Never would I have imagined that the two of them would stand aside while I was taken, body and soul.
Any minute now.
My gaze wandered from the ceiling back to the window and suddenly I sat up, back rigid as I watched the sky.
They were playing it very close.
There were only a few minutes left until the sun vanished beyond the horizon.
I pushed to my feet, heart racing as the moments passed. I went to the window and stood, staring out at the sunset. I ignored the playing pink and purple across the sky, gaze fixed to the edge of the sun as it dipped behind the trees.
My father’s plan must have backfired. Instead of forcing the Cliffmont Pack to agree to a shoddy deal in order to have me before the Wild Night, the negotiations must have stretched on too long. Now, as I stood there in shock, every shifter in the village was being taken by their wolf.
Slowly, I walked to my bedroom door. It was locked, but I knocked. No one answered.
On the Wild Nights, when all of the alpha wolves of the pack were incapacitated, those were the only nights I was left unattended. No Brighton. No Caine. No one to darken my doorway. No one to keep me here.
In disbelief, I looked out at the swiftly darkening sky.
This was my one chance. I had the night to get away.
The full moons were a dangerous time in the wild. Aside from the other animals out there, the wild wolf shifters reigned. Most remained locked inside their homes in panic rooms built for just such times, but some let their beast run free, tearing through the woods, destroying anyone that they met.
Still, it was the type of danger I would rather face than what awaited me here.
The wild wolves didn’t possess the cognizance for things like mating an omega. I would much rather face one of them than the Cliffmont Pack in the morning.
Without hesitating any longer, I rushed to the vanity, pulling a long hairpin from my collection.
The door opened with a quiet click, easy as anything. Somehow no one had ever realized that when they locked me in, I was never really locked in. I would have expected Caine at least, to have guessed.
The thought of my steadfast protector sent a twinge through my chest.
If I could help it, I would never see him again. His steady warmth would never be there to support me or hold me if I was hurt as it had in the past. For the last few years, if I fell, Caine lifted me, and Brighton tended to me. Part of me had basked in that attention, but from now on, I would have to stand on my own two feet. Learn to defend and protect myself.
I stared into the darkness of the hallway. Somewhere in the large house, a grunting and thudding began.
The alphas were shifting now, against their will, losing sight of themselves.
I swallowed.
The Wild Nights sounded terrible. To completely lose sight of oneself was a plight I didn’t envy. In fact, I pitied most of the alphas I knew just a little bit. Still, just because I could be their cure, didn’t mean I was theirs to own.
I shifted, pushed by that thought and padded quietly to the front door. I had to shift twice more, to pull it open and then to sneak through the night.
There was a chill in the air. The Briar Pack land was quiet, nestled into the side of the mountains, trees all around the homes, enveloping us. I rarely went into the wilds and never did alone, but I knew I could do this.
I had to.
Chapter Two
CAINE
It took a moment to get my eyes open. They were sealed shut. One more than the other. When I finally blinked them open and gingerly touched my right eye, I realized they were crusted shut with dried blood. Disgust filled me, quickly followed by bile rising up my throat.
I choked it down and struggled to my feet, entire body aching.
The cold, hard cement of my holding cellar was not a pleasant place for the body to spend a few hours passed out, but there was no other option. On the nights when a wolf shifter's body succumbed to the wild that always threatened to overtake us, nothing could survive—not even a mattress to lie on. No, being surrounded by cement was the only way.
Still, my entire adult life, shifting without my control, I had never gotten used to this part. Being taken over by ferocity and abandon, losing sight of myself completely, then waking up, body ravaged… all of it felt wrong and alien. It never became easier.
The room was splattered with fresh blood stains. All of them mine, I knew, since the door locked from the inside.
My toes were caked in it and my fingers too.
It looked like I'd taken out being locked in here on myself this time. Not surprising, that was often how it was.
At least I was in here. As far away from Mina as possible.
That was the other thing that was always the same. At the end of each Wild Night, Mina remained my first thought.
The idea of her, still asleep in her bed, was like an instant balm, soothing me.
Her constant presence, her mischievous smile, everything about her, down to the twists in her auburn hair and the way she smelled as soft as she looked, they offered me more comfort than anything had in all the years since the straggling remains of my pack had disbanded after losing one too many.
My hand made it all the way to the locked door before I remembered everything else; the Cliffmont pack. The deal. The fact that Mina was about to be sold like the precious jewel that she was.
Fury raced through me. My heart started to pound and for a split second, I was sure that the Wilds had started again. I was about to be consumed with my anger—but no physical change overwhelmed me this time.
The truth was, I wanted to fight the entire Cliffmont Pack away from what was rightfully mine. Only problem being that Mina wasn't mine. Was she?
She'd toed the line carefully. Sometimes flirting with me and Brighton for fun—we were the only men she ever spent prolonged time with after all, but she had always remained completely obedient to her father's orders. She'd never crossed any lines with us or any other alphas. I knew; I'd been watching her. It was my job, but I would have done it anyway.
A fist banging on my door startled me from my thoughts.
It wasn't like me to be caught off guard. I needed to get it together.
Shaking myself, I unlocked the door and pulled it open.
The moment I saw Brighton, already cleaned up and dressed, a wild look in his eyes, I knew it was about Mina.
"Is she okay?" I demanded, terrified to hear the answer.
"She's gone."
Chapter Three
BRIGHTON
“What do you mean?”
“I mean she’s gone!” I growled.
I pushed past Caine, eyes barely seeing the state of him, but the sight of his cellar made me pause. Looked like he'd had a rough night. He often did. For some wolves, the beast within them was more discontent than others. That never surprised me. Caine was older than me. He'd watched our pack disintegrate from a loving community to a small group of rabid animals who eventually had to part ways to keep their sanity. Pack politics often got bloody and losing our omegas—our mothers—had nearly broken him.
I’d been a child back then. I barely remembered the good days. All I could do was make best of the life I'd been given.
Caine had kept me by his side, watching out for me but until we’d been taken in by the Briar Pack, things had been tough.
For some time now, life had turned out
to be more filled with laughter and love than I had ever thought it could be as a young cub. Mina was to thank for that.
The threat of losing her—especially to a group of alphas so hell bent on hurting her—had made my entire body crawl. What she didn't know—what none of them knew—was that I would only lose Mina over my dead body.
“Brighton. Calm down. Talk to me.”
I took a breath, trying to calm myself.
“I went to Mina’s room. She’s not there. She isn’t anywhere in the house. I searched for her. She isn't anywhere on pack grounds. Her scent headed toward the mountains, but it was weak. I lost her.”
I was shaking, the wolf within me itching to escape.
“I’m going after her,” I said. “Whether you want to come or not, but I just thought—we’ve had each other’s backs since we were kids Caine, so I want you to come.”
He opened his mouth to speak but before a word came out, I rushed on.
“Before you agree, just know. I’m going to find her, but I’m not bringing her back here.”
I could see the cogs working in his eyes. The understanding and the inner conflict. For a moment, fear that he wouldn’t join me, hit me. I thought he loved Mina the way that I did. I thought our bond was too strong to break. But maybe the comfort of being part of a pack, protected and one with them, was worth more to him.
"She doesn't want to mate with the Cliffmont Pack members," I said quietly. "They're going to force her."
His gaze darkened and he placed a hand on my arm, instantly soothing me.
"We won’t let them," he said.
Relief hit me hard.
I didn't know what we would do exactly when we found Mina, but we had been on our own before. Together, we could figure it out.
