There was nothing behind those eyes. She wasn’t there anymore.
He was going to have to kill her.
No,he thought, taking a step back, hands raised, ready to defend himself as need be.Avoid it at all costs. There has to be a way to reach her.
“You have an advantage, Kane. As a prime, you’ll have an edge on them that you do not want to waste.”
Puppy sprinted forward so quickly that she almost blurred around the edges, letting out a shriek that made Roman think of a mountain lion as she charged him. She threw her shoulder into his midsection but only succeeded in knocking him back, her nails digging into his back as she tried to force him down.
Fury intermingled with her scent, a righteous anger as Roman peeled her off of him, uncaring of the damage she did to his back. A roll of thunder made both of them twitch, and she took advantage, twisting her head to bite him on the forearm while one bare foot slammed into his thigh.
He’d never done it before. At the Pit, Jagger had told him precisely how it was performed and demonstrated it on the others, but Roman had been told not to do it, and so he never had. The urge to command an omega had never risen, and he didn’t need to command alphas.
But he needed to this time. Just this once. “Puppy, stop.”
He felt the dominance intermingle with his words, his voice deepening into something that was distinctly unfamiliar to his ears. Puppy jerked to a halt, her small body still vibrating with far too much energy, her teeth lodged in his skin, but her eyes swiveled toward him as something flashed behind her gaze. She let out a disgruntled noise but bit him no deeper, her panting harsh and hot against his torn skin. When he gripped her by the back of the neck and squeezed, her mouth opened and she coughed, spluttering, smacking at her face with her still-shaking hands.
She was all adrenaline, all frenetic energy bound into a body too small for it. He shifted so he could press his thumb under her jaw and felt the frantic thrum of her pulse, desperate and quick as the wingbeats of a hummingbird. She growled up at him and tried to twist out of his hold, but all he had to do was exhale a short, harsh hiss and she fell still once again, though she never stopped baring her teeth.
“Easy,” he whispered, and her eyes narrowed as if she didn’t trust him. Her hands gripped him firmly even as he started to pull her back down toward the earth, never easing his grip for a moment. “We’re going to sit down.Sit.I know you don’t want to, but you don’t have a choice.”
The command brought her down slowly; he felt her go dead weight but refused to let her fall as he lowered her to the earth, kneeling in front of her.
A few fat raindrops smacked him on the cheeks, and then the heavens above opened up.
Puppy shivered as the downpour soaked both of them within moments, blinking furiously up at him as Roman settled himself cross-legged on the ground. He didn’t have time for what he was doing, but he had to make time, dragging her into his lap like an ill-behaved child and wrapping his arms tight around her, keeping her bundled up against his chest. She was too hot, almost feverish in her feral state.
The comedown had been hell. He remembered that part, shaking apart in the back of the cop car.
“Easy,” he whispered again when she hissed at him, gripping the front of his shirt in one hand. “Easy, Puppy, it’s just me. I know it’s been a while, but I know you remember who I am.”
Her hand stilled as her head tilted, her brows furrowing as her jaw finally started to relax, her face smoothing into an expression of pure confusion.
Roman was not a dominant alpha. He was not a forceful person. He might have been for the right person, if they had ever come along, but that wasn’t who he was at heart. That was whoSidianwas, who he had always been, and the two of them clicked because of that. Made for each other.
He exhaled and brushed Puppy’s hair back out of her face, trying to be as gentle with her as possible. She was, if he remembered correctly, just a few years older than he was. Inher mid-twenties and having her life ripped away from her by the same monsters who had hurt his mate. Having had her days chipped away one at a time in a haze of animal instinct that slowly ate away at her humanity, she had been strong, too. She had to be in there. She had to be in there, because he didn’t know what to do if she wasn’t.
“It’s okay,” he tried to reassure her, and her eyes narrowed further, a fury of mistrust tangling in her bloody gaze. “I know it hurts, I know you’re confused and angry with me, but it’s okay. Just shh. Just calm down for a second, just breathe. You’re so hot. Doesn’t the rain feel nice?”
He tilted his head back, aware of just how dangerous a move it was to do so, and let his eyes flutter shut as he basked in the cool rain that showered his skin. It would have been pleasant if the night was warmer, but he could suck it up. He could deal with it.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Puppy looking up at the sky herself, her lips pursed. Slowly, she closed her eyes, and a bit of the dirt was slowly washed from her pallid skin.
She looked so sick. She probably needed to see a doctor, but Roman didn’t have one on hand.
All he had was himself, and for now, that would have to be enough.
With a careful touch, Roman brushed some of her damp hair back from her face, using his thumb to rub some of the dirt off of her cheeks. She blinked at him as he did so, her eyelashes wet with water, her face twisting again. Puppy didn’t understand what he was doing or why, but she wasn’t reading it as something inherently dangerous, and that was a start.
“Puppy?” Roman tried again, and when she just stared at him, he sighed. What the fuck was he even doing out there? His mate needed him. If he couldn’t bring Puppy back, he didn’t know what chance he stood of saving Sidian. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to help you.”
She simply stared at him, blinking raindrops out of her eyes.
He risked it, then. He risked shifting closer to her, and though he felt her tense up in his arms, he rested his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, trying to keep himself calm.
An alpha’s rumble was meant to soothe an omega or a child in need of care, and rarely did it work for anyone else. It certainly didn’t work on other alphas, and nothing worked on betas, but Roman had little left to try. He could have commanded her out of her feral state to the best of his ability, but care was what he was good at. Not dominance. Not bossing people around. Not forcing them into subservience.
If that didn’t work, he had no other ideas. No other options. She would stay like that, and he would have to kill her to get back to his mate.
