Chapter 15 Viol #2
“Poppy’s scent is all over me,” I replied, trying not to sound impatient. “He’s safe right now, in a secret place away from the clan.”
Sorrel took a whiff of the air, then went quiet. I figured he had no argument. But I couldn’t tell if he was any closer to accepting my offer. I felt balanced on a precarious edge where a single gust of wind would knock me down into an inescapable pit below.
“Hell, I’ll take you to Poppy if you want,” I suggested. “You two can talk about it together. But we have to go. It’s not safe to stay here.”
Sorrel’s fur bristled. “I can’t do that! This is my home!”
I winced at his raised voice. But before I could urge him to keep quiet, an earth-shattering roar boomed across the air.
“Where is Poppy? Where is my omega?” Konrad snarled.
In the dawn quiet, his thunderous voice carried across the entire clan like a loudspeaker. It rattled me to the bone. I instantly knew the source of his rage. He’d returned to his home to find Poppy missing—and he was about to make it the entire clan’s problem.
It was no longer quiet. The other two alphas burst out of their quarters, summoned by Konrad’s roar. They shouted orders at the shifters pouring out of every building. The manhunt for Poppy was on—and for the intruder who’d stolen him.
My stomach sank as low as my knees on the ground. I was out of time. I had to get Sorrel out now.
“Sorrel, I’m fucking begging you,” I said in a rushed whisper. My hands instinctively hovered closer, itching to grab him and go. “Come with me before Konrad—”
But I’d lost him. Sorrel grimaced as he backed away, his sidelong glance wary and distrustful.
“You should get out of here,” he muttered.
Regret swamped me. I wanted to smack my head against the wall for how badly I’d fucked it all up.
I couldn’t leave Sorrel. I wouldn’t. Even if I had to be the bad guy.
I lunged forward to grab his scruff. He yelped in shock as I dug my fingers into the loose skin, determined not to let go until we were far, far away from this wretched place.
I grunted apologetically as I readied myself to shift. “Sorry, but—”
“Help!” Sorrel shrieked.
The ground shook with a huge thud behind me. I whirled my head around just in time to see a massive, snarling white bear gear up to strike. In the milliseconds it took me to recognize Rorik, my world had already gone dark.
When I opened my eyes, I wished I hadn’t.
Agony struck me the second I saw daylight. A starburst pain at the back of my skull throbbed, and the copper tang of blood filled my mouth. I spat it out only to realize it was trickling down from my nose, too.
When I tried to move, I couldn’t budge. Not easily, anyway. My wrists were tied with scratchy rope to a wooden post behind my back.
When my swimming vision finally came into focus, I looked out at the tundra clan’s main clearing. It was disturbingly empty. All the omegas were gone. Were they locked back in their quarters after Poppy was found?
My stomach clenched.
Poppy!
Was he still safe? Or had they caught him, too? It killed me that I didn’t know.
Pain forgotten, I wrenched my head back and forth, searching for his beautiful face. But he wasn’t there. Only Konrad, Sheba, and Knox. Alpha versus alphas.
Everything flooded back to me in an awful wave. My guts churned like tar.
This is bad. This is really fucking bad, Violet.
I spat out another mouthful of blood. “Where’s Poppy?”
“You’re in no position to make demands.” The strict voice came from the female alpha bear, Sheba, as she skulked into my view. She was sorely mistaken if she thought I was intimidated.
Anger surged up within me, stirring my dragon soul. “I don’t give a shit,” I rasped. “Where’s Poppy? And for your sake, he’d better be safe.”
Sheba smirked. “Or else what?”
“I will rip your fucking face off.”
Sheba paused. A momentary glimpse of fear darted across her face before she hardened her expression again.
“Poppy is safe,” Sheba said as her smirk returned. “And he is right where he belongs. With our clan alpha.”
As that knowledge sank in, so did the memory of Poppy curled up naked in the corner of a room. An ugly feeling stirred in my gut.
“Give him back to me,” I said in a low tone.
Sheba threw back her head, cackling. “You think you can order me around? Look at the state you’re in, dragon. Or should I call you demon?”
A second alpha bear—a smaller male with a resemblance to Konrad—loped beside Sheba. He shot me a withering look, then muttered to Sheba, “Are you certain those restraints are tight enough?”
His comment tipped me off. I didn’t react, but behind the post, I tested the rope again. It was robustly tight—for anyone except a dragon. Shifting my arms would be enough to shred it and break free. Shifting my whole body? An instant game over for these alpha bears.
But I needed more information.
Sheba curled her lip at the other bear, baring her fangs as she asked, “You’re doubting me, Knox?”
“No.” Knox peered at me again. “But I doubt this... creature has shown his full strength.”
It took all my willpower to stop my mouth from curling into a nasty grin.
Out of all the alphas, Knox was apparently the smartest. He was right.
They’d only witnessed a fraction of my true power.
They’d only seen the whimpering, placid dragon who balked at the idea of violence.
But a lot had changed since then. And I wasn’t willing to play nice anymore.
I glanced up to see Konrad watching the scene with a subtle smirk. Of course that fucker was amused. He had a front-row seat to his minions interrogating me.
“You should listen to Knox,” I taunted Sheba. “Unlike you and Konrad, he knows what he’s talking about.”
“Silence,” Sheba hissed.
I searched Konrad’s expression. Would he take my bait? But the great white bear didn’t move. That smug look was plastered to his face. Was his confidence based on our last encounter? If so, he was in for a bad time.
“Don’t make me say it again,” I warned, staring at the alpha bears. “Bring Poppy to me—alive and unharmed.”
Sheba shot a direct, furious look at Knox. The male bear stormed towards me, lifted a blunt paw, and struck me across the face. The force of it felt like a hammer blow. The inside of my skull rang, and fresh blood trickled down my lips. I spat it out.
“Are you done?” I growled.
Sheba chuckled, but Knox didn’t seem entertained.
When he glanced at Konrad for reassurance, the clan leader gave him none.
Instead, the massive bear’s beady eyes drilled into mine.
He was enjoying this. He didn’t care about Poppy, or Sorrel, or Rorik, or any of the omegas. He was no alpha. He was a tyrant.
It snapped my remaining patience in half.
“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 you really piss 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 marred with 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 like this...
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 he reeked of 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.