Chapter 42
Feral Alpha
A feral alpha is an alpha with an aura so unstable that it can drive them to act violently and without thought.
Recovery from ferality is a constant challenge, and while omegas can assist through bonding or simply touch, recovery isn’t guaranteed.
They are characterized most strongly, by extremely primal instincts and desires.
If a feral alpha sees an omega run, it is all but impossible for them not to chase.
KARMA
The next thing I remembered, my fists were covered in blood, my feet were pounding the floors in a sprint, and each panted breath was a rush of adrenaline.
Where was she…?
Each heaving breath echoed against the stone, as my heart slammed in my chest.
It was too dark down here…
Howls came from every direction, scattering my reactions a million ways, and hallways blurred by as I hunted.
She was in danger…
I spun at the sound of footsteps, and I saw, down a hall, an alpha running—no, chasing.
In front of him—finally—I saw moonlight in this endless dark.
Mine.
I growled, pushing straining muscles, relishing the ache in my quads with each bounding step. He couldn’t beat me. Not to catching my own omega.
He’d die for trying.
His aura was out, waves of energy trying to frighten me back.
I pushed through it with a snarl, crashing into his back and taking him down to the grimy floor. It took only one crack of his skull against stone for him to fall limp.
The last threat—gone.
I wiped my bloodied hands on my sweats and stood.
My only task now was… Something…
I blinked, trying to shake it loose. Right now my body was quick, but my thoughts slow.
I looked up to see a flash of moonlight vanish down a side hallway.
My moonlight.
I broke into a sprint again, pushing myself past my limits.
My runaway omega.
Burning instincts took over.
Chase her down.
Show her I’d protected her.
Moonlight hair, delicate curves, frantic footsteps—I had her back in my sights in seconds.
Crescent didn’t look back, and I could hear the sharp intakes of her breaths.
I needed to reach her.
But I don’t think she knew the footsteps pounding behind her were mine.
For a moment rational thought crept in. Stick with the plan—bring her back to the cell.
Protect her there.
Then she was within touching distance, and I remembered that the plan didn’t matter; the cell didn’t matter. She was mine. I would protect and claim her wherever we were.
I was so close to reaching out to grab the back of her baggy t-shirt.
Then she ducked around a corner, careening down a hallway with barely any light.
I growled as I slid past the turn, backtracking a few steps before I could go after her. All the bulbs were dead except for one flickering behind its metal cage at the very end of the hall.
She ran for it at full speed, hair flying, not daring to look back.
I wasn’t going to lose.
I was gaining on her—I’d have her before she reached the next turn.
Her feet fumbled a step, sending her pitching forward with a short scream.
I reached her in time, fisting the back of her shirt to slow her fall, then wrapped my arm around her waist and lifted her.
She struggled against me, a shriek in her chest until I grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up.
Her golden eyes glowed in the dim light of that single bulb.
My catch.
My sweet moonlight.
“Karma?” Her voice broke with relief.
My hand slid down to grip her throat, but I was gentle.
But I needed to show her she was mine.
“Why did you chase me?” Her nose wrinkled in confusion. “You could’ve just called for me.”
I cocked my head, blinking, not sure how to answer.
She’d run… Of course I’d chased.
Her brows furrowed, her hand coming up to my cheek as if she was seeing something new in my eyes.
I took in the sweat dripping down her temples and wetting the roots of her hair. Her entire face was flushed a brighter pink than I’d ever seen it, but the panic I’d first caught in her eyes was fading.
“Where are the others?” she asked. “I thought… something had gone wrong?”
Wrong?
Right… the pack.
I frowned, checking in on the bond, her words pulling me back just slightly.
It was quiet, though. Sin was there, and I could feel his worry, but the others… nothing.
We were safe. I had her.
And this time Sin couldn’t stop me from making her mine.
I already knew how she liked to be touched—I’d watched every tiny reaction when Sin had fucked her in that cage. Catalogued what made her cry out loudest.
My teeth grazed her ear, and she shivered and squirmed, her small hands coming up to grab at my shirt.
“Karma,” she whined. “I thought… I thought you were…”
I growled, grip tightening on her throat. Not hard, just enough to tell her they were dead, and she was mine.
I pressed my other hand into her sweatpants, I found her panties soaked through with slick, and rubbed her through them.
She gasped, her hot breath brushing my ear. “We’re safe… then?”
I shifted my hand on her throat, adjusting my thumb and tilting her head so she couldn’t look away from me.
She was always safe with me.
I dipped a finger inside of her, and her eyes rolled back. I touched her until she was writhing, her cheeks a pretty pink.
“Present,” the command slipped out, and I let go of her throat and pulled back so she could follow the order.
I grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked it off, tossing it to the ground.
Her eyes were half-lidded and glistening, her chest still heaving from the fearful sprint. She brought both hands down to the waistband of her sweats and pushed them and her underwear down to pool at her feet, then turned to place her hands on the wall and arch her ass back at me.
“Is… is this right?” she asked.
I growled with approval.
My cock was throbbing too intensely, my knot trying to explode from the need to be inside her. Slick wet her thighs, and I kneed her legs a little wider as I pulled out my length.
Then, I grabbed her hips and slammed inside her in one hard thrust.
She cried out, the sound echoing dangerously. It would be a siren call to any other alphas who dared to stay out of their cells tonight.
I’d kill anyone who tried to pretend to be my competition for her, like I’d torn apart the alphas who dared separate me from her.
CRESCENT
I’m his.
Karma wants me.
I had seen the chaotic storm broiling in his eyes, and I knew this was only going to help.
He needed balancing, and I could give it.
And I needed him, my mind now foggy with the lust that had swept in at his claim. Those out of control instincts that had left me with holes in my memory as I stole those first keys—they were raising their heads again.
I just wanted to be his.
To forget this prison, those horrible alphas—and all the people after us.
His hand gripped my hip hard, holding me in place as he slammed deep. I felt every inch of his length, banishing my rushing fear in favour of pleasure.
I thought he was one of the other alphas when he was chasing me. One of the ones who would hurt me if they caught me, like Holden or the one who’d called out vile things when I’d been in the cage with Sin.
But he was the only one who’d come close enough to touch me.
“Ugh–” I gasped as I felt his knot slam up against my entrance. Phantom had given me his, and it had been bliss.
I needed it.
My alpha.
And I must have presented right, even though I didn’t really know what it meant. He’d rewarded me for doing it.
He held me, as my core pulsed with need, and gave himself to me.
I couldn’t have been quiet if I tried, and the smacking sounds of his hips against my backside echoed down the hall.
He blocked out all the little hints of alpha scents that hung in the air, all crackling energy and that fresh scent of an ocean storm.
My arousal heightened as his aura quivered, his control wavering.
Everyone in Anarchy would know.
They’d know who my alphas were, and that they treated me like their perfect omega, that they’d bring me out of this place with them.
My hands tightened into fists, and I struggled to brace myself on the wall against the roughness of his thrusts.
His knot pushed against me, and I pressed back into the pressure. Every inch of me ached with need, pain lancing through me from the emptiness of my core.
“Alpha,” I moaned. “More!”
His growl rumbled through both of us, his aura growing and trembling with instability. I should be scared of the chaotic energy, but I knew he wouldn’t use it against me.
So I gulped down inhales of his stormy scent, electrically charged in a way that sent zings through me.
“Karma,” I whimpered his name, grinding back on his thick knot.
All at once he slammed his hips forward. His knot slipped inside of me with a hint of pressure, and then everything went white.
It was like nothing I’d ever experienced.
I couldn’t even stand—Karma had to hold me up as my legs gave out beneath me. I felt the trembling of his muscles as he let out a guttural growl, the sound harsh enough that I should have been scared but wasn’t.
His knot trapped him against me, his cum filling me up with a searing, pleasant heat. He was so much taller and stronger than me, pinning me against the wall. I felt safe and protected.
There was something creeping into the edges of my mind.
…I’d tried the door handle to find our cell locked…
…The others were quiet…
All of that vanished as his teeth grazed my neck.
I didn’t dare beg him to claim me, but I couldn’t stop my keening whine.
He groaned, hips shifting as if it was possible for him to be any closer to me right now—but it was.
I gasped as his teeth sank into my neck and a bond burst to life. It forged a stronger connection than the pack bond I was used to—a direct line from me to him.
I came with a series of sharp cries that he didn’t even bother to muffle.
He held me up against the wall as my legs turned into jelly. He let me slump forward, my cheek pressed to the cool wall as his tongue nursed the fresh bite mark he’d left.
My pack was so perfect, it felt like a dream.
And we would… We would escape this place tomorrow, assuming…
A hazy memory pulled at the edge of my brain, trying to tear me away from this languid moment. Distract me from my alphas knot and bite.
We… Maybe… Weren’t safe here, a voice whispered.
Except I was with my alpha, so I couldn’t be anything but safe.
My brain relaxed again at the exact moment Karma stiffened.
Had I done something wrong by letting him hold me up while we were locked together? Should I be caring for him instead?
In the quiet of the dark hallway, filled with the soft sounds of our panting, I caught the sound of footsteps only seconds after he did. It put those worries to rest, but sent new terror lancing through me.
Someone’s coming.
There was nowhere to hide here. We couldn’t run, not while we were locked together. Could he fight like this, even?
“Oh, shit.” He cursed under his breath, his hands dropping from me.
Karma bent and twisted to the side, fumbling to grab his pants from where they were pooled around his feet. He searched for something in the pockets, growing frantic as the footsteps got closer, almost seeming to speed up.
He gave up before he found what he needed, pulling my back to his chest and spinning to face me away from the mouth of the hallway. I tried to look over my shoulder, but I couldn’t see past his broad chest. No one could see me, either.
Why bother hiding me?
I think it was obvious he wasn’t alone.
Squirming, I tried to dislodge his knot but only succeeded in making him grunt and hold me still.
The footsteps halted nearby, and a few seconds passed before someone spoke.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
Sin.
The terror drained from my limbs and I let out a little whine. Karma’s aura pulled back, his muscles less tense against me.
My omega mate stomped down to us, coming around so we could see his eyebrows drawn together in annoyance.
Locking gazes with Karma above my head, there was a hardness to his eyes. Karma growled low, holding me tighter to his chest. His knot shifted inside me, and I whined.
Sin stopped a pace away. My toes barely touched the ground, and Karma’s hands on my hips were the only thing keeping me comfortable in this strange position.
“Why aren’t you back at the cell?” Sin demanded.
“She ran,” Karma muttered.
“And if you’d thought with your head instead of your dick, you would have used the dark bond to make her stop. Instead of—” He gestured broadly at our strange position.
“She ran.”
Was running… a bad thing?
What else was I supposed to do?
“Sorry,” I squeaked. “B-but the cell… It was, uh, locked. When I got there.”
Karma’s fingers dug into my hips and Sin’s stunning crimson eyes blew wide.
“Locked?” Sin demanded.
“Yes.” I tried to squeeze my legs closer together, feeling slick dripping down them. My inner thighs would shine if the light hit them right.
“I didn’t know how it happened, so I ran,” I continued.
Karma’s tongue darted out to lick the fresh bite on my neck, a growl rumbling through him—every part of him. Including his knotted cock, still embedded deep inside me.
The vibrations made me tense and tremble, pleasure trying to sneak up on me again even though this wasn’t the time or the place.