by Leann Ryans
Stretching her neck forward to peek at the contents of the bowl, Lyric sat on the edge of the chair. Seeming to ignore her, the alpha dug into his own bowl of what looked like some kind of stew. Sitting the mug on the table next to her dish, she lifted a spoonful towards her mouth, licking a bit of the sauce from the edge of the spoon. Though slightly bland, her stomach demanded that she stop wasting time and eat it.
Curious at how hungry she felt even though she had eaten dinner just before the raid had hit her village, she tried to get some information from her captor.
“How long was I asleep?”
Not bothering to look up at her, he grunted, “Almost a whole day.”
Gasping, Lyric almost dropped the spoon, choking a little on a mouthful of the stew. His dark eyes glance up at her before returning to his bowl.
“You were exhausted and injured. You slept through the ride here because your body needed rest. It still does,” he said.
Swallowing hard, she looked down at her own bowl. “And, where are we?” she asked.
Lyric didn’t recognize the home, but she hoped that they were still in her village. She thought he was just going to ignore her question this time because he didn’t respond right away, but he finally sat back and wiped his mouth with one large hand.
“We are in a home on the border of your land where we stayed overnight on our way to your village. It was empty when we arrived, but it doesn’t seem to have been empty long. My men are camped outside with our wagons, and in the morning, we will return to our homes.”
Picking up her mug, she took a large gulp of the mead before asking her next question.
“And what is going to happen to me?”
The look he leveled at her said she should already know the answer to that. In her heart, she did. She was just hoping he would tell her something different. Getting up, he made his way around the table. Lyric pressed herself back into the chair as he got closer, knuckles turning white as she gripped the mug before her chest like a shield.
Leaning down before her, he placed his hands on the chair on each side of her and stared directly into her eyes. “Let me make it clear. You belong to me now. I captured you, and as soon as you go into heat in the spring, I will claim you. My teeth will pierce that milky skin covering your neck as my knot locks deep in your cunt. You will take my cock whenever I want you to, and be grateful that I let you live and chose you as my own instead of giving you to my men. I destroyed your village, so there is nothing for you to go back to. Nowhere for you to run that I can’t follow and find you. Anyone who helps you will die by my hand right before your eyes, so be careful that your actions do not cause the unnecessary deaths of others.”
Lyric stared at him in shock, mouth gaping open. No one had ever been so crude to her, and to casually mention that he would kill someone just for helping her left her speechless, but a slow anger began to burn within. Closing her mouth as he smirked down at her, she straightened herself in her seat.
“I belong to no one. You’re a murderer and I will never be grateful to you for destroying my life. While I may not be able to stop you from doing what you want to with me, I will never give in to you. I will fight you every step of the way.”
4. Lyric
She watched as his face clouded over in anger. The chair beneath her creaked as he leaned more weight onto it, snarling in her face.
“Once I bond us you will have no choice but to submit and act like a proper omega should.”
Wrapping one hand around the back of her neck he pulled her up from the chair, pushing her before him into the bedroom as she tried to dig in her heels and stop him. Lyric’s head was spinning from the mead and she regretted drinking so much of it. Throwing out her arm, she tried to catch the doorframe, but wasn’t able to before he had her propelled all the way to the bed.
Panic raising her heartrate, she shook her head as she tried to twist away from his hold. Nothing she did seemed to faze him, and Lyric found herself thrown face first onto the bed with her injured arm pinned underneath her from holding the sheet around her.
Attempting to wiggle away, she began to sob in fear as she felt the alpha’s bulk cause the bed to dip. Grabbing her good shoulder, he shook her a little.
“Stop struggling or you will injure yourself further,” he growled, but she continued trying to pull herself across the bed.
Lyric heard an irritated huff before feeling his weight settle over her, pinning, but not crushing her. She was held immobile besides the sobs wracking her frame, waiting for him to rip the sheet from her body. The alpha adjusted their positions until most of his weight rested next to her, but part of his chest still covered her back and his arm wrapped around her middle, pulling her against him. His leg rested over the back of her thighs and she could feel his erection pressed into the side of her bottom again, but he didn’t move any further.
After a moment she felt his chest begin to vibrate with a purr, Lyric’s instincts accepting the alpha’s assurance and easing the adrenaline rushing through her system. Her mind fought with the automatic reaction to relax, still not trusting that the alpha wasn’t about to take advantage of her.
“Stop thinking and sleep,” she heard him grumble from behind her.
“I could sleep better if you got off of me,” she growled back, attempting to shove his big body away.
He chuckled as Lyric barely made him rock before he was snuggling her closer.
“Sleep. Now,” he said, alpha command lacing his voice.
Her eyes began to droop and the longer she held still, the harder it was to fight the pull of the mead and her instincts. Giving in when the alpha’s breathing evened out in the deeper breaths of sleep, darkness took her.
***
Raider began to toy with the omega’s dark hair once she dropped off to sleep. He didn’t risk moving because he didn’t want to disturb her. She needed the sleep to heal, and they were going to be on the move again tomorrow. He regretted injuring her, but it had been the only way to pull her from the water at the time.
It was obvious the girl was going to be difficult and Raider couldn’t help the scowl that crossed his face. He had enough to deal with already. Hoping she would be one of those meek little omegas who did as he told them seemed futile, and he couldn’t help that her fire attracted him more than her submission would have. He wanted to say he never would have shot her if he had known she was an omega, but she had been struggling in the freezing water and he only had a few seconds to save her before the river would have washed her too far past him. He should have known by her trying to escape that she wouldn’t be easy to deal with.
Raider wondered if she knew what her father had done. Though she had said nothing about it, he could tell she was the daughter of the man who had ruled this area. He had seen her once when she was much younger, and she looked the same as she had then. Raider also knew they promised her to her father’s second who led the warriors, yet she called him a murderer. That man had more blood on his hands than Raider ever would.
He had only attacked her village in retaliation for the attack they had made on his. While Raider ruled his land with an iron fist, it was only to protect his own. He never would have come this far south to attack a village unprovoked. He had enough land and people to deal with, he wasn’t looking to expand his territory or take unnecessary risks.
Most of the lands that had been under her father’s rule would go to his ally for helping him. Too many of his warriors had received injuries in the attack on his village, and he hadn’t wanted to leave his home unprotected, so he had needed the help of the warriors from the neighboring Andtay clan to help commit his revenge. In exchange, they were taking two-thirds of the land and two of the omegas that had been captured. They would allow the rest of the people that had survived the attack to assimilate into either tribe once they were all sorted out.
Raider hadn’t meant to tell the girl he was going to claim her. She was in the home with him because of her injury, but he had t
o admit he was more drawn to her than any he had ever met. It had slipped out in the moment, but he wasn’t going to back out now. His people would be shocked that he was finally going to take a mate, but he figured it was past time to do it and make an heir. Even if he expected the girl to be a pain in his ass until she learned her place.
Trying to settle down so he could get some sleep as well, Raider buried his nose in her hair. Her delicious scent filled his lungs and he had to adjust himself. Though he had to wait for her heat to claim her, that didn’t mean he couldn’t find pleasure in her body before then, and he planned to do that as soon as she healed enough. He would not take her against her will as she had obviously feared, but he would win her attention and make her submit to him. The sooner it happened, the better.
5. Lyric
Lyric startled awake when the alpha shifted his weight off of her. Raising her head to look around, she watched his broad back as he rose from the bed. He hadn’t moved for however long she had been asleep, and considering that she felt well rested without a hint of a hangover, she must have been asleep for quite a while.
Moving her head caused the pain in her shoulder to flair back to life though.
Turning to look at her he said, “I must go wake my men and prepare them to move on. You have until I return to wash and be ready.”
With that, he strode from the room. Once she heard the front door close behind him, Lyric scrambled from the bed, still clutching the sheet around her in case he came back. Unable to resist, she crept to the front door and tried to open it, finding it locked.
Sighing, she hadn’t really expected it to be open. She wouldn’t be able to escape without clothes anyway. Hurrying to the little bathroom she found on the other side of the fireplace, she looked around until she found a clean cloth and soap. Laying the sheet where she would be able to grab it to cover herself if the alpha came back, Lyric used the rag to clean off as well as she could with one arm and not being able to take a full bath. Finger-combing her hair when she couldn’t find a brush, she pulled the dark locks into a twist at the base of her head to keep it from becoming any more tangled than it was.
She had just begun to look for something to eat in the kitchen when the alpha came stomping back through the door. Clutching the sheet around her with both hands, Lyric pressed her back to the wall as his eyes found hers and he made his way to where she stood. It took a moment for her to notice the bundle in the hand that he held out towards her.
“Clothes. Get dressed, we leave soon,” he said.
When she hesitated, he let out a huff.
“If you’re not dressed when it’s time to go, I guess you will ride in nothing but that sheet.”
Snatching the bundle from his hand, Lyric raced to the bedroom, closing the door behind her and bracing her back against it. Trying to hear past her thundering heartbeat to be sure he wasn’t following, she grabbed the table that had been beside the bed and placed it in front of the door before going to the farthest corner to dress. She knew the table didn’t have a chance of stopping the alpha, but it made her feel better to have that added layer between him and her while she was in a vulnerable position.
Struggling into the pants while still holding the sheet around her, she didn’t drop it until she was ready to pull the shirt on. It took a few minutes to maneuver herself into it without being able to raise her left arm, but she managed. They were men’s clothing and were too large for her, but she rolled up the sleeves of the shirt and tucked the leg of the pants into the top of the long socks he had brought her.
Opening the door of the room to peek out, Lyric noticed the alpha seated at the table with another bowl of food in front of him. Looking to where she had sat the night before, there was a bowl there as well, so she made her way over. He had pulled the chair in front of the bowl back and on it sat the boots she had been wearing when he caught her.
“We have nothing available the proper size for you, so I had those cleaned as well as they could be. They should be dry by now, but if they are not you must say so. Do not risk losing a toe because your feet are wet in this weather,” the alpha told her as she sat down to pull the boots on.
Nodding, Lyric attempted to slip her feet into them, but wasn’t able to with the use of only one arm. Getting up, the alpha came around the table and knelt, holding the tops of the boots for her to slip her foot into before lacing them up. The boots were still warm from sitting by a fire, and she sighed as the heat seeped into her toes.
“They are fine, thank you.”
Giving her a grunt, he gestured to her bowl and said, “Eat. We leave as soon as I am done.”
It looked to be the same thing he had given her the night before, so Lyric lifted the spoon and began to eat as fast as she could. By the time he stood from the table, her bowl was empty. Following him, he poured the last of the mead into a glass before stirring in a packet of something and handing it to her.
“For the pain,” he said. “Drink it all.”
Downing the mead as he watched her, they moved to the door once she finished, and she began to think of ways she could try to slip away as they traveled now that she had clothing and boots.
Before he opened the door to the outside, the alpha turned to look down at her. Lifting something from the table next to them, he held out a fur lined coat finer than any she had before. Reaching out to brush her fingers against it, Lyric met his dark eyes.
“Do not do anything foolish little omega. We may still be in your old clan’s territory for now, but I doubt you know this area. I also do not believe you can survive in the wild on your own with winter coming. Do not doubt that I destroyed your village, and anyone you meet from here on would be far worse for you than I am. Consider how generous I have been with you before you make any hasty decisions.”
He spoke in an even tone as if he thought he was doing the best thing for her.
Controlling her face and voice so that her incredulity didn’t show, she replied, “I understand.”
Continuing to stare down at her as if he knew the thoughts of rebellion taking root in her mind, he sighed and helped her slip on the coat before opening the door. Lyric followed close behind him as they made their way out into the cold, tucking her head down into the fur along the collar.
The air felt damp and heavy. Uncomfortably cold, like it usually was just before snow fell. Attempting to peer up between the tree branches, she saw a sky that looked dark and unforgiving. Pulling her coat tighter around her, she hurried to follow in the alpha’s footsteps.
Around her were the sounds of people and animals preparing to travel. Harnesses rattled, horses snorted and pawed at the ground as wagons creaked, and men yelled to each other. The rattle of pots came to her from a fire to their left where a few men still huddled over their bowls.
Barking words she didn’t understand, the alpha leading her made them jump to their feet, rushing to complete whatever it was he wanted from them. Everyone who saw him coming seemed to move a little faster, work a little harder, but there was no fear in their gaze like there would be with a cruel leader.
That was, until they passed the wagon in the middle of the line that seemed filled with a heap of furs. Curious as to why they would carry their blankets in a pile in the middle of a wagon that seemed more like a box with spaces between each slat, she peered through the side of the wagon to see frightened eyes staring back at her.
6. Lyric
“Wait, wait! Why are they in there?” Lyric asked as she ran the few steps to catch up to the alpha and grabbed his arm.
Turning back to look at her before lifting his eyes to what she now realized was a cage, he shrugged his shoulders.
“For transportation.”
Rolling her eyes and letting out an irritated huff, she tugged on his arm again as he tried to turn away.
“I know them. They are from my village. Why are they in there?”
He raised his eyebrows as he looked down at her and said, “Would you prefer they walk? They
haven’t been granted clothing as you have, I think they would prefer it where they are.”
Anger rising at what seemed to be his purposeful avoidance of her question, Lyric broke it down for him.
“Why. Are. There. Omegas. In. A. Cage?” she growled out, jabbing her finger at the wagon.
Turning around to face her, she had to back away as he came into her space, trapping her between himself and the wall of the cage where the other omegas were being held.
“Because none of them are injured and needing special attention. Because they are my captives, just like you. And, because they aren’t the omega I have chosen for myself, so I do not care if they are seen as the chattel they are by being transported in a cage,” he growled down at her, causing her body to tremble with something other than the cold.
“But...,” Lyric tried to speak up for them again but his rough growl silenced her.
“Unless you wish to be stripped and caged with them, you will remain silent,” he whispered against her ear, the brush of his warm breath against her skin causing her to shiver harder.
“Now, come,” he commanded as he straightened and turned to continue walking towards the front of the train that had formed and waited on its leader.
Shooting one last look into the cage, Lyric hung her head and followed him. Once they reached the front of the line, they found another large alpha holding the bridle of two horses. While shorter than the one laying claim to her, he was broader and much rougher looking. Speaking in whatever their native language was, the two talked for a moment before her alpha took the reins of a large, black beast of a horse, and the other alpha left with the second one.
Looking for another horse, Lyric was wondering if he planned to drag her behind his when the alpha grabbed her around the waist and lifted her onto the saddle. Squeaking as she gripped the horn with her good hand and wrapped her legs around the horse’s chest, she felt the alpha’s large body settle into the saddle behind her, pressing her against the hardened leather between her thighs.