“Don’t watch,” Emperor pleaded. “How charmingly quaint of the Wilds to taunt us with our powerlessness to save Moon because trapping us at the bottom of a well with the threat of being drowned, wasn’t quite harsh enough.”
“Moon…?” Yep, of course I looked.
Then I wished that I hadn’t.
White walls, a padded box, and Moon battling even though he was whining with fear around the muzzle.
I stiffened at the sight of the muzzle because I knew that they traumatized Moon.
Did he hate them so much because he’d been muzzled like this as a kid?
Moon was being dragged by two Alphas in leather uniforms towards the box, whilst he struggled against them like it’d burn him. They threw him inside with less care than I’d ever seen an Omega treated and slammed down the lid, trapping him in the dark and plunging all three us of us once again into the black.
The skin on the back of my neck prickled at the sound of Moon’s panted fear, as if he was suffering in the well alongside us. A bitter scent like juniper berries caught in my nostrils.
How could I even smell the inside of the box?
My hands clenched to fists, whilst my red snapped through yet another thread of its binding in rage.
“The dishonorable, pitiless savages…” Emperor snarled.
“Duh, we’re on the same page here.” I nipped the end of Emperor’s nose, and slowly his breathing slowed. “Witch knows I hate what’s being done to Moon, I just don’t get why they’ve locked him in a box.”
“That revolting smell is a chemical mix of Alpha scent, made many times stronger. Moon is muzzled and trapped with it in an attempt to break him into becoming more…compliant and less rebellious an Omega.”
I snorted. “I call bullshit.”
There was a silence; all I could hear was Moon’s terrified breathing.
“Do you know Moon’s greatest fear since I knew him as a child? The Re-education Center,” Emperor spat. “It’s the ultimate threat held over every Omega. How romantic Wolf Bitings are, when an Alpha may send their Omega for correctional training after Claiming, if they misbehave. The Re-education Center is hidden, isolated deep in the Wilds’ woods, where only the harshest methods are employed. No one knows exactly what goes on there, and no one cares as long as their Omega is soft, simpering, and on their knees at the end of it.”
If I hadn’t been so frightened for Moon, I’d have definitely stopped to analyze the help, it was choking me level of cynicism in Emperor’s view of Alphas and Omegas…and Claiming.
“Hmm, so this is his worst nightmare then?” My throat was dry, and I struggled to swallow. “But it’d be easier to French kiss a frog and transform him into my fourth prince, than to help Moon from in here.”
“Oh, now that I’d love to see.” When Emperor pressed his thumb into the crease of my ass, I jumped. Serves me right for forgetting just what the wolves’ torment had been interrupting. “Our sweet frog prince to corrupt.”
“Or you could free the Om from the Re-education Center,” Rhona’s voice boomed from the dark. Would they freaking stop making me jump before I pissed myself… “Fur and fangs, it all rests on you, lass.”
“What do I need to do?” I demanded.
“Break your Bitten bond,” Rhona’s voice was smug.
“Go to hell,” I growled. “And he’s not an Om: he’s called Moon. Did your queenly ass forget that he’s also your son?”
“I thought that you’d be a stubborn one.” Rhona’s voice had lost its smug edge. “You can’t mean to let another Wolf Bite him by force…? The Alpha can take her pleasure from him, but he’ll never be able to find joy from the bond, only pain. If you don’t willingly break the bond, I’ll allow Lyall off her leash…”
“In the name of the furless heavens,” Emperor roared, “you wouldn’t permit such a sacrilege on your kingdom’s own prince.”
“You’ve no idea what I’d permit,” Rhona’s voice wound around the well like a noose. “No wolf from the Kingdom of the Alphas will ever give me orders.”
The sound of Moon cut off, and the scent of berries faded. I trembled in Emperor’s arms because it was like losing Moon all over again.
Had I messed it up? Should I’ve freed Moon?
When I opened my mouth to speak, however, Emperor adjusted me on his hips and whispered, “Don’t say it. Moon would’ve killed us both or at least, taken back cuddling rights, which is just as bad, if you’d broken the bond. It’s just…” Emperor sighed. “He’s the magical Moon Child. I’m certain that he doesn’t understand how special he is because he’s been reviled for his difference. Yet if your bond isn’t equal by the full moon, then you know that he’ll die. So, is it…equal?”
“Am I jerk if I say that I can’t tell?”
“You’d know, and I sense like a throbbing in the collar that’s holding back my shift that we’re getting close to the full moon. Of course, the Wilds unhelpfully didn’t supply us with at least a calendar if not wi-fi access down here, so we could’ve kept track.”
I laughed, even though I wanted to cry. “Cuddling rights or not, I have to break it. Jesus, I can’t let Moon die.”
I peered up at the lid of the well. I figured that maybe the queen or her guards had been lurking up there all the time, waiting for us to either give in or die.
My throat was too dry to even speak, or too thick with tears. I coughed to clear it. How could I get out the words that’d rip Moon away from me?
Would Moon ever forgive me for throwing him out of my pack?
Then something thwapped down through the black and hit me between the eyes.
I groaned, rubbing my head, before reaching out and grasping…a rope.
Huh, so these wolves were mind readers too, like that didn’t make them creepily scarier…
“Honestly, the queen doesn’t dick around when she gets her own way.” I hauled myself off Emperor, wrapping my legs around the rope.
I’d sucked at gym in High School, but martial arts classes had at least taught me enough strength not to embarrass myself on a rope climb.
Not embarrass myself…totally.
“Werewolves aren’t psychic.” Emperor pushed on my ass, propelling me up the rope, as he climbed underneath me. “My guess is someone else awaits us.”
And that wasn’t ominous at all.
Clang — the lid was wrenched off, revealing moonlight and the pinprick of stars.
I hauled myself over the edge, collapsing on the floor like a gasping, landed fish. Emperor leapt athletically over the side; although he was bedraggled like me, he looked ready to fight legions.
The cocky scorching hot asshole.
Then I let out a startled oomph, as a slender writhing contrast of pale skin, black hair, and ruby eyes, landed on top of me, kissing down my neck and rubbing his body against mine like it was the only way to mark me.
I laughed, clasping my arms around Amadeus’ shoulders. “Good job on the rescuing. But it’s a shame that you were the one who put us down there.”
Amadeus stilled, pulling back to study me, until I squirmed. “It was the only place I could think of to stash you.”
Emperor leaned against the tree, which had one end of the rope wound around it, before crossing his arms. Okami rested on his shoulder like a rider on his horse, wagging his tail at our rescue. I grinned to see him again and safe.
Moonbeams speared across Emperor’s skin, until he glowed. When he shuddered, I remembered that he fed through their light. “Stash?”
Amadeus glanced at him from underneath his eyelashes. “You once stashed me in a wardrobe.”
Emperor’s brow arched. “Touché.”
I traced Amadeus’ wickedly pretty face; I’d been so frightened that I wouldn’t see it again. “I’m not rating the inescapable myth on this place.”
He pouted. “What wolf would ever have helped a witch escape before?”
“What witch would be so epic that a wolf would want to save her…?”
“Nee
d to save her.” Amadeus touched my cheek gently with his gloved hand in a gesture that I’d learned was more intimate than the most passionate screw. “Please, can’t you see that this is my pack too? Did you truly believe that I was nothing but a pretty Beta?”
I shook my head. In fact, I was beginning to think that Amadeus could be more dangerous than either of my other Charms.
I wet my dry lips. Let me count the freaking ways that I didn’t want to know the answer to my next question but I still had to ask… “What about Queen Rhona? She was just mocking—”
“Only a clever recording, isn’t it?” Amadeus pulled me onto my knees, before nuzzling against my neck with a contented sigh. “Would it please you to know why I’m sure?”
There was too much devil in the way that his lips curved against my neck.
“Okay, pleasure me.”
Amadeus shuddered, and I knew that I was feeding him just from the words.
“I seduced her, until she couldn’t even think beyond her furry nose, then I slipped some sleeping herbs into her tea that you can’t taste. I also considered slipping my claw across her neck but then I considered that you wouldn’t want an interkingdom incident.”
“Yep, l-let’s keep m-murders to a minimum,” I stuttered.
Okami howled, darting off Emperor’s shoulder and wildly savaging a leaf, as if to prove that he was all warrior too…or that he disagreed on the murdering part.
Being around my Charms was bringing out the wild side in my magical wolf.
When I caught Emperor’s gaze, however, it was cool like he wasn’t shocked by what Amadeus had said, or at least was better at hiding it than me.
With his angelic face and sinful body, Amadeus was the perfect seducer, spy, and assassin.
I’d better remember that.
Had he been trained in more 007 skills than dancing? Was he meant to use those skills on me? Had he already used them…?
Then Amadeus drew back, and his smile became shy. The contrast was so sharp that it took my breath away. He pushed himself up and passed Emperor, pulling something out from behind the tree, before tossing it at me.
I yelped, throwing out my arms to catch…mom’s cape.
My vision became blurry with tears, as my fingers crushed into its velvety softness. It was torn, smeared with paint, and dirtied. It was just as scruffy as I always had been as a kid. Mom would’ve hated the state it was in, but to me it was perfect.
“Thank you,” I murmured, “this pleases me very freaking much.”
Amadeus glowed, even as he blushed. “What Little Red Riding Hood doesn’t have their cape?”
I leveled him with a glare. “Don’t compare me to the LLRH asshole who can’t even see through a simple disguise.”
Amadeus giggled. “I won’t go comparing your sexy ass to the LLRH asshole. But you don’t know what I had to barter to get that.”
“I can guess,” Emperor growled, “which means that you’d better hope you can run faster than me, Prince of the Gods.”
Amadeus eeped, protectively covering his ass.
I prowled between them. “The only running we’re doing now is to save our Prince of the Wilds from the Re-education Center. How long is it to the full moon?”
I peered at the bloated moon through the spiderweb of the metal lattice dome that hung over the Kingdom of the Wilds. The witches had made certain when they’d trapped and collared the wolves in their kingdoms behind the wall that they knew there was no escape back into the human world.
“Tomorrow night.” Amadeus bit his lip.
I nodded, whilst my pulse pounded. “Then we’d better start running.”
Even though I still didn’t have my powers, I had to rescue Moon from the place that he’d always feared the most, before another Alpha forced him into the Wolf Bite.
Yet I only had one night and day to magically fulfil my bond with Moon, so that we became equals, or by the full moon tomorrow night, he’d die.
CHAPTER FOUR
I hunkered at the edge of the wall, whilst my thighs burned from the trek through the wood and my temples thudded. Dawn washed the sky clean of the night.
I hadn’t imagined that a Re-education Center for Omegas would look like a prison, but then, I’d never dreamed that the wolves would’ve buried their own Omegas in a Borstal for Bad Wolves, which was isolated in a glade that could only be reached on foot…or paw.
It was kind of like the dick Alphas didn’t want their brainwashed victims to escape.
I shuddered at the thought of Moon being dragged here and left somewhere behind the wall in the white arched building. Worse, that an Alpha could be planning to Wolf Bite him.
Tonight, the full moon would rise. If I didn’t work out a way to bond magically with him as a Moon Child before then, he’d die.
Yep, this would be a son of witch load of pressure day.
Emperor crouched next to me with Amadeus plastered over his back, biting hard enough at his neck to make me wince. Emperor, on the other hand, didn’t even flinch.
My Charms shone with strength: Emperor fed on the moonlight, and Amadeus, on the pleasure that he was giving Emperor. It was only me who was starving and weak with my powers still trapped.
I patted my pocket, edging my fingers in to check that Okami was safe. I’d insisted that he keep quiet throughout the rescue, and he’d made enough noise about that on the journey here. He whined, licking at my fingers with his silky tongue.
Then I peeked through a crack in the wall at the Re-education Center, whilst rubbing at the leaves that were caught in my hair; mom would’ve had a fit at the savage creature I’d become.
A line of naked Omegas knelt on the hard ground in front of the center, even though it was the sort of time only overzealous personal trainers or army cadets on punishment were out of bed. They tended to a straggly flowerbed with nothing but their hands, whilst an Alpha guard in a matching uniform to the ones worn in the Omega Training Center marched up and down, swinging a silver tipped cane.
I stiffened. Did they have those uniforms on bulk order or were all the centers run by the same assholes? Did the Alphas control the Omegas both before they were Claimed and then after, if they weren’t as perfect as advertised?
When a teenage Omega with honey blond hair, raised his shaking hand to his forehead to wipe the sweat from his eyes, the Alpha snarled, whacking her cane sizzling across his shoulders. He whimpered and bent back to his task.
I hadn’t known that I’d leapt up, until Emperor yanked me down again.
“I’m certain that you’ll agree stealth is the shrewdest choice.” He arched an unimpressed eyebrow. “Unless you wish to trigger yourself the very war between witches and werewolves that we’ve been fighting to avoid?”
I huffed. “Duh, I wasn’t about to just jump in there without a plan.”
Emperor’s second eyebrow raised, until he stared at me with an expression of incredulity. Snooty…sexy…asshole. “How exciting, we have a plan. Surprise me.” Then he yipped, as Amadeus bit down for real on his neck. He shot me a sheepish grin. “Sorry, but this is a diplomatic nightmare. You witches artificially bound our three kingdoms together, and I won’t let you be proved right that we’re beasts. What do you think will happen if a prince from the Gods and another from the Alphas, kidnap the heir to the Wilds? Let’s not worry about the witches, we could spark war between the kingdoms.”
“This is Moon,” I murmured, “isn’t he worth that risk?”
I didn’t miss the glance between Emperor and Amadeus. I fought not to shift, uncomfortable that they’d known each other for centuries as kids before me. But then they both nodded.
I swallowed. “Then screw diplomacy. I’m saving my Charm.”
Suddenly, Emperor yelped, jumping into my arms and squashing me against the wall. I let out a startled oomph, as the air was pushed out of me.
Our gazes met, and Emperor blushed a pretty shade of pink.
“Aw, if you have a thing for sitting in my lap, yo
u only had to ask.” Emperor flushed an even deeper pink, although he didn’t move off my lap, which made me thrum with desire, despite the danger inside the center. “Plus, kind of not stealthy with the yelping.”
“There was a damned spider,” Emperor hissed, shuddering. “I…panicked.”
“He has this thing.” Amadeus rolled his eyes, even though he squinted in the sun like it hurt his eyes.
Did incubi not go out in the sun like vampires?
Amadeus draped himself over my shoulder with his chin rested on his steepled hands.
I had to stop myself shivering at Amadeus’ casual touch because I was surrounded now in the delicious honey and chocolate scent of my Charms and it sang to my Wolf Charmer powers.
Inside me, more of Ivy from the House of Blood’s binding spell snapped like weeds sliced down by my shadows. I concentrated, struggling to pull them all free, but they ached, still trapped.
I banged my head against the wall. Huh, I’d add that to the list of Non-helpful Responses to Stress, especially when you have a headache.
I groaned. “Okay, I don’t have a plan. Criminal mastermind wasn’t on my resume, whilst I was running my freaking art gallery.” I met Emperor’s gaze. “Plus…a thing?”
Amadeus smirked. “Not only his cock, see, but also he’s afraid of—”
“Don’t say that word,” Emperor gritted out, smoothing down his robes, “just…don’t. Let’s simply put it that I’m not fond of things that scuttle.”
I smothered my grin. “Like the big ass spider on your shoulder?”
Emperor’s haughty cool disappeared, as he squeaked, falling backwards off my lap and smacking at his shoulder in panic.
Panic…kind of like we needed as a smokescreen so that we could sneak into the center. Even the brave Prince of the Alphas was scared of spiders, go figure.
But was there more behind his phobia?
I watched Emperor thoughtfully, whilst Amadeus slapped his hand over his mouth to muffle his laugh.
Finally, Emperor lay still on his back scowling at me. “Ha-ha, I believe that my sides have split with the hilarity.”
Amadeus grinned, laying on top of him to mouth at his neck. “You’re so easy.”
Only Pretty Betas: A Shifter Paranormal Romance Series (Rebel Werewolves Book 2) Page 4