When my tense muscles finally released, I fully collapsed against him, spent and broken. A few soft sobs escaped as I clung to my anchor in the storm. It wasn’t until he reached behind me and tore my chains from the wall—using one hand like they weren’t embedded in four feet of concrete—that I remembered a super important detail about the dragon shifter.
He hated to be touched.Oh shit.
Slade had a strong touch aversion, and while I had no idea what had specifically caused it, I knew it was trauma from his past. The dragon, with his genius computer brain, was cold and formal most of the time, but not today. Today, he’d saved me, and at great personal cost.
Pulling away, I blinked to clear the haze over my vision and see him clearly. His thick black hair was disheveled, blood streaking his throat where the magically enhanced neck band had cut into his skin. I could only assume that happened when he’d torn his own chains from the wall in his cell.
Bands still encased his wrists, waist, and both ankles. These magical bands stopped him from shifting into his beast, but he’d clearly retained enough strength to wrench the chains from the wall.
As Slade adjusted his position, keeping me close, I noticed he still wore his black leather jacket from when we’d taken out the motorbikes. The shirt beneath was torn up, exposing a lot of his bronze skin, and allowing hints of his tattoos to peek through. I swore I saw a realistic jewel-like green eye near his right pec, but I couldn’t make out the rest. At least there were no visibleinjuries, even though I’d seen him take the brunt of the blast and get blown off his bike.
I’d lost my jacket during the attack, which hurt almost as much as the memories of the past assaulting me. The jacket had been a gift from Kellan.
My beautiful Kellan. He’d be freaking out not knowing if we were okay or not, and I hoped that the rest of our pack didn’t put themselves in danger while they tracked us down.
I had no doubt they would come after us. For the first time in my life, I had a pack, and they would rain down hell on Blaine and co when they got here.
“Slade, are you okay?” I rasped, my voice busted up from all the screaming I’d done. “You’re touching me. You don’t have to make yourself uncomfortable. I’m fine now.”
Despite wanting to remain in his comforting embrace, I tried to scramble away, but my useless legs hindered my progress. I was slower to heal than a regular shifter due to years of suppressing my beast.
“Stop,” he commanded, more bite in his tone. Had I been anyone other than an omega, I wouldn’t have had any choice but to obey this bark of dominance from the strongest alpha in the world. But omegas stood outside the normal dominance hierarchy—one of our lovely superpowers—which made it quite the statement when Ichoseto obey my alphas.
“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” I said, voice barely audible.
Slade ignored my feeble attempts to remove myself from his arms. “Rest,” he murmured, still with the single word commands. “I need you at full strength to get out of here. I can’t shift until these chains are removed, and I would be risking your safety if I took on the number of shifters I sense above us. We must plan and heal, Emmeline. I will hold you until you can hold yourself.”
My stomach whirled and flipped at those words, along with the overwhelming sensation of being held by Slade. Until this moment, I’d never so much as grazed his skin, and now his near seven-foot frame was wrapped around me, binding all my shattered pieces together.
Just five more minutes,I told myself, soaking in the comfort of not being alone in a house of alphas who starred center stage in my worst nightmares.
“All along,” I mumbled, half delirious, “I thought I was hiding from my pack. From what would happen if I ever bonded.”
A deep, reverberating sound echoed from Slade’s chest. “Who were you really hiding from? Who are these alphas who took us?”
“My mom’s old pack,” I said as the edge of my vision darkened, pure exhaustion tugging at my consciousness. Every part of me was in danger, but here in Slade’s arms I could forget about it for five minutes. For five minutes, I was safe.
CHAPTER 3
EMME
Imust have fallen asleep at some point, the stress and exhaustion too much for my body to take any longer, and when I came to, all I could see were Slade’s broad shoulders. He stood in front of the destroyed cell bars, snapping at someone on the other side. “What’s your point?”
“You smashed both fucking cells.”
I couldn’t see who spoke, but it wasn’t the deep timbre of Blaine’s voice. It sounded like Donnie, who had a very slight lisp on s words. It was weird recalling even these small details when I’d spent years purging this pack from my memories.
“Correct. And if you don’t want me to add you to the carnage, you will bring us food and water.”
Slade’s voice never rose above a rumble, but still a shiver traced down my spine. Apparently, a dragon needednoinflection to get his point across.
Donnie spluttered. “We… We n-need to s-secure you against the wall again first.”
Slade’s huge shoulders lifted in what looked like a casual shrug. “You can absolutely try. Keeping in mind that I haven’t attacked yet or attempted to escape, so there’s no real need.If my beast feels remotely threatened, and that includes any movements toward my omega, I won’t remain so calm.”
There was a crack against the floor, which sounded like Donnie stomping his foot as he muttered, “Fine, I’ll be back with food and water.”
His footsteps echoed as he walked away, and I tested out my ability to move my legs, relieved that not only did they move but there was minimal pain. I’d really screwed up in keeping my wolf so suppressed, and it wasn’t only my restricted healing. My senses were dulled, and I was less powerful overall.
