"You areours. Our omega. Our mate. Our reason for existing." His forehead pressed against mine, his breath warm on my lips. "And we will burn the entire world before we let anyone hurt you again."
They surrounded me. Four massive bodies, eight arms, four growling chests pressed close. I couldn't tell where one ended and another began. They were a wall. A fortress. A barrier between me and a world that wanted to own me.
Riven's growl was constant now, a low, vibrating sound that I could feel in my bones. His claws were still out, still bloody. He looked like he wanted to destroy something, and the only thing stopping him was the fact that I was in his arms.
"You're never going back." His voice was ragged. "Not to that ship. Not to land. Not anywhere humans can touch you."
"I have to go back. The potion only lasts?—"
"We'll get more. We'll get the transformation potion. We'll do whatever it takes." His voice broke on the last word. "I can't—I can't send you back there knowing what they'd do to you if they found out. I can't watch you climb onto that ship and pretend to be something you're not while alphas who wouldhurtyou sleep ten feet away."
"Riven—"
"He's right." Vale's voice was ice and silk and something sharp underneath. "We've been watching you go back to that ship every night, and it's been killing us. But we thought, we thought the human world was safe for you, somehow. That you were just passing through it, hiding temporarily until you found somewhere better."
"We didn't know," Thane's voice was thick with tears. "We didn't know what you were hiding from. What would happen to you if they caught you."
"We should have known." Kaelan's arms tightened around me. "We should have asked sooner. We should have?—"
"You couldn't have known." I reached up and touched his face. His beautiful, terrible, inhuman face. "No one knows. That's the point. Humans don't talk about it. It's just... how things are. How things have always been."
"Not for us." His dark eyes burned into mine. "Among our kind, omegas are treasured. Protected.Worshipped. The idea of selling one, of treating one like property, of forcing one to work and hide and be afraid—" He stopped. His jaw was clenched so tight I could see the muscles jumping. "It's obscene. It's an abomination."
"That's why I ran. Because I knew there had to be something better. Somewhere I could just... be," I told them softly.
"You found it." Riven pressed his forehead to my shoulder, his massive body curled around me. "You found us. And we are never,everletting you go."
I was shaking. The intensity of it all—their rage, their protectiveness, their overwhelmingpresence—it was too much. My omega was overwhelmed, caught between relief and terror and something else I couldn't name.
Kaelan saw it. Of course he did. He saw everything. He cupped my face in both hands, tilting my head up until I had no choice but to look at him. His dark eyes captured mine, and I couldn't look away.
"Lily," His voice dropped into something deeper. Something that resonated in my bones, my blood, the very marrow of me. It wasn't just sound—it wascommand. Power. Authority that demanded obedience not through fear, but through something far more primal.
Alpha voice.
"You aresafe."
The words wrapped around me like a physical thing. My muscles went loose. My racing thoughts went quiet. Everything that was clenched and terrified inside me just... let go.
"You areours. No one will ever sell you, touch you, hurt you again." His thumbs stroked my cheekbones, impossibly gentle. "Do you understand?"
I couldn't do anything but nod. My voice had abandoned me. My whole body felt like warm honey, liquid and pliant in his arms.
"Good omega," the words washed over me like warm water, like sunlight, like everything soft and safe I'd ever wanted. "Such a good omega. You did so well, telling us. You were so brave. We have you now. We're never letting go."
A sound escaped me, something between a whimper and a sigh. My omega was singing with contentment, with relief, with the bone-deep knowledge that I wasclaimed. That Ibelonged.
"That's it." His voice was softer now, but still layered with that power, that authority that made every cell in my body stand at attention. "That's our good girl. Our perfect omega. You're safe now. You're home."
I believed him.
That was the terrifying part.
I believed him, and I wasn't afraid.
He was still holding my face. Still looking at me with those bottomless dark eyes, still close enough that I could see the flecks of silver in his irises, still radiating that alpha authority that made me want to bare my throat and submit completely.
"I'm going to kiss you now."
