by Nora Ash
MATED
Alpha Book Three
NORA ASH
Contents
Copyright
Get in Touch
Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Demon’s Mark
Branded
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by Nora Ash
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Any and all likeness to trademarks, corporations or persons, dead or alive, is purely coincidental.
Get in Touch
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Summary
Being mated to an alpha was never part of Leigh’s plans. As much as the man who’s claimed her as his heats up her bed and sets her body on fire, she’s not ready to give up everything for an alpha she hardly knows. Especially not after all the lies and deceit he’s spun to keep his real identity hidden from her.
But when her alpha’s scheming enemies learn of her existence, there’s no one but him left to save her.
Will he sacrifice everything he is to rescue the one he calls his mate?
And if he does… can Leigh surrender her heart to save them both?
Mated is the third and final book in Nora Ash’s dirty, suspense-filled Omegaverse serial. Want your alphas dominating and your romance scorching? This is the story for you.
Chapter One
The first thing I notice as my consciousness returns is that I can’t move.
My vision takes forever to focus when I finally manage to drag my eyelids open, so all I can see for the first few minutes are blurred outlines of what looks like dark wood furniture and walls in a hideous peach tone.
I pull on my arms again, harder this time, only to wince as a sharp pain in my wrists shoots up through my biceps.
“No need to struggle just yet, girl,” a deep voice rumbles from somewhere behind me.
I squeak at the unexpected speech and try to jerk around to see who’s there with me, but all I manage to do is cause myself more pain. I blink rapidly, desperate to regain my sight when a dark figure walks into my field of vision, and finally my eyesight slowly returns. The blurred shape turns sharper, and I recognize one of the two men who were outside my apartment when…
Sonuvabitch! They kidnapped me!
“Where am I?” I demand in a tone that’s more raspy and frightened-sounding than I was aiming for.
“Doesn’t matter,” the alpha says. He leans against the bureau in front of me, folding his arms across his wide chest as he looks down at me.
“Why did you kidnap me?” I try to fight back the panic swelling in my chest as I stare up at him. I know him from somewhere, but I just can’t put my finger on it. “I don’t have any money.”
An amused noise escapes his throat. “Don’t care about your money, bitch. You’re here as bait. And you best start praying that the beast we’re trying to capture cares enough about you to come running, or you’ll end up as fish food.”
What? This makes no sense. I don’t have any powerful frien—
I gape up at him when who he means hits me like a brick. “Leod? You think Leod will come for me?”
My kidnapper smirks. “We can hope, eh?”
“That’s insane,” I protest. “I’m no one to him!”
“Really, now?” He grabs a folded-up newspaper from the bureau and throws it on my lap. “’’Cause he spent an awful long time in your apartment last night. And then this hit the streets this morning. This is the newspaper you work for, isn’t it? Seems to me he cares enough about you to sell out all his colleagues for some time between your thighs, so I’m gonna wager he also cares enough to try and stop you from getting murdered.”
I stare mutely at the paper in my lap. It’s folded in half, but I can easily read the headline:
Masquerade Orgy: Mattenburg’s Elite Hides Sex Auction
Underneath is a picture that looks like a still from the video I shot. Even though no genitals are on display, it’s unmistakably a masked alpha balls-deep inside a screaming woman. In the background you can make out the naked and chained men and women waiting on the auction block, and the backdrop is very clearly from inside Town Hall.
“I… I don’t have anything to do with that,” I say, and despite the terror making my gut clench, I’m proud of how steady my voice sounds. “And Leod… it was just a one-night stand. Do you kidnap all the women he spends a night with?”
“You better hope you were more than a one-night stand to him.” He says it with a casual shrug, as if he’s not bothered one way or the other, and that one movement finally makes the seriousness of my situation set in. This man really, truly does not value my life as anything more than a bargaining chip. If I prove to be a bad gamble, he’ll kill me without a second thought.
If Leod doesn’t show up, I’m as good as dead.
“What do you want from him?” I rasp. “To kill him?”
“Don’t be silly,” the alpha says, sparing me a contemptuous look. “His death would cause a public outcry.”
“Then what?”
Another cold smirk. “His reputation, of course. If he wants to save your life, come tonight, there won’t be a single person left in this city who’ll still believe in his Liberal bullshit.”
My heart sinks, and it’s not until complete hopelessness takes me that I realize some small, hidden part of me was still hoping he’d come for me. But not now—not when it’s his reputation on the line. Wasn’t that why he left me in the first place? Because he didn’t want to risk his precious reputation just by being seen with me? Whatever this guy has planned, it’s bound to be much, much worse than that.
No, when it comes to choosing between me and his career, he’s already made his choice. And I didn’t come out on top.
I’ve just allowed myself to sink into complete misery when muted commotion draws both mine and my kidnapper’s attention. He looks above my shoulder where the sounds are coming from, a faint smile pulling on his lips. I strain to look as well, but can’t twist my neck far enough.
The sound of a door being unlocked makes me realize what the alpha is looking for even before an angry voice rings through the room.
“I swear, if you’ve so much as touched her, I’ll rip your dick off!”
Leod.
He’s come!
“Relax, no one’s put their knot in your little girlfriend. Look, there she is, safe and sound. Just waiting to be rescued.” The other, new voice is dripping with sarcasm, but the furious snarl that rips through the room doesn’t belong to him. It belongs to Leod, and the threat of absolute murder vibrating through it makes even my hair stand on end. Oh, boy. He’s pissed.
A large figure comes into my field of vision, followed by big hands wrapping gently around my face. Leod stares down at me, concern and fury etched into his prominent features.
“Leigh? Are you all right?”
“Y-yeah, I’m okay,” I croak. Despite the seriousness of the situation, I can’t fight the ridiculous bubbles of happiness threatening to explode out of my chest at the sight of him.
He really came for me.
Quickly, he bends to untie first my wrists from behind the chair I’m seated on, and then my ankles. But when he offers his hand to lift me to my feet, my kidnapper by the bureau pulls a gun
out and points it at me.
“You just leave the girl right where she is, Leod. It’s time for us to have a grown-up chat.”
Leod bares his teeth in a growl. “You better move that fucking thing away from her before I shove it up your ass and pull the trigger.”
The other alpha gives him a small smile and points the weapon toward the floor instead.
Leod’s posture relaxes a fraction of an inch, but I don’t miss how he takes a half-step to the side, shielding me from the man still holding the gun. “Right. Let’s talk. What does Bremen want, then? Let me guess—for me to withdraw myself from the election?”
I stare at his back. Bremen? The Lord Mayor’s behind this? I don’t know why I didn’t figure that out from the start—he’s Leod’s fiercest competitor, and he’s got a reputation as being completely merciless. It suddenly dawns on me where I’ve seen my kidnapper before—he was the alpha who checked my ticket when I arrived at the masquerade. Yeah, they work for Bremen, all right.
“He’s predictable, the old goat, isn’t he?” the other kidnapper, who’s still somewhere behind me, says in an easy tone. “You should have seen his face when we told him about the girl you snuck off to see. Practically lit up like a Christmas tree.”
“I’m not entirely sure why he thinks kidnapping a random booty call will help him in any way,” Leod says coolly, and even though I know he’s being crass to gain the upper hand, it still stings to hear him call me that.
Angry with myself, I bite my lip to get my head back on straight. Now is so not the time to start acting like I’m starring in a stereotypical chick flick. There’s not exactly time to wallow in self-pity and emotions-that-have-no-business-being-there-in-the-first-place when two men with a gun have you locked up and at their mercy.
“A booty call?” the gun-wielding alpha snorts. “Apparently she’s a bit more than that, or you wouldn’t have showed in the first place. Don’t even try and pretend you’re any kind of hero—if she was truly just a knot-warmer, you’d have let her die without a second thought.”
“And look at that interesting mark the little twat has on the back of her neck,” the man behind me drawls, letting a single finger brush along my nape so the hair is pushed aside. I flinch when he touches the bruise Leod gave me just before he knotted me.
Leod snarls and spins around with absolute fury in his eyes. “Get your hand off her!”
The two kidnappers might be the ones in charge, but the guy behind me quickly removes his fingers from my skin at the unmistakable promise of pain ringing through Leod’s command.
“Looks an awful lot like someone was contemplating on claiming himself a mate,” the alpha with the gun says, his tone almost a singsong taunt.
Leod’s face is still contorted in anger as he glares at the man behind me, and I expect for him to deny it. But then his expression falls and his shoulders slump.
“Fine. Bremen gets his way. If you let us go now, we should be able to make the six o'clock news. I’ll announce my withdrawal then.”
“Not so fast,” the alpha behind me says, and I can hear the smirk in his voice. It sends goosebumps of uneasiness down my back. “You don’t really think he’s letting you off the hook that easy?”
“I’m sure you can understand he’ll want an insurance policy,” the man with the gun says. “We can’t have you popping back up in the political picture come the next election. No, we need to be absolutely sure that when you leave this room, your reputation is so wrecked you’ll never be able to come back from it.”
“Spit it out,” Leod grits between clenched teeth as he looks from one kidnapper to the other. “What does he want me to do?”
The alpha in front of us pulls out his cell phone and holds it up in front of Leod with a wry smirk. “You. In front of the camera. Fucking the ever living shit out of this poor girl.”
Chapter Two
“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” Leod sounds about as livid as I feel numb with shock. None of us saw that coming, that’s for sure. “He wants a fucking porn tape?”
“Not exactly.” The smirk slides off the kidnapper’s face, leaving ice-cold stone in its wake. “What he wants is for the entire city to see what a despicable, dangerous alpha you are. He wants to prove to the city that you’re in denial about your true nature, and that all your Liberal propaganda is nothing more than a thin veneer hiding the exact kind of brutality all those little beta males and their womenfolk are so terrified of.
“So what I need is for you to strip naked, rip the clothes off the girl, and make her take your cock until she howls. And be rough about it, because for you both to leave this room alive, the public needs to see a video of their favorite Liberal scum raping the crap out of a helpless woman crying for mercy.”
For five long seconds there is complete silence in the room, save for my ragged breathing. This can’t be real. It just can’t be.
“If you think for one second I’ll ever lay a hand on my own mate, let alone brutalize her for the entire city to gawk at, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.” Leod’s voice is oddly calm—gentle even. But there’s no mistaking the burning steel in his eyes as he glares down first one, and then the other kidnapper.
I blink, momentarily distracted from the insane situation. Did he just… did he just call me his… mate?
“I don’t think I will,” the kidnapper says. “See, if you don’t do it, things are going to look very, very grim for poor Leigh here. How much do you want us to hurt her before you lose your pride? Why not save the poor girl some pain and just get on with it, before we have to prove to you just how serious we are?”
“If you hurt her, I will end you.” The threatening growl is back in Leod’s voice.
“I’m the one with the gun, Leod. You overstep, and she dies.”
“You’re not nearly fast enough to pull that trigger twice before I rip out your fucking throat!” I’ve never seen Leod like this before—and I doubt anyone else has, either. His entire form is shaking from barely leashed rage, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles are white. The other guy might be the one with the gun, but if I were him, I’d be needing a new pair of pants right about now.
As I look up at him, I realize I’m no longer scared. Not really. For whatever dumb—and undoubtedly ovary-connected—reason, every instinct in my body trusts that as long as he’s here, everything’s going to be okay.
And if all these people want in return for letting us go unharmed is for us to have sex, well…
“I’ll do it.”
The tension in the room shifts as all three alphas stare down at me, Leod with incredulity in his gray eyes.
“What?”
“I’ll do it. I like having sex with you. What does it matter if they film it?”
A pained grimace cuts across his handsome face. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
An involuntary flicker of amusement makes me snort, despite the seriousness of the situation. The two times we’ve been together so far haven’t exactly been marked by gentleness, and now he’s concerned about causing me pain?
“Listen to the girl, Leod,” the man behind me says. “You can prep her, if you prefer, ‘slong as you make it look nice and rough for the camera.”
Leod looks silently into my eyes for the longest moment, and I know he’s searching for the truth in my gaze. He wants to be absolutely sure I’m okay with this.
I give a small nod and offer him a genuine, albeit somewhat strained, smile. As long as it’s with him, I can do this.
“Fine.” His voice rings through the room, authoritative and defeated at the same time. “But if she changes her mind, I’m stopping.”
The guy with the gun ignores him. He waves his weapon at something behind me. “Get on the bed. We’ve got ropes—I want her tied up with her legs spread so we can get a good angle on the video.”
Leod growls low in his throat in response, but doesn’t argue. Once again he offers me his hand and pulls me to my feet, supporting my weight
against his own, strong frame.
Only when he turns me around and walks the couple of feet to the shabby-looking twin-sized bed do I see the rest of the room they’ve held me in. It looks like a shoddy motel room, with stains on the carpet and walls. The dark brown blinds are closed, so I can’t look out the window for any landmarks.
Leod helps me up on the bed, then pulls me into a kneeling position so he can capture my face between his large hands and I can’t see anything but his face.
“Any time you want me to stop, you just say so, got it?”
I nod, and his lips descend on mine. Despite his obvious reluctance to submit to my captors, his mouth is hungry as he kisses me, and soon I feel the first lick of flames from deep inside. Even now, everything about him is heat and masculinity, and it speaks to the deepest parts of me on an entirely primal level.
When he pulls back, I’m panting.
“Get on with it, Leod,” one of the kidnappers barks.
I flinch—I’d almost forgotten we weren’t alone.
“Ignore them,” Leod says, and by the roughness of his voice I can tell his desire is also rising, despite the situation. “It’s just you and me.”
I nod as he once again grasps my face between his large hands, and when he kisses me again, the knowledge of being watched fades swiftly to the background.
This time, he doesn’t break away, and I only vaguely notice his skilled hands undressing me while our tongues intermingle. Only when a thumb brushes over my nipple do I realize everything above my waistline is bare.
