Murderous Omega Mates

1. Lark

LARK

Someone else got to him first.

Rude.

The remains of the alpha stared up at me, his body contorted into the signature pose of the City Strangler, hogtied with his limbs attached behind him with rough hemp ropes and blood seeping obscenely into the cobblestones of the quaint streets.

I grabbed a pair of latex gloves from my backpack, then swiped a finger over the dead body’s neck. Still warm—he hadn’t been dead long.

Fucker.

This was the third goddess damned mark they’d beaten me to. I shoved myself up to stand, my lips pursed in frustration.

Fine.

Fucking fine.

I kicked the body. Rapist. Murderer. Ruiner of omega lives.

Disappointment coated my tongue. I’d already decided which of his fingers to break first, which tendons to sever to render him immobile and inflict the most pain possible as I sliced his cock into ribbons.

I should be happy. The alpha deserved to die, and he was dead.

Dammit, I’d been looking forward to watching the light leave his eyes.

Trash shuffling above my head caught my attention. A shadow moved to my left. I noticed the cameras watching the alleyway and swore softly to myself before spinning on my heel and—

A man easily twice my size, broad shoulders, thickly muscled, slammed down in front of me, as if he jumped down from above and landed, superhero style.

His bright blue eyes cut into me, like they could see into my soul.

An equally loud thud sounded behind me—a second man. Fuck! They were both alphas.

The two men pressed me between them, and I should have panicked. I should have drawn my knife and sliced them into pieces. I should have done anything but inhale their delicious alpha scents—peppermint and chocolate and sea salt and a hint of blood—and fucking melt.

“Good girl,” the man in front of me purred, and I hated how my body swayed toward him. I snuggled closer to him, inhaling his scent and brushing my cheek against his—

What the fuck was I doing? The suppressants I took to dull my omega nature should have protected me from pheromones from rando alpha assholes.

The moment my body stiffened, the alpha behind me purred, liquifying my bones and my will to escape.

I whimpered—very dignified of me. Need flowed through my limbs as I fought the compulsion to press my body into theirs, to drown in their scents, to drop to my knees and beg them for their knots.

The comforting reassurance of the rumble in his chest muted my panic.

The alphas pressed closer, encircling me in an inferno of heat, my sanity no match for their intensity. No one had ever smelled this good in my entire life.

Another whimper escaped from the back of my throat.

“Oh yes, that’s my sweet, murderous omega,” the alpha behind me whispered in my ear, his sea breeze scent washing over me like waves crashing against the shore.

My head lolled back of its own accord, exposing my neck to him, begging to be claimed.

“Not yet, little one,” he said with a soft chuckle. “But soon.”

What? No! Why didn’t this alpha who smelled so fucking good want me? What was wrong with me? The sting of his rejection brought tears to my eyes, and I slumped between the two men, dejected and hurt.

“Oh no, little one,” he soothed, wrapping his powerful arms around me, and surrounding me with the comfort of his embrace. “We’ll claim you, I promise. But not in a filthy alleyway, not over a dead body.”

They did want me. The alphas would claim me. I was a good omega, a good enough omega. They didn’t care that I was damaged as shit.

Police sirens wailed, bringing a moment of lucidity. What the fuck was I doing? I shoved away from the two alphas and took off at a dead run. Fuck my tiny omega size—they were on me in a flash, one of them lifting me up, then tossing me over his shoulder.

“Help! Please!” I screamed, praying that someone, anyone, would hear me.

Nobody answered.

Nobody would dare fuck with an alpha claiming an unbonded omega.

“No one’s going to help you, little one,” the other alpha said, the one with the scent that reminded me of an ocean breeze. “We’ve found you. You’re ours. Run if you want—we’ll drag you back every time.”

The two alphas purred again, and my will to resist evaporated. They drew me to them like a moth to a flame, their touches burning into my skin like licks of fire.

These alphas wanted me. They wanted to keep me. And I wanted to be kept—kept well-fucked, filled with their knots, their skin sliding over mine as they—

Their scents enveloped me. They purred and caressed me gently, murmuring sweet words of praise in my ears until I was strapped into the backseat of a car, my hands and feet bound in front of me, as I sat in a puddle of my own slick.

I blinked.

Where was I?

What had they—

“Easy, Lark,” the driver said, catching my eye through the rearview mirror, his blue eyes wild and bright, a stunning contrast to his tanned skin and freckles.

“Who the fuck are you?” I snarled. And why does your scent make me want to make the worst fucking decisions? “Let me go!”

The alpha to my left laughed, then scrubbed his hands over his face, drawing my attention to his jaw, sharp as glass, and the warm gleam of his umber skin in the moonlight, and the blood that was spattered over both of them.

My breath caught. These alphas were gorgeous.

What the fuck did they want with a hard-knock omega like me?

“This isn’t a catch and release sort of operation, ma petite.”

I struggled and wiggled, trying to work my way out of my bindings, to no avail.

Warm hands captured mine, and I looked up into the rich brown eyes of the alpha who held them. “Easy, Lark. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

“Small price for freedom.” I’d shredded my wrists and was well on my way to doing the same to my ankles.

“You know,” the alpha beside me mused, “most omegas sweet talk their way out of trouble—bat their eyelashes, play helpless, flirt.”

“Most alphas don’t kidnap serial killers,” I snapped back.

“You don’t like being tied up?” The alpha driving the car said. “You can't imagine yourself bound and dripping, riding my knot while I trail my knife over your skin, daring you to move, to bleed? Because I sure as fuck can.”

More slick pooled between my thighs as his words dragged me under into my darkest fantasies of losing control, of having control wrested from me, of being forced to pleasure and be pleasured by alphas who wouldn’t accept a no from me, who wanted me, who’d do anything to have me and keep me.

But that had nothing to do with real life.

“You both are the City Strangler, aren’t you?” I asked.

The alpha in the driver’s seat grinned, flashing white teeth and a smile that would have weakened my knees even if my omega hormones weren’t all over the place right now.

“That’s our smart little omega.”

“Don’t patronize me,” I snapped as they gave me space in the car, and clarity seeped back into my brain. “What do you want with me?”

The alpha beside me smiled too, and fuck, they were both blindingly handsome. “We’re going to fuck you until you forget anyone’s names but ours, then we’re going to claim you.”

“And if I object?”

He shrugged. “We’re going to do it anyway.”

As much as every cell in my body longed for what they offered, I knew what a one-sided claiming meant because I’d been there before—servitude. Submission. An end to my nocturnal activities.

Alphas didn’t want mate bonds where the omega claimed them back. The evolutionary advantages—strength, faster healing—didn’t outweigh the fact that a mate bond gave the omega just as much power as, or more than, the alpha in the relationship, including the legal right to their property.

I held back the hot tears that pricked at my eyes. Fuck these two alphas. Fuck them for being so goddess damned appealing. Fuck them for using my instincts against me. And fuck them for offering what I wanted so badly but could never have.

“No,” I said softly. I closed my eyes, wresting control of my body back from my hormones, one shattered heartbeat at a time.

I might be a slave to my instincts, but being an omega meant I had a few tricks up my sleeves, especially if we were scent matched—the only explanation for how quickly my body betrayed me for these two mouthwatering alphas.

I filled the car with my lilac and vanilla scent, soothing rather than sexy.

“Goddess, you smell amazing,” the alpha beside me said, inhaling deeply. He settled into the seat beside me, tension melting out of him.

The driver met my eyes in the rearview mirror, suspicion warring with pleasure. “Yeah, she fuckin’ does, doesn’t she?”

A purr rattled out of my chest. Not a true purr, as delicious as these two men smelled, but a facsimile that worked well enough to calm raging alpha hormones.

The alpha beside me relaxed even further.

I wiggled and shifted until I could bring my feet up to the seat. “Okay,” I said, opening my eyes wide and sinking down as if I were relaxing.

“Yeah?” The alpha smiled as if he were pleased with me, like he wanted to pat me on the head for being such a good omega, the patronizing asshole.

“Yeah,” I breathed, licking my lips. His attention made my core ache, my pussy desperate for his cock, for his knot, but now was not the time. “I’ll behave,” I promised.

He leaned over to kiss my temple. “Good girl.”

Condescending prick.

“But my ankles hurt a lot. Could you—?” I twisted, showing him the red lines where I’d rubbed my ankles raw, trying to escape the ropes they wrapped around me when I was too dazed with lust to stop them.

He slowly slid his palms down my calves, and I didn’t bother hiding my moan of contentment. It felt so fucking good to have his hands on me, for the alpha to care for his omega.

The moment the cords around my ankles loosened, I kicked out, knocking the alpha back from me.

The driver engaged the child lock on the back door, but I wasn’t stupid.

I reached between us to unbuckle the seatbelt of the alpha beside me, then looped my arms around his neck, using the bindings on my wrists to choke him.

“Unlock the fucking door,” I growled.

“Easy, sweet girl,” the driver said.

The alpha in my arms hummed with pleasure. I ground my pussy against him even as I cut off his air supply, my body betraying me again with sweet, sweet bliss.

“Fuck yes, little one. Choke me out and make yourself come,” he snarled, relaxing into my grip.

“The fucking door!” I shouted, yanking my wrists hard against the alpha’s neck.

“Calm down, sweetheart,” the driver said.

Fucking alphas. Fucking men.

“If you know who I am, then you know I’m capable of murder,” I said. “Now unlock the fucking door.”

Clunk.

I waited until we were on a straightaway, then lifted my arms off the alpha’s neck and kicked at the same time, shoving myself away, then throwing myself backward out the door. Hopefully my flexible omega bones would save me.

And if not?

At least I’d die free.