by Tamsin Baker
The Beta pushed himself back up and glared at me. “He’s a traitor to our pack.”
Seriously? This guy obviously wanted to die.
I stood up and stared down at him. “You betrayed Clayton the moment you let Sam beat him up every day. What sort of pack members stand by and let that happen?”
Suddenly there was banging on the door. “What’s happening in there? Everything okay? Angus?” It was Silky’s voice and coldness crept into my gut.
She waited long enough.
The Beta’s smile said it all.
Fuck. She’s in on it.
“Yeah, all good in here,” I called out to make her go away.
“You sure? We heard growling and banging.”
Yeah, I bet you did.
“Go away, Silky. My mate and I are getting to know one another.”
There was dead silence behind the door, then grumbles as they moved away.
Fucking bitch. I’ll deal with you later.
I looked down at our captor and my arms began to feel stronger. I was standing fine now and knew that if needed, I could throw this rubbish out on his ear.
“You were saying?” I asked, sitting back down in my chair.
“Ah… I’ll help you and I swear I won’t tell anyone what happened here.”
That was a point. I hadn’t even thought about the consequences of my actions there. I turned to look at my beautiful Omega whose first move had been to lock the door after he’d gotten up off the ground.
“Why’d you coax me back to human rather than let me kill this one?” I asked him.
“Because I was scared someone would see you in wolf form. You know the punishment.”
God, he’s lovely.
I nodded and turned back to the man before me. “Tell me what I need to know.”
The Beta wiped at the blood on his chin. “Well, my pack wants blood. We’re owed a debt over what you did to Sam. And if we can’t get anything from you, then we’ll take it from Clayton.”
“Touch him and die.” I growled and my heart rate spiked again.
The Beta’s mouth twisted. “Like I said, the debt needs to be paid. You know that Alpha.”
I did. But how? “What do you need? Food, clothing, shelter?” I could get them almost anything, and if it meant keeping Clayton safe when I wasn’t around, I could be generous.
“We could use some more women,” he said without humor.
“What about the women from southern packs? They have no men, no children. They would join your pack in an instant.”
“We’ve tried. They are impossible.” He wiped at his dripping chin once again.
If they weren’t amenable to the idea, I didn’t have any leverage over them to coax them into it. And could I in good conscience encourage women to join that pack? I’d ask Clayton.
“I’ll speak to them, but there needs to be some sort of vouch for safety. If the rest of your pack treats women the way Sam treated Clayton, I’d rather go to war than hand over defenseless women to you.”
The Beta opened his mouth, an angry look slashed across his eyes, but Clayton interrupted.
“The rest of the pack are quite timid in comparison, Angus.”
“You mean like the two who just tried to rape you?” I said, looking straight at the Beta and not at my Omega.
“They’ve always treated me differently, I don’t know why. But I’ve rarely seen a woman treated badly.”
I nodded, absorbing everything. An Omega was such a rare find, I hadn’t thought any existed. I wasn’t surprised that Sam had feared Clayton’s power.
“I’ll speak to them,” I declared. If it was mutually beneficial for both groups, I didn’t see why they couldn’t be stronger together.
The Beta nodded in acceptance of my promise and relaxed against the cupboards. His bleeding seemed to have stopped, his shifter genes knitting his flesh together where I’d torn at him.
A man in my pack may as well be dead without a hand to help him work and feed his family, but obviously Sam’s pack had got far too used to being lazy if this Beta begged for his life despite his torn limb.
“You were going to tell me who in my pack was against me,” I reminded him.
The Beta looked at me as though I should know. “That chick that was knocking on the door. Silky is it? The dirty blonde with the big tits.”
I nodded, my gut churning below my heart and making me sick. I knew what was coming next.
“It was her. She said she’d guard the door if we wanted free range on Clayton. I didn’t really want to go after him, to be frank. Not my style. But Tony wanted revenge, so I came along for the ride.”
I’d heard enough, and I wasn’t sure I could control my temper much longer.
“Get out. And make sure you stick to your promise. Not a word about what happened here. Your hand was an accident at the mill, or whatever.”
He struggled to his feet, slipping and sliding in a pool of his own blood.
“Yep, an accident at the mill it is. What are you going to do with Tony’s body?” He nodded his head towards his fallen pack member.
I shrugged. My first thought had been that I might just move out of the apartment for a year and let him rot.
But I was comfortable here and had finally got the place clean and organized.
“Don’t know. I’ll work something out. You need him?”
The Beta shook his head. “Nope. He ran away as far as I know.”
I watched the Beta as he left my apartment, opening, then carefully shutting the door behind him.
Clayton ran over to the door and locked it once again, going down on his knees to kneel beside the fallen Beta.
Perhaps they’d been lovers?
“I am so glad you’re dead, Tony. You were a real asshole.” Clayton’s dry voice cut through any possible jealousies that had surfaced and a laugh bubbled up inside me. “What are we going to do with him?” Clayton asked, gesturing to the man who was still bleeding over my tiles.
“Maybe I should offer him to some of the hungry vamps that patrol,” I suggested.
That would be a simple and easy way to get rid of the body. Mostly. They tended to leave a lot of flesh after draining the body of blood.
“Yeah, that might raise a lot of questions though.”
And I didn’t need any more attention than I’d already gotten, but hiding was not my style.
“True, but then again, a peace offering to Vincent may be the next move. I’m not sure how long I can stay here under the rule of the vamps anyhow.”
Clayton stood up and moved to my side. “Do what you need to do, Angus. But if you’re gonna offer him to the vamps, they like ‘em fresh.”
Good point. Better get on it.
“So true, and I think that’s just decided it for me. Time to find Vincent.”
Chapter 6.
Clayton.
Standing next to a dead body again was giving me the creeps. The hairs on the back of my neck were erect and my belly churned with memories of my family’s deaths.
My friends. My lovers.
Everyone had died on me in the past ten years, and although I thought I’d grown pretty good at becoming numb to the trauma… I was wrong.
I looked down at the floor of Angus’s apartment. There lay a man that had beaten me and tried to rape me today. Who had succeeded in the past.
He was now dead and for some horrible reason, that was very satisfying. And sickening to me.
Why was this world so cruel, and disgusting? Why were we always at war? Never safe?
I moved away from the dead Beta and curled up into a ball on the couch, in my clean clothes I’d been given by my Alpha. I loved these leggings, and was so glad Angus had kept three pairs, despite the fact they didn’t fit him and no one in the pack wore them. I liked to think that he held out hope that I would come to him one day. I’d certainly had dreams of him.
I needed to cling to something like that, because there had to be a reason we’d both gone
through so much shit before now. I only wished he’d found me five years ago. We’d be so much happier and stronger now if he had.
A nagging childhood memory swam up to meet me and for once I didn’t fight it for fear of the trauma it would invoke. It was my mother telling me something about my mate. I closed my eyes and listened hard, the words swimming in circles around in my mind. I listened harder and heard it. What I’d been praying for, what I’d always known.
My eyes popped open and I jumped up. “I knew it!”
I’d always known there was something special about me! And it was this. My mother had once told me that an Omega, when properly mated, could give an Alpha twice the power. The strength. The healing capacity.
I was his steroids! And I could be forever—if we mated properly.
But a true mating was a meeting of hearts and souls, not just bodies. I was ready to connect, whole-heartedly to my amazing Alpha, but was he?
I bit my lip, unsure on the answer to that question.
The front door opened and I pushed the thoughts away for the moment. I’d tell Angus about my revelation when we had time, and preferably after I knew how he felt about me.
“Vincent wants him,” Angus announced, scooping up the dead body on our floor and throwing him over his shoulder.
“You’re going to just take him out there like that?” I squeaked.
That could spell death for Angus.
Damn it! We need to mate, like now! I wouldn’t worry so much about him if I knew he was stronger.
“Yep. They were the terms. You stay here and clean up if you can, I’ll be back.”
Angus turned to walk away and I stuck to his heels.
“Not a chance. I’ll clean the floors later.”
The alpha lingered by the door and I gave his shoulder a push. I wasn’t being left behind.
“Let’s go.”
Angus grunted in a strange sound of acceptance and we both walked outside into the darkened night. The sun had gone down while we talked to Craig and now the vampires would be out and roaming.
We had some streetlights luckily, but it was still eerily dark out here in comparison to the inside of our apartment.
The vampires were waiting in the street, a large group. At least ten.
My heart clenched tight in worry, but I stuck close to Angus, not wanting anything to happen to him. The wolves filled in behind us. Most of them my old pack.
Following Tony’s dead body.
Damn. This was bad.
The hairs on my arms rose and my ears tingled. We could both die. Right now.
“Here you go, Vincent. As promised.”
There was a growl behind us as Angus dumped the carcass on the ground, still warm for the vamps.
“And this man was a traitor you said?” Vincent enquired, his leathery, creepy face making me cringe as he spoke.
He reminded me of some of the original Dracula movies I used to watch as a child. And he gave me the creeps.
“He broke pack law. They attacked my mate, and I punished him accordingly.”
There was an aggressive titter behind us and Vincent’s eyes lit up with the scent of a fight.
“Feed,” he instructed his coven with a flick of his wrist.
The vamps opened their mouths like rapid bats, their fangs descending so that they could latch onto the flesh of my fallen pack member.
Vincent walked slowly towards us as his coven descended on the dead body. Angus met the vampire leader eye to eye and twisted us both so that I was behind him and we now faced my old pack.
“Does anyone have anything to say?” Vincent asked the mob.
“Yeah, Angus owes us!” one Beta yelled out.
“Double now! He’s killed two of our men,” another woman yelled out.
Vincent turned on Angus with a gleeful expression.
“Is this true Angus?”
My Alpha shook his head slowly.
“No. They blame me for Sam’s death, but that wasn’t my fault. He broke the law. You followed through. As for that sack of shit...” Angus indicated over his shoulder to where the vampires were draining the dead body. “He deserved to die for attacking my mate. No one tries to hurt Clayton and lives to tell the tale.”
That wasn’t entirely true, of course. But I was loving the stand Angus was making in my honor. Though, with ten Vampires at our backs and an angry pack in front of us, we may not live long enough to enjoy it.
“I make the laws Angus, not you,” Vincent reminded my Alpha, with that sing song voice he had that somehow made him seem even more deadly.
The air around us went silent, crackling with nervous energy.
Where was Angus’s pack when he needed back up?
“We may live under your laws, Vincent, but I’m still a wolf shifter and will discipline the wolves how I need to, to keep the peace.”
I inhaled sharply as Angus took a stand I didn’t expect him to.
“Really?” Vincent breathed, his eyes turning an eerie red. “I won’t take a challenge to my position, Angus.”
Angus crossed his arms over his chest. “And who will give you the electricity you need for the city if you kill me, Vincent? You know I’m the last of the Alpha wolves. You’d need every shifter in the city to work in the power plant to get done what my one pack does.”
“Perhaps I’ll just kill your little mate as punishment for your outburst then.” Vincent snapped his fingers and my neck was pierced with sharp teeth.
I screamed out and lurched for Angus.
A feral growl ripped through the air and Angus’s huge black wolf leapt at the two vamps holding me.
The sucking pressure and pain on my neck disappeared and I fell to the ground. I crawled forward, twisting onto my back so that I could see Angus taking out the two vamps. Tearing them in two with feral clamps of his jaw. Then he sauntered back to me in wolf form.
On instinct I fell to my belly on the dirt and Angus walked over me, pausing when he had me completely beneath him. Protecting me. Engulfing me. Making everyone aware just how important I was to him.
He didn’t move, but I could feel the vibration in his muscles, in his breath. The growl in his throat. The barely contained power and hostility.
Where was his pack? Where was his back up?
I lifted my head and saw Vincent step closer. Angus didn’t move, despite the fact that a vampire’s bite was deadly to him in wolf form.
“You can shift back, Angus,” Vincent said, his voice sounding bored and relaxed.
I knew better than to trust his tones.
Slowly Angus began to change, his legs shrinking and his fur disappearing until he was crouching over me, naked and covered in blood.
“The punishment for shifting is death,” Vincent declared, though no one moved to take Angus’s life.
Then it came to me. The Omega powers! I could give him so much more strength if he let me mate to him. He would be invincible.
“As is the punishment for touching my mate,” Angus garbled between his still pointed teeth. “I have bowed down to you out of respect for the way you run this town, Vincent, but make no mistake, I am still an Alpha, and will die before you touch my mate again.”
Angus stood on legs that I could see were still shaky. I jumped up and leaned against him to give him a crutch, wiping at the blood still pouring down my neck.
Angus pressed against me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.
So much for wondering if he was ready to mate me or not.
From Angus’s speech, and his actions, it seemed that the Alpha had already chosen me as his mate and the happiness that flowed through my chest made my knees weak.
“I cannot allow this,” Vincent said, lifting his chin high in the air.
I empathized with the vampire. He needed Angus to keep working, and yet a punishment was needed for his “bad behavior”.
“How ‘bout we leave and never come back?” I suggested, finding my voice through sheer fear.
Angus strai
ghtened taller, though his muscles still trembled. Poor guy still wasn’t used to shifting again. I couldn’t imagine the pain he was in.
“Angus can’t leave his pack, little one, don’t you know how Alpha’s work?” Vincent sniggered at me.
“Then we’ll take the pack with us,” I said and Vincent’s gaze darkened.
He liked having powerful slaves like Angus and he wouldn’t give them up in a hurry. “No.” Vincent’s word was absolute, and I began to panic.
What the hell could we do now?
The Omega power. Surely, I could help him?
“I have one more suggestion. You need a suitable punishment to be dished out, and yet Angus is not able to give you what you need. So, would a fight to the death be a suitable compromise? Angus against your biggest warrior?”
Angus stared down at me as though I’d lost my mind, but I had a plan of course, and didn’t back down.
“Would that work, Vincent? As a way of settling the debt?”
Poor Angus wasn’t saying anything, thankfully trusting me.
Vincent stuck his nose in the air. “The rule would have to be no shifting, and if Angus wins he would have to swear never to break that law again.”
I bit my lip. I wasn’t sure if the power I could give Angus would transfer into his human form, but if he was fighting a vampire, it would probably be safer to fight in human form anyway.
“That sounds fair, Angus? What do you think?”
He stared at me for a moment, and I put as much love into my gaze as I could. Please trust me.
“Alright. Tomorrow night,” Angus agreed.
Perfect. We could do the mating tonight and tomorrow he could heal and be back better than ever.
Vincent raised his voice so everyone could hear. “Sun down in the town square, Angus. Don’t be late. Remember, you can’t protect your little mate every moment of the day.”
Angus ground his teeth together hard enough to make a grinding noise like a truck putting on its brakes. Luckily though, he didn’t say anything. And the old vampire swept away with his remaining coven.
Some of the other shifters fell away, seemingly content knowing that a huge fight was about to happen. I grabbed Angus around the waist to help him back to our apartment.
Two men stepped forward, whom I’d seen at the power plant but didn’t know by names.