Pack Kincaid was never interested in offering him comfort. They used every vocalization to speak to his heat-addled brain, to get him to spread his legs or arch his back or slick their cocks on command while he wished they’d snap his neck and be done with it. Just the memory alone was enough to make him whimper, his resolve wavering.
He was exhausted. If the alpha stood up, he didn’t know if he’d have the energy left to kill him.
But Sidian had to. If the alpha got up, if the alpha came after him, then he had to stick his blade in that thickly corded neck and run.
He imagined it. Toyed with the idea of it. Visualized lodging the thin silver blade into the alpha’s jugular, watching the flesh split open and blood jettison out. He imagined the warmth dripping over his skin and soaking into his clothes, the rich copper scent following him as he fled into the night.
Copper. Blood. Familiar, but… Not for the usual reasons. For his antics at the center.
The alpha crooned again, softer this time, and the noise drew Sidian one step closer. His omega yearned for comfort and safety in the wake of everything he’d survived, but he knew it was a trap he couldn’t fall into. Not here. Not now.
“What?” he demanded, but the alpha didn’t answer him. “Talk, damn it. What the fuck do you want?”
The alpha’s voice was muffled behind the black mask he wore, a dark mesh over his eyes likely allowing him just enough visibility to see while keeping his identity concealed. “Sidian, please…”
Sidian’s name rolled off of the alpha’s tongue like a benediction, like a prayer. A soft keen rose to his lips before he could stop it, a desperation clawing at him he didn’t recognize. He’d always been careful around alphas, but one of them talked sweetly to him, and he wanted to fall over and show the alpha his belly? Fat fucking chance. He should just kill the alpha to put an end to whatever bizarre power the alpha seemed to have over him.
And then something clicked, his brows furrowing as he lowered the scalpel. “How do you know my name?”
The alpha didn’t answer. Instead, he stared at Sidian through the dark fabric covering his eyes, his fingers twitching like he wanted to do something. Reach out? Grab Sidian? Maybe reachfor a weapon. Hard to tell when Sidian did not know who the alpha was or why he would even be here. Some kind of government agent? Somehow, he doubted it because most of the breeding centers were government-sanctioned at the very least.
Black Ops of some kind? Why would they be out there? Why rip Barnes’s arm off at the shoulder like that and beat him over the head with it?
Why stop just to chase Sidian down?
When the alpha didn’t answer and yet made no move to stand, Sidian took a deep breath and shifted closer a few steps, weighing his options. If he got close enough to strike a killing blow, if he rammed the scalpel in the general direction of the alpha’s throat, would the alpha lift a hand to stop him? Sidian assumed so, because who would just stay kneeling in the dirt with their life on the line? But it was hard to predict the movements of someone who already wasn’t like any of the alphas that Sidian had met.
That was at least more of a blessing than a curse.
A ragged breath made his spine tingle, and he bit down hard on a pathetic omega whine.
“Mask,” the alpha breathed, but nothing else.
The mask? Was the alpha trying to take off the mask?
Sidian glanced toward the line of trees at his back before stepping forward, his fingers sliding over the slick black fabric so he could gather just enough of it to secure a good grip. It fit tight and almost seemed like it didn’t want to come off, and he felt a slight sense of gratification that the alpha might be in any discomfort at all. After all, it wasn’t the alpha who was in the middle of the woods, almost barefoot and pregnant, trying to claw back the freedom that was ripped from his hands.
Sidian ripped the mask off, and the alpha gave his head a shake, freeing a mane of glossy black curls and raising familiar eyes.
Vibrant moss, thick and green on the bark of pale, silvery birch trees. Long black lashes against smooth olive skin.Almostsmooth, he corrected himself, noting the slit in the alpha’s right eyebrow, the knick of a scar beneath his left eye, a jagged twist of white tissue along his jaw.
He didn’t look the same as he did back then, but alphas matured quickly after their presentation. The lines of his face were harder now, a powerful jaw and aquiline nose, sharp cheekbones and dark brows. The quintessential alpha face, though the bright glitter of wonder and awe in his eyes softened his features to an incredible degree.
Roman Kane in the flesh.
“What the fuck?” Sidian tried to dart back away from him, but his wobbly legs refused to allow him more than a shuffling half-step. “Roman? Is that you?”
How could his mate be here of all places?
Roman nodded from where he knelt, never taking his eyes off of Sidian—off of his face, Sidian realized, not the blade in his hand as if that concerned Roman not at all. After the amount of violence he saw Roman commit the first time the bloodlust rose in him, it was no wonder he wasn’t worried about Sidian and what he might do. If Roman wanted to, he could snap Sidian’s spine in half.
He watched Roman wet plush lips with the tip of his tongue, and Sidian’s stomach tightened at the sight. “Bullshit. I know what you smell like. Why can’t I smell you now?”
“Mission protocol. De-scenting cologne before each mission.” The words were clipped, smooth, but breathy as Roman looked Sidian over. Sounded just like him, not that Sidian thought about it, albeit deeper and huskier. “I didn’t know you were here.”
A flare of white-hot rage consumed Sidian for just a moment, his teeth gritting at Roman’s words, before it flickered downto nothing but embers. Embers that were being smothered by relief and his omega keening with excitement in his hindbrain, wanting to preen and dance and coo over his mate reappearing after all this time. All those months of desperate, useless hope just for Roman to show up when Sidian thought he’d never see him again. Impossible.
And yet there Roman was, changed enough that Sidian knew he couldn’t be hallucinating him. Staring up at him like Roman had seen nothing more important in his entire life.
