by Alison Aimes
The sexy Alpha leaned closer. “Not happening.”
His increased proximity brought a whiff of his unique scent: spice and privilege and sizzling power. Her mouth watered as she breathed deep. Her wrists throbbed strangely. The column of her throat did too. Slick wet her thighs.
Her attraction to the male blazed higher.
“You’re going to tell me your name, little omega. Then I am going to fuck you and knot you. Then we will formalize a contract.”
Shock slammed through her. “You just met me. You can’t seriously be interested in something official.”
His golden eyes glittered. “Some things are known. You will be my prime omega.”
Her heart beat fast. She’d always wished to be bound officially to the right Alpha. To be worthy of such an honor.
But she was not, and she never would be.
“T-that can’t happen.” Unnerved, she skittered back on her ass, using her heels to propel her along.
“It will.” Nostrils flaring, the big guy followed, matching her movements, never allowing the distance between them to grow. But not leaping on top of her either.
It was a sign of astonishing control. Few Alphas who remained near her for this length of time lasted this long. It was one aspect of her curse. Like a varmith moth to a flame, her body’s chemistry appeared designed to attract prey.
Which made this male’s display of self-mastery all the more astounding.
Her body loved it, her clit swelling as her skin flushed. Her lust ignited. Which only produced more arousal scent.
The gorgeous Alpha growled, his eyes flickering to red. He was going into rut.
Even worse, her body rejoiced at the idea.
Flames of desire licked at her skin, making her burn.
This was not good. She was responding too fast. Too eagerly.
She’d reacted before to other Alphas. She might be a freak, but she was an omega at her core. The instinct to be dominated, to be pinned down, fucked and knotted and bred, burned inside her, always an empty ache she couldn’t fill.
But this was different. This was bigger, deeper, stronger. A pull like nothing she’d ever experienced.
Except keeping control of herself was essential. Otherwise, the consequences could be catastrophic.
“Please, Alpha Lord. You need to untie me, then you need to remove yourself from my presence and put on a scent muffling mask before we both lose the ability to think altogether.”
“I am not leaving you and I am not dampening that honeyed scent.” His gaze dropped to the V at her thighs. “I can’t wait to lick all your sweet cream.”
Another rush of scorching desire struck. Fighting it, she scooted back on her butt, her sleeping gown—already torn and dirty—dragging in the dirt as she frantically searched for a hiding spot and a distraction. “Nice place you have here.”
His gaze cleared a bit. He almost looked sheepish. “I don’t intend to be here long.”
She looked around. Really looked. “Why not? It has potential.” Yes, she was stalling—and trying to turn both their minds from the all-consuming lust that was making it nearly impossible to think of anything but fucking.
But since that would lead to his death, she pulled it together and focused on the fact that the room was big and kind of grand beneath the dirt and disrepair. A few good scrubbings, the addition of more than one chair, and some hole repairs, and it could actually be pretty. The kind of stately place she’d always imagined she’d live in when she was young and still dreamt of happy-ever-afters.
Before she learned there was no such thing for creatures like her.
“Enough talk.” The Alpha’s low growl jerked her from her thoughts. “It’s time to fuck.”
Slick pooled on her thighs.
Every inch of her flesh smoldered with longing.
He wasn’t going to let her go.
Her body softened, giving in to his command as the instinct to submit took over. The urge to move to her hands and knees, to arch her back and remain in position as he readied himself behind her was almost more than she could bear.
“P-please.”
He nodded, coming closer. “Yes. That’s right, little omega. Beg me to fuck you. Beg me to give you what we both need.”
She wanted that too. But she couldn’t . . . only her need was so great it was getting harder and harder to remember why.
A low growl to her right startled her.
She’d been so consumed with the gorgeous scarred Alpha, she hadn’t even noticed the other male. He must have been cowering behind the chair before, but her scent had drawn him out and thanks to all her scooting, he was now only an arm’s length away. Even closer than the other Alpha.
Her heart sank.
The male’s reptilian eyes glittered with the lustful madness of her curse as he strained against the chain at his neck. She recognized his scent. He was one of her abductors. He’d stolen her from her home and shoved her into that bag for profit.
The itch beneath her skin amplified, her fury crackling through her veins.
“Don’t even fucking look at her, smuggler.” The Alpha Lord’s command was thick with savage menace. He’d likely forgotten or dismissed the lesser male’s presence in the room too, but it was too late now.
Any lesser Alpha in his right mind would have instantly retreated, slinking away as the force of the more dominant male’s will triggered the weaker creature’s survival instinct and reminded him of his place in the hierarchy of predators and prey.
But the reptilian-looking male was no longer in his right mind.
She was already backing up as, with a hiss, he charged, his frenzied state giving him extra strength. Blue blood splashed as the manacle around his neck dug into his skin. He didn’t care. The chain snapped.
With an enraged roar, the stronger Alpha lunged—claws out to rip apart the weaker Alpha’s throat—but even he, with his super speed and strength, wasn’t fast enough.
The smuggler’s scaled palm wrapped around her arm.
As always, what came next happened in less than a heartbeat.
A crackle. A spark. The fire beneath her skin leapt outward, pushing through her pores, hotter than any normal fire. It consumed the male, engulfing his body in shimmering golden, pink, and purple flames like a devouring monster.
There was no time for shock or terror. The male’s expression was still twisted in frenzied lust as he turned to ash and the flames vanished, sucked back beneath her skin with all the force of a space vacuum.
It happened so fast the scarred Alpha was still in mid-strike as what had once been a living, breathing creature was vaporized. His sharp claws swung right through the residue, sending the cinders scattering in a wide arc across the floor.
“What in the hells was that?” The Alpha Lord stared at her. He looked more surprised than horrified. “Are you okay?”
As if by instinct, he reached for her.
She scrambled back.
No, she wasn’t. She never would be.
“Stay back. I warned you.” Throat tight, shame a vise around her chest, her gaze flickered from the handsome male to the strewn ash. “I can’t be touched. Not skin to skin. It’s just what my body does. Anyone who comes into contact with my skin will burst into flames.”
The hand that had been reaching for her stilled in mid-air. A half-finished promise. An almost touch she could never have.
A sob rose in her throat.
She had to run. Now. Before anyone else was killed. Or worse, before she witnessed this male’s gaze turned to disgust. Or mercenary greed.
She turned to flee—as she had so many times before.
“Oh no, little omega. You’re not going anywhere.”
Before she could move, a familiar sack fell over her head, covering her whole body.
In the next instance, the bag and she were crushed against hard, moving steel.
“I intercepted you fair and square,” the Alpha growled. “I’m keeping you.”
4
Magnus prowled outside the rusting bars of the dungeon cell, the mask he’d donned to help him think not working as well as he’d hoped. Lust still addled his brain. Not to mention he could scarcely believe what he’d seen.
A glittering, sugar-coated, innocent-looking slip of an omega had just burned to ash an Alpha twice her size in less than the blink of an eye.
He needed to question her. He needed to come to grips with the fact that she was the weapon he’d been after all along.
But all he wanted to do was hold her. And fuck her. Not necessarily in that order.
He paced in the other direction. “How did you do it?”
“I don’t know. It just happens.” Her voice shook. “I feel the heat beneath my skin, but it never hurts me. Only others if they come into contact with me.”
Now he understood why his uncle wanted her bad enough to risk dropping his shields and allowing the smugglers inside the Approved Sector. She was the kind of secret weapon an enemy would never see coming.
But Magnus had found her first.
“Are you sure you’re okay? No burning from the fire? No bruises from him,” he swallowed hard, “or me?”
“I’m fine.” The little omega wouldn’t look at him. Instead, she huddled at the far end of the cell, as far away as she could get.
She hadn’t even availed herself of the pallet or haphazard pile of silks and furs he’d had tossed inside.
Instead, she squatted in the corner in her dirty gown, still inside the black bag he’d tossed over her to transport her to the cell. It was as if she was afraid to leave it.
That fact only maddened him more. She was supposed to feel safe in his presence.
He checked the straps of his breathing apparatus. The damned thing was strapped on tight.
So why the hells did it seem as if he could still scent her? Feel her fear and sorrow—and need.
“You don’t sound fine.” He paced in the other direction, claws digging into his palms.
He had a real problem here.
It had taken months of spying, careful planning, and deception to find a weakness in his uncle’s defenses and even more time to track down the smugglers and set up a plan to kill them and intercept the package with no one the wiser.
It could be another handful of months before such an opportunity arose—if ever.
He had to keep to his schedule and deliver the package at early morning’s light. But there was no way he was stuffing the omega back inside that sack and taking her anywhere near his uncle.
Weapon or not, she was his.
Did that decision seem fast? Insane?
One hundred percent.
His body didn’t give a damn.
The choice had been made. That was that.
Except he still had a murdered father to avenge and a birthright to reclaim—and with her about to become his prime omega, rising to head boss of the Approved Sector had only become more critical. An Alpha needed to provide for his female, after all.
Though he was off to a pretty shitty start with the whole locking-her-in-a-dungeon-cell beginning to their courtship.
He should be holding her, nesting with her, fucking her as she screamed his name and came over and over on his tongue and cock.
But he couldn’t touch her, and she clearly hadn’t been interested in sticking around, so he’d thought fast.
He’d covered her with that stinking bag and carried her to the only secure place he had in this whole shithole: the castle dungeon.
At least the space had light and air spilling from the window wells near the top of the cell walls. They were too high for her to climb, and lined with bars, but they offered ventilation, even if it was the sweltering Forbidden Sector air.
“You’re right. I’m not fine.” Her words jerked him from his thoughts. “I killed a male.” Her voice was tiny and sad, and it sliced through his flesh like a rusted knife. “How fine can I be?”
“You are not to blame. You warned us. Plus, the male who died was an omega trafficker who dared to touch you.” His voice thickened with menace. “His death is not on you.”
Truth be told, the other male’s end would have been a lot more gruesome if Magnus had gotten to him first.
She sighed and pushed to standing. “Look, there’s no need to pretend false kindness. You might not have known what I was when you stole me from the other smuggler, but you know now.” Pained amethyst eyes fringed by the darkest lashes connected with his. “So, just stop toying with me, Alpha, and tell me your plans. Are you going to demand I kill someone for you, or will you try to kill me yourself?”
“I told you before you will not be killing anyone for me. I can damn well take out my enemies myself.” He shook the bars, satisfied to see one bend beneath his fury. “And I would never kill you. You are mine to protect.”
She sighed. “Until you need me to do you a favor and take out someone you dislike.”
Such cynicism. And disrespect. The first response made him ache for her. She must have been betrayed plenty to have such a low opinion of others. The second response had his palm itching to issue a correction. But all in good time. First, he had to soothe her hurts and earn her trust. Then he could make her scream with pleasure and the good kind of pain.
“You will not be killing anyone for me. Ever.” He shook the bars once more. “That’s a guarantee.”
She didn’t look convinced. “How about when you need to stuff me back in that bag and deliver me to your uncle so you can access that underground entrance to the Approved Sector?”
He scowled deep. “How the hells do you know that?”
“My hands, mouth, and ankles might have been bound in that bag, but my ears work just fine. It was a bit muffled, but I overheard enough. I know you need to deliver the volatile weapon for your grand plan to succeed.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“We’ll figure something out.” It wasn’t the most comforting of answers for his omega, but it was the truth.
“That’s what I thought.” She turned away, but not before he caught the disappointment darkening her gaze, turning her eyes the color of shadows at dusk—or the hue of a long-term bruise on the skin that took forever to fade.
He had to make her see. “Whatever I decide on, you will not be harmed. Yes, I do need to deliver the bag as scheduled so I can gain entrance to the Approved Sector, but if I do bring you along, I will be at your side guarding you, shielding you, every step of the way. And you will kill no one. I will take care of the traitors myself.” His tone mellowed just thinking of how good it would be. “Then, once I have killed my uncle and rid my home of its traitors, you will become the queen of the Approved Sector. Everyone will bow at your dainty feet. I will be able to give you all the riches and splendor you deserve.”
“If you think that’s what I want, you’re mistaken.”
He frowned. “What is it you want then?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Her tiny hands curled into fists.
It was as if she squeezed the organ in his chest. He didn’t like seeing her in pain. Or the way she dismissed her desires as inconsequential.
“It does matter to me, omega. You will tell me what’s upsetting you right now.”
She glared at him. “You forgot one thing as you pieced together your grandiose plan. You may be able to use me as a free pass to get into the Approved Sector, but you can’t use me as an Alpha would an omega.”
“I haven’t forgotten, but you are mine. That is all that matters.”
“You can’t touch me,” she objected. “You can’t fuck me or breed me. No Alpha can. And my gift might seem like a terrific secret weapon at first, but you saw how easily accidents happen. I’ve had plenty of Alphas who declare they are keeping me, only to wise up once they realize how easy it is to lose control and give in to the craving to touch my skin. As many have tried to kill me as fuck me, but they’ve always died first.”
Rage like he’d never known mixed with the sharpest of a
gonies. Everything he’d been through paled in comparison to the horrors his omega had suffered.
It took him three tries to find his voice. “I want to kill every single one of those Alphas for even daring to try to touch you. But even more? It gives me an uncomfortable, tight feeling in my chest when I hear what you have been through, and I don’t like it. I like it even less that you have suffered without me there to protect you. But no more. No one will ever harm you again.”
She only blinked up at him.
“It is the truth.”
She sighed. “I can see you believe it. For now. But it won’t last.”
The sadness in her voice made the wounds she’d inflicted through her story bleed even more.
“It will,” he insisted.
“Vengeance is tied with greed as the single most common reason Alphas take me out of the bag. Moreover, it never ends well for anyone, including myself.”
His frustration increased. “I will protect you.”
“If you think using me is how to keep me safe, you haven’t been listening.”
“You don’t understand the situation. You’ve only just arrived. My father was murdered. My name slandered. My own brother and friends turned against me. My home is currently being ruled by the traitor who killed my father and blamed me for my sire’s death. I have no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
He growled low. “Omega, there will be a lot of rules to go over once you are mine.”
She looked away. “Do not make promises you cannot keep.”
He eyed the lock. He’d put it there to keep her in, but now he wondered how fast he could get it open and get himself inside.
“I need privacy.”
He bristled. “You will not send me away.”
She blushed. “I need privacy. For personal needs. I was in that sack a while.”
He calmed, soothed by the fact that she was not ordering him away. “Of course.” A stab of shame seared through him. “There is a hole in the floor by the far corner and a pail of water. It is there for that purpose. I will turn my back.”
It was her turn for outrage. “Is there any chance you could at least take me under guard to someplace where I can use a real washroom?”