December

by Merel Pierce

  ***

  As he stood, December tried in vain to pull herself off the knot that still bound them together. Her frightened attempt at escape only earned her another incapacitating growl as the male carried her towards the bathroom. Her eyes rolled back, her body twitching and leaking under the weight of the threatening noise. “Please, please I didn’t mean to!”

  “Stop talking.”

  Dread sat like lead in the pit of her stomach as the male let loose of her hair and jerked open the bathroom door. Tears rolled down her cheeks unbidden as he toted her inside, helpless to resist whatever awful fate awaited her.

  It wasn’t until he’d shown her the proof, that her own lips were stained with his blood, that had she realized what she had done. In her fear and desperation to keep him with her and save her own skin, she’d bitten the bastard. Hormones and anxiety had driven her to instinctively fight to hold on anyway she could. She’d marked him! Omegas didn’t mark alphas, or if they did they certainly didn’t initiate the pair bond first. It simply wasn’t done. Knowing the sort of man he was, she had no doubt that the unforgivable infraction would put an end to any further kindness he’d planned to show her.

  For a moment, December was worried he might kill her. Her imagination quickly painted a horrible, bloody picture of her being murdered in the bathtub. A practical choice really, as it was easy to clean up. Instead, he turned on the cold water and stepped into the tub. She sobbed miserably against his chest as the frigid water washed over them both, setting her teeth to chattering so loudly she was certain he would hear. It didn’t matter. She knew she’d be lucky if she had teeth at all when he was done with her.

  By the time she realized what he was doing, his cock had already softened enough for him to pull her loose from his deflating meat and set her on her feet in the basin. She stood with shoulders hunched against the cold, head down and arms wrapped tightly around her chest. She didn’t dare move, even when he reached behind her to shut off the water. The urge to flee was great, but she knew she could never best him. Even if she had, she’d still have his men to contend with. Whatever punishment awaited her, she only hoped it was worth saving his life. If he did worse to her than she imagined his enemies might, it would all be for naught.

  “On your knees.”

  December obeyed without protest. She stared mutely at his feet, watching the water drain away as an excuse to avoid acknowledging him. To her dismay, her avoidance didn’t matter to the man before her.

  “I am alpha, December. I am no beta. You cannot take liberties with me as if I were. I have treated you well, and you repaid my kindness by attempting to steal bonding rights!” The booming sound of the male’s anger startled her, and she was ashamed of how quickly the tears rose to her eyes again. “I can understand how you would seek to better your position by binding yourself to an alpha like myself, but it is simply not done!” He crouched before her, his thumb and forefinger framing the underside of her jaw as he forced her chin up. “Do not forget, you are here because I chose to bring you here. I could just as easily sell you into slavery to repay your debts to me. You will learn your place!”

  Her lip trembled, his words cutting more than she cared to admit. She wanted to defend herself, to tell him she’d done it to save his life. But he’d offended her already, and she didn’t think she could stand listening to him chastise her for claiming she’d seen his future. Instead, December stubbornly bit her tongue.

  “Look at me, girl.”

  She took an uneven breath and forced her gaze to travel up the length of his crouched form. She didn’t miss the fact that his erection had returned, or that he looked like a tiger ready to pounce. When their eyes met, her brow furrowed with confusion. Despite his seeming hostility, the look on his face was almost sympathetic. But when the slow, torturous growl he issued nearly doubled her over, and she decided she was a fool for thinking he would have pity.

  December moaned, folding her arms tightly around her middle as her body vibrated and gushed in response to his call. When he released her chin she tumbled forward, bracing herself on the heels of her hands as his growl continued to wrack her body. “The next few hours will be difficult for you, and you may hate me before it’s through,” he murmured hotly against her ear, his growl fading into the deceptively comforting purr she’d already become so dependent upon. “But do not forget the part you played in forcing my hand.” Slowly, the male got to his feet. “Now, sweet one, show me that you’re sorry, and perhaps I can find it in myself to be lenient.”

  ***

  He wasn’t lying. The next few hours were almost unbearable. December hadn’t realized just how gentle he’d been with her…until he wasn’t. The alpha rutted her over and over, his brutality leaving its print on her body in the form of bruises from rough hands. The worst part was that he took his time where he hadn’t before.

  In between matings, he used her instincts and body against her. He growled, licked, purred, stroked, and thrust with such expertise that she was sobbing and begging for him to stop as orgasm after orgasm shattered her. He left her in pieces on the floor or the bed, only to put her back together again once his cock was buried inside her and she was unable to escape what she truly was.

  By the time he was spent, he had proven his point tenfold. He was alpha, she was omega. Her body would bow to him whether she wished it or not. And if her mind did not follow suit, he would force it by obliterating every conscious thought she had and replacing it with pleasure that only he could give her.

  In the end, he drew a bath for them both. December was boneless and compliant when he carried her into the warm water with him and situated her against his chest. The prior even temper of her captor had returned now that she seemed appropriately subdued, and he was gentle as he washed his fluids from her skin and soaped her hair. She was exhausted, her mind numbed by the sensory overload. The strange sense of contentment that her forced submission created was troubling, but she was too tired at present to scold herself much for it. Instead, she allowed him to care for her without complaint.

  When they were both clean, he drained the tub and helped her out, patting her dry before depositing her on the vanity top. December regarded him with wary eyes and squeezed her thighs together, worried that he meant to take her again.

  As if he knew, he smirked wryly and opened the medicine chest on the wall behind her. Moments later, he was extending a gauze pad and some medical tape towards her meaningfully. “If you don’t mind?”

  For a moment, her tired mind didn’t understand. Then, she remembered. Her eyes settled on his throat where the angry twin crescent shaped wounds boldly marked her transgression for all to see. December frowned at the twinge of satisfaction the sight brought her, not approving of the possessive feeling it fostered for a man who would never be hers. A man she had inadvertently tied herself to for life, nonetheless.

  An unconscious pout formed as she took the materials from him and delicately pressed the bandage pad to his wound before taping each side down smooth against his skin. She tried to ignore the fact that his eyes never left her face as she worked, uncomfortable with the warm feeling his attention inspired low in her belly.

  “There, it’s done.”

  The male gave a hum of approval before pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Thank you, sweet one.” December chewed her lip self-consciously. She felt as if she should say something, but she hadn’t the foggiest notion what. The situation was confusing. Nikolai’s phone rang, startling her and effectively squashing any potential conversation between them. The male gave a frustrated hiss as he abandoned her to search for the device.

  Nervous, she slid off the counter and wrapped a towel around herself before venturing after him as far as the open portal. She paused with her hand against the door jam, holding her breath anxiously as she watched him stoop to retrieve his phone and answer the call.

  “What?”

  She knew why they were calling. Her brow furrowed with concern as she watched the male
’s expression shift abruptly from annoyance to shock, then morph again with a deadly fury that polluted the air with the stink of alpha aggression so quickly that she couldn’t help but take an instinctive step back.

  “Who did? When?” His hand went to his hip as he listened, weight shifting restlessly from one thickly muscled leg to the other. “How many men did we lose? And how many of our prisoners?” Nikolai cursed. “Did you take any of them alive?”

  It was over, she realized. He was safe. She was safe. While tension gathered in the man’s muscles, December’s own left her so abruptly that the ‘whoosh’ of air accompanying the slump of her shoulders drew the alpha’s attention. His eyes narrowed at her unintentional expression of relief, suspicion flickering briefly through the darkness of his expression as he continued to listen to the damage report. All the while, his eyes remained on her. “Keep it in house, I’ll be there soon.” Nikolai discarded the phone as soon as the call was done.

  The ferocity of his gaze alone held her in place as he stalked towards her, his movements so dangerous and feral that she had to grip the wooden frame of the door just to keep from shrinking away as he loomed over her. December lowered her eyes, desperately hoping that he wouldn’t take his rage out on her. Despite her fear, she knew better than to shy away and give the predator a reason to chase.

  Nikolai stood over her in silence, menacing and brooding. When his fingers clamped around her throat, she pursed her lips to muffle a nervous whimper as he forced her head back. The alpha leaned near, tucking his head beneath her ear to draw in a ragged breath. He went still, seeming to consider something he’d caught on her scent. To her surprise, the male groaned and drew in another lungful of air before his tongue darted out to taste her skin. All at once, his demeanor changed. December shivered, her body trembling now with a mixture of desire and fear.

  The male nuzzled against her cheek, the stubble of his jaw scratching a sexy sort of friction along her jaw as he pulled back far enough to kiss her. It was a possessive, consuming exchange that left her breathless and puzzled when he finally drew back and allowed his hand to fall away. “Get some rest,” he muttered as he retreated from the bathroom and began to dress. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but you should sleep while you can.”

  He glanced up as he fastened his pants. “You won’t be getting any once when I return.” She watched in silence as he finished dressing, retrieved his phone, and left the room. The lock turned over behind him and December let out a shaky breath.

  She stumbled to the bed, dropping herself onto the mattress as her remaining strength failed her. “Well. You’re not crazy, at least.” she muttered softly as she fell into the rumpled nest of blankets and rolled into a ball. “But apparently you are psychic, at least a little. And if that bastard finds out, he’ll never let you out of this room again.” December frowned. It was an even more dismal prospect than before.

  She lay in the silence of her nest alone for some time after the male had gone, considering the dire nature of her situation. December was just beginning to doze off when the unmistakable sound of gunfire broke through her haze.

  She shot upright, clutching a blanket to her chest as she clamored out of bed and went for one of the wrought iron lamps on the end table. Eyes on the door, she ripped off the shade and jerked the plug out of the wall. She ran to the closet, slipping inside and shutting the door behind her before she took a defensive position in the darkened corner, weapon raised and ready.

  She could barely hear for the sound of her own panicked breathing. Beyond her hiding place, the dulled sounds of fighting continued. A loud crash made her jump, her grip on the makeshift weapon tightening as she realized the door to Nikolai’s room had been breached.

  Outside, men were barking at one another impatiently. December couldn’t understand them, but she knew when they headed her way by the change of tone in the conversation. Obviously, the intruders had checked the room and knew there was nowhere else she could be hiding. She took a deep breath and readied her baseball stance, preparing to deck the first person through the door with the lamp.

  She never got the chance. The closet was wrenched open and before she could take a swing at the large form filling the open frame, he fired a weapon he’d already raised. December heard the vaguely familiar click of a plastic mechanism and felt the sting of a tasers prongs in her belly nanoseconds before he pulled the trigger and lit her up. The world went black.

  Chapter 13

  The physical damage to the transfer station was minimal. The loss of life, on the other hand, was extensive. Eight of his men were dead. Six prisoners and three assailants had also been killed during the invasion. Another five prisoners had been taken by the invaders his men hadn’t managed to kill. Unfortunately, his associate’s son was among the casualties. The boy was alive, but he had a long road to recovery ahead of him. It was a fucking disaster. Nikolai was in the middle of damage control with Bulgras when the second bombshell of the day dropped.

  They’d hit his home as well. Five more men were dead, and his omega was gone. The stricken enforcer couldn’t tell him if she’d escaped in the confusion or been taken. The security systems had been sabotaged, just like they had at the station. All he could say for certain was that there was no blood to insinuate she’d been hurt, and they hadn’t been able to track her scent past the back alley where she appeared to have gotten into or was put into a vehicle.

  His earlier concerns about the girl crawled back to the forefront of his mind. Her strangely cooperative behavior, the nightmare, her paranoia about his leaving. Originally, he’d written off the girl’s desperation to keep him with her as an instinctive need born of her heat.

  In the excitement of her marking him, the idea of it being something more sinister had drifted away as he focused on teaching her a lesson about who was in control. He hadn’t claimed her, intending to wait until she’d been so thoroughly used that she no longer had any doubt about who her true alpha was. Now, he had to wonder if he was right to be suspicious of her.

  The girl obviously hadn’t known about her true dynamic, but she might still have been a plant. There were problems with that theory of course. The fact that she’d almost died in the transfer station, for one. But it was possible the near tragedy only made her job easier, if indeed she was a spy of some kind. After all she’d gone straight from the pens to the boss’ bedroom. Now that he was away from her and able to think more rationally, her behavior did seem somewhat questionable. None of it mattered now, though. Not until he found her. And he would find her.

  Nikolai spent the rest of the day managing the disaster. By nightfall, his people were out in force, scouring the city for anyone who might have information about the attacks. By the time he returned home, a secure perimeter had been re-established and the most obvious damage had been repaired. The only room his men hadn’t touched was his bedroom.

  Aside from the door that was hanging cockeyed on one broken hinge, very little had been disturbed. A lamp was missing from the bedside table, a blanket was spread haphazardly across the carpet. The room stank of other men.

  As he moved slowly through the space, he retrieved the comforter from the floor, holding it to his nose as he made his way towards the closet. The little female’s fear tainted the fabric. He dropped the material when he came to stand in the open door frame, inhaling deeply as he stared down at the missing lamp where it had been discarded near a stain on the carpet that hadn’t been there before.

  Nikolai’s lip curled at the scent of the omega’s terror, perfectly preserved in the small space she’d been hiding, just like the scent of urine that had puddled on the floor hours before. Rage bubbled through his body as he stared down at the darkened patch of carpet, mortified by his earlier rush to judgment.

  The female wasn’t in on this. She couldn’t be. For a moment, he even found himself wondering if she’d been the target all along. You couldn’t fake the sort of fear she’d experienced when they came for her. Now, he felt
guilty.

  He abandoned his room, following the fading scent of his female through the house and out the backdoor into the alley two floors below. Just as his men had said, her trail stopped abruptly just feet from the door. Nikolai glared up at the worthless security camera above the back lot, annoyed that it had so easily been rendered useless by whatever hack the attackers had deployed on the closed-circuit system. Unfortunately, the attack had all the hallmarks of an inside job. It was concerning, to say the least.

  While he hoped that his men would turn up something in their search, he couldn’t stand the idea of sitting on his hands. Nikolai called for a car to be brought around, fully intending to make use of his time. He knew very little about his omega, and if he planned to find her it seemed logical that he should know everything he could about the female who had been stolen from him. Right now, he had only one lead in that department. It was time to pay Carlos Ortega a visit.

  ***

  A retirement village was an odd choice for a former sex trafficker. Nikolai thought it would have been more fitting to find the old man in a private home with a team of nurses in slutty uniforms doting on his decaying carcass. Instead, Ortega had taken up residence in a swanky uptown facility with brightly lit halls and opulent décor. The man had no shame.

  It was nearly ten at night, and visiting hours were obviously over judging by the locked front door. But locked doors didn’t matter to people like him. Nikolai pulled out his phone and made a call, and moments later a security guard was escorting him in. He stopped a nurse in the hallway, and the deployment of his considerable alpha charms easily earned him the location of Ortega’s room.