Atlas #2
“Get away from me, what did you do to Reg?!” She screams, tossing a stapler at me that I bounce to dodge, lifting my lip and snarling at her, throwing a bark that makes her flinch.
There’s so much fear in her scent, a raw sourness that disrupts Alpha pheromones even worse than Omegas.
It catches in the back of your throat and sticks there like tar.
I don’t remember ever scenting something so rotten in my life.
Tilting my head, I give her the canine version of a grin, but the effect is somewhat lost considering I’ve got remnants of her guard's neck stuck between my incisors and most of his blood supply staining my fur too. Shrieking again, she looks for something to grab on the desk, but the keyboard doesn't fly far, yanking on the cord in the back of the computer and falling uselessly a few feet from her. Humming starts, a tuneless song as Fury steps towards her, crouching just out of grabbing distance of the terrified Alpha. “Anna, right? I’m sure you remember us. You certainly threatened us enough times and sent your little guard dog after us, didn’t you? That was a little stupid.” Our Cardinal is lethal like this, and it reminds me why, despite his usual laid-back and pretty playful attitude, he holds the rank of lead Alpha for a very good reason.
Since I was one of the newer pack members, I’d never really seen him in action first-hand, but Lucas and Theo had told me enough times that when his protective Alpha mode kicked in, he’d kill anybody who threatened his pack, or scare them shitless.
This feels like the latter, but with King already on his way for body cleanup, it kind of feels like both options are on the table.
“Butcher learned his lesson about coming for my pack. I don’t think he’ll be trying to kidnap our Omega again any time soon. ”
“Butcher?!” Anna laughs, a bitter sound as her green eyes narrow, the sneer morphing her face into an ugly, venomous caricature of itself.
“Butcher is the middleman. He was hired by someone else to come pick up your prissy little bitch, someone who didn’t pass the Omega auctions background checks.
That’s what he does, you know? He gets paid by all the nasty little Alphas that go bump in the night, the ones that aren’t allowed on OPC territory because they’ve done more than a little drugs, or some meaningless jail time.
He was interested in her, in Skye, kept asking stupid fucking questions about her.
Your rank, little bitch is going to someone willing to pay an awful lot for the privilege of using her. ”
I can’t help it, I shift, storming forward to wrap my fingers around her throat, lifting her to my height whilst her feet kick out uselessly at my shins.
There’s a change in her then, from fear, to understanding, to something I can only call evil, and the corners of her lips twitch upwards.
“That explains so much.” She chokes around my hand, but I don’t ease up, leaning into her face and baring my teeth, still coated in blood, “You’re just another pack of mutts looking for someone to sniff your ass in the woods, aren’t you? ”
She knows. There is no surprise like we’d expect with a human who wasn’t aware of the supernatural hiding just under their nose.
No, someone clued her in, told her what they were looking for specifically.
She either went out of her way to import shifters into her auction house, or stumbled on our girl and moved her here, away from her life…
The pieces all start slotting into place.
Sickness wells up in my gut at the same time as Fury’s scent shifts, his ethanol-stink clouding up the room as he joins me next to her, shoulders squared as he snarls.
“Where is our fucking Omega.”
Anna grins, spitting at him and clawing at my wrist as I hold her, putting pressure on the sides of her neck until her breath rasps and I can feel the fearful fluttering of her heart beneath my grasp, “She’s…
The buyer was fed up waiting, and Butcher kept fucking it up, then disappeared, so they came to get her themselves.
Some other feral fleabag pack. No… No no no…
” Her eyes shoot open, gazing at something behind us as she starts fighting me in earnest.
I can smell him, the new Alpha in the room, but I can’t pin his scent at all; there’s nothing comparable that I could ever put into words.
He smells like raw power, like the scorching heat of the sun, and the coldest chill that freezes your breath on the way out.
He smells like the crackling air of a storm, but a dusty, abandoned home.
It’s a cataclysmic eruption to my senses, and I gulp, dropping the female Alpha to the ground and almost skittering backwards to get out of his way.
I won’t say I’m a dominant Alpha, fuck no, my Omega can boss me around all she likes and I’ll never put up a fight, but this is more than dominance…
This is like the entire world shifting on its axis to pay attention to this Alpha. Fuck, I hope he doesn’t have an Omega.
“King,” Fury greets without turning to see the arrival. He doesn’t seem as bothered about his aura as I do, but he’s got some level of protection with his own power. “Thanks for coming.”
My wolf is intrigued, partially from the draw of the power, and partially because he’s registering as a shifter, something big and dangerous, but nothing we’ve come across.
His hand dwarfs Fury's as the two men shake, then the much larger beast of an Alpha looks at Anna. His eyes are an odd chartreuse, his pupils slitted as his blocky face remains completely emotionless. Glancing at me, he nods his head in greeting, but I just take another step back, watching the tiniest dimple in his cheek, so outrageously out of place on someone like him that I take another step. No wonder Fury never introduced us to him, he’s fucking terrifying, and he probably knows a hundred ways to kill me and hide the fucking body too.
Goddess above, I am glad he is on our side.
“Atlas,” I nod back, the most I can manage for a greeting before that overwhelming power bows my head and forces a submissiveness from me that feels almost helpless.
“Hmmm.” The big man purrs, looking back at the woman again.
“You’ve been very naughty, haven't you? Illegally selling Omegas to packs that should be nowhere near them. Come now, little human, let’s get you somewhere that we can have a…
discussion. Fury, my men will clean up in here; they had some disagreements with the rest of the guards on the way here.
” I do not like the way he said that. Turning his odd eyes on us again, he grips the back of Anna’s neck in one massive hand, pushing her ahead of him, whilst gesturing for us to follow, and like a good little puppy, I do.
As we walk out into the hallway, and the scent of stressed Omega floods me again, I stay well behind the other three, keeping my eyes rooted firmly to the back of my Cardinal’s head as men dressed in black tactical gear to either side of me scoop bodies into bags.
Something splashes underfoot, and I have to force the bile back down and keep my concentration firmly in front of me, which is exactly when I notice King freeze, his entire body going taut like he’s been shot full of a thousand volts.
Shoulders rising with a deep inhale, he curses deep under his breath as his head snaps to the side, pushing Anna down one of the corridors with jail cells lining the sterile walls, where the heaviest stench of Omega is pouring from.
King turns to us, heavy brows furrowed and a scowl marring his face.
Closing his eyes and releasing the same breath, he shoves the other Alpha ahead of him.
A full silent conversation passes between him and Fury, and my Cardinal gives him a solemn smile that feels strained and hopeful at the same time, “Go,” He tells our helper, “Make sure they’re safe. ”
“What even is he, and what is that?” I ask, once King has turned his back and moved towards the first barred door, standing silently as Anna struggles with her ring of keys.
“That’s King, he’s… Not like any Alpha I’ve ever met, even at the shifter conferences.
He’s a total unknown, but he’s loyal and helps those who help him.
I stitched him up a few years back after the fucker came into the clinic full of bullets, and I think…
I hope we’re friends. He’s a scary motherfucker, gives me the shivers every time I get anywhere near him.
Goddess fucking save the poor Omega who’s just caught his attention, even if they are his scent match.
” That would make a lot of sense. He doesn’t seem the type to walk out unless it is urgent, and a scent match? That is life-changing.
“Fury,” King calls back, and we watch him turn his slitted eyes on us, “Go get your girl, I’ll be in touch for my favor.”
Skye
Blood rushes through my head in a sharp metronome, swishing and throbbing with a pulse I can feel behind my eyes and temples.
Sweat drips down my skin, glossing the pale flesh, and I move to try and wipe the drops from my forehead, but something tugs my wrist, and the bite of rope has me whining.
I hate being an Omega sometimes, when my first resort is to let out that high-pitched whine that tugs at Alpha’s protective instincts.