Because I’m starving, I wanted to shout again, but I swallowed my anger. I always swallowed my anger.
Hewie left again, apparently uninterested, and Blaine and Momma stepped forward. “Hold her,” Blaine snarled, and all I saw was the glint of a blade as it sliced toward me. “The silver will ensure the little princess remembers this for the rest of her life. Her wolf will be too late to save her.”
“Emmeline! Focus on me, Omega. Focus!”
The roar shook me from the memory, and I sucked in deep breaths, over and over, my mind stuck in the past as I fought to focus on the present. My panic attack tore at me with the force of a tsunami, and I hadn’t even noticed that Blaine Rogers, who’d been standing in front of me minutes ago, was gone from my cell.
After the attack in Golden Claw, I’d woken up here, in what looked like a basement turned prison. Two cells stood on either side of the room, with a large path between them that led up to a set of stairs. From where I was chained, I could not see much more than that.
What I could see though, was the cell across from me.
Furious, unearthly green eyes were locked on my face, as low rumbles filled the room. Slade’s godlike beauty was enough to briefly break through my panic, and I stopped clawing at my face in an attempt to rip those memories free.
But I couldn’t slow my breathing.
I couldn’t halt the fear response.
“Listen to me, Emmeline,” the dragon shifter commanded, his huge body locked down with multiple chains and witch cuffs. “We are going to get out of here. I will not let him hurt you.”
Slade was one of the four alphas who were my scent match and goddess chosen mates. Mates, who thanks to Blaine and those assholes who destroyed my mother, I’d been rejecting from the moment I met them.
I’d rejected them to never end up like mom, who had given away all her power to her alphas. Not that any of my scent matches were remotely like the Rogers pack.
At least not yet.
An omega could share their power when bonded into an alpha pack, and my understanding was that this process would change and corrupt the alphas who received it. For this reason alone, I’d spent most of my life running from the shifter cities so I’d never end up in a pack.
Only to encounter one alpha, who’d changed everything.
He’d dragged me to Golden Claw, where I’d been scented by one of my true mates, and despite my immediate rejection, I’d somehow ended up living with them. Living with and liking most of them. I’d even contemplated, briefly, the possibility of letting myself belong toand withmy pack, right around the time Blaine blasted me and Slade off our bikes and dragged us here to his secret lair. It was a timely and painful reminder of what I’d been fighting against all along.
When I’d woken in this basement cell, Blaine had appeared, and I’d found myself screaming into a waking nightmare. Back to the day he’d carved his blade through my back, leaving a thick ropey scar as a forever reminder.
Scars. Pain. Fear.
Small, mewling sobs escaped me as I used my arms to drag myself closer to the wall. My back had been damaged in the initial attack, and my legs still weren’t responding. Slade’s rumbles picked up in intensity, but they sounded muffled as the panic dragged me back under.
The blade sliced into my spine, the scent of metal surrounding me as I screamed and choked on spit. I’d never felt pain so intense, even with all the beatings Momma had given me.
The roar grew louder as I prayed for oblivion. I’d have taken another knife to my body before I chose to experience suppressed trauma exploding from my psyche again.
It consumed me in a black hole of despair.
Heat and roars shattered through the room as the floors and walls rattled; small pebbles of mortar and debris rained down over me.
I gasped when strong arms wrapped around my shoulders, and I fought against the hold until the scent of toasted marshmallow filled me, blending with my chocolate and honey tones. My wolf howled and scraped against the magical bands holding us, wanting to shift closer to her mate, fighting against our restrictions.
Chains clanked as Slade pulled me closer, and as if he’d somehow used magic too, his touch had my hysteria dying down into choked sobs. “Calm,” he murmured, in his low, slightly accented rumble. “Calm yourself, Emmeline. You are not alone. I will not let them harm you.”
Not alone.
That sentiment echoed through my mind, louder than those ghosts of the past.
Slade’s energy was like liquid lava, burning into my skin, but it didn’t bother me. The heat helped to slow the tremors racking my frame, and as he held me I found myself doing exactly as he’d commanded: calming.
I had very little experience with hugs, but I was starting to learn that when they came from my alphas, they were one of the nicest moments of my life. Surrounded by warmth and energy,comforted and content. Especially with Slade, who was coldly aloof most of the time.
Even as the last of my tremors subsided, he never let go, his massive frame protectively shielding me from whatever could enter through the now-broken bars of my cell.
