Chapter 36
Thirty-Six
WILLOW
Cold sweat stuck to the back of my neck. I lost all sense of time, trapped behind these stone walls. I rubbed at the irritated skin on the inside of my wrist, not knowing if it had been three days or three hours since Vittorio had forced that sludge-like liquid down my throat.
I toyed with a loose thread on the thin blanket he had graciously brought me, like some grand offering to his soon-to-be omega. I tried to banish the unwanted image. The last thing I wanted was to belong to him.
Silent tears slid down my cheeks. I trailed my thumb over the ring still on my finger.
Surprisingly, Vittorio hadn’t stolen it from me.
Either he hadn’t noticed or hadn’t cared.
Or maybe he let me keep on purpose, getting some sick satisfaction out of seeing me wearing it when he planned to bite me.
I buried my face in my hands, wiping the beads of sweat off my brow. With my eyes closed, I tried to remember Kaelen’s scent—whisky and coffee.
The memory enveloped me, staving off the dampness in the air. My hand spread over my sternum. A dull ache throbbed in the pit of my stomach, a thrum I first dismissed as anxiety.
But it morphed into something familiar, something unsettling. The knot in my belly unfurled. A prickling sensation erupted over my body, dragging across my sensitive skin like sandpaper.
Soon, a series of cramps twisted in my abdomen, and I cried out, curling into a ball on my pathetic excuse for a bed.
Everything that was happening felt wrong.
Usually, in the days or hours before my heat, my body tingled with anticipation, a joyful urge dulling some of the more unpleasant symptoms. This time, however, a foreboding doom hung over me.
My body screamed, resisting every twist and gush of slick.
“No. No. No,” I whispered, sniffling and hating how my biology betrayed me.
I only wanted to spend my heats with one person.
Kaelen.
My husband.
My alpha.
“Alpha,” I moaned into the dim light.
Alpha. Alpha. Alpha.
The words chanted over and over again in my head, followed by a chorus of mate, mate, mate. I kicked the blanket away, my nesting instinct hidden under my fear.
This wasn’t a nest, wasn’t my nest.
It was a cage.
Images of Kaelen’s tattooed arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me into him in our nest filled my mind. The phantom scent of fresh espresso rose to the surface.
I imagined stroking my nails through his beard, tugging his hair free from its well-styled bun at the back of his head. I’d run my fingers through it while he groaned a pleased noise, scenting me.
A grating sound cut through the guttural silence, and I crawled as far away from the noise as I could. The scrape of metal on stone echoed in the small space as the door creaked open.
The now familiar scent of cigar smoke and rancid fruit greeted me, and I hissed. My omega protested the wrongness of it all. Vittorio’s broad silhouette filled the entryway. A slow, predatory glimmer alighted in his features as he shut the door behind him, leaving the two of us alone.
Pressed black trousers hung around his slightly protruding stomach. The older alpha was showing his age. His bloodshot eyes narrowed as he rolled the sleeves on his shirt, stepping closer with precise movements.
Each one stole more air from my lungs, my eyes darting around the room. The walls closed in around me, making my chest constrict as I gasped for air.
“You’re close,” he said in a gravelly voice that made my hands tremble. “I can smell your cunt from the hallway. Your omega is calling out, desperate to be bred and bonded, needing your alpha. Don’t worry. I’m here.”
He pounced with surprising speed, pinning me beneath him. My heart hammered against my ribs, the blood rushing in my ears drowning out most of the garbled words he said, his hot breath fanning over my flushed cheeks.
I needed an alpha. My alpha.
Not him. Never him.
“Fuck you,” I hissed, scratching his face.
Pinpricks of blood dripped over his olive skin, and I smirked, the victory fleeting. His knees dug into my hips, his yellowed teeth flashing in the muted light.
“Stronza,” he howled, slapping me across the face.
A different kind of heat from the one curling around my insides spread over my cheek, the pain slightly overshadowing the cramping in my belly. My hands flew up to my face, but Vittorio caught my wrists, securing both my hands in one of his above my head.
With his free hand, he caressed the backs of his knuckles over the blooming bruise. The gentle motion was so at odds with the rest of him. I bucked and fought, but to no avail.
He laughed, the sound harsh and unnerving.
“I like it when you fight. You will look so pretty, round with my baby. I’d like another son.”
Realization made what little warmth remained leech from my cheeks. Truthfully, I’d never given much thought to children. Unlike other omegas, it wasn’t something I dreamed about.
If I wanted anyone’s babies, it was Kaelen’s.
Not like this.
“Don’t worry,” he cooed, licking a spot over my pulse that made me fight harder. “Soon you’ll be begging for me, omega. Begging for your alpha to fuck you and bite you.”
The grin on his face elongated. I didn’t want to be scared of him. I didn’t want to be weak.
No, I refused to give in to fear. A queen bowed to no one. Except her king. And Rossi was a jester at best.
The sound of crashing glass echoed above us, followed by a chorus of shouts and gunfire. A jolt of electricity shot through my veins, and I was almost too afraid to be hopeful.
Then I heard it, the lilting voice of my alpha telling someone to move, followed by another gunshot and a roar. Relief doused the building panic tightening around me like a vise. He was here.
He came for me. My husband. My alpha. Mine.
I only had to hold off Rossi a little longer.
“Kaelen! Alpha!” I screamed, praying he heard me. “I’m down here!”
Another roar rattled from upstairs, and I swore I heard his voice call out for me.
“Quiet! Fuck. No matter,” Vittorio hissed, releasing my wrists and angling my head to expose my neck. “I’ll bite you now. You’re primed enough for my bond to take, Omega.”
I thrashed. If Vittorio sank his fangs into my flesh, nothing could save me.
In his death, the bond could be severed, but it was dangerous to do with a fresh bite. If the alpha didn’t tend to the mark, infection usually took root, and omegas succumbed to the sickness.
Even if Kaelen found us, it would be too late.
Sharp teeth grazed the thin skin over my pulse, and my body reacted. I threw a hand out, but he was too fast, too strong. He grabbed my wrist, rolling us over and twisting it painfully behind my back. I yelped, my face pressed into the dirty mattress.
A long, thin knife glinted by one of my eyes—Vittorio flashing the blade in front of me in warning. A power built within me. Something that had always been there. Something that bloomed with the love I had for Kaelen. For the love he had for me.
We may not have said those words, but I felt them in every thrum of my heart.
That’s what I was to him. What he called me. Mo chroí. My heart.
Omegas weren’t weak. And neither was I. I refused to be a victim of fate. Determined to make my own.
A breath expanded in my chest, and I gathered all my strength.
Quickly, I flung my head back, smashing into his face as hard as could.
My vision blurred with the stinging pain that pulsed at the base of my neck. A strangled gasp fell from his lips, his body slipping off mine. The knife clattered to the floor with a deafening thud.