It was the least he deserved for everything he’d done.
His hands went slack, and Sidian broke his hold, dragging himself across the floor to the doorway to grip the frame tightly in his hands. He watched as Dax’s body jerked and shuddered, a single tear trailing down his cheek. What the fuck was going on with him? Was he having a heart attack or a stroke or something? Fuck, that would be such a godsend right now.
“Axel,” Dax breathed, scrubbing his hands over his face, then wincing and dropping them. He stared at nothing in particular before his gaze settled on Sidian again, staring up at him with an expression that Sidian didn’t know how to describe. Was he upset? “What the fuck did your alpha do to my pack brother, Obsidian? What the fuck have youdone?”
Sidian scrambled backward toward the hallway as Dax caught him by the shoulders and slammed him into the bedroom door, his entire body twitching from the pain as the sharp woodcuts dug into his skin.
“You stupid fuckingbitch,” he snapped, spittle flying into Sidian’s face. “My brother is dead. What the fuck did your stupid muttdo to Axel?”
Dax let go of him and let out a scream that sent goosebumps crawling along Sidian’s bare skin, his muscles going slack as he slid down the door, coughing weakly.
Every single part of his body ached, and he drew his knees up to his chest as Dax screamed again, raking his hands through white hair that stained a rusty color where the blood soaked into the pale strands. What the fuck was he talking about? What was wrong with him? Sidian had spent precious little time around alphas and had never seen one act like that before.
Mutt.Roman.Had Roman done something? Was he safe? Was he alive?
He had to be. He had to be alive because Sidian couldn’t save them both, but he could kill the monster in front of him to get back to his mate. As long as Roman survived, they would reunite, and they would find somewhere safe and quiet and raise their children together and maybe have more. How beautiful would a baby be with Roman’s eyes and Roman’s smile and Roman’s good, pure heart?
Sidian was only vaguely aware he was weeping silently, the panic and pain tangling up in his chest until it was harder to breathe than it had been with the lamp cord across his throat. He was going to have a panic attack, and then Dax was going to kill him in that moment of weakness.
I can’t do it I can’t do it I can’t do it I CAN’T FUCKING DO IT—
Dax jerked himself upright, sucking in great lungfuls of breath before his gaze settled on Sidian once again. He took one jerking, halting step closer, then growled and forced another step. Something was wrong with him. Something was very wrong with him. How could anyone turn out like him?
“I’m going to fuck you like youdeserve,” Dax sneered, “and then I’m going to make you watch as I cut that worthless fucking thing out of you once and for all.”
And just like that, something in Sidian’s mindsnapped.
It was almost gratifying to see the look of surprise on Dax’s face as Sidian shot toward him, the alpha’s throat flexing with a harsh swallow as Sidian prepared to sink his teeth in deep.
No one threatens my children.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The natural strength of an alpha permitted them to shield and protect their mates and children from harm, as well as to visit brutality upon those who deserved it. Roman considered it both as he wrapped a hand around Axel’s jaw, gripping him by the chin while the other hand slid into his hair. The satisfyingcrackof bone was lovely, but not as satisfying as the wet squelch of ripping flesh.
He watched as the bronze flesh split open, blood cascading down Axel’s chest as his limbs jerked and twitched with muscle spasms. The scent of copper filled the air, and Roman greeted it like an old friend as he gave another vicious yank, severing the spine so that the heavy body beneath crumpled to the ground. Axel’s head was still warm as Roman lifted it until their eyes met through the shadows.
“Ugly motherfucker,” he muttered to no one in particular before he shifted his attention back to the yard. Several of the Kincaids were standing closer to the trees now; they were all sodesperate to believe there might still be some saving their pack brother. “Here, guys. Catch.”
He had never been good at sports. Therefore, it pleased him far too much when Axel’s head arced through the air and landed in the hands that Talon stretched toward the sky.
A beat passed as the alphas in the yard all stared at their pack brother’s still and paling face, the bloody stump that jutted from his torn neck. Talon dropped it and stumbled back several steps. “What the fuck?” he rasped. “What the fuck, what the fuck,what the fuck!”
“I’m gonna be sick,” Nash proclaimed right before bending at the waist, bracing his hands on his knees as he vomited into the grass. The wet retching noises brought a smile to Roman’s face.
“Puppy wouldn’t have done that.” Knox looked toward the forest again, but his eyes never settled on any spot. “Kane is in there somewhere. Get in there and find him!”
But nobody dared take the first step across the tree line, and Roman realized they wereafraid.
Jagger told him just once that the boss’s status as a feral earned him far more fear and intimidation than his designation as an epsilon. An epsilon’s violent tendencies could be controlled, and the boss worked hard to ensure alphas would be safe in his presence. But a feral’s pheromones never quite felt the same after that first shift into bloodlust, and Roman wondered if that was why they were afraid of him.
That wasn’t a good enough reason. He would have to give them a better one.
Slate squared his shoulders and stepped toward the woods, his jaw set, his eyes narrowing the closer he drew to the trees. “Fucking pussies have to sneak attack us, huh? Well, I’m not afraid of you stupid fucking dogs. I’m gonna make you regret putting your hands on one of your alphas!”
Roman bit back a snort; hehadno alphas, and he never would. The only person in the world who mattered in his eyes was locked up in that house, and he would raze the entire thing to the ground in order to get Sidian back. They couldn’t keep him away from his omega, and now that they had tried, he’d pay them back in kind. He’d rip them to pieces one by one just because he could.
He eased back into the shadows as quietly as possible, leaving Axel’s decapitated corpse to bleed into the earth, waiting for the precise moment when Slate would notice it.
