Chapter 27
Chapter twenty-seven
Lyra
My healing bitemarks burn where Wren and Gage pull on the bond, but I throw up a wall, ensuring that they don’t see what I have to do next.
He threatened to kill them.
My old guardian.
If I don’t agree to go with him willingly, then he’ll alert the king of Pack Storm’s betrayal to the crown, and then have them all killed for treason.
I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to any of them.
So, I had no choice. It was either my freedom or their lives.
Their faces flash up before me, and I bite back a sob. I can’t believe I have to leave them behind.
Even Fidget.
And Malakai. We never did get to make amends.
It looks like I broke his promise. I only went and hurt his brothers after all.
Now, I am never going to see them again. But at least they can move on without me.
Perhaps the three of them can still find that paradise. I just won’t be a part of that paradise now.
This is how it has to be.
Tears threaten to slip free from my eyes, but I hold them back, marching forward. I’m almost at the rendezvous point as I clutch his crude note in my hand, the note he attached to an arrow.
How long had he been watching me? A man I had presumed dead. I had slit his throat, felt his warm blood against my skin... yet he still lives.
I arrive at the scene, keeping my wits about me as my eyes scan the forest. Animal sounds mock me next, growing in volume and intensity until they drown me in noise.
Leaves rustle, and I whirl on the spot, pressing my fingers against the knife at the waistband of my pants.
I didn’t come completely unarmed. Just perhaps I can slit his throat again and kill him for good.
Maybe.
Yet he managed to survive the first time. He may just very well survive the second.
Another rustle in the brush, and my finger stretches towards the blade again.
A dark figure steps out from the trees, and I fall into a fighting stance, gripping the knife.
I flip it around in my fingers, pointing it at the newcomer.
However, when I meet those burning gray eyes, I relax my stance. But just a little. “What are you doing here?”
Malakai assesses my stance carefully as his eyes roam up and down. Then his stony, gray gaze burns into my soul. “So... you only went and broke their hearts anyway.”
My shoulders slump, and then I lower my blade.
He’s right.
I did.
I’m a terrible person. But I had to.
If anything happened to the pack...
Flipping the blade again, I place it back behind my waistband. “You need to leave.”
The Alpha folds his arms, raising his eyebrows. “And why is that?”
My mouth opens as I go to speak, but then I shut it again, scanning the forest. My hair rises on end. “Please, Malakai. Just... just leave me...”
Malakai scoffs, stepping closer. “No. I’m not going anywhere. Not until you tell me everything about who you are. Why exactly does the king want you?”
His eyes glow to punctuate his point. My throat dries, but then my hackles raise further.
How can he not sense it, too?
The foreboding storm.
It lingers in the air, coating it with a thick layer of ozone.
“Well?”
My eyes land back on Malakai. Before I have a chance to reply, an arrow whistles through the air. I go to duck out of the way, but Malakai grips me tightly, throwing me down onto the ground.
A dangerous growl escapes his throat as his eyes lock on a familiar figure that steps out from the brush.
My heart shudders beneath him.
“Miles,” he rasps.
My eyes bug. He... he knows my former guardian?
Miles laughs coldly, slow clapping as he steps closer into the clearing. His men have us surrounded. Any wrong move, and they’ll shoot the Alpha currently using his body to protect me.
“Well, well, well. Malakai Storm. Long time no see,” Miles drawls, filling the clearing with his disgusting ash scent.
Malakai chuckles, peering down at me quickly before his gaze lands back on the Alpha. “So... that’s your story. You’re a player in the Games. I should have known. I thought that fighting stance looked familiar.”
My eyes close, and then I hold back a sob.
It looks like the jig is up. My secret is out in the open.
“Please... please don’t tell Wren and Gage…” my voice cracks.
The Alpha’s eyes fall back on me stunned for a moment. He is still using his body as a shield, and he’s so close now, his pine scent fills my nose.
It soothes me in that terrifying moment. My Omega recognizes him as a member of her pack.
As her Alpha...
Yet, he doesn’t want her. Even if he does protect her right now.
Malakai truly is an enigma.
“How long has it been now since you left the king’s guard, Malakai? Three years? Wow. I can see you’ve moved on up in the world.”
Malakai bares his fangs at the other Alpha. “And you haven’t changed at all. Still training Omegas for blood sport, I see.”My heart quakes at the threatening growl in his tone. I have never seen Malakai look so hateful.
He never even regarded me in that way back at the cabin.
Somehow, he knows Miles—they used to be comrades back at the king’s guard.
Miles’ smirk is serpentine as he looms even closer. “That’s right. And I’m here to reclaim what is mine. That is my prisoner you’re covering in your scent, by the way.”
Malakai snickers. “Your prisoner? I think you’ll find that this Omega is already claimed. Look at her throat. She bears two marks. If you take her, you’re stealing.”
Yet Miles doesn’t even look at my throat as his rheumy eyes narrow. “Stealing from you? Or your brothers?”
Malakai’s throat bobs next, and then he looks my way. My heart lodges in my throat. Is that an apology I see in his normally cold, gray eyes?
Is he sorry that he never claimed me? That he wasn’t there for me most when I needed him?
Yet his expression vanishes instantly as he looks back up at Miles. “Be that as it may, Miles. You won’t have her. I will fight you if you try to take this Omega from me.”
Miles deadpans Malakai, seemingly bored with his theatrics. Then he rolls his eyes, and with a click of his fingers, one of his men sends an arrow Malakai’s way.
A scream rips from my throat. “No!”
Yet I’m too late. The arrow punctures Malakai’s shoulder. He bites back a growl, gritting his teeth as his eyes lock on me. Yet he still covers me with his body, refusing to budge.
“Malakai… please. Just… forget about me.”
Yet the Alpha only sneers at me. “I don’t think so. You won’t get rid of me so easily, little menace.”
The name catches me off guard.
That’s when a cruel laugh startles us both. “I’d listen to her, Malakai. Because the next will aim straight for your head.”
I’m practically pleading with the stubborn Alpha on top of me now. I can feel his body growing heavy. Sweat beads down his face.
He’s fading, and fast.
“Please, just go, Malakai. You need to be there for Gage and Wren.”
Yet Malakai just laughs through the pain, his gaze losing focus as he settles it on me. “Not a chance, Lyra.”
Lyra.
He used my name.
“This is your last chance, Malakai,” Miles threatens.
I try to wriggle out of Malakai’s grip, but he’s still so stubborn. “It’s too late, Malakai. Just go.”
He’s panting now as he clutches his pierced shoulder. “Not... not by a long shot.”
Malakai is losing consciousness. Now the only thing he sees is me, as his gray eyes don’t leave me.
And for the first time since we met, they regard me warmly.
My throat grows tight.
He’s going to stay with me until the end.
He will die protecting me.
Another arrow takes out his other arm, and finally, he passes out on top of me.
I stare down at his slumped body in horror, bottom lip shaking. “M-Malakai.”
Miles sighs, stepping up behind me. “Fret not, Lyra. You’ll see him again. In the training ring. There’s only one place for treasonous Alphas, after all.”
I cradle Malakai’s head on my lap as I glare at the vile Alpha above me. My gaze tracks the healed knife wound on his neck. At the crude stitch marks.
Right where I slit him.
It looks like he managed to stop the blood flow on time and got it stitched up.
Miles truly is a monster.
He even defies death.
“Seize them both,” Miles orders.
One by one, masked guards appear from the trees where they had been hiding the whole time. I spy the archer who shot Malakai twice.
I wonder if he was the same archer who shot me twice when I was scaling across the river.
Now they drag Malakai off me as he slumps between them. Yet I remain on the ground, utterly broken.
I could have saved him... but now he faces a cruel fate.
I flinch next when Miles leans down, wrapping his gnarled fingers around my shoulder. “Well, it’s time to get you back, Lyra.”
Now my gaze loses focus as I hardly see Malakai or the guards.
Miles chuckles, whispering in my ear. “Because this year’s Games are about to begin.”
My eyes close.
Just when I thought I had escaped that awful regime. Yet it only crawled its way back to me in the end.
I guess freedom really was just a dream. At least for an Omega scum like me.
Well, it looks as if I should re-sharpen my blades.
Because I am returning to the Games.
End
Lyra is headed back to the Arena with Malakai as her prisoner. Will either of them survive? Find in Taken, Part Two in The Omega Games, coming in September.