CHAPTER FIVE
EMBER
WIND RIPPED THE AIR from my lungs the second I pushed off the ledge, my stomach lurching as the tower fell away beneath me. For a heartbeat, I was suspended in the air, weightless. Then gravity took over, and I was falling.
I know the drop only lasted seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Snow burst up around me in a blinding spray of white as I landed in a crouch. I smiled, proud of myself and the way I’d stuck my landing.
Now I could add, successfully able to jump from tower windows, to my resume. My legs were a little sore from the impact. But that wouldn’t stop me from escaping.
“My omega,” Moon’s deep voice filled the air.
Still crouching, I looked over my shoulder, then up. He was leaning out of the window I’d jumped from. Was he going to jump, too?
“Stay right there!” he roared. “Don’t you dare move!”
The order hit me like a physical force. It wrapped around my spine, slid into my limbs, locking every muscle in place. My arms went stiff at my sides.
An alpha’s bark.
He’d really used his alpha bark on me. The command in his bark seeped into my bones, into my brain, into every part of my being. His words echoed in my head.
“Stay right there! Don’t you dare move?”
My body was obeying him against my will, my omega submitting to her alpha without even putting up a fight.
Rage flared within me. I would not submit!
I took a deep breath and focused on the lessons an old witch had taught me when I’d been a teenager, cast out of my family and coven because I was considered defective.
That old witch had taught me how to shake off the effects of an alpha’s bark. This had nothing to do with magic, so the gold chain around my ankle shouldn’t prevent it. This was all about mind over matter.
All about forcing my body to put me first, not some alpha. Damn, it was harder than I’d thought it would be. In the past, alpha barks didn’t affect me because I was a cold omega. Now, I knew what other omegas went through when alphas added that extra command to their tone.
I hated it. Loathed the control it gave them over me. Despised how weak it made me feel. I would not allow it. Mind over matter. My needs came first. I came first. I gritted my teeth, pouring all my energy into one command.
Move.
One finger twitched. Then my hand followed, slow and shaking.
There. I did it. Keep going, Ember. You’ve got this!
My head ached, pain throbbing through my temple as I fought to regain control of my body. I gasped and fell to the side, proud as hell of myself. I’d done it. I’d actually shaken off an alpha’s bark.
I stared up at the window to find Moon still there, staring down at me. Smirking, I lifted my middle finger high, holding it up like a victory flag as I slowly stood. Sure, my legs were a little wobbly, but I was moving.
His alpha bark couldn’t control me.
No alpha could control me.
“Don’t you run from us, Little Omega,” he roared.
The command washed over me. But it was easier to shake off this time. I blew him a kiss and then turned, planning to head toward the main gate and enter the festival, where I could steal some clothing. But the main gate was closed. Damn it.
“You have nowhere to run,” Moon roared.
He was right. My only option was the Frozen Forest. But that was their territory. I looked back to see Ryung at the window beside Moon.
“What the hell are you doing down there?” Ryung roared.
I shrugged. “I’m on patrol,” I sassed.
With a growl, Ryung climbed onto the window’s ledge. Shit. He was really going to jump. Out of options, I turned and sprinted straight into the Frozen Forest. My bare feet trudged through the snow as I ran, low-hanging branches whipping at my arms.
I ducked and dodged, trying to avoid getting smacked in the face. Heat roared under my skin, relentlessly reminding me of what was coming. Soon, I would be lost to my body's needs. I needed to get somewhere safe fast.
But I was running into their territory, straight into danger. I hadn’t thought this escape plan out enough. Even so, I couldn’t stop running. My lungs burned, my legs feeling heavier with each stride. I pushed harder, blind panic overriding everything else.
Run faster, Ember. You can’t slow down. Not even a little. Ignore the pain. Ignore your omega. Ignore the fact that an alpha’s bark had held you immobile.
If I hadn’t trained to shake them off, I would’ve been captured by now. Since his bark worked on me, did that mean I was cured of my cold curse? If so, were Moon and Ryung truly my scent matches, my fated ones?
I raced through the Frozen Forest, breathing in the cool night air, no longer cocooned in the scents of my alphas. With that fresh air came clarity. I wasn’t drugged. Sure, my omega was no longer dormant, which should be impossible without the Core Flame Spell.
Sure, my heat was still approaching, slowly taking over my body and making me feel all needy. But I didn’t feel drugged. I’d been drugged before. This wasn’t that. I’d taken aphrodisiacs before, hoping to feel aroused. They never worked.
I wasn’t a fool, and I wasn’t too stubborn to see the truth. If it wasn’t drugs, then there was only one explanation: I’d found my mates, and their presence had awakened my omega. I leapt over a tree's large roots and kept running, my thoughts chaotic.
Was it a coincidence that my targets were actually my mates? Or had the Silent Hex somehow known these alphas were mine and wanted to use me against them? If I’d succeeded in the kills, I still would’ve been cured because my scent-matches were my cure.
Did that mean the Silent Hex didn’t have the cure and had been stringing me along all these years? Rage rushed through me. I hated being treated like a fool, like a pawn in someone else’s revenge scheme.
I needed to know the truth. And I would kill whoever I had to in order to find it. Somewhere behind me, a wolf howled. The sound sliced through the night, loud and mournful.
It was a heartbreaking sound that my body recognized as Prince Moon’s. Don’t ask me how I knew it was his howl. I just knew. My omega knew. And he sounded close. My heart raced, and I ran faster, toes starting to feel numb.
Another howl rent the air, this one louder, angrier. Ryung. He was mad. My omega purred, disliking how much I was distressing my alphas. But I was distressed too, damn it! I was feeling lost and confused.
And I was angry because I’d possibly been betrayed by the organization that had been my source of hope for so many years. Tears stung my eyes. I blinked them back, refusing to cry. More howls filled the night, closer now. Too close.
My alphas were hunting me down like prey. My omega screamed for me to stop, to turn back, to let them catch me and end this fevered nightmare. I couldn’t, even though I didn’t fully understand why I was still running.
I just knew I couldn’t give in, couldn’t be caught. I wasn’t ready to face the truth, to face my alphas. I wasn’t ready to admit that I’d been used to bring them down. Those tears I’d been trying to hold back trickled down my cheeks.
I was pretty sure I’d found my mates, and the first thing I’d done was try to kill them. I’d even planned to cut their penises off, mold them, and sell them as sex toys. What kind of mate does that?
Guilt hummed through me. I stumbled over a root, nearly going down. I caught myself on a low branch that raked my palm, ripping at my skin. If it wasn’t for the Spellbreaker chain on my ankle, I would’ve whispered a spell to heal myself.
My legs were slowing down, fatigue kicking in thanks to my approaching heat. I gritted my teeth when pain shot through my lower belly, almost making me double over just as my alphas’ howls echoed through the forest.
I veered right with no idea where I was running to. At this point, I was just running for the sake of running. My scent would lead them straight to me. With every howl they emitted, my scent grew stronger, more potent.
My omega was perfuming for them, guiding them to me. I was growing hotter with each passing second. Inhaling deeply, I breathed in their mint and whiskey scents. They were in their wolf forms hunting me, so their scents smelled stronger, wilder, more animalistic.
My omega purred louder, pushing me to inhale deeply again, filling my lungs with their fragrances. A wave of dizziness caused me to sway. More howls filled the air, but they were coming from two different directions now.
I looked left, then right. All I saw were trees. They were splitting up. Spreading out. Herding me exactly where they wanted me. I was running right into their trap. I needed to figure out exactly where they were.
So I did the one thing I’d been resisting since my omega awakened: I let her rise up. Not fully. I wasn’t surrendering to her. I simply let her out enough to get an idea where my mates were.
The forest around me became clearer as my senses sharpened. My hearing was already sensitive, but tapping into my omega made me even more acutely aware of my mates. Beneath the scent of pine and snow, there they were, my alphas.
Mint and whiskey.
Closer than I’d realized. I slowed down further, pulse racing, and turned my head slightly. Mint drifted toward me from the left, crisp and cool, tinged with a hint of menthol because my wolf was angry with me.
Turning my head in the opposite direction, I was greeted by the smell of whiskey. But it was edged with a smoky aroma, like charred wood. Ryung was pissed off, also. They were moving in on me, caging me in, herding me exactly where they wanted me.
Close enough now that my skin prickled with awareness. Close enough that my pulse started to race for reasons that had nothing to do with fear. A strange thrill slid through me at the realization that they were good at hunting.
They were coordinated.
In sync.
My alphas moved like they’d hunted together their entire lives. Would they be just as coordinated in bed? Just as in sync? Heat flared across my flesh, my mouth going dry as I imagined them fucking me together.