by L. V. Lane
My Omega.
My Princess.
All fucking mine.
A little voice was telling me it was more complicated. But I had just killed men so I could have her, and the primitive part of me wasn’t to be denied.
I started walking, vision locked on my target. The ringing in my head was lifting, and the roar of the crowd rushed in. A wild cacophony, of chanting, shouting, and the rattle of the mesh walls containing the crowds fierce enough to test its integrity.
It held. Not that I paid it any heed.
I had one destination, and the rest of the world might as well not exist.
I lurched forward two steps before her scent hit me. How the fuck had I blocked it out? Whatever mechanism I had called upon was now lost to me, and the rich, sweet scent of her pheromones hit me harder than any of the former blows.
I don’t remember how I got to Lilly. The cage had been lowered and was open, the guards were gone, and there was nothing in my way.
She whimpered when my fist closed over the front of her throat.
I growled, and she responded in like, her tiny hands clutching at my wrist.
My lips tugged up on one side. I shook her; a reminder that I was the Alpha, and she growled at me again.
The real world faded out, and instinct took its place. She was in pain, and she needed to be fucked.
Fucked; right here and now.
My fist tightened around her throat, feeling her burning flesh under my skin. Distantly I was aware of how cold it was, but she was in heat, and even the icy environment could not penetrate such a condition.
I needed her on her hands and knees.
But something was in my way.
Not something, someone.
My glare lowered to the hand pressed into the center of my chest, then rose to meet the eyes of its owner.
Ryker was the complication my brain had been warning me about. I was sinking into my rut, had enough blood lust running through me to be deadly even without it—only Ryker would be crazy enough to get in my fucking way. “Interfere, and I will kill you,” I said. My voice sounded deep and animalistic. “She’s in heat. She needs me, and she can take it.”
I didn’t know how I knew this, but the tiny Omega before me was mine, and I would die before I would harm her. “She needs to be fucked, rutted and knotted,” I said because she did. I harbored neither the will nor inclination to resist, and if he didn’t remove his fucking hand, I was going to rip it off.
Ryker recognized this too, but his hand remained planted. He had clipped a nose-filter on, which I distantly acknowledged was a sensible precaution. “Not here. She needs comfort—a nest.” He shook his head. “Don’t do it here. She won’t stop you. I can’t fucking stop you, but not like this.” His voice was the gentle, coaxing one he reserved for Lilly. “Safe. She needs to be somewhere secure. Where we can protect her. That’s not here, Ethan.”
The tiny woman whose throat I had closed my fist around, trembled. I wasn’t hurting her, just holding her. My other hand had poised at the catch on my armor.
Not here, she needs to be safe.
The roaring, feral crowd, registered. “Where?” I asked.
He stepped back. “We have a room. Dax prepared a room, remember? Full of soft things, so she can nest…if she wants to.” His gaze shifted to the trembling Omega, and I growled.
He backed up another step.
The urge to fuck and dominate her hadn’t eased, but I was rational enough to recognize a secure site with a nest was preferable to my rutting her like a beast on the blood-soaked floor surrounded by a militant, blood-thirsty horde of our Empire’s worst scum.
“Take me there,” I said, and dropping my hand from her throat, I tossed her over my shoulder.
We pressed through the crowds. And the team was waiting to guide us through, similarly protected against her rich scent. Dax, the two Deltas, and the whole of Hudson’s team including, Logan, Eloise, and the little Healer, Anna, who insisted on checking Lilly. My tension eased a notch as we reached Dax’s complex.
They’d had to drag me off this godforsaken planet, and now I couldn’t wait to leave.
I would leave soon enough.
First, I had someone to take care of…and a debt I might never be able to repay.
I never hesitated to call in a favor, but I was just as quick to give them out.
“I owe you all,” I said.
“No, you don’t,” Hudson said. He laid a big hand on my unoccupied shoulder. “This one’s on the house.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I’D BEEN DRUGGED during most of the competition—and I used the word loosely—because that sickening show belonged in a category of its own. Their drugs had kept my body in a state of flux, but as the fight continued, I sank deeper into the hormonal rush.
My first, non-medicated heat.
Alpha pheromones had hit me the moment they brought me to the pit. The cage from which I had viewed those horrific events wasn’t high enough or far away enough to protect me from their scent.
It was over now, Ethan had come for me.
I was enclosed in an elevator with Ethan and Ryker, and they were arguing about something that my fuddled brain couldn’t process. I was dangling over Ethan’s shoulder, and he was growling—the violent kind.
“That bastard belonged to me,” Ethan said, voice thick with threat.
Ryker responded in his soft coaxing voice, but there was an underlying insistence to it, and whatever they were discussing, Ryker wasn’t backing down.
I wished I knew what they were saying, but only the odd word or phrase penetrated.
I was hot, a strange, unnatural kind of hot. It wasn’t a flush, although I was flushed. The thick pounding was making its presence known, and I’d been disappointed when Ethan hadn’t taken my blood immediately.
Why was I feeling so hot?
My little scrap of a dress made the standard Healer attire look conservative. It barely covered me, and there was nothing underneath it. Yet, I was so feverish that even this felt constrictive, and I wanted nothing more than to rip it off. My deep breath drew their combined scents into my lungs—rich and spicy, wild and earthy.
My restless fidgeting earned me a smack. There was nothing playful about it—Ethan’s big hand connected with the force of a thunderclap.
“Keep fucking still, or you’ll get another!”
I understood those words. And I liked the aggression behind them—wanted Ethan to smack me again. I would take his hands on me any way I could.
“She’s been through enough, fucktard!” Ryker snapped. It wasn’t his coaxing voice anymore. It was deep and aggressive.
And I liked his aggression too.
Dampness pooled between my legs. I could feel it coating the tops of my thighs.
Slick.
It dawned upon me then, the reason why I felt so hot.
I was hot because I was in heat.
“Please. I’m too hot.”
Ethan lowered me, his big hand enclosing the delicate column of my throat as he pinned me against the elevator wall. Ryker cursed. We both ignored him. There was no thought to hide from Ethan’s dark gaze. My pupils would be dilated, my cheeks flushed; my entire body was flushed. I shifted, restless, and wanting to test his hold.
His fingers tightened.
A soft moan escaped my lips, and my lashes lowered. “Please,” I whispered.
“Don’t,” Ryker murmured.
Ethan ignored him. One muscular thigh pressed between mine, forcing them to part and pinning me against the wall. “He fucking bit you,” he said, his voice low and rough. “I saw him. Had to watch, powerless, while he put his hands on you, ripped you open, and took your blood.” His fingers tightened on my throat, and I welcomed the touch. I would welcome anything he did. “Do you know what that did to me, Princess?” I knew what it had done to me. It had destroyed me. But he was gone now; they all were. Ethan had killed them. The hand at my throat twisted my head to the sid
e, while his other hand cupped me intimately. “His death should have been mine, but it was Ryker who killed that bastard…” My heart stuttered as I studied Ryker. “And Tsing.”
Tsing was dead? I was heat-drunk, but a dark, primitive place in my soul found light at hearing those monsters were gone.
“Do you need me to take the memory of that fucker biting you away?” Ethan whispered close to my ear, drawing my attention back to him. His lips brushed against the side of my throat, taunting me and making me writhe. And I did want him to take the memory away, and to replace it with a better one.
“Fucking don’t,” Ryker growled.
Ethan bit; and his thick fingers pushed into my pussy.
A deep rumble emanated from his chest as he sucked my blood from the vein. The usual pain was absent, and the only feeling was of intense, erotic pleasure. His fingers pumped slowly, but I didn’t want his fingers. They were thick, long, and they filled me, but they did not fill me enough. I needed his cock.
The elevator pinged, signaling our arrival. Ryker growled; so deep and menacing, even Ethan paid heed.
The elevator door was hanging open, but Ethan was licking his fingers clean, and that consumed all my attention.
He met my heated gaze as he licked his fingers clean, and the sounds he made where halfway between the soothing Alpha rumble and a growl. My stomach turned over, and I gripped his shoulders tighter because I felt like I was falling.
“I’m going to ruin you, Princess. Once you’ve had my knot, there’s no going back.” His eyes blazed.
God help me, I wanted his knot, would have let him fuck me on that dreadful pit floor if only he would ease this abominable ache.
Ryker suddenly offered up a deep, soothing rumble.
I didn’t realize how much I needed that beautiful sound, and tears sprung behind my eyes.
It’s over, they are here with me, and nothing else is important.
I’d been so afraid, but I wasn’t afraid anymore.
I was with them, and as long as I was with them, I was complete.
Ethan hoisted me up into his arms, and I clung to him, legs wrapping around his waist, and my nose pressed tight against the crook of his neck as he carried me out of the elevator. I sank into the steady rhythm that his footsteps made against the floor. I had once thought Ethan a war god—how little did I know.
A revelation had unfurled long ago, an absolute certainty that I didn’t want any Alpha. I wanted the biggest, the baddest, and the strongest because only such a man could protect me. It wasn’t rational. It was animal to the core. At the time, I didn’t realize that events would unfold and I would require such a man.
Fate was not a concept I embraced. It was too steeped in myth and mystery for a logical person like me. Yet, there was something altogether fateful about both of them arriving in my life.
My father had picked Ethan, and I thought he had done so because he knew that whatever happened, Ethan could keep me safe. They both could.
Despite their frequent altercations, my Alphas were connected to each other as strongly as they were connected to me.
I’d felt it on that last glorious night on Chimera where I’d laid between them.
Then I’d left.
Tears pooled, but I blinked them away, striving for the calm that Ryker’s gentle rumble should instill.
“Do my parents know?” My voice sounded slurred. “And Merry—Merry will be worried.”
My question earned me another smack, harder than the last. I moaned and rubbed myself against Ethan. He was dressed, and I hated that he was dressed.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Ryker muttered. He had stopped his comforting rumble.
“What?” Ethan snapped back, and I presumed he was talking to Ryker since he was the last person to speak. Or maybe my speech was so slurred he wanted me to repeat myself.
“Your parents don’t know you’re gone,” Ethan said. “How do you think your father would respond to me announcing his princess is missing?”
Not well.
“Not very fucking well,” he confirmed. “Which is why I had to call in every favor I was owed.”
“We’re here,” Ryker interrupted.
The door opened, and we passed inside. A terrifying moment of weightlessness assailed me until I hit a soft surface. A bed?
Ethan stood over me, glaring. There was blood splattered over him. How did he manage to always look so savage? His dark eyes glittered with a feral fire. I’d thought he was rational, but now I understood that he was not.
“We’ll need to make sure our claim is absolute,” Ethan said.
I heard the sound of a bolt engaging before Ryker came and joined him. Ryker’s face was the empty one, and he was also covered in blood. “There can’t be any misinterpretation of our claim,” he said, voice rough. “You’re already inside us. We’re about to be inside you in a way you won’t ever forget.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
THE ROOM WAS plain and functional with cream walls and gray-stone flooring that was the farthest thing from what I’d wish for my Omega in heat. But it had a shower room leading from the opposite side, and a huge bed with a small mountain of pillows and blankets beside it for nesting.
As I pulled the filter from my nose and tossed it to the floor, her rich scent flooded my lungs. My body responded instantly; a rush of adrenaline ripped through me bringing a tightness to my chest as my cock lengthened and thickened, the base tingling where the knot would soon swell.
“She needs time,” I said, nudging my head at the soft, nesting material, and trying to temper the aggression gripping me as Lilly got straight off the bed and tried to crawl up Ethan’s body. “And you’re bloody.”
The glare Ethan leveled my way said he was fantasizing about knocking my head into the nearby wall. He liked to do that. His fingers tightened over the little Omega in his arms—our Omega—although he still wasn’t much for sharing. “So are you,” Ethan said.
Unlike Ethan, who had got it all over his face and hair, my gory fallout was limited to my clothes. I smirked when Lilly’s head popped up so she could stare at me, and there was a world of emotion in that look—I thought she appreciated me killing the Alpha as much as she appreciated me killing Tsing.
I winked at her. “I gutted the Alpha fucker and danced on his entrails.”
Ethan growled softly, but he peeled her off and dumped her in my arms. Then he stalked toward the shower room, ripping his bloody armor off and discarding it on the floor.
I couldn’t believe he had fallen for that move—and from me. Ethan was going to be a bigger asshole than usual, but I was determined to get my share. He was going to be pissed when he realized what I was doing. Would probably beat the shit out of me when this was over. But that was days away.
I glanced at the tiny, trembling woman clinging tightly in my arms. “You need to nest,” I said, barely recognizing the gruff edge to my voice.
“Hot,” she said, rubbing her nose against my throat. “I’m burning, Ryker. Make it go away.”
Ah fuck. My hands shook. It felt like forever since I’d held her and I didn’t want to let go. She was still her, still Lilly, even with everything she had been through. And for now, I had her all to myself.
Her body felt frail under my hands, bones poking through where there should have been soft curves. Heat could be rough on an Omega; they needed a little padding.
There was nothing that could be done about that now because as Ethan had said, she needed to be fucked, knotted, and bred.
“Let me see your eyes.” I caught hold of her chin, tipping her head. She growled at me—but when I tightened my grip, she arched against me like a cat. “Let me see them first, and you can have whatever you need.” I was going to give her everything and anything she needed anyway, so I hoped she didn’t call my bluff. Her lashes lifted to reveal the faintest ring of amber.
Dilated—I’d gone far too long without a shot of her adrenaline nectar. I was an addict, and I needed my fix.
With a soft moan, she rubbed against me with greater impatience.
“You need to make your nest.” I coaxed her to release her hold. She wasn’t happy about this and tried to cling until her eyes alighted on the pile of soft things. No Omega in heat could resist making a nest.
If you wanted to breed an Omega, they had to feel safe. It would be hard to achieve that anywhere on Lyus, and the chance of us breeding her was low given the trauma she had been through. But I was determined to give her the best that could be offered under the circumstance.
And if I was honest with myself, and I was rarely anything else, rutting an Omega in her nest was off the charts fucking hot.
Her lips trembled as she inspected the pile of blankets and pillows beside the bed. Then she scrunched up her nose.
“What do you need?” I stroked a hand over her silky hair and let my Alpha rumble out. Her body softened a little, but animal instincts were riding her hard, and it would only help so much.
She seemed interested in the corner of the room, the one furthest from the door.
“You want me to move it over there?” I pointed in the direction she was staring.
A little nod was her answer.
The bed was bolted to the floor, so I ripped the mattress off and dragged it to the corner. Then I picked up an armful of nesting material and dumped it beside the mattress.
She snarled, snatching the second armful from me, and got on with making her nest.
I watched, rumbling encouragement, and began stripping out of my armor. Ethan was in the shower; if he showered anything like he killed people, he wasn’t going to be in there for long.
Most Omegas took their time like they knew their scent was driving you nuts and were determined to make the most of their moment of power. Lilly went at it like a little tornado throwing pillows and blankets on and making a giant mound, until pausing, she studied the bedding mountain with a forlorn expression that drew my dark chuckle.
“Perfect,” I said.
It was fucking ugly, but no way was I telling her that.
Ugly and awkward—and I was going to lie like a pro.