“He might not be able to,” said a voice from behind Xias, “but I can.”
Xias swung around to see a man he had never met step out of the thick forest. He might not know him, but he suspected who had sent him. “Zhuang, there’s a guy here…”
“Tall, ugly, looks like he eats tanks for breakfast?”
Xias looked the man over. He met all those criteria, except for the ugly part. He was rugged in a very masculine sort of way, but he was far from ugly. “Yeah, that’s him.”
“His name is Zian.”
“Got it.”
“I’m almost there, mate. Try to stay out of trouble until I get there.”
Xias turned back to look at Osamu when the man growled. “I’m not making any promises.”
He scrambled back, trying to get as far from Osamu as he could. When he felt a hand wrap around his ankle, Xias kicked out as hard and then continued to try to crawl away.
As soon as he’d gone a few feet, Xias shifted. Getting out of his clothes this time was a bit easier than the last time. Mostly because he didn’t care if they ripped or not. He just wanted out of them.
After getting free, he raced for the tree line, then stopped once he put Zhuang’s friend between him and Osamu. He hunkered down next to a tree and waited. He wasn’t about to turn tail and run, leaving a stranger to fight his battle, but he wasn’t sure he could fight it on his own.
Osamu pulled himself up to his full height and looked down his nose at the two men. “I am Alpha Osamu and you are coming between me and my mate.”
Shock had Xias shifting on the spot. “Bullshit!” he shouted as anger rushed through him. “I’m your breeding machine, not your mate.” He pointed to the bite mark on his neck. “I have a mate.”
“Stop lying to these men, Xias. Those are my teeth marks.”
Xias snorted. The audacity of this man was astounding. “I wouldn’t mate you if your dick was made of pure gold.”
Zian snickered.
Osamu growled. “You don’t want to come with me? Fine, but I want my cubs.”
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this until you listen,” Xias said. “I am not giving you my cubs.”
“Just the boy. You can keep the girls. Worthless bitches anyway.”
“They’re only worthless to you because you can’t knock them up.”
“Dude,” Zian exclaimed, “that is sick.”
Xias shrugged. “It’s the truth. He wants to keep my son and kill the girls because they hold no value for him. In Osamu’s clan, only males inherit, which is why he wants Bai. Other than that, only females who can provide cubs for him have value.”
Zian’s dark eyebrows rose. “I assume, since you said your cubs, that you’re an omega?”
“Tao didn’t tell you?”
“He talked to Shiro, not me.”
“Oh, then yeah, I’m an omega.”
Zian whistled. “Zhuang must be going out of his mind with you.”
Xias glared at the man. What in the hell was that supposed to mean?
“Hey!” Osamu snapped.
Xias rolled his eyes as he turned to look at his former alpha. “What?”
