“Fiery omega,” he croons. “It will be my pleasure to quell that in you.”
But he will never put out my fire, not as long as he stands between me and Harry. It doesn’t matter what he does to me—I will never give up trying to return to him.
When we reach the house deep in the woods, though, the truth of what lies ahead of me becomes clearer. I am a prisoner again, helpless again, trapped again. No matter how I flail, my captor simply chuckles and holds metighter. He is big and strong as an ox. An alpha, through and through.
Father was right about this, at least. I wasn’t safe, even with Harry. Not while I am what I am and these monsters are on the prowl.
I try again to kick my legs, but the man holds them firmly in his arm. There’s nothing I can do with my hands bound, either. I am helpless in the face of what he plans to do.
The alpha unlocks his door, steps inside the house, and locks it again behind him. It smells strange in here, musky and woody, something that should appeal to me—but it isn’t Harry’s smell, and so it disgusts me.
“Do you like it?” asks my captor, spinning me around. “Your new home. Once I’ve knotted you, you’ll be mine. And by then, you’ll know it, just like I do now.”
I would much rather vomit down his back, especially after the spinning.
While I sag against him, he continues deeper into the house. I can’t see where we’re headed, but I feel when he stops and hear when he yanks a door handle open.
Where are we going? Where is he taking me?
We descend down steps as I flail my legs again, but the way the alpha doesn’t react, it’s as if I’m little more than an annoying fly to him. Once inside, he turns and closes the door behind him, locking that, too.
Then we descend into darkness. A scream leaves my mouth unbidden, but it gets lost in the gag.
No. No! Not another locked door. Anything, anything but a locked door.
The world turns darker, and the doorway is getting farther away from me the deeper we go. I’m going to die.I’m going to die here, in a pit under a house, in a room I can’t escape.
I thrash harder, and this time, my captor pauses and abruptly turns his body—slamming me into a wall. My scream of pain dissipates into the soggy cloth as my head collides with wood. The world spins, and I no longer have the sense about me to fight as he carries me down the stairs.
Then we reach flat ground, and I’m moving again. Suddenly the painful bite of his shoulder in my gut is gone, and instead, I’m being laid upon the cold, hard ground on my back.
My eyes fly wide open as the alpha grins over me. I’m in only my nightgown with nothing on underneath, and I’m acutely aware of that now as he reveals all of his teeth. His hands fly down to his waist, where he unbuckles his belt—or tries to, but his fingers aren’t cooperating.
“Calm down, Greld,” he mutters, like he’s talking to himself. “You don’t want to rip her in half.”
Fear blazes through me again. I know now what he plans to do.
While he’s occupied with his belt, I fight through the maddening panic and think. His head is bent. If I jam my knee up at just the right angle…
Closing one eye, I focus on him and aim. I get one chance, and I’d better not mess it up.
I bend my knee fast and fling it upward, straight into his face. The bone collides with his nose, and the alpha—Greld—lets out a howl of agony. It hurt me, too, with as much force as I put behind it, but I’m not as fragile as I once was. Greld leans back and covers his face as blood pours from his nostrils. While he’s occupied, I pull up bothknees as far toward my face as they can go, aim my feet, and…
I kick. As hard as I kicked the door in Father’s house, I kick Greld, striking him in the chest and belly. He roars again, crashing backward, and even though my arms are pinned behind me, I try to get to my feet.
“OMEGA!” he shrieks, rising to his feet. Blood trails down his face and body, and his eyes are glowing with an inhuman light. He mutters threats, but it’s garbled by his injured face as he stalks toward me. Now his buckle is loose, so he rips off the button in his effort to get his pants off. Underneath is a monster.
It’s thick, thick and red, and something white spills from the tip. Down lower is a shaft, and then where it meets the curls at his groin…
There’s a lump. He reaches down and strokes it, even though blood is running down his hand. I scream into the cloth in my mouth, and know that it’s over.
I’ve run out of chances.
HAROLD
The entire house shakes as a loud howl rips through the air. It’s muffled, as if by a door, but I can hear it, nonetheless.
I’ve been searching the house for any sign of Selene, but nothing yet. That sound, though, was coming frombelow.
