by Tamsin Baker
I kissed his hairy chest, tasting the tang of his sweat and sighing as I laid my head back on his shoulder. “Me too.”
And that had to be enough, for now. Any lingering feelings that there was so much more for us to experience would have to be silenced and pushed aside until the right time.
With vampires in the power seat and my old pack not speaking to me, danger was around every corner.
I closed my eyes and focused on the small peace I’d found. In the arms of an Alpha.
Chapter 5.
Angus.
A week after I’d taken Clayton in to be my house mate, things had never been better. I looked forward to waking up in the morning, going to work with him by my side, then coming home again together. Clayton was sweet and cheeky and sexy as hell. Not to mention, a hard worker. An addictive combination.
I’d never imagined myself having a male mate, but with the attraction that roared between us I had to face facts. He was the only person I could see myself with.
When you added in the myths I’d heard about Omega’s and Alpha’s being the perfect partnership, I was beginning to believe that we were bound to be mates for life. But was Clayton ready for such a thing? For the strongest of all bonds? Mated to me, a man who seemed to incite the worst in our enemies. It was taking all of my strength and self-discipline to play along so that we didn’t all end up in a fight with the vamps.
Did Clayton love me yet? Or was I simply a means to an end in this vicious world?
“Silky.” I nodded at the female who’d once shared my bed as we walked back to the center of town after work. Surely, she’d gotten over her jealousy of Clayton by now?
“Fuck off,” she flung back and walked further away from me. Something she wouldn’t have dared to do if we were back in the old world. Disrespecting an Alpha in such a way would carry with it a major penalty. And she knew it.
Bitch.
Clayton’s hand slipped into mine for a moment, drawing me back to the warmth of my present day and the loss of all the old ways. “Don’t worry about her. Sour grapes, as my mother would say.”
I nodded and tried to ignore the gripping coldness in my gut. Silky had always been a good companion, of a sort. A necessary means to an end when we were both lonely. She’d never shown any signs of being vindictive or nasty.
That had obviously changed. Since I’d chosen to take Clayton in, she’d become a person I didn’t recognize anymore. The death stares I received from her rattled the Alpha inside me. The Alpha long buried and not allowed to surface, for fear of death. Not just for me, but for my pack. The people I still loved and protected, though our cohesiveness was not what it used to be.
My hands tightened into fists and I pushed the anger down, hard. I shouldn’t be blaming Silky for how impotent I felt in this world ran by power hungry vampires. It wasn’t her fault that I couldn’t be the Alpha I wanted to be. The vampires were the main reason for that. Them, and this horrible new world. I was certain the crack-pot who devised the virus that killed off all the humans must have been a vampire. Their lust for power was insatiable.
The idiot hadn’t thought about what they’d all feed on with the humans gone, but then again, who knew what the original plan was? And if it had gone down accordingly or not.
“Do you think the vampires will ever decide to just kill us all?” Clayton asked suddenly and I pulled him to the side, close to the entrance to our apartment block.
“What are you talking about?” My mother had always said that Omega’s had incredible instincts, and if Clayton was foretelling trouble, then I was listening.
Clayton shrugged, his gaze darting away as though uncomfortable. “I just always wondered, that’s all. If they didn’t need us for blood, what would they do with us?”
I shrugged, very quickly wanting to finish this conversation. I wanted to focus on the connection building between us. So, I let my hand run over Clayton’s cheek and turned his face back to mine. I liked looking at him, much more than I wanted to admit to myself. Life in this world was a fleeting, precarious thing, and I didn’t want to even think about what would happen to my sanity if something happened to Clayton now.
My pack needed me, but I wasn’t sure I could handle the loss of my mate. One of the main reasons I wasn’t rushing into a true mating just yet.
“I don’t know, Clayton. But for now, we’re safe.”
“True.”
My little Omega cuddled into me and my hunger for food moved sharply into a lust for his body against mine.
“How ‘bout you go up to our apartment and I get us some dinner?” I suggested.
His eyes lit up and he turned to press his pelvis against my hip. “You’ll bring it back to the apartment?”
I dropped my head and kissed his luscious lips, unable to stop myself. “I will. You go get yourself naked for me and I’ll meet you in bed with our food.”
Clayton’s gorgeous face transformed into a beautiful smile as he absorbed my words and nodded happily.
I watched him walk away, loving the strength of his back, the muscles that were beginning to grow on his thin frame. Some food, decent sleep, and physical exercise every day and he was blossoming.
Once Clayton was safely inside my apartment building and heading for our home, I turned and made my way into the center of the city.
I did have to admit that the vampires did have everything running well. We had jobs, electricity, food, and water every day. But we were living under an oppressive dictator who wanted to rule us by sheer force. With threats to our lives and those of our children.
And I couldn’t live with that.
I wandered to the street where the food vans and troughs were set up. I could smell a stale flour and meaty scent. I tried to imagine that it was an exotic Indian restaurant. With poppadum’s and curries for all.
I stepped up to the long line, watching as the different shifters moved around each other with caution. To my right sat another wolf pack, or what was left of one. They were devoid of children and men. Most of their elders had been killed in the fighting, and the children were soon picked off by the vampires afterwards. The women looked utterly worn down, and I didn’t know why they didn’t try to integrate with us.
To my left was a group of shifters that smelled feline, though I’d never seen them in animal form so I couldn’t tell which big cat they were exactly.
The numbers were stacked in our favor in this city. There was ten times the shifters than there were vampires, even when you took into account their daylight protectors, the cougars. We outnumbered them dramatically.
I didn’t know why we couldn’t just get our shit together and as a group, work out a way of getting rid of the vampires. But if we succeeded, would that take us back to the times of fighting amongst ourselves? Would packs turn on one another and throw us into the dark ages once again?
I grabbed up two plates and offered them to the dirty women serving us.
“Thanks.”
The women ducked their heads as I moved along the line, collecting more flavors and food. I grabbed some flat bread and slid it onto Clayton’s plate. He needed more calories with the hours he was working now. I turned to head back to the man I would soon make my mate and was shoved from behind, hard. I fell forwards, dropping my food to the dirt.
“What the fuck?” I twisted around and clenched my fists, ready for the fight this person obviously wanted.
There were three men in front of me. All Betas. A foot shorter than me, they exuded a scent of fear and anger.
“You killed our Alpha,” they claimed, an aggressive tilt to each of their jaws.
The front one had his teeth clenched and his chin jutted forward as though he wanted a fight.
I looked closer and recognized one of them from Clayton’s old pack.
“Firstly, I didn’t kill anyone. Sam broke the laws and the vamps followed through with their punishments. Secondly, he was no Alpha. So, don’t go spouting some vengeance plan, because I gotta te
ll you, you guys deserve a better leader than that.”
The three men looked between themselves, steam practically blowing out their ears as they snuffed and snorted.
I wasn’t interested in this shit. I’d dropped Clayton’s food, and they were going to pay for that. “Now, you are going to re-fill some plates for me, because I need to take some food home.”
The man at the front of this merry band of Betas narrowed his beady eyes at me. “Get your own god-damn food.”
I already did… I took a step closer to the Beta and stared down my nose at him. I didn’t want a fight, but since they’d started it, I was certainly going to finish it. I grabbed him around the back of the neck, forced him forwards until he was almost kissing his own knees and growled at the other two, “Stay.”
They did, and I dragged the Beta to the end of the food line.
“You are going to stand in line and get me my food. I didn’t start this, but if you force me to defend myself, I am not accountable for the consequences.”
The idiot began to laugh, which sounded like a strangled chortle from where I was standing.
“You’re finding something funny?” I asked him, struggling to hold in my temper. This idiot was really pushing his luck. Didn’t he know that I could crush his skull with my bare hands.
“Yeah. I do.”
My gut began to twist and I suddenly knew something was wrong. This was a diversion. I wrenched him back up, grabbed his twisted and dirty ponytail, and held him tight. “What’s funny?”
He flicked his gaze to me and I saw the devilish merriment dancing in his eyes. “You’re here talking to me while the boys lay into your little slut. I hope he remembers how to take it like a good Omega.”
Fuck! I ploughed my fist into the beta’s gut and he doubled over. I didn’t stop to check where the others were, I just started running.
No! Fuck… No! Not now.
My heart pounded like an anvil against my ribs and my throat tasted like the acid of my heaving stomach. I jumped over some stray children playing in the street and caught a whiff of open sewer that needed to be fixed up. Then kept running.
Silky was standing outside our building with a grin on her face, obviously keeping guard. Fucking bitch. I could hear groaning from inside the hallway.
Damn. Fuck. Shit.
I ran straight past her, pushing her roughly out of the way as I wrenched the door open and belted up the hallway. An angry cry met my ears as I raced into my apartment and saw two men laying into Clayton. He was bloody and on the ground. His clothes had been ripped from him, but he was fighting back.
These guys needed to die.
I kicked the door shut with my leg and released my hold on the animal inside me.
Fuck the consequences.
My black Alpha wolf ripped forward, shredding my clothes and pouncing straight over to the man who’d been hitting Clayton with a bat.
My muscles hurt like they were empty. Like they had no blood in them. My legs were awkward as I ran. It had been so many years since I’d shifted, this body felt foreign to me. But my mate needed me and I wasn’t going to fail him again.
I sunk my teeth into his arm and ripped sideways, pulling his hand off in a spray of blood. Lightning pain shot through my face and jaw as I made my wolf body move against its will.
He screamed out and I bit into his thigh, sinking my teeth deep to the arteries.
Die, fucker!
The other guy ran for the door and I bounded after him, grabbing him by the calf and ripping the muscle off the bone. The man screamed out in terror and metallic blood slid down my throat and sprayed my face.
All I could see was red, and my beautiful Clayton still lying on the ground.
Hurt. Broken. Bleeding.
When I’d promised him I’d never let him be hurt like this again.
Anger shredded the last of my humanity and I ripped into the man before me, tearing at essential veins until he was bleeding out in a river of red.
“Angus! Come back! Angus!” Clayton was calling for me and I stared at him, not understanding why he’d be calling to me.
He was getting up off the ground, his head cut open, his face bruised and broken.
Those…fucking…bastards…
“Angus, my beautiful Alpha, come back. Shift back.”
He was trying to calm me down, and I didn’t understand why. There was another man still alive and I wanted him dead.
“Angus, they’ll come and see you shifted. Hurry.”
My vision began to clear. The all-encompassing redness dissipated like a lifting fog. I let go of my wolf, the poor shifter body that I barely lived in anymore. Coming back to human was even more painful than the original shift, if that was possible. My arms and legs cried out in agony as the muscles twisted and shrank.
I closed my eyes and dropped back my head so I didn’t cry out like a weakling.
Finally, the pain receded like the tide, taking with it my strength. I slumped against my table and grabbed hold of a chair for balance. Fuck. I’d be useless if anyone wanted to fight me now.
Clayton ran around behind me and locked the door. Beautiful boy. Worried about me. Then he came straight to me. “Angus, oh my God. Are you okay?”
He ran his hands over my sweating body and my heart squeezed tight in my chest.
“Me? Are you okay? How badly did they hurt you?”
His pants were on the ground where he’d left them and his shirt was ripped so bad it slithered off his shoulders the moment I touched it.
Completely naked now, covered in purple and red bruises, he shrugged. “I’ve been worse.”
And that statement almost did me in.
“Alpha, please don’t kill me.” The pleading words came from the man on my floor.
I pushed myself to my feet, as straight as I could stand, and pulled Clayton behind me.
“Why shouldn’t I?” I growled, glaring at him with all the strength I could manage.
The only thing keeping me from grabbing a knife from the kitchen and finishing the job was the fact that it didn’t look like they’d raped Clayton. If that had been the case I would have dragged myself over on my hands and knees if I’d needed to, and got the job done.
The Beta was holding his severed arm to his body, blood still seeping down his chest.
If he’d been human, he’d be dead already.
“Because I can help you. Give you information on what’s going on in your pack, my pack. I’ll work for you.” The Beta bartered for his life.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “My pack? Are you telling me that my own people are going up against me? Against Clayton?”
He nodded rapidly. “Yes. And if you spare me, I’ll tell you everything.”
Anger pooled in my gut and I struggled to breathe. My wolf was so very near the surface of my consciousness. He demanded to be set free.
Clayton’s hands were suddenly on my back. They were stroking my spine in a reassuring way. He caught my attention and dragged my humanity back to the surface.
I managed to push back the wolf and keep my human tongue. “I’ll spare you. I want to know what Judas I have in my camp.” I turned my head to look at Clayton, whose eyes were swollen and cut from this man’s ministrations. “Only if you agree too, Clayton. This is your attacker. If you want justice, I’ll gladly deliver it.”
The Omega shook his head, appearing to barely think about my question. “No. I want to know what’s going on too.”
A trickle of blood ran down Clayton’s face and he wiped at it with an impatient hand.
“Why don’t you wash your face, get some clean clothes on, and come back? I won’t start without you.”
I cupped his chin with my hand while I spoke and Clayton met my eyes as though assessing my honesty. Then he nodded and headed off to the bathroom to do what I asked him to.
I collapsed into the chair, struggling to get my breath.
“It hurts, doesn’t it? Shifting after so long,” my prisoner
on the floor said as he pulled himself to a seated position, and now leaned back against my kitchen cupboards.
“How would you know?” I asked him, ignoring my need to crawl over and pummel his face until he could no longer speak.
How dare they come into my home and beat on my mate?
Settle, settle.
My heart was still pounding and the sweat on my face was only beginning to dry.
“We go outside the city sometimes. Shift, run, do our thing. Then come back.”
How did I not know about this? “How do you have time to do that?”
He tilted his head to the side.
“We don’t really have a job. The vamps never got ‘round to giving us one.”
I grunted. “More like, you should be joining us up at the power plant, and instead you guys are sitting on your asses doing nothing all day.”
He nodded slowly, as though he didn’t want to argue with me.
Clayton came back into the room, his hair wet and slicked back. His body now covered in warm, dry clothes. I could see his accelerated healing kicking in on his face already.
“What did I miss?” Clayton asked. He sat down beside me at the table, his hand reaching out along the table top as though searching for me.
I addressed Clayton. “The Beta was just telling me that they run and shift outside the city borders because they’ve got nothing else to do in the day.”
Clayton grimaced. “I never knew where they went during the day, but I’m not surprised. Sam’s pack are ridiculously lazy.”
“Better than being a cunt like you,” the Beta spat at Clayton from the ground.
I stood up on legs that weren’t entirely solid, walked straight over to the bleeding Beta on the ground, drew back my arm, and punched him in the face. The crack of breaking bone sounded in the room. I took a few steps back and looked at him.
The Beta fell to his side once again, blood gushing out of his nose.
“Mind your fucking mouth,” I said to him. “This is my mate, and the man that saved your life. You’d be dead now if I had my way.”