Omega's Choice

by Lilli Carlisle

  Burning anger boiled up from deep inside her.

  She was finally mated to the man she had been waiting years to have and her precious pup had just begun to grow inside her. How dare Rhazien try to take that away from her? How dare he think nothing of destroying lives, killing anything in his path in his insane quest for power?

  Helena’s hands began to glow white, and tendrils snaked out from her fingers, searching out her intended victim. Power built inside her like the pressure inside a volcano. This new power was stretching its legs. Instinctively, she let the power flow through her and directed it toward the evil bastard bent on destroying everything she loved. The light hit Rhazien in the center of his chest, throwing him back into the stone wall.

  “Freeze them now, Conrad.” Helena yelled over the roar of battle.

  In an instant, the world around them froze inside the cave. Tables floated in midair alongside ogres stuck in all sorts of awkward positions. Even the flames and water froze in mid-strike.

  “Thirty seconds.” Conrad began the countdown.

  Just as they began running toward the far tunnel, their rescuers poured in through it. Some shifted into their wolves. Others were fully armed. Her big black wolf was at the front alongside her uncle. There were alphas, warriors, and royal guards flowing into the room, all now staring open mouthed at the frozen chaos before them. Helena knew how they felt. It was weird, but oh-so cool.

  “Twenty seconds.” Conrad yelled.

  “Aldric, Conrad can only freeze them for another twenty seconds. We’re safe under Liesa’s shield for a bit longer.” Helena hoped they understood that all hell was about to break loose.

  It was unfortunate that no one could harm any of the frozen ogres. The magic protected those under its power. In fact, blades would just bounce off. Some never realized that their powers and magic were living, breathing entities in their own right. Lore and speculation held that the omegas were given these gifts since they were inherently good and without malice. They could defend themselves and those around them, but they would never willingly use their powers against the innocent.

  Ceva stood over Rhazien, her wings extended and a nasty-looking flaming sword in her hand. Everyone else took up positions around the room, preparing for the fight to begin again. Aldric, along with many other warriors and alphas, took up positions in front of the seven omegas. Even though they were under a shield, no one was taking any chances.

  “Five seconds.” Conrad hollered, his body shaking from the concentration and effort he was using to control that many people. A large, silver alpha wolf whined in distress while watching Conrad closely. This had to be Conrad’s chosen alpha.

  Eerie silence filled the room as they waited. Then Conrad collapsed and the world became animated again. Ernust caught Conrad while the other omegas used their powers to fight alongside the alphas. Roars of anger filled the air as one ogre after another fell. Aldric held one in his jaws, pinning him to the floor while another one was clawing at his back. Helena drew back and let another wave of power wash through her before directing it at the ogre on top of her mate. It flew backward into a nearby wall, falling to the ground into a motionless heap.

  Nice shot, baby, Aldric’s proud voice rang through her mind. She shook her head, not sure how he could be joking at a time like this. Gods, she loved that man.

  Ceva and Rhazien battled with both magic and blades. The swordplay was beautiful, the fighting brutal, but the warlock was beginning to tire, trying to hold off Ceva’s savage strikes. She looked every bit the avenging angel Helena had seen pictures of in books in her uncle’s library. Her wings flowed around her in a graceful dance while her fire sword cut through the air with lethal precision. Minutes later, only a few ogres were still standing, but they too soon joined their brethren in hell.

  An enraged scream ripped through the cave just as Ceva removed Rhazien’s head from his body. The backlash of power threw Ceva across the cave and into a jagged stone wall with a sickening thud. Her body fell to the ground unmoving.

  “Take down the shields. We have to help her,” Helena ordered.

  Immediately, Liesa lowered the shield and Helena ran to Ceva’s side. Ceva still hadn’t moved.

  Lothar cradled her head on his lap. “She’s barely breathing, Princess. Please do something,” he begged.

  “Sadly, Helena’s healing has never worked on Ceva before,” King Leonidas confided.

  “I have to try,” Helena cried and knelt beside her godmother’s still body. Ceva’s life-giving energy was fading away fast.

  Helena placed her hands on Ceva’s body, pouring in all of her healing powers, but nothing happened. Instead of healing, she was slipping further away.

  “No—please, no.” Helena hadn’t realized she was crying until her tears fell onto Ceva’s body. “Please, someone help me.”

  Helena felt strong hands grip her shoulders and thought it was Aldric attempting to provide her with comfort. She turned to find all six omegas linked hand in hand with a now conscious Conrad and Corrinna holding her shoulders. Helena could feel their combined powers being funneled into her. Their omega jewels were glowing colorfully against the walls of the cave. Their eyes remained closed in concentration, safe to use their powers, surrounded as they were by the gathered wolves. Helena’s power grew dramatically when Lili slammed her magic into each of them and amplified it, but they needed more.

  “Alphas, touch your intended mates. Omegas, if you don’t have a mate, please allow an alpha to touch your hand,” Helena ordered. “We need their power as well.”

  The surrounding alphas placed their hands on the omegas. The two women who had arrived last evening allowed two unmated alphas to touch their joined hands, and Aldric gripped Helena’s shoulder. The power surged with such force it flew out of her body, through her hands, and into Ceva, who began to glow slightly. Slowly, her life energy began to rise, and wounds were healing before Helena’s eyes.

  Now she was crying for a whole different reason.

  Once Ceva was on her way to healing, the omegas released their holds and slumped into their alphas’ arms. Helena wondered how the unmated omegas felt about being in the arms of strangers but had no time to worry about proprieties as she fell back into Aldric’s arms.

  The last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was Ceva opening her eyes.

  Epilogue

  It had been three weeks since the cave, and Helena had been moved into her new home. The pack had welcomed her and her friends with open arms. While in the cave, she had inadvertently gained a few extra powers after having saved Ceva’s life. Somehow she’d managed to mirror the other connected omegas’ powers. They each still had their own original powers, but Helena had gained a version of the other six as well.

  All this made for quite a few interesting situations as Helena learned to control and use her new powers. She had frozen a few pack members by mistake, but thankfully it only lasted a few seconds and they seemed to understand. They had said they were happy the pack had such a powerful omega—when they unfroze, of course.

  She had caused a baseball game to be rained out simply because she thought it would be nice to have a break from the heat; luckily, they didn’t get snow. When she had gone to the nursery school to visit with the pups, she thought about how adorable the children were and that there should be more—she duplicated the entire class. Thankfully, that wore off after a few minutes or the parents might have had to take duplicate versions of their pups home as well.

  There were a few new powers that Helena had embraced fully. Her ability to heal had increased, and she could even use her telekinesis to bring her things, even if sometimes those things smacked her in the head. Her precognition saved a few people from avoidable accidents.

  Her protective shield needed work since she could only cover herself, but Aldric seemed to like that one immensely. The one her mate didn’t appreciate so much was being accidently frozen while they made love, but of course that didn’t seem to slow him
down when he could finally move again. The fire and water manipulation was another work in progress. She had singed her own hair a few times, but ironically, the fire never hurt an unintended person. She had flooded the bathroom while having a bath. As she learned, she figured that, as long as she did more good than damage, she was ahead.

  She and the other omegas had remained unconscious for two days after the cave. Aldric was beside himself with worry, but she and their pup were fine. Of course, it took her a week to convince Aldric.

  On a brighter note, Corrinna and Liesa had met available alphas during their cave adventure. Ceva was fully healed and had been thoroughly chastised by Lothar for almost dying. He was cradling her in his arms while he was doing it. Katrina, Amalia, and Giselle had moved into the pack’s main house with Helena, and the new male warriors were given a house nearby, ensuring Marcus was never far away.

  According to many pack members, Aldric was a new man since they returned from the celebration. He had always been a strong and respected alpha, but now he smiled and laughed. The pack responded well to the changes and thoroughly appreciated having Dr. Cosmas in the pack, considering their old doctor had been desperate to retire for a while. Overall, everything was wonderful.

  Safely ensconced in her new home, she had fallen in love with Aldric’s library, and began reading up on pack history. She was deep into a wonderful story about his ancestors when she smelled smoke.

  The book in her hands was smoking and beginning to flame.

  Damn new powers.

  The fire alarms sounded as Helena raced to the kitchen sink. The flames had no effect on her flesh, but she feared the book was a goner.

  Aldric came running into the room, followed by Godric, who had a fire extinguisher in his hands. They had invested in stocking the house with them since their return. Now they were stashed just about everywhere inside and outside the property.

  Aldric pulled Helena away from the sink so Godric could put out the flames. It didn’t take much to extinguish them, but her book was toast—well, burnt toast anyway.

  “Now what did that book ever do to you?” Aldric teased, holding her tight to his hard body.

  “Another victim. That’s six books now. I’m never going to be able to read again. I don’t dare touch my e-reader. I’ll just fry the poor thing,” she grumbled. She was past frustrated. Even though she knew it could take years to master a new power, that didn’t give her much comfort at the moment.

  “How about I read to you, my love?” he asked.

  “You don’t have time for that.” She nuzzled her head into her favorite spot under his chin. She suddenly wondered if they had enough time before dinner for a little one-on-one time.

  “How about you let me worry about that? Maybe we should go read a little now. I’m sure it will definitely make you feel better,” he teased as he backed up toward the staircase leading to their bedroom.

  “Hmmm, well maybe we should find a quiet place so that we can read in peace,” she suggested.

  “Oh, for the love of all that’s holy, just go,” Godric groused. “Take all the time you need to read. The pheromones you two are giving off are choking me.” He cracked open the kitchen window.

  Aldric lifted Helena into his arms before racing toward the stairs. “So, there’s a few scenes in this book that might require a visual aid,” she explained.

  “Visual aid, huh?” He took the stairs two at a time before turning into their room, kicking the door closed, then depositing Helena on their king-sized bed.

  “Yes. I’ve always wondered if some of the sex scenes I’ve read about could be done in reality. I like to be thorough, of course.” She laughed as she watched Aldric wrestle with a knot in his bootlace. Finally giving up, he extended a single claw and cut the damn string away.

  He stripped off his boots and crawled up the bed, stopping to kiss his way up Helena’s abdomen and chest until he was mere inches away from her lips. “We must be thorough in everything we do, mate. We wouldn’t want to be accused of shirking our duties.”

  “Oh, I couldn’t agree more, my alpha.” She smirked just before Aldric took her mouth in a dominating kiss that never failed to make her whimper with need. She could feel her desire burning bright for this scarred, beautiful man.

  The man she had waited two long years to love.

  The wait had been worth every second.

  Please enjoy this short sneak peek at Ceva’s Chance, the next book in the Black Ridge Wolf Pack series:

  Another flaming piece of tree flew past Ceva’s black wings, almost singeing her silky feathers. Now she was pissed. They were trying to knock her out of the sky. The sun was setting and she’d been at this since sunup. Where are they all coming from? The sky was aflame with the yellows and deep oranges of the sunset, and, of course, the fireballs being slung into the sky by the large catapults. Old technology, but effective nonetheless.

  Ceva had been given the task of ferreting out the remaining bands of ogres scattered throughout King Leonidas’s expansive kingdom. She dodged yet another fireball and dove at the first beast she saw. They were large creatures filled with only hate and rage. They had small heads that sat on top of overly large necks and shoulders. Their long, muscular arms caused their knuckles to drag on the ground, and she couldn’t remember seeing one without weapons filling each hand. Thick fur covered them from their short, stubby legs to their chest. They stood at over eight feet tall. And at the moment their only concern was destroying the small village they’d surrounded.

  By all rights there shouldn’t have been this many left after the war long ago that they had started. For some unknown reason, groups of them have been appearing along the countryside attacking and destroying every small town they came upon. Ceva hadn’t been able to uncover who was responsible for their renewed numbers. She’d already dealt with the dark wizard who had sent them to attack the omegas at their yearly celebration, but obviously there was someone else pulling their strings now.

  Ceva landed and began slicing her way through the creatures, her swords a blur as she moved. No matter how much damage was done to them, they just kept on coming, unless of course you cut off their head.

  She spun on her left leg and kicked one particularly hairy beast in his stomach, causing the creature to lean forward. While he was doubled over, Ceva gladly relieved him of his head. A second and third ogre took his place and ended up on the ground with the first. She had to push them back away from the village and the innocent people that lived there. The village had already sent out many wolves to fight, but mostly untrained, and they were no match for the beasts. Several lives were lost with many more wolves injured. Ceva swore as long as she took breath they wouldn’t reach the small farming village.

  She heard familiar howls long before she saw the wolves coming up over the rise and ramming into the line of ogres. In the lead was a large, dark gray wolf with green eyes. He moved with precision, darting in and out of the fray, always one step ahead until an opening appeared and he did away with yet another ogre. He was breathtaking to watch, his gray coat reflecting the oranges from the sunset. There was only one wolf that could hold this White Witch’s attention—Lothar.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Lilli Carlisle lives outside Toronto, Canada. She’s a member of the Romance Writers of America and its chapter, Toronto Romance Writers. Lilli is a mother of two wonderful girls, wife to an amazing man and servant to the pets in her life. She writes both contemporary and paranormal romance and believes love should be celebrated and shared. After all, everybody needs a little romance, excitement, intrigue and passion in their lives.

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