“What the fuck is your problem, Konrad?” I snapped. “You think lording over all these omegas makes you hot shit? You’re abusing your alpha strength to exploit all these people, and I hate it. And I hate you. So bring my fucking mate out here right now before youreallypiss me off.”
Hot pulses of anger surged through my veins like a thudding heartbeat. I’d never yelled at anybody the way I’d yelled at Konrad. It felt good. I liked it.
My chest expanded with the fire kindling within me, and I breathed hard to accommodate its heat.
My dragon was rising. Quick. Mad.
Konrad flashed a mad smile of his own. “Knox,” he said slowly. “Go fetch Poppy.”
My stomach shriveled at the foul way he uttered those words. Cold dread crept along my skin, but even as its icy tendrils gripped me, the fire blazing in my ribs was hotter. It burned and burned until my bones and organs were a thousand degrees.
Then, in the quiet, a chain rattled.
On the end of a thick chain leash that trailed on the ground, Poppy shambled forward. Collared like a dog. Pale skin marredwith purple bruises; arms, legs, one cheek, one eye, corner of his lip split open and cracked with stale blood.
How long had I been unconscious? How long had Poppy endured whatever he’d endured?
What else had Konrad done to him?
Yet when Poppy met my gaze, his watery eyes still had faith in me.
My brain slowly went blank.
“Here he is,” Konrad sneered, putting a casual paw on the end of Poppy’s chain. “You almost snuck him out for good, didn’t you, dragon? But thanks to Sorrel, I knew exactly where you hid him.” He smirked. “That pup was all too eager to answer my questions.”
I closed my eyes. Sorrel knew about the secret spot. Even if he hadn’t been nursing a crush on Konrad, he’d be powerless to refuse a direct order from his clan alpha. We were naive to think otherwise.
But Sorrel couldn’t have known it would end likethis...
Suddenly, I understood why the rest of the clan wasn’t present. Konrad didn’t want the omegas to see this. He shielded their eyes from the darkness that poisoned their clan. He needed privacy to take revenge, to flaunt his depravity. Just one more abuse of his power.
That sick bastard wanted to hurt me—and he knew that harming Poppy was the deepest possible cut.
“Obviously, Poppy was punished for his treachery,” Konrad said coldly. “He had a rebellious streak before, but running away to be with another alpha was unacceptable. The worst part was that hereekedof dragon.”
Stop.
That was what I wanted to say. But the word wouldn’t form on my lips. My grip on language was slipping away.
Konrad grabbed the chain leash in his paw, yanked Poppy forward so hard he stumbled. Flames licked my ribs. Thinking was difficult now.
Stop.
It wouldn’t come out. My tongue slithered uselessly in my mouth, long and forked. No longer human.
“But it’s better this way, isn’t it, dragon?” Konrad mocked. His massive body was a white wall behind Poppy’s bruised and battered frame. “Now neither of you need to worry about Sorrel. Because Poppy will take Sorrel’s place in my private quarters. Permanently.”
My vision blurred. I felt trapped in my skin—painfully, awfully tight.
A cage of human flesh.
“Tell him, Poppy,” Konrad ordered. He thrust his muzzle beside Poppy’s wounded face, eager for his reply. “Tell him you enjoy it.”
But Poppy was trembling violently and couldn’t speak. In a tiny act of defiance, he shook his head while silently mouthing my name on his swollen lips.
“Poppy,” Konrad growled. “Tell the dragon how much you love being mydog.”
The bars of my cage broke.
