Chapter 13 Pontifications
Pontifications
Locke
“You think one little bite on an omega is going to separate us? We will never be separated, Locke. Not in life. And not in death. You and I are tied. Our fates have been woven together since long before you were ever born. All you’ve done with your little adventure is piss me off.
I should do more than throw you to my tiger.
“I should humiliate you, like you’ve humiliated me.
You’re like Jason coming back home with the golden fleece, and I’m Pelius, tasked to humble you.
I was going to make you my equal in all things, but now, now I have to make you face death.
Be grateful I’m giving you any chance at absolution.
But don’t get it twisted—I hope that tiger rips your guts open.
You are a disappointment and a disgrace.
I’m sick that I’m even allowing anyone to look at you.
I should lock you away and never let you see the sun again.
“And Aurora has options, Locke. It may be difficult for you to see because she chose you, but I have alphas breaking down my door, ready to pledge fealty to me to be in her pack. They all want time in her heat. They send gifts. They’ve offered me favors.
The amount of money a spot during her heat will afford me?
She’s better than drugs. She’s better than guns.
“I can’t even tell you the candidates I have to bond with her. I wish I had a whole litter of omega daughters to share with them. But I have only one.”
His words keep coming, harsher and harsher. There’s no through line, and while I was trying to keep up at first, I just let them pummel me without resistance. I can’t help but look at the tiger. This isn’t the first time this tiger and I have met with no cage between us.
Legs left me alone in his pen half a dozen times at least.
I can tell by the white foam around the tiger’s mouth that Legs hasn’t been feeding him. Food denial is Legs’s go-to punishment.
The thing about this tiger, he knows me. He knows we are both caged animals. I don’t meet the animal’s eyes. He’s a predator after all. He doesn’t meet mine either. Predator to predator. We are not a threat to each other.
The very first time Legs left us alone, I discovered that in order to maintain my quiet corner of the pen, I could use my alpha voice on the beast.
I’ve always avoided my alpha bark because it never worked on Legs or any other alpha I’d been around.
It wasn’t until I felt the fear of being mauled and eaten by the 500-pound cat, for the first time, that I tried to command the creature to stay.
Maximus had dutifully listened. Legs hadn’t been there for that. And I’ve kept it from him.
No one knows.
Since then, I’ve discovered a little alpha bark can command dogs and cats, and every four-legged critter I’ve come across so far.
There was a parakeet once…
So, no, I’m not shaking in fear of the cat.
It’s being away from my pack. It’s seeing Mads with Aurora. And it’s also feeling Cadi in heat.
“How do you want to see me defeat the tiger? Do you want me to kill it?” I ask, cutting off Legs as his cocaine-filled rant was still going on.
“Do what you must, but you’d better put on a show, or none of this is worth it.”
He pats my cheek, smiles with all his fake teeth showing, and addresses the audience again.
After announcing more stupid shit, he leaves.
Fuck him. Fuck his tiger. And fuck his privileged daughter.
They open the tiger pen. He comes strutting out of it leaving nothing between us in the fighting cage. I glance at Mads, leashed to that little omega. Her hand is gripping his arm.
Do not touch what is mine! I want to chop her hand off at the wrist. How can she sit there and watch me go through hell? Chain my beta, and touch him like she has any right? She’s just as bad as the rest of them.
I would rather die than be bonded to her.
But first, I’m going to deal with this tiger.