Captive of the Alpha

by Laxmi Hariharan

  She heads for the door.

  “Wait, what do you mean?”

  She pauses on the threshold. “You want to get out of here or not?” she flings over her shoulder.

  I nod.

  “Then do as you are told, no questions.” She leaves.

  For a second I stay where I am, and she pops her head back in. “Ten minutes, or you can forget this.”

  Right. I jump out of bed, head to the bathroom, shower off the gunk from my body. I am out in three minutes, wrapped in a towel, and find a fresh change of clothes on the chair. I snatch up the fatigues, T-shirt, the heavy hoodie, and pull them on. No underwear, but that’s fine. Sitting on the bed, I shove my feet into the socks and the boots. They fit—are they hers? Probably. My stomach grumbles, and I reach for the tray and eat the fruits, cheese, and bacon.

  I glance at the two pills. Nope, not taking either. If I am pregnant…? I cup my belly. No way am I going to destroy a child in my womb.

  I reach for the glass of water and drain it. A faint metallic taste lingers in my mouth, and I try to swallow it away.

  By the time I am done, warmth creeps up my body, my hands and legs tingle, and my head feels fuzzy. Maybe I am more tired than I thought. I lay back on the bed. The ceiling swims above me. I haven’t taken any of the pills, so why am I so woozy? My heart begins to thud. Had Lisa used the pills to distract me? What had she laced? The food…no, the water. It had tasted funny. Had she drugged it? With what…? My eyes shut, and darkness steals over me.

  I am aware of voices; my body being lifted.

  I try to protest, but can’t speak, then all consciousness leaves me.

  When I come to, I see the gray skies crowding in on me. I am out in the open. The wind blows, and I shiver.

  Snowflakes flutter down, tickling my cheeks, on my lips. I lick my mouth, and the flake melts. A low growl has me turning to see eyes glowing at me from the tree line.

  Amber eyes that remind me of his. The beast moves forward, its shaggy head regal, nostrils flared. Its breath steams up the night air. It stalks closer…closer…and I watch, entranced. Why does this tiger remind me of Kayden? The fierceness of its pose, the dominant way it prowls toward me… Tiger? Hell!

  I jerk upright, and my head swirls. The predator hunches low, its muscles tense. Holy hell. I spring up and run the other way. I am sure the animal is on my tail… I don’t have a tail, the beast does…not the time for semantics…need to keep going, to get away. I should never have trusted that bitch, Lisa. Bet she conveniently arranged for the tiger to be here. I race past the trees and toward the sound of falling water. I reach the edge of the clearing when hooves sound up the path.

  I look up to find a man on a massive horse bearing down on me.

  Behind him, another rider turns the corner and pulls up, then another, and another.

  The leader yanks on the reins of his horse. The animal rears its massive hooves up in the air then brings them crashing down on the ground. Reverberations from the impact echo around the space. Birds fly up in the distance. The man tosses back the blond mane rippling around his shoulders.

  His chest is massive, his beard a darker shade of blonde. Piercing blue eyes fix on me. His shoulders block out the sight of the other men behind him. If I hadn’t caught sight of them earlier, I’d have no idea they were there. He throws up his hand, and a sliver of light glints off his palm. He makes a rotating motion with his wrist, and a lasso twirls toward me.

  I scream and turn to run, but the tiger crouches not four feet away.

  My heart beats so fast that I am sure it’s going to break out of my rib cage, and my throat closes; my pulse pounds. Who are these men? There is a whistling in the air, then the lasso settles around my arms, tightening instantly. The sound of thundering hooves echoes off of the trees, then he sweeps me up and throws me over the horse in front of him.

  He races ahead and past the tiger.

  “Come, Bruno,” the man’s deep voice rings out.

  The tiger swivels around and falls in line. The hell? This savage has a tiger for a pet?

  Panic tightens my chest, and I begin to struggle in earnest. A heavy weight descends on my back.

  “Stay still or I’ll have to do this the hard way.”

  The gruff voice is cultured, so different from what I’d expected. The hair on the back of my neck rises. I peer up at him. “Who are you?”

  He smiles. No, that would be too charitable a way to describe it. His lips pull apart. White, perfectly formed teeth flash at me, terrifying in their uniformity. His entire face lights up, and I blink. He’s some kind of Nordic god, this man. He tilts his head, and a cold feeling coils in my chest. The Scots and the English hate each other… They both hate another race more.

  “Vikings.”

  I try to scramble away, but he shoots out his arm and grips my shoulder. His features go blank, expressionless. My throat closes.

  “Who…who are you?”

  “I am Talon, the leader of the Berserkers. And I am here to avenge my father’s death.”

  31

  Kayden

  A bonded Alpha cannot be reined in. The fuck am I thinking? Is that what this is? This...this white-hot pain that pierces my chest?

  I wince, and Dom stares at me. “What’s wrong?”

  I hear his words as if from far away.

  Another wave of pain rolls in my chest, and this time a gasp leaves my mouth. I bring my palm up and rub at the skin over my heart.

  “You’ve gone pale.” Dom lowers his gaze to my chest then back to my face. “You’re sweating.”

  “Thanks for pointing out the obvious.”

  I lurch up to my feet. I had been huddled with my team in the open a few miles away from the settlement where one of our trackers had claimed he’d spotted the Berserkers. “It’s not possible that the Vikings could have tracked us this far up into the highlands. They’ve never been seen in Scotland before.”

  It’s one of the things about which I had been confident. That the Berserkers would never make it this far. They had always restricted their movements to the ports, their sights set on the grand prize: London. I had counted on Zeus to keep them occupied for long enough that I could regroup with my team, come up with an alternate plan to take him down. Hell, bringing her here had been the opening in my plan… Okay, so the part of mating her had been spontaneous…something I hadn’t been able to control. But everything else had been thought through. All those weeks I had been stewing in Zeus’ prison, I had come up with enough creative ways to get the better of him, but this, finding traces of the Vikings this far inland is very strange.

  Another streak of pain spikes my chest, then trips down my spine. It’s as if a red-hot sword has been skewered right into me and pulled down, tearing my guts apart.

  My heart races, my spine curves, my chest pulls forward, and only when my feet hit the ground do, I realize that I have already turned away and am racing back toward the settlement.

  Dom falls into place behind me. “What is it?”

  I increase my speed, but he keeps pace.

  “It’s her, isn’t it?”

  I don’t answer, I don’t owe an answer to anyone, definitely not to my second.

  Besides, I am not sure why I feel compelled to head back to her. It’s her. She’s in danger, I am sure of it. Don’t ask me how. Perhaps it’s my instincts which scream at me to go faster, keep moving. Don’t stop. Another wave of fear clutches at my chest. My shoulders bunch and a blinding fury fills my head. She’s afraid. Someone is threatening her. How am I so sure of that? I’ve never felt this…this connection to another. So why her? Why?

  “You mated her?”

  My body twitches, and I stumble, but Dom seizes my shoulder and hauls me up.

  “Please tell me that you knew you would be able to sense her when you claimed her? That the mating bond goes both ways. It changes both the alpha and the omega?”

  Of course, I knew that. I did. Didn’t I?

  I shake
off his grasp, then keep moving. “It’s a fledgling bond,” I bite out the words. “I can break it anytime.”

  “You sure about that?” A thread of amusement laces Dom’s voice.

  “The fuck you implying?” I keep my gaze trained on the path ahead.

  “Nothing.” He holds up his hands and motions forward with his chin. “Just that not all bonds are created equal. Sometimes a fledgling bond has as much depth to it as a finalized main bond…not often, but it’s been known to happen.”

  “Not this time. I mated her as a means of exploiting Zeus. The fledging bond means nothing.” My stomach cramps; a ball of emotion clogs my throat. “Nothing.”

  My chest hurts and my knees knock together. My very being, my instincts, every cell in my body seem to reject my words. I huff out a breath. No fucking way. I am not going to be drawn into the trap of a mate.

  The bond will tie her to me temporarily.

  It serves the purpose of keeping her close and from trying to escape. Escape. Has she escaped? Is that what this is about? Is that why my heart races? I lengthen my strides and my breath comes in pants.

  Dense waves of fear tug at me and sweat beads my forehead. My chest thrusts forward as if an invisible thread hooks me to her.

  I break into a run.

  Halfway to the settlement, I swerve right, heading toward the forest.

  “You’re going the wrong way,” Dom calls out.

  Sweat pours down my face, and I toss my head to shake it out of my eyes.

  “Is she somewhere in that direction? Is that why you are headed there?” His voice follows me.

  I quicken my steps, but Dom keeps pace. The fucker is right on my heels, right fucking there, not giving up.

  I grit my teeth and focus on moving forward.

  My knees knock together again. The fuck is wrong with me? I straighten my spine and focus on putting one step in front of the other.

  The closer I get to the source of whatever has my chest twitching, throbbing, hurting like a motherfucker, the more I know it’s all wrong. My feet grow heavy, my legs feel weighted down, yet I push on. I stumble again, and Dom grabs my arm, and this time I don’t shove him away. I let him right me.

  He drops his grip but stays close. Almost there…almost. I reach the clearing and burst through the trees. The men turn around to look at me.

  The one closest steps in front of me. I twist my leg around his and trip him. He goes crashing to the ground, and a flash of gold tied around his biceps gets my attention.

  “Vikings,” Dom snarls from somewhere behind me.

  I stare toward the center of the clearing, just as she raises her face and her gaze meets mine.

  Terror twists her features. A rush of fear comes down the mating bond, and my vision tunnels. Her hair is disheveled, her clothes streaked with mud, and her shoulder is in his grasp. The man standing next to her has his fucking hands all over what’s mine. Mine. She is mine. My property. My omega. Anger screeches up my spine; blood thuds at my temples.

  “Let go of her, motherfucker.”

  The man draws back his lips, and his nostrils flare. He shakes back his long blond hair. “Or what?”

  I snarl and move forward, but Dom grabs my arm. “We are outnumbered. It’s best we retreat.”

  “No fucking way. He has her. I cannot abandon her.”

  “If you go in, there’s no way he’ll let you live. Then what use are you to her?”

  “I cannot leave her.” I roll my shoulders.

  “I cannot let you kill yourself.”

  “Get out of here, Dom.” I want to raise my fists and leap forward and tear the arm off of the man who’s holding her. But that would be bloody stupid.

  If I can keep their attention off of her, force them to watch me instead, maybe that will buy me enough time. Who am I kidding? Me alone, surrounded by so many of these Vikings, I don’t stand a chance. But I haven’t come this far without taking risks. I hadn’t realized how much I had come to regard her as mine, not until this moment, not until I saw another man’s hands all over her.

  The Viking turns her around, then yanks her close. She stumbles, and her back hits his chest. Her skin grows pale, her eyes widen, and fear comes off of her in waves. She bites her lips, and the sense of futility, of utter helplessness that bleeds off of her is my undoing. My chest stutters; my belly flip-flops. I square my shoulders.

  “Go, Dom, get help,” I snarl without turning my head. “I’ll keep them occupied.”

  “You don’t stand a chance on your own.”

  “Go.” I raise my chin. “That’s. An. Order.”

  He hesitates, then begins to retreat.

  One of the men closest to me lunges forward to stop Dom. I step between them, hook my leg around the stranger’s, and tug. The man crashes to the ground.

  A ripple of emotion trips through those assembled. With a roar, five of the alphas leap on me.

  32

  Chloe

  “No!” I lunge toward Kayden, only to be pulled back.

  I shove at the grip restraining me, and Talon wraps those massive arms around my waist and yanks at me again. I dig my heels into the ground and resist.

  I bury my nails into those muscles of his forearms, but I may as well be trying to scratch a brick wall. I barely make a dent in those tough muscles. The hard wall of his chest at my back sends panic racing down my spine.

  “Kayden,” I yell out, trying to break Talon’s grip. I kick back and catch him in the shin.

  But the Viking doesn’t move.

  I rear back and smash into his chest. Pain lances down my neck. But the alpha gives no sign that he felt it. His breathing doesn’t change. The alpha is almost as big as Kayden…as mean…only there’s nothing remotely human about him.

  Where there had been anger coiling around Kayden, and revenge…emotions that were extreme, at least I had sensed something. I had sensed the hurt in him. The primal need inside of him that had reached out to me and had urged me to try to share myself with him, to soothe him…somewhere we had been not only matched, but linked. Is that why I had responded to him?

  Is that why, despite the fact that he had kidnapped me, I had only put up a token resistance when he had mated me?

  Oh, at that time I thought I was trying to fight him off, but now I realize all of that was fake.

  I had wanted Kayden from the moment my eyes had lit on him. Even before that, when I had sensed his presence behind me in the garden, had smelled his essence reaching out to mingle with my own. I had yearned for his touch, his harsh caresses. His instinct to take from me had triggered the primal part of me inside that was designed to give, to embrace, to bear his children…his…I was his from the moment he had reached for me and I hadn’t known it.

  It had taken coming in contact with another alpha, breathing in the reeking, masculine scent of another male which was all wrong. There is only one man for me—him.

  “Kayden.” My voice cuts through the space, echoing over the writhing bodies of the men who are showering punches, kicks, blows on my alpha. They crowd around him, blocking him from my sight.

  “Let me go.” I dig my elbow into the man behind me.

  The next second, his big paw grabs my neck, and he lifts me up. His hand squeezes my nape as if I am a helpless kitten. I kick out with my legs suspended above the ground. Grab at the fingers wrapped around my neck. Try to take in a breath and find I can’t pull in enough to fill my lungs. My throat hurts, my lungs burn. I gasp for air and come up empty. Darkness nudges the corners of my mind. My arms flail, then fall to the sides. Gurgling noises…oh, that’s me. I am going to die, hung to death by the grip of an alpha…but maybe that is better. If he takes me, I’ll not survive whatever other bodily harm he’ll do to me. If he rapes me… I’ll kill myself. I don’t want anyone else, no one but Kayden. When had my kidnapper become the only man I wanted, who meant more to me than life itself? My throat closes. Oh, Kayden, what did I do?

  I hear a roar as if from far away. �
�Chloe.”

  I crack my eyelids open. It’s the first time my alpha has called me by my name.

  Kayden, I try to whisper, but the words stick in my throat.

  The scene sways in front of me. I spot the hazy outline of his beautiful form. Behind him are the bodies of the fallen men. Kayden flings his head back and howls. The sound echoes around the space. Talon’s fingers tighten around my neck. The trickle of air to my lungs cuts out. I gasp, and my body twitches. His figure blinks in and out of focus. Kayden. Kayden. I shouldn’t have tried to escape.

  Shouldn’t have let Lisa goad me on. I put not just my own, but also his life at risk. The thoughts race around in my head.

  “Stop right there or I will twist her neck. I’ll cast her aside without another thought.”

  Talon’s voice echoes in my ears.

  He doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t.

  He’s doing it only to provoke Kayden. To lure him in and make him trip. Don’t come closer, I try to whisper, but all that comes out is a sob.

  Kayden’s body jerks. Did he hear me? His features twist. I force myself to meet his gaze, try to signal to him to stop. Stop. Don’t let the Viking hurt you. If something were to happen to you, I’d never forgive myself. Please. Please. The words keep repeating in my head.

  Then Talon raises me higher by the hold on my nape. My neck hurts; pain shoots down my spine. My belly trembles. My thighs spasm. Another growl fills the air and a ripple of fear screams down the mating bond. It fills my chest, my throat, my mouth. It bubbles up, thick and strong, and forces me to raise my chin and snap my gaze on Kayden.

  His big body is bent low; his wide shoulders shove aside one man. He swings out at another, who falls to the ground. Another two step in front, and he kicks one of them away, a third, a fourth. He uses his fists again, flexes his muscles, the tendons of his throat bulge, and he keeps coming. More men pour into the clearing. They surround him, holding on to him. One of them jumps on his back, and he shakes the stranger off. I hold his gaze. That burning amber of his eyes floods me, filling my throat, my chest, connecting with a part of me that I didn’t know existed. Deep inside. I know then, I’ll never forget this sight as long as I live: Kayden inching toward me. He moves closer…closer… When he is less than a foot away, I stretch out my arm. He flings aside another man then reaches out, and his fingers graze mine.