Chapter 20
TWENTY
Jez
MY MATE WAS CLOSE. I was sure of it. My head swam, thoughts becoming harder to hold onto as the smell of his distress overwhelmed my rational mind.
Keys. I had to keep a grip on the keys. My clothing itched and rubbed like burlap. I wanted nothing more than to stop and tear it all off. But to do that, I’d have to drop the keyring. And I needed the keyring. I needed to keep the keyring because... because...
The sour scent of oak-aged whiskey had been growing stronger with every step, until it was the only thing I could focus on. But now, a weaker scent of lemon and paprika wove in with my mate’s pheromones.
Omega. It was an omega’s scent.
Another omega was with my mate.
For a split second, rage the likes of nothing I’d ever felt before exploded behind my lungs. Then my lagging brain caught up to what I was smelling, as more details filtered in through my nose.
Young. This omega was a child. A frightened child.
No... not just frightened. Terrified.
I staggered toward the barred cell that was the source of the mingled scents. Behind me, shouts erupted from the way I’d come, as though maybe someone had found the open cell door and the crumpled body inside.
My hands shook, the zip tie biting into my skin as I fumbled with the keyring—trying first one key, then the next, and the next, and the next.
I didn’t dare look at whatever was inside the locked room.
I could smell blood now... and I knew that the instant my eyes fell on my mate, it would be the end of any shred of rationality I might still be clinging to.
More shouted curses and the pounding of footsteps approached—coming toward me far too fast. I tried another key, and another. The heavy lock clanked as I twisted as the sixth key rotated in the tumblers. The barred door swung free.
A small boy darted past me through the gap, his smoky lemon scent hitting me in a wave of fear-dread-distress. My head whipped around, following the motion as he bolted like a jackrabbit, running full speed in the opposite direction from the approaching guards.
I just had time to take in my flame-haired mate rising from a crouch in the far corner of the cell. Blood streaked his face and neck, dripping sluggishly from parallel jagged scratches, as though he’d been clawing at his own skin in frustration and rage.
Then a heavy body slammed into me, shoving me against the far wall of the corridor so hard that all the breath whooshed out of my lungs.
“Fuck... shit!” snarled the alpha who’d held me down on the metal table and injected me with a heat-stim. “Get that cell door closed and locked before—”
His hot breath wafted past my ear, and it was all I could do not to scream at the utter wrongness of having him so close to me. Instead, I growled and bucked, even as a roar of pure, unbridled rage echoed from inside the cell.
Between one heartbeat and the next, a spitting, clawing tornado erupted into the hallway, his scent rising around him like aged spirits and vengeance.
The second guard shrieked; the sound choking down to a nauseating gurgle right before the wet crunch of torn cartilage reached me past the ringing in my ears.
The scream I’d swallowed back earlier finally escaped, tearing its way past my throat like the living embodiment of all the unfairness and pain in my life. The alpha holding me cursed again, the sound cut off as he was dragged off me like he weighed no more than a child’s rag doll.
I spun and pounced, clawing at eyeballs while my mate held the hated alpha still in a brutal headlock. His roar of anger subsided to a low, warning growl. The sound resonated through my chest and down to my belly, drawing liquid heat as thick and scorching as lava through my veins.
I continued my mindless attack, relishing my former captor’s high-pitched cries of agonized horror.
Then the man’s head jerked to the side in a violent twisting movement.
A sharp, popping crack reached me through the haze of my own berserker rage, and the body in my mate’s grip went limp, slumping to the floor as he tossed it aside.
I stood, transfixed—my chest rising and falling in rapid, gasping pants as I lifted my gaze to meet my mate’s green eyes.
The moment we connected, a flood of warmth and need washed through me in a rushing tidal wave.
My head fell back and to the side in blissful surrender—showing throat to the alpha who would always protect me whenever danger threatened.
My mate groaned, pulling my body flush against his and clinging to me as though I was the only thing keeping him from flying apart at the seams. His embrace made me feel like the most important person in the entire universe; like I had singlehandedly made him complete, where he had been torn open and bleeding a moment before.
His groan rumbled into a rough purr. The sound vibrated through me, making every other thing in the world feel distant and unimportant. The scorching lava in my veins pumped faster, collecting at the neck of my womb until I thought I would burst into flames on the spot.
Chapped lips closed on my exposed throat, nibbling down to sniff at my scent gland like someone taking a hit of cocaine. My nerves exploded in tingling ecstasy, sensation zinging along my spine to throb in my clit.
“Need you,” I whined. “Please, please...”
The purr rumbled louder, and strong arms scooped me up into a secure hold. My mate carried me away from the scent of blood and death and terrified child-omega. The room where we ended up was dusty and bare, but it smelled of age and neglect rather than other people.
My alpha set me down as gently as though I was made of glass.
He immediately snapped the zip tie holding my wrists with his teeth, freeing me.
Then he started tearing at his already torn clothing.
I lunged forward and helped him get everything off—my smaller fingers less clumsy with buttons and zippers.
God, he was so beautiful. Even scratched and bloody, with rings of exhaustion under his eyes, he was completely perfect.
I thought of my other mate, with his bulging muscles and brilliant hazel eyes.
How had I ended up with such perfect, amazing mates?
I wished he was here as well... and my third mate, with his tawny skin and soft, kinky black hair.
But... there was a reason I couldn’t have my third mate. Something bad... something terrible. Why couldn’t I remember...?
A whimper of distress escaped me, and my red-haired alpha was immediately touching me again. His big hands cradled my face, stroking my lank, sweaty hair as he murmured soothing noises.
I twisted unhappily, once again aware of every stitch in my unwanted clothing. Seeming to sense what I needed, he began stripping it from me, exposing my skin to the glorious coolness of the air. When something didn’t come off fast enough, he ripped the seams apart like tissue paper.
My nipples hardened as the air caressed them. I moaned, thrusting my small breasts upward in desperate invitation. The chapped lips that had teased my neck earlier closed around one taut peak, and I cried out as a rough tongue rasped over the pebbled flesh.
But that wasn’t what either of us really needed.
My scent rose in waves from the slick soaking my jeans and panties.
With a low noise of want, my mate pulled away from my breast with a little pop of suction and went to work on the rest of my clothes.
He helped me balance as I stepped out of pants and underwear together.
Then he shoved all our discarded clothing into the closest approximation of a nest that was possible under our current circumstances.
With a cry of relief, I dropped to my hands and knees on the pile of clothes, breathing in our combined scents.
It was pure instinct to flatten my upper body to the floor, sticking my ass in the air—an unspoken demand.
With a feral growl, my alpha lowered himself to kneel behind me.
The tongue that had lapped at my nipple delved into my folds, licking up my slick like it was the finest nectar.
Pleasure crashed through me. My belly cramped again, the pain twisting together with the wild sensations ricocheting through my body.
I sobbed and rubbed my face in the ripped fabric of my mate’s shirt as he nosed and licked at me, diving in like a starving man presented with a ripe peach; its sweet juices leaking down his chin.
Just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to stand it for another second, the rough hands spreading my ass cheeks apart gripped my hips instead.
I felt him shift position, and the thick, blunt heat of a throbbing cock prodded at my opening, seeking.
I wailed and reared back, spearing myself on that perfect, punishing girth as though it was the only thing keeping me alive.
“Yes!” I shrieked. “Yes... yes!”
Every thought, every memory, every scrap of awareness about who I was or what was happening disappeared beneath the earthquake of raw need rushing back and forth between us, with every brutal thrust in and out of my clenching passage.
“Oh, god...” I moaned, jerking my hips back and forth with abandon. “More, please, more—oh god, bite me, bite me, bite me—!”
My mate was inside me, pushing me toward a climax that would blot out the world... but it still wasn’t enough. I needed more of him in me. I needed to make sure that he could never, ever leave.
His growl dipped into a lower register, resonating inside my chest with every unforgiving stroke.
“Mine,” he snarled, his grip on my hip tightening until I could feel the finger-shaped bruises forming. “Mine... mine... mine!”
He slammed into me, and the dam inside me shattered.
I screamed and clamped down on him, slick squirting between us as my muscles milked his length violently.
My awareness whited out, the force of the towering orgasm competing with the ravenous hunger for something more.
My mating gland throbbed and ached with the need for sharp teeth to pierce it.
“Please!” I sobbed. “Oh god, please, I can’t—”
Strong arms pulled me upright on my knees, my back slapping hard against a muscled chest. One arm wrapped around my torso, a hot hand grabbing my breast possessively. The other hand wrapped around my throat, my pulse pounding crazily against the firm grip.
The hand twisted my head to the side, and I let it fall limply.
My choked groan of relief vibrated against the warm constriction against my windpipe as unsteady breath puffed against my aching gland.
With a rough groan, my alpha bent his head to the juncture of my shoulder and bit down hard, until the blood flowed.