“Alpha, I need you,” I cry out, my piteous whimpers falling into the air. “Please, help me.”
“No,” he says resolutely. “I’m not going in there to go into a rut. I’ll kill you. I can’t hang on. Listen to me very carefully, Omega. You don’t come out. Do not open this door. Not if you hear me beg, not if you hear me scream, plead, cry. You do not open this door.”
“Mordecai,” I whisper, reaching out to touch his arm. He flinches back from me.
“I’m not going to hurt you, and I’m not going to let anyone else hurt you. Kaida,” he says my name with weary affection. “I’m falling into a rut. I can’t stop it anymore than you can stop your heat. So, save us both and stay in this room.”
I let out a sob and step towards him, but he steps out of the room, looking up when he hears footsteps.
His expression changes, turns hungry and violent, and he growls. The sound is deep and lifts the hairs all over my body. Need drives me, and I lose all reason. I reach out to him, but he pulls the door shut, not even looking back at me.
For ages, I throw myself at the door, beating it, screaming, but he doesn’t open it, and I can’t wrench it open.
I go to the back of the room and curl up on the ground, trying to ride the waves of the heat and survive. I bury my fingers in myself, but itjust makes it worse. My whimpers turn to sobs and back to almost silent moans. I just curl tighter, ignoring my body's demands.
Outside the room, I can hear Mordecai fighting for our lives, his savage growls an erotic tease that my body reacts to. It goes silent, and I wait as long as I can before I stand up and walk to the door. I turn the handle, to my surprise, it opens a little, but not much. I gasp when I see the entire foyer covered in blood. It’s on the ceiling, in pools on the ground, and covers every inch. The stench of it makes me gag.
I slip out and look over the piles of dead alphas. Where is he? Where?
I turn around and find him pressed up against the door. His eyes are closed, but when I land beside him, he’s breathing.
There are people out on the street; I can see their furtive movements in the fog.
I grab Mordecai under the arms. He’s so heavy, and the heat is still rippling through my body, making me weak, but I manage to maneuver him into the room. I grab another body and pull it across the doorway and pull it closed, sealing us inside.
I approach him cautiously.
He’s still asleep, so I check him over, searching his body, but I can’t find any wounds. I think he’s just exhausted. I lay down with my head on his chest, curling myself around his body.
His body heat helps with the aches in my muscles.
I don’t know how long I lay there when I become aware of the change in his breathing.
“I thought I gave you an order?” Mordecai snarls.
He rolls us, and I’m suddenly under him, with him between my legs, my hands pinned beside my head. His eyes are still almost white, his lipstwisted into a sneer. His hair hangs around his face, tangled. But he’s my alpha, and he looks like home.
“You were hurt,” I say defiantly. “I’m not leaving my alpha to die.”
“You know what rut means, though, don’t you?” he snarls and slams his hips into mine. His huge erection presses against where I am most sensitive.
My eyes roll, and I moan, writhing against him, panting.
“Of course, I know what it means, but extenuating circumstances.” Begging is on the tip of my tongue. Whines, pleas, desperate bargains all being held back by sheer willpower.
“I don’t think that’s a good enough reason,” Mordecai snaps. “What if I hurt you, rut you like an animal until you’re dead?”
“You won’t do that,” I say confidently.
He thrusts again, dragging that bulge against me. A whimper slips out, and I arch my back, thrusting my breasts up as I try to spread my legs wider.
“How do you know?” he almost roars.
“Because you protected me, fought off your rut for me, and you’re Mordecai. You won’t hurt me.”
“You barely know me,” he snarls.
“I know enough.” I stare at him and lean up, pausing when he flinches. Anger spins into me, twisting into my scent. “Do you want me, Alpha?” I say in a seductive croon. “You can have me. Rut me, fuck me, anyway you want, you can have me. I want you, too.”
