Something dangerous flashed in his eyes, there and gone so quickly I might have imagined it. "Is that what you think we are? Hired hands?"
"What else would you be?" I challenged, latching on to his reaction. If there was one thing I'd learned in my years of isolation, it was how to spot weak points and jab at them mercilessly. "You work for my father. You're security personnel. Employees. Subordinates. Not exactly equals to the Yamamoto heir. Maybe an employee-of-the-month plaque if you meet your omega-stalking quota."
His laugh was low and cold, sending a shiver down my spine that had nothing to do with the evening breeze and everything to do with the predator currently backing me into a corner. "Such arrogance. You think your father's name gives you power?" He took another step closer, forcing me to sit on the bench as he loomed over me. "Tell me, little prince, if you don't belong to us, then who do you belong to? Some yakuza boss your father plans to marry you off to? Some alpha who's never even touched you?"
The mention of being married off hit closer to home than I wanted to admit. It was a fear I'd carried since presentation—that all this isolation was just preparation for being handed over to the highest bidder, a political alliance sealed with an omega offering. My father's disappointing son finally made useful as a bargaining chip.
"Better than belonging to three alphas who have to resort to coercion and manipulation," I spat, even as my heart raced at his proximity. "At least a yakuza boss would have enough status to claim me properly. Not skulk around pretending to be security while fondling my underwear and terrorizing elderly gardeners with tomato knowledge."
In a move so fast I barely registered it happening, his hand shot out, fingers wrapping around my throat with precise pressure—not enough to cut off air, but enough to make his point unmistakably clear. His thumb pressed against my racing pulse, feeling the physical evidence of my body's response to his dominance.
My brain immediately began calculating exit strategies, all of which looked increasingly unlikely with his hand around my throat and my ass firmly planted on the bench. The alpha wall of muscle blocking any escape route wasn't helping matters either.
"Let me make something very clear," he said, voice dropping to that alpha register that bypassed my rational brain entirely and went straight to parts of me that had no business responding to threats. "If your father tried to give you to someone else, I would kill them. Slowly. Painfully. I would dismantle their entire organization, destroy everything they've built, and leave them breathing just long enough to understand why before I ended them."
The casual violence in his tone should have terrified me. Instead, some primitive part of my brain translated the threat intohe would destroy worlds to claim meand responded with arush of slick between my thighs. The triple suppressants might as well have been sugar pills for all the good they were doing.
Great. Now my body was getting turned on by death threats. Another delightful side effect of omega biology they never covered in health class. "Warning: May experience sexual arousal when alpha threatens murder on your behalf. Consult your physician if homicidal protection persists for more than four hours."
"You wouldn't dare," I whispered, voice embarrassingly breathy with his hand still wrapped around my throat. "My father would never allow his security staff to?—"
"You think we're just security?" he cut in, thumb stroking along my jawline with incongruous gentleness even as his grip maintained its dominance. "You think we couldn't reach anyone your father tried to give you to? There are no borders we can't cross, no organizations we can't infiltrate, no protection that would keep them safe from us."
"You're insane," I breathed, though the conviction in his voice made something in my chest tighten. "Security guards don't talk like this. They don't threaten to kill people. They don't act like they have the authority to?—"
"I have exactly the authority I take," he interrupted, crouching down so our faces were level, his hand still wrapped around my throat. "And I'm taking you."
His mouth crashed against mine, cutting off my retort with bruising force. The first touch of his lips sent a shock wave through my system—electric and immediate. This wasn't gentle or hesitant; this was possession. His lips crushed mine with ruthless precision, demanding rather than requesting, claiming rather than asking.
My hands flew up to his shoulders, intending to push him away, but the moment my fingers made contact with the solidmuscle beneath his shirt, they curled into the fabric instead. Pulling him closer. Betraying me completely.
The taste of him flooded my senses—winter pine and raw power, masculine and overwhelming. His tongue traced the seam of my lips, and when I gasped in shock, he took immediate advantage. The hot, wet slide of his tongue against mine made my mind go blank, every rational thought dissolving into pure sensation.
His hand slid from my throat to cup the back of my head, fingers threading through my hair to angle my face exactly how he wanted. The control in the gesture should have infuriated me, but my traitorous body interpreted it assafeandprotectedandright.
When his teeth caught my lower lip, biting down just hard enough to walk the line between pleasure and pain, an embarrassing whimper escaped my throat. The sound seemed to ignite something in him—his kiss turned harder, deeper, his tongue delving with possessive strokes that left me gasping against his mouth.
I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, could only feel as he consumed me with the same ruthless efficiency he approached everything else. One large hand cradled my head while the other slid to my lower back, pulling me to the edge of the bench and pressing me against him until I could feel every hard plane of his body against mine.
The contrast between the cool night air and his burning heat made me shiver, my body instinctively seeking more of his warmth. When he finally pulled back, I was trembling, lips swollen and tingling, heart hammering so hard I was certain he could hear it.
"Beautiful," he murmured, thumb brushing across my lower lip, collecting moisture. "So responsive, even while fighting it."
"I'm not fighting anything," I lied, voice mortifyingly breathless. "Just waiting for this violation of my personal space to end so I can get back to plotting your painful demise."
His laugh was low and rich, vibrating from his chest against mine. "Your mouth says one thing, little prince, but your body…" His hand slid to my neck, thumb pressing against my racing pulse. "Your body tells a very different story."
"My body is a traitor with no loyalty to the cause," I muttered, trying to shift back but finding myself caged by his arms. "It responds to biological imperatives without consulting my brain first. Like those dogs that salivate when a bell rings. Pavlov's omega—biology's cautionary tale."
"Such a clever tongue," a familiar voice drawled from behind me. "I wonder what other talents it possesses."
I whipped my head around to find Marco approaching, his dark eyes gleaming with predatory interest as he took in my flushed face and swollen lips. Matteo flanked him, his expression as unreadable as ever but his amber eyes burning with focused intensity that made my skin prickle.
Perfect. The alpha carnival had officially opened, complete with three-ring circus of boundary violation and a midway of omega humiliation games.
"Observing in the shadows like the creepers you are?" I asked, trying for scathing but landing closer to breathless. "Or were you waiting for your turn to manhandle the reluctant omega? Perhaps you have a schedule drawn up—Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for Stefano, the remaining days divided between you two, with special holiday rotations?"
Marco's smile widened as he settled on the bench beside me, trapping me between his body and Stefano's. "Oh, we don't take turns, little prince," he purred, his hand landing on my thigh with casual possession. "We share. Didn't the forest teach you that?"
