Omega Domain

A. Purr

Knotty-verse

Knotty City

Omega's Story

Copyright © 2025 by A. Purr

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

Contents

Dedication

Book Summary

Omegaverse Breakdown

Trigger Warning

Reading Note

Skippable Content

Prologue: Kit

1: Kit

2: Ryatt

3: Kayos

4: Jericho

1. 5: Kit

6: Turner

7: Damien

8: Kit

9: Kashmir

10: Kit

11: Jericho

12: Kit

13: Kashmir

14: Turner

15: Kit

16: Franco

17: Kayos

18: Kit

19: Kit

20: Damien

21: Kit

22: Damien

23: Franco

24: Kit

25: Kit

26: Kashmir

27: Kit

28: Ryatt

29: Franco

30: Kit

31: Jericho

32: Kit

33: Damien

34: Kit

35: Turner

36: Kit

37: Kit

38: Kayos

39: Ryatt

40: Kit

41: Ryatt

42: Jericho

43: Franco

44: Kit

45: Kashmir

46: Kit

47: Ryatt

48: Kit

49: Kit

50: Kit

51: Kayos

52: Kit

53: Turner

54: Kashmir

55: Franco

56: Kit

About the Author

Dedication

For the friends who are moons. They're the light helping us see a better future, but they shine the brightest in our darkest of hours.

Book Summary

Then? They knew me as a soft Omega, eager to love, but my aching absence changed everything.

Disheveled and damned, I fell from my nest, forced to do unthinkable things to survive. I strained myself to comply with their debauchery until my escape. 

Gutted to the core and barely able to stand, I found myself completely alone in Knotty City. A place only the worst survived under the noxious powers of the families.

The city never scared me when I had a doting pack…one I’d now never forget, but they didn’t claim me in time. In my new dreadful freedom, I found that pack moved on, finding a different Omega, so I stumbled back into the shadows of my home.

The soft purrs from my chest now only echoed in the silence of my chambers, but I did what most never thought I could. 

Now? I branded and scented myself for everyone to believe I’d been claimed. 

They heard rumors of my Alpha, but it’d been me fanning the deceitful flames. My gossip spread faster than me reapplying the potent perfume I used as my cover with my Beta, my best friend, at my side. 

I was born an Omega, having no place in the higher ranks of our society, a mere pet for breeding in their eyes. Then I had to sit with my trauma, forging my new path in secret after recanting the evils done.

I’d been made for taking a knot, but I developed the skill to tie one around someone’s throat too, and I’d been doing it right under their noses. 

Omegaverse Breakdown

Hey, Reader! If this is your first time diving into the nitty gritty, yay for joining ‘knotty’ the club! Each OV can be slightly different from others, and mine will be too. This Omegaverse world is set in Knotty City where humans live according to pack hierarchy. You'll see the break down with one kind you haven't seen too much of before.

Alphas command the power, build knots on the end of their dicks that need to be taken only by Omegas, and they grumble like a deeper purr.

Deltas are Alphas who didn't want to run a pack, and they choose to stay alone. (Lone wolf vibes)

Betas don’t have special bits during pleasure times, but they have muscular builds—I base mine off more wolf pack or shifter style without the shifting. They’re the protectors and fighters for the pack.

Omegas are coveted and in high demand from being rare. They can take Alpha knots and purr when loved. Scents are a big thing for all in this world, and so are their territories. If that sounds good to you, please begin.

Trigger Warning

This series contains dark elements.

Drugs

Trauma

Gore

Deaths

Kidnapping

Abuse

On page rape that happen/ed to the main female, so please read at your own risk. 

On-scene rape happens in the following chapters. If it's part of a chapter that has other important information, there will be a scene break.

Chapter 30: Full chapter

Chapter 31: Rape before the scene break, so read after

Chapter 34: Rape after the scene break, so stop there

Chapter 36: Rape before the scene break, so read after

Chapter 37: Rape before the scene break, so read after

Reading Note

All chapters labeled Past are in the past and italicized. The rest are present day without it being stated.

Skippable Content

This pack has a male Omega and a female Omega with MM sex scenes. I do write them to be skipped by the readers who don’t enjoy it but would like to enjoy the story. Some are in informational chapters, but I add scene breaks to help know where to stop. Also note, you will still read the relationship, just not the sex.

The MM chapters inside the book are: 

Chapter 4: MMMMM

Chapter 11: MM after the scene break

Chapter 14: MMF after the scene break

The very end(55-56) is a group scene where the men pleasure each other and her. It’s mostly written about her pleasure, but there’s some back door fun for them when in her.

Prologue: Kit

Past

“Ry?” My grogginess began to stir when I felt the breeze through my window. He made an odd request to stay at my place last night, but I didn’t to ask why when I saw something heartbreakingly broken below his stare. If he needed to stay in my room for the two of us to have some time, I’d never deny him that. Never, not when my future Alpha asked me to soothe him. It wasn’t like I had roommates, and my mom was never home this time of night, selling her body for more drugs.

Though, the more I pulled myself out of my subconscious state, I became acutely aware about the lack of warmth from where he fell asleep. My hand reached to find him, wondering if he rolled away from my nest of weathered blankets. When I found nothing but cool fabric, I sat myself up to take in my empty room.

The moonlight spilled in through the window, revealing no one lied next to me. I sat alone in my room, but that didn’t make sense. He asked to stay here, and he had fallen asleep with me. For an hour before our slumber, we made love. He promised he loved me more than anything in the world, and he’d claim me when they returned from their private school.

Calling it a school was nearly comical because it wouldn’t be the colleges our old classmates attended. All the boys in Ryatt’s pack were born into wealthy families, but those families’ pockets were lined in the corruption of our city. They’d be going as a pack with other packs to an undisclosed location for proper training before taking over the family seat of the inner circle. An unclaimed Omega couldn’t go, and they wouldn’t mark me to change it.

Ryatt and Kayos’s father didn’t like me. An issue he made known when I’d been around their home, but I knew this had been the reason he hesitated to accept me as his Omega. Last night, he kept kissing my face with a gentleness that spoke of his devotion to me. He never told me what day they were leaving on, and I pieced together why he came alone to my trailer last night.

Hyperventilating, I let my hand clutch my heart. What if he had been doing that to say goodbye? Jumping to my feet, I made my way to the craggy door. Stumbling down the tiny hallway with wood paneled walls, I heard the TV on low with some dishes clinking in the kitchen.

Seeing a large form rifling through the upper cabinet, I breathed out a sigh of relief. “I thought you left without saying goodbye.”

The man paused, lowing his face to take me in. That was when I understood it wasn’t Ryatt in my home. The man stood in tactical gear that my mind glanced over because I thought I was safe with my men. A looming form stepped out around the living room corner from where I still stood in the hall, looking across the tiny living room to peer at the man in the kitchen.

This other guy stood before me. I never liked him, but I didn’t question his presence from him working for Ryatt’s father. His smile creeped me out when he took me in, and my gut sank from witnessing the way he studied me. “He did leave, and he isn’t coming back. Thanks to me, he thinks you’ll be safe under my watch. And if you think your mom might save you? I’ve already sent her on her way with enough money to leave Knotty City.”

“N-no.” I shook my head, refusing to believe my reality.

“It’s okay, Pussy Cat.” He stepped forward to tuck some hair behind my ear. I couldn’t remember his name as the fear of his touch licked my spine. “I have the perfect plan set up for them to never know, and they’ll never think it was me.”

“N-never know what?” I tried to keep myself from crying, standing stiffer than a board.

That was when my world changed forever. Tackling me to the floor, the man in the kitchen came over to help hogtie me. Every time I attempted to scream, he forced my jaw shut or smacked me. I gave it my all to escape, but I wasn’t a threat against two fully grown men. They learned I wouldn’t go silently, screaming with every hit to my face. Once they had my limbs strapped in rope, he leaned over my body, pressing hard against the junction of my thighs.

“You’ll soon learn your place, Pussy Cat. All Omegas do…”

Stabbing me with a needle in the neck, I felt my legs and arms go limp first. A sedative that promised I’d be his favorite puppet. Using the ropes that bound my hands to my legs, he let his henchman drag me back to my little room. The edges of my vision blurred, but I’d never forget seeing the face of the man who took me, waving from the end of the hall, promising to be my end.

1: Kit

Rapture.

It existed on a whimsical plane, so I kept trying to get my wandering mind to focus on the physical contact. My body craved to feel lost under the touch of another, but it hadn’t in too many wasted years with the wrong hands on me. No one could know how I yearned for such satisfaction because I had to be the beacon of strength for us all, and I would be right now when the time was right.

“Lick my dripping cunt,” I told the naïve man between my legs. Part of my displeasure stemmed from his betrayal, but he didn’t know that I knew. He had committed the most cardinal sin against me, but it wasn’t quite time to announce that little detail. He was under the guise that I didn’t know.

Lying in my satin sheets, I looked around my generous room that I created when I took charge of my own fate. Dark woods lavished my quarters with matching furniture. My four-poster bed was draped in a canopy of lavender and plum shades. No pictures hung because sentiments showed weaknesses that I refused to give an enemy within my wall, and I had enemies in spades. Within my numbers, only few knew the secrets that kept this place up and running.

A light rap filtered into my space, echoing just enough to hear over my moans. There was only one person daring enough to interrupt me in a moment like this, and Anika entered to prove my point. She was my most trusted Beta. The one who helped me build this empire from the ruins of my former life. Made stockier for a woman, she was over six feet and built like a female boxer. Keeping the sides of her head shaved to be two inches of baldness around her ears, she had her thicker mohawk of spiral curls box-braided back to look like she stood as a warrior. It showed an undercut only around her ears to give her a full mane if it was down. With her dark skin, she bleached her hair to stand out against the saturated hue of her skin. The braids were a bright blue, making her resemble a mermaid in my eyes.

“Anika?” I addressed her. When Drake tried lifting his head from between my thighs, I let my hands fist into his hair to hold him where he belonged as a Delta—an Alpha who never wanted to form his own pack.

“Another siege has been taken in the city. We have a request for sanctuary.” Her full lips always looked luscious when she spoke, beautiful as usual.

“Another tonight?” A puzzling took over my face because we had already done an earlier rescue.

“Yes. I’m assuming they were going for a surprise attack because no pack would expect to be targeted in the same night as another.”

“Who requests our help?” I kept eye contact with her as my pussy was being pleasured. As an Omega, this was what I’d been made for, and I needed fulfilled to feel like my purpose didn’t tip toward the bleaker end of life.

“The call came in from Leia. She says you’re not gonna like who, but you’re the only one she trusts to keep them alive.”

Sonofa…

She didn’t need to say the name of the pack. I already knew by her mention of Leia’s secret worry. Seven years didn’t feel that long ago until she made me face this moment. Leia would only be calling for sanctuary if the person was blood, and she didn’t have the means to keep them safe. She’d been my only contact I kept from my former life because she believed in my cause. Whether I was ready or not, my intervention now sat as the only thing standing between them and their ends. “It’ll cost her.”

“Handsomely. She’s offered five million,” Anika reported the offer given.

“No, something like this doesn’t get paid with cash.” I shook my head. When Drake moved, he reminded me that I was letting my guard down.

“What would be better than five?”

“Check with Alpha, but I think he’d rather have a favor owed. Leia will give it and two million because it’s her brothers’ lives on the line,” I cooed with a moan as Drake did the thing with his tongue that I liked.

“Yes, Omega.” Dipping her chin to me, she smirked from my Alpha mention, knowing why I had to throw it in. The boy was naïve and stupid, but he might say something to someone else who might understand how to put two and two together.

Closing the door quietly, I watched as the light in the hall disappeared with her. Now in the void of darkness I nested in, I let his virile youth promise to sate my prominent urges to hold me over. Eagerly, his tongue lapped against my clit right before he latched his mouth around my entrance to suck. It created a vacuuming sensation, tugging my swollen folds to feel the stretching. Closing my eyes, I knew I’d climax from it. He repositioned for me to find a different kind of satisfaction. Relaxing, I basked in the laps of his thick tongue as he let a finger join his play. Swirling my entrance, he teased and tormented me into bliss. Oh, how cruel it was that I had to punish him. Drake would be missed after this.

Making me cum, I whimpered and mewled as my juices sprayed over his entire face. My nectar was sweet because I was an Omega. Men like him thought that was my only worth, and they never expected to find out how powerful I was. They never saw it coming.

Coming up from between my legs, he got on his knees to begin undoing his belt. I rested against my nest of pillows that I made on my bed. Some instincts couldn’t be fought, and my nesting happened to be one of them. I just couldn’t afford the scents I longed for it to be covered in.

Darting my hand forward, I paused his excitement. “Can you hold me for a bit first? I want cuddled.”

“Whatever gets you off, Omega. As long as I get to give my knot.” Typically, I would take his knot because I was exceptional at it. I had a good Alpha teacher when I was younger who taught me.

“Oh, I will be playing with knots,” I promised.

With his straining cock out, I could see just how badly he wanted relief, but I wasn’t going to let him find it. Not ever again. Letting him nestle against me, all my lovers knew I was not to be cuddled to feel inferior. Playing with his long, golden strands of hair, I was going to miss his boyish charms.

“Drake, do you remember when we first had sex?” I mused.

“Yeah, it was right after you saved me from the Sellers.” He inhaled my musk over my breasts. I was fully clothed in my silk nightie and mesh robe. The neckline and end of my sleeves had the fluffy feathering because I went overboard when needing to look like a pampered princess. But a princess born in poverty didn’t entice packs to want them. My rebuilding required a rebranding, and I finally made it out of the trailer park I grew up in.

“That’s right! I saved you,” I hummed my agreement. “I nearly forgot about pulling you from the jaws of slavery. How those Sellers enjoy forcing knots to build until they explode the meaty flesh around… You were right on the cusp of being someone’s bitch when I gave you a home here instead.”

“A good home,” he purred, humping his hard cock against my thigh, his knot being small because he wasted the bulge already.

“I picked you over all the others, gave you benefits they didn’t have, and I saved your sister from the Sellers too. I let you out of the compound to visit her with my guards protecting you.”

“Yeah, you’re amazing.” Ass kisser.

Rolling my eyes, I let that fester into my soul even more than my rage already had. “Oh, I quite know how amazing I am, and I only ever asked for one thing in return. Do you remember what that was?”

That was when he finally stiffened just a smidge. Ah, so he was catching onto what I discovered. “You wanted my exclusivity, being only your sexual partner.”

“Yes, that one thing, and you were offered a life in the lap of luxury.” Petting his hair, I wickedly smiled over the back of his head. He couldn’t see my devious grin or that my other hand readied the noose I hid below the long pillow we were sprawled over. “It’s crazy to think about the life of starvation and suffering I saved you from too. Weren’t you living on the streets?”

“I was,” he admitted, swallowing hard, still trying to mask that nothing was wrong.

“Going from dumpster diving to fine dining…”

“Omega,” he started, fretting what was to come.

Just like that, I whipped out the loop of rope to land directly around his neck. Cinching it, I made sure to leave no room for him to get oxygen. He struggled, pulling at the rope around his measly throat, digging his feet against the mattress to anchor himself upward in my nest. Sad day for him, my fur blankets slid with his jerks. Being vindictive was everything that kept fueling my revenge.

“Please,” he tried to speak, but I yanked even harder to shut him up.

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out?” I hissed next to his ear. “All those times you visited your sister, it wasn’t her spare bed you slept in, was it?”

“Omega, I’m sorry.” They always were once they got caught.

“Apologies are hollow words when you’ve proven otherwise,” I growled. “I gave you everything, but you still chose to betray me.”

“Don’t kill me!”

Turning his head my way, I let my long and manicured nail run along his handsome, square jaw. “Kill you? You’re too pretty to die, young little Delta.”

He thought it was safe to relax when I let the noose soften around his raw flesh. I learned young that kindness was never rewarded. Men only spoke the language of brutality. One little weakness would cripple your defense against them.

“Thank you,” he breathed sharply.

“Oh, I wouldn’t thank me. You see, you shared yourself outside of my room. You broke my most sacred, cardinal rule. Now that you have, your knot will never be received by me again.” Thriving in this world of depravity, I turned off my humanity the moment I’d been fed to the city. I only survived to become what I stood as today, and the men about to come through my door for sanctuary later were who hit the first domino in my spiral toward wickedness.

Anika knew it was her time to enter, so she came in with two other men dressed in white suits and sunglasses. Her eyes always ravished over my torture sessions, loving how I made these vile men suffer. We always shared a look of satisfaction no orgasm could rival.

“No…” He knew exactly who they were. “No! Please! Omega, don’t you love me?”

His panicked eyes turned up to see mine. Petting his face with my slender fingers, I pouted. “Oh, of course, I love you, but… I love myself and my boundaries more.”

That’s when he saw what a true villain I grew to be. He learned in a rapid second that I would not be messed with. Men in white suits meant Sellers, and he knew who I called the moment he saw them. Usually, I never did business with the grotesque group who ran the sex ring, but Drake made the perfect exception.

Snapping my fingers, two of my other guards brought in the young female Omega who lived with his sister. I bit into his earlobe for her to watch as fright fed into her anxiety. “Your loyalty to me was voided the moment you touched her. Without loyalty to me, you no longer have my protection. You gain my wrath because you didn’t love me enough.”

“No! Omega, please, no…” He began to weep, comprehending why she was here.

“Did she know you belonged to me?” I asked him. He couldn’t answer because the truth would get her killed, and he couldn’t lie to me. I had a talent for reading through the bullshit. “Tell me with complete honesty that she didn’t know, and I’ll spare her pathetic life.”

Hanging his head, he lost hope. At my command, I led him off the bed to stand before her. She was pretty, young and poise. Her adolescence would be why she got killed today. Anika handed me the gut hook knife hunters used. Holding it in front of him, I made sure he got the point.

“This can go two ways. Either you kill her as fast as you please, or I do it nice and slow.” Turning my head to the buyers, I saw one checking his watch. “Sellers, you don’t mind this slight delay, do you?”

“Not at all.” The other smirked, loving the cruelty I was made to give, a vengeful angel now fallen into their lurking shadows.

Tipping my chin to them, I made sure get my mouth against his ear again. “What’s it going to be, Drake?”

“I want to speak to Alpha about this,” he growled, trying to ask for management. The poor boy never figured it out. Alpha was just an idea, hiding me as the true puppeteer.

“Who do you think granted his men permission to collect your little fling?” I batted my long lashes over my psychotic eyes at him. “I’m his most prized possession. He doesn’t like seeing me upset. What do you think he’ll do to her instead?” He knew not to push it after that. The man who loved me dearly wouldn’t be any less aggressive because I made him up to be that domineering over me. Only fictional men were that possessive.

“I’ll do it.” He reached for the knife a little faster than I had wanted, eager to try and get me.

Dangling it out of reach, I sneered. “Oh, and if you try anything with the knife against me or anyone else, I have my guards in your sister’s home, waiting to hear from me if she gets to live.”

His eyes widened, understanding I wasn’t stupid enough to fail so easily. The girl trembled the moment he took the knife from me. “Drake,” she pleaded.

“I have to.” His hand shook when he lifted it to point at her. I wasn’t sure what it was about a gutting knife, but I loved what it did to a torso when I had to rip one open. The sleek design made it easier to shred through the pesky bones and muscle layers.

Jabbing it forward, he chose to plunge it into her eye, hitting her brain instantly. Huh, maybe he had been paying attention to all the times I showed mercy because that’s what I did. Her blood sprayed my chest and face when he removed the knife because I was behind him. Not that I minded being painted in the blood of my enemies.

Anika answered her radio, speaking quietly into it to respond. Letting her dark eyes find me, she tipped her chin. “The package has been delivered. I told them we’d intercept in the throne room.”

Ah, the throne room, my favorite. Stepping over the corpse of the girl whose name I didn’t even learn, I let my heeled slippers clank against the floor. The same fuzzy feathers of my robe were found on the strap arching over my toes. My hair was even done in old-fashioned waves like an old actress wore. My long, dark locks looked even better over my dark red nightie. This pampered princess was about to meet the men who dumped her for being trailer trash, and she was wearing blood as an accessory.

2: Ryatt

Orange blazes ruptured through each window down the long hall, hitting us with their pernicious heat. It all descended into chaos around with the sounds of explosions and shattering glass. The windowpanes were blown out, and more fire lit everything up around my manor.

“So much for your place being safe!” Kashmir growled. His bronze skin looked almost golden against the flames as he covered his face with his arm to shield his eyes.

“We knew this was coming,” Franco said, stepping up beside me. Grabbing some of the armor off the statue next to us, he knew his job as a Beta was to protect his Alpha, and mine was to protect our Omega.

In my arms, I refused to put Jericho down. His curly shag of blond locks was flopping with every step as he looked up at me, using his brown eyes to glare. He hated being babied, but he kept us glued together as a pack. Everyone might fall under my mark and command, but we all knew I’d be powerless without our Omega. “Leia has a van on the way. We just need to get to the hidden tunnel below the manor, and she’ll have a ride for us.”

My family home burned up in flames all around us, and there was nothing I could do about it. I watched as the fire engulfed the tall drapery that edged the several hall windows on our path. More smoke bombs and grenades were added because this person was out to destroy us, not just our empire.

Knowing this was coming after the attacks against other packs within our circle, I sent my men to a secret location to protect their lives. Kashmir and Franco did the same thing because we had watched several elites be taken out in the last year. None of us were sure who orchestrated it, so it was hard to target someone that’d been a ghost. We were all that remained in my fallen home, but now I had to get us out of it before the structure blew from the gas lines.

Slow motion captured my vision, eyeing the breeze that traveled up the flaming maroon drapes. The floor runner had been imported from India as a gift from Kashmir’s family who were still in power over there, but it was already catching the embers. Scorched circles began overwhelming it as the fabric ignited.

My eyes found his seething as he studied the same thing.

“Kashmir, help Franco shield us as we run!”

Kashmir pushed back his longer bangs that were usually styled to appear higher class as the heat of the fire glowed against his golden skin. Franco didn’t have to push his bangs out because his blond hair had been buzzed. With six of us herded together, we made a larger target, but I wouldn’t lose my pack. Turning my head to find my twin, he was on the phone, confirming things with our sister.

Once Kayos hung up, and nodded at me, I knew it was time to go. My twin looked almost exactly like me with our blue eyes and narrowed jaw, but his hair a few shades lighter than my dark brown color. We had this stance down as a pack, and everyone knew how to form around me to keep Jericho safe. Turner took his side by the wall to handle anything that might ricochet. All six of us dashed in a sprint, charging down the lit-up hallway. Smoke created a desecrating haze in our lungs, but we knew the burn would be short-lived if we made it.

Franco used the shield to handle the shit being thrown in at us, and Kashmir began batting the bombs back out the window to hit the perpetrators doing this to everyone we knew in the inner families. With four seats in my home, I had to get us out of here. The only one who wasn’t a chairman was Jericho because Kayos and I shared a seat for our family. None of our parents agreed with our idea to form a bonding pack under my command, but Kashmir and Franco weren’t born Alphas. I refused to let their positions be threatened because of it.

Both of their families operated out of Europe and the Middle East to run imports to us on this side of the world. They supplied the goods we smuggled in to meet our demands. When they sent their sons to live with my family, it was to push us together for a stronger alliance. To say all families were happy about the merge to form our pack would be an understatement, and it secured their seats for the inner circle to continue the trade routes without being Alphas.

Kashmir whacked a grenade back out the window, making us pause to see the bodies near the explosion. We were able to make out six within that small radius, telling us they had the numbers to hunt. His sharp gaze swung back to me, knowing we’d have a tail. “Keep going. I’ll stay back!”

Another explosion took out the area behind us, and I knew they were doing this all around my house. Turner let me see his expression too. His was harder to make out with his dark complexion, but I knew what was about to come out of his mouth. “I’ll stay back with him. You guys get to Leia.”

Because of the life we lived running the drug ring in the city, fighting became our second nature, but we had to run today. The two who could fight didn’t show an ounce of fear because both were that good. In his tailored black suit, Kashmir straightened his cuffs before moving to the wall where the concealed weapons were located. He pushed the hidden button that revealed an alcove of guns and knives.

Kayos shoved into my back to keep going, knowing I was wasting our time. We knew this evil would be coming, but we didn’t expect their hit to be an hour after a different attack. It left us all scurrying to get our group together, and it was how we ended up in this hall when the seize hit full force.

When we made it to the end of the hall that had the hidden tunnel, I turned to take in the brave men I called my mates. Turner lit up a cigarette to ease his stress like he had the time to do it. I hated that we were leaving them to handle this, but we had to get Jericho out. My nose followed along my Omega’s head, scenting his spiced peppery scent. I needed it in my memory before separating from him. Handing him off to my brother, I knew I couldn’t let them do this alone. Kayos understood what I was asking without words, sharing a conversation with our eyes to give us time. Our twin bond went deeper than our pack bond.

“What are odds it’s only the six we saw?” Kashmir picked the sniper, pumping it full of bullets like the easiest thing in the world. He was known for his marksman skills by everyone around us.

“Zero percent. I’d say at least triple that number,” Turner responded to him before finding the rifle. When Kashmir saw Turner have the lower quality gun, he forced him to switch because Kashmir had the better aim.

“So nine each, then we run?”

“Nine each.” Turner smiled with his long hair of spiral curls hanging over his eyes. Locking and loading, they positioned by the window and started shooting.

“Make that six each, you dipshits.” I showed them I’d be with the crossbow. Standing next to the burning wall, I hid myself from the opening as I loaded my first arrow.

“Please, like either of you will get the same number as me.” Kashmir fired another shot, doing three more before pulling back in. “I’m already at four, so you little bitches better hurry up.”

Leaving my spot of hiding, I left myself wide open in the empty window for them all to know right where I stood. Shooting the closest target, I took him down right as he pulled the pin on a grenade.

When his body fell, it blew up about five people around him. Smirking without moving from the window, Kashmir glowered. “Show off.”

Snorting, I shook my head and hit the next one coming at us. Whoever sent them knew better than to send a simple squad. My eyes kept seeing more shadows in the lights, telling me we had more than planned. There was no way we’d fight our way out of this one, and I knew they were seeing what I did.

Sweeping back to obscure my frame, I shared a look with the two of them. “We’re going to have about five minutes before this whole place goes up into flames.”

“They need to think we’re in here until then,” Kashmir added. “If they think we blew up, they won’t try to follow the others.”

“So we’re going to play with fire until the clock runs down?” Turner arched his eyebrow. “We have no idea if that’s going to work.”

“They just have to think we’re in the house,” I clued him in on the keywords.

A wicked gleam took over his handsome features. “What are you thinking this time?”

“How many bullets are in the cupboard?” I nodded my head that way. Turner took off to grab the ammo boxes. He brought them back for us to see we’d have more than enough. “Let’s let these bastards think we’re going out in a blaze of glory. They won’t check for our bodies until the fire gets put out.”

“But we’ll be hidden by then.” Kashmir liked the idea. “I say, we string the bullets on the floor runner completely from one end to the other. They’ll think we’re spread out, and it’ll make them explode at different times.”

“While you do that, I’ll shoot some near the end of the hall. Just run fast because it’s already hot enough to cook them into firing.” Turner took off for us to lay the bullets.

Together, Kashmir and I ran back to where we originally began. I was throwing some metal armor pieces to land on the rug for the bullets to hit for better sound. These croons needed to feel like they were under attack, so I’d enhance the sound and not just the flying random bullets. As I made my mess, Kashmir began setting the bullets inside some of the pieces before tossing random ones everywhere.

We did what would save our skins and took off to Turner’s spot. Right before we got to him, a bullet sailed through his shoulder. We watched the splatter of blood follow the exit wound right as he fell back from his squat near the last window. His tumble put him on his large back, so I hurried to get his giant frame up with mine. Turner groaned, hating life, but the hit landed high. As long as someone had a sewing kit or first aid kit, I’d be able to get him recovering.

Unable to stop now, Kashmir covered our backs when we entered the dark tunnel that led to a remote location very few knew about. He closed the hatch and placed some armor in front of it to mask the entrance. The tunnel was dark, so my free hand not supporting an oversized Alpha, grabbed my phone for a flashlight. We only got a few feet in when the rounds in the hall started pinging against the metal. Once they did, we heard the telling sound of a machine gun.

“Jesus,” Kashmir hissed. “They’re really out for blood.”

“The slaughtering of seven families didn’t tell you that?” I asked him.

“They even killed the kids,” Turner added with a painful groan. “Whoever is after us, they’re not gonna care who they have to go through to find us.”

I knew he meant my sister, so I gave his side a squeeze that I was holding up. “When Kayos called her, we made her swear not to be near us. She promised she had a plan with a protection team, so I’m trusting her. We have no other choice because this enemy has hidden too well.”

“Leia has to conceal herself as well because if we die, she claims your position.” Turner brought up what I already talked to my baby sister about.

“She promised me she’s safe, and she’ll make contact three times a day for me to know.” It bothered me I couldn’t hover over her and protect her, but she was safer away from me.

In silence, we lost our appetite for small talk, so we just made our way down the old shaft. These were built below Knotty City for smuggling, and my family knew all the routes. In high school and college, we’d sneak into them to have parties. Only those I trusted knew about the paths and trails my family established.

“I can’t smell your scent,” Kashmir was right behind me. “The smoke burned the inside of my nose.”

“Hopefully, it’ll clear up when you shower,” I replied. “For now, brace yourself because we’re nearing the exit.”

“It’s quiet,” Turner grumbled. He was never much for words, but he paid attention to the finer details. “I don’t like when things are quiet.”

Making our way out of the secret hatch that led to the cement wall made into a road next to the neighboring river, I took in how it was almost a cement swimming pool, being four lanes across. No one drove here unless they were city workers, so seeing seven vehicles was alarming. Kashmir took point with the gun, knowing we needed to find our pack.

Dead bodies lined the sides near some of the cars as one flashed its headlights our way. Slowly rolling toward us, Kashmir kept the gun aimed at the moving van. I made sure none of the fallen were our men. Only cloaked people so far, so we were safe in the assumption this ride came to help us. Never letting our guard down, we readied for a fight just in case.

The side of the van opened, revealing Kayos with his hand reached out. Helping me get Turner in, he took him to the back as Kashmir and I got in to join the others. Looking around, I made sure my pack was okay. “What happened?”

Franco pointed to the two in the front. “They took out whoever was waiting for us before we came out.”

“Always expect company,” the driver said. He flashed his headlights twice before taking a second to glance back at us. “I’m Raphael, and this is my partner, Lucas. We were sent for retrieval to take you to our safehouse.”

“And what are you doing now?” I watched the other four hidden vans pull out and leave.

“Waiting to be the last one out. Well, one car will remain hidden to get eyes on who comes for the bodies.” He smiled like this was a normal occurrence. “We made sure to bring enough power to not have all of us tailed. You’re welcome.”

3: Kayos

“Are you Leia’s contact?” I leaned forward, hearing Jericho fret over Turner in the back. Kashmir and Franco were handling the wound by applying pressure and keeping him stable until we made it out. Ryatt kept bouncing his leg because his anxiety peaked.

“No, our Omega is her contact, and our Alpha can’t say no to her. You’ll meet Omega soon. We’re only a few minutes out from our compound.” Raphael got us going, following a path less taken, but no one was near as we followed the river to the docks. This part of the city had been abandoned years ago.

The buildings were in shambles, and the homeless rate overwhelmed the area. Doing business over here became too risky because so many wanted to rob you blind. I let my eyes take in the boarded windows and padlocked doors. Some of the warehouses were even missing part of their roofs. Trash littered the ground, and the docks never had working lights. The waters were never safe on the river because that’s where families like mine dumped bodies and removed witnesses who were stupid enough to be out.

When Turner groaned and coughed up blood, Ryatt carefully moved to be with him in the back. As his leading Alpha, our other suffering Alpha needed to feel his presence to help fight for his life. I swallowed the lump in my throat, knowing Raphael said we were minutes away from help, but I wasn’t sure what help would be in this area of town.

Raphael pulled our car right in front of a building that was in the worst condition along the row of deserted factories. With one simple nod to the homeless man in front of it, he got up and moved to open the door. It wasn’t hard to miss my surprise, so Raphael smirked in the rearview mirror at me. “Alpha built our empire right under everyone’s noses because he knew where the power in numbers resided. Welcome to the true Underground.”

Pulling in, we found tarps hiding what had to be other vehicles that had hanging lights blinking above them. Camo prints hid them from the average eye, but I saw the faint edging with my keen eyesight. Other homeless men gathered around our van, demonstrating the power in play, and we weren’t the Alphas in charge. This felt almost criminal to be asking another pack to protect us. Their scent wasn’t ours, and I was going to go mad in a place that smelled of someone else that didn’t belong to our family.

I was already losing my mind from how Leia evaded my questions and hung up on me. Part of me knew I wouldn’t like whatever she did to set us up, but we were alive for another day. My baby sister was just lucky I loved her like she’d been part of my pack.

“Are you ready to go and see the actual facility?” Raphael asked us.

Getting out, I was the anchor to support Turner as I opened the back of the van for Ryatt to hand him off to me. I stabilized him enough to guide us both to follow the others down a secret staircase that Raphael revealed. Hidden in plain sight, they went through some heavy measures to keep people from finding this place. I couldn’t blame them with all the shit hitting the fan within the city.

“This way. We’re going into the throne room, and before the title of that makes you uncomfortable, just know it was made to do that.” The man smiled, showcasing how white his teeth were against his dark complexion. His features reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t quite place it.

Ryatt and Kashmir took the lead with Jericho right behind them. Franco made sure to position himself behind our Omega to block him in if something were to happen. I hobbled down the stairs with Turner as he groaned with every step. His conscience was slipping, but I knew I had to get him down the stairs for an easier spot to lift him. With me trying to rush, he caught onto why when he had to take a deeper breath to make him more alert.

“Fuck, man,” he hissed.

“Just a few more steps, Turn. You can pass out at the bottom but make my work a little easier until then.” Together, we slightly laughed at my tease, but it kept him going long enough to get down the dingy steps. The cement walls were corroding everywhere in large circles, and the hanging light barely lit enough to see the next step. No railing was placed, making my job and Turner’s a lot harder.

“This place is shit,” he grunted beside me.

“It keeps people out,” Raphael responded from his place up ahead where he knocked on a door. “If they saw what we did to the interior, they might try to rob us.”

With a glint in his eye, the door opened for us to see a redone hallway. The walls were still cement, but they were cleaned and painted lighter to make the long hall look wider. The ground had flooring placed on it to have white planks striping our steps forward. Nothing else screamed money, but this clean appearance would attract certain people to venture deeper. Keeping the outside looking destitute was wise, and no one had any idea this fortress existed.

We all moved as one group, but one of Raphael’s men brought me a wheelchair for Turner. He plopped his big ass in it to let me push him behind the others. Jericho kept looking over his shoulder at us to make sure everything was still okay. I kept tipping my chin that Turner was fine, but I’d been getting worried. Raphael noticed my fears as my friend kept fighting to stay awake. “Our doctor will be meeting us in the throne room to take him back for care. Don’t worry, he’ll be in good hands soon.”

“I’m fine,” Turner slurred, proving otherwise.

Two guards moved from their position in front of a double door, opening them when we got close enough. Once inside, we found a large room with a long floor runner in crimson red. It ran a far length, stopping in the center to show a golden throne. It was massive and engraved in old symbols like it had been stolen from a tomb in Egypt. Part of me wondered if it had.

“I’ve radioed Omega, so she’ll be here in a minute to greet you into our home,” Raphael said.

“Your Omega?” Ryatt questioned.

“Oh, I forget you’re one of those packs.” He casually pointed at how we centered Jericho within a fighting circle. “Omega is the second in command in this place, and you’ll always go to her for things. Our Alpha likes to remain hidden with his identity for reasons I cannot say, and he trusts his Omega because she’s proven herself to be ranked as his second. She doesn’t take too kindly to this type of conversation, so don’t bring it up again.”

That last part wasn’t a request. I wondered what they had done to people who did question her abilities. It didn’t take long for us to hear the faint tapping of heels clicking over the floor. Our eyes carried around the throne to see someone we never expected. My stomach dropped, and my ears began to ring. There was no way this was real. There was no way this could be Kit.

Marching to the throne area. She gave us a saucy smile, dressed in her lingerie silks and a weird robe. Her tits bounced with every step because they weren’t in a bra. Her nipples were pointed, and I could scent her recent orgasm as she neared. Her hair was still the color of night, and I knew I’d never breathe right again after this encounter. Blood splattered over her chest, and I could smell the coppery tang it left. I also caught her new scent, but my nose didn’t like it. Probably because it wasn’t my scent on her. “Hello, boys. Long time no… see.”

She purposefully worded it like that because of how our history played out. Kit had been our Omega, but we hadn’t marked her when we left for private school states away. Now, she belonged to someone else, and she’d never know I came back for her only to find her gone.

Walking over to Raphael, she studied him to make sure he was okay, telling us they were in the same pack.

“I’m fine, I promise,” he murmured.

“You know I have to make sure for myself.” She smiled, lovingly. “Anything I need to know?”

“Just got word Sam is tailing whoever paid the exit a visit. He hid out of the way but was able to follow to a bar so far. I’ll update you when I know.” Kissing her cheek, he left us with that crazy bit of news and made his way to stand next to the throne. She went to sit on it once he confirmed he was fine. I finally noticed Anika on her right, and I finally figured out why Raphael looked so familiar. He was Anika’s brother.

“Guys, I think I might be dying,” Turner wheezed. “I’m seeing Kit, but I know it can’t be.”

“You’re seeing me, Turntable.” Snapping her fingers, a doctor was with her, but I overlooked him when I saw her first. He rushed over with two nurses and began wheeling him off, taking the handles from my grip. When I went to follow, she raised her hand to stop me. “They are taking him to our medical bay where they’ll prep him for surgery to remove any fragment pieces. When he wakes, you’ll be the first to know. We have all blood types on deck, if he needs a transfusion as well.”

“Kit,” I whispered, unbelieving all of this. I thought our lives were over from losing the house, but this took the cake. I still loved the woman sitting before me.

“Omega,” she corrected. “Everyone here has titles when placed within the inner circle.”

From the same spot she just came in from, we heard a man shouting profanities about the residence. He’d been collared, being dragged out in chains by Sellers. In front of them was a cold body being dragged openly on a tarp. The two in white suits made it known who they were as they curtly nodded to Kit for whatever arrangement was taking place.

“You bitch!” the boy shouted and raged at her. She seemed unperplexed by his weak advances. “I’ll kill you one day! I’ll get you.”

Raphael went over to the body and whistled while removing a gutting knife from the eye of the corpse. “Is this mine?”

“I couldn’t find mine. You know how I get when vengeance calls to me.” She shrugged. “Would you mind leading the Sellers out the entrance they came in? You know what to do after.”

“And the body?” he waited for instruction.

“She means nothing. Dump her in the river.”

“Fuck you!” The boy tried to break free to get to her. He’d strangle her if he did.

“I’m sorry, what did you think would happen when you went back on your oath?” She stopped studying her nails to glare at him. “This was the consequence you asked for the moment you broke it. You have no one to blame but your measly self. Enjoy your new home.”

Waving goodbye at him, Raphael guided them out in a completely different direction than we came in. It made me wonder how many entrances they had into this place, but I knew Kit was smart enough to cover her tracks. There’d be no way she’d lead Sellers into her home through a main door.

“Now, where was I?” We still heard the faint screaming of the boy echoing in their departure.

“Greeting our new guests,” Anika reminded her.

“Right!” she laughed. “How silly of me. Sorry, it’s been an eventful night. Two packs needing saved, and a backstabbing lover.”

“Two packs?” Ryatt caught what she said.

“You’ll find out more about that later. For now, I’ll cover the ground rules then Anika will escort you to your quarters. I’m sure you’re all needing a good rest after that. I’m assuming the sixth man with you is your Omega? Huh, you finally found one good enough for your lifestyle.” She hadn’t noticed Jericho until that moment, but now he was all she could see. Whether the others saw it or not, I did. A flash of hurt took over her features before she could hide it.

“We have a lot to catch up on. You know, like you belonging to a new Alpha,” I growled.

Moving her hair out of the way, she let us all see the bite that bound her to someone else. “You’re right. I do belong to him. Now, why don’t we just get to what needs sharing, and we’ll go our separate ways?”

A cleaning crew came in from the other end of the room, beginning to get the streaks of blood off the floor that fell from the tarp with the corpse. I was amazed at everyone’s quickness to handle business here, and they all looked happy to do it.

“First rule, you never go above ground without permission. I’m risking the safety of my pack to protect you, so you will do well to respect that. Second, no drugs or deals will be made in my home.”

“Kit, that’s our line of work,” Ryatt protested. We were the ones who moved the most in the city.

“I won’t repeat myself on that one. A lot of my pack were once homeless due to drugs, so I will not tolerate drugs in my home that is also theirs. If you cannot agree to that, you’re more than welcome to leave and figure it out on your own. Though, I’d advise against it. This enemy has eyes everywhere without being seen themselves. We’re still hunting them.”

“No drugs,” Kashmir agreed without our consent. He was probably like me and wanted to know more about how Kit ended up here. Plus, we weren’t safe above ground, and we needed everyone to believe we were dead. Leia’s name was already on our accounts, so she’d run the business from her spot in hiding.

“Good. Now, we’re asking you to not wander all day because the smell of other packs isn’t enjoyable for any of us. Your quarters host everything you’ll need while you’re here, and we have a rotating schedule for the training room, if you’d like to exercise. Seeing how I knew it was you coming, I put you on the schedule for the late morning time.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled to be polite.

“You’re welcome.” My act of kindness pleased her. “In your room, you’ll see set times and meals that will come to your living space. In a few days, we’ll host a dinner for everyone to meet, but we figured a few days of settling was needed first. Last rule, no fighting or arguing my command or other packs. As long as you’re okay with all of that, you can stay.”

Our group looked to each other, knowing there wasn’t any other option. Ryatt took point to reply. “We agree to your terms and thank you for your help in our extraction.”

“Then welcome to my home!” She clapped. “Anika will show you to your quarters because I have other plans. As much as I love being painted in my enemy’s blood…”

Not finishing, she left us with knowing where she planned to go. Anika waved us to follow her out a different door than Kit went, but my eyes kept tracking her until we were out of the room. So much had happened today but finding her alive sent a surge of joy right through me. Of course, it was dampened the moment I realized she could never be mine again.

Our walk down the corridor remained long and silent besides the electricity humming in the ceiling. I made my way to saddle up to Anika. She became Kit’s friend our senior year of high school, so we knew her by association. Built like a tank, she was a woman not many men wanted to go up against. “How have you been?”

“Kayos,” she greeted me, remembering us as well. “We’ve been fine, and if you think you can ask me things about her, you’re mistaken.”

Stopping in front of a double door, she waved her hand for Ryatt to enter first. He did while I was being salty. We followed, but she waited by the door as we took in the suites. It was a mini apartment with three rooms off to one side and a living space with a small kitchen in the main area. A bathroom was attached as well, and we’d all be using that to shower after what we just endured.

“All streaming services can be found on the television. The kitchen is stocked with snacks, homemade freezer dinners and drinks. If you run low or want something else, find me. You’ll discover a group bed in the sleeping chamber, but there are a few spare beds in the other rooms if someone wants their space. Just remember to not wander too much from your scent. We have a filtration system in each suite to help minimize you smelling someone else. Enjoy.”

She closed the door, for us to settle in.

4: Jericho

Tension rose between them now that we were guided to our room. It wasn’t a secret as to why when they saw someone from their past. I didn’t know if the woman before us had been an old friend of theirs or an enemy, but I knew I wouldn’t figure that out tonight.

Aside from the sheer exhaustion of our recent endeavor with escaping, we watched our home go up in flames. Everything we once knew was in that manor, and it blew up. Even now, Franco had his phone out to view the news where it showed the mansion burning to the ground. Ryatt and Kayos’ pictures were placed on the screen as the newscaster reported their deaths. Well, she said they were assumed dead because they hadn’t been able to contact them.

With everyone on edge, I knew it’d be my job to center us once again. From being glued to the phone, none of them saw me stripping down. In the center of the room, I made sure all eyes could find me once I cleared my throat. The second they all heard me make some noise, their stares flashed my way, seeing my naked and vulnerable form. This was my way of communicating with them that I needed attention, but they didn’t know to help them.

After learning my men for years, I understood what they needed from me. Holding my breath, I began touching myself for their desperate eyes to see. It was like putting snakes in a trance because they were mesmerized by the stroking movement. “I’m in need of some assistance,” I clarified for them to know what I wanted right now.

In a hurried horde of bodies, I was nearly tackled to the ground as they all began to dote on me. Lips began to find my body everywhere. Shirts began to fly around the room along with the men stumbling out of their pants. This was how I made things better, using my body to make sure they found their escape through pleasure. I let myself be fumbled against as they all figured out what positions they wanted.

Always wanting to get me off first, none of them bent me over to use me right away. All around me, I could sense them. My pack. My loves. My home. No matter where this route took us, I knew this was where we all belonged, together. Nothing could undo the love we shared for one another.

Now that most of us were freshly showered, it made it a little simpler to smell our scent among each other. It brought us peace after the disruption tonight. The mix of spices was welcoming after all the smoke. Kashmir still coughed a bit, but I knew he felt a little better after his shower. With a wicked gleam, he leaned forward to plant a kiss on my lips. I deepened it to tell him how much I needed him just like the others. Ryatt was the one who moved behind me as he made sure I saw and welcomed his presence where I couldn’t see.

His fingers began swirling my opening, promising a heightened pleasure that I needed and only my Alphas could provide. The others kept adorning me in kisses along my body as Ryatt kept working me open. He was easing the second finger in as I got used to the pressure of the first. Because I was a bottom and an Omega, my body was eager to open to the pleasure he wanted to provide.

Humming my approval felt natural because I loved being their center in these moments. When Ryatt was finally ready, he backed me up to position my ass over his lap and knot. I made sure to keep my legs parted in order to seat my hole properly over his waiting and throbbing cock, and my hole opened up perfectly for his fat knot to submerge inside with his spit.

My eyes rolled to the back of my head because it felt like utter heaven to have him inside me like this. This was exactly what I needed after everything had happened today. Similar to my own desires to please, Franco got between my legs to begin sucking my dick as Ryatt bounced me up and down on his shaft. Turner wasn’t with us, and I missed the man with darker skin. He reminded me of the night, and when he was over me, it felt like I’d been blanketed by it.

Kayos and Kashmir stood at each of my sides for my hands to reach out and touch their members. Like his twin’s, Kayos had a thicker and long cock while Kashmir’s was average size. Kayos also built a knot I didn’t know if I could take from the size alone.

Being pleasured while pleasing was everything to me as my head fell back to rest against Ryatt’s shoulder. My opening stretched, but his tip kept rubbing over the one spot I needed it to in order to take his knot inside of me. The pleasure was like an explosion, and it was always so hard to last when being sucked and fucked at the same time.

My hands had to move extra fast over the shafts next to me because I knew they needed to reach their end. Each of them kept letting their spit drip over my hands in order to ensure I wasn’t dry rubbing them. Watching that saliva fall was almost too much as well. It only added to the scent of our pack with all the spiced, peppery sage as our euphoric elixir. The smell of sex fumigated with it, causing a provocative scent. All my men were groaning in ecstasy, joining me in this exhilarating moment. Most didn’t understand how a full pack of males got along like this, but we did. We knew what our pleasure could be because of how we offered it to each other.

Most of the time, Kashmir or Franco bottomed for the others, but they wanted to make sure I felt like the center right now. There was no denying my need for it because of the events that took place. With their loving embraces surrounding me, I felt safe once again.

Rocking and moving with Ryatt, I finally looked down to make eye contact with Franco as he continued to suck me off. His eyes always showed how he hungered for more of me, and it erased my fear when it came to missing what a female could bring to the pack. There were a lot of questions swirling my mind, but I knew we needed this tonight to feel less broken and defeated than we were. It was just a bad day, not a bad life. And I hoped to be the one that reassured them of that. The sound of our tasty activities was all that could be heard in the dark room, and it was everything we would need to get by for another day. Just like loving them came natural for me, loving me was natural for them as well. Together, I knew we’d get through whatever hardship came our way because tonight wouldn’t be the end of it.

They’d all pass out after this, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Part of me wanted to make sure they were safe for once and not the other way around like they always did. I loved them too much to let them get hurt. They were everything to me, and I blasted my load down Franco’s waiting throat from how strongly I loved him. Hot cum shot over my torso because Kashmir hit me with his sprays. Franco climbed up, licking it in the process of moving to my lips. We shared a passionate kiss with the taste of two different releases, but Kayos removed his cock from my grip, refusing to let his release out.

The tip of his dick expanded and engorged, keeping his release inside. It always looked painful, but he loved edging it for his depraved pleasure. He liked this sordid level of torment when it came to punishing him and myself. Taking the bulbous head filled with extra cum wasn’t easy, but that wouldn’t be for today.

In the arms of all my lovers, I recentered us to remember that there were better days to come. We were one force to be reckoned with, and we knew how to work together. That’s all I needed as I took Ryatt’s long and tantalizing knot.

5: Kit

Rubbing the outsides of my arms, I stood in front of a window in a dingy hallway above ground located in a building near the docks. Now that night had set in, I let my eyes scan over the darkness outside the compound. For being on the level above ground, we didn’t allow much light to not give our position away, so I was tucked within a shadow for no one to see me unless they moved closer. One flickering light in the center of the room creeped strangers out enough to stay away.

This became my spot to hide, but I had a few other spots I rotated to in order to get a different view for my territory. This time of night I dedicated solely for me. It was my time to unveil what I hid so well all day long. Most people never understood why I didn’t sleep, but we all had nightmares to deal with at one point or another. The icky sensation from mine still clung to my skin, and I could never scrub it away. It lingered in the depths of my soul and haunted me when I couldn’t see completely around me.

Being afraid of the dark hadn’t been something people needed to know, but I gained that fear. A bone-chilling terror that came when you couldn’t see what planned to attack you. I remembered that helpless feeling of being hunted in the dark. My mind often drifted to it because it had been someones that I thought I didn’t need to be afraid of, two men and my mother.

Now that I had to deal with certain people from my past, it left a gap of room for my weaknesses to be revealed. I felt scared, but it wasn’t just the dark igniting that sensation within me. That complex emotion came from having to hide my true feelings that never went away for the group of men now being harbored in my home.

My hand reached for my neck, skimming over the two raised bumps that marked me from the bite, showcasing a claimed Omega. They saw it. Four out of the five saw the scar that made me a marked female. Kayos was the one to comment on it, having the audacity to look hurt by it. That small and insignificant expression bothered me right now. I played it cool that I’d been taken, but it troubled me to see him hurting. More than ever, I detested seeing he still cared for me in some way because he abandoned me with the others. They left for their schooling, and it left me an easy target.

They were what lit the fire that forged me into becoming who I became right now. I wasn’t good enough for them, so his look should have been meaningless from when he chose to leave me. Even though I knew the logic behind all my reasoning, it was still hard to not think about. They were the very reason I had the cardinal rule I did when claiming lovers. That helpless sense of abandonment came during the night, leaving me isolated and cold in my empty nest that I once shared with the heat of their strong bodies. I used to purr and preen under their gentle touches, but I never let myself purr since then. Not where others could hear it at least.

Anika and I did what we had to do in order to build this empire. The two holes in my neck didn’t come from teeth. We made a branding iron and burned our necks in the same area to look as though we did. Only the inner circle of my most trusted men bore the branding, so everyone thought we belonged to the same Alpha. I was even smart enough to make a scented spray that made it fragrance the air with our matched pack scent. As long as no one got too close or thought too hard about it, we were fine. We did have a pack, but there’d been no Alpha guiding us.

With all the corruption already brewing in the city, I knew we had to hold our own or else we’d lose too many of us. The Sellers would come and claim majority of those who chose to join for safety. My men knew how much they meant to me, and I provided the means to make sure they survived while living a life that wasn’t on the streets or as a pained plaything. Anika and her brother helped me build the gardens and farms below the ground that gave us a bountiful harvest without needing too much reliance outside our community.

It took us the first few years of setting this up, but the six of us did it. The five I trusted most, helped me begin all of this and encouraged my idea of hiding under a false Alpha. All of us fought our basic instinct to want to be a pack under an Alpha, but we did it because we had been burned by false loyalty. There were promises made to each one of us that left us broken and vulnerable for the city to prey on. That’s how I found the people who joined our ranks because they went through something similar.

I offered them a home here, one they could leave at any time, if they did find their pack. There were a few stray Deltas and Alphas among my people. Some Alphas had made their own packs within my walls, and I supported this, making sure they had the necessities to provide for their family. No one should be refused if both parties wanted it. No one should ever have to feel like trailer trash and not good enough for the boys on the other side of the river like me.

It hurt, and I still remembered the day I met all of them. It was my freshman year of high school when Ryatt found me. There were no words that could ever be expressed for how I felt under his attention, smelling his mix of pepper and cinnamon. There were no words for how Kayos made me feel seen in the sea of people in the halls. Turner used to leave notes in my locker that wished me to have a good day, and Kashmir made sure to take the seat in front of me in class, so he could turn around and talk to me. Franco had always been quiet, but he came and snuggled with me if I slept over at one of their houses. He was the one who held my body the closest as though he couldn’t think of anything worse than losing me. I never knew his worst nightmare would become my own. I lost them all, and now I had to pretend like it didn’t matter.

“Can’t sleep?” The stranger’s voice asked me in the dead silence, spooking me into jumping just a bit.

To my surprise, I found their Omega to be lurking above ground where he shouldn’t be. It was easy to see his naivety with his youthful grin and hands in his pockets. “It’s not safe for you up here. If you want us to keep you safe, you need to remain where people won’t see you.”

He smiled at my words before moving to stand next to me in front of the window. There was this boyish charm about him that told me he didn’t go through the hardships of life that I had. In a way, he reminded me of myself before I’d been abandoned by his very pack. Instead of answering me, he continued his own conversation. “I’m not much of a sleeper too. Nights always feel off, and I can’t ever describe it properly to others. It leaves me with the dire need to wander the premises and make sure it’s safe.”

“Does your pack know that their Omega wanders without protection?”

“I could ask the same about you.” His jovial ways tried thwarting the jealous hate I built against him years ago, but I didn’t like thinking about when I returned to find I’d been replaced.

“My Alpha treats me as an equal,” I clipped. I knew there was no way in hell that Ryatt’s pack would be okay with him wandering. Ryatt had always been a hard ass when it came to me wanting to be alone for a while.

“That’s pretty impressive. When we were escaping, Ry wouldn’t even put me on my own feet to run.” Snorting, he shook his head with a laugh and smile. The way his mouth stretched was almost too easy, and it made me wonder if he wasn’t part of their drug trades. There was no easiness when running an empire, so how did he stand before me as though none of it tarnished his soul?

“Ryatt is like that a lot.” The words left my mouth before I could think of them through, giving away I knew his pack before he joined. He must’ve already noticed with how I responded to their entrance, but I led the conversation there again without wanting to.

“You knew them?”

“High school,” I gave a short answer with a tight smile. It was only then that I realized my hand was still covering my mark. His eyes kept drifting to where I held my neck, having too many questions within them that I didn’t want to deal with. “I kinked my neck earlier.”

“Oh, I’m sorry for staring.” He acted shy and timid, reminding me of myself when I was younger. Always quick to apologize and stammer in place when I felt like I offended someone. Now, I was the woman who chopped heads off for offending me. “So you went to school with them?”

I wasn’t sure how he was missing the mark that I wanted to be left alone because I knew it exuded from my body like a stench. Holding my breath, I hated that I was standing right next to my replacement, and I had to play nice. Not that this man ever deserved my wrath, but I didn’t like him immediately because of what he symbolized in my own life.

“Yes, back when this wasn’t our lives.”

“You know, they don’t speak about their past very often. It would be nice to learn more about it, if you’re willing to tell me.”

“Their secrets are their own,” I said back to him, keeping my gaze out the window. My eyes kept tracing every movement in the shadows out there to not reflect on the ones within.

“You’re right, I’m sorry for asking. I can tell a lot burdens them from their past, but they never tell me what those burdens are.” He kept opening up to me as though I could be his shrink. I wasn’t about to be the person to break his little, naïve heart about the true cruelty of the world. I wouldn’t be the one to tell him that the salacious acts were usually handled by his lovers. “And I realize I never offered you my name. I’m Jericho.”

When his hand extended out to me, I knew I had to play the part of an accepting Omega. As the spokesperson of our community, I couldn’t let one feel singled out. Even though he was the one being here that I resented. Finally clasping his shake with my own hand, I felt the warmth of his touch linger against my cold hand. “I’m Kit, but everyone here calls me Omega.”

“Jericho!” The boy jumped when a loud voice barreled from down the hall. There was a staircase that we found Franco coming up to find his wandering Omega. Relief struck him when he finally found his little pet, but his shoulders locked up just as fast when he saw he was with me. Walking our way, I noticed the timid steps he took because he wasn’t sure what we were talking about. This told me they never informed my replacement of who lied in their nest before him. “You know you’re not supposed to walk this place alone.”

“Sorry, but I couldn’t sleep. I ran into Kit along my way. She’s been keeping me company.” The easy swagger of the young boy bothered me in ways I couldn’t describe. My eyes slowly tracked up and down his body in a calculating way to understand why they picked him.

Before Franco could say anything, I cut my eyes toward him, giving him a hard stare. My eyes narrowed, knowing, and he could see the heat staying within them. “He’s safe with me, Franco.”

“You’re an Omega, Kit.”

Once upon a time, I wanted to be kept by them, protected and treasured. I wanted that leisure life in the lap of luxury they promised me. Their words always spoke of keeping me safe and fighting for my innocence to stay just like this young one, but that promise was broken the night they abandoned me. That code of conduct relinquished its authority when it hadn’t been their hands that were holding my body down to use me.

“I’m sorry. I believe you misunderstood my purpose in this place, Franco. I’m not an Omega, I am Omega.”

“Just because your Alpha let you have a fancy title, doesn’t change what you were made to be.” Franco crossed his arms, squaring off with me. Quite frankly, it pissed me off.

“Oh? And what was I made to be, Franco? Why don’t you tell Jericho and me what I was supposed to be.” The threat of me knowing the truth finally silenced him. It was also the first clue for Jericho to understand there was a lot between us that remained an open wound. Dipping my chin to his silent answer, I gave him a devilish smile. “Don’t worry, I learned who I had to be in order to make it in this dog-eat-dog world. So when I tell you your Omega is safe with me, I mean it.”

Out of nowhere, Franco swung his arm in my direction, trying to prove my words wrong. My sharp senses analyzed the movement the second his stance shifted in order to support his swing. Dropping low, I kicked my leg straight out and spun it, knocking his feet out from below him. His hand struck the empty air above me, but I was able to lay him flat on his back. Standing and fixing my nighty, I made sure to hover over for him to take in this moment just a little longer. He was on his elbows and glaring at me once again.

“Proof enough? Or do you need to go another round?” Sticking out my hand, I helped him to his feet.

He refused to answer, filling with rage that I bested him and showed him I changed. “Come on, Jericho. Ryatt has been worried sick about you.”

“Glad to see you guys are capable of caring for someone… and keeping them.” The dig was sharp, and I knew it cut Franco where he stood. There was no undoing what came out of my mouth, but he got the hint to stop messing with me. Turning my head to Jericho, my bitterness hadn’t found her end. “About what you said when you mentioned burdens, you’ll soon discover your heart is the biggest burden of all.”

Franco was quick to take Jericho’s hand and began tugging him back to be below the ground. I watched their backs as they walked toward the staircase, but I knew Jericho had even more questions than when he first found me. He could see a lot more in our history than his mates ever told him.

6: Turner

Tired, I felt the pull to fall back asleep the moment I woke up. There was a heaviness to them that told me I had been drugged, and that scared me enough to sit up. A groan left my mouth from the pain, reminding me I had been shot in the shoulder. The shock of that reminder wasn’t the most unnerving thing right now.

Under the fluorescent lights, I found an angel sitting on the side of my bed. She looked nearly as perfect as she always did, and a pang settled in my heart from remembering her absence. “You know, some people believe you have to face the wrongs you did in order to enter heaven, so I’m guessing I have to face you.”

“Sadly, you’re still alive,” Kit teased like it was the easiest thing to fall from her lips. A small smile brushed over her features, but it disappeared nearly as quickly.

It had been seven years since I saw her, but I’d been stunned this was how we were going to greet each other again. Age had been kind to her beauty, but not to her soul. A hardness and darkness now resided within her instead of the easygoing Omega I once knew.

Reaching my free hand toward her, I was able to take hold of hers that dangled on the top of my bed. At first, she was stupefied by my movement, unprepared for the contact. That bothered me even more because it told me she wasn’t getting affection as an Omega the way she should have been.

“I just came to make sure everything went okay with your surgery. I had my doctor update me the moment you were going to wake up, so I could see for myself that you were okay.” Her admission was everything my heart couldn’t take.

“You have no idea what it means for me to see that you’re okay too.” Without thinking about it, I pulled her hand toward me for her body to fall sideways against mine on the bed. Being in a private room, no one was here to see it, so she allowed herself to do so, against instinct for both of us. “I have missed you so much.”

“Then why did you leave me?”

My dark hand stroked over her face as she snuggled into my chest. Her movements were delicate to not hurt the arm that hid in a sling. With me, Kit never had to hide how she truly felt. She gave me a rare glimpse right now, telling me she wanted to rekindle the old compassion we had for each other.

“You know we had to go to our training. That wasn’t something we could just skip out on if we were to become a strong pack. Kit, you must know we would’ve never left had we known someone planned to target you. Seeing you alive… I can’t even put into words how relived I am.”

“Alive,” she scoffed as though that word shouldn’t exist. “I’m alive because I saved myself.”

When she began moving to sit up to get away from me, I coiled my arm around her waist and refused to let her go. Kit was once everything to us, and part of her blamed us for what happened to her. Our pack training required us to leave her because the school refused unclaimed Omegas. She would have made it hard for us to learn anything, so I got it, but I hated it now that we were here.

“For five minutes,” I started before my voice croaked. “Can we both just pretend the last seven years haven’t happened?”

“Turntable,” she began to deny me by using my nickname she gave me. “It’s not that easy, especially because you don’t smell like my future anymore.”

“Our reality isn’t easy, but I just woke up from surgery to find you’re still alive. Please let me have five minutes of holding you because we both know the second we leave this room, I won’t be able to.” My mind slowly computed about what happened last night with how we entered the sanctuary that would protect us. Kit was the first thing we saw, but I’d been wheeled from the room to get to the medical bay. I passed out along the way there.

Right now, her scent was all wrong. She no longer smelled of her sweet lemons like a summer day lemonade. Her scent bothered my nose, telling me she’d marked by a different Alpha. Broken, my heart hurt worse than the bullet hole in my shoulder because this was the moment I had to come to terms with. A future I never saw for myself.

Kit couldn’t be mine.

“You’re the only person I’ll ever be truly honest with,” she murmured to me. Nestling her face into the crook of my body, her hand fell over my heated chest that was naked. I loved seeing the pale of her skin against the dark coloring of my own. “I’ve missed you.”

“I don’t dream anymore,” I responded to give her my own honesty. “You were my wildest dream, but I gave you up. I don’t like drifting away at night because I have to live in nightmares instead.”

“Isn’t that the world we’re in now, though? Knotty City has always been a nightmare, and we both inflict a lot of them on other people.” She tried changing the subject, but there were other things I had to know.

“Are you well here? Are you being taken care of?” My voice was hoarse because I feared what she might say. I feared her telling me that she was living in a hell, but I was more terrified for her to tell me she had been happy without me.

“Happiness is an idea. Ideas like that would get us all killed.” It took her a few minutes to answer me, so I wasn’t surprised when she sat up. “Our five minutes of ignorance are up. When I walk out that door, no one can know we shared this moment.”

“I understand,” I replied. It was because I did, and neither of us could have everyone knowing what we had just revealed in this room. Just like when we were younger, Kit and I didn’t need to say every word to understand each other. We could sense it in the other from being so close, and I would always understand that she wasn’t truly happy anymore. The years dulled her shine.

There were no words to comprehend how she felt when she found out about Jericho. The hurt in her stare sat blatant because she felt like she’d been replaced. She needed to know that there was still room for her in our lives, even if she didn’t believe it at first. “We have a male Omega, but we all have female relations outside of him and our pack. We’ve never brought in another female because she would have no place among us, she would never be you.”

“I wasn’t enough either,” she whispered through a choke. “I don’t think your pack has ever wanted a female in it. I won’t be delusional enough to believe it’s somehow miraculously changed. I wear another’s mark, and you accepted an Omega that wasn’t me. There’s no undoing what’s happened.”

Kit leaned down before thinking better of it, and gently kissed my lips. With us being claimed by different packs, I didn’t understand how her contact didn’t bother me. It was like lightning to the heart, causing it to pound even faster in my chest through the ache that wouldn’t leave. I didn’t like that her eyes were trying to say goodbye because I had just found her again. She could see the distraught in my own gaze because I didn’t want it to become real either.

“You’ll always be loved by me, but you’re the only one who could ever know that. Please don’t tell the others. I had to do what I did to save myself, so I belong to someone else. Alpha saved me, so it’s him who gets my loyalty now.”

“But I still have your heart,” I concluded.

“You all do.” Standing, she straightened her dress, leaving me with the one thing I could never tell the others. It was always me who got put in this type of pickle, but I knew I’d rather know the truth. Her words made sense that her loyalty was with someone else because we lost it when we gave her up. Blinking away her tears, she gave me one last watery grin before masking everything completely. I’d been the only person she trusted with such looks. Even after all this time, she still trusted me with that.

“Once I’m on the other side of that door, none of this ever happened. I’ve sent the nurse to fetch your pack, but I’ll be gone before they get here.”

“Of course,” I agreed.

“I won’t be this person when you leave this room.”

“This is our secret,” I promised her.

Right before she could leave, she paused and turned her head my way. “And don’t you ever get shot again! Don’t put me through this again…please.”

“You know I can’t promise that.” I hated seeing how undone she was by what happened, but I understood because I would feel the same way if she were in my position.

“I know,” she murmured. “But it was worth a shot.”

Leaving me, it didn’t take long for the others to find me after she sent word for them. My body wanted more rest from all the drugs pumping through me, but I didn’t want to. My heart had been zapped by the only woman I ever let into it. She was alive and well, and we were now being harbored in her Alpha’s home.

7: Damien

The Sellers were hosting their standard weekend auction. My men had brought in six others to join for their bidding wars, and I’d get a good sixty percent of the cut later. Letting them handle it, I made my way into where the arena was. Finding my seat, I had a box that looked over all below me. My father raised me in this lifestyle, and I knew better than to disobey him.

He hated that we didn’t get such a large cut of the money, but he also didn’t have the networking to sell as well as these criminals. No one liked the Sellers because they weren’t above selling each other, but it was how we made a good cut of our money. For our business, this was what we needed in order to keep making it. Times were tough, even if my father didn’t want to admit to it.

“Here’s your Honey Jack and lemonade,” a waitress said, handing me my standard drink. We were the royals of the underground business, especially now that all the other heads of households were being taken out. None of them were close enough to know that my father had been a partner behind it.

“Thank you,” I responded right as three others came into the box.

“The drop go okay?” My father took his place beside me, watching over everyone converse below.

“It went as it always does,” I sighed. He never trusted me with much more than that, and I despised him for it.

“Good,” he partially praised. Being his only son, I hated that my dad treated me as though I was expendable like his other henchmen. My father was a ruthless man, compassion didn’t come naturally in his makeup.

Sitting in our silence, we watched below as they brought in first slave. They never started with the best in the beginning, so people always bid lower on these ones. It was a standard Beta male, but I could tell a lot of females in the audience were appreciative of his third appendage. The size of it even had my eyes going wide.

“Jesus,” my father muttered his curse and whistled. We watched below as the bidding war began. There were a lot of disgruntled Alphas who didn’t want the Beta, but their females did. “Maybe I should buy him as a pet for my partner.”

His joke fell flat on my shielded ears because not even I knew who his business partner was. With our bodyguards behind us, my father was more than capable of protecting himself, but he liked the showmanship of henchman.

Before we could do anything else, a man in a white suit came up and kneeled beside my father. Whispering something to him, my father hit my arm to stand and follow. Doing as he instructed, it had been instilled in me since I was young to never disobey him. We made our way through the crowd of people that were hovering the alcoves near the staircases. Most of them were the bodyguards of others because there wasn’t a seat for them in the rows.

This place was old and falling apart, and it used to hold cage matches. My dad wanted to bring those back because his money was once lucrative in the dealings. The rings disappeared when new government powers came into play and wiped them out about six years ago. My father was a man who wanted to go back to those old ways though, being as savage as he’d been raised, he liked to hold death matches. He craved to push people past their point of humanity to embrace their feral nature. That was the line I drew with him because that’s not what I wanted. Selling people had been hard enough to stomach.

Traveling down further into the depths of the underground, we found ourselves on asphalt where the next slaves were up for auction. A man in a white suit led us to stand before a man that reeked of betrayal. I found it in his devious stare that voided all true emotions. Someone had hurt him, and he wanted revenge.

“What’s the meaning of this?” my father asked.

I wasn’t too worried on whatever wanted to leave the guy’s mouth, but I did fixate on the young ones locked in cages. Usually, these events only sold adults, so seeing a handful of young teens was not appeasing to what I believed in. “Why are there children in here?”

No one paid attention to me because my father had been who they wanted attention from. The man in the cage got up and prowled to the edge, holding the bars with his hands to greet my father. “I heard you’re in the market to figure out who’s been saving the Alphas in the city.”

“Do you know who the person is?”

“That depends on if you can get me out of here without being sold first.” The man wanted to bargain for his life. A bold move but wise for the predicament he found himself in. Even if my father were to straight out kill him, it’d be a better fate than with the one he was up against right now.

“My word is bound,” my father told him. “If you have adequate information on where I can find the person and their name, I promise to free you from the Sellers. Now, what information do you have?”

“I was his Omega’s lover until I betrayed her by bedding someone else. I don’t know the Alpha’s true name, but I believe you know his Omega.”

“So, who is his Omega?”

“Everyone there calls her Omega in the compound, but I learned her real name.”

“And?” My father appeared bored. That drastically changed the moment he spoke again.

“Kit. Kit Andrews.”

The air in my lungs stopped moving once he said the name. Everyone who stood in my father’s ranks knew who Kit was. She’d been the one and only girl who outsmarted him and escaped, so this man was bold to bring up her name.

“Did you just say Kit Andrews?” My father’s nonchalant expression shifted quickly like the news grated every nerve inside him.

“There’s talk that she means more to you than anything else, so I’m hoping that will be enough to buy my freedom from you. She’s the Omega to the Alpha who’s saving the other Alphas. They are hosting them in their underground complex near the docks, but it’s heavily fortified.”

“You are full of quite the information.”

“I learned a long time ago that information is the only way to survive in Knotty City.” The man and my father had a conversation with their eyes for a moment, seeing if truth sat in his words.

“I’ll be purchasing this young man,” my father told the Sellers. Without needing to see the money up front, they knew my father was good for it. They’d probably take it from his cut from the slaves we brought in. Releasing the young boy, my father nodded for him to follow. I was a little mad he ignored the other problem in the room with us as I pointed to the children again.

“Father, we can’t just leave the kids here.” He turned toward me as though I had only been a hindrance in his life.

“What the Sellers sell is none of our concern.” And just like that, my father gave me his back while keeping his new purchase extra close. I wasn’t sure what I needed to do in order to fix all this, but I knew I couldn’t let him get his hands on Kit again. Not after I helped her escape him last time.

8: Kit

With the fall breeze blowing, I placed my gloved hands in my pocket. Wearing an expensive fur coat, it had become staple attire in public for them to know who graced their streets. Wearing white pants that were high waisted, my top was a simple lace one that looked high class. My fur coat just helped sell the look with the heels I clicked against the ground. Below the sunglasses I wore, I watched everyone who passed me.

Anika stayed close to me, telling everyone that I had protection. With her build, they all feared what she would do to them if they came near an Omega under her Beta protection. She might’ve been born without a sexual lock or key, but she proved to everyone she belonged.

The city was filled to the brim with opposite ends of the spectrum. Classic rich versus poor, but the poor still outnumbered those with gold lining their pockets. The people in power liked to make people like me feel less than. By making things too expensive, the lower class were controlled like cattle without even knowing it. Our society already operated that way with how packs claimed Omegas to be nothing more than an ornament that could take a knot.

Being a little extra frigid today, I knew I had to collect myself before the lunch date I was about to have. An old friend and I had lunch once a month to check in on each other. Amanda Woods knew my life before my makeover of glamour and lure. Her and Anika were also close friends, so it remained a nice treat for the three of us to sit down occasionally. The two of us were just on edge from everything going on within our compound that we had to keep controlling. The task grew harder because all the Alphas struggled to fall under someone else’s ruling, but that wasn’t my issue. On top of their nonsense, the boys from my past kept trying to make me deal with those feelings. All of that had to be hidden now because no one could know about my empire, or them surviving the fire that burned the twin’s childhood home.

Anika opened the door for me to enter the sandwich shop, dipping her chin to me in recognition of what we had to keep silent. We found Mandy already at a table on her cell phone, but she waved us over with a big grin. Taking our seats at the small, round table, we picked up the menu for her to finish her conversation. She had been in politics for a long time, so these little lunch dates always gave us a glimpse of what we needed to be worried about in that direction without her catching on.

“No, that doesn’t fit my campaign. I don’t want their money backing me if they’re going to try targeting me with their vote,” she hissed into the phone.

Our ears immediately perked up, but we both acted distracted by the menu in front of us. Something was changing with Mandy’s career, and I knew if she was talking about a campaign, it meant she planned to run for something. My eyes sat under my shades, and I realized I couldn’t see the menu that well during my diverting. Shaking my head, I knew I was positively tired from all the extra exhaustion in my life besides the insomnia that kept me up at night. Anika paid close attention to me because she could see through the cracks no one else noticed. With my eyes, I told her I’d be fine.

Mandy got off the phone with a sigh that told me she felt burdened by too much lately. “Sorry about that. Work never ends when you’re in politics.”

“Did you mention some type of a campaign for yourself?” I asked her and gave her my full attention.

“Oh, you heard that.” Mandy knew we did, but she liked the theatrics sometimes for feeling important. When she noticed she had both our attention, she clasped her hands together with an even bigger grin. “You know how I’ve been talking that I wish our streets were cleaner, and that the people had a better system to actually meet their needs?”

“Wasn’t that the whole point of you going into politics?” Anika responded with a question.

“Yes! And that very reason has finally driven me to run for office, so I’m running for mayor!” she squealed like a teenage girl. Being her friends, we immediately received her with words of affirmation that promised she would do a good job. Mandy proved to be someone for the people, so I knew she would keep that standard.

“That’s huge! And how is everything going for that? I don’t know exactly what goes into it, so I don’t know what to really ask about it,” I confessed to her.

“Well, you’ve never had to know about it because I always worked for the campaign of a person running for office. You only heard me bitch about being the errand girl, but now I’m the one who sends them on errands! It’s surreal to think I’ve gotten to this point, but we are thirty now.”

Her distinction of our age nearly suffocated me because I was an unclaimed Omega at the age of thirty. Seven years I spent building my empire, but it only took one lunch to remind me of what it cost. Aging didn’t bother me in the sense of wearing wrinkles on my skin, but I hated feeling like I lost a portion of my life along the way.

“That should feel surreal,” I replied. “That’s a really big deal that you deserve to celebrate. There’s no one we could ever pick that would be more perfect than you for this.”

“Kit’s right, you really deserve this.” Anika moved her hand to the side, stroking Mandy’s arm.

“Thanks, guys. You were the first I wanted to share the news with, so that’s why I asked you to lunch today. Between trying to help clean up the city and gaining investors, I feel like I haven’t had a life anymore.”

“You’ve been really busy,” I soothed what bothered her because she felt like she’d been a bad friend. “You always know that if we need you, we’ll let you know. Until that day comes, we’re okay meeting on your schedule with what you have available.”

“You guys are the best!” Mandy slowly turned her head my way and rubbed the side of her neck as though she was hesitant to say something. “Speaking of investors, I was wondering if you might talk to your Alpha and see if he’d be willing to donate to my campaign. I know that’s probably really rude to ask.”

Raising my hand, I cut her off from saying anymore. “Mandy, asking your friends to back you shouldn’t make you feel weird. When I go home tonight, I’ll ask him.”

“You have no idea how much that means to me.” Her eyes softened.

“If we can’t rely on each other, who else would we have?”

Happiness took over her expression right before she reached her hand to take mine on top of the table. “I also wanted to do lunch today because I saw Ryatt and Kayos’s home was attacked. I wanted to see how you were doing from that because we are friends.”

I wasn’t prepared for her to bring them up right now, so I felt my chest constrict from the rampant pain that kept existing in it lately. “It came as a shock,” I admitted. “I can’t say it didn’t make me think about them when I saw their home burning on the news, but I haven’t seen them in seven years.”

“You haven’t seen them this whole time?” Mandy pried. I knew the leaders of the mafia’s inner circle falling became huge news to everyone, but something didn’t sit right with how she asked it. Mandy and I had been having lunches once a month for the last six years, so it only left one year unaccounted for while I was captured and healing after escaping.

“I’m the last person those boys would go to for help, if that’s what you’re asking.” Laying it all out, she saw that I caught on.

Her hands immediately went up as a white flag because she didn’t want to come off like she was. “I’m so sorry! That was so insensitive of me, but I can’t lie to you and say their name hasn’t come across my desk quite a few times. With them gone, it’ll help the city.”

“Do you think they’re actually dead?” Anika asked. We knew how to play this game because it wasn’t our first rodeo pretending to be on the outside while we were the ones running the inside.

Mandy swept the room and checked if anyone sat near us before opening her mouth. She was a bit of a gossip queen, and apparently that wouldn’t change if she became mayor. “You guys didn’t hear this from me, but they found a lot of bodies at their mansion. Some of them were burned too far past being able to get DNA from.”

Knowing I had to play the part, a horrified expression took over my face as I gasped. Mandy hissed and shushed me to make sure no one around us could pay attention. She knew me as the pleasant girl the guys once did, so I had to keep up that façade in order to maintain my empire under her nose. I wanted to stop lying to Mandy about what I did, but I also knew I had a compound full of people who needed my protection. Some paid a high price for that protection, so I couldn’t let it end now. Guilt bled out of me a long time ago. The past crept up on us sometimes when we least expected it, but I learned to choke that down like tequila.

After ordering some food, we all ate our simple sandwiches and soups in peace. My eyes kept drifting to the window right across from me where we could see the sidewalk outside as cars quickly traveled down the road. So many of the people looked miserable and skittish as though they knew the city was the worst place they could be.

Sensing something, my nerves spiked like someone was watching me in return. Anika noticed the change in my slouch because I straightened my spine. Mandy excused herself to the bathroom for a minute, so Anika kicked my leg below the table once our friend was out of earshot. “I feel like someone is watching me.”

“Nervous from the guys being back or a threat?” she asked.

“I’m not sure, but the hairs along my neck are up. We’ll have to drive around in loops when we leave, just in case.” My senses heightened, piquing to pay attention.

“We can handle a tail.” Her eyes saw Mandy coming back from behind me, so she took another bite of her sandwich like we hadn’t been talking. Our friend sat back down and dug right into her food, knowing nothing of what we noticed.

Mandy was an Alpha, so she felt fine wherever she went, but I could see she envied my companionship. As a woman, she was too masculine in power to feel sexually desired like me. Even a Beta was chosen over a female Alpha because men didn’t like to be rivaled by a woman, so it drove me to hoping her success happened faster in both politics and a pack.

There was a quiet rift between us as we ate. It wasn’t anything bad, but something felt off within me. It felt like if I walked out on the street right now, something bad would happen. Around my food, I tried to scent if anything might be dangerous.

I made sure to buy for the three of us as we wrapped up our lunch date,. Mandy always pretended she hated that I bought our lunch, but I knew she was always grateful for it. She also never tried putting her card down before me when the bill came.

“Hey, Kit?” Mandy paused as she slipped her hands into her gloves. Her blonde hair twisted back into a French twist, creating an elegant style for what she tried to get people to see.

“Yeah?”

“Will you let me know if those boys do try contacting you? I know they mean a lot to you, but they’ve done some pretty terrible things.”

I knew in her new authoritarian position that she wanted to throw them into prison and toss away the key, so I gave her a pretty smile to placate her. “You’ll probably see them before me. It’s not like any of us hang out in those tunnels anymore.”

She’s snorted and laughed, remembering all the parties we had in the secret tunnels below their home. We were typical teens who were drunk off our asses, and we went through our early adulthood the same way. While she went to college and began her political career and the guys packed for their elite training, I was bussing tables at the same place my mother worked at. College wasn’t for trailer girls like me. And now, I had the same boys in my present who once promised a better life when sitting in the same booth to come see me at work.

Leaving lunch, the feeling of being watched never dithered. I put my shades on before letting my gaze take in our surroundings. Sadly, there was always something shady going on in Knotty City, and today would be no exception as the local thugs did their dirty deeds in broad daylight. Anika stepped up beside me as we neared our older car to not have unwanted attention for break ins. “I’m feeling it now. Someone has their eye on us, or your paranoia is rubbing off on me.”

“Check the car for a tracker,” I murmured to her, keeping my gaze ahead like it was no big deal.

She walked to the bumper first, spotting it too easily. Lifting it for me to see, I could tell it less than impressed her. “Right on the bumper? Is this fool that dumb?”

“Or that smart,” I hummed, tapping my chin. “There’s a second one hidden better.”

Anika’s eyes went wide, understanding we weren’t up against an amateur. “Let’s find out.”

Doing a thorough search, she got underneath the car, and found exactly what I thought she would. Holding up the blinking box, she showed me my theory was correct. Smiling, I took it from her before throwing both away. “Let’s lose this bitch and get home. I do believe we have a dinner to host for our guests to finally meet.”

“Finally,” she muttered because she’d been the one dealing with complaints for six months from the first pack we saved. “You’d think they’d be more grateful they didn’t end up six feet under.”

9: Kashmir

Anika, the Beta of the compound, was who guided us through another maze of hallways. We were informed that we would be attending a dinner tonight to discover more about what the hell was going on here. Jericho also kept asking us too many questions about Kit because he ran into her the other night. It had been a few days of settling in with his endless questions we were all avoiding.

Franco bristled, prickly as a cactus from it, so he wasn’t helping ease Jericho’s mind that Kit wasn’t someone to worry about. Ryatt didn’t know what to do with all the new information, but I could see how much it bothered him the moment we walked in and found Kit with a mark on her neck. None of us were prepared to be slammed with that news, and I would be a fool if I didn’t admit how much it sucked for me.

Anika stood just a hair shorter than me, making her quite tall for a female. Her build could rival mine as well, so I knew she was capable of handling herself. My eyes had been sizing up all the bigger people in this place because you never knew when they would turn on you.

“Does it bother anyone else to know that Leia stayed in contact with Kit?” I finally asked the group what had been eating at me. Leia promised us protection, but she knew better than to say the name of who offered us sanctuary.

“Omega,” Anika corrected ahead of us from hearing me. I nearly forgot about her presence over the last few years, but she was a face I couldn’t forget either. Though, I had only seen her a handful of times before we left for our training. “The Alpha likes everyone to respect his Omega, so do not call her Kit. Her title is Omega.”

“Is yours Beta?” I asked her.

“I am third in command in this place, Kashmir. I am the one Alpha trusts the most after her. Through me, he found his Omega.” Tensions rose high between both parties, but Turner reminded me to keep my mouth shut. The surgical team was able to handle his wound, but he’d be stuck in a sling for a while. We told him to rest for the night, but he didn’t want to sit around.

“You never answered what your nickname is. I find it hard to believe that the Omega has one but not the Beta.”

“And what would yours be? Hump them and dump them?” The second she said it, my veins turned to ice, and a chilling death switch began shutting off my humanity. Right as I went to launch for her, Kayos held me back.

Anika didn’t act afraid of me, taking a few steps toward me as I was held back. I kept trying to break the grip of the guys around me, but it wasn’t until Ryatt whispered in my ear that I understood what I revealed. “Jericho is with us.”

Trying to collect myself, I fixed my suit. Anika smirked at my response, knowing I had to hold my tongue for our Omega. “You’ll do well to remember to respect me, Kashmir. Our empire wasn’t just built with numbers, it was also built on secrets. You and I both know I have quite a few.”

Keeping my mouth shut, I knew Jericho had been kept in the dark about a lot of our past. None of us were able to talk about Kit, not after what happened to her when we left for training. At the time, we all thought nothing of it, planning to return to her during the school breaks, but we learned last night that she didn’t get the life we thought she would. She still got sired to the darkness after we weren’t enough to save her from it.

As protectors, we moved as a group by keeping Jericho in the center. Kayos and Ryatt guided us down the hallway right behind Anika. Hearing her confess that it was she who introduced Kit to her Alpha unsettled something that unnerved me. I irrationally began blaming her for losing Kit when it’d been my own naïve fault to begin with.

We could hear several voices coming through the door she began to open. We found ourselves in a ballroom of sorts that was completely underground and had no windows, but it wasn’t the large room that kept my attention. No, that went to the packs sitting within it. All around us, we could see the families who had been targeted and taken out. We believed most of these people to be dead, so our surprise was genuine when we found the other heads of our empire sitting with their people.

“Your table is over here, follow me.” When Anika waved us to the empty one in the corner, the rest of the groups perked up from our scent. With all the others lingering around us, it made my nose twitch just a little. The smoke problem from a few days ago did come out in the shower, and I healed rather quickly from the lung burn. We seated ourselves and tipped our chins to those we recognized. Anika left us at the round table draped in silk linens of emerald and black.

“Was anyone else expecting this?” Kayos asked the group.

“It looks like we weren’t the only ones to call in for a rescue,” Ryatt muttered, paying attention to all the faces we knew.

“Anyone else think it’s kind of weird none of us have even heard of this Alpha in the city, but he managed to save all the heads of households that run the city?” Turner readjusted his sling for his neck to swivel easier our way.

“We need to watch ourselves in this place, and we can’t be making enemies.” Ryatt swung his gaze my way. “That includes your beef with Anika.”

“Did you know her too?” Jericho popped off, sulking in his seat. “Or is that another one you were going to hide from me?”

“Kit and Anika knew us before we came into power,” Franco answered him. “We don’t talk about those days because they mean nothing now.”

I was impressed he could say that with a straight face, but I knew better than to declare anything against it. Jericho needed to feel eased and coddled during this transition, and the blast from our pasts weren’t conducive for that. Grabbing a pitcher of water in the center, I poured myself a glass and took a sip. Maybe it was time to be a little more real with Jericho, and I knew better than to ask permission before speaking about it. “Kit was once our Omega, and she doesn’t just mean nothing.”

Everyone around me locked up and stopped breathing, but I just kept drinking my water. Ryatt growled as though he was going to pounce over the table to take me out. His authority drilled into me, so I bowed my head to my Alpha. “What the hell were you thinking by saying that?”

Setting the glass down on the table, it wasn’t his eyes I met when I finally lifted my gaze. I let Jericho see the honesty within mine. “We left to our training at a private school only for the packs of power. Kit had been ours before we left, but unclaimed Omegas weren’t allowed to come. We all questioned if she was made for our hard life, so we never marked her.”

“But I was?” He had every right to be angry like he expressed.

“You were made for us,” Turner jumped in. “We marked you and chose you.”

Now that Jericho was upset, it made us all restless because we could sense it. Being hardwired to be attuned to his issues, I knew the other men’s hearts pounded just as hard as mine. Telling him the truth was still a better option than to keep lying to him. Before he could ask us anything else, the door swung open in a way that made everyone turn their heads at the sound.

Kit strutted in wearing a violet dress that shined against the light. Her heels were platformed for more height, and she walked perfectly in them. She managed to become more regally powerful in her femininity than I could’ve ever imagined. She still struck me stupid by her beauty, but I missed her wearing the oversized sweatshirts with leggings. Her sneakers were always tattered and nearly ruined as she taped them together to last a little longer. She always refused us to buy her new ones. That woman was gone, and this was who remained.

“Welcome!” She raised her hands in a way to honor everyone in the room. “We are so pleased to be hosting all of you amazing packs. We wanted to take tonight and honor the fact that none of you guys fell when our adversary thought you should.” She let the crowd insert an applause before continuing. “As most of you know, my team has been trying to figure out who we’re up against. While we’ve been coming up short, we’re still pursuing. We were able to follow someone from this week’s earlier raid, so we will be following up on it. As always, I will give you more information when we have it.”

“And when are we going to meet your Alpha?” Apparently, it wasn’t just us who was troubled by not seeing that person here. Kit gave him a warm smile and placed her hands together.

“I am the spokesperson for my pack. I know that alarms a lot of you because you believe Omegas should be kept hidden to not get hurt. My Alpha knows what I am capable of, and he understands that I am not someone who wants to be locked away and forgotten. As a courtesy, it would be wise to remember our kindness to you all when you question how we run things here. The door is always open, and you’re more than welcome to leave. This is the final warning to stop disrespecting me just like I do not disrespect your Omegas.”

The room fell silent because they all understood that one. We’d be slaughtering and getting those who offended Jericho in any way. It came over me right now on Kit’s behalf, but I knew better than to acknowledge phantom feelings of my former self.

Darius McAllister cleared his throat, standing from his table. He was no one to be pitted against, so I it made me happy to see his pack here with us as an ally. “I would like to send one of my people out when you follow up. It would bring me ease for one of my own to take part in what protects us.”

All around the room, other Alphas began chiming in with the same idea. None of us liked this being out of our control, so offering a soldier was the only way we could take part and learn more about this place of secrets. Unlike when her ability came in question, Kit smiled at his offer. Dipping her chin, she wasn’t bothered by the idea of letting our men join her ranks.

“What a fantastic idea! By having your men join, mine can get more rest. If each pack would like to send one Beta, I am more than willing to make teams where they can help. As of right now, we’re still tailing the person to see all the places he goes. From where he went last night, I will need three stakeout teams. If each of you were to give me one Beta, I’d have more than enough for each team.”

With there being seven tables, we all concluded that she would be teaming them in pairs of two or three. She might go to four with her own men because I knew there was no way she would have our guys on the same teams without hers supervising. Each table had someone stand from it, offering their services. Without consent from my Alpha, I was the one who stood up at ours. Franco growled at me because it came between me and him, but I also knew he would be better staying back with Jericho.

“Also,” Kit started. “We cannot have anyone being seen or photographed in public because the world right now presumes you're dead. For safety, you will be ordered to wear a disguise. Give me a few days to procure the necessities to provide your safety before teams receive tasks. This will also give my guards adequate time to prep for the shift in teams.”

None of us were going to argue that because we wanted our men to be safe as well. Raphael and Anika were already standing pretty close to Kit, so she leaned in and whispered to them to go collect the information. They went about each table and gathered what they needed as Kit watched over them.

“Now that we have that business taken care of, I think it’s time you guys deserve a proper meal.” From the other end of the room, we watched the double doors open that must’ve been hiding a kitchen on the other side. Roller trays came out with what smelled of roasted meat. They placed a salad bowl, baked potatoes, rolls and a heaping plate of meat on each table.

The staff hurried to deliver everything they were supposed to like they had been formally trained to handle food. None of them had wavering hands and not one spill was made. We were all eager and excited to eat such a delicious meal, and the smell of the meat was making my stomach growl. When everyone’s eyes were taking in the feast, I felt someone looking our direction. Ever so gently, I let my peripheral take in how Kit observed us. She hid her curiosity well, but I knew she had just as many questions as Jericho.

It also didn’t help that I had nearly a thousand for her because none of us knew how she fell in this life we tried protecting her from. When I moved my head her way a little bit more, she hurried and removed her gaze from me. Among our pack, Jericho was our center. He always felt our love, but we allowed ourselves to dabble in female pleasures outside our mate bonds. We usually brought one home to share every once in a while, but we always focused on Jericho. I knew we were going to have to do just that tonight because he was hurting from our lies.

Kit began to move, leaving the room for us to enjoy our meal. Under the safety of her Alpha, we were finally able to relax for just a minute. If she was able to keep all of these guys alive within the last several months, that told me her safe haven hadn’t been breached whatsoever by our adversary. Of course, none of us knew about her secret world below our city.

10: Kit

Silence. The night always remained this way, and why I never slept. Omegas weren’t made for loneliness. Even with me knowing I was better off in solitude, it didn’t make this part any easier. Anika slept next to her brother, using his familiarity to get her by to not feel like me. More than once they opened their door for me to join, but I knew I couldn’t.

If I fell asleep next to their warmth, it triggered my mind into a false sense of reality. One where the boys seeking refuge in my home never left me. Waking up with a smile was the hardest part because their absent existence cut me ten times deeper when none of them were around me. Tears would find me when I rose, remembering they no longer existed in my present. I was forced to lock away how much it hurt me and get on with the day, but those dreams tantalized my mind just like their touch still lingered on my skin. Now, I was forced to watch them caress someone else the way I still dreamed about. Sleep was for the weak because that’s where my true weakness lurked. No one knew, but I nested every night as a reminder to fortify my solitude.

Taking a single drag from my cigarette, I put it out after because I knew the habit was terrible for me. I only had a hit when I felt like this, overwhelmed and overstimulated.

Shrugging my fur robe to be tighter, I held the two sides of it to wrap around me like a warm embrace. I yearned for companionship because of my nature, but I knew I couldn’t afford the cost of it. With Drake now gone, my bed was bitterly cold. My desperation to be loved reeked in the nest I made, but no one ever entered it with love for me. I was just a safety and a promise to live in the lap of luxury for them.

My eyes peered out the window of the boathouse next to the dock because I strayed a little further away from the compound. Raphael knew where I stood, so there was no worry for an attack with him at the watch post behind the boathouse. It wasn’t often that I drifted this far away, but I couldn’t chance Jericho finding me again. My life was torturous now that I allowed them into my home, but I forgot they claimed an Omega when agreeing to their rescue. That stupidity slapped me in the face when I thought they’d come in like the pack I last saw, but I’d seen Jericho in their arms when I first escaped. I’d gone back to what I thought was my pack, but I didn’t stay when that had been revealed.

My hand moved up to clutch the skin over my heart. Deep within each pulse, there was a pinch of pain. I learned to live with it, but it spread now that my torment sat so close. Heartache was a bitch, and mine hadn’t ended all these years later.

With the wind, a grating howl came with it. Knotty City was known for her high gusts on the river front, and I loved it. Some say, it was for all the women who drowned and were lost to the depths of the water. I quite liked that idea. Omegas from the wrong side of the tracks weren’t loved and protected. We had to deal with being sold and forced to join the packs that bought us for taking a knot properly. If a young girl didn’t know how, they killed her and tossed her body in the river.

I knew too many names from my part of town who were lost to both. Being sold wasn’t a dream vacation because those men were savage. Hugging myself tighter, my breath was lost when I remembered I almost joined them. My body knew how to take a knot, so I would’ve been sold by the very man who worked for Ryatt and Kayos. Closing my eyes, I listened to the wail, knowing part of me did die that day. Part of me cried with their howls in the wind for my innocence that’d been stolen and lost.

“Sing your melodies,” I breathed out with a tear.

“It’s a haunting sound,” a deep voice startled me. Jumping, I turned to find Ryatt within too close of a proximity to me. He took a casual step toward me as though it was that simple to interact again. “You used to open your window at night when it got windy to hear it.”

“They deserve to be heard.” Righting myself, I let my body swivel to stand in front of the window better to not face him. My vulnerability was too close to the surface right now, so I had to shield it. “You’re a little far from your pack.”

“Yes, well, I’m not who Jericho wants to be around right now,” he confessed. “I figured I’d memorize this place for-”

“Protecting your pack better. I know,” I finished for him, giving him a quick glance over my shoulder before focusing on the hurried movements of the water under the moonlight. Ryatt never changed, and his need to protect his people was always the first thing on his mind. I knew this because I used to be someone he secured. “I hope all is well with your Omega.”

“It will be,” he clipped. “We just weren’t expecting you to be here, and we hadn’t told him about-”

“Your dirty little secret? Yeah, not many like to share they had a trailer trash Omega in their bed.” Rubbing the outside of my arms, I didn’t give him the courtesy to see my face. My tongue felt swollen inside, hating how worthless they made me feel.

“You’re not a trailer trash Omega, Kit! You never were,” he growled. Goosebumps rose on the back of my neck instantly because I still responded to him without my consent. The gumption and honesty in his bold declaration felt like the same whiplash when he said I’d always belong to him.

“Don’t lie to me, Ryatt.” I closed my eyes and hugged myself tighter.

His hand reached forward to turn me around, forcing me to reveal the brim of water lining my vision. I held my chin up, but my eyes betrayed me. My mask had already fallen for the night. He witnessed the condemning of my soul within my eyes. There was nothing he could say to change my mind, so I nodded my head when he relented.

“I was, and we both know it. Back then, I was too blinded by the stars in my vision to see it. I was too blinded by all of you, believing I would escape the fate of those like me. It broke me completely when you left. It hurt so much when I suffered at my captors’ mercies because you left me behind.” I couldn’t believe I let it slip about my past, so I had to change the subject to steer clear of it. They didn’t need to know who I hunted in secret, waiting for him to mess up for me to find. “Alpha gave me a chance to leave that name behind, becoming Omega, so I never look back to that hellish existence, trying to forget that version of me, just like you all did.”

“We never forgot you,” he started, never removing his hand from my arm.

“I can guarantee you never talked about me either,” I fired back too hastily. It told him that it bothered me, so I closed my eyes and reopened them with a smile. “It doesn’t matter. You found the Omega who fit your life like I couldn’t from my status, and I was found by a man who didn’t mind I was from the wrong side of the tracks.”

“Right, this godsend of an Alpha.” I could nearly hear how much it displeased him, and it made me love seeing him jealous, even if it wasn’t over me. Ryatt didn’t like that someone had to swoop in to save his family, seeing a powerful empire he didn’t know about. “How did you meet him?”

“My Alpha found me in your aftermath. My Alpha lifted me from my ruin and promised a reign,” I whispered between us. I technically wasn’t lying because I did find my Alpha then. Ryatt just didn’t know it had been within myself that I unearthed my strength to save me. I found who I needed to become after completing my first kill. “My Alpha didn’t care that I was covered in blood and volatile in my rage and suffering. He accepted me, he accepted what they did to my body.”

Touching the mark on my neck, Ryatt saw the movement. I removed my hand, and he was able to see the scars a little closer. He wouldn’t be able to tell they were fake, and I sprayed my fake scent on before coming out. To him, he’d only smell the smoky coriander Anika and I created. Both were powerful enough smells to mask our own.

“Covered in blood?” Ryatt caught what I let slip. “You never liked violence.”

Angered by it, I scoffed and jerked my arm from his grip. How dare he pretend to not know what would happen to me? “You all left me alone in a trailer park filled with Sellers and disgraced loners! Please tell me what you thought would come of that, or did you dilute those thoughts in your haste to get away?”

“Kit,” he tried to soothe.

“Omega!” I slapped him as hard as possible for using the name I didn’t let anyone else. The impact of my hand over his flesh could be heard in an echo of my violence. There was a tingling sensation that swept over each fingertip from how hard I swung. “Kit is dead! She died after being endlessly raped and beaten into taking knots by intruders who had no right to her body! She died because she thought people loved her enough to protect her! She was weak, Omega is strong! Omega protects herself!”

Seeing me unhinged did something to Ryatt. I saw when the pleasant Alpha left, leaving only the animal at the top of the food chain in my presence. This he could be a cold-blooded killer, and this side of him who I warped Omega to become. “Kit was strong, not this obscene, docile idea you’ve let stain your thoughts.”

“You speak highly of someone you helped break,” I seethed, vengeful like the women in the river. With disgust, I let my eyes drag down his body as though it was the vilest thing I had ever seen. “At least I know none of you ever loved me if you were that capable of leaving me to those monsters.”

That’s what did it.

Ryatt snapped.

His restraint went out the window.

I’d been unprepared this time.

The quickness of his shifting personality found me with his hand clamping my slender neck, pinning my back against the wall next to the window. My surprise was apparent and unmasked when caged in by him. His wicked leer loomed over me, hovering his dominance to trap me under his Alpha countenance. Barely able to breathe, he cut off the flow just enough to remind me he was in control, and I felt forced to drop my gaze.

“Let go,” I shushed in a low, menacing growl, trying to shake myself free. His strong body just moved in closer to press against me. Ryatt wasn’t doing it to arouse me, but that began to build the more my body dragged against his hardness. All the boys had grown since I last saw them, but it only made me miss their youthful souls that were vacant in their new forms of power. Without being choked, I could feel his power as an Alpha, and it suffocated me to feel the rage of it. I kept battling against him to get out from under his command, but he didn’t budge an inch.

The air was toxic between us, an unnerving tension too thick to clear. Our eyes locked, stuck in whatever sickening trance caught us now that we were so close. My fur coat was open for my silk nightie to be revealed. The tips of my nipples were pebbling already, and he saw it the second he glanced down. Ryatt studied my body, remembering what it looked like underneath the layers… underneath him. Keeping my throat pinned, his other hand wandered from whatever memory was blocking his consciousness. There was no hiding my desires or the slight arch in my back that happened when his freehand skimmed down my side. Even after all this time, my body begged to belong to him.

Heady, there was a shift in this play. The familiarity of our past crept into our present. Closing my eyes, I couldn’t deny how badly I wanted this. Ryatt’s hands to be on me again, stroking me the way I dreamed about in his absence. The smell of his peppery spice enchanted and tingled in my nostrils from being so close to it again. A slight sniff of sage always lingered, leaving me desperate for more to make it stay permanently.

Shifting his legs to stand between mine, he made me feel it wasn’t just me responding to what we both once knew. Hooking my thigh, he lifted it to wrap around his back. His hard length pressed against my core, making me whimper as my brows pinched. His dominance never eased, drowning me in his aura. Trying to breathe, I couldn’t inhale completely, vexed by this damnation.

Gently, his face lowered to mine, placing his perfect lips a breath away. I could feel the warmth of his exhales, inhaling it like it could revive my cold heart. Speaking of my beating organ, she sped up to show him through the thrumming of my pulse under his thumb that I felt it within. That thumb began to stroke over the one spot only he and the others in his pack knew about. The one spot I never let a lover touch now because it made me purr.

Lulling my head to the side, I closed my eyes as the sound formed from within my throat, matching his guttural rumble he began when mine did. His other hand kept drifting over the exposed flesh of my hip and thigh. The tenderness he touched me with promised a lurking level of feelings, and me letting him only confessed the same depth. No words needed to be said as he began rocking gently against me. I moved with him, desiring the friction he created.

“Kitty,” he said my nickname as though he had every right. That one word shook me to my core, remembering why this couldn’t happen.

My purr stopped, humiliated I let him hear it. Seven years went by, never letting someone have that, and he robbed me of it because I still loved him too easily. Turning my head to the side, he felt the shift in my flexible state because I went rigid. A tear escaped my eye on the cheek he could see. “You need to go. I belong to someone else.”

“You were supposed to belong to me,” his voice was strained, tightening his thumb over the raised bumps on my neck.

Looking back at him, I let him see me in ruins. The very state that helped me build this empire. “You abandoned me.”

When I said it with such conviction in my broken whisper, he finally saw how hurt I was because he saw I still loved him. This moment proved we both harbored feelings, but our lives took different paths, and mine couldn’t handle another heartbreak from this man.

“No, I came back for you, Kitty. I came back the moment I’d been told you went missing.” He pressed his forehead against mine, trying to keep us in this moment. “Do you know how much it hurt when my men weren’t enough to protect you? That those I trusted most couldn’t keep you safe while I’d been gone?”

He still didn’t know. His words held a place of respect for who he left me with. Logically, I knew the pack left someone behind in charge of my safety because they did care, but like with anyone’s Omega, they never let them out of their sight. “Why did you not claim me? If I’d been claimed, I could’ve gone with you.”

“Kit, we were barely out of high school. We didn’t know if you’d be okay with the things we had to do.” He tucked some hair behind my ear.

“I grew up in the trailer park, Ryatt. I saw unsanctioned crimes my whole life!”

“But at my hands?” His eyes intensified with what he struggled with back then. Something he never voiced before. He didn’t tell me that was his hang up until now.

“With it not being your hand, I learned my place in this world by someone else.” I made him look me in the eye as I said it.

His emotions toiled to the surface, resting plainly for me to see. His voice so quiet, the moving river trickled in my ears louder. “And after? After you escaped? How come you didn’t come back to me?”

My hand clamped over his, pressing my forehead harder against his like I could allow this simple slip back into what used to be familiar. But I had an Alpha to be.

“I did,” I admitted. “You were the first place I ran to.”

“W-what?” my admission surprised him like I knew it would.

A single tear slipped from my cheek as I looked him in the eye to confess. “You moved on. I saw through the window, you with your new Omega. Smiles and laughter met my suffered ears, and it made me realize I couldn’t rob you of that.”

“Kitty,” he tried to soothe but also couldn’t grasp.

“You were happy, Ry, but I didn’t know how to be happy anymore.” I pinched my eyes shut as more tears found me.

“No.” He shook his head to deny it, urging me to let him in now. The intensity of our love burned brighter than a thousand suns, but our love came with a cost, and I paid the heavy toll.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, sniffling my leaked emotions back in. “If I had come in that day, if I took what I selfishly wanted, it would’ve hurt you all over again. I walked away from your window, but I left the rest of my heart there. I couldn’t love you in order to become this.”

I kissed his cheek, stepping away with the release of my own hold, losing his warmth. He let go of me, so I excused myself from the boathouse with rushed steps. Sucking in a hard breath under the clear sky, it wasn’t enough to alleviate the tightness that gripped it now. I knew Raphael saw my current state when I blew by him, but he knew better than to chase me. He and his sister were the only ones here who knew my truths. Just like he knew who came out of the compound after me. Ryatt wouldn’t know that I gave his pack more freedoms in my home compared to the other packs.

Finding my room, I slammed my door shut and hyperventilated. Staggering to my bed, I crawled into my empty nest and curled into a ball. My hand grabbed the only thing I ever added outside my blankets, a simple flannel shirt that belonged to someone I loved but couldn't have. It no longer smelled of the boy who helped save me, but my mind remembered. In the fetal position, I wept. I cried because I knew there was no happy ending for me.

11: Jericho

Wandering aimlessly, I needed some fresh air from being cooped up underground for so long. It grew harder to sneak past everyone, and I was surprised Raphael let me out of the compound. That surprise quickly ended when I realized why. Ryatt was already out here, and he wasn’t alone.

He had just greeted Kit in the boathouse, but I couldn’t hear their conversation from being outside the window. It felt intrusive to keep watching them, but I knew I needed to learn more about the situation. Only Kashmir had opened up a little bit about the woman harboring us, and his truth bomb shook me to my core. No wonder she didn’t like me right away because she thought I replaced her. I couldn’t even ease her mind because I was beginning to feel like a secondhand replacement in her shadow.

The guys didn’t notice how much I watched them with her, but not even one of them could keep their eyes away from her for longer than a second. They were constantly aware of where she was in any room we were in with, and it was making me feel unwanted.

I knew the guys would never get rid of me because I gained a place in their pack, but I didn’t like all the secrecy when it came to this woman and their past. She was stunning, and any man would want her for an Omega. Even now, as I watched her and Ryatt get into a heated conversation, her venomous glare only made her look more beautiful. She was a vixen in a fur coat, and now I knew why my guys had the rule they did.

They agreed to not keep females in the pack, so they all exercised their right to have one-night stands when they felt the need to have a woman for company. I always thought it was to keep jealousy out of our group because females often drove men to the brink of madness from doting on one over the other. Now I could see for myself that it was to never replace this woman. They left that seat open in their pack because it had already been filled without being marked.

As much as this all bothered me, I also began to understand their grief when we arrived. Kit was someone else’s Omega, marked by him to never be theirs. Even after all this time, I could tell my men held out hope they would find her and claim her as theirs. Yes, I was mad at them for lying to me, but it didn’t stop my worrying as their Omega. When they hurt, I hurt too. This was hurting them.

I knew it’d been wrong to spy on them, but I kept telling myself it was okay because I couldn’t hear their conversation. Ryatt’s anger only got worse as he gripped her neck and pinned her against the wall. She became crosser with him, and she hated he just bested her.

Unlike the other night when she manhandled Franco, Ryatt was the one who stood victorious in this moment. They were arguing and fighting, and I got goosebumps even from this distance. The tension made me pause my breath because I could see how much the two loved each other still.

It was hard trying to be what my men needed when I could see their desire wasn’t me right now. I wanted nothing more than for them to come to me and ask me to make it better, but I wasn’t fully receptive either. Right now, I had to figure out if I’d be strong enough to let them embrace her, or if I was too weak to let this one settle.

Part of me knew I also needed to get to know her better, but that was hard when she avoided me like the plague. Kit didn’t want to be near me because I was her replacement in the pack. Even though she moved on and was claimed by someone else, I could see what their leaving did to her. It made me feel compassion toward her.

As quickly as their conversation turned to anger, it was now something else. It was almost a dare on the tips of each of their tongues. Ryatt moved her leg to the side to place himself between hers, stroking her neck in the one spot I knew would make her purr. Kit gave into it, relaxing under his dominance. They both loved each other, only denying it to themselves because of pack law.

No doubt rested in my mind that Kit had other lovers in their pack, but it wasn’t an Alpha from an outside pack sharing her nest. Right before things got too steamy between them, something reminded Kit where she was. They spoke of sorrow between them, crying with each before she left him with a kiss on his cheek. Her emotions were too raw, and I could tell they were affecting Ryatt.

She left him in the boathouse, running to get away. I hid myself against the wall for her to avoid because I knew I witnessed something I shouldn’t have been. Completely broken, there was no denying her suffering. Leia had contact with this pack, so I knew it had to be hard on Ryatt and Kayos to know their sister stayed in touch with their former Omega. It also made me wonder why their sister didn’t tell them where she was this whole time.

Something bigger had been at play, but I wasn’t sure exactly what that could be. Why would their sister not let them know where the love of their life lived? I felt like I was missing part of the story, but I knew my guys were too. The side I needed could only come from the woman who marched by me in complete agony that gutted her to the core.

Moving around to go to the door off the dock, I entered the boathouse to find Ryatt leaning against the window with his forehead on his arm. He looked completely and utterly lost as though he wasn’t sure what to do. Clearing my throat, he turned around the second he heard a male voice coming in.

Wiping his face off, he was trying to pretend he carried strength through it all. “Jericho, what are you doing outside?”

“I could ask you the same thing, or why you’re in the boathouse with Kit?” I didn’t say it aggressively, but I did let him know what I had seen.

“I’m not sure what you want me to say right now,” he said, and I knew it was the closest to the truth he’d given so far.

“How about you start from the beginning so I can understand,” I murmured, keeping my distance from him. He could sense my unease, nodding to begin making amends.

“We went to high school together. Kit was this quiet and mousey female, but she caught everyone’s eye from her beauty. She was sweet and caring, and you remind me a lot of her. Clearly, you’re both very different, but I guess I have a type in an Omega.” He tried to smile but it fell. “Kit grew up in the trailer park across the river, so she always felt like she wasn’t good enough for us. My dad never made her feel welcome when she would come with us to my home. We all fought it though, and we made sure she felt loved and seen by us all.”

“So why did you leave her?” None of that part made sense.

“It wasn’t like we wanted to. We left for training, so we left her.”

“But why wouldn’t you claim her?”

“We weren’t sure if our dark life would be good for her pure soul, so we made a plan to get through training then decide. What we didn’t know was someone had been waiting for us to leave and take her for themselves. Even worse, we didn’t know who it was to fight them. They left us a dead animal on her porch for us to find when we rushed back, but we couldn’t find her…”

“But you loved her,” I argued on her behalf. “Why would you leave her unprotected?”

“Because I was a stupid boy, Jer. I didn’t know what I do now to change what happened.” His head hung in defeat. “For awhile, I had my father’s second watch over her. He’d update me here and there to let me know that she was doing okay. Broken hearted but okay. Six months went by, and we were all completely miserable from not having her. Then we got the call.”

“She was gone,” I finished what was so hard for him to say.

“She was,” he returned with a vacant stare. “It ruined us for a long time after that, and we spent endless hours searching for her. Just like the night we disappeared on her, she vanished on us. She has every right to hate me because had I marked her, she never would’ve suffered. She’d be mine.”

“Do you still want her?” I raised the one question that had been haunting my mind. Ryatt could also see the second question lingering in my stare even though I never verbally expressed it.

“Jericho, don’t think for two seconds that we don’t want you or that you’re some kind of replacement. Kit could never be replaced, just like you can’t either. We claimed you as soon as we could because I couldn’t lose you the way I did her.”

“I appreciate you calming my nerves on that, but you didn’t answer my first question.” For once, I could see this part had nothing to do with me. He wasn’t answering to hide it from me. He wasn’t answering because he wanted to hide it from himself.

“There will never be a day that goes by I don’t want her,” his response was honest and genuine. “But we were too late in finding her. The only woman I’ve ever loved now belongs to someone else outside our pack.”

We were both quiet for a minute because his words were heavy with his admission. There was one more thing I needed verified, and I knew he wouldn’t lie to me right now. “And the others? Would they want her to?”

“I can’t speak for them now, but I do know they loved her just as much as I did. She’s the reason why we’ve never had a female be consistent in our pack because that was her place. As I said, you’ve never replaced her, but you made missing her a lot lighter.”

Nodding my head, I accepted my role a long time ago as their male Omega. There wasn’t many of my kind because Omegas were mostly female and already rare enough, but I favored the male species as lovers. Maybe it was because of my submissive nature, but I submitted to their control.

Heading over to where he stood by the window, I dropped to my knees instantly, placing my face in line with his crotch. Even now, I could see how hard it was from the heated moment he shared with Kit. My hands fumbled to begin undoing his jeans, but he tried to stop me momentarily in shock of what I was attempting.

“Jericho, what are you doing?”

“I understand I did not create this hardness that’s tenting your pants, but I also know I am the one who can relieve it. Let me help you, Alpha.”

***

It was apparent that I needed this between us, so he let me undo his zipper. His shaft bobbed out, throbbing in redness because he had been denying what he wanted. Licking my hand, I began jerking him first to have a better conversation about this. Like putty in my hands, the tension in Ryatt’s shoulders left immediately when I touched him.

“You want her? What do you miss about her?” Some might think my illicit words as a form of jealousy. They weren’t because I secretly loved hearing them talk about their devious adventures with other people. Ryatt knew this kink about me, that I loved hearing them talk about how they gratified someone else while I touched them.

“Her tits,” he hissed as I licked his tip. “Kit had the best boobs I’ve ever seen, and I miss sucking on them. I used to suck them for her to cum without even stroking her between the legs.”

“What else?” I begged for more as I felt my own erection growing in my pants.

“How wet her pussy always was when it came time to fuck her. She never needed foreplay, but I loved playing with her anyway. I’d tease her senselessly between classes in school, and I’d make her wait all day before being properly handled. The others would edge her with me, and she would be in our complete control because of it.”

Finally opening my lips, I let him sink into my mouth. He continued telling me about Kit’s limberness under his domination. His hand fisted into my hair, forcing my mouth to take his swollen cock farther down my throat. I eagerly let him face fuck me as he visualized having her again. There was nothing like choking on a dick that made it too hard to breathe, so my eyes began to water. Saliva pooled from the edges of my lips as Ryatt thought about her while using me.

Nothing compared to meeting their needs without necessarily being other people. Ryatt required this moment of exertion that allowed him to freely release what had been pent up for so long. My hands clamped the back of his thighs because it got harder to see straight. His dominance glared down at me as he watched his cock slip between my lips, in and out. He forcefully fucked my face because he was too on edge. The men knew they could use me like this, but they had to love me after. That was the rule between us all and when they slept with a female outside of our pack. My nest they needed to be what they climbed into afterward to make sure I still felt loved. Our bond worked, so we never changed it.

Gagging, I let my hand slip into my shorts to fondle myself. As an Omega, I got off easier than most. When we did forbidden acts like this, it put me on the brink before I even clasped my hand around my shaft.

“That’s right, touch yourself to the memory I have of a different Omega. Let your mind enjoy what I once devoured,” Ryatt growled.

Moaning around his shaft, I knew it was going to send a tremble through him as he shivered from it. Freeing my tip from my pants, I could already feel my balls drawing up in a tightness that promised my end. My releases were never big like theirs, and I knew that came from being an Omega male. Ryatt was able to see my load shoot upward, hitting the bottom of his long dick and my chin. I hadn’t cum like this in a long time.

That was all it took for him to explode down my throat, endless ropes of ecstasy. I imagined him knotting inside my throat, and I had to keep guzzling down his cum as each load spilled from him. Ryatt was a man who could knot for a long time or cum in large quantities, but I grew used to it over the years. As each minute ticked by, I kept slurping down what he offered, feeling the hot liquid coat my throat. He loved feeling me swallow around his shaft for a milking sensation while watching some spill from the corners of my mouth.

Once it was finally done, I could see how his knees wanted to buckle in relief. He stepped away to tuck himself back in before helping me stand on my own two feet. Once I was up, he cleaned off my chin with his shirt and kissed me deeply even though I had just tasted him.

His nose ran along the mark on my neck that he gave me, accepting me among his men. “My mark on you means I will always want you.”

“It’s okay that you want her too,” I told him. I needed to get to know Kit better, but I could see she still loved them just as much as they did her. Hearing my Alpha tell me right now that he still wanted me was all I needed to calm down. We could somehow make this work. Even if they were just part time lovers from her belonging to someone else, I would let them enjoy her to not feel the hollow absence of her existence inside their chest.

12: Kit

In the operations room, we allowed all the alphas to come in to further our perspectives on the situation. We had them take seats around a large table that rounded for them to see the screen ahead. Raphael and Anika took point with the video footage they had of our perpetrator we were following. I stood in the corner of the room for them to do their work, watching all the others as they conversed about what they learned. Many ideas were shouted from their impatience, so they weren’t heard the way they were hoping.

As if our lack of information wasn’t enough, the person hadn’t been to too many places for us to deduct a better routine. There was one spot he kept returning to, but I knew a task force couldn’t go into it without being noticed. A local bar on the edge of the city that all of us knew, warranted dealing with the devil who owned it the second we stepped in.

Castiel wasn’t someone people invited over to a Sunday brunch. Like the Sellers, he became a cruel bastard who knew how to manipulate people into getting what he wanted. The guy we had been tailing since rescuing Ryatt and his pack just happened to go into Cass’s building every other day since watching him.

“It's suicide!” Darius shouted from his position. Being one of the older Alphas, he was one of the most respected in the room. His legend followed him, and I remembered hearing about him when I dated the guys. Ryatt’s father cowered to the man sitting in my home. I wasn’t sure how Leia knew him, but he was the first Alpha we saved from her swooping in to save him through me. That secret stayed between us, and I respected her privacy not to ask. It was that one tip-off that made it possible to intervene when the others were attacked.

“I say, we just go to the other locations and leave Castiel out of this,” Reginald voiced what he thought should happen. A cowardly Alpha, but he still managed to hold his seat within the inner circle of the families. Probably from kissing so much ass and schmoozing his way into mooching.

I watched as the seven heads battled it out to make a plan of action, but they weren’t getting anywhere fast because they were all entitled pricks. It was like watching toddlers squabbling over a toy they all wanted, beginning to form a headache along my temples as I rubbed them to drown out the noise. The guys only counted as one head even though they had more than one seat because Ryatt became their Alpha.

When the bickering wouldn’t stop, I finally sighed and walked forward to where Anika stood. Her and her brother knew better than to say anything to the Alphas who were wanting to take control. They were waiting to find out their ideas before saying what they wanted to do. It annoyed the hell out of me trying to get these people to function like adults. Plus, their potent scents were lingering in the room and putting us on edge from sniffing their dominating power. For us three, we were keenly aware of it because we weren’t claimed to a pack, but none of them knew that. Our instincts pointed us to seek attention from Darius, so we were watching him in the room. I wanted Ryatt, but that was from a personal reason.

“May I have your attention,” I started politely, but they didn’t quiet down to listen. Meeting the eyes of my allies, we shared the annoyance. Allowing the Alphas to help us wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a hassle we didn’t want to deal with. I was also trying to avoid Ryatt after the boathouse incident that happened two days ago. “Shut the fuck up!”

Finally, they heard me. Taken back by me using such crass language, the powerful men in the room gave me their stares. Smirking, I pressed the button that showed live footage coming from the surveillance of the bar.

“Now that I have your attention, how about you sit and listen? You think you’re going to get anywhere against our adversary by fighting and bickering like this?” After I said it, the others thought it wise to not say anything else.

Dropping their gazes, they knew who had the power in this room, and it wasn’t the Alphas. I loved standing in my shoes where I could watch them bow down to an Omega. This role was corrupt, but they had no idea they were being housed in a pack with no Alpha.

“None of you need to put your necks on the line because we know Castiel loves to get favors from Alphas. I will go and do the dirty work because, believe it or not, the cruel bastard owes me one.”

“How did you get that guy to owe you a favor?” Darius wasn’t sure how to take that while being in the same room as me.

“The same way I got one from all of you,” I responded. “I did a task for him no one else was successful at. Now, that isn’t the point of this. I plan to go to the bar, tonight, and see what Castiel knows as my favor.”

“Why would you waste your favor on us?” Ryatt was the one to bring it up. “None of us even heard of your pack until it came time for us to be rescued, so the adversary probably doesn’t know about you either.”

“While your assumptions might be correct, I gain more with the families in power than I do without them. This arrangement benefits me more than you think it does.”

Letting them mull that over, I let them whisper among themselves to make sure this plan suited them. Darius and Ryatt were the ones fighting over whether or not it should happen, and I could see the tense alignment beginning to build in Ryatt’s shoulders. Darius was the one who looked back to me and tipped his chin. “We all agree that this is a good idea, but we want to make sure it’s not going to cost us extra.”

“It won't,” I promised him. “This information is needed for my home too.”

“And what are you hoping to get?” Ryatt perched himself to sit taller for everyone to notice. “You think Castiel will have the information you want?”

“I think the bar owner knows more than you think he does. I know this from personal experience, but he doesn’t like giving out information freely. You have to pay the piper, and it’s best I go collect my payment from him. He’ll either give me the address and location of this man, or he’ll give me something else to lead me there. Either way, this is the direction I’m going.”

“We’re all in agreement then.” Darius met the stare of all the other Alphas, excluding Ryatt.

Nodding my head, I let him know this was my stance on it. “Once I have what we need, prepare your Betas that you signed up for tasking. For now, make sure they’re properly rested.”

Knowing that was their moment to leave, they stood from the table and left the room. All of them except one. Ryatt still wasn’t too pleased with the idea of where I’d be going. He sat at the table as I conversed with Anika about what I had to do. Her and Raphael made a plan on who would do what tonight, and he would be inside running things because he took point outside last night.

Grabbing my fur coat, I knew I needed to leave the compound immediately. Without giving notice to his position, I grabbed some of the prosthetics off the table that we had shown the Alphas that we planned to use on their Betas to hide their identities better. Some would have these fake noses while others wore beards and hats, but they wouldn’t be able to be traced. We even managed to make a new scent that would mask what pack they belonged to without it being too similar to our own fake one.

Making my way down the hall, my heels clicked against the wooden planks below. It only took an extra minute before I heard the door opening behind me as footfalls fell in line to catch up to me. Ryatt didn’t say anything because he planned to just go with me whether I liked it or not, so I dug my hand in my pocket to pull out the nose that sat inside. He already wore a ball cap because he liked them when being casual.

“If you’re coming with me, you’re still following my protocol.” I slightly turned my gaze toward him to see his smirk.

“How did you know I planned to come?”

“I knew you for a decade before our separation. It must be so hard for you to sit and be idle while someone else does the dirty work.” Getting to the garage, I opened the door for him to enter first. This part of the compound would be seen by the others when the task teams went out, so Ryatt was just getting a first glance at it.

He whistled when he saw all the different vehicles we had from vans to cars and even some motorcycles. The parking bay was huge, and we made it useful for exactly this stuff. “I even managed to secure my own maintenance team within our ranks. They come every other week to make sure all the vehicles are running smoothly.”

Ryatt was stunned into silence because he didn’t expect this. Unlocking the sedan that I commonly used, he looked at the older model and wasn’t sure why I wouldn’t take the fancier sport cars on the other side.

“We’re trying not to be seen,” I reminded him before he even asked it.

Once we were in the car, I got us going and opened the single garage door without doing the larger one. From the inside, the garage door looked new. On the outside of the warehouse that hosted them, we fabricated it to look like none of them would open. Another homeless appearance made it so people didn’t try.

It didn’t take us very long to get to where we needed to go because the bar sat just outside the city right along the river. This hidden man got too close for comfort, and it was making me question things more than I should, praying Cass didn’t feed him information about me.

From outside, a stench of cigarettes clouded the air, country music playing in the background. It would get louder the second we walked into the dive bar. A little run down, Castiel was who I learned from to make a cover ugly while keeping everything inside beautiful.

Parking us a little farther away, we had to walk up the street in order to get there because I didn’t want my car being on the camera. Ryatt understood this before I even said it, so he put his hands in his pockets and followed.

On our way, I saw a whore lying face down on the pavement below a streetlight that flickered. I could tell she died by how nothing moved in her. A creamy liquid pooled out from between her legs from being used either as she died or after. As much as she deserved retribution, the vermin of the city weren’t my problem today. Stepping right over her, I let my heels clank against the pavement on the other side of her body.

A moment I could tell Ryatt was baffled by my act because the girl he once knew would have stopped and called for help even if the body lie cold. Time had changed me, and I understood embracing this life meant I had to become a colder than her body. Without needing to say it, he gained understanding I could be just as cruel as him. My heart turned to ice a long time ago.

He didn’t say anything as I held the door open for him. Ryatt must’ve never entered before because his eyes widened at the pristine appearance. All cool metals made the furniture while bright lights lined the edges with a shade of purple mixed in. Castiel loved his theatrics when it came to looking modern and sleek.

Heading to the bar, Ryatt managed to come with me once he got over the shock of the appearance. I took a seat on an hourglass shaped stool that lined the bar with a dozen others. There were two people working it, and a familiar face came over my way. Not many knew, but Colton was Castiel’s younger brother. Neither promoted their brotherly relationship, and I only knew because of the favor I did for them. They were also two others who knew my real identity, being part of my inner circle. We didn’t associate as pack, but they helped me build the Underground.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Miss Kit Andrews.” Colton dried his hands on the towel he had over his shoulder. Leaning against the bar, he placed both palms down, hovering over me from the other side. “What brings you here?”

“Remember that favor you and your brother owe me? I came to finally cash it in.” Perching my elbows on the bar surface, I let my chin rest over the tops of my hands. “Would you mind getting Castiel for me?”

“Now you’ve piqued my curiosity.” Winking, he went to the back in order to get his brother. I took the folder out of my satchel that sat around my hip to get the photo out of it. Placing it right on the surface, I made it so they would see the face as soon as they got back. Pleasantries took a back seat while someone hunted us.

Castiel came back for us to notice the eye patch that sat over his left eye. No one really knew the true story as to why he lost it, but rumors spread about it being spooned out by a foe. There were plenty of scars that everyone could see because Castiel was one of very few who managed to escape the Sellers. Like me, he built from the shambles of his former life and dabbled with dealing information to build his own empire. No one touched him because of the legend he already became, and I helped him do it while building mine in secret.

“My brother says you want that favor.” Castiel crossed his arms without grinning like Colton. This man didn’t know kindness for long, and it corrupted him permanently. He also didn’t like the reminder I became to his former life. The world thought Castiel managed his escape on his own, but it was Colton who hired me to help get his brother out. His favor to me goes back to the very beginning of my own empire.

“This man.” I pointed to the image. “I need an address.”

“And what makes you think I have that?” Castiel placed himself right across from me all too friendly, and I could tell it ruffled Ryatt’s feathers. My hand fell below the bar and reached over to squeeze his thigh to remind him he was not my Alpha.

“I tapped into your feed, and I know he’s a regular here. He’s also somehow involved with the person who’s been targeting the families.”

“You always were savvy like that,” he complimented my work. “Are you afraid he might come for your own skin? You could cash in your favor for my protection.”

That made Ryatt growl. He wasn’t too keen on how Cass let his eyes sweep over my body.

“Something like that, but you and I both know I don’t need protecting,” I responded without giving a true answer. This was always how you had to do business with someone like him. “Also, if you don’t have any information, the favor stays intact until I claim it with proper payment.”

Castiel rubbed his lips together and flipped the image over, knowing his life needed to honor the debt it owed. From his side of the bar, he managed to grab a pen and scribbled something on the back of the image. “Lucky for you, I always have information.”

I took the paper from him and read the address he wrote down, knowing it was in the woods. “Is this his home address?”

“I did you one better. This is where he was talking to several men about meeting to get a job done. Now, I’m not sure what type of job they were talking about, but I heard the address and time. They’re meeting in four days there.”

“Thank you,” I told them both and stood from my place.

Castiel grabbed the rag from his brother’s shoulder and began wiping down the spot we sat at. Even though we hadn’t ordered anything, he liked a clean surface. “I have something else that might interest you.”

He always played this game because he wanted me to do him a favor. “I’m good.”

“You might be, but I think your female Beta might be interested. Send her my way because I think I found someone she might be looking for.”

“I’ll pass that along,” I retorted before making my way to the door. Ryatt was wise enough to follow right behind me as we made our exit.

Deep in thought, he moved forward on the sidewalk like he fell into a trance. I watched him for a second as he went around the corpse we passed previously. Stopping on the other side, he waited for me to join. I stepped right over the girl again to show him I wasn’t as kind as him. He didn’t like that, but he knew better than to bring it up.

“That felt too easy,” he murmured, not leaving the sidewalk.

“It only felt easy to you because you didn’t have to do the task that got the favor.”

“What the hell did you do?”

“I’m not a canary, so I won’t sing my secrets.” Shrugging, I made my way forward thinking he’d follow.

It wasn’t like Ryatt to be so slow, so when I got halfway to the car, I turned back around to look at him. He still stood by the dead woman underneath a streetlight, but his eyes were looking up the road at something else.

“What are you doing?” I couldn’t help the annoyance that came out in my voice. Ryatt was someone who often frustrated me, but I remembered what it used to lead to in the bedroom.

“There’s another dead body over there,” he pointed out. My eyes followed his finger to see another whore was dead. Under the lamppost, he studied the one below him before heading over to the other corpse.

Rolling my eyes, I hated playing this game with him. “Ryatt, whores die over here all the time. They always lay in the streets until the city cleanup crews remove them in the morning. We both know how it works.”

“Our little friend over there was foaming out of the mouth with blood and other fluid. Her pupils were like needle points.”

“And? It sounds like she overdosed. Most whores in this area of town do.”

“Kit, I know you’re not an Alpha, but I need you to use your eyes right now. How many dead whores do you see in our area?”

Letting my eyes scan the neighborhood, I finally saw what he was. While it was common for a whore to die on the streets, there were at least six bodies on our short street alone, so he’d been right to pay attention.

“And what are you hoping to find by studying these dead bodies?”

“My family runs the drugs into the city, so if drugs killed them, I know they’re not mine.”

“And how would you know that?”

Ryatt met my stare with an icy glare as we moved to the next corpse. She had similar signs of overdosing like the woman we just observed. Opening her eye with the flashlight from his phone, he let me see how tiny the pupils were. “Fentanyl does this, and when it’s cut wrong, it kills. We don’t put fentanyl in our drugs to keep them clean.”

“So you’re saying someone else is starting to run drugs into the city. Drugs that aren’t safe? You say that like any street drug is safe,” I nearly growled, biting my tongue from my own past.

“Ours don’t do this. If someone overdoses and takes their own life on purpose, there’s nothing we can do to stop that. But I won’t let my drugs kill someone from immediate ingestion.”

“That sounds like a bigger problem you’ll have to figure out after we figure out who’s trying to kill you.”

Ryatt got the hint I was done talking about it, so we made our way back to my car. He could say whatever he wanted about the lifestyle he lived, but he didn’t know I’d been forced to become a bottom feeder because of the drugs he sold. Now being clean for six years, I had to actively fight an addiction I never asked for.

Pulling back onto the road, we both remained quiet the rest of the drive. Ryatt wasn’t prepared to see this side of me, but he needed to. After what happened two nights ago, he needed to see I wasn’t the sweet Omega left behind. Everything changed between us, but he needed this mission to finally see it. Drugs and weakness ruined me into hitting rock bottom.

13: Kashmir

Everyone was getting antsy as Kit called for another fancy dinner for everyone to be in the same place. Ryatt caught us up on what happened the other night when they went to the bar, and it only made me curious as to how she had an in with Castiel. Everyone wanted him on their side, but he was only on his own. By how Ryatt made it sound, the man favored our old Omega in a way that bothered him to his core.

Pouring myself a glass of water from the pitcher, Turner placed his next to my cup to dispense for him because of his arm. I could tell he had his own thoughts eating at him like the rest of us when it came to Kit, but he was wise enough to keep it to himself.

When the doors parted dramatically, I knew Kit would be the one strutting through them. This new version of her liked to make the grand entrances for everyone to take notice of her. It was a complete contradiction to the mousey girl we once knew, but I’d been learning this was how she survived. No one could be soft in this world unless they had the proper protection like Jericho. She had it until we left her for training.

I was finally beginning to see we were partially at fault for why Kit had to harden herself and change who she was to survive. It made me feel like the monster in her story, and I hated it. She used to make me feel like my wrongs somehow made me right. Now, I was seeing my wrongs only made her do wrong as well.

“Welcome, once again! I come bearing great news. I was successful in my own mission two nights ago, and we were able to follow up last night to ensure the address I was given, led to somewhere useful. Now that we know this person is hiding out at a cabin in the woods, I’m setting up another task force to go that direction, and I’ll be leading it.”

“You can’t possibly be serious,” Reginald scoffed from across the room. “You can’t go.”

“And why is that exactly?” A lot of us read the room with her new menacing glare, but Reginald did back down. It wasn’t wise of him to do something like that in her presence, and I could see when her happy gaze turned deadly.

“I’m not putting one of my trusted men on the line to follow an Omega. You’ll surely lead them to their deaths, without having the proper power to control.”

She looked to the floor before meeting his face again with a questioning nod. “So what you’re saying is, following me will get your men killed?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. You at least need to have a Beta commanding a task force.” A few other Alphas began to voice their agreement as though Reginald made sense.

In the blink of an eye, Kit reached over to Anika’s side for the weapon belt on her. Without warning, she had a handgun and pointed it at one of the Betas at his table. Shooting him square between the eyes, we watched it downright kill him as his body slumped on his chair.

“What the fuck!” Reginald stood from the table, absolutely raging at what Kit had just done.

“You’re following me right now,” she told him. “So, if I’m going to get them killed on my task force, I might as well kill them now.”

“You had no right to do that!” Reginald was pissed.

“I believe I told everyone in this room to never question my title again, and that’s exactly what you did when you said I couldn’t lead the task force. This is my last reminder to you that I can before I put a bullet in every single one of your pack members’ heads.”

There were no words when seeing firsthand who she had to become. She never once flinched when pulling that trigger. The whole movement was skilled and smooth, and I remembered teaching her my tricks to do it. Back then, she hated even holding a gun. She didn’t even think twice when she had the idea to shoot his Beta. It made my stomach churn, watching her being capable of such malice.

When Reginald began to growl, he headed her way to defy her with the rest of his pack. Kit didn’t hesitate to start blowing the heads off each person at the table. We watched her execute his whole pack because he was still trying to defy her. She saved him for last, but she also put a bullet between his eyes as his body fell. She went to hand the gun back to Anika, but she paused and pointed to the rest of us.

“Anyone else want to defy me in my home?”

Silence greeted her, so she gave Anika the weapon. Anika didn’t show an ounce of surprise, knowing Kit was capable of this kind of brutality in their new life. My mind lingered more on it, knowing I needed to figure out why she turned her heart to become darker than my own.

“Have the cleaning crew come in while everyone dines for the fresh reminder. Maybe that’ll make it stick that I am second in command here.” Kit didn’t say anything else after ruining our appetites. I could only observe the slight stiffness in her shoulders as she left. Maybe there was still something resembling human in her after all.

***

Jericho

Finding Kit the next night was easy because I learned her routes when she wanted to be alone. She ventured to a couple different spots when she couldn’t sleep, and she did it in a pattern that made it easy for me to memorize only after a few nights of seeing each place. It helped to know where Raphael was positioned because he usually controlled her guard if she left the compound. Finding her near the window I did the first night, I saw how she hugged herself. After learning what I had from Ryatt, I knew there was a lot I needed to understand about this woman.

Kit was gorgeous, making it easier to see why the men loved her so much. I found myself attracted to her, but I knew not to rush anything like that because she feared our presence already. Stopping at the top of the stairs, I studied how focused she was on whatever captured her attention outside. A faint wind blew in, creating a howl outside that sounded like someone crying. It echoed into the chamber we were in because there were some holes in the ceiling.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted, disturbing her peace.

She hurried to turn around, taking me in with my hand placed on the banister’s edge. To the average eye, it was just a nailed down post, but we now learned some of the secrets their fortress held. Topside, everything appeared old and dingy, rusting away to not have any value. Underneath the guise, we were able to see what lavishness they built below.

“Pardon me?” She wasn’t sure why I said that.

“I’m apologizing for my rudeness the other night when I first found you. I didn’t know who you were to them, so I feel awful now that I do.” Making small steps, I moved carefully to where she stood.

“Jericho, there’s no need to apologize to me. Just as you said, you had no idea who I was.” Tonight, she adorned herself in a silk robe that didn’t have the fluffy edges like her others had. She looked a little simpler, but I found that to be another layer of beauty. Even her hair was in a braid over her shoulder, loosely sitting to show she didn’t put much thought into it. Whether she admitted it or not, I knew the presence of my pack bothered her.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” I replied. Now standing next to her, I let my eyes swing out the same window hers were. “I can’t apologize for them, but I can apologize for myself. I might not have known, but my words still upset you. The knowledge of who I am upsets you, so I can apologize for that.”

She studied me for a minute, letting her glance take me in up and down as I stared out the window, trying to hold still as she did. “I can tell why they like you. Your kindness fits their cruelty. They need someone like you to hold them together.”

“They need someone like you too,” I told her even though it wasn’t my place. “They’ve been devastated since we arrived, and it’s not because our house burned down. It has everything to do with that mark on your neck. I’ll never fault you for the decisions you had to make, but I do see what it’s done to my guys.”

“Even if I was unclaimed, I’m not the woman they left behind.” She steeled her gaze, remembering the changes she went through. “That girl was young and in her early twenties, but I’m almost thirty and lived a whole different life. I’m no longer who they fell in love with. I used to be you, the soft glue, but I’ve hardened into a piece that no longer fits.” She had been hardened by the years, and it was hard for me to see the innocent version of her that remained locked inside.

“I don’t know who you were before all of this, but I do know you’re still worth something now.” Kit was a woman not many would understand, but I did from viewing the world through the eyes of an Omega. “I envy your strength.”

“Not many are made to find out how hot the fire is that’ll burn them to make them strong. And just because I carry it well doesn’t mean it’s not heavy. You should feel honored that your pack keeps you safe.”

For the first time, I had to speak my own fears. I would be telling someone what it was that made me terrified. “But what if the day comes they can’t protect me? What if the day comes that it’s on my shoulders to save them?”

Kit turned her body towards me because she started understanding what I came to ask her. Studying me up and down, she let her eyes take my request in. “Ryatt won’t be too pleased.”

“Yet, I have a feeling that’s why you’re about to say yes to me.” Sharing two devious grins, I knew we were on the same side for this. It was the reason why I wanted to find her because I knew she was the only one who could grasp my worry. Kit would be the only one to say yes to me and my odd request to learn self-defense.

“You’re right. Ruffling Ryatt’s feathers has always brought me a great sense of pleasure that I can’t explain. I have a small opening tomorrow in the morning. If you’re okay waking up that early, I can come get you and take you to the training room.”

“Please,” I sighed in relief.

She dipped her chin in acceptance. “Then you better be off to bed because you’re going to want all the rest you can get. And be prepared to hurt. No pain, no gain.”

Escorting me back to the stairs, she made her way down them to take me back to my room. Turner was storming down the hall in search of me because he woke up from my absence. His worry appeared blatant, but his look shifted into something else when he beheld Kit bringing me back. Surprise slipped through his gaze just enough for me to see before he covered it back up, but just like the others, I could tell how much he loved the woman standing next to me. It also didn’t take rocket science to know she still cared about them immensely. I had no doubt that’s why she agreed to save our asses.

“Jericho, you’ve got to stop wandering off on us. Do you know what a heart attack I have every time I wake up and you’re not there?” His last question came out too late before he understood he said it in the presence of Kit.

She flinched. She did know what it felt like to wake up without them there, and she knew what it was like to never have them come back.

“Kit, I’m so sorry,” he apologized as fast as possible.

She held up her hand to stop him there, and I knew it had everything to do with how painful those thoughts were for her. Whether it came from the guilt of my pack or the guilt that ate at me on her behalf, I felt like all of this was unfair for her. “No need to dredge up our past. I’m just making sure Jericho gets back to your room okay before I head to mine. Goodnight, gentlemen, and I’ll see you in the morning, Jericho.”

Walking away from us, we watched her every subtle movement. Just like I had noticed when I first saw her at the window, Turner took in her disheveled appearance. I had no doubt he knew it wasn’t like her to look so unkept even though her natural beauty spoke volumes.

“Is there a way to undo a mating between an Alpha and an Omega?” I didn’t know if my question could come across insensitive or not, but I also didn’t know the answer. I had never met anyone who belonged to the wrong pack, and it became clear Kit wasn’t in the right one.

“The only way would be to kill her Alpha, but that’d be like gutting her from the bond being so deep within her core. Most feel a harrowing sense of loss and are unable to survive. No matter how badly I want Kit, I would never make her suffer that.”

I knew my own ties to them were deep, and I understood how fragile those bonds were. I could never imagine losing any of my men because it would ruin me completely. Kit had already gone through losing Ryatt’s pack, and that was without being marked. Turner’s answer rang true; I couldn’t make her endure that suffering, if that was the only way.

“I’m not sure what her Alpha requests of her when it comes to sharing her bed, but I want you to know I would never mind if you saw her in that way.” Letting myself turn back to look at Turner, I took in how his beard had been growing the last week. His black curls spun around his shoulders from how long they were, and he couldn’t tie them back. With his arm in a sling, healing his body had been his focus. As an Alpha of our pack, he needed strength to help protect. “You shouldn’t have to cope with her absence completely. I can feel how all of you hurt whenever we’re near her, and it’s getting insufferable for me.”

“We never thought we would see her again,” Turner’s voice cracked because he tried to fight the urge to cry.

“I know.” Walking to him, I placed my ear over the steady rhythm of his heart. Deep within myself, I felt every aching pulse because it mirrored my own in our bond. “I can’t imagine how hurt she must be if we feel like this. You guys lost one girl, but she lost the five of you.”

“I wish there was a way to undo all the pain for everyone. I’m sorry you feel what I am.” Turner kissed the top of my head. “I’d be lost without you, and you need to know that.”

The topic needed directed, knowing this conversation grew too heavy. “I asked her to start training me for self-defense. I don’t want the others to know yet because they’re gonna be pissed that I’m allowing myself to get hurt, but after all that we’ve been through, I need to prepare myself.”

“I don’t think that’s a bad idea,” he returned as he walked back to the room.

“Will you go with me to help me hide it from the others? If you come with me, they won’t try finding me like they do when I go for an evening walk.”

“Evening walk? Last time I looked at the time, it was after two in the morning.” He smirked next to me. “As for your training, I’ll take you, but you need to figure out when you’re going to tell the others.”

“Let’s get through the first day to see if I’m able to even stick with it,” I teased.

14: Turner

My lack of sleep let me know a nap might be on the menu later. Still, Jericho was eager for Kit’s arrival. I left a note for Ryatt, informing him that I took Jericho on a walk because he couldn’t sleep again. He wouldn’t put too much thought behind it because I accompanied our Omega.

Waiting in the hall, I had to fix the strap of my sling again from it digging into my neck. Having so much muscle along my top half made it so the sling didn’t sit quite right in any position. Jericho bounced around and swung his arms to keep himself more alert than me as another yawn escaped my lips. Luckily, I was only going for babysitting duty. Though, it excited me to see Kit again in a less formal setting. The woman knew I still loved her because she came to me the first second that she could just see it written all over my face.

Speaking of, Kit headed our way in a sports bra and spandex shorts that sat above her naval. She wore a lavender jacket, but it had been unzipped for us to see her toned tummy. She put more work into keeping fit, and I hated what our time apart had done to her even more. When she took notice of me, her eyes were wide before finding Jericho. He hooked his thumb in my direction with an easy smile. “He’s coming to play babysitter, so Ryatt doesn’t think anything of it.”

She waved her hand for us to follow with a nod, staying silent. She knew how important it was to keep quiet in her home, so we took her lead and wandered down the long hall. The corridors were all the same, and I knew they did that on purpose for intruders to get lost. The layout of this place worked extremely well, and I wanted to meet this infamous Alpha to learn why he did it.

After walking several minutes, we finally made two rights and a left before she opened the door. We found ourselves in a sparring room that sat completely empty at this early time. I knew she did this on purpose because others would be filing in after another hour or so. Removing her jacket, she handed Jericho a jump rope to warm up with. It bothered me that I couldn’t do the same thing, but I did notice what bounced in his gray sweatpants with every hop he made.

She then set up some dummies and showed him how to plant his feet while keeping his core tight. Doing some practice jabs without hitting the dummy, she wanted to watch his form before letting him use it for practice. For his first time, Jericho handled himself well. It surprised me because he had never been in a position to know this stuff. Though, I wondered how much he learned from watching us. Just because we didn’t let him fight didn’t mean he wasn’t in the room when we had to.

Twenty minutes went by with no problem as I watched her train my Omega. Sitting on a bench, I kept surveilling their spar and how she taught him to swing at the dummy. I knew this wouldn’t be a quick thing for him to learn, but she was trying to teach him a few skills in the first session to practice on his own. I was grateful for those simple moves because it only took one solid punch to help get away from an attacker.

At first, it was cute to watch them get along so well. I adored viewing both the Omegas working hard together to get mine at a level of comfort when placed in a bad situation. But then Kit began demonstrating how he needed to grab someone’s throat by taking hold of his. I knew it was part of the demonstration, but it riled me up to see my Omega being choked.

On my feet in a blazing second, I was going after them to break it up. When Kit noticed my movements, she rolled her eyes and let go of Jericho’s neck. “Turner, I didn’t even grip his throat hard. I’m not going to hurt your Omega.”

Shaking my head and blinking, she could say whatever to me, but it still bothered me nonetheless.

“Why don’t you both practice on me, and you can teach him that way.” It wasn’t a question, and she knew it. Raising her hands in defeat, she waved for Jericho to stand in front of me.

“Just do to him what I just showed you. If you can get their guard down enough to strangle them, always go for the throat.”

“You sound like you have practice with this,” I growled, displeased by how that made me feel.

“We both know what happens to unclaimed females from my neck of the woods.” It was all she said, but it was enough to know that Kit faced what we never wanted for her. I felt lost as the room went a little hazy. Had someone hurt her? We did know what happened to females in the trailer park, but we didn’t know who took her or what they did to her.

She began guiding Jericho again to grab my neck, but I was lost in my mind from what she just revealed. I tried to give my focus back to them, knowing I’d be having a talk with her later about it. My Omega wasn’t doing a great job, and she could see it. She could tell by how he lightly took hold of me that it wouldn’t to do much. Shaking her head, she patted his arm away.

“While I applaud you trying, I’m going to need more from you. You need to look at Turner like he’s your worst enemy. Pretend he’s a Seller, and he’s come to claim you for their auctions. What are you going to do?”

Jericho still felt uneasy, and we could all read how hard this was for him to do even though this hadn’t been the tip of the iceberg for the things I had been tortured through. Understanding he couldn’t hurt me, she nodded her head and did something I hadn’t expected. Clamping my throat too hard, she actually restricted the air flow. She then kicked her leg forward to hook behind my calf, yanking mine out from below me to flatten me on my back. She executed it so fast, I almost didn’t see her do it until it was too late for me. Groaning, a thundering pulse of pain found my healing wound. She knew there would be suffering, but she didn’t mind hurting me to train him. I was okay with this method because it wasn’t him getting hurt in the practice.

“Change of plans,” she told him. “I’m now collecting him for the Sellers, so what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do to save him from the pain I’m inflicting?” Nearly volatile, I had never seen this angle of her before. Almost as though she wasn’t human, and I hadn’t been prepared to experience version of her. Like Jericho, she was once a sweet Omega that loved to be adorned on, but that side of her disappeared that she lived in this world.

Jericho came charging at her, trying to knock her off me, but Kit was strong. She moved in a way that hooked her legs around my neck to clamp me as her arms battled him from above.

Even though this was completely for practice fighting, I couldn’t help the way I began feeling with her rear end in my face. Sniffing her sweet scent, I let myself grow aroused by the smell of her pussy as my nose lingered where it shouldn’t. Sweeter than a lemon pie, I wanted a slice.

My mind shut down completely as thoughts of the current situation left me. Not even the pain flaring in my shoulder could stop my arousal. Their battle continued as my own began, trying to deny myself what I really wanted. Lemon and sugar began to drift into my nostrils, reminding me how much I loved Kit’s smell. The genetic makeup of an Omega created a fragrance that Alphas and Betas would want, but hers was always the death of me.

Jericho had this honeysuckle and cinnamon smell that was to die for with a sage aftertaste. I had both memorized, but this was the first time I got a whiff of hers again. Well, from this position. For a female Omega, their typical scent fumigated tenfold between their legs, daring men like me to walk away without having a taste. It was absolute torture, just like this moment now. Logic hadn’t come in to notice I craved a taken female.

On top of me, they kept battling each other as she prompted Jericho to do certain moves to handicap her. Little traces of their words lingered, but I felt my abled hand move up to be near the spot I wanted access to. Without thinking, I began pinching the globe of her full cheek, pulling it away only to slap against the other. This fanned her scent into my face even more, making my mouth salivate.

Growling, my leisure play made the two above me pause. I knew Kit stopped because she felt me grab her ass. Jericho comprehending a warning that I was too close to the fire with my growl. Just when Kit tried getting up, Jericho shoved her back down. “Will your Alpha get angry if another uses you?”

“I choose my lovers,” she breathed out.

***

Jericho didn’t waste another second before going between my legs and yanking my sweatpants down for my hard shaft to show. Standing at full mass, I knew it jutted straight up from lying on my back.

There was a deviance in his stare, promising something I didn’t think he’d be ready to commit to. “Then let him taste you while I taste him.”

Before there could be any second thoughts about what we were about to do, Jericho plunged his mouth to suck my dick immediately. There was no warning or finesse with what he had just begun, and my body jolted from the surprise. An echo of sounds left my mouth in grunts because it felt good but hit too fast.

“You heard the man,” I wheezed at Kit as she stared aimlessly at my Omega. “Do you still not wear underwear?”

Shaking her head, I loosened her tight thighs around my neck right before reaching between them to rip the crotch out. It probably hurt her, but I didn’t care. My need to taste her came before everything else, especially now that Jericho was pleasing me in return.

Just like old times, Kit placed her thighs next to my head with her legs hooking in my arm pits for her pussy to be over my mouth. With my bad side, she made sure to swing her leg wide to not touch me at all, so it bent it a little awkwardly. Not that it mattered for long because she smelled too heavenly to stop once I forced my face between her folds.

Hearing Jericho slurp and suck over my cock was almost too much with his moans. As an Omega, he got off by getting me off. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this, but I also knew not to put too much thought into what began. If my mind took over, logic would tell me this was a terrible idea, and I didn’t want that. My wants and desires needed to come first just for one day where I could touch Kit again. My mind relished about all the past times we had together, no longer having to live in a dream to have it again.

Devouring her juicy cunt, I made sure my hand held the back of her hemline right above her ass to make sure she couldn’t move from this position. I wished to have two hands to fondle her even more, but I knew my arm needed to stay in the sling. My fingers still twitched with the longing to touch her.

Her flavor drizzled into my mouth as I lapped every ounce she offered. Just like how she used to love, I made sure to stroke her from the back of her crack to the tip of her clit.

Twisting and turning, my tongue finally dove into her folds. Finding her core, I let my tongue swing wide to anchor around each wall of her channel. I wanted her to feel exactly where I pleasured her.

Kit began to ride my face to help her get there faster. Keeping her arms above her head, they played in the long hairs of her ponytail to give me a better view of her lifted breasts. Unexpectedly, she raised the bottom of her bra for her round boobs to spill out. Just like I remembered, they were complete and utter perfection.

Part of me wanted to curse, but I couldn’t as she smothered me between her thick thighs. Even if she wasn’t on me now, the things Jericho was doing to me from below would’ve halted everything too. I let my eyes travel around her for a quick glance to see my Omega jerking himself while sucking me. I had two Omegas using my body right along me doing the same, and I knew this had to be a fantasy.

Basking in the glory, I let them use me as I helped them along. My fingers left the back of her pants to come forward in order to rub her clit just right. I did this to help her get off, and she understood I was missing the show. Grabbing my hand, she moved it to stay inside her dripping cunt as she got on the opposite side of Jericho. As much as I wanted to keep eating her out, I knew I lost focus because of what else was happening. She positioned my hand with my elbow down and fingers up to ride herself over my digits.

Kit had always been one to chase her own pleasure, so this didn’t surprise me as she gyrated her hips over my waiting hand. Jericho looked over to take notice of the new position as he smiled at me with delight in his eyes. I couldn’t look away from what he was doing to me. That’s when he changed his position to straddle my thighs to place our cocks together.

Feeling the sensitive flesh rub against his, I had to close my eyes momentarily. Dick skin was made differently and stayed extra soft, but his saliva made it even more pleasurable. Kit made the mistake of watching him rub our cocks together, crossing our swords. She fell forward with a scream right before she started coming all over my hand. Her lips fell on mine, forcing me to eat her cries as she licked my face clean of her taste.

When she was done leaving a wet spot on the floor, she began to purr just a little bit. Crawling to where Jericho was, she watched as he jerked us together, now having an up-close view. She then darted her little tongue out and lapped it over both our tips to add to our illicit deeds.

“Oh, God,” I cursed.

Jericho made sure to position our cocks in a way that would hit her mouth perfectly when he tugged us upward. She used my thighs to brace her elbows on right before each of her hands found our balls. She rolled the them in her palms, licking our tips as Jericho jerked us off. There was nothing quite like the scene happening right before me, and I only lasted a few minutes longer because of it.

With a roar, I shot my load everywhere on Kit’s face. Jericho lost his control then as well, painting her right along with me. A lot landed in her mouth, but there were also ropes of our seed spilling down her face.

My Omega lifted her up and looked at her like she was the most beautiful creature alive, covered in our cum. Yanking her by the ponytail, he clashed their mouths together to kiss her stupid, just like she had done to me. Jericho never fucked women, so this was the first interaction I had seen him wanting to. Of course, it just had me wanting more of it.

He licked the cum off her face, tasting how we mixed together as she allowed him to lick around her lips to gather what was close enough to get. We were a complete and utter mess from her wetness and our release, but it summed up perfection. With the gym now smelling of sex, Kit was smart enough to look at the time.

“We need to get out of here within the next few minutes or people are going to see us like this. While my Alpha won’t care, I know other packs will feel I am favoring you.” She stood up and used her jacket to clean the rest of her face off because Jericho’s spit glistened there and a little cum was left over. She also hurried to clean her wet spot where my hand still hung on the floor, so I hurried to lick my fingers clean because I wanted her taste to stay with me longer.

“Oh, that’s understandable,” I grunted. “If you want to hurry and leave, I’ll take Jericho back to our quarters to get him cleaned up. He only smells like me right now, so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue to get him into the shower with me.”

She nodded and tried fixing herself, but I tore the crotch out of her pants. There was almost a perfect circle of flesh on the front, so she held her jacket right over it. The horseshoe of her pussy showed, swollen and soaked, making me miss seeing it when she covered it up. “I’ll see you guys later then.”

Awkwardly ducking her head, she made her way to the door. None of us had expected this to happen, but I knew I wanted to have it again. Standing up, I made sure to pull up my pants as Jericho tucked himself back into his. Pulling him to me, I kissed him passionately. By doing this, I knew he got a taste of Kit in my mouth. He moaned and fell into me more because of the taste. “She’s so sweet.”

“So are you.” Giving his lips a gentle kiss, I took his hand and began guiding him out the door. I knew this had to be our little secret, but I couldn’t help the grin that took over my face. I didn’t actually get to fuck Kit, but I did get to see her orgasm again, and it was pure bliss.

15: Kit

Iwasn’t sure what I was thinking, but it definitely shouldn’t have been that.

Anika walked the hallway, but I blew by her to hide my sordid details. I knew her eyes went wide because she understood what I did from the scent. I’d find her sitting on my bed when I left the bathroom, but I had to get there without being seen.

My feet sprinted and didn’t stop until I stood under the hot spray of my shower, scrubbing off their delicious stench as much as I could. This morning, I failed to hold up every construct of power I made everyone else believe I had. I let them in… I let my guard down.

Once I had the sin of my crimes scrubbed off, I exited and grabbed my towel. It scraped against the dampness on my flesh before I twisted my hair into it. I finally made my way out of my bathroom after slipping into my robe. Sure enough, Anika sat where I expected, tapping the tips of her fingers together above her knees as she slouched over them.

“Eight days,” she stated how long their duration here had been. “You didn’t last eight days before doing something stupid with one of them. This was why I was hesitant to say yes to Leia.”

“I wasn’t prepared for Turner to come with us this morning,” I confessed. “Do you know how hard it was to fight him while being near him, scenting him. It was like I had no more control.”

“Then you need to stay the hell away from him because you know word will get out. We didn’t build this lifestyle up for it to come crumbling down the second you found them again.”

Her anger was palpable, and she had every right to place this suffocating tension between us. Ducking my head, my lower lip wobbled as I tried to choke back tears. “You’re absolutely right, and I’m so sorry for putting us at risk.”

“I know you hate to hear this, but I need you to remember why we started this life in the first place. I need you to remember why we found ourselves here because it had everything to do with that pack leaving. Ryatt’s pack put a target on your back! They drew attention to you by wanting you, and then they just expected the rest of the crime world to forget you existed when they left without marking you?” Standing from the bed, she came over to me and wrapped me in her muscular arms. Anika was my home, and I knew I’d never be able to be in a pack without her. “I know you still love them, but I need you to try a little harder to pretend you’re not. I don’t care how young and dumb they were. They should’ve known you’d get taken. I’m so sorry that weight is on you.”

“It wasn’t just me they left that day,” I reminded her. The men had seen how Anika and I bonded when I met her. It was our senior year when her and Raphael moved into our school. Mandy had been with me through the earlier years of high school, and we were three inseparable friends after. Anika had a short time with the guys, but I knew she saw them as family as well. It wasn’t just me they left that day.

“We’ll get by just fine, but I need you to tell me when you need me to interfere. We only survive this together.” She stepped back from holding me in her giant frame. Anika was beautiful in ways the typical man wouldn’t see, but I did.

“I told Jericho that I’d start training him in self-defense. As of this morning, Turner now plans to tagalong. I’m going to need you to wake up with me and help me with that because I know I’m too weak to not let it happen again.”

“I’ll start taking over that training session for no more hiccups. Why don’t you just put your focus in the farm today? We’re not doing anything with the Betas until tomorrow. You might as well find some peace and comfort. Get away from them for an afternoon.”

I wasn’t sure how she kept being as strong as she was, but I knew I needed it. Anika had always been the voice of reason inside my head that held me up to be strong when I thought I wasn’t capable. I remembered the days when I wasn’t as lucid as I am now, struggling to remember what version of reality found me each time. If it weren’t for Anika, I would have been another junkie living on the side of the road. Death would’ve found me already.

“The farm will be a good change of pace for me.” Nodding my head, I moved to my wardrobe and pulled out a pair of jeans with an olive sweater. Slipping into my boots, I knew there was a lot of loose dirt from our high-rise beds. We built a chamber within the compound to host underground fields. Getting my hands into some weeds and pulling them would feel therapeutic today. My body hummed with a new vibration of energy, thanks to the orgasm the two men had given me, so I needed an outlet today.

Rushing to braid my hair, I did it for the French braid to fall down my back. No one important would be seeing me today, so I didn’t feel the need to doll myself up like I would have to for dinner later on. Anika walked over to me with our cinnamon and smoke perfume. She spritzed the scent we created together that masked our unclaimed ones. Not many understood what we were doing, but by picking potent smells, we were able to hide our secret.

She let her hand trail over the branding on my neck, so I copied her move by doing the same to her little bumps covered by her blue braids from her wide mohawk. We knew what we had given up without having to say it, but that didn’t make this part any easier in the isolation we lived in. Together, we had to fight the urge and desire to belong in order to survive.

After she spritzed me, she placed my bigger bottle on the shelf next to my bed because I had a smaller vial in my bra. We reapplied the smell every few hours to make sure our own never came through. Anika was the only true family I had because the one I thought would want me, abandoned me. Now those same boys were here, but they weren’t here for me. She’d been right about them painting a target on my back because they wore me on their arm to every function. When they left, all the men in the city knew a rare Omega had been left for them.

“This world is cruel, and so are those boys,” Anika reminded me.

“It makes having the will to live hard to find, so thank you for being that reminder for me.” Bowing my head to her, I then wrapped my arms around her muscular waist. Being a lot taller than me, my forehead sat right where her lips were.

“You know you can always come sleep with me and Raphael when you start feeling lonely,” she offered.

“I know, but that sometimes makes it harder.” Closing my eyes, I hated our world and the unfair system we were herded into. We should be able to be a pack without having an Alpha mark us. Wiping a tear from my eye, I knew she understood. She was the one person who devoted herself to sticking by me, and I did the same for her. That meant I had to clear my thoughts of those boys before it ruined us both.

“Also, Mandy sent you a message, and she forwarded it to my phone because you haven’t responded. She has some type of formal gala coming up at the mayor’s home, and she’s hoping we’ll join her as her guests.” Anika moved to the door with me, gearing up to deal with our official problems outside our personal feelings. She was good at flipping that switch, and I learned my skills through her.

“When is it?” I straightened my shoulders and cleaned my eyes one more time to make sure no one saw me being weak.

“It’ll be tomorrow night, so right after the recon mission. You’re going to have to get back and get changed.”

“And you’re coming too, right?” I wanted a confirmation that Anika would be by my side in public. While I could take Raphael, Anika was the one I wanted.

“I am your Beta, so I can go as your protection. Though, Mandy sent me an invitation as well.”

“Then go to have a good time,” I replied. Stopping our walk down the hall, I took hold of her arm. “You devote so much time to me, but I think you need time for yourself as well. Plus, we can make your brother come to be my protection.”

“But who would we leave in charge here?” She looked around the quiet hall where no one was because we didn’t place people in this wing.

“We have a few that can be trusted,” I reassured her. “I can also protect myself if necessary, and that’ll be a very public event. I don’t think anyone would be stupid enough to try something while there.”

She dipped her chin to me before bowing slightly and stepping back. “I’m going to go talk to our control and delegate orders for tomorrow then. I also plan to stay back when you do the recon tomorrow because there was enough Betas to fill the slots.”

That saddened me. I wouldn’t have her on my excursion, especially with Kashmir being with me, but I knew better then to go against her instincts. “I trust your judgment.”

“You should,” she humored with a smirk. “I also received word from Leia. She’s safe where she is. You are more than welcome to alleviate her brothers’ worries, but we can’t say anything more than her safety, per her request.”

A typical morning between Anika and me having to get straight to business. After she found me broken in my room and fixed me up, we talked about what lied ahead of us for the day. It helped break me out of the sorrow I felt when I drifted off to sleep and dreamed of love. She steered the conversation to the point with everything on her mind instead of gradually moving the discussion to something else, and it was one of her best attributes in my eyes.

“I’ll be sure to pass it along,” I said before knowing we were going to part ways. She was now heading to the control room stationed in the opposite direction, and I was going deeper into our tunnels of corridors where we hid the farm. Feeling a little more like myself, I knew today just got a little easier now that a plan had been made. I think Anika knew that, so it was why she showed up at my door every morning with a one. Giving me something to focus on helped ease the betrayal I felt anytime I finally rested.

16: Franco

Restless.

All my mates were discreetly talking to the other packs that were being harbored down here with us. They were making small talk and plans that might come to fruition later. I just sat back and watched everything, but I’d been getting antsy in the last week while doing nothing. My mind felt corrupt because I wasn’t furthering the safety of Jericho. It was like this betrayal within myself in two different ways because I wanted to trust Kit, but I also didn’t trust anyone outside of my pack. Who knew what seven years apart did to her?

Pacing a random hallway, I tried to learn the maze of corridors they created below the surface of the world. I still couldn’t believe they managed building this down here, and it made me wonder how Kit knew to do it. Speaking of the devil, she wore commoner clothes for the first time since meeting her again.

No high heels or perfectly fitted dresses, and her face blank, no makeup. That looked like the girl I used to know, and I had to do a doubletake to make sure it wasn’t a ghost from my past. Like the others, I pretended to not feel anything even though she captured the air in my lungs at the slightest glance her way.

She rubbed the side of her head as though she had a headache, and I didn’t like that something troubled her. Her guard was down because she thought no one walked in this hall, but I had been wandering them. Her hair was still wet and flopped over her shoulder in a braid because she had no purpose today. No performance to put on, and it made me see the old her had been there all along.

When she finally looked up, she gasped and jumped just a little. “Franco, I wasn’t expecting to see you over here.”

“Is there something to hide over here?” I raised my brow at her in suspicion. I hated that I became wired like this, but I also couldn’t afford to bet our safety on an old flame from my past. Even if the feelings I had for her were still deeply rooted within me, I couldn’t bank on her being on our side.

“It’s nice to see some things never change.” Rolling her eyes, she moved around me to leave our conversation there.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I turned my body to begin following her. Like always, she tried walking faster to get away from me, but we both knew it was futile with how little her steps were compared to my strides.

She crossed her arms and stopped promenading, knowing I wouldn’t let her leave me with that. “Please, like you don’t know how you are. You literally question every intention of every minuscule thing, but not once have you thought about what I’ve already done for you. Your pack is safe in my territory because I stuck my neck out for you.”

“And let me guess, it was out of the goodness of your heart? You didn’t receive any type of payment for it?” Yeah, I knew that one would make her shut the fuck up.

She released her arms and placed a hand on her hip. “Leia is paying me with a favor, and by the way, you can report to Ryatt and Kayos that she’s okay. She contacted Beta this morning. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to tend to other things today.”

Ryatt wasn’t too pleased with his sister. Leia promised to reach out a few times a day to check in, and she hadn’t. Kit was helping her hide something, but I knew she wouldn’t tell us that secret. Before she could leave, I reached forward and took her hand to spin her back around. “I’m bored.”

“I have no doubt a Beta like you is,” she’s smarted. Once she realized how bitchy she sounded, she shook her head and rubbed the sides of it again. “Look, I’ll talk to Anika about putting you on a rotative shift to help guard the territory. You won’t be able to go too far outside the compound to make sure your identity stays secure, but it should help with the itch you’re feeling.”

“In the meantime?” I knew it could take days before she’d be able to get me in a rotation because I knew how compounds like this worked. They would already have a schedule up for the rest of the week.

Her eyes darted around us to see if anyone was there, but we didn’t see anyone. It made me wonder what hid down here from how far we had walked. “I’ll let you come with me, but what you see does not get repeated to anyone else. Can you promise that?”

“Even from my pack?”

“If I promise it’s not a threat to your pack, can you keep it from them?”

Mulling the idea over, I knew that if it ended up being something that could harm them, I could go back on my word. “Fine.”

Kit shook her arm out of my grip and went to a smaller door that most people would have walked by, believing it was a utility closet. Interestingly enough, it took a key card to gain access to it. She pulled the card out of her back pocket that made the red light go green for us to enter. I found myself in a dark hallway that was dimly lit to keep people out.

This appeared to be a section they hadn’t renovated, and the cement looked like the buildings from above. The corrosion and rust had made circles and lines across the walls, but the foundation was still sturdy enough to hold. This place just kept getting more interesting by the passing day.

When we came to a new door, she used a different card to gain access, showing me that there was two for a purpose. Anyone who might have seen her at the first door would mistakenly think the same key card would open this one, but it wouldn’t.

Piquing my curiosity, I followed her through it to find something I wasn’t prepared for. The room we were in had to be the size of two football fields, and it had certain lights that promoted photosynthesis for plants. We were literally standing in a greenhouse below ground, and it was magical to see.

“Wow,” I breathed out. “This is incredible.”

Kit shrugged as though she’d been unprepared for my compliment. “I had a good teacher.”

When she said it, she directed it to me because I was the one who lived outside in my mother’s garden when we were young. Kit would tag along when I needed to keep my hands busy because she learned she needed the same thing. She called me a good teacher which also told me she’d been the one who created all of this. “You did this?”

“Not overnight,” she said with a blush. “I was put in charge of this project with Anika, and it took us just over two years to fully complete. Now, if anything happens above, we have the capability to survive down here. Of course, the meat markets are still above ground, and we have no interest yet in becoming vegetarian, but it’s nice to be able to rely on it if we need to.”

“This was why you let me come, wasn’t it?” She knew my hands were idle, and I hated it. Despite all the years that sat between us, this woman still knew one of the things that I held nearest to my heart.

“That, and it would be nice to have some help getting all these beds weeded before the evening comes. If you’re up for the challenge, I wouldn’t mind the help. There’s gloves on the wall over there, but I highly doubt you’ve changed your ways.” She turned away from me, going toward the back of the greenhouse where the last bed sat before the fields. She began her work on the opposite side of me going from back to front, so I knew to do the opposite on my own end.

My hands were eager to dig in the dirt as I began pulling weeds with my naked fingers. She put on her garden gloves to keep her hands nice and smooth without getting cuts or dirt under her nails, but I needed to feel the earth around my skin. The others didn’t quite understand how it hushed my worries, but they never asked for an explanation either.

A small smile crept over her face as I watched from afar. The only sound between us was the humming of electricity that kept the lights going in this room, and a misty spray that was handling the field right now. The background noise made it easier to lose myself in the project before me, but I couldn’t deny how I let my face keep lifting to take her in.

As though I didn’t exist, Kit moved around in her own world. Slowly, she began to hum without thinking about her audience. I forgot how serenading her voice was, like an angelic hymn. It made goosebumps raise on my neck, and I had to shake out a shiver because my body tried to respond to it.

Seeing her like this became nostalgic as I remembered our younger selves. While there was still a great burden on my shoulders from being a seat in the mafia families, back then, I was still young enough—no, I’d been naïve enough to believe our future wouldn’t become what it did. I was stupid and selfish, and my choices hurt the woman who stood on the other side of the room as me. Even though her neck bore the mark of someone else, I was glad to have this moment with her again. My soul eased into believing she hadn’t changed as much as she pretended.

After spending hours walking around each table and thinning the problem areas out, she came over to help me with the last few on my side. From doing this so often, she had gotten faster at it. She had no idea that I hadn’t touched a garden since my mother’s death. Kit didn’t even know that my mother was gone, but I knew better than to ruin this moment between us.

Clearing my throat, I was a lot calmer than when I started my day this morning. “Thank you for letting me come with you.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied, with an easy smile. “It was nice to have the company. I usually do this by myself, but I do have two rotations a week that I don’t handle. I just prefer the weeding because it brings me peace once a week when I come to do it.”

“There’s just something about a garden that makes you feel better,” I sighed. As we finished up, I could see her contemplating something beside me.

“You know, if you’re interested, I could put you down here instead of guard rotations. You’re the one person I still trust handling my plants after all this time.” Her smirk was kind and teasing even though we had too much history between us.

“Are you sure?”

“I learned everything I know from you, Franco. Just like I learned to shoot a gun from Kashmir, and to ride a motorcycle from Kayos. I know your strengths, and this is yours.”

Nodding my head, I let my eyes take in the finished garden. All the plants were growing beautifully, and I could see the rotation she had started when she planted certain sections before the others to bloom at different times. “I’d love it down here.”

She took off her gloves and put them in her back pocket before wiping her face and smearing some dirt over her head. “With everything going on, I appreciate you being willing to help with this. I have a lot to handle in the next few days.”

“I can definitely take this off your plate,” I promised her. “Also, I owe you an apology.”

“What for?” I could see the confusion within her stare because she didn’t understand my reasoning. I couldn’t begin to make a list of all the things I needed to say to her, but I would start with the obvious.

“For trying to hurt you when you were with Jericho by the window. I don’t know what you’ve been through the last few years that made you a fighter, but my mind wanted you to still be the same Omega I once knew. Then you took me down, so that was a wakeup call. A punch in the face from reality, and I didn’t like it.”

“How many of us truly like our realities?” Patting my arm, she gave my cheek a simple kiss before waiting for me to leave with her. Her question sent my mind into a spiral because I could see the honesty and hurt within her eyes that told me she didn’t like hers.

17: Kayos

Kashmir volunteered to go with the groups that were gathering in a lockdown zone, but we all came with him to check things out. Apparently, it wasn’t just us who were concerned about our pack because we found all the other leaders in here with the Betas they were sending. Leisurely, I took in all the Alphas who stood among us because I still couldn’t believe they were alive. It baffled me even more to know that Kit took part in their rescue.

Kashmir was suiting up, heading straight for the gun table that had been laid out for those equipped to handle them. Raphael manned that station, but I could see Kit whispering something to him when Kashmir headed their way. It didn’t take rocket science to know she told Raphael he was a sharpshooter, and Raphael handed him one of the rifles immediately because of it. Our Beta took it and toyed around with it to get a good feel for the newer style, but I lost interest in what he was doing when I noticed Kit garbed in all black. She wore a fitted vest that allowed weapons to sit on it, and she traded her high heels for a pair of combat boots.

With her hair braided back, I knew she planned to go with the Betas today. That bothered me more than I could speak because she was an Omega. Even though we stood in the empire of her Alpha, I couldn’t help but think he was stupid. His Omega should be protected and kept under watch to make sure she’d always be okay. The jealousy of it also ripped through me because it angered me to see her gearing to fight.

“I was hoping she’d been kidding when she said she’d be leading a task force.” Turner wasn’t amused by it either. We knew better than to voice against it after what happened to Reginald’s pack.

“Looks like she wasn’t,” I nearly growled.

“It isn’t our place,” Ryatt reminded me. He hadn’t been the same since a few days ago, and it made me wonder what happened. “She isn’t ours to lay claim over to enforce her to stay back.”

“I think it’s endearing,” Jericho tossed out of nowhere. Ever since our arrival and Kashmir dropping the bombshell of Kit being in our past, his trust in us dwindled, fueling her pedestal to raise. “She had to show the world what she could become. I admire her for what she did.”

We couldn’t respond, sharing a look he didn’t notice. Kit never should’ve been in that situation, and we were to blame. Silence ended the conversation.

A few vans were gearing up to go because of a cleanup mission, but the other forces were taking unrecognizable cars. We didn’t want to look like we were suspicious in a big van. Thanks to so many movies, people feared when a technician vehicle pulled up. The cars in this bay were a few years old to not look too flashy, and they were generic models to blend in. On the farthest wall, I could see some motorcycles that made my hand itch to ride. There’s just something about the speed and being in the open air as the wind hit against me that made me feel alive. That was exactly what I needed these days because of everything going on here. And lack of things going on.

“Ryatt, if I can talk her into it, are you okay if I go on one of these missions?” I asked my brother. Even though we were both Alphas, it was him we looked to for final rulings. I made plenty of a calls for our group, but this one seemed like it needed to be put to a vote between us.

“Try getting with Kashmir because I’m worried about him,” he ordered with agreement.

Pulling Jericho into me, I gave his temple a kiss before sniffing his scent to carry with me. He always stifled a laugh when I dragged my nose along the sensitive part of his neck, and it always gave me a hard on. Smiling to myself, I was glad I could give him a moment of happiness before leaving. He even reached up to give me a kiss on my lips, knowing I was about to go somewhere that he wouldn’t be with me.

I always wondered what it would be like if our city hadn’t been so dangerous. If we moved somewhere else where he could walk the streets in the pure bliss he always carried in our home, but we weren’t in one of those places. Knotty City, our home, was where our power ruled. We couldn’t abandon it and our control so easily because it went against our nature. That very nature inside me didn’t like sitting back while all these others went out.

A few more teams were driving off in the cars with someone from Raphael’s ranks, but I knew the dangerous mission hadn’t left yet. Kit would use Kashmir for more than just following someone with his apt abilities to handle a gun. Moving their way, I saw Kit tucking smaller knives into her vest like she had done this more than once. It was like she purposefully created a permanent wedge under my skin by watching her not be protected or protecting herself.

“Kit,” I greeted her and called her attention my way.

Before I could say anything else, she took in my apparel that matched the rest of the crews here. “I planned ahead to make sure to be ready, but I had to kill one of the Betas I had in my plans.” Ah, Reginald’s pack she slaughtered. She didn’t let me say anything else before tossing me a handgun. “Lucky for you, I need another tail with our group now. Can you still ride?”

Her head nodded toward the motorcycles behind us, setting a fire ablaze below my skin in excitement. “Can I still ride?” I scoffed, prepping for when we were leaving.

“You’ll be the left-wing,” she commanded. “I prefer the right.”

Before I could ask her more about it, she began walking toward a Ducati. It was then I comprehended that she’d be the other wing to the vehicle with me. My nostrils flared in panic because I knew I’d be worried over her beside me rather than seeing her as a partner to fight beside me.

Grabbing a few necessities from the selection of weapons, I went to the bike beside hers as she already straddled the one she wanted. It was odd being with her like this again because I taught her to ride in the first place. I remembered how excited and exhilarated it made her right before I fucked her somewhere random after a speedy ride that got our hearts racing.

Kashmir and two others got into a tan sedan, and I saw it was Raphael who would be driving. Glancing toward the door of the compound, I deducted Anika would be staying behind. Things ran differently here, but at least her Alpha was sending one of their Betas with us.

“And don’t even think that I need your protection,” Kit hissed. “If I needed it, I would’ve been dead seven years ago.”

With that, she took off on her bike after slamming her helmet down on her head. Getting going, I hastily pulled out because I was already behind after she put me in that stupor. The bikes were zigzagging in a familiar pattern behind the sedan. We kept a decent distance to make it look like we were riding together as a couple to separate us from the car to the average eye.

Instead of going into the city, I noticed we were taking a different route to go on the other side of the river. On a dirt path, we followed the untaken road and made our way into the depths of the forest. Raphael seemed to know where to go, and I had no doubt he studied and planned exactly how this needed to go. From what I had seen from the Beta, he was a talented tracker.

My eyes couldn’t help but linger over to my right, studying how well Kit still knew how to ride. She must’ve been practicing often for her skills to be what they were now, and it harbored ill feelings within me because she didn’t ride right next to me anymore. Being so close to her drove me insane, and I knew I wasn’t the only pack member suffering.

Once we got to the house, it was a small cabin in the woods with two cars parked outside of it. We kept our vehicles back, but my Alpha eyesight could see what we needed to hide from. Everyone shut down their cars and readied for what was to come as Raphael took the lead. “The man we’ve been following is in this place, so our objective is interrogation. From what we have noticed in their patterns here, there should be six other people inside with him.”

Pulling a paper out of his pocket, he showed us a picture of the man they had been following the last few days. Other groups were stopping at some of his establishments to see what reasoning he would have for being there, but Kit was able to get this address from Castiel. Ryatt told me how chummy they were. I studied the photo of the face to know which mark couldn’t be killed, and Kashmir did the same. We nodded to each other after taking in the culprit. He was involved in the burning of my family home, so a lot of rage sat within in me for it.

“Do not kill this man, but everyone else is fair game. Are you guys okay with this?” Raphael let his eyes gaze meet every single person in our group as we nodded our heads. That’s when I noticed Kit was already up ahead, using binoculars to scope out the area.

Taking a single drag from her cigarette, she let it roll through her like it calmed her nerves. Instead of using the rest, she spat on the tip and crushed the wetness into the roll to take out any embers before sticking it back into her pocket.

“Did you just put a used cigarette in your pocket?” Kashmir made a face.

“I’m not going to put it out on the ground! It could create a forest fire.” Kit acted like he was the one not thinking clearly.

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Says the girl who executed an entire pack for calling her weak without even blinking.”

She lifted one shoulder, avoiding eye contact. “Animals are better than people. I’d rather burn the city down than the woods.”

Raphael intervened even though I began to see her side in this argument. “What did you see?”

“There’s three on the couch, and two in the kitchen. That leaves us two in unknown locations.” His out pleased her to not finish our conversation. “Be safe, think smart, and always watch over your back. Even though we’re from different packs, we have family to return to. Protect each other in there.” At her command, we were flying to the house.

It didn’t take us long to infiltrate once we knew everyone’s position. Kashmir and I were taking down the back door together. He let me have the honor of shoving my boot against the flimsy wood. Coming in from the back, we were the ones they would run into when trying to bolt from those who smashed in the front door already.

Kashmir had his rifle up and immediately shot two guys in the head that came our way. My handgun aimed at chest level, but I knew better than to take one of Kashmir’s kills. Some of their blood splattered on the hall walls, but this part of our business never bothered me. In all honesty, I was a man who loved tormenting our enemies. It brought me a deep satisfaction when I broke their fingers, making them scream my name and beg for mercy.

That wasn’t happening today because we were on this mission to collect a single person. We couldn’t see the other madness going on, but I was able to make out Kit fist fighting with one of the men. My heart stopped in my chest when we saw it, and Kashmir paused his gun from the shock of it. Ruthless, she took him on like a feral savage… just like the rest of us. Her foot lifted and kicked him in the gut as she quickly pulled the knife from her vest and jabbed it to the side of his neck. She pulled the blade out, sprayed by the blood, but never blinked as it coated her front.

Dropping the body, she turned to see us after completing the kill. Not a drop of mercy in her stare. Not a lick of sweetness left in her, and we were starting to get a glimpse of the woman she had become in our absence. The others handled everyone else, but I wasn’t able to stop staring at Kit. She sashayed over to where Raphael tied up the man as he began screaming for help. He looked barely old enough to be an adult, and I hated when they were this young in our line of work. They didn’t have the years the bitterly cruel brought on, so their puppy stares were sometimes hindering.

“Who put the hit on all the Alphas in the city?” Kit placed her hands on the arms of the dining chair they forced him into. An old piece of furniture made of wood with a rickety leg. I had no doubt they had it to do something similar to their own victims. It creaked from how much he moved in it, ignoring her completely as he tried to shake himself loose. His childish behavior only infuriated the woman, so she raised one fist and slammed it down on his nuts right on the edge of the seat.

We all listened to him screaming as she did it without mercy. Raphael had done a good job of tying him up while we were still clearing the hall. Kit placed her hands back to holding his wrists where they were bound to the arms as he tearfully seethed at her for what she had done. There was a venomous glare happening between both, but Kit had the upper hand.

“I should warn you that I don’t play nice, so if you want any chance of getting out of this alive, you better start talking.”

“I’m not going to tell you a damn thing! You’ll just kill me anyway.” Spitting, it hit Kit’s face. She wiped it off with the back of her glove like it didn’t happen, never blinking. Then she stepped away, quickly walking by me. She had to for where the bathroom was located. For just a minute, I thought she left to clean herself. My eyes found her just in time to see her dipping her glove in the toilet that hadn’t been clean in a few days by the urine smell. My stomach soured immediately as I caught onto what she planned. Walking back into the living room, she shoved the dirty glove into his mouth that dripped with dirty toilet water.

The man in the chair tried to fight her, forced to take in the disgusting and vile water. He managed to bite Kit’s fingers as she shoved it deeper into his mouth. It wasn’t enough to draw blood, but we saw the indent that was now present from it.

“You want to play like that, huh.” She didn’t phrase her words as a question, her icy glare taking over. She squatted down, and we witnessed what we wished we didn’t have to. Taking the man’s pinky into her mouth, she bit down as hard as she could. The man screamed in agony as Kit used her mouth against him. It wasn’t like she bit his finger off, but I had a feeling she would’ve gone there. When she released it after a crunch, she got up and walked away from him as he cried. Toilet water spilled from his mouth, but she wasn’t done yet as she rifled in the kitchen drawers for something.

Coming back, I noticed she got a butcher’s knife from the drawer. Even though she had knives in spades along her vest, she went and got something personal from his home to hurt him with. All these little glimpses of how she behaved only told me about what she survived. We were stupid back then, being boys who wouldn’t understand our choice did the exact opposite of what we wanted. We didn’t claim her because we thought our world was too dark for something as sweet as her, but we forgot the monsters of our world wouldn’t keep to their word. Without our claim, one took her and turned her into this. It hurt me more than any word could describe.

“Just to give you a warning, I don’t feel bad when I chop body parts off. We both know it’s gonna take me just a minute to get through that bone, so I hope you’re ready to brace yourself. Unless, you want to start talking.” Running the dull edge along her fingers, she told him she was prepping that very technique she planned to use against him.

His eyes went wider, but there was nothing he could do. Finally understanding the drastic measures Kit would go to, he gave in. “Fine! I’ve never met him, and I don’t know where he is. But he knew you’d come here, so he said to greet you. I just know he has a big interest in you, Pussy Cat.”

One moment.

That was all I had to see when her nostrils flared in fright.

The guy smirked, knowing he delivered a coded message only she would understand. Kit didn’t think twice as she removed the revolver from her holster, pulling the trigger to land a bullet between his eyes. Stunned, she just killed her one and only link to who was behind this, and I could tell that Kashmir felt the same as I did.

“What the hell was that?” he asked her. “We needed him for answers!”

“And we got them,” she said while putting herself back together as though it didn’t happen. “Raphael, take the car back to base with those who rode with you. Kayos and I will finish up by burning the cabin down. Report to Beta what we just found out. If he sent a messenger, he’s smart enough to not be where this guy remembers.”

Raphael herded everyone out the door, handing off two things of gasoline to Kit in his exit. There was clearly something they weren’t telling us, and I hated that even more.

18: Kit

All the others left, but Kayos remained. Over my shoulder, I could sense him, and his criticism he wanted to give me for killing the one link to finding Saul. There were other things in play and protecting my identity was the biggest. I could hunt the bastard down from the clues this idiot had already given, but Kayos didn’t know the evils of his father’s righthand man.

I shook the canister over every surface to make sure we got the job done, dosing everything in gasoline. There was a certain level of professionalism clean ups required, and that meant burning bodies into ash to remove any evidence that we were here. Never stopping what I was doing, I kept my back to him. “You know, if you helped pour gas, we’d be out of here faster.”

Yeah, I fucked up by opening my mouth. Kayos couldn’t get over my stunt. “Are we going to talk about what just happened back there?”

“I did my job,” I grumbled.

“You killed our only link to who’s behind this!” he shouted in return, showing how rapidly he progressed to being flustered by my choice. In all honesty, I’d been surprised I got Kashmir to go with Raphael, but I think he understood more than Kayos wanted to read into the situation.

Dumping the last bit of gas on the kitchen floor, I threw the canister at his feet. He wanted to play hardball? Well, I stood as the fucking pitcher of this game, not the catcher. “I signed up to save your sorry asses! I’m putting my men on the line to help all of you, but there’s things that cost too much, and I won’t pay the price for it. My identity getting leaked isn’t worth what you’re asking. You have no idea how that would ruin my empire!”

Moving to the door, I didn’t care that the bedrooms weren’t coated. The kitchen would blow enough up to handle it in this size of place. He knew to get the hell out before I threw the match with him inside, catching the screen door behind me in my haste. We moved just far enough away to not be pulverized by the blow.

Kayos waited until I threw the flame, walking to the bikes before opening his mouth. He also swung his aggravated body my way to show how mad I made him. “He knew who was behind this! You killed him before we found out!”

“It’s because he already told me who he was!” I screamed back, pushing off the toe of one boot to show I wouldn’t back down. Everything inside of me hated it, knowing his Alpha essence I used to cower respectfully to. My eyes drew away first, more from longing than submission, and my head shook. My voice quieted for me to rationalize with him. “I know who we’re up against, so please just trust me that he had to die before anything about me was leaked.”

“Who?” Kayos yelled from being so angry at me, not seeing the white flag I waved. We made our way into the woods, stepping loudly on the broken twigs. He at least was willing to move to our bikes.

“The same person I’ve been hunting since you abandoned me.”

The house exploded in the background but neither of us were paying any attention to it as I loaded up my supplies on the back of my bike. We were both used to it, so it didn’t bother us anymore. “Abandoned you? How could you ever think that?”

“Because I’m a trailer trash Omega,” I scoffed, knowing I had my own repressed rage from that time in our lives. “I never belonged at your sides. I never had a purpose in this frail existence we call life, so you left and found better.”

“Fuck that!” Just like Ryatt, he gripped me by the neck, cutting off my air supply completely. He guided my feet by brute force. My back slammed into the trunk of a large oak tree. It hurt enough to make me wince, but I never let him see my fear. “We left you for school! We felt guilty about having you when you deserved something better than us!”

Ryatt and Kayos weren’t completely identical. Kayos’s hair was a shade sunnier than Ryatt’s to have a lighter brown hue. Under the sun, I noticed some blond highlights in it too. Their eyes were the same sea of blue, piercing me to the core with their icy gazes. Right over Kayos’s left eye was a faint scar he got when we were still in high school. He was too beautiful to look at, and it made my insides ache being so close to him again.

“Horse shit!” My words were broken in sound, but he could read my lips to understand. Letting my throat go just a smidge, my nostrils flared. “You left because I wasn’t what your daddy wanted. I was a trailer trash Omega, and that’s what I became when you went to your fancy private school. Keep telling yourself you would’ve protected me, but we both know it was my class that clashed with yours.”

His fury only made him stunning, and I could nearly taste his anger. “We didn’t know you were a target until we left. We came right back once Saul told us! We never would’ve gone had we known someone would target you, and you best believe we were fucking broken when we couldn’t find you. You have no idea what it did to us when Saul said you were gone, and we didn’t get back in time to save you.” Pausing, he let his eyes fall to my bite. “I’d rather see this mark on your neck by someone else than lose you completely, but don’t think for one second I’m not filled with rage because it should be mine! YOU should’ve been mine.” His thumb stroked over the risen skin where I burned myself.

Snorting, I rolled my eyes to disengage my hope, knowing my heartbeat would give me away. “Seriously? That’s what you choose to say to me? Fuck you, Kayos! That’s the dumbest, stupidest thing to ever leave your mouth! Where does it make sense in that brain of yours to abandon me in the worst part of town for school but come back for a threat that probably never existed? Then to get off by saying I should’ve been yours, but you didn’t mark me!”

“Saul had the proof, and we came!” he argued. Gripping my neck tighter, my hands took hold of his forearm to get him to stop. “I saw it, Kit! I saw them watching you through the videos Saul showed us, so we rushed back! How do you think I’ve been living all these years knowing I was too late?”

I snapped. He kept saying the one name that triggered this whole thing, spiraling my life into complete darkness. Everything that transpired was become of that man, and he kept talking about him like he did a good thing instead of stab them in the back.

“You stupid fuck! Saul was the one who sold me!” There, the truth was officially out between us. Kayos widened his eyes at my outburst, but I wasn’t done. “You keep talking like he was some kind of hero? He planted all that shit and paid my mom to take me off her hands for his own buyers!”

My eyes were wild and untamed, showing the level of crazy I had reached after being completely broken. Kayos got closer, judging me with his Alpha dominance to see the honesty in my stare. Letting my gaze fall, his power demanded it, and I knew I was about to cry. I couldn’t come back after confessing what not many knew. Only Anika and Raphael did because they were who found me after that hell.

“You left me… you let them hurt me. You went to that fucking school, but you didn’t take me with you. YOU didn’t mark me to protect me!” His grip loosened on my neck, releasing me to lift my chin. The hand that nearly killed me was now supporting me. Shaking my head, I didn’t want the trauma to be real. The phantom touches of the savage men were ghosting my body as I fought off the nightmares my memories stirred. My chest heaved as the anxiety attacked it, constricting how much air I could inhale.

“Kit?” Kayos worried. His hands kept touching my face, so I tried to anchor myself to it. His stance changed from interrogation to crutch. He now had me pinned against the tree because I couldn’t stand on my own two feet anymore. His hands kept gripping my trembling body as my mind collapsed. “I need you to tell me what happened.”

“No,” I pleaded in tears, shaking my head. My eyes couldn’t open because my mind was trying to trick me that I never left that dingy room, my ankles shackled to the wall. “Don’t make me remember. Don’t make me relive it.” I couldn’t breathe, shadows creeping in along my vision. My mantra tried to find me, but the PTSD hit me too fast. “I’m strong… I’m-”

I wasn’t. The past found me in my present, and my terror only spiraled. Kayos caged me into his chest, cradling me to him. “What do you need? What can I do?”

I shook my head, detecting how the silhouettes lurked inside my room. They were the very reason I feared the dark. Nothing could prevent the trauma from surfacing once it snapped open, so I descended deeper into my damage.

“I try to forget, but I can’t. I made myself stronger, but I’m still too weak to face it. Kay, it’s crippling me.” I rubbed my snotty nose into his chest. Inhaling his scent, I let it take over, remembering the spicy musk I’d wake to each morning when I felt like they still loved me before it. “Tell me something to make me forget. Please, say something to stop it. Anything,” I begged.

His words were quick like he wanted a reason to blurt them out. “I never stopped loving you,” he murmured.

That was enough to break my mind during the collapse. My eyes widened, staring up into his to see he was on the brink of crying himself. I knew my eyes were red and puffy, but he only looked at me like he found his lost treasure. Shaking my head, I wasn’t sure if I heard him correctly. “W-what?”

Caressing my cheek, I let my head fall into the familiar contact, letting him support me with his gentleness. “I’ve never stopped loving you, Kit. I came back for you, but when I got there…”

“I was already gone,” I finished because it only took me six months to figure out a way to escape. “Alpha saved me before you came.”

Whipping his head away from me, he acted as though I slapped him with my words. “Please don’t say his title to me.” Broken, his voice could barely get the words out.

Now it was my turn to force his gaze to meet mine. Capturing his chin, I made him face me. If I had to be too exposed, so did he. “Why? Why can’t you hear his name?”

“Because he’s what will always keep me from you. He will always be why I can’t have you.” Kayos revealed every emotion he first masked when he saw me in the throne room. “I came back for you, Kit Kat. I went to get you when I was too physically sick to keep living without you, but you were already gone before I could rescue you… you were already somebody else’s Omega.”

“Kay,” I choked out, but what could I say? As much as I wanted to tell him the truth, I knew I had to keep that secret to protect my pack. And telling him I did come to them would only hurt us all more because I left after seeing Jericho in my place.

“Then you fucking tell me the man who said there was a threat against you was the threat all along? The man who talked my father into shipping me off to that private school? Saul was the one who wanted us out of the picture to sell you, and I was gullible enough to fall for it? You got hurt because of me, and I don’t know if that’s something I can live with…”

“I’m stronger,” I reminded him, reassuring him with the mantra I told myself in the mirror every morning until I believed it. “I made myself stronger, Kay. I would’ve never survived in the city had you not left. Plus, you found Jericho… I know you love him. I can see it with how gentle you are with your Omega. When all this settles, you’ll go back to being the pack you were when I didn’t exist anymore. You’ll be happy again.”

“And you?” Kayos shifted back into his dominance, letting go of the vulnerable boy he unveiled only to me. I knew what he was asking when he said it, but no words came out as I found my back hitting the tree again. My hands reached out to catch me against it, leaving me open to the lurking predator. “Will you be happy, Kit Kat?”

“I’ll feel like I have the last seven years,” I dissuaded from the riposte he wanted me to say out loud.

“That wasn’t an answer.” His right arm raised to be placed above my head. His left stroked faintly over my jawline with the backs of his fingers. “If you can tell me that you’ll be happy, I’ll leave you alone.”

“Kay,” I pleaded for him to end this before we both crossed too many lines. Shaking my head, I closed my eyes when he wouldn’t relent. Knowing what I had to do for the sake of everyone involved, I lied. “I’ll be happy.”

“Open your eyes and tell me,” Kayos growled, placing his hand on my neck over my pulse. He’d know I was lying if I repeated it. His senses too keen to argue with his power as an Alpha.

“Please,” I cried to him.

“KIT!” he nearly shouted for me to respond. The truth came out like a bomb, conceding too suddenly at his request.

“I’m in a confrontation with no armor, being led to battle. Though, the adversary beats in my chest,” I confessed. “My heart bleeds the more I strangle her into silence, but I have to smother her into submission. I have been warring with myself since you left. Survival was what promised another breath, but love would’ve led me to my death!”

“That isn’t an answer,” his voice was gruffer than before, tormented by my wordplay.

“Isn’t it?” I let my dewy eyes scan his expression. “I’ve gone so long without it, I don’t know what it is anymore. If I let it back in, what becomes of me after?”

“This.” Without warning, Kayos slammed his mouth against mine, flooding me with his need that mirrored my own.

I melted. My heart beat too fast, it pumped too hot, burning my veins with the promise of more. Without letting logic in, I wrapped my arms around his neck to embrace the frantic requisite we shared. I could scent him like a nostalgic candle of my past.

His hands found my ass, eager to fondle the flesh below. I jumped to wrap myself around him, forcing his hardness to press against my covered core. He spun me as our lips stayed merged, slamming my back into a different tree for me to cry out in passion. My head tossed back, pushing my breasts forward.

“Oh, my favorite lemon pie.” Kayos had never been a patient man, so he unzipped my vest and ripped the front of my shirt with my bra. My heaving breasts spilled out for him to see. Luckily, his gaze was cast down because I had a long scar along my ribs. If he saw lower than my boobs, he would’ve seen it.

Like my top, he yanked the crotch of my leggings to create a basic gloryhole to have me even faster. This was the sex I had missed. So rushed, it turned savage, building an undeniable aching in the short rush. Gyrating against him, he kept muttering curses that I was only slowing him down and turning him on more.

I wanted him to be just as lost as me, so I never stopped until I saw his girthy cock come out. My eyes took in how swollen and engorged his tip was because his knot had been building instead of releasing. He had been edging himself to create a bulbous tip that looked nearly painful, and it would stretch me like nothing else had before it. The pain would sate the trauma of my past, and I shivered in newfound delight.

At some point, Kayos began having deranged fantasies that led to his knot nearly hurting an Omega to take it. Using his hand, he started to stretch me with his fingers, knowing I’d need some extra widening to take his knot. We both watched how he finger blasted my dripping cunt through the hole in my pants. The man knew I’d be sans underwear because I hated them since being a young teen. Had he not ruined my leggings with his brute strength, my wetness would have flooded them enough to do it.

Already inserting three fingers, he had zero patience. I never minded even though I was tight because the pain told me this was real. No dream, no closing my eyes to pretend my current lover was this… one of the men I yearned for.

“Kayos,” I breathed, gripping him tighter to me. He never stopped playing with me, knowing I would accept whatever he wanted to do to me. This sickening level of love was borderline toxic, but I had zero control over it.

Rolling my hips when he stuck in his fourth finger, I closed my eyes to let it hurt. An orgasm was already preparing to take me. I could feel the tingle in my nerves as I purred my consent. I let him have me, relaxing more now than I had with any partner the last several years. That easing of romantic bliss was what slackened my inner walls to give way even more. The rough friction tugged and yanked for us to see my lips following his extraction.

We watched at my entrance, loving how excited I was for the torture of this. His pleasure enhanced almost too much, wanting to drive into me before I was fully prepped for the bulbous appendage between his legs. An orgasm crashed, creating the perfect wave for him to use. Inserting the final finger, he had to worm it in as the wide part of his knuckles was refused access. Kayos wasn’t a man who gave up so easily. My body jerked and trembled from the climax, but he rode the milking waves to gain final access. I writhed and struggled, mewling from the surge of pain as he forced my cunt to swallow his fist.

My wetness fountained over his fist right before it finally happened. With a popping sound, his fist found a home inside my pussy. Our eyes only saw his wrist at my entrance, knowing I opened for him. The pain pulsated, and I knew he felt it around his digits. Twisting his fist inside me, he didn’t want to pump me with it yet. I needed to get used to the intrusion. Heaving, I felt like the agony snapped the air clean out of my lungs. Even my eyes began to water, but I knew the pleasure was about to find me as he got moving.

Our faces relocated to be close again as he worked me with his hand, balancing my fragile body with his against the tree. After he was able to do a few pumps then pulling out, we knew I could take his knot. His thumb and ring finger kept my core stretched as he began inserting the fat head. It eased right in, being barely smaller than his fist. It soothed some of my ache, but the pain anchored me to this moment. It told me this was real.

He worked slow to get himself in, but I knew it was a tantalizing ploy for him to overexcite himself even more. My hands dug into his shoulders, scratching his flesh and drawing some blood. That’s when he unleashed his animal, fucking me into complete oblivion. My jaw relaxed with more moans as my eyes closed. Purring, I never stopped to keep applauding his fine work.

The familiar tingle found me again, so I let it crash over me and take me the over the edge as I smelled his spice. I needed that scent during my orgasm as I moved my nose to run along his neck. He shivered right before exploding with me. His knot began locking then pumping into me, wave after wave. So much came out that his cream spilled with my clearness. A mess of cum worked itself out around our merge, but he wasn’t done knotting.

His hot release pulsed inside of me. Ropes of cum were spurting out to fill every crevice of my once hollow hole. We humped and groped with forceful kisses to hide our sounds of rapture. After fifteen minutes, we were able to break apart, but there was no undoing what we had committed.

My hands flew up to shield my face because tears found me again. Kayos was confused by my sudden shift in behavior as he tried to pull my hands away to see me. “Kit Kat? Was I too rough?”

I shook my head and let him see my defeat. “I promised Anika I wouldn’t do this. I promised her I wouldn’t get us hurt again, but I can’t stay away from you.”

Honesty was the only way to let him know the hardships of my life. The struggle to ignore this temptation became too hard. It was so easy to fall in love with him again, and I hated myself for it.

Setting me down, he was quiet as he used his shirt to clean me between the legs. It damaged me even more because I hated hurting him too. When he came back up, there was this fierceness over his expression. “There’s only one way to fix this. I’m going to have to prove I’m not going anywhere this time.”

Kissing my forehead, Kayos left me with his promise, knowing better than to ask more from me. He got on his bike, allowing me a moment of privacy to put myself back together. Zipping up my vest, it hid my broken shirt and bra below, but I wished it could mask my heartache. We rode back in silence, but every bump on the road reminded me of what I had just done.

19: Kit

Only in my underwear, I freshly showered to get the self-loathing stench off my skin that belonged to Kayos. I put the underwear on as a shield even though I typically detested them. I want him to have me, devouring my body and losing all sense of my control. It had only been yesterday since it happened with Turner, making myself feel weaker than I should be.

Though, my mind kept reeling on the information Kayos handed over. He told me they came back for me, but according to this timeline, it was over a month too late. Ryatt mentioned it too, their stories lining up. My emotions were AWOL, on the fritz from it all. How was I supposed to cope with what he revealed now that I was about to be in a den of vipers for an evening?

My hair didn’t take too long to do after I blow dried it because I twisted it into a bohemian braid that fell down my back. Rolling the bottom up into a weaved bun, I looked elegant and regal with a few dangling pieces around my face that I curled just a bit. After so much practice, I had styling my hair down along with my makeup. I needed to do a lighter amount during the day, but I wore heavier at night for more impact. With my face painted and hair done, I felt like my mask was back in place. I felt like the part of me I needed hidden was finally tucked away again. But the pain between my legs was all too telling.

Heading into my room with a sheer robe over my lace panties, I found Kashmir sitting on my bed. His hands were between his thighs as he touched the tips of his fingers together with his head bowed down. I knew he must have followed me back when we arrived because he was still in his mission garb. Who knew how long he waited for me and Kayos to return, but I saw he did so he could follow me here.

“Cheshire?” I called him by his nickname while pulling my robe tighter around me. The sheer fabric wouldn’t do much to hide my nipples, but it was a blanket of protection for me.

“What was that today?” He didn’t even acknowledge me calling him by his nickname to make this a more cordial setting.

“A recon mission?” I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to say, but I knew what he asked.

His dark eyes finally looked up at me, leaving all the humor off his face. A rarity, seeing Kashmir like this, but I deserved it. I had angered him to the point he couldn’t pretend to be happy. “Don’t play dumb, Kit.”

“Then be more direct with what you’re asking,” I ordered and returned. Taking charge of the room, I made it known that I was a force to be reckoned with. “How about you grow some balls and ask how I grew to be a fighter? Or maybe you want to know how it was so easy for me to hold the gun to someone’s head and blow their brains out? The answer is simple.” I placed my hands on my hips. “I don’t have to tell you.”

And just like that, a switch was flipped in his mind as he leapt off the bed and shoved me against the wall. Unlike the previous times I’d been in this position, it was his elbow that pressed against my throat because he held a knife to it. I wasn’t sure why it aroused me, but it did. Maybe it came from my knowledge he was a man who could handle his weapon so precisely that if he wanted me dead, it would have happened when I walked out of the bathroom.

“You were ruthless and vindictive, but don’t think for a moment I didn’t see when your eyes flinched when he called you that name. Don’t think for a millisecond that I can’t read through your fuckery.”

“That’s certainly calling the kettle black, don’t you think?” Just to put him more on edge, I leaned my neck into where the blade was sitting. He had it right below my ear, so I knew he didn’t plan to stab my jugular to watch me bleed out yet. Nicking myself, I let him study my stoic face, never changing as I hurt myself against his blade.

His eyes watched the little trickle blood come out where the metal sliced into my skin just enough to make me bleed. It was almost putting him in a trance he couldn’t get out of, and I knew it would. Whether Kashmir said it or not, he had a problem for bloodlust, and it came out in the bedroom as well. Lifting my hand, I let it catch some of the drips right before smearing it over his bottom lip. He shivered and closed his eyes, breathing heavier from the taste I offered him.

“And here I thought you would like this newer version of me better,” I tsked my tongue.

“You didn’t answer my question,” he growled again.

“And you act like holding a knife to my neck is reason enough to answer. I guess you’re not getting the hint that it’ll take more torture than that to get answers out of me.”

“More torture?” His eyes flicked to look down my body, but it was only brief to gain my attention again. “I don’t see any scars. Just a little girl who thinks she can play with fire, but we both know she won’t be able to control it for long.”

“If you had a beautiful Omega everyone saw as a prize to buy, where would you hurt her for no one else to see?” Letting the shoulder of my robe drop, he got the hint to turn me around.

Jerking my body to do so, he pinned me with my face against the wall as he ripped the sheer fabric from my arms. Standing in only my lace thong, he was the first to really see what had happened to me. The first to behold the scars marring my back. I knew there were some angrier lines that bubbled out of my natural skin, creating unpleasant frictions when hands moved down them. There was nothing I could do to make them any better, so I hid them in my posh attire. My pants were high rise to protect them, and I wore a jacket to workout. My cropped bras covered the one below my ribs, so Turner and Jericho didn’t see it.

A hurtful sigh fell from Kashmir’s lips as he tried to hold back a cry. There was no doubt in my mind he hadn’t been prepared to see this because none of them knew what truly happened to me. Only Kayos got a glimpse of my factual brokenness earlier today, but he missed the scars.

“Who did this to you?” Our game of cat and mouse ended because Kashmir was on the hunt.

Keeping my nose down, I didn’t want to meet his gaze as he looked at me with pity. “The same man who called me by that nickname you heard today. The same man you fools left me in the care of when you abandoned me.”

“Saul?” he asked it, but we both knew I didn’t need to answer. Instead, I moved the conversation along, hoping to deflect that I let one of them see the real me.

“I’ve been hunting him since I freed myself, but he’s not so easily found. Anytime I think I have him, he slips right through my fingers.”

“We haven’t heard from him since right after we left you.” He stepped back and stumbled a little bit as his mind came to terms with why. “He sent us updates that you were okay, so none of us thought…”

“That he turned me into a trailer trash Omega? Don’t worry, I’m only stronger from it, and I was able to escape him.” Humming my disappoint from today, I hissed. “I should have known he was somehow involved in all of this right now, taking down the Alphas.”

“There was no way to know he would come after all the families of the inner circle,” he tried to make me feel better.

“No, but there is a reason why he left you guys for last. He used to work for you, so you were the end of his vendetta against the families. Everyone else was collateral damage, but he still wanted to take out the heads of power because he isn’t one of them.” Turning around, I tapped my chin as my brain finally figured everything out. I had been a little too preoccupied with Kayos to piece the clues together earlier.

“Do you think he knows about you?” Kashmir panicked as though I was the biggest worry on his mind.

Shaking my head, I gave him a tight-lipped smile. “I’ve been keeping my head down and staying quiet all these years. If you guys didn’t catch wind of me, there’s no way he did. Plus, I have this fortress locked up. Those without access, have no idea how to get into it even if they had the location.”

“And what if another pack betrays you? They might be lurking and studying.”

“How many other packs do you see roaming around at night when yours is?” I made him think before the answer finally registered on his face.

“You don’t let them venture like you do us. But why would you let us?”

Walking over to my bed, I picked up the red dress for tonight. Slipping into it, I noticed how Kashmir kept looking at my body before it was covered by the silky fabric. Due to what my body went through, I had to wear clothes that hid the marks. None of them paid too much attention to that because they didn’t know about them being below the pretty fabric. A pretty doll never drew attention until she was naked.

The dress fell just below my knees with a scoop neck to play with my cleavage. The neckline answered why I wasn’t wearing a bra. Turning my back to him, he knew I wouldn’t answer until he helped zip me up. Once I felt his fingers anchor the dress down before he began pulling, I closed my eyes and relished in the feel of how his single knuckle dragged up my bare back first. The ease of his warmth gliding up my spine. It was his signature he did to me to let me know it was him standing behind me.

I still needed to answer him, but it grew hard when my mind suffocated with our history. “Just like I knew you wouldn’t come in here to slit my throat. Something in our past makes you still feel like home. If you can’t trust your home, then you’re better off dead.”

Using one hand, he let it slide around my waist to hold me by the front of my belly, pressing my back against his chest. His nose dragged up my throat before giving me a hum of approval. “And you still smell like my favorite lemon pie. You still smell like home.”

The door to my room opened right after that, revealing Anika in a gorgeous, gold romper. Completely strapless to show her muscular arms and chest in a way that kept her feminine while being so masculine. Instead of letting her braids fall, they were spun in several thick circles down her wide mohawk, showing the bold style of her side undercuts. Her eyes narrowed on Kashmir, seeing his hands on my body.

The absurdity with me standing where I was could probably be read on my face. Kashmir smirked, letting go of me when he saw the rage within my Beta. “And that’s my cue to leave, Kitty Kat.”

He walked out of the room, and I followed right behind him to not hear it from Anika.

20: Damien

She all too easily evaded my tracking beacon, and her Beta that was always with her somehow lost me as I tried to follow them to her compound. I couldn’t let myself be seen in public with Kit because I knew my father would catch wind of it all too quickly. They’d ask him what his son was doing outside of his ranks at a party he wasn’t invited to. As long as I played the part, working the crowd for my father, he wouldn’t give a damn that I showed up here. He just couldn’t know or see me speak to Kit.

My hope of doing that dwindled when they lost me. There was no way I’d be allowed a do over opportunity. Having my father hunt her again wasn’t something I could let happen, so I devised a different plan to make sure she stayed safe. She had no idea my father knew she was at our cabin today, and I realized I had only one way to alert her of his presence lurking at her doorstep. He left breadcrumbs for her to follow, and she came in too blinded by her fury against him to see it.

One scribble would warn her, so I drew it on a sticky note. It was a symbol with one regular exclamation point and another beside it that I placed upside down. She would know what it meant, but I just had to make sure she saw it. This would be my only way to ensure her safety without speaking to her in public. As badly as I wanted to, I had to remain hidden.

Along the side of the house, I let the darkness and shrubbery hide me. The mayor always went all out when he did events like this, so his hedges had been freshly trimmed around the colonial home. A gaudy fountain sat in the center of the drive for people to circle around as his valets took the cars to a private sector for parking. All of it was just a show of power, and Mayor Goodwin had the most.

Once I saw Kit hand over her invitation to head inside, I made my move to the back door where the servers were. One of my old friends happened to be a waiter on the inside, and he was easy enough to pay off for me to gain entrance. He waited by the back door, handing me a waiter’s uniform so I could blend into the crowd. With all the years that separated us, she wouldn’t recognize me, and I knew to keep the champagne tray at face level to ensure it. Kit was the only girl I ever loved, and I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her again. She was the only light I had in such a dark world after my mother died.

Fixing my new outfit, I blended in with the kitchen staff straightforwardly enough for her to never know I walked the same room as the people inside. My father knew better than to come here, saying his partner would do the work for him. My eyes took notice of quite a few he slipped in the back pocket of, but I wasn’t sure which man helped him set up this one. It was also why I had to give her this warning because I couldn’t tell her the exact danger that she walked into. Letting out a long breath, I finally moved among the ballroom and made my way around it to figure out a perfect time to drop the drawing I had in my pocket of the two exclamation marks.

***

Kit

“You need to be more careful.” Anika was still seething over what she walked in on. “Do you really want all of this to come crumbling down?”

There was one secret sitting between us, one I never brought up because it hurt her too much. The very reason she found Damien when she did in the trailer park because he got caught when she was looking for me. Righting my shoulders, I kept my voice low from being in line to enter the party. We were on the ground steps that had two columns holding up the outsides of it in a way only someone rich could afford. The house was a colonial build, promising a unique look on the inside. I had been focused on that because I didn’t want to answer Anika. Enough time went by for my mind to come to terms with what I had to say to her. “And if it was Ryan? Would you be too careful if it was him?”

She stiffened completely because she knew just as well as I that this was the first time that I had brought it up in years. “There’s no chance of it being him because we both know he’s dead.”

“But what if it was? What if someone gave you a glimmer of hope that the life you wanted wasn’t completely gone?”

“I’d say fantasies are fine when you’re alone in your room, but they have no place in our present. You’ll do well to remember that those boys abandoned you. I don’t give a rat’s ass what they told you as to why, they still left.”

“They blame it on stupidity, being young. They didn’t know I’d been taken until Saul showed them proof of me being targeted, but they didn’t know he was the one targeting me.”

“And which lover boy fed you that line?”

“A few in different scenarios, but it was Kayos who told me everything. I know it would be best if I could forget them completely, but my heart still belongs to them. She doesn’t care about logic or reason whenever they’re around.”

We were silent for a minute as we walked up a few more steps, watching the line move forward as people handed their invitations to the guards at the door. Taking her in, my eyes missed the dangling braids. She usually wore her braids down in her mohawk from them being braided up to sit that way, but she twisted them into pretty buns down the middle to sit pleasantly for everyone to take notice of. The pops of blue made her look like a mermaid to me, and I loved it.

She bowed her head, remembering her sorrow. “If Ryan was still alive, heaven nor hell would be able to stop me from retrieving him. He was the first man to ever see me as more than just a giant woman. So if we’re living in a fantasy, finding him would be mine.”

Guilt struck me hard because I was the one who just put him in her mind. I reminded her of his absence in her life. I was lucky to be able to escape the life of imprisonment I found myself in all those years ago, but Ryan didn’t have the same help on the inside that I did. No one knew of the boy who helped me live, but I’d never forget that familiar sandalwood scent because it always lingered in my nose.

“If we were truly living in a fantasy, I would have saved him all those years ago too.” Reaching over for her hand, I found she was doing the same in my direction. My head rested on her shoulder as I gave her hand a squeeze.

Rough times troubled our minds, and I’d never forget when she told me Ryan had been taken. He had been in hiding when Anika was looking for me, but someone found him. Ryan was special in ways we never shared with anyone, and he was gone before we could find him. No one was him for her, and it wasn’t fair she had to go through losing us both.

Finally getting to the guards, I handed over our invitations for them to scan with our IDs for them to check. We were cleared instantly and waved to move in. If the outside wasn’t gaudy enough, the inside sure tipped the scales. The lavish décor had to be imported from around the world, sitting in each room and hanging on the walls. More ushers on the side of the hallway waved us to go through the house instead of stopping to view each room for the beauty that sat within them. We followed the pristine wood floors in their darker shade to an open room deeper inside the home. It was a ballroom of sorts, but not quite as big as mine in the underground.

We saw countless politicians who we all hated secretly, but we knew better than to say anything publicly. They had security details with their packs that protected their power within the numbers they gained. Anika and I were already on high alert because of the secrets we kept, but we knew better than to say anything.

No one was dancing yet as a quartet played in the corner of the room on a raised platform to be seen by all. Their instrumentals were beautiful, but they made the perfect cover for people to have conversations they didn’t want to be overheard. We began walking the room, grabbing a flute of champagne off a traveling tray. Together, we drank them as we made a loop around the room, listening to anything that might be alarming to our current situation.

Being someone of power meant you always had to stay on high alert. Just as we discovered ourselves back to where we began, Mandy found us. She looked utterly exasperated by whatever bullshit she had to deal with. I knew, for her, this event was to gain favors and kiss the asses of those who I would rather see shot in the head. But she had to play the game if she wanted to win it. Standing in her enemy’s home was just how she braved doing it. I was really proud of my friend for what she’d been achieving.

“You know, I’m fine with making the hard calls and writing up reports for incidences that happened within the city. I can make the tough demands that people don’t want to, but the part about this job I hate, schmoozing with all these fuckers. They could care less about my name or the things I believe in that I want to bring to the city. They all just want to know what’s in it for them.” Stealing my glass of champagne, she chugged the whole thing.

I waved down a waiter and took back the glass to place on his tray before grabbing us fully filled ones. Her eyes thanked me for getting her another one, so I held mine up between for us all to clink together. A silent cheer shared like we always did because this was the event Mandy needed us to help her with. Plus, I couldn’t deny the aspect of having my friend in power for my personal growth. I’d never use her like these imbeciles, but I’d be able to protect my people better by having someone in the know.

“What do you need us to do?” I asked Mandy because I knew she brought us here for a reason.

“Maybe you guys could work the room and insert my name here and there?” Her eyes pleaded because this was a tricky situation.

“We got you covered,” Anika answered. Leaving our friend, we began working our way into a few conversations to name drop Mandy, adding something catching for them to remember her by. It would only take agreeing with a few things to get someone to have more faith in her.

Not much time went by, but Anika and I had done our duty to make sure people knew who Mandy was among them. Drinking our champagne, we celebrated together as though it’d been easy enough. Anika and Mandy were laughing about something that had come from one of the conversations, but I felt that weird sensation of eyes being on me again.

Finishing my flute of champagne, I managed to snag one off a tray right as a server moved by me. He didn’t even stop his walk as I placed my empty one where the new one had been. Trying to calm my nerves, I knew I couldn’t let my hand shake as I traveled it to my lips for another swig of alcohol. Champagne wasn’t very strong, but I knew I needed some to dampen my nerves. The goosebumps on the back of my neck were rigid and standing with the little hairs sensing something stalked among me.

My hand fell back on the table beside us to catch myself as I took several deep breaths quietly for my friends not to notice. Feeling a little piece of paper below, I lifted my palm up to notice something that crippled me completely. This time, my gasp was just loud enough for Anika to notice. I hurried to crumple the paper up and hold it in my fist for them not to see because Mandy couldn’t be alerted about this part that my life had suffered.

“Is everything okay?” Anika met my stare to make sure.

“I was chugging my champagne too fast, and I had to get better air. It felt like a burp was coming up at the same time, so I made that ridiculous sound.” Casting my eyes nervously among the crowd, Anika picked up on what I secretly conveyed, but I knew I had to make it look like my lie was real. “Do you think anyone noticed?”

Mandy snorted and batted her hand into my arm. “I think you’re just fine, and you’re worrying about something that you shouldn’t be.”

“I hope you’re right,” I murmured to myself before taking another drink. My eyes kept scanning the crowd for the one perpetrator who left behind this graffiti I once knew. In the trailer that Saul kept me in, one of his men had spray painted this on my wall for shits and giggles. One exclamation mark looked correct while the other drawn in reverse, but I knew it wasn’t something someone would typically draw and leave at a table where I stood.

This was a warning for me, so I had to keep my guard up from now on. Saul caught wind of where I was, and I could only suspect he knew I ransacked that cabin today. Someone now attempted to warn me about it, but I know who would.

Acting slightly dizzy, Anika knew I was faking, but Mandy believed it. She looked concerned for me because she always had been a sweet friend who never left my side. “Are you alright?”

“You know when the alcohol hits you all at once? I think mine just did.” We all laughed, and Mandy was fine with us saying goodbye because of it. She knew better than anyone else to keep drunk me away from company because I stumbled into everyone. If she wanted a name to be made for herself, it wasn’t with that version of me helping.

Before we could make it out the door, a man stopped us on our path. It was Mayor Goodwin wearing a green velvet suit to stand out from his guests. “Leaving so soon?”

“Just need some fresh air,” I returned, feeling the unease build even more inside of me.

“Kit Andrews, right?” His eyes narrowed after dropping my name. My hackles raised because I felt like he was involved with Saul somehow. He wouldn’t know my name otherwise.

“Yes, Mayor Goodwin. Pleasure to meet you in person.” Sticking out my hand, he took it and gave it an extra firm squeeze.

“You’re Amanda’s guests?” He waited for me to reply.

“She’s an old friend.” Keeping my smile small, I knew not to say anything else. I couldn’t call her a stranger because he saw us helping schmooze his guests against him for her. Hopefully, this wouldn’t be used against us later.

“Is everything alright?” Mandy came up behind us.

“Fine. Mayor Goodwin was just saying goodbye to us,” I clipped in a tone that warned him to not do anything else. He finally stepped to the side and let us pass.

Heading outside, I breathed in the cool air as Anika got the valet to get her car. We waited patiently by the podium they were at with all the keys as she looked around, nearly begging me to spill what happened, and the mayor would also be another topic. I shook my head to warn her it wasn’t safe to talk about quite yet.

Once we were in our car and on our way back, I unfurled the paper for her to see it. She knew the symbol because I told her about my nightmares of it. I told her about all the times I’d been taken by other men as my eyes stared vacantly at it. On my white wall of shambles, this had been sprayed in red.

“He’s found me,” I whispered to her as she pulled us onto the highway.

“We’re going to need more help. The mayor all but told us he knows too.”

“Our people are great fighters already, so we’ll be just fine.”

Her eyes rolled as though she knew I’d reply with something in that manner. “You need to tell them our secret. They might very well be the ones who can help us get through this.”

“And what about after?” I turned my stare over the console to look at the side of her face as she drove us through the night. “Have you thought about what happens then? All the people who are relying on us in our home. What happens to them when they learn they aren’t in a pack?”

Anika gritted her teeth, but she knew better than to say anything else. The threat against me wasn’t worth making a threat against our people, and she knew their safety would stay my first concern. Though, we’d have to keep tabs on Mandy now. I knew the mayor and Saul weren’t above using her against me.

21: Kit

Working purposefully, I kept trying to hold my head up, even though I felt like I was drowning. Last night, we met with the Alphas to share the information we had on Saul. None of them were too thrilled about learning of his devious ways. Apparently, it wasn’t just Ryatt’s family he worked for. He had his hand in everyone’s back pocket this whole time, and not even one of the leaders knew about it.

That was all the information we had, sadly. I thought once we had the truth come out, they would know where Saul might be. Like Ryatt and his pack, none of them had seen or heard from the man in question for a few years.

I understood Saul had been building himself an empire this whole time. Like me, it was right underneath the noses of those who sat around the table. My thoughts were restless the whole night, because I knew there wasn’t much to be done. We were hunting a ghost who wouldn’t step out into the public light. That also told me he had help from higher ups, and I knew the mayor was one of them by how he interacted with me.

I told the Alphas of my claims against Goodwin, but I also admitted to them that I had no proof. Most of them had been long-term friends with the vile man, so they weren’t too keen on believing me. It bothered me in one way or another because they were trusting the wrong person. If anyone could lead us to where Saul was, it would be the man they worshiped.

Now that it was in the early morning hours, I got up from my empty nest and made my way to the door. I needed to get the jitters out of me, so I headed toward the gym. With so much energy pent-up inside of me, there was only one way to get it out. Luckily, I could have a nap after all of this, and my body delighted in that fact. I really needed some type of rest because I hadn’t been sleeping for so long.

When I got to the gym doors, I noticed Turner was sitting outside on a folding chair. That’s when my mind remembered Anika would be training Jericho right now. It surprised me to see the Beta outside of the training area. “What are you doing out here?”

My voice alerted him of my presence, so he whipped his head up to look at me. Grumbling, he rolled his shoulders and studied the floor again. “Anika kicked me out a few sessions ago because I kept getting too pissed off when she attacked Jericho. She makes me sit out here while they train, so I don’t interfere with what she’s teaching him.”

It was hard not to laugh at that because I understood it. Anika felt like someone who should’ve been born an Alpha, but she was stuck in the Beta’s body. She had the command and control down, but she didn’t have the lock to help her lead. She did have extra strength I’d never seen in a Beta, being her skill. Kashmir had a honed skill with weaponry. Franco mastered gardening faster than I’d ever seen. Skills were rare among the Betas, but I noticed some here and there. They were mostly pointed toward survival of the pack.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I chuckled to myself. Knowing I couldn’t go inside and work out, I had to make up an excuse as to why I came here because I could see he wanted to ask that. Pointing at the door, I smiled politely. “I just wanted to make sure everything was going okay with Jericho and Anika.”

“As good as it can be, but I wouldn’t go in unless you want to be bitched at. Anika has yelled at a few people for trying to go in during our session. She’s quite feisty when she wants to be.”

“Oh, I know.” I smirked because of her power. “Well, I won’t bother them. It was good seeing you though.” Waving goodbye, I started walking away.

“Hey Kit, what was the real reason you stopped training Jericho?”

Looking over my shoulder, I found his dark eyes piercing into my own. Turner was such a beautiful man. It nearly hurt my eyes. “I have one weakness, and you are fortunate to know what that is from when you woke up from surgery. If I kept tempting myself, someone else would learn.”

Nodding, he understood. He knew I still loved them all, but I wasn’t strong enough to say no. “You look like you need some rest.”

“I’m heading to my room now, but I wanted to stop here first.”

The lie fell easily from my lips, but I hurried to walk away before he could call me out on it. Following the long corridors, I went back to my room to find someone else lurking outside of it. Franco knew where my room was because he had been wandering the halls quite a few times when I ran into him. Yawning, I waved my hand at him before walking into my room. He followed me in, as I knew he would, so I left the door open.

“I haven’t slept in a few days, so I’m going to try sleeping now. If you have a complaint, can you make it quick?” I removed my jacket and tennis shoes. Only standing in a sports bra and high waisted shorts, Franco’s eyes kept scanning over my body, and I forgot what he’d see. Though, I had no doubt Kashmir told them already.

“You have trouble sleeping, don’t you?” He let it be a question, but I also knew it wasn’t.

“Nightmares aren’t kind,” I quipped.

Sighing, he let it be known that he felt put out by something. I looked over my shoulder to see him removing his pants and shoes. Staying in his boxers and T-shirt, he climbed into my nest and waved me to follow. “You’re not sleeping because you’re trying to sleep alone, and it goes against your nature. You might be able to lie to the others, but you forget it was me who once held you most nights.”

I wasn’t sure if I should let such a strong temptation in, but I also knew I could really use a good rest. With all the corruption going on, this was what I needed. Climbing into the bed, I made my way to him and gave him my backside to keep it more platonic. Franco let his arms wrap around me, holding me to his giant, warm chest. The spicy sent enveloped me, promising me a deeper sleep because I finally had what I wanted.

In my mind, I kept telling myself it was for one night. One night I would allow myself this. I let myself feel at home once again, even though this could never be a permanent thing. Closing my eyes, I blissfully fell asleep, and it was deep enough not to dream.

22: Damien

Per my father’s request, we followed Drake to this secret entrance he told us about. My eyes were attentive, keeping watch just in case I noticed her from any direction. I couldn’t openly protect her, so I had to hope and pray my warning was enough. The day started dreary, resembling my soul. Not that I ever experienced much happiness, but Kit was my light in my darkest hour. Having to be part of this witch hunt unraveled the remaining strand of joy I felt.

My father’s men took in the shambles remaining of the warehouse buildings around the river, and it was hard for us to believe there was some type of empire below. A few drunken homeless people were passed out near the corners of the buildings to stay dry from the rain, but nothing screamed actual people lived below.

“The entrance is this way.” He pointed to a small shed that sat near the buildings but was distant enough to not fit in. Going inside, we made our way down a set of stairs within the dingy room. Though, the little space had nothing in it to capture our attention other than rusty tools on the floor. This place looked homeless and abandoned for a good reason. No one wanted to be near the docks because of all the bad things that happened over here.

There was a metal door at the bottom that my father’s men tried to open, but the door wouldn’t budge. Not a single shift came from it, so my father’s men set up devices all around that would explode the locks and joints without causing an actual explosion to take place.

Once they were all set up, we waited for the sound as it reacted with the door and pushed the hinges completely out. Three men helped guide the door to the floor, but we were only met with a pile of rocks on the other side. The rock formation had mold and moss growing on it as though it had been there longer than two weeks. There was no way this could be the place Kit was hiding, and my father noticed the same thing. “This has aged with time, so there was never a door here that went to something else.”

Drake lifted his hands in surrender as he panicked for what my father might do to him. “I swear, this is the spot. They were always really good about keeping everything a secret, so maybe they blew up the exit they led the Sellers out for them not to come back in. If you don’t believe me, ask them. This was the spot.”

My father quite liked that idea because he and the Sellers had been in cahoots for years. It was why they treated him like royalty when we went to the auctions. “I’ll do just that, but that will have to be a task for tomorrow. I have to go collect a certain guest for our home.”

A new wave of apprehension befell me because I knew exactly who he meant. I had tried to warn Kit, but I felt like my attempt had been futile if he was talking so highly about it right now. “You were able to find her?”

“Indeed, I was, and she left me with what would motivate her to come. Kit Andrews has a friend in our community that makes a perfect target to draw her out. You might not have heard of Amanda Woods, but you’re about to meet her.” Cackling, my father knew he had won some type of vicious game no one else knew he played.

I just hated the knowledge that he would hurt Kit through a friend. It meant I wasn’t the only one at the party watching her a few nights ago, so his new companion must’ve been there. I just had to hope and pray this new buddy of his didn’t see me there, or what I left behind on that table. If Kit was coming back to my father’s chokehold, I’d have to try getting her out once again. It wouldn’t be easy because I knew my father was keenly aware of what happened last time. He couldn’t blame me for her escape, but that didn’t mean he trusted me now.

23: Franco

Iheaded back from the farm when I noticed Kit was on edge again. She kept looking over her shoulder without paying attention to anything in front of her. After letting her rest with me last night, I wanted to check on her again. We parted ways once she woke up, and I hated being away from her.

Getting in her path, I could tell she needed to talk, but I still wasn’t someone she probably wanted to talk to. Almost being near my room, any of the others would be right inside if I needed to holler for them.

“Are you alright?” My question stopped her in her tracks as she realized she completely forgot the world around her.

Her eyes went wide with wonder, contemplating how she was going to respond because she knew I’d be able to tell if she was lying. Her lemon scent was strong, and it made my nose twitch because it wasn’t like her Alpha’s scent I normally got when I took a sniff of her. That was odd because typically, you could no longer smell an Omega’s scent unless it was between their legs after being marked. I could tell this didn’t come from having sex because she didn’t smell of an orgasm.

“Just a really long day,” she told me a half truth.

“You look like you’re being hunted.” Narrowing my eyes on her, she knew she couldn’t avoid it when I brought it up.

Rolling her eyes, she only did that in annoyance of what I said. She then relented just a little with a sigh because she knew I wasn’t going anywhere until I got a little from her to placate my need for an answer. “I’ve just felt off. It’s almost like feeling someone watching me constantly from behind, but I never see their face. It’s putting me on edge to not have the answers that would help it.”

I was surprised she confessed to me so easily, but I also knew she needed help. Whether she wanted to admit it to me or not, I could tell she said it from a place of needing protection by people she trusted. A vise squeezed my heart because if she felt that way, it meant something dark was looming near us. I could tell she had been through some shit, so I knew better than to deny what she felt.

“What would make you feel better?”

The corner of her mouth kicked up when she finally met my gaze. “Saul’s head served on a silver platter.”

Snorting, we finally knew all the truths about that bastard. Why she wanted him dead, and it came with learning of his betrayal to our family. Shaking my head just a bit, I reached out my hand for her to follow me. “Why don’t you come back to our room for a bit? The boys have been doing a poker tournament while we’re stuck in here. I know they wouldn’t mind if you joined. You used to drain our pockets dry.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun, but I have a lot to do around here. The others have been breaking their backs to keep things going in my absence, so it wouldn’t be fair to leave it to Raphael to deal with this problem by himself. He’s been the one doing the hard work for the compound as I’ve been running around with my head cut off to get answers.”

“You know, I think he’d understand if you took a little bit of a break to have some fun.” She knew I wasn’t going to budge on this, so she checked her watch.

She made a few faces and looked like she was swishing something in her mouth before she finally relented again. “I can come for a few minutes, but only to watch.”

Slipping her dainty hand in mine, it sent a trickle of fire up my arm, right to my heart. She felt so right to have next to me, and that was unnerving me in other ways. Kit remained the only woman any of us had ever loved, and those feelings weren’t going anywhere soon. She was still the same woman we had all fallen in love with over a decade ago. She just had a harder exterior to protect herself, but I couldn’t say I minded it.

Once we got into the room, the others were laughing but silenced when they saw her with me. She gave them a small wave before hooking her thumb in my direction. “Franco offered for me to come say hi for a minute, but I can go if you don’t want me here.”

What surprised all of us the most was when Jericho jumped from his chair and ran to her with his arms open to hug her. “Kit! I’ve missed you, but Anika has been doing a great job.”

Kit returned the hug, shocking us because we didn’t know when they became friends. It was a small relief, though, because we all still loved the woman that he had his arms around. If they were already this cozy, it might be easier for us to be as well. “Sorry about the switch, but I’ve been needed for other things in the compound. It’s hard playing hostess to so many packs while still maintaining my own.”

“Don’t worry about a thing,” he promised something between them that none of us were clued in on. Well, except Turner. He smirked as though he knew exactly what they were talking about.

Dragging her to the table, he made sure to give her a seat while taking his own. It didn’t take long for everyone to start talking and laughing while they enjoyed her company. As I stood on the side, I just delighted in all of us finally getting along again. Two weeks, and I finally got her to come into our home to spend time with us.

While we had been a family without her, something had always been missing. It was Kit the whole time. This felt complete, but I knew it didn’t feel quite real because she didn’t belong to us. Keeping my dark thoughts to myself, I knew to just enjoy it while it lasted. This joy wouldn’t come around a third time, but I knew this would have to end at some point. My heart hated that. The logic of it all kept trying to crash down over top of me because I knew she belonged to someone else.

It wasn’t long before her phone buzzed, so she looked at it. Her face morphed from peaceful to troubled almost instantly.

“I have to get going but thank you for letting me come say hi for a minute.” She stood from the table and made her way to the door.

“You’re welcome in here anytime,” Ryatt communicated to her. With our kind, honesty could be heard, especially when an Alpha nearly commanded it.

“I appreciate that, thank you.” Leaving us to our game, I wasn’t the only one to find it odd with how she interacted at the end.

“Everyone saw her face, right?” Kashmir fretted.

“That text had something bad on it,” Kayos nearly growled.

“More reason to keep watch over her to make sure she stays safe, and we need to listen closely to make sure something else isn’t at work right now.” Ryatt let his eyes take in the closed door, knowing this was only the beginning of something else.

24: Kit

Getting the text from Mandy felt weird because I wasn’t the best person for campaign stuff. Yet again, I knew she didn’t have very many people on her side in those offices. Politics were always cutthroat, especially when you were going up against someone who kept winning elections. Most of these things came down to power, and her competition had the most.

Knowing Anika wouldn’t like the conversation, I sent her down the road to get us other supplies. We needed to make a food shipment, and the butcher we used was right down the street from the restaurant I met Mandy at. Going our separate ways, she pointed to her cell phone to indicate I needed to call her if shit hit the fan. A right solution because Mandy sent me a text that she felt like she was being followed.

Having our lunch inside a public place made it so if we did have enemies, they wouldn’t try touching us out in the open. Anika would be here before I left, so the fear of being kidnapped during that time lowered. Even if there was a minuscule fear of it, I knew I couldn’t let it get to me.

Mandy was already seated, studying over the menu with a pile of papers next to her. She looked worn out and tired, and I knew this job couldn’t be easy on her. Having a new fear of being hunted didn’t make it easier. She probably thought Goodwin wanted to remove her as competition. Taking my seat, I didn’t need to look over the menu to know what I wanted because broccoli cheese soup sounded good with a steak panini.

When Mandy picked up on my presence, she jolted just a little in her seat. Her eyes were skittish, moving toward the window. Now I was beginning to question if someone had threatened her. Letting my hand travel across the table, I took hers in my hold to let her know I would support her. “Is everything alright?”

“Fine,” she answered too hastily. When she realized her mistake, she waved my worry away with her hand. “I’m sure you know how it goes for people like me when others don’t like the competition.”

“Did someone threaten you?” My hackles were already rising because I didn’t like her feeling unnerved.

“Not in the sense you’re thinking,” she started. “Their attack against me has been more subtle than that.”

My mind immediately began to understand her words without trying. Whoever stood against her right now, they were doing it in a way to not get caught. “Is that why you texted me? Because of whatever problem you’re facing?”

“You’ve always been good at reading between the lines, Kit.”

The waitress handed me my water then, so I took a few gulps from it to ponder what she meant by that. There was this slight rudeness in her stare that made her look discreetly menacing. It was like she tried to be nice to my face, but she didn’t have enough energy to fully mask what was being revealed.

“Mandy, I’ve been your friend since middle school. If I did something to upset you, you can tell me what I did.”

“Oh, I think we both know what you did this time.”

Before I could respond, a massive amount of tiredness took over me. When the room began to spin, I looked down at my glass, aware of what was just done to me. Trying to fight through the haze, my hand slipped into my pocket to my reach phone as fast as possible. I held down the number one because that was Anika’s speed dial. Before I could get any words out to make a cryptic SOS, the darkness took over me. Mandy’s smug expression was the last thing I saw before everything went dark.

***

Groggy, my head lulled in half-moons as I tried to gather enough strength to lift it up completely. Groaning, I felt like too much fog clouded my brain to fight through, telling me I had been drugged. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what Mandy’s game plan was with it. What did she have in the works for something like this? I immediately began to question if she figured out who I was and what I’d been doing. But how would she be able to figure that out?

Finally being able to open my eyes with the heavy pull that made them want to close, I looked around the room and saw I was in some kind of antique sitting area. Built-in bookshelves sat all around a fireplace with a Persian rug on the floor, but the room was completely void of what I felt like should have been a study. With two high backed chairs made in embroidered patterns of gold and green, I found myself staring at the fancier, empty seat across from me. The fire had been kindled, showing the dancing flames that crackled for my ears to hear. The small scent of smoke also fumigated my nose, making it hard to smell anything else.

There was one window across from me, but I could convey we weren’t on a ground level from seeing the flourishing branches of a tree. The branch was too thick, telling me the tree had been old enough to be standing that tall.

When the door finally opened, Mandy made her way in wearing her formal business wear. She was in a pleated skirt and matching jacket with her hair in a French twist again. As always, her face was painted in heavy makeup.

“Oh good, you’re finally awake. It only took you a few hours.” She made her way into the room, taking the empty seat across from me. Even through the smoke, I could scent just a little blood in the room from the copper hitting my nostrils. A small whiff of bleach told me that they tried cleaning it up too many times, but they must have kept killing in this room because it didn’t help.

“Mandy, what’s the meaning of this?” I tugged on the bindings that held my arms behind my back. My chair matched the one across from me, but it wasn’t a fancy sitting chair having wooden boards across my back instead. The only luxury I was afforded was the embroidered, cushioned seat that matched hers. Scoping out everything in the room, she knew I was trying to figure out an escape.

“Do you remember at lunch before you drank the water?” She admitted to how she drugged me, and it told me that place was under her thumb already. Never once did I believe Mandy to be corrupt, but I did now from seeing her like this.

“I’ve never worked against you,” I nearly growled.

“A couple weeks ago, I asked you if you knew where Ryatt and Kayos were. Do you remember your answer?”

Swallowing hard, I knew I needed to keep my mouth shut. I had too many Alphas and their packs in my home to let any detail slip. Locking my jaw, she noticed and only grinned wider from it.

Opening the satchel in her grasp, she lifted a picture. It was of me and Kayos at the cabin where I killed the lead we had. Her undeniable evidence wasn’t looking great for me, but I still knew better than to say anything.

“Looks like you’re pretty cozy with them after all. Have you been their pet these last seven years?”

“What does this have to do with being against you?” My hands kept trying to undo the knots behind my back, but they angled my arms too tight to even twist.

“Simple. I told you I’m cleaning up the streets for my campaign. Do you think it’s been easy watching and following all those packs who run the underground? Though, I dare say you were the hardest to find.”

My nerves were shot, but I never agreed to anything she said, just in case she didn’t know. “You know where I’ve been this whole time,” I tried to remind her of what I had been informing her of. My life as a claimed Omega.

“Oh yes, this famous Alpha you never gave me a real name for. This luxurious life that gives you fur coats and pedicures, but you made some mistakes, Kit. You made enough errors that I finally caught on. Snapping her fingers, the door opened again to reveal a face I wasn’t prepared to see.”

Unable to breathe, Saul’s power exuded from him immediately. He began to target me directly because he knew what a monster he was to me. He was why nightmares came when I closed my eyes. Without trying to give my fear away, I knew if they touched my heart, they’d feel the pounding in my chest.

“Pussy Cat,” he greeted me with his Cheshire smile. Saul wasn’t a man many could stand against, and I hadn’t been victorious when it came to hunting him down either. The man was as elusive as the camouflage on my home. “It’s so nice to see my favorite whore.”

My eyes darted back to Mandy, hating that she brought this man in my presence. “How long have you been working with him?”

“Who do you think it was that helped him break those boys when they found out their precious Kit was gone? Someone had to be close enough to get pictures.” Her leer was devastating. Finding out that one of your closest friends had betrayed you long before any of this happened was a tough pill to swallow.

“But why? We were all your friends!”

“Friends,” she hissed the word back at me. “I was never seen as anything but a friend because I’m the Alpha female, and you’re the Omega. Their most prized possession was you, but it should have been me. I’m the one whose gained more power in this city than anyone else from our group. I’m the one who could have offered them everything the world denied, but they still wanted you.”

My mind began to warp because of all the lunches we had over the years. At least once a month we got together, and she had been lying to me this whole time. Mandy had been playing the long game, and I was too blinded by our friendship to see it.

“One picture of me and Kayos isn’t enough to link me to them. I have a life and a pack outside of this, and my Alpha will miss me.”

“Alpha,” Saul scoffed. This time, it was him who snapped his fingers for the door to open. Unprepared, I saw my old lover that I got rid of after making him kill his secret girlfriend. He looked too well to be under the thumb of the Sellers anymore, revealing to me that Saul was the one who bought him. The little shit must have found his way out by speaking of things he shouldn’t have been.

“Drake, I should have killed you when I had the opportunity,” I growled at him.

“But where would this fun be if I was gone? You had too many delicious secrets to give away.” He started over to stand at the side of Mandy’s chair, laying a hand on her shoulder to show they were more than just an alliance working to ruin me.

“Saul bought me him as a gift, and I have to say, you gave up quite the lover.” Mandy let her eyes drift over his body, lingering over the hard lines of muscle.

A festering rage began to build in me because I knew this was going to be my end. I just had to hope I could last through all the torturing they were about to bring down on me to keep my people safe. Drake had only seen one entrance to the underground, and it was closed off shortly after we got rid of him and the Sellers who came into our home. Without knowing the entry points, their people would die if they tried to go after mine. Still, there was a heavy bout of worrying that came over me because I knew my people were in trouble.

“We know you’re an unclaimed Omega, Kit. After all the things Drake was able to tell me, I was able to deduce what you had been doing this whole time. I can only assume Anika was in on it, helping you pretend there was some savior Alpha in your life.” Mandy sat back and crossed one of her legs over the other, knowing she really did get too much information on me.

“It doesn’t matter what I did to survive or to escape, but I can promise you right now that you will never be able to find who you think you will.” Without wanting to give names or packs away, I kept him on edge with my secret.

Saul walked over to the fire, letting his hand grab a stoke before placing it in the burning embers. We watched as the tip turned orange from being so hot, and he leisurely sauntered back over to where I sat. His hand fisted into my hair, pulling my neck into an arch for my pretend bites to show. He let his nose drag down and scent me because everyone in this room knew I was unclaimed. My secret perfume wouldn’t hold out this long if I had been here for a few hours, so I knew I was in trouble.

Without warning, he placed the stoke over the two small burns I had previously given myself as a branding. I screamed in utter horror as he burned the flesh of where those bites were. The searing pain pulsed down every nerve in my body in a warning. Even though I revealed to him that this was excruciatingly painful, I knew I would never talk. I also understood this was just the beginning of what he planned to do to me.

Stopping for just a second, he turned my head for the two others to witness the new mark he gave me. There’d be no freedom now that he ruined what I had built for myself, but he didn’t stop there as he took the point of the stoke to draw a small symbol on my cheek. It meant that I was a dud as an Omega, and I didn’t need a mirror to see it. He wanted everyone in the world to believe that I was incapable of taking a knot. Branding the mark into my skin, I made sure to give him a seething glare as tears spilled from my eyes. Spitting in his face, I knew it was the last bit of power I had in this situation.

Slapping me across my cheek, he did it hard enough that the edges of my vision began to darken. I wasn’t sure what would come for me after this, but I did know nothing good would be in my future. With only haunting memories of the last time Saul had me, I knew what he would do to my body.

Mandy let her heels click over the floor as she came to stand in front of me. Her pointer finger and thumb captured my chin, forcing my stare to meet hers as I tried to blink to stay awake. “It’s too bad things couldn’t be different between us, but I know you’d choose them over me any day. It’s that rage that helps me complete what I need to do in this city. You’ve been my purpose all along.”

With one final blow from her, the strength she hit me with was enough to render me unconscious. I knew waking up would be worse than if death found me in my sleep.

25: Kit

Past

“Help,” my frail voice croaked from the malnutrition I had been receiving. Out through the window, I could hear people nearby, driving me to speak for the first time in days.

My beaten body moved with the shackle that clamped my left foot. It felt like hauling three times my body weight, but I knew I had to find a way out of this mess. If it took the last breath in my lungs, I’d give it to get out or die. Death felt like a mercy after losing count of the sunsets in this dingy room.

I felt some smaller splinters jab into my flesh as my naked body scraped the surface over the poorly installed wood floors to get help. The stench of my own urine and orgasms intensified from how brutally they used me and drugged me in this tiny room. There were too many semen samples near me to pinpoint one direct threat that found me, but it made me feel unsafe near too many Alpha scents. Their cum coated me mostly, spraying everywhere over my helpless body to mark me as a whore.

Sleeping in their release made it dry and kept cracking into flakes as I anchored my palms to heave my numb limbs forward. Pulling through some puddles from last night, I wasn’t strong enough to stand, so I was forced to endure the pain of the warped and sharp paneling that my mother never paid to replace. She had been a cracked-out whore my whole life, but I thought I’d be different. I thought I’d make it out of the trailer park. Little did I know that my dreams were just that.

I couldn’t rely on a white knight to save me now. No, I had to figure out a way to save myself. My mind tried to drudge through the thickness of the drugs, but it was hard to commit to when sleep offered sanctuary. Shaking through it, I had to get to the window for someone to see me. Just one stranger might be enough to get me out, if they saw my condition and suffering.

“Please,” I pled, reaching my arms out to drag a few more inches again. Hurling my dead weight, I ignored the undesirable pain between my thighs, the crippling ruin of my Omega body. There was no undoing what had happened, but I learned the drugs helped turn it off. I liked not remembering. It blinded me enough that I could compartmentalize my way through this to survive.

“Help me!” I drew up more fervor to let my voice echo louder. It came out as a cry of suffering, but I knew they heard me from how they quieted. Hope blossomed in my chest as a shadow moved in front of the pane. The outside world was right there, waiting for me to find it again. Smiling slightly, I waved the person down. The sun made a glow around their body, so I couldn’t make out their face in the shadows.

His hands cupped the glass to peer into the room, seeing my condition. There was no easy way to see a young woman shackled by her ankle, naked on the floor of a room with no furniture. His hands worked open the window, eyes wide in terror. It made small noises as he shoved against it, but his strength pulled through.

“Please,” I begged with fresh tears. I thought I was too broken to cry, but they found me now. They told the man more than any word could say.

“Just hold on, okay?” He whipped his phone out to call for help. The first taste of hope found me after so long because I was about to be saved. I was about to be free.

That was until a gun fired, blowing the man’s head off. Chunks of his flesh and splatters of his blood landed on me and the floor in front of me. The body hung over the sill, dangling with the missing top of his head for the blood to begin to pour down the wall. A pool of crimson began to build below.

Saul stood behind the dead man, loving the horror that etched along my face. More shots fired outside, cluing me in on the other innocent people that were killed for being too close to me. Saul handed his shotgun off to one of his lackeys before flipping the corpse fully inside my room. The body had no life in the fall, debilitating me past the point of redemption. I had gotten an innocent man killed for my falsities of hope.

“I think I’ll leave him right here to remind you what will happen to anyone you cry out to.” A darkness took over his expression, leering his pride at me. “I hope you enjoy the smell of your new roommate. He smells of your innocence, decomposing more by the minute.”

26: Kashmir

All this waiting made me feel like a sitting duck. Playing another round of poker with the guys should’ve helped take my mind off things, but it didn’t. I kept trying to talk myself into this becoming our norm, but I’d always been a man of action. I needed a challenge that helped me embrace my darker side. With my leg bouncing below the table, everyone could sense how my own tension raised. While grateful for the help the Alpha here gave us, we couldn’t leave very often.

“Will you stop bouncing your leg?” Ryatt wasn’t too pleased with life right now. As a group, we all decided that Kit would be worth it for us to enjoy. Her Alpha didn’t seem to have a problem with it, but we couldn’t ask him formally. All of us found it odd that he never revealed himself, and Kit deserved more protection than that.

“Sorry,” I muttered. “I just feel antsy for some reason.”

“We’ve all been on edge from being locked up,” Franco reminded me. Only Kayos and I had been able to leave the compound, so the others had it worse than we did.

“I don’t know,” Kayos joined. “Something feels off right now, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

Laying our hands down on the table, none of us folded, so we watched as Jericho won with a three of a kind in kings. His smile was small even though he cleaned a lot of us out of our chips, and I felt partially to blame for that because I kept bringing up the negative things happening.

“I’ll try to be more positive,” I promised the group. “It’s just hard to be happy when you feel like everything’s falling apart.”

“We’re all here together, so that’s the only thing I need.” Jericho stacked the chips by color. It reminded me of when we first taught him how to play this game. He wasn’t a card shark, but it was always cute to watch him have a good hand because we could all read his tells. He didn’t know that’s how we all stayed in on this last hand. The corner of his mouth kicked up to tell us he had something worth betting on.

Studying him that helped me relax just a little bit. His words were right; we did have each other. We even managed to find the Omega we thought we lost, but she went out today for some reason. Right before I let myself slack deeper in my seat, the door to our quarters barged open. Anika looked frantic and panicked as she fought her brother to come in. Her and Raphael were arguing over something that we weren’t privy too.

“She’ll kill us if you say anything,” Raphael warned his sister.

“She’s in trouble,” Anika growled at him. “If there’s anyone that I trust to help us with this, it’s the men in this room.”

“Trust us with what?” Ryatt stood from the table. His dominance exuded across the room because a flare of panic met us by force. Kayos and Turner also stood to establish their ranks among us as Alphas as well.

“It’s Kit,” she said as though it’d be answer enough.

“Anika,” Raphael said one more warning to his sister. “She’ll have our heads if you say anything more.”

“She won’t have a head if we don’t act,” Anika hissed back. Swinging her menacing gaze back our way, she tried to right her shoulders, but they were too tense to lower. “Kit went to lunch with Mandy today. They do it every month, so it has never been a problem before. I went to the store down the street while she had lunch in a public spot. We’ve never had anything happen, so I thought she was safe.”

“What are you saying?” I asked her. A swift breeze of trouble whispered in the air, and it blew all around us.

“They were taken,” she cried. “They’ve taken Kit. Mandy too.”

Everyone froze because Kit finally told Kayos what Saul did to her. We knew the horror she faced in our absence because we trusted the wrong person.

“How do you know this?” I hurried to say.

“Kit was able to speed dial me right before she passed out from the drugs. I heard some of the words as they took her out the back and loaded her up. I didn’t make it in time to get to her, so I only saw the white van pulling away after they tossed Mandy in it too. She wasn’t awake, so they must’ve drugged both girls. They have Kit, and they’re going to use her to give up all the names she’s protected.”

“But how would they know she’s involved?” Turner asked.

“I was able to make out one face in the passenger seat because he was staring at me in the mirror. The night you guys arrived, you saw the Sellers carrying off someone. He was Kit’s lover who broke her number one rule, so she made him kill his girlfriend, and Kit sold him to the Sellers after. He was with Saul’s men, so God only knows what he has said about our compound.”

“How come you’re bringing this to us?” Ryatt asked her. “Where’s her mate? Where is the Alpha who is supposed to be protecting her?”

“Are you guys this dense? I don’t remember you being this stupid.” Anika’s annoyance was prominent, telling us all she grew frustrated. “There is no Alpha here, Ryatt! Kit runs everything and pretends to be under the control of an Alpha.”

“But we’ve seen her mark,” Franco argued. “She was bitten by her commander of the pack, and she bears his scent.”

Anika quickly unzipped a pocket on her uniform before tossing us a small perfume bottle. My hand took it and let it mist around us for the scent to be revealed. Sure enough, it was the one we had all learned to be the Alpha who claimed our female. “She lied to us?”

“She lied to protect the rest of us,” Anika pulled down the collar of her shirt to reveal the same two marks on her neck. “We branded ourselves into becoming a pack with the false scent, under the guise of an Alpha that doesn’t exist. Her, Raphael, and I knew it was our only way out from the world we were stuck in. We’ve never had a problem quite this big, so I’m finally telling you guys the truth. Kit is an unclaimed Omega now in the hands of Saul! Her perfume only lasts a few hours!”

“Do you have any idea where they went?” Ryatt moved to the dresser and pulled out a notepad. He knew to start planning to save her.

“The only clue I have is that they went north down 22nd Street, but when I took some shortcuts to cut them off at the bridge, they weren’t there. It tells me that they’re somewhere between those two points because I know I beat them to the bridge.

“And this lover?” Franco hissed.

“He dies too.” I shrugged. Living in the morally gray area, I made the hard calls just as fast as Kit did the one day in the woods. No one would hurt me while I sat around and waited for them to cause more pain and suffering against those I loved.

“When do we go after her?” Jericho was the one to ask. None of us were okay with the idea of him helping, but we knew he had been around Kit too long. She was teaching our Omega that he could stand on his own two feet, and we all knew better than to treat him like a pet any longer.

Ryatt came to the same realization before pointing to Jericho and Franco. “If he’s coming with us, you have to stay by him at all times.” Right when Jericho wanted to pop off something, Ryatt raised his hand for him to shut up. “This is my limit because I am protective. I am letting you join the fight, but I need you to do it in a way that won’t make the rest of us feel unsettled while we fight ourselves. It’ll get us killed worrying about you.”

An understanding passed between the group as we all sat around the table to figure out who would do what. For now, the mission needed to be recon and tracking, so we’d keep it to ourselves. Once we knew where Kit landed, we’d finally finish and end the person behind our demise. The person who we tasked with protecting our unclaimed Omega all those years ago. God, it better be me who finds him first for my own sense of justice to be had.

27: Kit

The next man stepped up smelling of cigarettes and alcohol. It only took me a minute to smell his Alpha scent below it. A whiff of midnight bliss and sandalwood found me, crippling me the moment I realized who it was. Turning my front against the wall, he kept me there for the others not to see my diluted reaction that revealed I knew him. It was the man who helped me when I thought all hope was lost for me once before. A boy who once secretly defied his father to save my life.

“Damien,” I breathed. He knew I hadn’t seen him, but I related his scent to freedom, the promise of a better day to come.

“Shh,” he murmured in my ear right before slipping his cock inside my spent folds. “No one can know. Tell me how to find your Beta friend again, but carefully.”

Moving leisurely, he tried to not hurt me like the others had. I knew I kept bleeding between my legs again like I had previously experienced under the care of his father. Barely tipping my chin to his words, he pressed me harder against the wall to sell his theatrics. Saul knew better than to trust his son because Damien had been one of the ones in charge of me last time I escaped.

“AH!” I screamed like he hurt me, playing the part I needed to.

“Take my cock, you little whore,” he growled in a deceptively dark tone. Goosebumps ran down my spine because I knew it wasn’t fake. While I could deem it practiced, I understood he could be the man his father had been pushing him to become. The next crime lord to take over after him.

Closing my eyes, I tried to think through the drugs for the best way to handle this situation. Anika and Raphael would have the compound on lockdown by now, so they’d rotate which entrance was allowed with little in and out flow. He could wait outside the dock area until he saw someone, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take, or if my men would kill him for lurking.

Hanging my head, I knew only one course of action I could take that would be the surest way. Castiel and Colton had access to my home because they helped me build it. They were the silent partner of my compound, just like I was of their bar. Even though we built together, Cass and I stayed separate in business. He wouldn’t just help me out of the kindness of his heart. Now I regretted using my pass to find that little rat Saul planted in the bar for me to follow. He probably thought it was hilarious I’d owe Cass a favor, but he didn’t know Cass already owed me one.

Swallowing hard, he kept rutting into me as I processed everything through the haze of drugs. My mind kept trying to think of another plan that’d save me that favor. Damien let his mouth fall over my ear, biting into the lobe for me to cry out. Some of the other men were humored by my pain, hiding his words behind their chuckles. “Hurry. I’m not going to last much longer.”

“Castiel.” He knew what I meant when I said it, stiffening at the name. “He won’t believe you, so you need to say tunnel 29. Let him know the favor falls on me.”

There. Closing my eyes, I knew my life being saved would be worth the favor, but a hard pill to swallow. I had done amazing the last six years without having to cash mine in, but now I needed my second that would cost me.

Beginning his knot, I barely felt anything from how many dicks Saul allowed into me already. The drugs were also a numbing agent to help me dim my way through this and lock him into place like the others. The only things I felt right now were a few minutes of safety in a man I cared for, worrying about his part in this journey once again. He offered a single moment that ensured this wouldn’t be my end. I wanted to throw my arms around Damien, but I knew this dance all too well from how many times we did it seven years ago.

“That’s right, you gutter whore, take it.” Smacking my ass, I barely felt the sting.

Whimpering, I played along, allowing my emotions to drive the sound instead of the pain. Clamping my throat, he held my front against him as he kept spilling his seed inside of me. Pumping the end of his release, he stayed sheathed for an extra second. “I tried to warn you, but I failed. Please, hold on a little longer.”

And just like that, I knew who I felt watching me when we evaded our tracker in the city, and who drew that symbol when I’d been a guest in the mayor’s home. Damien tried to warn me all along, but he couldn’t show his face near me because of his father.

His comfort left me as the next stepped up to have me. Like most of the others, cigarette smoke ruined his natural musk. They were all this way, reeking of their thug life. While the Alphas in the ruling families with Ryatt had class and money, these ones didn’t know what a shower was.

If I got out of this alive, I knew I’d be seeing our doctor to find out if they gave me something I wouldn’t come back from. STDs were always a concern for whores, but most didn’t care as long as they got their next hit of drugs. Saul had been dosing me up on a schedule to make sure I’d become a dependent junkie on them again, and I hated him more for it. There weren’t words to describe the duration after someone’s last use until their recovery. I was one who loved the escape the drugs offered, and Saul slipped another needle into my elbow as I was brutally fucked again.

A pool of cum sat below my feet, but I became high enough not to care again. Damien planned to talk to me before being given my next needle because the drugs diluted all my senses to think about a plan to escape. A darkness lurked nearby, and I welcomed it like it was home. Not having to be conscious through this would be everything I needed to survive it again.

***

Past

My nose lost the ability to scent anything in the room from all the foul smells that bothered it. I couldn’t undo what Saul had been doing to me. Even now, I knew I bled from between my legs because they shoved a wine bottle up inside of me. I remember how forceful they were when it wouldn’t take immediately, so they waited for the popping sound that tore me.

Whimpering, the drugs were beginning to wear off because I hadn’t had a dose since the night before. Some wanted me to feel what they were doing to me, and I did. Even though I kept my eyes closed most of the time, I knew there was a crowd of men in the living room Saul forced me to enter at night. I was only allowed out of my bedroom when it came time for an event like that, placing me in chains around my wrists instead.

Those men were as vile as they came, waiting for Saul to hurt me in new ways. Their ravenous eyes always loved looking at my youthful body as my chains were hung from the ceiling to be on display. Today was new, though. Instead of just fucking me as a group, they tied each of my legs to a post that kept them wide without being able to retract into myself. It stopped me from being able to fight or cross my legs.

Their cruelty displayed openly because they didn’t care about the women and men they were hurting. Their pleasure grew to be sadistic because nothing was ever enough in the lurid world that they already lived in. Hurting Omegas like me became the only way they could find their release. I found out those steps tonight because it wasn’t just my vagina they violated.

If I ever got out of line, Saul would whip me to put me in my place. I learned after the first two lashing sessions that it wasn’t a fight worth picking because I had to heal from it. Pretending to be submissive and docile came easier than that. I think he caught on, and it displeased him to see me submit so soon.

While my hands were bound above my head to the ceiling, and my legs were spread wide over the floor, I was in the prime position to punish. And that punishment came from being too submissive. Being whipped several times over my lower back, there were no words for their brutality when I did nothing to receive it. I did everything I was asked, but Saul knew I did that to not get hurt.

He wanted me to fight because he liked making me bleed. Today, those ruthless men taught me that there was no right decision. There was no being docile enough to bear through it, and there’d be no fighting back enough to get out of it. I was damned if I did, and I was damned if I didn’t.

Through my tears, I looked at the corpse across from me that had been rotting for what I could only assume a month by how the grotesque maggots were maturing into flies. Still having no count on how many days had passed, I knew I had to be bordering at least two months in this prison. Two months of trying to just let them use my body willingly to not get hurt. Two months was all it took for them to flip their switch and decide to hurt me anyway.

Weeping harder, I’d been placed on my stomach when thrown back in my room, so I buried my face into the crook of my arms. They had whipped me and hurt me with their lashes, and then they forced my pussy to take a wine bottle up it from the bottom. It was a full bottle, so once they had it in, they allowed the first pervert to open it and drink it from between my legs. I’ll never forget seeing some of my blood also smearing over his forehead and nose because I dripped like the bottle. They attached a bottle nipple to the mouth of the wine to slow the dripping as they situated it between my legs. Nothing like being attacked my grown men shredding my vagina only to see them suckle the nipple of alcohol between my bleeding legs.

A light wrap knocked on my door, so my body tensed in preparation for whoever it might be. Staying on my stomach, I couldn’t roll onto my back from the pain of the lashes being fresh and oozing. One even lashed around, slicing me below my ribcage, but it was easier to lay on one cut than a dozen whips.

When it opened, I held my breath because I knew any violation to my body right now would hurt. While the bottle was between my legs, a few of the men took turns taking my ass. They tore me there as well because they took me dry.

“Jesus,” a low voice grumbled at the sight of me. It wasn’t one I recognized, so I let my head turn just enough to see who it might be. A lanky boy stood behind me with his dark hair that fell over his eyes. A black sweatshirt masked his body, but I could tell he was just younger than me. I would mark him barely twenty in age.

My eyes fell to what sat in his hand, taking notice of the first aid kit. When he took one step toward me, I immediately began to crawl forward to get away. He stopped completely and raised his hands in surrender. “I’m not here to hurt you. I was sent here to fix you, but I feel like you might need a hospital for some of this.”

I didn’t speak as I watched him with my keen eyes. If I had the strength, I would have attacked him, but that’s what Saul wanted. He wanted me broken enough that I couldn’t fight, but he wanted to see the fight within my stare. He wanted me to lash out here and there to get a rise out of my users who wanted Omegas like that to hurt them more. No, to have reasoning behind why they hurt them more.

His hands worked fast to pull out alcohol and gauze pads. He held them up for me to see because we both knew how much this would hurt. “I have to make sure you don’t have any infections, so I’m going to have to put alcohol over these wounds. Are you okay with that?”

I didn’t know if his kindness was a ploy, but I knew he spoke the truth about infections. With a corpse rotting beside me while living in cum and feces, I was at a higher chance of getting something. Dipping my chin, I noticed how his hand shook, carrying the bottle to be right above the grouping of harder lashings that intertwined from how they hit. Right as he got the rag and alcohol above me, he hurried and set them down again as though he forgot something. His brash movements caused me to flinch because I had been conditioned for pain.

“Oh, I’m sorry for making you jump. I just remembered I should probably give you something to bite so you don’t scream.” He began digging through the medical kit before he realized there was nothing in there that my teeth could clamp into without ruining. Taking off his hoodie, he rolled up the sleeve and placed it in front of my mouth. His dark eyes pled for my forgiveness in his error, telling me he’d only known the hit of his father as motivation too. “Sorry, I should have remembered a second rag.”

My curiosity kept piquing about the boy, but I knew better than to get attached. Even if he was showing me an ounce of kindness, he lived among the vipers, not helping me escape. Biting down, I kept watch over what he did because he wasn’t like the others. It made my mind wonder if I could somehow talk him into helping me escape.

Going back to what his hands were busied with, he poured the alcohol over my flesh, letting it fill the ditches of gore between my skin. There was no unseeing the mutilated appearance of my back, but I knew he only let them hit the lower area to keep the rest of me looking pristine. All of them wanted a pretty, little Omega to suck their cock and bat her eyes.

Almost instantly, I felt the urge to scream from the new sensation of pain. This one came in the form of bubbles as the alcohol ate away everything bad. The utter agony of it began to settle within my nerves, causing spasms to trickle down my legs. The boy kept letting it go, being patient enough to wait for it to end before moving on to the next issue.

He could hear me breathing roughly as I tried to choke back my squeals. My eyes burned because they wanted to release more tears, and my nostrils flared while I endured it. The boy nodded as though he understood, pulling out a few gauze pads to begin patting the areas dry. Keeping his touch light, he tried not to inflict too much discomfort on me. “He used to make my mother do this.”

I knew my eyes narrowed in confusion, so he lifted his shirt with a grim smile. Using his phone’s flashlight, he let me see the scarring he also had in the same spot. That immediately swept rage through me because I understood this boy had been manipulated into staying. It still didn’t answer who he was, but I understood a little bit more about him.

“I know you’re probably looking at me as someone who might be able to save you, but I promise you, I can’t. While your life means something to somebody else, my mother’s life means more to me.”

Without having to say more, I understood. Saul used his mother as a weapon against him to do this type of bidding. He didn’t like this job or what it asked of him to do to others, but I knew I’d be in the same shoes if it had been one of my men being threatened.

“I’m technically not supposed to give you anything, but I do have a shot of morphine hidden in my pocket. Would you like that before I start stitching these?” He pulled it out for me to see that he hadn’t been lying.

Nodding my head, I knew I wanted to forget about this, and I had a headache from not having any drugs today. He inserted it for my mind to start spinning almost immediately. With all the blood loss and dehydration, it quickly set in, and I knew I barely broke a hundred pounds these days from the malnourishment.

Beside me, he waited for me to give a long sigh to indicate that the medicine kicked in. A sweep of sadness claimed his features when he saw how I delighted in the high, telling me that he watched someone else go through the same thing.

He kept his face down as he sterilized the needle in his hold because he didn’t want to comment on what happened to me. Threading the needle, he worked quickly to create stitches over my wounds, building the intricate pattern that would keep me from having them bleed out too much. He wasn’t a doctor, but I could tell he had some practice with this by how fast and well he did it. My skin would heal from all this soon, but I knew it would be a long and grueling process to suffer through.

“I’m going to have to check between your legs,” he added while clearing his throat. “I know it’s violating, but I must see if you need stitches in there. Do you think you’ll be able to lie on your back now that I’ve covered it in gauze and taped over it?”

Somehow, through the haze of all this, I missed him putting a barrier between my open wound and the air. Now that I’d been drugged, feeling less physical damage, I rolled over with only a small whimper. Using his phone once again, he placed the light right between my legs as his fingers spread my opening.

We both hissed but for two very different reasons. He didn’t like what he saw, and I didn’t like the way it felt. “I’m going to have to do a few, but I’m going to have to clean you some more before I can determine all the damage.”

I wasn’t sure who this boy was, but from having a sweatshirt in my face, I could make out his sandalwood scent and the time of night I found relief in it, just after midnight. The only relief my dungeon offered as it engulfed me away from the crippling decay nearby.

He became the only angel in this darkness I called my purgatory.

28: Ryatt

It felt like driving in circles. With no new leads, we were getting on edge because we couldn’t figure out where they took Kit. No matter how much we scurried over the area, nothing pointed in the direction of the woman missing.

My hands kept tapping the steering wheel as I sat on the side of a run-down road. This district of town meant looters would be nearby, so one of us had been forced to stay with the car. It was my turn now that we had been doing this for several days.

It felt like a blur. My heart kept stopping in my chest the more I thought about Kit being taken. Anger festered in me because of what I had caused her all those years ago. I trusted the wrong person because I grew up with him, but now that loyalty had bitten me in the ass. Saul had been the problem all along, sitting right under my nose. I left her in his care, and that fucker took an path to uphold his job.

The guys and I had seen him just a few months ago when we ran into him at an auction. He kept his new world private, saying he did well but no details. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized he redirected every question back onto us to avoid answering for himself. My mind began to eat me alive because of all the little clues I had missed along the way. Sitting in this car wasn’t helping as the others sought high and low for any piece of evidence that might lead us to the woman that we hurt more than once now.

I had no doubt Saul planned to try and use her to get to us. I also knew Kit would never betray us the way we had her. She was too good for us all, so I made it my undying promise to make sure we found her.

With the sun setting, we were about to head back without another trace of luck once again. Anika and Franco were marching, side by side, to come back to the van, and I noticed Kashmir and Turner were coming out of their neck of the woods. The only three who hadn’t appeared within my perimeter’s vision were Kayos, Raphael, and Jericho. Not seeing my Omega first also made my heart thrum a little harder in nervousness. Kit had gotten into his head about protecting himself, and I knew he learned to care for the same woman we did in the little moments he had with her. He finally confessed that his morning walks weren’t just walking, and Anika had been training him. It started a few arguments, but that probably came from our sleep deprivation and high anxiety.

We were all beginning to fall apart because one of us went missing. Whether or not Kit knew it, she had been part of our pack this whole time. Her absence for us felt like someone cut out a piece of our hearts but it never stopped bleeding cause the wound never closed. Now that I knew she wasn’t marked, I planned to rectify that immediately.

Turner shook his head toward Franco, and our Beta returned it because neither had any luck. I knew before they even got into the van that we weren’t going to have the news we wanted. Franco and Anika were the first to climb in, and she took the front seat for my pack to have the back with her brother. Frustration oozed out of her because she felt like she failed Kit even more than we did. It wasn’t a burden she should be carrying, but I also knew it’d never be one we could relieve so easily.

“Nothing?” I asked. All of them shook their head as the other two joined and climbed in.

“Nothing that can be seen.” Anika sighed heavily because she felt like a failure.

Knowing we had too much time to kill before the three others got back, I repeated tapping my fingers against the steering wheel. When we first went on the hunt to find Kit, we had Anika take us to the area it happened for us to get a better picture of what she saw. There just had to be something we were missing. Just like when she lost the visual, so did the cameras that ran to this district.

“Walk me through it again,” I ordered her, keeping my eyes straight ahead.

“How many times do you have to go over this? I already told you, she was having a spur of the moment lunch with Mandy. Mandy said it was urgent, so Kit agreed almost immediately. We’ve been doing it for years, so I went to the butcher to order more meat for the compound. When I was getting back because of the phone call, I saw them dragging Mandy into the van around the building.”

“And you’re sure Mandy didn’t say anything else before this lunch? Maybe she mentioned having an enemy that Kit needed to help her with.” I looked her way to give her my undivided attention.

She shook her head which flipped some braids over her shoulder as her knee kept bouncing. “Mandy didn’t know who Kit really was. Kit didn’t trust anyone with her secret, so Mandy believes her to be the Alpha’s prized Omega. Only me, my brother, and three others know the truth, so there would be no way for Mandy to know Kit was a fighter because she saw Kit as a pampered Omega.”

“But none of that makes sense,” I returned. “If Kit had us fooled, I just don’t see how someone else could have figured it out from the outside. Even with her traitorous lover, how did they put Kit and Mandy together to attack?”

“That’s where I’ve been stuck too,” she admitted. “Whenever we’re in public, Kit hides completely behind me like I’m her bodyguard. We do it so routinely that it’s natural even though the two of us know she can fight just as good as I can. I’m always with her, so no one thinks about her being strong enough and or capable on her own.”

An idea set off inside my brain. “Maybe we’re looking in the wrong spot. Maybe they don’t know about Kit. If Mandy was taken with Kit, maybe Kit was never the target. Maybe she was taken because she was with Mandy?”

Anika’s eyes widened when she caught onto what I meant. “You think Kit was taken because of the emergency Mandy had, placing her with the target.”

“And if that be the case,” Turner interjected from the back seat. “There might be a clue at Mandy’s home.”

“So we need to stop looking for nothing, and go where there might be something,” Franco agreed. He let his eyes take in Anika because he saw her as an equal. “Do you happen to have the address for where Mandy lives?”

“It just so happens that I do,” she hummed with giddiness before pulling out her phone to show us in maps. “We’ve only been there twice, but I saved her address in her contact information when we first went there.”

“Should we wait until first light?” Turner asked.

For the first time in our conversation, Kashmir finally added something. “No. We need to go sooner rather than later, and night will give us cover from whoever might be lurking around the premise.”

“But daylight might offer a better view and understanding of anything missing in her home,” I brought up.

“With Mandy being a politician, I can almost guarantee you her curtains will block out all light. We’ll move one room at a time, and we’ll make sure someone guards the window so no light breaks through. I’m not wasting another ten hours because Kit might not have that long.”

Even though I was his Alpha, I could tell he wouldn’t change his mind. This had upset all of us, but I could finally see what it had been doing to him. We were a team, and my men had sound ideas that I couldn’t ignore. Even if I told them to wait, I knew this would be something he would directly disobey to save Kit.

“Fine,” I consented. “We’ll head back to the compound when the others return, and we’ll load up with weapons. Once we do that, we’ll take our team and go to Mandy’s house.”

With our new direction being made, I was still secretly kicking myself for not coming up with the idea sooner. Their kidnappers might not have known Kit’s identity, but I knew her false scent would wear off and reveal all her secrets. Plus, we knew Saul was somehow involved in all of this. It would only take him a single second to pinpoint Kit in their holding cells for him to know exactly who he caught while grabbing someone else. And maybe that had been his game all along. Saul knew Mandy with the rest of us, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he was using Mandy as bait to lure Kit out.

29: Franco

Something unsettling took over me as I peered at the house in the distance. Mandy had been taken right along with Kit, so why were some of her lights on in her home? Had their capturers brought them back to her living quarters to punish them more? Were they searching for something that would cover their trail that we were trying to sniff out?

No matter the case, I saw two shadows moving up the staircase where a window let me peer in. The staircase wasn’t lit, but my eyesight was able to track the movement in order to know there were figures inside. I wasn’t zoomed in to see, but I could identify the movement from this distance.

Behind a bush across the street, Kashmir and I were scoping the place out to make sure we were in the clear before the others joined. He’d been looking at his phone, so I nudged his shoulder and pointed at the stairs. He was the one with night vision equipment attached to his gun in order to get heat signatures from inside.

“Just give me a minute,” he grumbled after shooting off a text to Ryatt. Placing the scope on his gun, he lied down on the ground and anchored his gun onto a small stand that would keep us hidden within the bush. In the house behind us, Kayos had infiltrated it by pretending to be a salesman to keep the family preoccupied for at least thirty minutes. We only needed him in there long enough for us to gain a good footing to know what we were up against across the street. He was the most charismatic out of all of us, so it made sense to send him. Turner would have been our first pick, but his arm and the sling unnerved people.

Smelling the fresh dirt below, I let it ground me enough to keep going without freaking out. This whole situation just felt too out of the blue. If Saul grabbed Kit by accident, we were still running out of time to save her. It meant being a little reckless in all the planning. Pointing to where I saw the shadow, I indicated to scope out the second floor first.

Once he got in position with everything set up, he went to work and analyzed the building. The tip of his gun followed the direction he wanted it to move, indicating to me what I already found. “Two bodies upstairs, alive and moving.”

He kept scanning through the rest of it. I just waited patiently for him to do his job because this was where his talents shined brighter than the rest of us.

“There appears to be two in the kitchen, sitting at what I presume is the table. That’s all I’m seeing though.”

“And what were the two doing upstairs?”

His gun quickly swung back to where he saw them. “I can only presume from the positioning, but it looks like one of the men decided he needed more from Kit or Mandy.”

Deadly, I watched as he shifted into being territorial. I joined him as my hackles raised, but I also knew there was more to be aware of. “Anyone else?”

“Just two down by the kitchen area you already know about. They’re either eating dinner or playing poker. Their faces are hunched over, but I don’t see them being much of a threat as long as we surprise them.”

“So we’re only seeing one hostage in the building?” I wanted to make sure.

Kashmir lifted his brown gaze. “What’s the bet they separated the girls?”

“High,” I huffed before radioing it to the others. I told them the key points, and they assumed the same thing we did. Kashmir and I would cover the back of the house where the two in the kitchen were, and the others would raid the upstairs to save which girl had been contained at Mandy’s address.

Locking my silencer into place, we knew this part had to be quiet for the man upstairs not to kill whoever he hurt. The two of us made our way around the back, taking in how the door had been locked. While the two inside shared a laugh, we gently twisted the handle for them not to hear. Kashmir rolled his eyes the second it didn’t turn fully because he hated picking locks. Lucky for him, I was a master at it. Anything that got me to use my fingers with textures and made my mind fixate on a task was what I needed.

Pulling the pick set from my back pocket, I lowered myself to be level with the knob. Kashmir kept watch through the window just to make sure I didn’t startle them into sensing our presence. Doing what I did best, I inserted the two pieces I needed and lifted with one as the other began rotating the locking mechanism. It took a little jiggling, but I almost had it without too much noise.

When the lock set into unlocking, it clicked just enough to alert the men we were up to something. Rolling my eyes, I hated hearing them go silent as I held the picks in my hands. The door opened for the two men to stand over me in anger. Glaring me down with their wrath, they missed Kashmir off to the side as he hid in the shadows near the window. They never saw it coming when he fired in two quick bullets, killing both instantly.

The two bodies fell over me as I shook them to fall the rest of the way. Standing, I narrowed my eyes on my pack mate. Kashmir just sauntered on by, radioing Ryatt that it was done. Turning back to me, he quirked the corner of his mouth. “We should’ve just knocked and been done with it.”

“They would’ve seen you,” I huffed.

“Not if you were pretending to be a girl scout,” he snickered before meeting the others in the front area of the home.

“Jokes on you,” I growled. “I’d look fucking fantastic in that uniform.”

“Only because you’d be shirtless,” he mumbled. That’s when we made it to the others at the front door, opening it to let them in. We knew no one should stay behind, so we all went up the stairs. We needed everyone with Kit’s life sitting in the balance.

Our group moved as one giant taskforce, keeping our steps as silent as possible. When we neared the room, we were able to hear the pleasuring sounds of a male. He was a loud one, moaning in ways men only did when they were bottoming. I wasn’t the only one who thought it because our pack shared a look of perceptiveness. We fucked each other enough to recognize hitting that special spot.

Ryatt swung the door open for us to see something not even bleaching my eyes would undo. Mandy wore a foot long schlong strapped to her crotch, pegging a younger man and pulling on the leash around his neck. A red ball gag greeted us poised in his mouth for her to fully dominate him with his hands tied behind his back. A crop sat within range, telling all of us about the fun they had been enjoying with her as his dominatrix.

“What the hell?” Kayos pulled a face of disgust.

Anika moved in, seeing the sight for what it was. The man moved his face to look our way as Mandy paused plowing his ass with her strap-on. “Drake… So, he was how you learned about Kit.”

The Beta with us held back her fury, but we could feel how her wrath began exuding from her pores. Not leaving another second to waste, she pulled the handgun from her hip and fired it right between his eyes. Her madness quickly switched to the woman with a fake dick in a dead man’s ass.

“You were playing us this whole time,” she seethed.

“It took you long enough to figure that bit out,” Mandy cackled manically, telling us who she really was. “Saul has Kit, and I have enough backing to support my political campaign. A great bargain, if you ask me.”

“Kill her,” Turner said with a murderous growl.

“No,” Anika stopped us from ripping her throat out. “She’s the only lead we have to finding Kit. We need to take her alive.”

“Alive,” Mandy preened as though she thought she’d survive us.

“Alive,” Turner approached her like a lurking predator. “Means losing limbs and breaking pieces.”

Punching her in the face, he knocked her out cold. Slinging the scantily clad woman over his shoulder, he made his way to the door without removing the new member she wore. No one had been prepared to see his brute come out, but I knew I supported it in Kit’s honor. Mandy would die, but we’d make her suffer while extracting information first.

30: Kit

Shooting me up with more drugs, I knew I looked like a cracked-out whore. My body began to feel the heaviness of everything they had been injecting into me. It took me back to the days of when Saul used my body. He had made me a druggie that needed another fix, and the other men were cruel in how they gave it to me.

Some had me snorting a line off their dick while others coated their cocks in it before shoving it up my ass. This life would never be what I wanted, and the old but familiar sensations were coming back to fall over my body, begging me to give in. They were trying to get me addicted to drugs again after I spent so long being clean. This became the hardest part to come to terms with because this exact business belonged to Ryatt and Kayos.

Being shackled to the wall, my drowsy eyes found Saul standing before me. It took me a minute to even register that he had my leg slung over his hip for his shaft to plunge into me. My mind turned bleary from the high, and I stayed numb. Unsure how much time went by, I knew it had been long enough to lose basic sensations in my body, so my lower half just hung from the wall like a rag doll. They were shooting me up with too much, and I knew this wouldn’t be the end of their game.

Over his shoulder, I could see the shadows of men standing among us. Saul brought me here like a prize because he wanted to see them all use me. He wanted them to see he owned me once again. I wasn’t sure how many had fucked me so far, but it didn’t matter. There’d be no escaping the sensation of being a cracked-out whore. There was only reliving what I once had to fight through the addiction later.

Anika would hold the bucket to my lips every time I had to purge the drugs out when I slipped up. The second they forced them into my body, I knew I tumbled back down the slippery slope. Cocaine wasn’t something one could just stop doing, and I battled that addiction every day in our compound. Trying to see straight, I fought through the haze that blocked my mind to see if anyone I knew stood in the room.

So far, I hadn’t heard any news of these idiots finding my establishment, so I knew the others were safe from this. Saul forced his knot to begin inside of me right as I began to gain my senses. He made me take his release, load after load. Even though he branded my cheek with the mark of a dud, he showed the rest of these men it was for display. A power move, and he won.

Responding the way that I was meant to, my body took his knot because I didn’t know how not to anymore. No extra thought needed to do it because of all the years I spent with the men who captured my heart. This life I’d been forced in wasn’t forgivable, but I could see how easily betrayed they were. Saul played everyone, and he could sink his teeth into me again.

After years of hunting him, I found out I had been the prey the whole time. He knew where I was because Mandy became his informant. He just thought I’d been claimed, but they figured out my secrets before I had time to discover what was right in front of me all these years later. I missed every clue ever left because I blindly trusted Mandy. She was a friend I thought I didn’t need to vet more because she was there for me before all of this, but I knew that had been her guise to keep me close. She helped him since before the guys left me.

Closing my eyes, I took it. I let Saul finish inside me before letting the next man step up to do the same. At least with the drugs, I wouldn’t purr. Saul knew that about me from the last time he forced me into this lifestyle. I was officially, once again, his Omega whore, unclaimed to do his bidding.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to lose myself in the break of my soul, but I knew better. They might own my body, but they would never taste my tears again. Saul craved licking them right off my cheek because that was how depraved he’d grown in this life. Simply fucking a whore wasn’t enough for him, so he needed to do demented things to us for him to reach a climax. Having me in his grip again was enough to trigger it, for now.

I just had to have faith in the information I gave Damien. He shouldn’t have any trouble stumbling into Castiel’s bar, but I knew he’d be stealthy, and do it when the mission wouldn’t reveal his identity. Having to put up with this was excoriating the innocence I had left.

“Look at her submitting to me, the secret queen of the fallen empires,” Saul chuckled. “She’s nothing more than the filthy cunt between her legs.”

“I guess that makes us two cunts that didn’t amount to anything,” I snapped back at him. “At least I’m young enough to try again.”

I knew my makeup formed dark circles around my eyes, creating the savage appearance I needed for him to understand just how deranged this depravity drove me to. Spitting in his face, I hissed with every ounce of power I had left. He wiped it off, pissed I’d dare make the move I did against him.

“You’ll regret that.”

“You say that like I have something to lose,” I chided right back. Even though the nightmares were present again, I couldn’t afford to cower.

“You have everything to lose, and I’m the one about to obliterate it all. Your hidden empire? The boys you’re trying to protect from me? Tell me, do they know? Were you brave enough to tell them who ruined you after they so easily abandoned you? Did you tell them who it was that broke you?”

“Do I look broken?” I blinked slowly at him as I fought through the haze of drugs. “All you did was help me make sure to fortify more. You’ll never burn my kingdom down because you’ll never find the key.”

“Maybe you’re right, but I do know I have something certain people will easily trade for it.” Ripping my hair back, he made me look over to see someone filming all of this. “I wonder how they’ll feel when this live video goes viral?”

“My life is not worth the many who’d fall, and they know that,” I said directly to the camera for them to see it.

Saul clamped my throat, causing me to wheeze within his grip. “Then I guess we better give them something to motivate them more.”

31: Jericho

Everything started to have a purpose, but the woman we apprehended wouldn’t talk. She didn’t care what happened to her just if Kit suffered too. I hated her even more because of it.

I tried to collect myself to leave the bathroom and continue being the glue that held everyone else together, but it was hard. With not knowing what Kit suffered, I couldn’t rest. My heart refused to slow down, and I slowly comprehended that I had gained feelings for the Omega. Even if I hadn’t, her misery would’ve made me feel guilty, but by having it, I wanted to rip the throat out of anyone who harmed her.

A ping came through my phone, notifying me of a city alert. People in the city had the app for their own safety, mainly used for when an active shooting took place. Everyone would see whatever the risk was on the screen to warn them to stay out of that area until it finished.

This time, we didn’t see anything but darkness. A few shaky breaths could be heard as though someone wheezed in pain. Like a heavy stone inside of me, it sunk to the bottom of my gut, rolling in turmoil because I immediately knew. Maybe it was from hearing her breathlessness with Turner, but I picked up on Kit’s undertones.

Running out of the bathroom, I found the others already staring at their devices. Just as we all looked to each other, a light was shed on the screen for us to finally see Kit, completely naked and bruised everywhere. Her eyes were hooded as though she fought through the drugs, and Saul hadn’t untied the tourniquet from her arm to enhance our imaginations.

“Look at my pretty little puppet.” His hand reached forward for us to see it but not him. Petting the side of her face, she flinched under his touch. “My favorite new toy thinks she’s not important enough to be saved, but we know otherwise, don’t we Ryatt?”

Saul tried calling out our pack, but Kit growled and bit his finger for us to see her defiance during the worst of it. Even with her glossy stare, she wouldn’t give up. The bastard shrieked and slapped her because there was no undoing the live feed with her resisting his power. As he hissed and shook the phone a little while righting himself, Kit let her eyes try to stare at the camera. “Protect my people. My life is not worth all of theirs, and you know that. If you love me, you won’t give up those who cannot protect themselves.”

Saul slapped her hard again. “We’ll see how much of this they can handle viewing.”

Snapping his fingers, a masked man came up behind her, ripping her by the hair to force her mouth back for him to dominate. The lighting wasn’t good enough to show all her wounds, but I could make out some type of injury on her neck.

A knife was brought around her front, barely slicing through the shallow skin between her breasts. Kit bit back her cries, but her eyes revealed too much. The whole city would be seeing this, including all the Alphas inside the compound.

Anika stormed into our room just then, showing us her own phone in tears. Her best friend was being tortured, and she had to make the hard call to not save her with Saul’s demands. Saul’s face finally appeared on the screen to show us his ruthlessness as the other man began fucking Kit.

“Ryatt, why don’t you finally be the knight she thought you were going to be the last time I had her? Maybe you’ll be smarter, hmm? Bring me the keys to her kingdom before the weekend, or I’ll begin taking limbs for everyone to watch. Maybe I’ll even cut this delicious vagina out of her and fuck it for you to watch.”

***

The clip ended on that, letting us in to see the brutality he was using against her for the first time. My stomach soured completely. Dropping my phone, I ran back into the bathroom and puked everything out. It ended up being mostly acid because I hadn’t eaten much since losing Kit.

I took a moment to pause once I wretched everything up, knowing the others were listening with concern. Kit needed me to be stronger, so I had to cry over this later. Wiping my mouth, I flushed the toilet and met the rest of them back in the room. “So what do we do?”

“Kit will kill us all if we gave him access to the people here,” Anika never lifted her gaze from the floor.

“We need to pick up our torturing on Mandy,” Turner interjected. She had been able to fight whatever Anika’s men had done so far and refused to cooperate. Looking to Anika, he stood from the couch he had been sitting on. “Mind if I take over?”

“You can join me,” she assured him. “She’s unconscious now, so we’ll need to wait just a bit.”

“Need us to do anything else?” Ryatt asked her from his position in the kitchen, leaning on the bar.

“We’re going to have to calm down the Alphas in here. They’ll need reassurance we’re not outing them. Can you help me spread the word? Maybe tell them our Alpha is hunting down Saul now to find his Omega?”

“They’ll want to meet this Alpha if we do that,” Kayos added.

“Then let them believe they will. If it gives us time to save Kit without a mutiny in this place, we have to.”

“So, it’s agreed.” I cleared my throat. “We up the torture on Mandy to get her to talk before the weekend, and we get the Alphas to believe their packs are safe while we fake her Alpha being back.”

“Correct,” Anika whispered still looking utterly defeated. Something ate at her even though we had a plan.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“If I’m being honest with you, then you need to know one thing. If we’re able to save Kit from Saul, that’ll be the easy part.”

“What do you mean?” Ryatt stepped closer.

“What did your dad deal when Saul worked for him all those years ago?” Anika’s tongue was sharp.

“The drugs,” Kashmir answered. Letting his mournful eyes look up to meet hers, the realization hit us then. “She became an addict.”

Anika could barely nod, heading to leave our room. “You better be ready to see a version of her that’ll rip your heart out more than that video.”

Leaving us with that, we let the news sink in. Kit had been drugged up and got addicted the last time this madman had her. Now we had to cope with the knowledge she might slide down that slippery slope again. Swallowing over the lump in my throat, I knew I had to keep being the glue. “She has you… She didn’t have that last time. It might make all the difference.”

“It might make her want drugs even more.” Franco punched the wall near the bathroom. Storming out of the suite, we were all hurting deeper than I knew how to heal.

32: Kit

Past

The grungy pull of the wine bottle inside of my vagina felt numb to me now. My tears had been drying up on my cheeks because I learned to hollow myself after the initial pain. The three men were sneering around me, hating that I didn’t give them what they wanted in response. My blood painted my thighs once again as they brutally hurt me.

I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever want sex again. As an Omega, I was made for it, but not for this version. I hadn’t been made for the ripping of my tender flesh just for them to delight in it. Nothing ever made it better, and I hated that this was going to be my life until I died.

When the men realized that I had stopped giving them entertainment, they removed the bottom of the bottle, finishing the wine with my blood that joined it as they drank it from between my legs. Shaking, I knew my legs weren’t going to be able to stand once they untied me from the post. They did my ankle restraints first before doing my arms because they liked watching me fall on my hands and knees as blood sprayed everywhere from the impact. Not my first time going through something like this, and just when I thought they’d let me heal, they inserted something else that ripped me right open again.

Hank, a worker for Saul, hung around, and I had gotten used to him because he tended to be my babysitter a lot. After Saul allowed Damien to come patch me up, Hank usually snuck into my room to fuck me with my fresh stitches. He got off on making me suffer more, and I knew one day I’d want to kill him slowly. He’d drag me back to my room and toss me in like a bag of garbage before closing me into the darkness.

I didn’t even bother to move from the position I landed in on the floor of my room because it would take too much effort. My eyes flickered to see someone had added spray paint to my walls in the form of two exclamation points, but one was upside down. Some of the paint still bled the same color my thighs were coated in. That insignia symbolized my hell, and I couldn’t forget seeing it bolded in front of me as I lied below it.

It only took another five minutes before the young boy was back in my room with his first aid kit. He could already see what needed attention, and he swallowed hard because he hated doing it. There was nothing like having to stitch up a young woman that had been brutally raped by a bottle of wine that a group of men held.

“Jesus, Kit.” He quickly dove to his knees and opened my legs for me to roll onto my back. At least I didn’t have any lashings today for the position to not hurt as bad. Damien didn’t even bother talking me through what he needed to do because he could see my state of not caring. I felt it, him putting the flashlight up to look inside right before he threaded the sterilized needle to go in and begin making patchwork of my pink walls. No one would want to touch me again, and I began to understand I had no future outside of this.

“Can you kill me?” I finally asked him the one thing I knew he’d hate hearing.

His hands paused what they were doing as he sutured me back together. “What?”

“I’m beginning to understand there’s no escape, so why should I keep suffering when it all leads to the same end anyway?” I rolled my face to the side in order to look at him better. He could see how dead I already became.

“Can you give me more time? Just give me more time to figure out a plan.” We had spent months together in this predicament. He’d hold me after fixing me to make me have a few moments of normalcy. A life that gave me hope for a future. Our bond wasn’t healthy, but we were attached to each other nonetheless. We even whispered sweet nothings about ‘ what if’s’ we’d never have. Him being willing to save me only hurt my heart more.

“You shouldn’t risk your mom for someone like me,” I told him. There weren’t too many years between us, but I hated his age being so young and involved in this already. I had no doubt that Saul brought him in as just a boy to begin desensitizing him to the world, but he turned nineteen last week.

“He can’t hurt her if I’m not tied to your escape, and I think I have a plan. I just don’t know how well it will work, and you need to heal for a few days before we can attempt it.” After he spoke, he began cleaning me with a towel to get all the blood off my legs. Damien always gave me special care after I got hurt, violated by his father and his men.

“We both know they’re going to hurt me again in three days because that’s how long they allow my pussy to heal before ripping it back open. That’s how long I’m giving you to get me out. If you can’t, I won’t be mad, but I’m asking you to kill me before I get ripped open again.” Wiping a stray tear from my eye, I was surprised a fresh one generated.

“Three days,” he promised me. “Rest as much as you can until then.”

Damien spent a few extra minutes with me each time we were in the company of the other, and he did again today. Lying down, he held me to his chest to comfort me. This was the only thing I had to look forward to, but it came at the price of their cruelty. The boy wasn’t allowed to come into my room unless I needed fixed. Seeing him was a double-edged sword. I loved having decent company, but it meant I needed repaired, if he came in.

We both heard the slamming of the front door before his dad’s voice ripped through the whole trailer. “Why is it taking him so long?”

The stomping of his father’s feet warned us that he planned to come to this room. Saul was paying attention that his son didn’t coming out as fast these days. Damien hurried and undid his pants rolling to be on top of me instead. I could already tell what he planned to do before he slipped his long cock inside of me with a knot that needed relief. His eyes were pleading for my forgiveness, so I gave him a small smile as I bore through the pain. Tears began spilling because it hurt, and it would help sell it to his father, believing Damien took advantage of me.

When the door ripped open, his father found us in the new compromised position, making his son look just as toxic as him. Damien was making shallow thrusts inside of me and acting winded as though he had been doing it for a while. Saul had an evil gleam in his eye when he saw his son using one of his rape victims this way. He liked that his son was becoming cruel, but he didn’t know we acted. The slimy bastard was perfectly fine raising his son to become the monster he did.

“I told you we only had ten minutes, and you’re supposed to be in the car four minutes ago.” Saul crossed his arms. “I told you to fix her, not use her more after fixing her.”

“Sorry, dad. Hank gave me the idea because he usually comes in to use Kit this way. I wanted to see how it felt as her stitches rubbed against my cock.” Damien did a bigger thrust in order to prove a point to his father.

“And?” Saul asked his son.

“It feels so good, and her blood on my dick only makes it better.” Slowly pulling it out, he was brave enough to let everyone around see my blood coating him on his private area.

“I’ll give you a few more minutes, but you need to hurry up. I have a meeting in the city.” Saul closed the door to give his son privacy to become the horrors in the trailer personally. Damien slipped out of me, but he let his fist take hold of his penis and began jerking himself. The others would know if he finished by the scent of his release being on me, so we recognized we had to do it this way.

Neither of us spoke about it, but I also wasn’t blind to the fact that Damien had been hard enough to insert himself into me. He was more than ready to slip in, and I didn’t like what that meant for his future. As his ropes of cum spattered against the outside of my pussy, it looked like it spilled out of me instead of being inside of me. He saved me the pain I usually endured from Hank because Hank knew he couldn’t use me with his boss now knowing.

Tucking himself back in, he looked mortified by what he had done. He hated that this was how he had to save me. Taking his hand, I gave it a squeeze as it smeared some of my blood onto me because his hand had held his penis. “Just remember, three days.”

“Three days,” he promised once again before standing to leave.

33: Damien

The fall weather kicked in with how the rain fell. It drizzled all around as though it mirrored my inner soul crying with the night sky. Keeping my hands in my sweatshirt pocket, I already had my hood up to keep the rain off my face and to hide my identity from the cameras that lurked in these parts. Plenty of people could tap into the live feeds, so I couldn’t let my father know where I visited.

In all honesty, I couldn’t believe where I went. Castiel wasn’t someone people messed with because of his cruel tendencies, different than the kind my father used. Kit whispered his name to me with what I needed to do, but I felt the blood in my veins turn to ice. He was a man people feared for a reason, and I stayed out of his way because I didn’t want to be someone sucked into his vindictive deal makings. My father used his bar to send one of his guys to be posted at for Kit to follow because he didn’t want the guy going to any of our places for them to catch wind of what my father really did in the city.

I had a feeling Castiel didn’t know his bar had been used as a ploy for my father to run his business through. Not that any of it mattered because what was done had been done, and it s now rested on my shoulders to save Kit.

That’s what gave me the courage to enter the terrifying establishment. For her, I’d do nearly anything. Now that my mother couldn’t be used against me, it made it easier to choose sides. I knew what would happen to me when my father found out who it was that freed Kit once again, but it came down to the knowledge that this life wasn’t worth living the way I had to. I wouldn’t have the opportunity to live it a different way, so if I had to go out, I’d go out in a bang, protecting Kit.

I had only been in here once before as I gripped the handle. It still blew my mind that it held such a futuristic look inside a dingy building. Not many were in here this time of night because I came close to closing in order to keep my business private.

Making my way to the bar, I noticed only one bartender as the others probably were in the back to clean up. He had boyishly blond hair that stuck up in random spots, appearing more youthful than everyone else here. His easy smile didn’t fit the world we lived in, so I narrowed my eyes when he came over to ask me what drink I wanted.

“What can I get you this time of night?” He leaned over the bar top to make me feel like he had my undivided attention. Maybe my father could take lessons from him on how to treat a son.

“I’m looking for Castiel.” Even though my insides were gnawing at me in rage and terror, I kept my voice cool and collected as though it didn’t bother me with the name that spilled from my lips.

“Not many brave coming in here and looking for him. You want a drink to go with that? It might help with your nerves.” He tipped his body to lean a little further away from me as though he feared why I might ask for the name I did.

“No,” I replied while lacing my fingers together over the surface. “I know the consequence of what I’m about to ask him.”

The bartender immediately understood what I implied. He left me alone as the last two stragglers got up to pay their tickets on the other end where he met them. I didn’t mind he handled business first because it left less room for a witness of my location. Keeping my head down, I made sure there would be no direct line of sight for my face to miss any cameras in the building. While it was easier to tap into the outside ones, the ones inside couldn’t be accessed, but I couldn’t chance it with who my father was. He’d hire a professional or come down here directly to look at the footage if he thought I was betraying him again.

Usually, there was a slight country vibe to the music, but it a jazz song came on. The blues lingered with me because it could be a theme song for where my life was heading by doing this. Kit thought I’d be stupid enough to let her have a favor owed, but I would never do that to her.

The two men made their way back out to me after waiting a few minutes for the others ro leave. I noticed how they murmured back and forth like they couldn’t believe I was here, telling me they knew who I belonged to. That didn’t come as much of a shock because Castiel knew everyone.

“Damien Rios,” he greeted me with my name. “What would bring Saul’s son here?”

“This business is my own, but you’re the only one who can handle it.” I looked up to meet his gaze, telling him I wasn’t afraid.

“And what sort of business are we dabbling in today? Are you looking for someone specific?” It was always eerie to notice the patch over his left eye, but I knew he didn’t wear it to scare people. Around the edges of it, I could see some scars coming from below where it had been removed.

“My father has captured someone, and she tells me you’re the only connection to her empire.” After I said it, his hackles raised. It was like he knew the name I planned to say before I had to even say it, but that wasn’t going to be the worst for him. I knew Kit had followed my father’s soldier here for information that Castiel gave. I’d be banking on the fact that his faulty information wouldn’t cost her after this.

“Who?” Even though he hadn’t treated me too kindly already, I could tell I dealt with someone deadlier now.

“Kit Andrews.” I let her name fall from my lips. “More importantly, you helped get her caught by giving her the faulty information my father let you overhear on purpose.”

“Who the hell do you think you are?” he growled at me, leaning over the bar.

I slammed my palms down on the surface, standing to square up with him. “I’m a man trying to save a woman my father wants to ruin completely! She told me that you were the only one who could let her people know. Is this true or not?”

“How do I know this isn’t a ploy from your father?” Castiel was wise enough to not believe me right away. Even Kit understood that while she’d been diluted by drugs.

Nodding my head, I let my fingers tap them against the surface and lowered my voice. “When Kit gave me your name, she gave me a code word, saying you’d know the truth if I told you.”

“So what’s this code word?” It wasn’t him who asked, but the man standing next to him. His boyish charm left as he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes on me.

“She told me to tell you tunnel 29. What that means, I don’t know. That’s all she gave me to tell you.” Sitting back down, I let them digest what I had said. It was clear the words triggered something by how their eyes widened slightly when I said it.

“And why are you so keen on helping Kit? What do you get out of this?” Castiel kept firing his questions.

“Believe it or not, I was the one who helped her escape the first time. I don’t have that power in my possession this time.” Slipping him a folded piece of paper, I had written down my father’s addresses for them find Kit easier. Circling the one she was at, I knew I needed to list the other compounds to make sure, just in case he moved her. “This is the address she’s at right now, but I added these ones just in case he moves her before her people come.”

“Don’t you mean her pack?” the other man asked.

“My father has already figured out she doesn’t belong to anyone. He’s burned the fake bite off her neck and marked her cheek for others to believe she’s a dud. Her people need to know what’s happening to her before my father goes too far.”

Castiel nodded as though he understood. “So you’re saying your father set me up to feed her false information with a favor I owed her?”

That came as a surprise to me because I didn’t know he owed Kit a favor. It made me want to ask several questions, but I bit my tongue. “Yes, he knew you would overhear the address, and he wanted to see if she would go to it by coming here. He had secret cameras in the trees and caught her on one of them at the cabin after she killed the man that she’d been hunting to find my father.”

I could tell that bit of news didn’t sit well with him. Placing his palms on the edge of the surface on his side, he had to think over what he wanted to say to me next. “I’ll make a deal with you, but because my information got her in this pickle, I’ll tell her people for free where she is.”

“How come I feel like there’s a but on that?” I studied his features, but he kept stoic to hide his true emotions.

“Because I’m the deadliest person in the city, and everyone knows it. Kit is the closest thing I consider a friend, so if you want my help to get her back, you’ll owe me a favor.”

“Do you think her friends are unequipped to help?”

He smirked just a little. “I’m not sure you’ve met Anika, but I’d never get on her bad side or bet against her. What I’m saying is for you specifically. We all know your father marked you for his pack, so you can’t raise your hand against your Alpha. If you want me to take out your father’s empire, it’ll cost you a favor.”

And there it was. The one offer I didn’t know if I could refuse. As much as I hated my father, it was hard to think about letting someone else kill him. Still, Kit would never be able to sleep at night if my father was still alive. “And you have the ability to get ahold of her people?”

“I do,” he answered me.

“Then when you mean my father’s empire, you mean him directly, don’t you?”

“And whatever idiot stands in my way to get to him,” he added. “Your father has now burned my bridge with using my location.”

“So why would it cost me a favor if he’s already crossed you?”

Castiel leaned back down to brace his elbows on the bar top. “Because I know you’re going to be stepping up in his place to figure out whatever dealings he has going on. I can hand your father a letter that says I know what he did in my bar, and he’d owe me a favor. I’d win there too, but I’d rather put my eggs in your basket. Killing him will be a favor to you for you to make the change you want in the city. If you begin running his empire, you’ll have the intel that I might need for something coming up, something he’s been hiding.”

“The one problem with your logic? My father will never give his kingdom to me. He hates the idea of having me as a son, so I can guarantee you it won’t be me he hands the reins over to.”

“I’m willing to bet against that because I know men like your father. He pretends you mean nothing like the rest of his men, but it’ll be in his will. I can almost guarantee it.”

Now it was my turn to process what he said. Mulling it over, I licked the front of my teeth with my tongue. “This favor that I’ll owe you will not come at the cost of the kingdom. If I do get control over it, it’ll stay in my power.”

Castiel was smart because he knew I was being wise with putting conditions on the favor. “I have a feeling your father is in some shady business with some bad people I’ve been looking for. You’ll be my eyes on them if so.”

“Then you have yourself a deal.” Lifting my hand, he met me halfway, and we shook on it. I now owed Castiel a favor, but he’d help me save Kit and destroy my father for it.

34: Kit

Delirious, I was trying to focus through the haze of drugs as another day passed. The only way I knew another sunset and sunrise had happened was because Saul changed his clothes. Only that detail that let me know how long I had been here, and that only came with the days I was awake enough to notice.

Most of the time, I went in and out of consciousness as my body got taken by multiple men. Underfed, Saul kept me in a position where I fell too weak to defend myself. With how he strung my body up, he made sure I wouldn’t have the drive necessary to attack.

My eyes tracked every movement he made because I couldn’t trust the predator in the room with me now that I collapsed in his trap. I was mildly surprised to see just me and him today because he usually brought in his spectators to watch. He noticed how I watched him, eyeing every twitch he did. Smirking, he loved having the control over me, thanks to Mandy.

Grabbing his phone from his pocket, he quickly shot off a text to someone before slipping it back in and walking over to me. He let his eyes fall and cascade over my body, studying the curves of my womanhood. His antics were vile, and I wished I could spoon out his eyes for looking at me the way he did.

“We’re about to have a special guest, and I know you’ll be thrilled to meet who my other partner is.” Reaching forward after he spoke, he let his pointer finger and thumb clip on my nipple before he twisted it for me to suffer more. Gritting my teeth, I refused to give him the satisfaction of hearing me cry over it. For some reason, he kept me more sober than usual, so I knew something was afoot.

The door opened, telling me his text had been a message to send to whoever was coming in. In my wildest dreams, I didn’t expect to see who I did. Randall Wickham, Ryatt and Kayos’s dad. Both men could read my surprise as Randall joined us on my side of the room. I wasn’t prepared to see him. Since his sons took over his seat with the families, I hadn’t heard his name anywhere in the city. Leia had mentioned that her father was retiring somewhere private. Now I understood he didn’t tell her where he went, and he had never actually left the city.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Kit Andrews, the trailer trash Omega who thought she could come into my home and belong.” His menacing gaze swiftly followed my body as he sneered at it. “You’re nothing more than the lock between your legs.”

Randall passed down some of his features to his boys, but Ryatt and Kayos never looked as cruel as he did. Where they had a soul within their stare, Randall became void. He was a man who never cared about anyone but himself and his power. Now that I saw him here, I could only take one guess as to why. Even though my throat was scratchy, I readied myself and returned the anger he presented.

“I’d say the same to you, but you don’t even have what’s most desired in a mate, you’re nothing.” Baring my teeth just a little, I rolled my eyes at his words. “Someone should teach you guys new lines. You’re so unoriginal. Let me guess, you didn’t like handing over your seat to your sons.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise, nearly reaching his hairline. Even Saul couldn’t hide his shocked face for me catching on in my partially deluded state. Randall began to chuckle, shaking his head. Out of nowhere, his hand swung and smacked me across the face for disrespecting him. The tingling burn against my skin hurt, but I didn’t care. I knew I hit a nerve, and I wouldn’t stop doing it when I had that type of power in this situation.

“You’re only a trailer trash Omega, and you’ll never be more than the value of your pussy!” His snarl terrified me, but I also knew he showed his defense because of my attack.

“At least I still have a purpose,” I returned. “Your balls must have dried up to lose your seat.”

Randall was quick to grab me by the throat as my hands we’re strung up above my head. He shoved my back against the wall I hung near, giving me his ruthless stare. “You wanna see if they’re dried up or not?”

“If I have the option, no.” Smiling, I knew I had him right where I wanted him. “But let’s face it, you’re not actually asking my permission. You’re going to use me just like the others did because you’re attracted to me. If I had a say, I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole, but we know you don’t really ask women how they feel about you from hating the answer.”

***

Randall was fed up with me after poking the bear. He turned me around for my face to be against the wall, twisting the chain above my hands to manage it because Saul wanted me flexible for his men to use me easier. The telling sound of a belt being undone jingled behind me as I closed my eyes to pretend none of this would happen. Being violated by the man who raised the loves of my life wasn’t something that could easily be undone.

Inside my head, I began singing a song to block out his intrusion. I felt the thrust of his hard shaft plunging into the depths of my core. It wasn’t easy to master this level of detachment, but I had to for this not to ruin me. Damien would pass the word to Castiel. I just had to hold on a little longer before people could come save me.

Randall raked his nails down my back, scratching me deep enough to draw blood. Biting the inside of my cheek, I tried not to cry out as he vandalized my body. A man of power fucked me, and I hated him even more for it. The bricks on the wall kept scraping against my front, creating a rugburn along my skin. The abhorrent man knew all of this, but he wasn’t done hurting me even more as his lips lingered by my ear. He forced my head to turn his way before making my lips contact against his. Forcing his tongue down my throat, he traumatized my heart to send a promise that his sons would never want to touch me again.

All the pain he inflicted against me continued, but I turned dead inside. He wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg in the situation. Right as I began taking his knot, he held me by the front of my hips to press against him firmly. He wanted to defile me by touching every ounce of flesh I had, knowing it would ruin me because I loved his sons.

Releasing my lips, he let his tongue swipe along my jawline right before returning to my ear. He grunted and growled, releasing more and more rounds, spilling his cum inside of me. “Let’s see if my son’s touch you now.”

“Screw you,” I hissed back at him.

“I think we both know it’s you who’s screwed in this.” His hands moved up my middle, fondling my round breasts. He kept pumping into me, wave after wave with his cum as my body opened to take his knot. I hated that I was so good at this, but Ryatt taught me all those years ago, and I wanted to take every knot he offered. “Now, you’re going to tell me where my daughter is, or else I’m going to hurt you even more.”

“And what makes you think I know where Leia is,” I growled at him as my body rocked against him to take his knot better. “She’s your daughter, so you should know where she is.”

“Let’s just say she found something she wasn’t supposed to, and she ran. As her loving and doting father, I worry about her health.”

“What you mean to say is, she saw how you’re involved with this traitor, so she ran before you could kill her.” So much made sense now that I knew because Leia’s escape made no sense when she ran. She just told Anika and me that she had to for her own safety, so I had always assumed it was from the packs being taken out. Now, I knew her father hunted her.

“My business is my own, you little bitch. You’re just going to tell me where she is.”

“So what did she see?” I laughed as his hands moved away from my chest to grip my hips again. I could feel the wetness that slipped from my hole, oozing down my thighs as he kept going. “It’s not like seeing Saul would warn her that you’re a terrible man. Well, more terrible than you have been. Saul used to work for you, so she had to see something pretty major for you to put a hit on her head.”

“Let’s just say, Saul and I are starting a new business venture. She didn’t take too kindly to the business plans she sniffed around and found.”

“Good for her,” I applauded Leia for doing the right thing. My friend had hated her father for a long time, but now I understood why she ran and kept no contact. She barely reached out to me through Anika just to confirm she was still alive. I had no doubt that she took her brothers’ calls because she was worried about them being the next target when the families fell. Now that they were in my home, she kept in contact even less.

“Where is she?” he growled again before clamping my throat from behind. His dick finally emptied, but he wasn’t done forcing my channel to milk him, so he didn’t pull out.

“Even if I knew, I would never tell you.” Turning my neck in his hold, I made sure he could see me over my shoulder. “I hope she hunts you down like the little bitch you are.”

Randall didn’t like my response. He hated everything about me and what I represented in his life with his sons and daughter. Letting go of my neck, his hand fisted into my hair to control my head. That was when he slammed it against the wall in front of me, hitting me hard enough against it to make me lose consciousness.

35: Turner

Absolutely ruthless. No one would believe what my eyes took in, watching Anika torture Mandy. The woman running for mayor already lost three fingers as Anika took the dull end of the blade to cut through with more force than slicing them clean. It made me cringe in pain, but Kayos informed me that Kit planned to do something similar to the man in the woods.

Mandy’s face had been bludgeoned. Anika used her as a punching bag, and her muscles were ones no one wanted to go against. The swelling forming around her cheeks and eyes made it so she could barely see, and there were black circles decorating her porcelain skin. The center of her nose shifted because Anika broke it in her rageful beating. Mandy had been unprepared for us to find her, and for Anika to beat the ever-loving shit out of her.

“I’m running out of kindness,” Anika glowered.

“And I told you that I wouldn’t care what you did to me. Kit getting what she deserves is worth it,” Mandy hissed back.

“You shallow whore! You kept these misguided insecurities inside of you this whole time, but Kit stayed your friend during that duration. She bent over backwards to help you get further to advance in your own life! Now I find out you’ve been the one who’s hindered her?”

“Hindered? I’ve been destroying.” Her leer was ugly through her swollen lips as blood spilled from her gums. “I told Ryatt how I felt about him our freshman year, but his eyes had already been glued to the new girl. He didn’t even know Kit had been there for a year until he finally saw her in the hallway. That’s when I knew he’d never love me because of her.”

Kit came our eighth-grade year, and her and Mandy became fast friends from what we knew. We didn’t meet Kit until our freshman year when Ryatt noticed her in the hallway and tripped over himself because of her beauty. After he showed us her, none of us were the same again. Her kindness only made her more beautiful, and her loving heart was everything a broken boy needed.

“Ryatt didn’t like you before that,” I told her the truth. She’d sense it from being an Alpha herself. “He was never into you, Mandy. It wasn’t Kit’s fault, but you weren’t his type or the rest of ours.”

“Oh, I know.” She let her head toss back before cackling like the crazy bitch she revealed. “But just imagine the power I felt when I was the one doing everything for Saul to get you guys riled up. I left the dead animals on her porch for you to find, but you never knew it was to hide her scent all along. She never left that condemned room, but you had no idea.”

Bile rose in my throat because I remembered the animals she talked about. They were strung along the overhang to greet our faces. She also punched in the windows and ruined the crappy place even more to make it look abandoned. We never entered because it looked too haunted.

Mandy had always been someone with a bubbly personality, but her narcissistic mask helped her hide among the many with her true villainous ways. If Kayos was here to hear this or even catch wind of it, he’d take Anika’s knife and jam it into Mandy’s throat to not hear another word. I wanted to do the same thing right now, but I knew better. She was the only link to our girl.

My arm might’ve been out of the sling, but it didn’t have the grip strength I needed to hold her down and stab her. Seeing red line my vision, I knew if anything happened to Kit it would gut me as though she was part of my pack because I loved her so deeply without that connection. Kit didn’t need to bear our mark to mean the world to me. We had to find a way to save her, or I wouldn’t find my own will to live anymore.

Just when I thought we wouldn’t get anywhere, the door to the room we were in opened. Raphael moved with someone right behind him that I couldn’t make out under the bathing shadows. Anika had placed Mandy right below one swing light in order to put the focus on her without her being able to see what was around. My eyes kept trying to take in the stranger, but I could tell Raphael sat a little more on edge from whoever paid them a visit.

“Sister,” greeted Anika. “You have a visitor.”

The second he stepped to the side, everything in my chest froze and locked up. Underneath a black brimmed hat, Castiel looked up for us to see his face. Even with the shadows hiding a lot of his features, no one wore a leather eye patch like that. Anika appeared just as baffled as me to see him walking into their home, and it made me wonder how he knew where to find them. How long have they been in cahoots with Castiel?

“Cass,” she greeted him like an old friend. She stopped sawing her way through the finger with the dull end of a blade and lifted it up right before jabbing it back down to land in Mandy’s thigh. Mandy let out a roaring scream of pain as we watched and heard the full blade go through her meat and bone before digging into the wooden chair below. “What are you doing here?”

His eyes were fixated on the spot that she tormented Mandy just now. Licking his lips, I could see how much he loved the cruelty Anika provided Mandy. “A little birdie flew my way with the whereabouts of your lost Omega.”

“Who?” She crossed her arms and stood strong against him as though they did have a history. One that didn’t put him in her good graces.

“The same one from all those years ago. The one who helped her escape before when he returned her to you.” Castiel kept his hands in his pockets of the tan trench coat he wore that helped hide his frame from any cameras that might be nearby. A man made for stealth and filled to the brim with information he shouldn’t be bargaining with.

“And why would you help? Why now?” Anika’s questions made my ears perk up because I wondered what it would be that she was referring to. Ryatt had told us about his venture with Kit to his bar to learn the address of the cabin, but I had an inkling it wasn’t the only time they wandered in that bar.

Castiel sighed before moving her direction to stand right before Mandy. Even through her tears, Mandy smirked as though she had the upper hand on him. This time, it wasn’t Anika he addressed. “You devious little girl, how dare you use me?”

“Technically, Saul used you.” She all too happily to delivered that line. I was beginning to comprehend something else had been at play here. Sharing a look with Raphael, he was picking up on it too.

“Used you? How did they use you?” Anika interjected, asking what we wanted to know too.

“They stationed their man at my bar for Kit to follow on purpose, and they deliberately had me overhear that address to send her to.” Unbuttoning his trench coat, he wore a simple band T-shirt and black jeans. Turning my way with his coat, he held it out for me to take. “Would you mind holding this? It’s my newest one, so I’d rather not get it dirty to match the others it replaced.”

Taking it, I wasn’t sure I had another choice in the matter. Though, he left me completely speechless with what happened next. Castiel swiftly moved his body to where Mandy sat, lording over the woman with a displeased growl. He yanked the knife from her thigh and shoved it into the center of her throat for her to choke on her own blood. We listened to the gargling sound, but we were desensitized to it from having too many instances like this.

Castiel had a few splatters of blood going up his arm, but it wasn’t too terrible as Anika handed him a towel to clean himself. She studied the hollowed eyes of her once friend, knowing the friendship had been a lie all along. “I take it that if you’re killing my only witness, you have a plan?”

Removing a paper from his back pocket, he showed us a list of addresses that were on it. Now that the vermin had been killed, we could speak openly about what needed to be done next. Well, he didn’t know if he could trust me as his single eye drilled into my skull. Raphael nodded my way and gave the okay for him to communicate frankly in front of me. “Turner is part of Ryatt’s pack. And before you even ask it, yes, that Ryatt. They also know the truth about Kit.”

“Ah, I believe I had the pleasure of meeting Ryatt when they came into my bar. No wonder he was acting so possessive of Kit during our friendly banter. His soul secretly knew her little secret.” Castiel let a mischievous smile take over his lips. He emulated the devil in disguise, and I hated he became our only hope right now. When he saw my disdain for him, he held the paper out for me to see. “Seems how your pack is so privy to our information, I’ll be the one to tell you this end of it. Kit and I have a mutual alliance that built our empires together, so I have known all along about every secret she has here. Let it bother you and your other men as long as you need, but she was smart enough to send her inside man my way in order to get this note into her compound safely.”

“He's right on that,” Raphael added. “If her person on the inside was the one to show up, we would have shot him with no questions asked. That’s how we’ve kept this place safe for so long.”

“But you let this man have a key to the kingdom?” I couldn’t get over this new fact. Castiel of all people.

“Think of it more as a partnership. We’re both silent partners in each other’s business that gives me access to this place, so I’m handing over the address to where Kit is. Would you rather I didn’t show up?”

Grinding my teeth, I knew I’d hate this man for a very long time. Though, I couldn’t deny my relief with what he handed over to us. “I still don’t trust you.”

“And you never should,” Anika finished. Turning back his way, she glared at him to tell us what he knew.

He pointed to an address that was circled at the top. “Our informant let me know this is where she is right now, but if it changes, these are the other locations Saul might hold her at. And because I gave Kit faulty information, my debt is no longer paid to her. As her Beta, I’m asking that my wrong be righted in this exchange of information.”

Anika narrowed her eyes, but she bowed her head in acceptance of his offer. “If she’s here, you won’t owe a debt.”

“Alrighty then,” he replied before moving to the door. “I’m also putting it out there that I’ll be taking care of Saul and his little minions, but I’d like to ask for your help with doing that.”

Giving her a look over his shoulder, she narrowed her eyes in confusion because she knew that meant he’d owe her a service. “Why are you offering me a favor?”

“Because I have something you’re gonna be interested in, and I don’t want to make you owe me to find out. By asking for your help on a mission you’re already going on, I feel it’s safe to speak to you about it.”

“What is it?”

“I found someone you’ll be interested in finding. Right now, there’s only rumors, but I know Saul is working with the people who can find out for sure. Let’s just say, I gained a favor with my offer to kill him that’ll give me the information I need.”

“And what if this person isn’t who you think?”

“Presumably, very few can do what he can, especially in our neck of the woods, but I’m finding out to make sure.” His code was understood, Anika gasped, and he knew she would. Raphael even dropped the gun he held in pure shock of whoever this person was. Castiel only smiled at her before tipping his hat and leaving. “You have my number. Get your men ready to go in an hour because mine have already been prepped.”

36: Kit

Past

“Whore.”

“Little slut.”

“I bet you’re thinking of my cock inside you right now.” Their words all filtered in, but I wasn’t processing them like I normally would.

The air in my lungs kept feeling trapped the more I felt myself dying. My body wanted to give in. Death, a sweet mercy I hadn’t been afforded, but my body tried to gift it to myself in a way that would save me from any more of this madness.

One kick after another, the men surrounding me had their fun, jerking to their cruelty. Hurting me turned them on. I moved past the point of feeling disgust over it. Instead, I studied the rotted corpse of the dead man by the window, seeing how many months went by for him to wither so much. He’d been the first clue this was the promise of my new life.

Each man began to spurt their load all over me, grunting as they kicked me harder. I barely felt their hot seed against my side as I pretended none of this happened. This was how I knew I finished living. I usually felt satisfaction when the men left me in my room, but a hollowness found me instead.

Covered in their juices, I was soaked in cum. It surprised me they did something new today, standing around me as they all jerked off to shoot it all over me, degrading me with their challenging tongues. Some even kicked me as I lied in the fetal position to ignore what was happening. Weeping, they laughed at my broken state. They found it amusing that I spat my blood at their feet, coughing a little more up after my rebuttal. To make things worse, I could hear the rats below my room. They were eating and scraping against the wood as though they wanted access to the filth inside. I had no doubt they did.

***

The third day arrived, and I hadn’t seen Damien since I told him my conditions. Now that I lied alone in my pool of blood, I knew I wasn’t going to survive much more. Saul didn’t use me like I planned, but he didn’t let me recover either. They formed their circle of degradation and beat the shit out of the rest of my body, waiting for my vagina to heal. Bukkake, the word one of them used for the shit they did, and I knew I’d never like that word again.

The door swung open, seeing a frightened Damien on the other side. His eyes were wide, concerned, based in the details his father gave him for my repair. I blinked slowly at him, calculating how he had left me for so long. Turning my head over while I was on my stomach, I also didn’t want to give him my time of day. No more tears could be shed. I just wanted to die and be done. I wanted to join the others in the river, crying with the wind for the loss of a good life.

“Kit,” he breathed. Closing the door, he made sure the men behind him weren’t paying attention. Diving at my side, he saw how unresponsive I was to his touch. Typically, I let him hold and coddle me, but a waste now. He wasn’t doing anything to make it permanently better.

Cleaning me up, he didn’t say much. Sitting upright, I winced as he wrapped my ribs with a bandage. I never let my eyes turn his way as I endured getting put back together. Everything he did felt repetitive, so I grew used to the disgruntled motions my body forced me to do as he fixed me up to be a puppet again.

“I’ve loosened the floorboards from below,” he whispered to keep this news between us. That was enough to make me look at him. The corner of his mouth lifted, but the smile didn’t meet his miserable eyes. “It took me a few days to do it quietly, and I could only come by when my father wouldn’t see me doing it.”

“What’s the plan? Do I just crawl out and run?” I questioned. “What about my shackle?”

Damien dug into his pocket like he just remembered he had the key. Handing it to me, I literally held my freedom in my hand. Swallowing hard, I couldn’t believe Damien managed to do all of this without his father knowing. My previous thoughts of him betraying me deceived my faith in him, making me hate myself even more.

“No, wait until Hank does his check on you. That way, my father can’t say I was the last to see you. If you attack Hank when he comes in, they’ll later believe that’s how you got the key, but he’ll hit you when you do that.”

“One hit to never be hit again?” I scoffed. “That’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

“I figured, but I still wish I could change that part of my plan.”

Reaching for his hand, I gave it a squeeze. “If it helps mask you helping me, I’m more than okay protecting you.”

Damien didn’t want us talking about his side of this, so he pointed to the metal now in my hold. “Hide the key where they won’t see it.”

My mind knew exactly where to place it as I slid it into the bandage wrapped around my ribs. It hurt but not enough to prevent me from doing it. At first, I thought about using my vagina, but I knew Hank liked to use me when I was raw and aching. Tonight would be no different for the creep.

“Go underneath the room after he comes but wait until someone notices you’re gone before you leave. That way, the house will be emptied out to make it easier.”

“Then what?” I nearly cried, knowing I might not make the escape.

“I’ll make sure to be in the search party. Run into the forest about a quarter of a mile heading toward the river. I’ll be waiting near the walking path. It’ll be empty that time of night from how dangerous the river is to be on, so you’ll need to be careful.”

“What if I run into one of your father’s men?” I feared.

“The screwdriver is still below the house. Take it with you and stab them in the side of the neck with it if you get caught,” Damien said it with such ease, but I wasn’t sure I could kill. I wasn’t sure I could take a life, but I knew I had to try for my freedom, fighting the bile in my throat now.

“What about you?” I blinked back some tears. “Will you run with me?”

“Me? Leave?” he nearly laughed. “I have my mom to think about. I can’t leave her.”

“Oh,” I sighed. “I understand. I just…”

“You want to free me like I have you,” he finished, tucking some loose hair behind my ear. I couldn’t remember the last time I showered properly, so it felt greasy and reeked of cum. “You survive, and it will be freeing enough for me to keep fighting for the same one day. When that happens, I’ll find you.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.” He leaned forward and kissed my forehead, lingering near enough for his breath to cascade down my face. He kept us like that for a long minute. “I have someone on the outside who will get you to safety when I take you to them, so don’t worry about what’ll happen after. You’ll be safe.”

Damien knew he had to go, but he injected me with some drugs before departing. It wasn’t as heavy of a dose that I normally got, but I knew he want to help ebb the pain away while also letting me have more of my consciousness alert to escape. Once the drugs rushed through my body, I let out a steady breath because it felt so good to take the hit.

In my mind, I kept telling myself that I only used the drugs here because of the pain, but my subconscious knew that was a lie. I wanted them like the air filled my lungs. They took away everything bad that my thoughts wanted to focus on and dulled the emotions attached. It would be a problem for a different day because I had to ground myself enough to escape.

37: Kit

Past

Hank came in to do his nightly check on me, and I lunged for his waist the second he came in, scratching my daggering nails into his flesh. I wanted this to look as real as possible, which meant doing it. His black licorice smell hit me as I snarled. All the rage I felt for him unleashed in that single moment as he shrilled. He kicked me down and held me in place to force himself on me. I kept my fist closed as he did his dirty act for his memory to remember that I could’ve taken the key.

“You fucking bitch. You think that would be enough to stop me from doing this?” Showing me his hard cock, I had to remember it’d be the last time he’d do this. It was the final fucking I’d have to endure while here. Not saying anything, he smirked down at me as though I serviced him already. “I like when my bitch gets feisty.”

His bitch. I gritted my teeth and bore through the pain of him grating his dick over my stitches. Hopefully, nothing ripped open during this brutal fucking he gave me. Closing my eyes, I kept thinking about having my fist above my head with it shut. He probably thought it meant solidarity to my virtue, but it was to play him the fool later.

He released already; the one perk about this loser. He didn’t know how to last longer than a few minutes. No wonder he never found someone, turning into the psycho he was. I imagined he’d been rejected too many times and flipped his crazy switch. Making sure every last drip made it inside of me, he quickly stood up and buckled his flaccid dick back into his pants. This Beta scum could never knot in me like the Alpha’s Saul brought in.

***

“If it weren’t for the vagina between your legs, you’d have no use. It’s good thing you learned to take a knot.” Chuckling on his way out, it turned into a whistle. That was my sign to begin because he wouldn’t come back for a few hours to give me more drugs. Ignoring the gush of cum that came out when I sat up, I knew I didn’t have a minute to lose as I fished the key out from my bandage.

Undoing my ankle, I scurried to the window and quietly opened it far enough that it looked like I went through. I had to think of all the possibilities, and I knew Hank wouldn’t look at the flooring if he noticed the window. Part of me wanted to run right now, but I knew Damien’s plan held a better probability for my freedom to last.

Now that my body hurt again, I knew this next part would be tougher as I crawled back to the spot I had been in. The floorboards below me weren’t giving way, so I used the key to help hoist the first one up. After I got two out, I hurried to slink through them. I hated how skinny I fell that let me fit with ease, but my health could be fixed once I was gone.

Underneath the house, I lied with rats and spiders, but I didn’t care. I hurried to set the flooring back into place. Holding my breath as I did so, I grew terrified someone might hear me. My hands kept trembling until the last withered board clicked into the center of the two around it, and I sighed in relief. With my heart nearly pounding out of my chest, I knew I couldn’t rest until the time came. No sleep would find me now that the plan was in motion.

Nesting below the house, I coiled into a ball on the cold ground. Being naked made it harder, but I knew I’d run naked through the streets of the city for everyone to see rather than spend another day here. Shivering, I closed my eyes and thought of my fonder memories. Though, they involved the men that left me so many months ago. My mind left the thoughts of them, and I found Anika instead. She was the one friend who would know something went wrong, but I was terrified of them getting her too.

My racing thoughts began to let panic set in. What if something did happen to her? Shaking my head, I knew better than to put that energy into the universe. Anika wasn’t weak like me. She stood as strong as an ox, and she had her brother to help protect her. They’d be fine, and I’d find them once I got out of this hellhole.

The room to my door began to open, telling me Hank came in for his nightly check. This would usually be the time he fucked me, but I made him mad earlier. A pause settled before I heard him curse and run to the window. “She’s escaped!”

Good. He believed the window idea. Watching from above, I noticed more feet coming in from the light being turned on for once. I could never reach the switch for them to isolate me even more. Four pairs of boots were walking over the surface before they ran out to inform their boss. They left the door open, so I could hear the rage now coming as Saul stormed into the room.

Somehow, I managed my timing just right because he berated the guard outside for falling asleep. Sheer chaos ensued above me as all the men scurried to get outside. Saul barked orders as all the trucks sounded their engines. Some peeled out of the gravel, and I could hear it all from my claustrophobic hiding spot. Waiting several minutes, the silence told me I’d be safe to leave. I also knew I needed to give the drivers more time to exit the trailer park.

The time came to be brave, so I began moving the flooring to climb back inside. With the house empty, I hurried out through the window just in case someone waited in the living area to be the standby person. Everything hurt, and my muscles weren’t sure if they could support the motions I was doing to climb out, but I had to. My heart broke when I stepped over the dead man who tried to help me, and the guilt of his death would riddle me sick forever.

He’d have to live through me, so it meant having to survive now. Somewhere deep inside me, my fight for survival kicked in, and I ran like hell the second my feet slammed against the ground.

The forest sat up ahead as I swung my arms at my sides to push me harder, one holding the screwdriver. My breathing turned sporadic from the rush and terror filling me all at once, making my adrenaline a live wire. Hurdling over the debris of the uneven ground, I wouldn’t stop until I made it. Nothing would hunt me now that I was free because I refused to be their prey ever again.

Short-lived, someone managed to tackle me to the ground just as I made it over halfway to the meeting point. A small shriek left my lips before the air was lost to my lungs from being knocked out of me. I didn’t know who had me in the darkness, but I didn’t care as I rolled onto my belly to crawl away. Their rough hands held me down as the larger frame came over top of me.

“You little bitch! You’re going to get me killed for pickpocketing me,” Hank growled. I recognized his voice right away without needing to see his face. His black licorice scent always drowned me when he found me in my dark room.

Wanting to give in from the trauma of my past experiences, this time would be different. It was only me and him, and I had a weapon. I had a way to overcome it all. Closing my eyes, I stopped fighting long enough for him to think he bested me. I whimpered to play along.

Right when he rolled me over onto my back, I plunged the screwdriver into the side of his neck just like Damien told me to. I’d never forget this moment, taking my first life. A sick satisfaction swept through me when I felt the metal tip drive through his meaty neck, loving how it felt to be the one controlling the weapon.

Having to get out from under his gurgling frame, I ripped the screwdriver out for him to stumble back onto his knees. His blood spurted over me, but I didn’t care. One of my enemies was gone as the light left his eyes. As much as I wanted to watch his last breath depart, I had to run before another came.

Getting on my feet, I started my sprint all over again. Today would mark the last day I felt this weak because I’d push myself to get stronger for Saul to never hurt me again. My limbs wouldn’t burn with every step as though my muscles were going to snap. Biting my cheek, I kept persevering to make it. This wouldn’t be my end as I sampled Hank’s blood from licking my lips.

I’d be the predator, the hunter. I’d become who no one thought I could, and I’d slowly take them all out for hurting me like this. An Omega was precious and revered… I didn’t want to be that anymore. I’d become the thing that could rival them all. I’d make myself an Alpha they’d bow down to.

This new idea stuck with me as I made it to the walking path. Stopping my run in the center of the track, I saw the headlights flashing up ahead, catching me in their brightness. I knew I looked like a wild animal, but my savagery calmed down when they blinked their lights twice at me before rolling forward.

Damien.

I made it to him. Running toward him as he drove my way, I wanted to find safety faster than standing around and waiting. Opening the door, I climbed up to sit in his truck. When my body molded to the seat behind me, I tried catching my breath. My lungs burned, but I still breathed.

“Holy shit! It worked!” Damien’s hands were white knuckling the steering wheel.

Laughing during my huffs, I began to cry a little. Joy found me for the first time in years. “I literally owe you my life.”

“You owe me living your life,” he changed my wording.

Without saying anything else, I closed my door for him to get us out of here. Moving his way, I nestled into his side with a whimper from the pain of my injuries. Now that I wasn’t running for my life, I felt it all. He began driving, but he was aware of my proximity to him. Turning my head up, I knew this was going to sound horrible to him. “Do you have any drugs? My body is killing me.”

He slowed as we rolled up to a stop light, glancing down at me with concern. “You’re addicted.”

I didn’t want to admit the truth to him because Damien had to feed me drugs when I was injured and needed to sleep it off. He’d blame himself if I ever confessed to having a problem. Quickly rethinking what to say, I knew this was also a form of denial. My time in the trailer made me heavily addicted to what they had been giving me, but I needed it in the same sentence.

“I’m hurt,” I started. “My vagina is full of stitches that Hank might’ve reopened, and we both know some of my ribs are at minimum cracked from today. I want to take the edge off the pain after running.”

I kept my eyes forward. It was just an excuse to get my hands on more without making him feel like he became the dealer who got me hooked. Ryatt’s family sold the drugs, so I knew who to loathe for it even though I’d be seeking one of their dealers when I left here. Part of me also needed to find them and make sure they weren’t just as gutted as me.

“Can you promise this will be the last time? If I give you this, you’ll get clean?” His dark eyes were haunted by drugs, but I knew I wasn’t strong enough to stop myself. Pulling into a parking lot, I knew we’d be parting. As long as I didn’t run into him too soon, I could hide what I had done to myself.

“I promise. Just take the pain away.” Sticking my arm out, he readied the syringe and stuck it into the tracks I already had on my arm. I closed my eyes, feeling the soothing rush of drugs. A level of bliss most wouldn’t understand.

When I opened my eyes, I found Anika standing in the distance with her brother. They were driving a rundown Buick, but at least they had a ride. Damien shrugged out of his flannel top to let me cover my body, and it smelled like him. Inhaling it hard, he saw me give myself away. Blushing just a bit, I also smiled. “You’re everything I can’t have, but I’ll never stop wanting you.”

He pulled me in and kissed me deeply, letting me scent his sandalwood. I held my breath for him not to smell what had been building in grossness for months. Pulling back, I let my head fall to his chest. It was hard to part from him, but we knew neither of us could say the three little words sitting on the tips of our tongues. This goodbye hurt more than I initially thought because I wanted him.

He got out first, coming to my side and carrying me over to my best friend. My arms circled around his neck as his sturdy body held me one last time. Then I was in the arms of the only person I trusted.

New tears found me as the drugs began kicking in. Anika took me, and thanked Damien right as I grew too tired to keep my eyes open. Closing them, it was to watch him walk away from me, but unlike Ryatt and his pack, he said goodbye.

38: Kayos

Like my name, chaos whirled inside of me from my torment, missing Kit. It didn’t seem fair to suffer like this, but even worse came from knowing what she endured already. We were gearing up to go as Anika and Turner told us the plan. Her and her brother made the call for Rafael to stay back because this place would need a leader in the aftermath. We weren’t sure who would be coming back from this mission, so it felt best to leave him here.

We tried making Jericho stay back with him, but our Omega refused. He told us that Kit would go after him, so he’d be helping retrieve her. His secret training the last couple weeks with Kit and Anika boosted his confidence. While I adored his cuteness in thinking that would be enough, a few weeks didn’t compare to the years of hardness these other men toughened themselves through.

Ryatt added armor and bulletproof clothes to Jericho because he feared our Omega getting hurt. Drinking a quick energy drink, I typically didn’t like these things, but I knew I needed the extra rush for what we were about to do. Sleep had been something all were lacking these days, so I needed something to help push through.

The signal came, loading up into three cars. We wanted to play it safe just in case one of our vans was spotted. I joined Kashmir and Turner for the drive. What surprised me the most? Seeing Castiel getting into a vehicle with Anika. Once we drove out of the garage, we found another five cars on the road that began to follow, after we pulled out. Turner hadn’t been lying when he said Castiel was committed to this cause. Learning the vile man had been in cahoots with Kit this whole time felt a little unnerving. Still, I knew we needed the numbers.

A text sent to our phones from Castiel, and it made me question how he had all our numbers. The man was full of secrets, ones that could get us killed. A few of us knew he had been a good hacker, but this just solidified that. In the message, he attached a picture of Damien Rios. He mentioned this was our inside man and to not kill him, adding it would also hurt Kit if we did.

This life had already been hard on us with the absent years of Kit, but it hurt even more to find who she relied on in our absence. I had to shake that out of my head for now because we had a very important mission ahead of us. Our job, as a pack, was to extract Kit from the premises while Castiel’s men went in for the slaughter of Saul and his inner circle.

Castiel had put eyes on the building that Damien had told him, and I now knew it was Saul’s son who betrayed his father. The man in the photo with dead eyes belonged to Saul, but he helped Kit escape not once, but twice now. I didn’t know how to feel about that.

The heat signatures read a large group of men in one of the rooms on the upper floors of a warehouse. I had no doubt that’s the room they were using Kit in, and I hated it.

The second we pulled up, we saw a few people outside that were standing guard with their guns. We had to be very careful on how we took them out because gunshots would alert the people inside of our presence. Kashmir had the same idea as me, readying some blades from his vest to use, but Ryatt beat both of us. Using the same crossbow as before, we watched as one pierced the Adam’s apple of the first guy. The other man was struck through the eye a few seconds later, killing them on contact to not make any noise. Well, the one who was struck through the throat choked to death, but no one could hear it besides those of us who watched from our vehicles.

My twin took point as he began guiding everyone to the main entrance. Castiel pointed to the camera above it and gave the okay that he must have dismantled them somehow. His skills were ones that could help any team with any mission, but he chose to never interact with any of us, being a Delta.

“Should we divide and conquer?” Ryatt asked me even though the question went to everyone.

Castiel had his handgun to take point for his team. “We should split up in the groups we came in. Each of us has a radio on the same channel, so if one runs into trouble, the nearest can go aid. It’ll be faster to maneuver this way to ensure we get everyone in the compound killed.”

Ryatt nodded to the plan because it was the one that he thought of as well. “We should probably take two groups to the top floor where all the heat signatures were coming from. My team will go there because that’s where Kit will be.”

“And mine will join you because I’m sure that’s where Saul is as well,” Castiel agreed.

It was settled then. The rest of our groups were going to have to meander through the building and take out stragglers that weren’t on the upper floor. I knew Kashmir and Turner were bothered by the fact that they wouldn’t be helping retrieve Kit, but we also understood the larger picture at play. We had to take Saul out of his power, and that meant destroying his men following him.

The warehouse had been a cleaner kept one because it didn’t sit by the river. Unlike the ones Kit ran, this had a modern feel on the inside with hallways and rooms, so we were going to have to play knock knock on our quest to massacre them. The three of us went left as the others went right where the staircase was, so we oversaw the ground floor. Another team followed just in case a basement needed cleansed, and it made it so we could go ahead a few doors for them to do the ones behind us.

I only saw red from that point on. Turner kept kicking in the doors from his larger stature as Kashmir and I handled whoever he revealed inside each room. Our guns had silencers on them for the sound not to be too much, but the grunts alerted a few that an unwanted presence entered their building. One of the doors we had skipped for the other team opened as the man came out and began strangling Kashmir from behind. He was someone who listened well to the danger, but he hadn’t been ready to see how many of us were in the hall.

Part of me wanted to shoot him and be done with it, but Kashmir had always been one for theatrics. Even though he was being strangled, he smiled in delight as his airway cut off. The sick fuck even allowed it to continue for an extra second before he pulled out a knife from his vest and stabbed it into the jugular that saddled next to his head. Blood began spurting everywhere in waves, and most of it landed on Kashmir from how he turned to face the guy he stabbed. The thin wire was still spun around his neck, relishing in the thrill of the strangling as he took out his enemy.

Once the body dropped, Kashmir turned back to us as the blood of the man coated his bronze face and shirt. Even though his shirt was black, we could see where it dampened from the shiny hue it took, and his arms had spackled blood on them as well. He removed the wire from his neck, and I could see the hunger in his eyes that began to brew because this was the life we all enjoyed.

Being idle for so long made us stir crazy, but this moment I could see them all relishing in the satisfaction of killing people. Not exactly science, understanding we were beasts among men, but always rejuvenating for us as we killed after being indolent for so long.

Moving on, I was the one who got tackled next. The man came at me like a linebacker, flattening me on the ground and knocking the wind out of me. My own heart rate jumped in excitement and adrenaline. Most would fear fighting for their lives, but I hungered in never knowing if it would be me that he killed next. I showed a cockiness in my abilities, so I hurried and rolled the guy over to be underneath me.

He didn't have much meat on his bones, so it surprised me that he hit me with such force. Looking down at him, I felt bad that this young boy had to die, but I also remembered whose side he chose. I didn’t even give him an extra second before placing my gun to the middle of his head and pulling the trigger. He had closed his eyes in fear, but he didn’t scream like most would have in his position. He tried to die with the last little bit of honor he had left.

Standing up, I found the other two eyeing what I had just done. I could only smirk and keep moving as they followed. Hopefully, the other group of men were having it a little easier than we were. I was glad we were the ones on the bottom floor as we kept fighting through more men and blowing their brains out to gain access to the staircase. We had been caged monsters for too long, so this bloodlust took over us as we rampaged through the building.

39: Ryatt

We went up the stairs with Castiel’s team and my own, and I’d been flanked by Franco and Anika. Jericho moved within the middle of the pack because I still didn’t trust him to fight on his own against people who had been hostile for years. He had a gun, and Anika assured me he knew how to handle it. I couldn’t lie and say it didn’t piss me off when she told me she had been teaching him things behind my back, but it was time for him to learn. The world we lived in was cruel, and his kindness wouldn’t get him far outside of our pack.

A few other teams followed us, but they went to a different floor to handle whoever lingered in those spots. By the time we made it to the top floor, I knew we were about to begin a bloodbath. There was no war like one over a woman, and Kit would always be worth burning the whole world down for.

Every man readied themselves before we entered the door that would lead to the room we needed. Each of my hands held a weapon, putting back my crossbow to favor a handgun and a knife instead. The gun helped with quickness to swiftly shoot, but the knife would be my saving grace if one of them got too close to me.

Closing my eyes and counting my heartbeats, I let myself get to ten as the rhythm steadied within me. Quieting my nerves, something always exchanged inside my head like a switch being flipped. It was like my humanity shut off, and I could carry out the tasks that needed done. I became a silent predator when it came to lurking near an enemy. The others in my pack also felt the same sense sweep over them as we became something other than human.

Within me, I reached for our bond to make sure everyone was okay before going in. The emotions were high between my men, so I let that carry me through this next portion. Everyone was alive and well, and that would be the first step to completing this. I didn’t want to lose one to gain one, but I also knew none of us could say no when it came to saving Kit. I could never say no if any of them were in her position.

I turned into an animal as I stealthily moved to the door. Castiel and I shared one glance. That single look told both of us we were prepared for whatever outcome was about to be dished out. One of his men pulled the door open for the rest of us to scurry inside. Using our keen eyesight, we were able to deduct who needed to die right as we walked in.

The group of men were unprepared for our attack as the battle began. Only then I could see we were just in the first room of whatever they had going on up here because a door rested on the far wall. Somehow, Castiel and I became partners as we managed to work our way through the room to get to the entry, leaving our men to handle the bloodbath behind us.

When my hand reached for the door, I wasn’t surprised to find it locked. It irritated me some because I knew we just told Saul of our presence by trying to gain access. Castiel turned to look behind our backs to make sure no one watched us as I placed my handgun right above the lock. Shooting it, I felt the kick of my gun as the vibration settled over my hand. Even though it was a small firearm, it still had enough power to kill someone. Castiel held up his knife over his face just in case of a ricochet of any kind.

Bullets weren’t anyone’s friend, so it was always better to play it safe than sorry. After three bullets pelted into the wooden door, we finally saw the lock give way enough for us to open it. Castiel became just as impatient as I grew, placing his foot square with the door before lurching it back to kick forward again. It took him three kicks, but the door shoved open for us to find something I wasn’t prepared to see.

I knew Kit would be his prisoner, but it felt tenfold worse to see her being held at the throat by him in front of his body to protect him from our shots. He used her naked form as a meat shield, but it let me see the mark on her cheek he must have burned into it that showed everyone a dysfunctional Omega walked among them. After that, I noticed her neck had been healing a burn, and it told me Saul took out her fake bite marks to let the rest of the world know too.

Growling, I looked into the eyes of my father’s former second, hating everything he had ever done to my family. His stare that he returned only glowered as though he still won, and I hated his confidence. Saul wasn’t a man who liked to lose, so I could see how unhinged he became as he kept Kit in her shackles. He wanted her to suffer, and I could tell he hadn’t been nourishing her properly by how sunken her eyes were. There were track marks along her arms as though he had been drugging her and letting her become his typical whore. Everything within me wanted to declare war, but I also knew I had to play it safe because Kit sat within his grasp.

“Ryatt, how nice of you to join us. I wasn’t prepared for you guys to show up, but I always have a backup plan.” Saul didn’t give us a second to respond. His teeth immediately sank into the burned flesh of Kit’s neck, claiming her as his Omega. Everything roared inside of me because I knew she didn’t belong to anyone else but me and my pack. Saul did this because he knew it would cripple her if we killed him.

Kit screamed out in pain as he forced her to take his mark. She tried to breathe through it after it was said and done. He hurt the tender flesh that he had already burned. She hadn’t healed quite enough to not feel the impact of it.

My gut rolled in turmoil because I wasn’t sure what I should do now. Even Castiel paused beside me because he knew what just happened. The strength of my woman gave me power to continue as she met me dead in the eyes while being bitten. “I already suffer, so don’t let this mark stop you from doing what needs done.”

Saul despised her response, smacking her across the face for her to fall against the hard floor. Her naked body had been on full display, but I didn’t pay attention to her nudity. I only wanted the culprit who made her suffer and endure it. Even from here, I could see the bruising that lined her body, and too much white stuff had dried along her thighs to reveal how many men had used her. Plus, I saw every marring line from when he previously slices into her body.

My anger reached a new limit, but I couldn’t contain it. Not with what she withstood.

“Castiel,” Saul finally greeted him after degrading Kit even more. “I take it you figured out I used my intel against you.”

“The only time I meddle in other’s affairs are when they become my own,” the lone Delta spoke beside me. He readied himself in a stance that meant he prepared to lunge, and I did something similar as the door behind Saul kicked open for four other men to come inside. In all the fuss, I hadn’t seen Damien. I wondered if he removed himself from the premises for when shit would hit the fan, but I also knew Castiel didn’t tell him when we planned to attack. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the man, but Castiel let us know Damien saved Kit before. With him doing the same now, I’d owe him for her life being spared.

Running toward our enemies, I shot two men point blank because it wasn’t worth the fight. Castiel began a sword battle with Saul, telling me to stay out of his fight. Though, that would be a race for both of us because I wanted to kill the fucker as well.

My hands took hold of the next one’s neck as I rammed my blade into his navel area. Jerking it up, I felt as I cut through all the bone and muscle of his torso. His eyes were wide in pain, but he couldn’t do anything with how I shoved him against the wall to handle him. Letting him fall to the floor, I watched as blood poured out of his middle to create a pool around his body. It never bothered me that I killed people, and I found their deaths fascinating with how their crimson bath spilled out of their bodies. My fingers itched to touch it, to feel its warmth, but I knew other things were a priority.

Being rammed against by another foe, I found myself shoved up against the wall. This man knocked the blade out from my hand by slamming it against the windowpane of the room. We started our own brawl, fist fighting each other into submission. He had the strength of Franco, promising to crack a few ribs within me when his fist connected with my rib cage. I groaned, but I also knew this couldn’t be it. Unlike the man before me, I had something worth fighting for. It was that drive that pushed me to keep taking the hits.

Letting myself go numb, I didn’t feel any of it as I focused on destroying him. Kicking my leg out, I was able to get him a foot away from me right before I lunged and tackled him. He was the last man I had to battle, but he’d be the biggest. Nailing me in the same spot he had before, I heard another crunching of my bone within my ribs. I let my fist connect with the center of his face, smashing his nose with my strength. When I pulled that back up, I could tell I had broken it by the new angle as blood began to pour out his nostrils.

He was smart enough to take a swing at my face, hooking the side of my cheek to clip my mouth and nose. My jaw popped, letting me know it dislocated, but I couldn’t stop. We were a mess of limbs and blood, but neither of us wanted to back down from the fight. With grunts and groans, we kept rolling all over the floor, battling for the top position to dominate the other.

Had he not been an enemy, I would have asked him to be a sparring partner more often because he was a challenge. The daylights were being beaten out of me, but I couldn’t stop. The man gained the upper hand, clamping my throat with his hands as he exuded his power into me from being an Alpha as well.

To my left, I saw the blade by the window as my hand tried to grasp it. It sat just out of reach, but I kept trying to get it because I knew this would be my end if not. The strength bearing down on me was too much force. Just as blackness began to line my vision, I saw a speedy figure run by and grab the knife right before jumping over me to stab the man through the eye.

The hand that clamped my throat gave way because he fell dead, so I rolled his body off me. Blinking properly, I gasped for breaths when I looked up to see my savior. There were no words for the surprise on my face when I found Jericho being the one hovering over me with a knife in his hand that was now coated in blood from the man who tried to kill me. My Omega had just killed, but I questioned it it had been his first one because he was in the room with the others behind us.

“Where did you learn to do that?” I asked my Omega because none of us had taught him how to kill so fast.

He smiled bashfully as though he wanted to be proud of himself but wasn’t sure if it was the time or the place. “Kit told me, in the first lesson, if I wanted to kill an enemy fast, to stab them through the eye.”

Kit.

It took him saying her name once for me to comprehend the other battle in the room we were facing. More men were filtering in through the other door in the room just as my guys came in to help us. That was when I finally noticed Damien among them as he took in the massacre happening. Tilting his chin to me just a little, he acknowledged me in a way that told me he would follow.

Saul was stupid and thought his son came here for him, so he waved toward Kit. “Get her out of here and take her to my other location!”

Damien had no issue doing that because he knew it would get Kit out from underneath his father’s thumb. He rushed to the side of the fallen Omega, scenting his father’s mark on her. I could see how distraught it made him, breaking him just as much as it did the rest of us. He hid it well as he helped get her out through the other door where the fights weren’t taking place. I could only guess a second stairwell sat on that side, but I knew he’d take her down and get her to those waiting. We just had to finish the fight in here even though we were outnumbered.

Franco helped me stand to my feet as I wheezed from a punctured lung. Anything physical could be fixed as long as I avoided any major organs. A punctured lung was going to be hell to heal from, but I could have all my limbs missing from my body, and it would still be worth saving Kit.

40: Kit

Damien attempted to get me out and away from the chaos. I knew this was part of his plan, and I could see that him sending word to Castiel had worked. All my men were here, but they were fighting a battle we were running from. We had gone down one flight of stairs before I made him stop. He worried I might be too fatigued or too drugged to make it, so I shook my head.

“We can’t leave them. We need to go back and help him fight.” I wasn’t blind to the ambush that had started in there when Damien rushed in with his father’s men.

“My orders are to get you out of there,” he told me, brushing some loose hair behind my ear. I hadn’t been properly cleaned the whole time I’d been here, so I couldn’t imagine what I looked like right now.

“Your orders can be whatever you want them to be,” I reminded him that he didn’t belong to any of the packs in there. He might have been Saul’s son and marked by his father, but he was his own Alpha.

Damien had to take a minute to process what I said, and I could see the apprehension in his stare. Never a man who easily won against his father, but he was a man who wanted to do the right thing. Instead of being the boy I once knew who doctored me, I found a man more equipped to handle the battles his father brought down.

Pulling a key from his back pocket, he placed it in the shackles to let my wrists be free. The first time they had found freedom since I arrived, and it felt like a thousand pounds had been removed from them. Rolling my shoulders, they were completely stiff from how long my arms had been above my head. I still couldn’t let that faze me now because I had to go back and fight.

“I’m the leader of my people, and my Beta is in that room.” After I said it to him, he took my hand and promised to stand by my side. Damien always stirred mixed emotions for me because he had been the angel in my purgatory, but I also related him to the experience I suffered with his father.

We dashed back in to see the madness taking place. My eyes found Anika first as she kicked the asses of the men who surrounded her. I forgot what a fighter she became, moving with grace while striking them with the force of a gorilla. Her strength had been everything that made us survive, and I wouldn’t lose her right now.

I held a knife I found on the floor in my tingling fingers that weren’t used to being below my head. Saul had been freeing me from the ceiling restraints to escape with me until Castiel and Ryatt burst into the room. So I still tried to gain feeling back after they strung me up for too long. My steps were a little wonky because I didn’t have my balance quite yet, fighting the drugs offsetting my mind.

Drugs provided one thing; I could fight without the sensitivity along my nerves. Everything else blurred around the room as I charged forward and began stabbing those who weren’t part of my team. I came face to face with more than one of the men that had taken me while here, and I howled with screams each time I killed one of them. It turned into a way for my soul to grieve what they had put me through, so I let myself mourn as I battled. Tears were running down my cheeks as my cry for vengeance took place.

I kept charging forward and pushing through the crowd, stabbing men in the back that were battling those who were on my side. Unable to stop myself, I felt a different type of pulse speeding through my body. It took me a minute to understand the pain exuding through my core until I turned around and saw Saul getting punched by Castiel. They had been sword fighting, but the sword that sat in Castiel’s grasp was now tossed across the room of madness. He tried to defend himself against Saul without having a weapon.

I ran toward his sword on the ground, and I didn’t let anything else stop me. My true purpose in all of this came to light. Everything else felt like white noise as the combat continued. Damien had joined in, surprising a lot of men that stood on his father’s side. I kept getting hit by others from the force of their own fights, knocking me left and right as I tried to stumble across the room.

I fell on my hands and knees over the blade, lifting it as I used the wall to support myself and caught my breath. It was hard being in a battle like this and having to blink through the folly for clear thoughts.

Castiel wasn’t winning his fight against Saul, so I knew it fell on my shoulders to help. With one look to my Beta, I could see the hurt in her eyes because she couldn’t make it to him either. She’d gotten completely surrounded by men because they saw the threat her in fight. When she saw me, her eyes softened because she knew I planned to save Castiel. I couldn’t save Ryan, but I would save Castiel. This time, I didn’t stumble on my path to get to him. I ran out full force with my vengeful cry leaving my lips.

My arms moved at my sides as my right hand carried the weapon. My grip struggled with the weight, but I fought my body to keep hold of it. Right as I got to them, Saul geared up to plunge the sword through Castiel’s middle. My hand fisted into his hair from behind, feeling the rush of power as I dominated over him without warning. Castiel’s went eyes went wide from below because he hadn’t expected me to come in and save him.

The sword positioned at Saul’s throat, and he knew better than to do anything with his weapon, dropping it to the ground. I let my lips fall next to his ear, chuckling that I had him in this situation. Once he scented it was me, he growled. “You can’t kill your own Alpha, and you know it.”

“I just had to make you think I’d kill you,” I told him in return right before Castiel picked up the blade and shoved it through his chest. Together, we defeated the one villain who had haunted my nightmares for years. The second the sword plunged into his chest, a phantom pain shattered within mine. I dropped to the floor in immense pain because my Alpha had fallen, and it felt like my soul ripped from me. I felt no love for the psychopath, but I was forced to feel as though I had loved him for a lifetime from the bond.

Unable to prevent the grieving that started, Damien crawled to pick me up. He studied how his father had fallen with his own sword through his chest, but it was only for a second to give me his focus. Tears fell from his eyes as he fought to breathe, losing the Alpha of our pack with me. Wrapping me up in his arms, he cradled me to his chest as I wailed like the women of the river. None of us expected for this to happen the way it did, but I knew I wouldn’t change it. Even with this hollow feeling inside of me, gutting me to the core, it had been worth having Saul finally gone.

Everything became distant after that, but I noticed the fight slowly ebbing into nothing. Convulsing, my body began to seize as though it knew we had lost our Alpha. Saul had played dirty when he did this to me, but I couldn’t undo what had been done. I could only allow my body the time to grieve the connection lost even though I hated the man I it connected to.

Sometimes, people still hurt after knowing it was for the better. Whether it they left a toxic relationship or killed their Alpha, there was still something to be mourned. The time spent in their care, even if it became detrimental to our health. That shadowing of existence used to darken our days would no longer be. For me, I’d only feel happier knowing he was gone, but he ruined me with that bite. He ruined my peace on purpose because he knew I’d suffer like this if he died.

Everything began to blur away as my cradled body crumpled against someone else. The spicy scent of the guys lingered after having Damien’s. Both smells I considered home, but I knew they’d never merge into one.

Anika was right by my side when I finally squinted my eyes open to take notice of her and the guys. Relief flooded me when I saw they were okay because they were my people. She had been my home the last seven years, protecting me from everything that wanted to lay harm.

I tossed my head to the side to be away from the chest it had been nestled against because I felt the wrenching sensation of bile coming up my throat. It hit without warning, and I puked all over the floor. I wanted to say it was the drugs, but I knew it came from the withering agony. Everything inside of me felt gutted, and now I knew the truth of how living in forever pain would be.

After I purged everything within me, I felt too tired to go on. My body acted as though we needed to follow our Alpha into the afterlife, but I also knew I couldn’t. I was the Alpha in our home, and my people needed me. Still, the thought of sleeping it off sounded better than any reality I had ever been in.

41: Ryatt

There were no words. None. The silence sat between us because there was nothing that could be said to change what had to be done. Even though we won the battle against Saul, we took a great loss in the process.

I took Kit from Damien because I needed her to be against me. I needed her to bleed her pain into me, so I felt like I could take it away from her. The science of that wasn’t accurate because I she didn’t belong to my pack, and it made me regret all the years wasted that she should have been under me. Studying her neck, I was finally able to see the burn up close where the bite now sat over it. She bled a little from the holes, and I hated that the pain punctured her deeper than these bites.

Her face appeared sunken and swollen from all she had endured. Bruising lined her jaw and head. It had only been just over a week, but enough to ruin her in ways I couldn’t describe. Again, she got hurt because of me. My enemy knew she was back on the chess board after she saved me, so it felt like my fault. I was the one who got her hurt. I failed her. I failed the only female Omega I ever loved.

Even though I wore a stoic expression, I knew the others could see the tears falling down my cheeks as I remained reserved to the rest of them. I was sitting in the back of the van with Kit over my lap because I refused to let go of her. My ribs and lung didn’t care because keeping her close became the only thing I had left. Damien sat across from me, and I could see the hurt in his stare every time he tried to glance Kit’s way. A mutual respect settled between us because we both blamed ourselves for how Kit got hurt, but he saved her. Both times, he was the one who got her out. I was the one who got her trapped, making me feel inadequate as a leader.

I studied Kit’s body in the fleece jacket Jericho placed her in. He removed it from himself and zipped her up to hide her body from the rest of the world. He gave her a sense of modesty to not feel as vulnerable. None of us were prepared to see her convulsing and screaming out her pain after Saul had been killed.

Kit was strong though, holding Saul’s head up nice and high for Castiel to finish the job. With the instincts rooted within her, killing Saul would have been like killing herself a thousand times over, so she knew she couldn’t do it alone. Castiel received the honor, finishing his promise to Damien that he would take out his father’s empire.

I looked out the window, the day still dreary from all the rain falling around us. Winter would be here soon, so we needed to figure out a plan for what we would do to survive it. I wasn’t sure if we would have sanctuary with Kit anymore because I knew she blamed us for what had happened to her. We were the very reason Saul was able to take her the first time, so it made sense that her mind would connect us to this as well.

We pulled up to the compound and made our way in, hating the forlorn feeling that now rooted within all of us. No one was in the same pack as Kit, but we all felt her suffering within our souls because everyone who stood around her loved her just as much as I did.

“I’m going to take her to her room,” I murmured to Anika because I knew she would understand.

“My brother and I will get things squared away with the weapons and vehicles. Just make sure you bathe her please.” Her voice was just as broken as mine, trying to mask the sheer agony underneath. “They never give her that kindness.”

How dare those sick men? I growled, wishing I could skin Saul’s hide. My pack knew to give me time to get Kit squared away before joining me. When it came time to heal a pack member from a loss, the Alpha handled the immediate problems in private. Kit needed care for her body and her mind, so for the first few hours, she’d only have me. Once I got all that sorted, the rest of the pack would join because the only connection that would help would be to be surrounded by everyone she loved.

I made my way down her suite with ease after learning the hallways. This marked the first time I stood in her private quarters, and it made me hurt even more. Right on the center of her bed, Kit had made a nest. She made a nest because she wanted to feel like she was the central Omega of a pack, but I knew better than anyone else she slept in it alone. A single flannel shirt sat in the center of her nest of blankets, but I didn’t recognize who it belonged to.

No wonder why she wandered around so much at night. I couldn’t even imagine coming in and laying by myself in isolation on purpose. This would ruin my head, so I took her straight into the bathroom and got the water going.

My hands gently lied her barely roused body over the floor, and I hurried to undress myself before taking off the jacket that covered her torso. She looked so small and frail with how the jacket sat around her, and it bothered my mind even more.

Getting us both into the shower, I finally broke. There might have been a few tears staining my cheeks, but I finally let my chest heave as I struggled to breathe properly from this guilt, and the puncture in my left lung. I held onto Kit tightly, promising that this broke me too. I could smell all the other scents on her body that told me too many had violated her, and I hated seeing her be just as strong afterward.

She ran into the fight, refusing Damien to get her out. She didn’t want to be the broken damsel, so she came back in and helped us combat. Kit’s body was tired, and I could see it with how she moved. I had no doubt her insides hurt from everything Saul had already done to her, but she didn’t let that stop her. She came back in to make sure the rest of us got out even though we were there to extract her. Cuts lined her torso over an old scar, showing Saul wanted to remind her of what he once did to her.

Holding onto her tighter, I felt how her head had no strength to elevate, draping over my arm to lean back. She still breathed, and I kept checking her heartbeat periodically for my own sanity, but I also knew she wasn’t alive outside of physically existing.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed into her. Not many had seen me cry like this, and it had only happened a handful of times in my life. Every single time involved the woman in my arms, and it stemmed from me failing her. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

“Hold me.” The words were light that left her lips, but I heard them as an echo from her soul.

“I’m never letting go again,” I promised her.

Her dainty hand shakily moved up to touch my cheek. Even though we were under the fall of the water, she wiped my tears away. Kit made sure to take care of me because that was her purpose in all of this as an Omega. “I can’t stand seeing you like this.”

I nearly snorted from the conundrum. She was the one who had been raped and tortured, but she was worried about my state. “Don’t ever be sorry for me. I deserve the hell I’ll find after this life for everything that’s ever happened to you.”

“You didn’t know,” she tried to soothe the demons that were spurring inside of me. “I blamed you, but I was wrong for it too.”

Shaking my head, I cried harder and closed my eyes as I buried my face against the side of hers. Sitting hunched over made me feel just as defeated as I felt.

“I love you,” I confessed to her. She probably knew after all this time because of the things that kept happening between us, but she needed to hear it come out of my mouth. “I’m so fucking angry about what’s happened to you because I love you too fucking much.”

“I’ve always belonged to you,” she whispered as she dozed back off. Her body slumped away as her hand dropped from my face because she couldn’t stay conscious. “It’s always been you.”

Feeling the drop in her body once again, I hated that we were going through this. I loathed not being able to suck the pain right out of her and place it inside myself. The hardest thing in life wasn’t dying. It came from watching someone you love get killed or watching them lose something that once made them whole.

I spent another ten minutes crying and holding her to me as the hot water trickled over us, masking my breakdown. I let myself mourn with her for everything we had lost over the years. All the time she should’ve been mine. When I could finally catch my breath for a single second, I took better care of her.

My hands played in her messy tresses as they worked the shampoo and conditioner through them. I took a loofa with extra soap and scrubbed her skin to be clean of all the wrong scents on it. Scrubbing the dry cum was the hardest part because I couldn’t undo what happened between her legs.

When I got us clean enough, I turned off the water and reached for the towel I placed next to the tub. My hands worked fast to dry us off as we sat in the bath because I knew I wanted to take her straight to bed once I stood up. We weren’t fully dry, but I nestled her into her nest that she had made, promising to not leave it until she told me I had to.

42: Jericho

We waited patiently for Ryatt to have personal time with Kit and got cleaned up to pass the time. It was challenging for us to sit around while they were so close, but we knew better than to go barging in on their private time. Those two had too much to figure out between them, but none of it would be discussed today. Kit couldn’t even wake up long enough to acknowledge anyone around her from how hard her grief struck. Even the death of an unwanted Alpha proved difficult to overcome.

My mind kept reeling on it because I remembered my own thoughts about doing something similar from her being in the wrong pack when we believed she had a different Alpha. Turner’s words made more sense, and I could tell the bond remained undeniable, even if someone hated their Alpha. There was so much I wish I could do to change what had happened, but I knew the only thing we could do came down to helping her heal and recover.

“I’ll be right back,” I conveyed to the others. “I’ll meet you at Kit’s room in thirty minutes, but I wanna go talk to someone real quick.”

After the fight, none of them bothered to question me for leaving by myself. I wasn’t a strong fighter, but I held my own long enough to save Ryatt from the beast who got him. It felt nice to leave our room without having a bodyguard chaperoning my every movement. Plus, this walk would help clear my head after how much happened in such a short time.

Making my way to the motor bay, I knew Anika would be there getting everything cleaned up. She was the one person who had been there for Kit last time, so she was the only one who could answer my questions now. Finding her, I saw her sniffling as she cleaned the weapons by herself. Apparently, it wasn’t just me who wanted to be alone to weep. Finally feeling my own cheeks, a dew spread down them that told me I had released a few during my walk.

I knocked on the door for her to know I planned to intrude. She cleaned her eyes like I did and smiled even though it didn’t reach her forlorn stare. “Jericho, can I help you with something?”

I met her near the table she stood at with all the guns on top of it. My gaze skimmed over them as I stumbled for the proper words. “What do we do?”

She heard the crack in my voice, the telling sound of how broken I became over what happened to Kit. When she opened her mouth, I watched as her lower lip quivered just a smidge. She tried to form words, but all she could do was shake her head. It took several deep breaths before she could finally get something out of her mouth. “Saul used drugs against her again, and that was the hardest battle for Kit to get over. She didn’t have a dead Alpha last time, so I’m trying to prepare myself for what it’s going to be like this round.”

Anika fell into a squat, sobbing on behalf of her best friend. Her hands anchored on the edge of the table to hold herself in her position, but she could no longer stand from her suffering.

I quickly moved myself to be on her side of the table, bending down to hold her against me. Falling onto our butts, I made it so I could hold her as we cried together. The others were concerned only for Kit, but I knew Anika would need someone as well. Anika was the one person who had been with Kit through everything so seeing her Omega broken again couldn’t be easy.

“You won’t be alone to help her this time,” I vowed my oath to her. Kit and Anika meant a lot to me even though we had only known each other a few weeks. They were real and genuine, and I knew I would forever want those type of friends in my life.

Unlike Kit, I wasn’t attracted to Anika the same way. The feeling felt mutual, and I could tell. Our care and compassion stemmed from a place of friendship, one I’d be honoring for the rest of my life.

“It’s so hard,” she admitted. “All of this is so hard.”

“I know.” I kept embracing her as we snuggled our backs against the wall by scooting a little bit. “I know I can’t do much to fix what’s happened, but I just want to promise you that I plan to stick it out and help. No matter what that looks like or how nasty it gets, I’m not going anywhere.”

“She cares for you, you know. Cares for you just as much as she does the others.” She dried her eyes just a little. I knew she needed this as I helped her feel a little better with what went down. Anika needed to have someone voice they were on her side.

“You guys care for each other a lot. I think that’s what really fooled everyone into believing you were pack,” I responded to her.

“We’ve been through too much to be anything else. Even if we’re claimed by different Alphas, we’d still honor each other as though we were pack.”

“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?” My question wasn’t really a question, and she knew it.

“I’m that easy to read, huh?”

“For me, yes, but I don’t think Kit knows. Have you told her how you feel?”

“Kit doesn’t swing both ways like I do, and I respect her sexuality just like she respects mine. She’s one of few who know I like the companionship of a woman, but I’ve known our whole friendship that she prefers men. I might be in love with her, but I also know how to keep that platonic. I’ve always figured that when I met my pack, that it’ll magically cure how I feel for my best friend.”

Her words hurt me because I knew how hard that had to be for her. It wasn’t easy being in love with someone who could never love you in return. Taking her hand, I gave it a squeeze because I understood. “I know it looks easy for me now because I have a pack of all men, but I understand where you’re coming from. I’ve always favored men as partners for myself, so I went through tough times growing up when I was in love with my own best friend.”

“And how did that go?” Anika asked.

“As well as a fifteen-year-old boy could take it,” I huffed. “He quit talking to me and pretended I didn’t exist anymore.”

“I’m so sorry,” she tried to soothe with an apology.

“Don’t be sorry. I found where I belong, and so will you. At least your best friend didn’t leave your side when you told her you liked the same gender.”

Anika smiled without showing teeth. “You should probably get back to your pack. I need to keep cleaning these weapons because I know it’s not the last fight we’re about to have.”

“But we defeated Saul,” I reminded her.

“When an empire begins to fall, it usually has the numbers to detest what’s happening. Cut off one head, two grow back. There’s usually someone inside the power that tries to take over. We just chopped off the head of the snake, so we need to be prepared for the next heads. Go be with your pack, and don’t waste a minute of time with them. I have a feeling we’ve opened a bigger can of worms.”

This time, she was the one to wrap her arm around me to give me a side hug before she stood from the wall we were at. Going right back to what she’d been doing, I watched her for a minute longer before heading back to the room. My guys wouldn’t be in here right now, but I needed a moment to collect myself and think about what she just said to me. Maybe the battle wasn’t done, but I didn’t know what else we’d have to contest.

43: Franco

We all snuggled her on her bed where she felt the safest, unmoving from her nest unless we had to pee. Jericho joined us after a few hours, doing something for himself, but I didn’t ask him where he’d been because I could see something bothered him about his adventure. He’d tell me when I needed to know, so I had to trust that about him. Even though I hated not helicoptering his every movement, I was learning Kit might have been right when it came to him needing to know how to defend himself. If it hadn’t been for Jericho, Ryatt would’ve been lost to us.

Closing my eyes, I hated that truth the most. When the second morning came, the others knew something had to be done, but we weren’t sure exactly what to do or how to go about telling the other Alphas. Ryatt had been holding Kit since we came in, refusing to let her go for us to share. We all just had to touch one of her limbs to have the physical contact with her. She hadn’t woken up since she lied down, but we saw the rise and fall of her chest. It told us she tried to recover from the hell she had suffered.

A light wrap came from the door in the hall, and Anika made her way into the room to address us. She knew we wouldn’t leave Kit right now as she handled the base. “I need your help coming up with a plan that will hide what happened. Everyone in this place thinks that Kit was the Omega of an Alpha, and they know she got hurt from the video. I’m not sure how to handle addressing them without having some type of Alpha for them to believe she was under. No Alpha would let their Omega get hurt without coming back for who did it.”

Her words made sense, but what we were supposed to do? Looking to my Alpha, I waited for Ryatt to give a command. Maybe he had something inside his mind that would help us. When we looked to him, he nodded his head as though he understood why we were. “Everyone in this place already knows she didn’t belong to me, so we can’t easily just use our pack as her alibi.”

“What about Castiel?” Turner asked, directing the question at Anika. “If he’s been in on this this whole time, he would help her defend her home.”

Anika shook her head. “Castiel built his empire on secrets and being a Delta. He won’t change his image even if our Omega loses her empire.”

“Even if it gave him more?” I was the one to ask.

“Castiel doesn’t want more,” she responded. “He wants his freedom, and he wants to be left alone. With what he does, he has everything he’s ever wanted. An empire of this magnitude would put a target on his back and force him to be in the world he never wanted to be a part of.” This woman knew more about that man than we expected, and it made me wonder what else was going on between them.

My thoughts weren’t the only thing led to that observation has Kayos sat up from his side of the bed. “How do you guys know Castiel so well?”

“I’m only going to be honest with you because you know too much already. Plus, she trusts you.” Anika pointed to Kit, centered between all of us. “Castiel had been taken to the Sellers, and it happened right at the time I was trying to get a friend out. Not many know this, but the bartender at the bar named Colton is Castiel’s younger brother. He tried to rescue Castiel without having any help, so he bargained with us. Long story short, Kit and I were able to save Castiel from the Sellers. He was one of few who escaped because of her.”

“And that’s the debt he owed Kit,” Ryatt finished, finding out about it when he went to the bar with her to get that address.

“Yes,” she confirmed. “Once all was said and done, the six of us built this place from the ground up and made it into what it is today. Castiel and Kit became a team to build what they both have right now.”

“Did you say six?” Kashmir had been paying attention to the detail I missed. Doing the math inside my own head, I counted only five, if we were including Raphael.

Anika just smirked as though she let something else slip. Her eyes darted between Ryatt and Kayos for them to finally piece the last clue together. Ryatt was the one to say it out loud for the rest of us to comprehend. “Leia has been a part of this the whole time. That’s how she knew to contact you guys when we needed help.”

Dipping her chin, she confirmed the final part we had been missing this whole time. Kayos didn’t like that response because it left so much unanswered. “If our sister was a part of this, how come she had to pay for our protection? How come she isn’t here?”

“Your sister knew your family line would never stop being important. She might have been a founding member of this compound, but she knew she couldn’t leave you guys high and dry for a different one. Using our means to build her own off what we had to extend yours, Leia set up her own path of leadership. She knows she can call us anytime for a favor.”

“That still doesn’t answer why she owes you,” I commented.

“We live in a compound where no one knows Kit is the leader. They don’t know the six people who made this place possible, so they really couldn’t grasp none of us are unmarked. When I got off the phone with Leia, we already knew we would help her, but she knew how hard it would be for Kit to see you guys again. Leia might have been a part of this, but she also left it just like Castiel. In their exits, they understood our help would come at a price. Had it been only your sister seeking sanctuary, she would have been granted it without payment, but it wasn’t herself she asked us to save.”

None of us were prepared for that, but the truth set her free. We finally understood why and how this place came to be. There was a stench of betrayal between us because we understood Leia knew where Kit had been all this time. Trying not to let it fester, we knew we couldn’t let it eat at us. Anika read my face, seeing the envy I felt that my sister knew my love lived.

“She tried to go back,” she started, tucking her hands into her back pockets. “She had me drive her to you once we got her cleaned up and fed. She didn’t even wait to have a rest.” A sad laugh fell from her lips.

My hackles raised, sensing she told the truth, but how could that be? Ryatt let his hand pet her hair, soothing her with his Alpha rumble. “She saw we had Jericho. She also saw how happy we were, and she said she couldn’t ruin that. She didn’t know how to be happy anymore.”

Kayos cleared his tight throat. “She mentioned something similar to me in the woods during our mission. She told me that once the threat was gone, we’d return to the life we were happy in before finding her. When I asked her if she’d be happy, she said she’d be the same person she built herself to be.”

“Fuck,” I muttered, hating how my chest suctioned around my lungs.

Anika shifted the conversation. “I know this is a lot for you guys to take in, but I really do need help with a plan. If you love her, helping me save her empire is how you prove it. We have a couple hundred people who live in this underground home. They are counting on us to keep them safe, and we all know the other packs won’t help once they learn they were never under the protection of an Alpha. The Sellers will come in and raid this place, so I need your help in finding an Alpha who can fake being an Alpha long enough for them to believe they were protected this whole time.”

“What about Damien?” Jericho must’ve been figuring things out to pull that name so fast.

We hadn’t seen Saul’s son since we arrived, and I had no doubt Anika let her brother do an interrogation. Anika chewed on her bottom lip to think it over. “That might work, but it also might make other waves happen.”

“What do you mean?” Turner asked her.

“Castiel is trying to help Damien take over his father’s empire. There’s something they’re figuring out with whom might be involved, so they need Damien to be the head of his household to be their in.”

“But the Alpha’s here don’t know that, and whoever is helping on the outside doesn’t need to know he came in here to help us.” Kashmir shrugged his shoulders. “The men in here only need a face, and not many of them even knew Saul had a son. He would just need to fake being the Alpha here for a day until we pivot later for his other needs.”

“It’s not a terrible idea,” I tacked on there. When everyone gave me a funny look as to why, I let my eyes fall down to Kit. “None of us have been blind to see that he’s in love with her just like the rest of us. I know the family he comes from isn’t exactly the poster family for morals, but I do believe he loves Kit enough to help. He already betrayed his father to save her.”

“His father is doing something else in the city, but we still don’t know what that is.” Ryatt was thought over where the possibilities might led. “We don’t know who’s helping him.”

“Your father,” Kit murmured out of nowhere. She appeared like she slept, so I didn’t know if she was answering or dreaming.

“What?” Ryatt asked her.

“Your father is the secret that Saul hid. He’s helping him build whatever empire they have in mind. He came to pay me a visit while I was there.” We watched as Kit tried to sit up on her own in the robe we placed her in. She was still too weak to handle it, so Ryatt let her rest her back against his chest.

“When you say he paid you a visit…” I couldn’t finish my sentence.

“He did what the others did, yes, but that wasn’t why he came to see me.” Her tired eyes met each of ours to see that we were all here for her. “He’s looking for Leia because she saw something she shouldn’t have. That’s why she’s in hiding.”

“Did she tell you that?” Anika asked, thinking Kit might have hidden something from her.

“No, but Randall filled me in. He was trying to get her location out of me. He also didn’t like it very much where I told him he could handle his business instead. Like I would ever tell him a damn thing about her, but we finally know why she ran when she did.”

Anika nodded as though that was confirmation enough. “Did you hear the part about using Damien?”

“I did, but I need to be the one who talks to him. I need to do that alone.” Trying to gather her bearings, Kit began to scoot to the edge of the bed in order to get off. Even though she just suffered through immense pain, she strained to be the strongest among us. When she first stood up off the bed, we thought she might actually have the vigor to walk, but she shortly fell to the floor.

We were on our feet to rescue her because none of us wanted to see her get more hurt than she already had been. Anika swooped in and helped Kit get on her feet. She brought her Omega back to the bed for her to stay put where she needed to stay. “If you want to meet with him, I will bring him to you.”

Her stern look ordered us to leave the room. All the other guys gave Kit a hug or kiss before parting, but I lingered behind. I knew my eyes looked wounded as she asked us to leave, and she saw it instantly without me having to say it out loud.

“I’ll have Anika get you after my meeting with him. I’m not ready to sleep alone yet.” With her confession, I heard even more. Kit was terrified even though she put on a strong face. And while I felt important from her voicing it to me, I hated what it meant.

“I’ll see you soon,” I whispered right before kissing her temple and pulling her close. Getting off her bed, I made my way to the hallway where the others were waiting. None of us were too thrilled about the new plan, but we really couldn’t say anything against it either. Without Damien helping Kit, her empire would be ruined permanently.

44: Kit

Anika brought me some food while I waited for Raphael to escort Damien. It was only some broth and a little bread because we knew my stomach wouldn’t be up to taking more. After being starved for who knows how long, a full meal felt like ten in my shrunken belly. Plus, we both knew the drugs were about to make things ten times harder.

I lightly sipped the broth and began dipping the bread once I stomached the liquid. Learning to eat again, but it wasn’t my first time going through this. I tried to pretend I ran like a machine that had to be maintained in order to work again, but the new trauma in my mind wasn’t just going to go away. A lot of this would stick with me, but we didn’t have any other options right now.

It only took another twenty minutes before a knock sounded from my door. Leaving the food on my bed side table, I turned my attention to see Damien making his way in. His eyes looked so hurt and wounded, it nearly broke me completely. His lip began to quiver as he took in my frail state. “There will never be enough words to tell you how sorry I am.”

“It’s not you who owes me an apology,” I returned. “You were the one who helped save me from your father, so don’t sell yourself short in my presence.”

“I still wish there was more I could do to make up for the wrongs you’ve suffered.” He moved closer to me and set himself on the side of my bed that I lied closest to.

My hand reached forward to grab his as I absorbed how his dark hair fell over his eyes. Damien was a handsome man, but he had sharper features than most. “I don’t think you owe me anything, but I do need your help with something.”

“What do you need my help for?” he asked before lifting his amber gaze to meet mine. Damien had been beaten into submission since being a little boy, so I understood how hard it had been for him to overcome everything his father put him through. The others wouldn’t get it as much as I did, but I knew what he suffered behind those closed doors. I remembered the secrets he told me about how his father kept him in line. It wasn’t easy defying that out of fear.

“I know your father will want you to take over his empire, but I need you to pretend you’re the Alpha of mine for a day. I need your help protecting my people from the Sellers, and if anyone understands the importance of that, it’s you.”

Damien hated being forced to help his father sell so many people, and my memory recalled some of the stories he told me about it. I couldn’t imagine how many names joined that list in the last seven years, so I didn’t ask because I already knew. He was stuck in his mind to process what I asked.

“It’ll only be for the day to keep the other packs in check. I just need this one favor, and you never have to deal with me again because I know how hard it is for you to see me.”

“But what if I did want to be your Alpha?” he asked instead. There was no denying the flutter in my heart when he asked it, and I gasped because it caught me off guard. When I tried to fumble out a response, his eyes dropped with his smile. “I’ll never be them to you, will I?”

“This is why I belong to myself,” I answered honestly. Being in love with men from two different packs made it so I didn’t want to choose between them.

“I won’t make you choose,” he murmured through his heavy whisper. Damien would always put me first, but his actions were hard to read because others didn’t understand why he just didn’t kill his father. I did because I noticed the marks on his neck. Saul had marked his son so Damien would never uprise against him.

“But we already belong to the same pack,” I reminded him. Touching the marks on his neck, Damien showed his surprise that I understood.

Covering my hand in that spot, he sighed. “He did it right after you escaped the first time because he assumed I had something to do with it. Being under his control meant I couldn’t defy him as my Alpha. He took my hope of finding love away because I belonged to him as his personal slave.”

“I love you,” I let the words settle between us for him to know the truth. “The second I scented your sandalwood, I felt like another piece of me came home. Even though I was being used by your father’s men, you gave me that fragment of hope back.”

His wounded eyes were almost too much for me, but I leaned forward and kissed him anyway. Slow and sensual, my heart nearly pounding out of my chest. Damien took charge and forced me to lie back on the bed as he gently slid himself over me. This was why I didn’t want the others around because I knew Damien and I needed a moment to be together again.

“You are the only woman I’ve ever given my heart to,” he breathed against my lips. His confession created a throb between my legs. It didn’t matter that I had been used left and right by his father and his men, I still wanted Damien. I wanted him like all the other times we had been together.

“Touch me,” I pleaded in a whisper. When I lifted my hips to buck against him, I felt the hardness within his jeans. My eyes searched his long and hard as I forced his hand to fall over my heart to feel the pounding in my chest. “Please.”

“You need to heal,” he tried denying what we both needed right now.

“I need you.” It only took another second for him to see it within my stare, but that was all he needed to confirm I wasn’t delusional about wanting him right now. Yes, I hurt between the legs like nothing I had ever experienced besides last time it happened, but I needed that pain to shift into something else. Only Damien held that power because he’d been the only person to have me like this and love me anyway. To him, I’d never be a trailer trash Omega.

Damien calculated his next movements carefully, promising controlled pressure on my tender spots and bruises my body now had. I untied my robe to expose my body to him even though he had seen me naked this whole time. When his eyes fell over me, I understood how this was different. Damien proved to be a man who could separate what needed done and what he wanted. He saved my life without treating me like a sexual object that he couldn’t take his eyes off, but he was now given permission to look at me as such. He beheld me like a goddess being gifted to him, and a flood of warmth began pulling into my belly.

His sandalwood scent drifted over me when he leaned back down to kiss me after removing his shirt. The thing I loved most when I was with Damien like this, I could see his own scars from his father that matched mine. We bore a mirroring resemblance of the suffering his father caused, but he had been through more. My hands were always eager to skim over each hard line with how his wounds healed because I wanted him to know I found them beautiful. He survived everything he had ever been put through, and it only made me love him more.

“I’m not that boy anymore,” his voice broke as he whispered it to me. He trained himself to deny this pleasure because he felt selfish for craving me right now. When I first went through surviving his father, I wasn’t sure how Damien could be hard when he had to pretend to fuck me as his father came in. Now that I grew older and had seen the harshness of life while dishing it out myself, I began to understand a lot more. “You don’t know who I am, what I’ve done.”

“You’re still the man who risked everything to save me.” Lifting my head just a little, I barely skimmed our lips together in order to feel the heat of his breath as mine mixed with it. Staying close, he didn’t move an inch. I let my head go to the side to find his earlobe before nibbling on it. “You’re still the one who gave me an ounce of hope in my darkest hour. I don’t think you know how many times I’ve dreamed about you, missing you.”

A shiver raked down his spine has he righted himself before undoing his pants. At first, I thought he was just going to stick it in and let me feel exactly what I wanted, but Damien let his dark eyes turn mischievous. Crawling down, he let me see his hard cock out, but he moved it away from my core after letting his head slip in between my folds.

Just when I was about to ask him what he planned, he then placed his mouth where I needed attention. He leisurely lapped over my slit, allowing my juices to fall more. My back arched off the bed because the light contact felt amazing against my sore muscles. He was quite literally massaging me with his tongue as he swirled and moved it all around my entrance. The tip dragged up, placing his mouth to suck over my clit. He kept going and added a finger to go inside me.

Whimpering, I couldn’t believe this was happening. Still my gentle lover, promising me he hadn’t changed as much as he thought he did. Closing my eyes, I let myself bask in the moment as I felt every textured lick. His hands slithered to move along my thighs in a way that worked them too. He didn’t need to be told I was sore. He had seen how many men lifted my legs to go inside of me. Damien massaged my body after the brutal fuckings I endured.

I heaved for breaths as I struggled to keep myself righted in this existence, but the promise of ecstasy hit strong. My mind kept whirling around the thoughts of pleasure as he kept escalating things to new heights. It didn’t take long for me to respond the way he wanted. The familiar tingle began to settle in the base of my spine, traveling down my legs, curling my toes. I knew what was about to happen, and he let it because he wanted it. My climax gushed fluid all over his face as he filled me with the rapture of missing this over the years.

My thighs began to close on their own because he kept tantalizing me after the crash had finished. My legs I squeezed around his head for a few seconds before letting Damien up for air. Wiping his face clean, he left a good chunk of my orgasm on him for me to see it dripping from his chin.

His hungry eyes found me, devouring my soul in the stare like he had my pussy. “You’re still the best flavor I’ve ever tasted. I can’t tell you how many diners I walked into just to order their lemon pie to recall your savor, needing the taste of you, but they didn’t compare. Nothing will ever taste as sweet as you.”

He crawled back up me and finally gave me what I asked for by letting his fat head part my entrance. My hands reached to hook around his neck, yanking him to fall forward, inserting himself into me. I whimpered as I took him in, gyrating my hips a little to get used to his intrusion with a knot that grew since he touched me last.

It hurt just enough to love it even more. I began to move in a slow and steady rhythm as we locked eyes with each other. Sweat began to gather between us because we refused to go faster than our bodies wanted. Damien and I were making love, and it was beautiful. Unlike all the others I let use my body, I wanted Damien to be on top. I wanted him to cradle over me in a way that protected me. Doing this scared the living shit out of me, and I knew it did with him as well.

Admitting to loving someone was always a complicated situation, but mine became tenfold that simple issue. Damien and Ryatt would never be in the same pack because their empires could barely coexist without ever being open to merging. I began to cry because I didn’t know how this would work out for us, but he leaned forward and licked my tears from my cheeks. He knew why without me even saying, perceiving better than anyone. He didn’t promise falsities that couldn’t happen. Instead, he just kept making love to me, vowing this feeling between us would never end, even if we weren’t together. He knew I loved the others as well, and he saw the burden it put on my heart.

Even though we had been going slow and steady, he began to reach his end from the longing passion between us. As an Alpha himself, I took every wave of his knot as it hooked inside of me and refused to let go. He grunted quietly as he kept shallowly thrusting, moving his head to fall against the pillow next to my ear after. “You will always be everything I’ve ever wanted.”

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I held him close as we both grew emotional. I knew I was too weak to do much when it came to pleasuring him in return, but he never asked that of me. He only wanted me to be real, and he was one of very few who got to see me when like this. Too vulnerable, I couldn’t breathe anymore without gaining aid from someone I loved. Someone who also understood what it felt like to lose an Alpha they were bonded to.

45: Kashmir

It had been a few hours since we left Kit, and it nearly killed me. My thoughts were clouded because of what we found when we finally got her out. This whole time, she had been the strongest woman I’d ever seen, but it was just a shell to protect the broken girl inside. Saul maximized that feeling against her and made her feel like she would never be good enough again for anything or anyone else. There weren’t words for how I wanted to revive that sonofabitch and strangle him all over again.

Sitting in the dining hall with all the other packs at their tables, I kept seeing them stirring in a fit, unable to remain calm. They knew something was up because Kit hadn’t been doing her information drops with them. The video Saul released to the public damned enough of her image, and I could see the brazen judgment in this room. I didn’t care what any of them thought. At this point, their initial threat was dead, so they could leave this place and be done with it.

Anika strolled into the room with her brother at her side. She looked over to our group with a slight tilt in their chin to let us know Damien agreed. They must have been planning this whole time of what needed said, but I was still on edge, wondering if this would work.

“May I have your attention,” Anika said, polite about it. With everyone being so on edge, they quickly snapped their gazes her way because they wanted information. “I come here today to quiet the rumors. Yes, Omega had been kidnapped by the man we were hunting, and it took us a while to return her home. Due to this attack, we worked swiftly and quietly to handle the situation. Omega has been returned safely and has been under the care of her Alpha.”

“So he’s here?” Darius couldn’t hide his eagerness to learn more.

Anika nodded his way to address his question. “He is, and he will be here in just a moment to greet you all. I’m just here as a formality to let you all know that Saul has been killed, and his men as well.”

“So we can go home?” Another Alpha in the back asked. I didn’t pay attention to which one it was because I didn’t care.

“Your homes will still need to be rebuilt,” she was quick to remind him. “Our hospitality does not end just because the threat has been neutralized. If your packs need it, your sanctuary can extend until you have restored your homes or move.”

“We appreciate that,” Darius informed her. There was a small wave of peace as they all learned they were safer in the streets. I could already see some beginning to itch to move out today. That was fine by me because most were cowards we sat across from when it came to the inner families.

Without saying anything else, the door opened for Damien to make his entrance. Everyone noticed the hard look of the Alpha as though he played a gangster on the streets. He definitely fit the leadership role of this compound when it came to the homeless population thriving. He also looked rather deadly with how he strode forward like he stalked his prey. The animalistic movement told everyone to remain still in his presence.

Though, that wasn’t what caught my attention. A strong whiff of lemon pie made it to my nose, startling me into a stupor. I didn’t hear anything else he had to say because I knew exactly what that smell came from. It wasn’t only my hackles that raised from it as Ryatt looked utterly pissed. Kit had orgasmed with him, and it had just happened for us to smell it the way we were.

Damien and Anika worked the room, spinning the stories that made them all believe he was the Alpha, but I didn’t listen. There was a light ringing in my ears as I understood he had just fucked Kit while she recovered from being used like a whore. Ryatt saw my expression and how I gripped the butter knife on the table. He nodded his head for me to follow him after whispering something to Turner.

We stood from our table and snuck out as the two kept pitching their story to the rest of the crime lords. Turner would inform us later of what happened, but we knew we needed to check on our girl. We weren’t sure if we were going to walk in and see her hurt from his brutality or not. If so, that man was as good as dead.

Both of us sprinted to the room. There wasn’t a care about anything else as we made our way through the maze to the quiet hall where no one walked. We didn’t even knock because we barged in and found her leaving the bathroom to get back to her bed. Her chest raised with a flush, and her cheeks were still rosy.

“What are you guys doing? Aren’t you supposed to be in the dining hall?” Her steps were still weak as she made her way over to her bed and sat down to crawl up into her nest.

“We could smell you on him,” I growled. She immediately sensed where our minds had gone, so she quickly raised her hands to calm us down.

“I asked him to be with me like that, and he was very gentle the whole time. Before you jump to conclusions, just know that was on me, and he tried telling me no because of my condition.”

“But you’re hurt,” Ryatt started. She bit her lip and looked to the floor. When she raised her sullen eyes, I knew I wouldn’t like what she was about to say.

“Do you know what hurts more than being physically broken?” She met our stares. “Being so emotionally damaged you forget what love is. Being so used to the numb that it almost hurt to be reminded that I still loved. Damien understands that because he’s lived in a similar isolation too, and we both know this is where our paths separate. Love isn’t kind to me like it has been to your pack, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel what I can’t have.”

Neither of us were prepared for her to say that to our faces. Kit had suffered the greatest out of us, and I wasn’t sure we could undo our wrong to her. We came in here bitter and angry about what she’d been doing with someone else, but I was just seeing for the first time what Damien really meant to her. Most of us were able to deduct he meant something for him to find Castiel in order to save her life, but I didn’t realize she loved him. Damien Rios, another love she couldn’t have.

Right when Ryatt went to say something, I placed my hand over his mouth and gave her a gentle nod in understanding. Unlike the others, I was the one who saw her rigidly healed wounds on her back up close. We all knew about them now that we had been in her bed, but I’ll never forget how they made me feel that first day my fingers grazed over the raised skin of her scars. “We’re sorry for intruding, and I can’t really explain why we felt the need to.”

“Just like you barged into my room last time?” It really wasn’t a question but more of a statement because she understood why we couldn’t help ourselves.

Before I could respond to her, Kit sprung to her feet and began running for the bathroom. Her run had a wobble in every step because she wasn’t strong enough to carry herself completely. She dove against her toilet as every digit on her hand began to tremble. The quake didn’t ease as her hands took hold of the toilet bowl right before her face dropped to begin puking.

Everything within me hummed with worry because I didn’t know what was going on with her. Her stomach wretched everything inside as though a parasite embedded inside. Her body had to get rid of by expelling everything. She heaved and the little she ate came back out. It took her a few minutes to finish, but then she fell on the floor like she couldn’t hold herself up any longer. Her hands were shuddering even after letting go in her fall on the tiled floor. A warning for us because the rest of her began shaking, but we didn’t know.

Ryatt and I were quick to act, sprinting to pick her back up and hold her as she began to seize. We looked at each other in worry because we didn’t understand what was going on. Keeping her on her side, we knew she might vomit more while having her seizure. Watching her convulse did something to me, and I hated our decision even more.

The seizure didn’t last long, but we had no idea if another would be following. Ryatt held her limp form as her head tipped backward over his bicep. She looked too vulnerable, too fragile. It was shredding me apart, and all my anger left when it came to hating Damien. He was the only reason Kit survived his father twice. This would’ve been her on the side of the road like the rest of Saul’s whores if he hadn’t, or she would’ve been tossed into the river. Closing my eyes, I felt the tears freely fall, knowing there was no stopping them.

“Kit,” Ryatt cried her name in a whisper. His face buried into her neck, feeling for her pulse because she didn’t look like she breathed.

“What’s wrong with her?” I panicked, studying every greying feature of her beautiful face.

“I don’t know.” His hand cupped her cheek to rouse her a little more. “That seizure didn’t seem like it was deadly.”

“It wasn’t the seizure,” a voice broke from the doorway. We glanced to see Damien there with his eyes forlorn in misery.

“What are you talking about?” I asked as Ryatt kept fighting Kit for her conscious to stir.

“She’s been pumped full of drugs, and she hasn’t had any since her return two days ago. Most can’t cut them cold turkey without it killing them.” Damien revealed a syringe from his back pocket, prepared for this part.

Ryatt and I shared a mortified face. We were the leading power when it came to streaming drugs into the city, but we hadn’t seen this side of them firsthand. Even when it was a dead whore on the side of the road, the consequence of our money never bothered me. But Kit had never been a whore. She was the only woman I had ever loved. Letting my mourning gaze go back to him, we knew he had more experience with this part than us. We had to trust him to save the woman we failed once again.

He didn’t hesitate to move closer, hovering over us without fear. Injecting the drugs, Kit hummed with a sigh as she slept. Damien felt guilty about this, but he didn’t want her dead either. “I was watching her earlier because I hoped she wouldn’t need more, but I expected the worst through that naïve hope.”

“How often will she need drugs?” Ryatt asked.

“For the first few days, once every other day. Then taper from there based on her tolerance being off them. Anika knows what to do. She was the one who handled this part last time, so I gave her the supply I have for Kit.” Damien got up, knowing Kit already showed signs of improvement with her breathing, hating it completely. “I have to go back to my father’s men, so I’ll be silent until Castiel reaches out to me.”

“You’re leaving?” I was shocked. Letting my eyes swing between him and Kit. “Don’t you love her?”

Damien’s unhinged edge sharpened when he flipped back my way. “I love her enough to leave her. I love her enough to never make her chose which pack to pick. I love her enough to go back into the nest of vipers my father lied with to ensure no one ever comes for her again.”

After he said it, I understood how much he had given up in his lifetime, but I didn’t get one thing. “Why didn’t you run with her all those years ago? Why did you stay with your father?”

“My mother.” We understood it. Our own fathers hadn’t been kind to our mothers.

“Give your number to one of my men, so I can update you on Kit,” Ryatt ordered. Damien had done too much to sit on pins and needles.

“I’d appreciate that.” Nodding his head, an agreement rested between them, the two Alphas. “Just love her right this time. Love like you won’t have a tomorrow because we’ve all woken up without her already.”

Leaving us, I could tell he got choked up. Damien Rios really did openly bleed for our girl. Ryatt and I knew that meant we’d have to find a way around this complex mess. Damien would take over as Alpha of his father’s men to work things from the inside, so he couldn’t join our ranks. He was giving us the thing he loved most because he still planned on protecting her as much as he could.

I needed to be more like him, but I I’d be too selfish to ever let Kit out of my sight again. She could refuse me for the rest of her days, but I’d still stand in her shadow just to see her light creating it. I’d have to die to ever leave her again.

46: Kit

Groaning, I felt how stiff my body went. I also took in how my limbs were tangled with others because they couldn’t move. I found Ryatt and his pack still in my bed when I opened my eyes. It hurt my heart even more because they stayed out of pity. They finally saw what broke me, but I hadn’t created armor out of my new broken pieces like before.

Something else rolled in my stomach, souring all the contents within it. Jerking out of their arms and legs, I scurried to the end of my bed to bolt for the bathroom. The fresh smell of bleach told me this hadn’t been the first round of purging my guts. They had seen me at my weakest point, and I couldn’t fortify myself from their eyes.

Retching, I felt how the acid burned up my throat to expel into the toilet. I gripped the sides for dear life as my head hunched over. It kept coming because my body wasn’t ready for food still. Falling back onto my ass, I wiped my chin with the back of my hand before crying.

My head leaned against the wall behind me as I cradled my knees to my chest. Nothing felt like this, and I relived my past without the veil blocking it from becoming a nightmare. Thinking I had privacy, I forgot who must’ve stirred when I ran from the bed.

“Kitty Kat?” Kayos arrived only in his grey boxers, holding himself up against the doorframe. Ryatt and the others crowded around him, staring at me with concern.

Whimpering, I rapidly shook my head. “Leave! I don’t want you to see me like this!”

“We’re not going anywhere ever again,” Ryatt rebutted my order.

“I said leave!” I hissed at them. All my previous trauma reared its ugly head, reminding me they weren’t here last time.

“But you need help,” Turner murmured.

“Then get me Anika,” I sobbed. “I need Anika!”

My body remembered who our sanctuary became. It wasn’t any of the men I wanted it to be. My best friend, the one championing for me this whole time. I needed the one person I called family.

Somehow, Jericho who comprehended what the others couldn’t. Pushing them back, he tipped his chin to me. “We’ll go back to our room, and I’ll make sure she comes in.”

Clasping my head under my forearms, I balled into my knees to hide in their departure. My knees acted as my shield, preventing me from seeing the enemies in my presence. I knew the guys cared, but it was hard not being strong in front of them. I wasn’t who they came back and met, ruining me even worse than the first time I went through this.

“Fuck no,” Anika growled when she saw me losing it to everything. She stomped over to where I crumbled, squatting to be face to face with me. It was hard for her to avoid the toilet, but she managed. “Who are you?”

“Don’t,” I started, shaking my head. “I don’t have her in me anymore.”

“Nah, you do. You’re the baddest bitch I know. You came out of this fire the first time and brushed off the embers. Now, what are you?” Anika took hold of my cheeks, making me meet her dark eyes. “What. Are. You?”

“I’m a phoenix,” I whispered back, knowing the words to this repetition game that encouraged me to choose strength.

“Why?” she growled, determined to get me to see what she did.

“I rose again,” I hiccupped through the river of tears soaking my cheeks.

“You did what?”

“I rose again,” I said with a harder voice.

“I can’t hear you!”

“I ROSE AGAIN!” I shrieked it with my feral nature rising. Primal screams were therapeutic, and I released mine in the echoing bathroom.

“Do you want the easy path of drugs to die, or are you going to show all these Alphas who the real boss is?” Anika stood up, holding her hand out to me.

Closing my eyes, I felt more droplets squeeze from them because my mind could only think about having another hit to numb everything. “Anika…”

“Beta!” she shouted at me. “You gave me that name because I chose you to lead me! My Omega! No Alphas, remember? You and me! We defied the odds, and we can do it again! Fuck, we’re not even starting from scratch this time.”

She panted after her tangent of power, exuding her own into me, letting me leech off her for me to stand again. There weren’t words for best friends, but Anika just needed me to believe in her as a return for her believing in me. Taking her hand, she got me to my feet, my legs already wobbling.

Anika moved to the cabinet in my bathroom, showing me where she stored the drugs Damien supplied her with to taper me down. She revealed the hiding place, daring me to take them behind her back, challenging me to stay clean. My body still felt like lead ran through my veins, but it came from the drugs she had been giving me to ween me off. My mouth watered at the thought of having them again as she prepped the needle.

“This is your last day of getting any. You’ve been out for a few days now, so you better be ready for the ugly part of your recovery.” Injecting the last dose into my flesh, I felt the slight rush sweep through me as my anxiety went with it. “We just entered it.”

Tossing the needle, I watched her give me her back. She was right, this next part would be the hardest. Being weened meant I still got the drugs. Now, I had to fight the temptation and pretend it wouldn’t eat at me nearly every second of the day. She turned on my shower and waited for me to climb in.

Fixated, I was still in a trance about the drugs that were within my reach. They were right there, and they would be until Anika knew I wouldn’t think about them like I was. Most people got rid of everything to cut their problem, but Anika made me battle it. She placed them in a spot where she kept count of them and forced me to take accountability.

“Omega,” she gently said my name to pull me from the terrorizing thoughts. Turning my back away from the open cabinet, I made my way to my best friend. No, it wasn’t that simple, and I knew the hard days were ahead.

***

Damien

Ryatt stuck to his word, keeping me posted about Kit’s state. She had just taken her last dose to ween her down. While he didn’t give me details, I knew her path of hardship was about to begin. His text felt like the easy part of my day, and that said a lot because Kit’s struggled cut through my core, but I had a meeting about to begin with who remained of my father’s men. Most were the ones who had other work details when shit hit the fan, and they had no idea I’d been part of my father’s demise. They believed I ran some errands in town, and I paid a kid to carry my phone around for the day to make sure they traced me in those areas.

“What do we do?” one panicked, sitting across from me. Everyone’s hummed with frantic paranoia, arguing over what they thought should happen. They had no idea I already began creating the new empire with me as their leader.

Reaching out to someone I hated more than my own father, Randall Wickham, the devil himself would be paying this meeting a visit. Ryatt and Kayos’s father, the man secretly starting up the fighting rings with my father. Speaking of, the doors to this conference room burst open as two of his men entered first. The men in the room all silenced, recognizing his power instantly. Some even cowered, but I kept my head held high as the other Alpha in the room.

Standing from my chair, I did what my father always had and greeted him first to establish my territory and dominance. Randall knew it, kicking up the corner of his mouth, but he still needed the buildings I had that were left to me in my father’s will. His whole empire became mine the moment Castiel killed him, but I had to keep playing along that I didn’t know who killed my father. I had to pretend I wanted this partnership to get to the root of the problem.

“Randall, thank you for coming today.” Grinning, I waved him over to the table as one of his men pulled out his seat.

“Thanks for having me, boy. I look forward to working with you and your new empire.” When he said it, my father’s men looked to me in disbelief, forgetting my place in the ranks from being my father’s shadow. Randall knew today we were breaking the news to them, but they still weren’t prepared for it. He laughed. “Who did you think would take over Saul’s power? One of you?”

“Me.” Antonio stood from the table. Outside of those who died, he was one of few remaining of the former inner circle. His hands slammed the table in defiance of what we were demanding. A proposal meant gaining their input, but this would be a dictatorship. I’d sire those who had been loyal to me as members of my own, but Tony wouldn’t make the cut.

“Oh?” Randall swiveled his chair to face the rat.

“Saul didn’t trust his son, so why should we follow him? He’s weak and conniving.” Tony spat in my direction.

“Yet, he left everything to me?” I questioned for them to dispute the claims with facts. “Why would he do that?”

“You’re his only blood left,” Tony tried to argue.

“Wills can be left to anyone to inherit,” Randall stepped in. “Saul also let me know that he trusted Damien to work with me if something were to ever happen to him.”

“He’s weak,” Tony hissed. “He was the errand boy and doctor for the whores.”

“I’ve dirtied my hands plenty of times for my father, and you’re also forgetting I’m the one who delivers our slaves to the Sellers.” Standing myself, I knew there was only one way to handle this.

Randall defended my name again as Tony verbally fought him from across the table. He didn’t even see me get right behind him. Ripping Tony by the hair, I forced him to sit again with his head held at an angle over the back of the chair. He didn’t have time to react before I slit his throat for the rest to see. The blood sprayed over the surface of the table, letting everyone see the horror I’d create in my stride to the top.

“Anyone else disagree with my role as the new Alpha to my father’s kingdom?” Most dropped their eyes in respect and fear. That was how things ran in this world, and I had to be cruel to fit among the ruthless of them all. Killing hadn’t been easy to stomach for me, but Tony’s death came easy after all the wrongs he committed.

Randall smirked at my actions, knowing it had to be done to prevent an uprising. He’d never be a man I’d ever call a friend, and I’d never bear my neck to him. He’d sink his teeth into me and rip my throat out, smiling the whole time.

If it weren’t for my debt to Castiel for keeping my hands clean in my father’s death, I wouldn’t let him keep living. Though, Castiel needed information on the inside, and I was finally in that circle of leadership that stood against the Alphas in Kit’s home. One day, Randall would die, but he was worth more alive today.

I began siring a few men around the table that I acknowledged as my inner circle, and no one fought against it. Like Anika was Kit’s ally, they were mine. Men who hated this world and the empires running it. Choosing them meant I wanted to undo it all, and they knew that. I chatted with each before today because I needed to know which side they were on. With four on mine, we’d stand and run a kingdom of madness into the ground, spiraling Randall with it.

He’d asked me before this meeting if I wanted to run this empire. My answer hadn’t been a lie when I said yes because I had future plans for it. My truth tricked him, but he didn’t question deeper than that. He didn’t question if my future for it would ruin his own.

My new inner circle and I were the stained names in society, but it wouldn’t be forever.

Nothing ever was.

47: Ryatt

Asmall knock came at our door. It surprised me because not many knew we were in our quarters again. Being separated from Kit drove us mad, but we respected her wishes to leave her alone. We respected her recovery, so she needed to get through it without us hindering it.

Opening the door, I found the very woman I had on my mind. She still looked pale with hollow eyes, but she had a normal glow to her again. “Hi.”

“Hi,” I replied, surprised by her visit.

“Do you have time for a walk?” she let her sweet voice carry in a timid tone.

“Uh, yeah.” I looked back inside to see Franco watching me. Nodding my head, he got the gist that I’d be heading out with Kit. His curiosity made him envy my precarious predicament with her, but he knew to let me handle it as the ruling Alpha of our group.

Falling in stride with her, she still wasn’t healed enough to hold up a brisk pace, so I let her lead with what she was comfortable with. Meandering down the hall, Kit remained quiet while fiddling with her fingers in front of her. It made me wonder if she planned to give me a bout of bad news. She finally sighed, relenting to whatever ate at her mind.

“I’m sorry,” she started. I choked on my saliva because I hadn’t been prepared for her apology.

“Sorry? For what? Kit, you’re the last person who owes me an apology.”

“For how I snapped at you guys when you were trying to help the other day.” Ah, I understood a little bit more, but I still disagreed with it. “Anika was there for me, my rock, being who got me through it last time. There’ll never be a word for how vulnerable I feel when compromised by drugs, violated for everyone to see, so I don’t want them to. I don’t want you to see me as someone so fragile and desperate.”

“You’re not,” I argued.

“But I am.” She stopped walking halfway down the empty hallway. Chewing her lip, she rolled her ankle in place anxiously. A sadness made tears gather in her eyes. “I’m addicted to drugs, Ry. No matter how many good days pass in between, I crave them. I yearn for the escape they offer from reality. There’s a peace within drugs because they take away the nightmares for me to embrace my delusions. I never feel haunted or anxious, and my heart never nearly pounds out of my chest when on them. I love that feeling even though I know the cost to achieve it.”

“But you’ve been fighting your addiction. You’ve proven to be stronger than it.”

“No, I just learned to give myself bumpers to help me stay away.” She looked at me like her next confession would ruin how I felt about her. “When you first came here, I told you no drugs for my people. And while that’d been partially true, it was for me. If I knew you had them on you, I’d want them. I’d stoop to low levels to use you to have them, and I don’t want to be that weak girl Saul turned into a crack whore. I don’t want you to see me be that broken. I didn’t want you to see…”

She couldn’t finish, rubbing the outsides of her arms to hold herself together. It was hard seeing her lose the battle to her mind, unable to fend off the demons within by my own force. Stepping closer, I placed us so close that our fronts begged to skim with each inhale. My hand reached forward to tuck some hair behind her ear.

Kit hadn’t gotten ready the way she typically did in this place, but I liked this simple version of her. This was the one I had fallen head over heels for. Stroking the raised skin Saul branded her cheek with, he had done something archaic and outlawed, and I hated he tried to ruin what’d been mine. I taught her how to take my knot and eased her into taking Turners. She’d been perfect.

“My opinion will never change about you, Kit. Knowing your struggles just makes me love you more because only you could turn all of it into this.” I gestured to the place we stood in. “Clearly, I hate myself a little more for everything that has happened to you, but you have proven you’ll always be more than it all. You’ll always be more than I deserve.”

“Ry,” she breathed my name in a plea, closing her eyes to feel my touch that now cupped her cheek. A small tear was shed for me to feel the warmth of the wetness follow the length of my finger. “I’m not who you need anymore. I’m not that girl.”

“Because you became this woman: strong, powerful, demanding.” She needed to hear me stay it out loud, even if it bothered me to see an Omega fight. Not an Omega, my Omega. “Your beauty will forever render me the fool, Kitty, but I’ve changed from the boy you loved. I’m harder, meaner, cruel to the lower powers.”

“You’re everything I thought you’d become,” she admitted, knowing where my life was destined to become.

“And you’re everything that can handle it.”

Walking her backward, I let her hit the wall to be caged in by me. Her spooked eyes weren’t from not wanting me. She knew her soul could no longer deny me. We once thought we shouldn’t ruin her by claiming her in our dark world, but now I learned we’d been the idiots back then. Nothing could make up for that, but I wouldn’t let the immaturity of our youth destroy my future again.

I blocked her in with my arms and made her hold my stare to feel the authenticity of my next words. “I want you. The others want you. Goddammit, Kit, we fucking need you.”

My mouth crashed over hers, and I couldn’t fight the need to taste her for another minute. Both my hands held her face as hers latched onto my forearms to keep herself upright. A small gasp parted from her lips, begging me to never stop this merge between us. My veins were hit with our arousing rush of heat, electrifying everything within me to begin humming. White noise settled in my ears as I inhaled her heavy lemon scent.

More than anything, I wanted to keep going. I wanted this spark between us to burst into the endless firework we were meant to become. Our fire was eternal, so I’d be okay waiting for her to accept this between us. Plus, I knew she couldn’t agree to be mine, knowing it would deny Damien access to her due to it. There had to be a way around those pack laws, and I had every intention to find them.

Pulling back, I let us both catch our breaths. Closing my eyes, I pressed my forehead to hers. Tightening her grip, she held onto my arms to physically tell me she didn’t want me to pull away. “Not a single day went by that my heart didn’t beat for you, bleed for you. I fucking love you, Kit. I need you to be mine because I know I can’t go back to what we were for the last seven years.”

“Ry.” Her lip quivered. Closing her eyes, she thought I was asking her to choose.

“If there was a way to have us both, would you be mine?” I finally asked the thing I was too afraid to discover the answer to. I feared her not choosing me, but now I knew she couldn’t deny either of us.

“I’ve never stopped being yours, but I became his too.” Letting me go, she wrapped her arms around my neck to hold me closer.

“Saying yes to either of us would break your heart without the other,” I concluded.

“And I know you’ll never be in the same pack with how our city is ran. Both your jobs hold importance, and I know I can’t be selfish when it comes to your roles. I’m also still grieving Saul. As dumb as that sounds…”

“He was your Alpha, Kit. Not by choice, but that bond doesn’t care.”

“It really doesn’t. I keep walking around with an ache in my chest that wants to suffocate me into permanent silence. I fucking hated Saul, but he stuck it to me in his death.” Rubbing her chest, she stepped back from me. “I think it’s my hate for him that offers me a smidge of hope, though. If I had loved him like you, I wouldn’t have survived. I wouldn’t want to.”

“You’ve already survived me,” I reminded her of the thing I regretted most.

“But we weren’t bonded. You guys ripped my heart out, but I was unmated. Plus, I got shoved right into the depths of hell after. The drugs helped me minimize what my heart felt, and I liked it.”

“You’re stronger than those drugs, you’re stronger than Saul’s forced bonding, and you’re strong enough to run an empire without being caught,” I emphasized everything she needed to hear because it was true.

“Hopefully that strength helps me endure the chaos now that things are changing again. Now that the Alphas are safe, I’m not sure what kind of environment will be left around here.”

“Whatever you do, you’ll always have us,” I offered her the olive branch between our packs.

“And you’re always welcome here. Thank you for walking with me today.” Reaching up to kiss my cheek, she began sauntering away from me.

She nearly got to the corner as my eyes stayed glued to her backside before she doubled over and rammed herself against the nearest wall to catch her. Falling over completely, I bolted to her side in an instant. “Kit! What’s wrong?”

Right after I said it, I smelled it. She went into heat, and she was an unmarked female. Her secret scent wouldn’t be enough to hide this from the other packs. Her panicked eyes flipped over her shoulder to see me pausing right above her. My instincts told me to fuck her here and now, but I knew better as a man. Kit couldn’t be fucked like a wild animal after what she just endured. It took me a minute to fight the drive inside me, but I gritted my teeth and held my breath. She needed me to get her to safety before someone else acted on a whim. Without our emotional connection, I wouldn’t have been able to fight it. My animalistic urges would’ve won.

“Ry?” she worried over my intent.

“I’m taking you to your room. From there, the choice is yours.”

She hunkered into herself because she wasn’t sure if she was ready for something like that. Keeping quiet, I wondered what she had done for her past ones. At our age, I knew she had to have a few by now.

When we arrived, I placed her on her bed and backed up to her door for her to see me giving her the space she needed. I did this for her to know I wasn’t a threat to her healing. “You know how to reach me if you’d like help through this. I promise, I won’t ever mark you without your consent.”

Dipping her chin, I could see her beginning to stave off the initial wave of hankering need ebbing through every nerve within her. She tried to open her mouth, but she couldn’t breathe evenly enough to get her words out.

“Ssstay,” she hissed.

That was all I needed as I slammed her door shut and slid my pants down for her to see my hardened cock with my knot ready for her. Kit’s eyes flared, remembering my girth that used to stretch her completely. Licking her dry lips, I pounced on her before she thought better of this. I was finally going to have the only woman I couldn’t forget.

48: Kit

What was I thinking? It didn’t matter now that Ryatt stripped me of my clothes while kissing my exposed flesh. He feasted upon every ounce of my skin like he’d never have this supper again. Maybe he wouldn’t. That became the burdening problem sitting on my shoulders.

Only a few paths were laid before me, but none of them would ever let me be fully his without leaving behind Damien. My heart grew heavy even as my core begged to be filled and stuffed by Ryatt. I needed him to give me his knot, but the consequence of this choice forgot to play out with it. My needs overran all my thoughts, pressing me to demand males to mate me.

Ryatt wouldn’t be a permanent fix, but he’d calm the first wave enough for me to collect my thoughts after. Closing my eyes, I breathed him in as he touched all of me. Lying back, fell naked underneath him. A position I never gave outside of the men my heart pined for. Control was a hard thing to lose when submission had been forced, but I trusted Ryatt like I did Damien.

I embraced how he devoured my body with his stare, opening my eyes to see it. Most of my bruises were yellow now, but he knew I had cracked ribs to be wary of. Loving me, he kissed each tender spot, making his way for those lush lips to travel south. Pausing over the nerve along the top of my hip bone, he blew his breath to run the length of it.

Shivering, I watched how he toyed with me instead of just fucking me like the men Saul had. None of them cared about my pleasure, but that was all Ryatt worried about right now. He planned to meet my needs before even considering his own. For an Omega, orgasming helped the heat end faster than taking the knots. Anika would have to bring me those toys later or I’d do something stupid.

Loving me, he kept causing me to convulse with that one simple nerve. He delighted in how I shook with desire, whimpering his name. “Ry, please.”

“There’s nothing sweeter than listening to you beg for my cock.” Smirking, he adjusted himself above me to let his tip skim against my clit. His tease met my gasp, arching my back to push myself toward him.

I managed to slip his tip in before he jerked it back. The popping sound of my juices suctioning him were deliciously heard. Ryatt had to collect himself because he had more than a sample and wanted to finish the meal. The bastard had more control than I did as he steadied himself to not fall under my power to be fucked so fast.

“Silly, Kitty. Where’s the fun in finishing if there’s no chase?” He sank down, placing his five o’clock shadow to grate against my swollen folds. I knew I’d be dripping for him, seeing me eager for his entrance. Now, I had to endure his tongue licking me savagely to taste my heat that intensified my flavor for men like him to fall to their knees.

Licking each of my creases, he let his tongue’s tip follow the grooves to keep circling around my entrance. It felt deliriously wonderful, almost relaxing, so I did. I let my head ease against my pillows as I rested my eyes to enjoy it. Of course, Ryatt wouldn’t let me idle for long. His lips suctioned over my clit, sucking in five quick successions.

“Ryatt!” I shouted his name right as my first orgasm hit. The intensity too high to bear as I kept savagely convulsing with my heat adding to it. In all these years apart, I forgot how skilled he was at making me cum. Gushing all over his face, he licked a bit more before crawling back over my body.

They all knew how I favored tasting myself from their lips, so he shared it with me, sinking inside my core at the same time. Still spasming, he didn’t give me a break as he forced his way in through each barreling wave that milked his bulging cock.

Swiveling his hips, he mastered pounding my pussy all those years ago and discerned how to combat my climax. It became almost too much to take in as my snatch tightened, so I kept mewling against his mouth, cleaning his face of my squirting spray.

He held my left hip, following the length of my tense thigh to lift it up, plunging deeper into my depths. Holding my single leg up, he began moving in and out of me. I had taken more dicks than I could count, but I knew his. The length… the girth… my body recognized his. It memorized them all, and I dreamt of only theirs when I recalled my favorite past times.

Ryatt lifted from me to stare at our meeting point, praising my cunt’s progress for taking him in during an orgasm. “Look at this pretty pussy. She opened right up for me, wanting me.”

“Oh, god.” I couldn’t handle his dirty talk because the truth showing in his words.

“You’re stretching wide open, Kitty. Look at how your lips pull out when I do, trying to keep me inside.” He shoved all the way to hilt as hard as possible. I lost my breath, surprised by it. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan to pull out again. Not until my knot is so deep inside you, you’re leaking me for days.”

“Fuck,” I hissed. He was right. I remembered his full knot when I took it in the past. I’d be leaking endlessly for a while, and I’d get to play with his cum when I rubbed one out during my next wave.

“You’re mine, Kitty. You’ll always be mine whether you bear my mark or not, and I’m going to fuck you like this every time you open your door for me.” That’s when he began thrusting harder, opening my channel to prepare for his knot. I already wanted it and the previous climax softened me up to do it.

All at once, it happened. I combusted into bliss, rupturing for him to feel deep within me. He locked inside me, and I refused him to leave without giving me his release. It triggered his, expanding his tip inside me to hook at the top of my pussy, filling me to the brim with his cum. The ropes were implanting deep as I milked his release to travel deeper inside me. We were like this until mine began to ebb, but my heat wanted more, cycling another blistering urge right after my climax. Being so sensitive, I felt myself about to orgasm already as Ryatt’s cock pulsated and throbbed. He kept rolling his hips through each round, taking my heat on by his own force.

The next wave set in, crashing through me like I touched a hot wire. Electricity shook me to my core, forcing Ryatt to tip over with me for his second time. Naturally, his body wanted to finish with mine because I was primed to take his knot during my own, but he hadn’t been prepared for how my body planned to drain his completely dry.

Our hips kept working together, rounding as I took his pistons deeper. My body now covered by sweat, seeping my inner desires for any male to notice. Even though I was getting what I wanted right now, it wouldn’t be enough until the waves of heat finished bombarding me.

Grunting and mewling, we were a mess of limbs, tangled in our animalistic urge to hump the other to near death. His grumble helped ground me as I purred. My need to be his outweighed everything I built. Belonging always found me in the arms of Ryatt, and I could feel through our loving making that he felt my home become his. He lied with me in my nest and accepted how I built it alone.

He kissed me when our end was reached. Pausing our fucking as he kept pumping more ropes of cum, we let our combined parts do their own thing as Ryatt held me closer. He even managed to move our bodies for me to be spooned by him as he stayed sheathed inside me. Never letting me go, he kissed by shoulder as our bodies continued climaxing.

My shaking thighs were finally able to close because he wasn’t spreading me open to get deeper. I stayed on my side with him behind me. The change in position comforted me as I took his knot once again. His rumble silenced the loneliness inside my soul. Closing my eyes, the exhaustion of everything swooped in and pulled me under. Ryatt kept holding me through his finish.

***

Past

The night still darkened everything but what the streetlamps lit. Anika tried to argue my why for doing this, but she could see there’d be no healing until I did. I asked her to drive me, and she did, but she didn’t say a word the whole drive. It hurt me to upset her, but my heart couldn’t carry on.

Once she told me how long I’d been gone, I knew Ryatt and his pack would need to know I made it. They were probably beside themselves, hurting in their hearts like I had this whole time. It felt like a blur, a motion of slipping days, but I had the power to change my future.

We pulled up right outside their estate, Anika keeping her hands on the steering wheel with her jaw locked. The other wall stood high and mighty, fortifying their safety better than the trailer meant to protect me.

“Kit,” she sighed. “I don’t think this is a good idea. You’ve barely showered, and you only ate the crust to some bread. Plus, you can barely walk with how hurt you are. Why don’t you wait until you’re better?”

“I can’t wait. They need to know I’m alive. If they’d been in my shoes, I’d want to know as soon as possible too. I can’t hurt them another day.” I swallowed the lump in my throat before looking at her. “You were still who I needed first, Anika, but I need them too.”

Her hand finally moved from the steering wheel to put the car in park. She turned off the car but kept her face forward. It took her a minute before she undid her seat belt and nodded her head to the door. “Come on. I’m not letting you out of my sight. Saul will know you plan to come back here.”

A giddiness swept through me as we got out. She followed me to the spot I mentioned. Ry and Kay liked to sneak out without being seen, so they made an exit area to not be caught on the cameras. This part of the fence had a makeshift ladder on both sides to make their escape easier.

Anika had to help me climb, too weak and damaged to manage it on my own. She had no trouble helping me and getting herself over because she stayed in impeccable shape. My ribs revolted each reach up the side then down the other, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care when a few gaps made my legs part too far and pulled on the stitches within them. No, I was almost home.

My nose hadn’t come back online all the way after smelling decay and soiled floors for so long, but my memory reminded me how much I loved their peppered musk mix with other spices. It made me nearly salivate.

I rushed over the lawn in the pattern Kayos taught me to not be seen. If Saul had come, he’d be watching the cameras like a hawk. He’d grab me before I could even make it to the front door. No, I had to do it this way. My sprint made my exhaustion steepen, but Anika acted like we were only walking fast. I’d have to get in shape and put some meat back on my bones.

When we reached the window, I peered inside and lifted my hand to knock against the pane. This would show their favored room for hanging out, and I found them inside. Though, I didn’t find men who grieved. My fist paused before rapping, witnessing something that almost hurt me more than what I had endured already.

Right there, on the middle section of the couch where I used to reside to be their center, I found a stranger. My smile soon fell when I noticed how Kayos and Franco teased him from each side. Ryatt came behind the younger man to grip his throat and lift his face for a kiss he provided over the back of the couch. Kashmir and Turner played darts along the wall, laughing to whatever Kayos said when he sat back a little.

They were happy. All of them.

By the submissiveness of the man in my spot, I could tell they found a new Omega. Ryatt’s hand lifted from the neck, but the Omega kept his head up enough for me to see what stabbed my heart the most. He bore the mark of being claimed.

“They claimed him,” I whimpered for only Anika to hear.

“Kit…” she didn’t know what to say.

“They’re happy,” I cried, shaking my head and stepping back. Disbelief swayed my body, begging to collapse, but I didn’t what them to see me now.

“I bet they still want you.” She tried to lessen this blow.

My hands shakily wiped my tears. “No. They want to be happy, and they found it. They found it with an Omega who can maintain it. I’m too ruined, and it’d hurt them. They’d pity me into their pack, but I’ll never be that. I’d only bring my scars.”

“You’re more than what happened,” she growled.

Ryatt picked up on the sound, so we cloaked ourselves in the darkness next to the window. That’s when Saul made an appearance, and they greeted him like an old friend. It took Ryatt’s eyes off the window long enough for me to see more than I needed. My heartrate thrummed harder below my skin, seeing my attacker act like he didn’t destroy Omegas like me.

“Let’s just go home,” I quipped and turned my back on the boys who stole my heart. They could keep it because I no longer had a use for it. Love would only hinder me now that I knew how fragile it could be.

“Go where?” Anika questioned. We didn’t have a home yet, but she’d been watching a neighborhood to know when the residents left. That’s how she knew where to go to get me a shower.

“To an empire that’s ran by us. I want the world to see us as more than a Beta and Omega.”

“But how?” We made it back to the fence.

The heartache could only be ignored through me planning our rise in power. “I don’t know, but I do know it will be mine. A domain that belongs to an Omega.”

49: Kit

Iwoke alone in my bed. My hand reached out, but I only felt the absence of warmth and flesh. Souring, my stomach rolled when I opened my eyes to see the blankets had been restored where his body once was. An overwhelming sense of guilt struck me all at once because I’d been so stupid. I let Ryatt in last night, but he left me to wake without him, going back to his mates, his pack.

I became someone on the outside of his pack, so I’d never have what they did, only wishing to wake in their mess of tangled limbs. It would forever be me in this murky swamp of life I waded through. Closing my eyes, I tried to breathe deeply to abate the tears that sprung up on me. I had chosen my path to remain unmarked, so this was part of that decision.

Another wave of unadulterated demand readied to crash over me, but I didn’t want it to. I didn’t want to think about them to get off. Even if I tried thinking of anyone else, it never stayed on that person by the end of my climax. Knowing there was only one thing to do in this situation, I thought about the first time I had a heat cycle. Not many knew this, but I’d been on drugs. They diluted the world just enough for me to think about anything besides my damning fate. I wanted that now to hideaway through this one.

But I promised Anika. I told her I wouldn’t do them.

I contemplated my options, chewing my lower lip. Would it be so bad to fight the drugs next week instead of this one? It’d only be a few days before the relapse, and I wouldn’t have to wake up to an empty bed. There wouldn’t be this much sorrow drowning my heart. All I had to do was use one dose. One measly injection, and I’d sleep through it.

Salivating, my mouth told me how much we craved what idly sat in my cabinet. My body carried me into the bathroom of its own accord because it wanted this course of action without approval. Blinded by both needs, I had to. There’d be no fighting the discord within my chest without placing my armor on. That shield became drugs, and I needed them to carry me through this heartbreaking battle now.

Opening the mirror, I saw the drugs already prepped for me to use. They’d slip into my vein with ease right below my elbow, joining the track marks I already had. One day, I planned to get another tattoo over them to hide the new ones better, but they weren’t dark enough for the common eye to catch. Saul didn’t have me for as long this round to make them awful. Sadly, I knew I couldn’t think about adding to my elbow piece until I ended my addiction.

Sitting the readied needle against the skin, I paused. My hand traced over the bow without an arrow inked there, I knew the meaning behind it. It was personal, and I never explained it to anyone. A fire sat around the weapon for a few purposes.

The bow without an arrow with the string poised toward me indicated that I wouldn’t shoot myself up again. It represented waving my white flag to myself, surrendering to the urge in order to overcome it. The fire came from being burned by it already, knowing it would only burn me again, and it did.

Saul gave me the fix I never wanted, and now I had the sickening desire to continue. My hand readjusted the needle to sit at the entry sight, but I couldn’t pierce my skin. I held it there, yearning for the muddled mind it promised. It would minimize my heat until it was over. Closing my eyes, I felt the tear slip because of the promises I’d break to Anika and to myself.

Before I could decide to shoot it into my vein, the door to my room opened. I didn’t even try hiding what I was doing when I heard Anika call out my name. The feeling of having eyes on me was enough to know she stood in the doorway of my bathroom, seeing me about to use again. I spoke before she could say anything.

“There’s a promise of safety if I use right now, and I need it for the next week,” I cried. My whole body shook from everything going on.

“Why?” Her eyes began to collect water as well.

“I woke up alone,” I confessed, pinching my eyes shut. I hated how weak I fell with the strongest standing beside me. “It hurts, Anika… so much. I don’t want to feel like this. I don’t want to feel alone when I’m this vulnerable. I don’t want to feel forgotten when I can so easily forget.”

“Kit,” she called me by my real name. “Ryatt came to get me. He was letting me know you were in heat. He didn’t leave you in the way you thought.”

She took a tentative step toward me and raised her muscular arms slightly to appear less threatening. Shaking my head, I tried to fight through the demons of my mind, but they were too much. “It hurts. Everything hurts. My body, my mind, my heart. I don’t want to pretend I’m strong anymore. I don’t want to pretend I’m okay because I’m not, and I don’t want to be. I’m a fraud because I’d rather numb it all than fight.”

Heaving for breaths, I heard someone behind Anika suck in a hard breath. That was when I noticed Jericho with her. He had come in to check on me after Ryatt alerted everyone of my condition. He saw the true version of me, and I felt even weaker for it.

“They want you,” Anika argued.

“All of us,” Jericho corrected, coming into the bathroom to join.

Shaking my head, I wept even harder. “I can’t have any of you. I can’t without giving up Damien, and I won’t do that to him. I love him too much to give him up.”

“Do you love him enough to stop using?” Anika finally got close enough to take the needle, but I already planned to hand it over.

“I was trying to stop when you came in, okay? I saw my promise to myself, and it made me stop before you came in.” Showing my tattoo, she knew what it represented as well.

Handing the needle back, her eyes dared me to follow through with what I had said. “Then put it back.”

My heart pounded, begging to hurry and stick it in. My mind pleaded with it, asking for me to make myself forget. Squeezing it like a vice, I shakily lifted my hand for it to fit back on the shelf with the others. I was in position to set it down, but I found it too hard to do. My grip wouldn’t let it go even though I had done all the previous steps to get here.

“Set. It. Down.” Anika studied how I struggled.

“I-I can’t,” I cried, feeling the suffocation tightening in my chest. “Oh, god…”

“No god can help you now. Only you can help yourself. Omega is stronger than those drugs, and she needs to be strong enough to put it back.”

“Omega,” I whispered my nickname, finding the power within it from everything I had done to earn it. “Omega is strong, but not without Beta.”

“Beta is right here, ready to make another promise to you.” Holding up a bag, she showed me she bought hair dye. “Beta is ready for war.”

Not many would understand what she promised me, but I did. Last time I gave up drugs, Anika dyed her hair in honor of my choice to be a walking reminder of it. She came willing to do it again. “Beta…”

She shrugged her shoulders and smiled. “It’s time for a change anyway. I’ve been white and blue for too long.” Sitting on top of the toilet seat, she glanced up at me without much height difference between us from how tall she stood. “So what’s it going to be? Keeping your promise to me or giving in?”

Damn. When she worded it like that, I knew I only had one option. Plus, I had so many questions about her and Jericho’s new buddying relationship. The ache in my chest never subsided, but Anika tried to give me a happy memory during the hard ones. She was trying to remind me what I had to live for.

Nothing else had been figured out, but I knew I appreciated that. Pulling out a brighter red color, I knew her natural curls would look fierce. Her hair curled above her shoulders when not in the box braids, so I couldn’t wait to see her natural afro again. Relenting, I set down the drugs and turned my back to them. Moving to her side, I began helping her undo the braids that were in. It wasn’t a complete fix, and I’d have more heat waves and cravings to come, but I had Anika. I had my best friend.

50: Kit

It took me by surprise, unprepared for its complexity. The last time I went into heat, I didn’t feel quite like this, but I had been out of my ruined state for a while. This time, it came at the worst time. I only healed for two weeks, so I wasn’t ready to deal with what my body yearned for. I wanted to call my cycle a bitch for doing it to me.

Sweat coated all along my glistening body as I dampened the blankets and pillows around me. My heart rate wouldn’t slow because I hadn’t fed my Omega what she desperately craved. She coveted to be mated and pleasured by a pack, and it would be difficult for any Alpha to say no when like this.

My hand shakily reached for Damien’s new jacket, saddling up to the flannel he once sheltered me in when I tasted freedom the first time. How I wished he’d be here. How I wished he and Ryatt’s pack could be mine. The thought of them sharing me trickled in.

Clenching my thighs, I kept promising myself I wouldn’t go that route, even in my mind. Anika understood to keep my problem silent. Now two days in, I struggled as the heat worsened. My toys weren’t doing the job, and every orgasm I gave myself felt empty in my hollowness. Hating it, I closed my eyes and prepared to use the spare vibrator that didn’t sit on the charger right now. I had to keep going between the two because one would die after a usage through one wave.

In my silk crimson nightie, I pleasured myself underneath the fabric as my thighs opened wide. Knowing I couldn’t ignore it, I had to give in and deliver another orgasm. Sadly, my body knew I wasn’t taking the knot that would impregnate me. Heat cycles were the worst part of being an Omega and being an unmarked one made it even worse with the hint of danger.

The door to my room opened just as I touched the vibrator to my clit, revealing Franco and Kashmir. They had a front row seat to what I did, mesmerized by the soft circling of my wrist. Almost like hypnotizing them, their eyes followed the movements I created against myself. Being watched excited me in ways I couldn’t describe, so I kept going to indulge this new fantasy of mine.

Letting it play out, I could see how my chest heaved for breaths as I pleasured my core in front of them. They were more than able to see the pussy between my legs as I spread my folds with my free hand for the wand to play down the middle. This brought me a sick satisfaction I hadn’t known I desired until this moment.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Franco growled, walking into the room as though he owned my quarters.

“I’m handling things,” I replied in a husky tone, breathless from the actions of my own toys.

“The fuck you are,” Kashmir snarled.

Before Kashmir could walk toward me, Franco stopped his movements. There was this sort of sneer on his face that told me I wouldn’t like what he planned to do next. “Kash, if she wants to handle her things by herself, then we should handle our things by ourselves.”

Just like that, Kashmir caught onto what he said and delighted me with a menacing smirk of his own. “You’re absolutely right. You know, there’s a certain place I can’t reach. Would you mind handling that spot for me right here, on the edge of her bed?”

I had to lift the vibrator from my clit because this illicit idea already started becoming too much for me. I knew exactly what these two were going to do because they used to tease me like this back in high school. They’d fondle each other and force me to watch only to heighten my needs more by the end of the day.

Franco’s hands that reached around Kashmir’s front to undo his belt. His pale skin was so different to Kashmir’s golden tone. They looked absolutely beautiful next to each other because of the stark differences in their hues. I could see where each of them was because of it.

His shaft slipped free, already hard and long, ready to fuck me because he could scent my problem like anyone else outside my door. Going into heat unmarked meant men got an automatic boner. We planned for this, keeping people out of my wing, but they were here this time. They came to play.

Franco didn’t bend Kashmir over right away as his hand began to jerk his mate. I watched as Kashmir faced me with Franco, both meeting my gaze as they worked together to punish me for not asking for help. They didn’t have a knot to provide, but their girth would sate the hollowness. Both were Betas, and they enjoyed being bottoms for the others, but Franco would top Kashmir in moments like these.

I tried to remember where I sat, but the urgencies within my body were already too much as it was. Adding them to the equation became too brutal. Losing myself completely, I knew I’d cum too fast if I placed the wand against my swollen areas. Trying to keep it together, I simply watched… being too much without the buzz. I could only smell myself because of how strong it had become, but I pretended I smelled them from having their scent memorized. For this next wave of heat, I allowed myself to indulge in this taboo fantasy.

Kashmir finally bent over the bed just enough that I could see below him while giving Franco access to his back. I didn’t see Franco’s cock come out, but I could only imagine it was standing proud in his glory. Franco wasn’t cruel enough just to plunge into Kashmir, so I watched how his shoulder moved because he worked his fingers inside of the Beta. He stretched him wide to take his girth, and Kashmir wanted it. Franco’s freehand that wasn’t already playing, kept adding saliva to the spot to ensure it wouldn’t be painful when insertion happened. Within a matter of minutes, I watched Kashmir’s eyes blow with lust as Franco slipped his tip inside slowly. I could tell the exact moment he hit Kashmir’s hidden G-spot. I put the vibrator back to my clit, ready to ruin myself with them.

Now that we were all finding some sort of pleasure together, I allowed this to happen. I circled my swollen nub as Franco began fucking Kashmir like a maniac. Kashmir held the post at the end of my bed because Franco had gone mad with his need to seek pleasure. A glorious mess of moans and cries, and I knew my mind would never forget how Kashmir looked while being taken like this. He finally braved letting go of the post with one hand to jerk himself for me to witness. Franco reached around and began twisting Kashmir’s balls in his hand to help the Beta reach his end.

Reality wanted logic to step in, but the forbidden nature knew I wanted more. Now that extra time had been going by, I wanted these men. Like I told Ryatt, I couldn’t have them without giving up Damien, so I wouldn’t commit to being marked. Having them as lovers would have to be enough for now.

My bed began to drag toward Franco. It turned me with how rough he got without it being a forced situation. Kashmir kept hissing because he was the one having everything stimulated all at once. I watched as the leaner man couldn’t help himself. When he came, his load shot straight at me, hitting me down my front like an arching gush. I’d been his target, and he hit the bullseye.

That’s what triggered my own to launch as my climax began. I fell lost to it, feeling my spray of juices spray out of me, soaking my bed. I had been living in my own wetness because of how often I had to cum the last two days.

My end was what triggered Franco as he began to howl from behind Kashmir. He didn’t pull out though, making the ass take every last drop of it. It took us all a minute to gather ourselves and for Franco to pull out, but he couldn’t knot for the drawn out release an Alpha provided an Omega.

Franco moved into the bathroom to grab some towels and came out to clean us off. I forgot what this sort of aftercare felt like, but I knew I missed it. They climbed into the bed with me and held me between them like we never left the other’s embrace. I knew this reality was real, but I still couldn’t trust it. With the wave calmed down, I knew I still had several waves to go through, but I wanted them to be here when the next one came. I wanted to be selfish and take what I wanted. Closing my eyes, I fell asleep in their arms as each refused to let go. Now that I had a lot of them back in my bedroom, I found one in here each night. It was everything I thought I’d never have again, but I knew it’d lead to more heartbreak later on.

51: Kayos

The flickering lamp outside Castiel’s bar bothered my eyes, so I waited with my hood on. Even though this was the place Damien picked for us to meet when I asked him to, it didn’t mean I trusted the rat inside who owned it. My mind still struggled to wrap around the concept that Castiel and Kit had been in cahoots this whole time. A man no one trusted just so happened to change his stripes when it came to swooping in and saving Kit? I didn’t buy it, so I kept my hood up for his cameras not to know.

Smoking a cigarette helped ease my mind. The others would kill me if they saw it, but I needed something to soothe all the chaos going on inside of me. After the others found out about my adventure with Kit in the woods, Turner and Jericho let us know about their rendezvous with her in the gym. Ryatt only added to it when he confessed to having her two nights ago.

That started a whole shit show we weren’t prepared for, so I stepped in to change the subject for something useful. My dad might’ve been a piece of shit, but my mother was a librarian. Ryatt was the only one who didn’t take to her books for advice, learning brute force by our father. Leia and I loved learning with our mom. Now that she was gone, those memories were all I had left. At least she left me with something useful for this predicament. Once I told my brother what I remembered, he ordered me to fetch Damien.

I became the errand boy without warning, but I knew better than to start trouble over it. He was working with the other Alphas after Damien appointed him to help when he pretended to be Kit’s hidden leader. While Ryatt and Anika dealt with the packs beginning reconstruction of their homes, I stood here to do the dirty work.

“Hey there, big boy. Looking for some fun?” A corner hooker found me. Pressing her tits against my arm, she let the tips of her fingers stroke over my middle.

Rolling my eyes, I gently pushed her off me. “No, thanks.”

“Asshole,” she muttered before finding the next helpless sap on her path. Eyeing her direction, I noticed some girls flat on their faces within the vicinity of the building. I took in their lack of movements, confirming what Ryatt had told us about the last time he came here with Kit. Someone was dabbling in the drug business, but they weren’t cutting them right.

It’d be something we needed to investigate. Before I could walk over to one for examination, another dark figure emerged from the alley in the back. Damien had his hood up, but I recognized his scent when he neared. Without his dead father’s ruining his, it was way better. The smoky underlying remained, but I got a bigger whiff of sandalwood.

“Kayos,” he greeted me before pulling out his own cigarette. “Have a lighter on you?”

He made our interaction less suspicious by smoking with me and asking for a lighter. Handing mine to him, he lit it up and took a long draw. I watched how his own shoulders relaxed because he had been under an insane amount of pressure.

“Is she alright?” Damien worried this meeting was to give him bad news in person about Kit. It made sense, and I respected that he thought I’d deliver it in person because I would.

“She’s fine. Still combating the addiction, and her heat cycle set in, but she’s alive and eating food again.” That didn’t sound like the best update, but it’s what I had for him.

“She’s in heat?” He paused his next draw.

“Yes, and she’s unmated still.”

“Damn her. I told her to join your pack when I left her.” He shook his head, understanding Kit would never do what he asked if it meant defying her wants.

“She’ll never be ours without being yours too,” I murmured.

“But she can’t have us both, and she gets more from all of you, more than I could ever offer with where I’m at now.”

“What if I told you there’s a way she could have you and us without merging our packs?” Huffing in my own smoke, I left him to ponder it.

“What do you mean? Ryatt and I can’t share an Omega. Pack laws forbid it.”

“While my brother is the handsome face of our pack, I’m the brain. I’m the one who knows of things not many do because my mother taught me and my sister. Leia studied more with her, but that’s because my father hated her. She spent almost every second with my mom to avoid his wrath.”

“Why would he hate his only daughter?” Damien asked a good question.

“We never knew besides she hated him. Something happened between them, and neither told the rest of us, but that’s beside the point right now.” Shooing those thoughts away, I waved my hand. “My mom had a book that talked about the old ways, when packs were more primal with less Omegas to go around. There was a ritual used that can make an Omega belong to two packs.”

“Do you know it?” Damien let me see he had a single ounce of hope for this plan working. That was all I needed to get him onboard.

“Most of it. My sister has the books, so I’ve sent word to her. She’ll respond by the end of the day. Would you mind coming tomorrow evening to accomplish it?”

“Why so fast?” He was right to be hesitant.

“Because Kit isn’t doing well with being unmarked and in heat. Ryatt left her bed yesterday morning, and she thought he left her permanently again. It almost triggered a relapse. She doesn't want us without you, so this is the only thing I have up my sleeve. It gives her to both of us, and she’ll feel less abandoned from the ties.”

“And you’re sure it’ll work?”

“Mostly, but I did want to ask who’s in your pack that might try to hurt our Omega. That’s the part I’m worried about with it being your father’s men,” I added.

“Long before recent events, I made a circle of men within my father’s ranks. They’re now my inner circle and can be trusted. Most know the truth about my part when it came to the death of my father already, agreeing to help make it happen, and they accept my love for Kit. They won’t question her connection to me, but I cannot promise they won’t feel drawn to her through that tether.”

“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t much to process because I already knew Kit’s life would always be more important than our egos. “Fuck it. Even if they fall in love with her, I’d rather have that than her isolation.”

“You sure?” Damien revealed his skepticism.

“Tomorrow night. I’ll pick you up at the address I’m sending your way. Bring your pack for us to formally meet. After, we’ll do the ritual.” God, the others were going to kill me. Putting my hands in my pocket, I began to walk away as though we never dabbled in our deal at all.

“Kayos!” he shouted after me. Turning my head his way, he tossed me the lighter back. “When she’s out of heat, we’ll need to talk too. It’s about your father.”

No one on this planet ruffled my feathers at the mere mention of a name besides him. Randall wasn’t someone I ever wanted to see again, but I knew he hadn’t been too happy when his seat was revoked with the families for Ryatt and I to take his place.

“What about him?”

“He found a new business partner while everything went down. We’ll talk more when there’s better privacy.” Eyeing the drunkards fumbling through the streets, we never knew if it was an act for someone to spy on us. Plus, Castiel could be listening in.

Dipping my chin, I knew Ryatt wouldn’t be thrilled to hear about this one. Pulling my jacket closer with my hands in my pockets, I made my way to my car and headed back to where I belonged. Tomorrow night would be interesting indeed.

***

We sat around the table in Kit’s conference room, our pack on one side with Damien’s on the other. Yeah, this felt as awkward as we had imagined it would be. The men across from us had this ruthless appearance, living the hard life Saul provided them. Most were covered in tattoos, showing their gang ink, and I saw the same one on them all. The tattoo of six crows lined right along their biceps for strength in pack, but these were older tattoos. They secretly marked themselves this whole time, and his dad never noticed.

Raphael and Anika watched from the ends of the table, mediating if necessary. Her hair was a rich red instead of white and blue, but I loved the bounce to her curls that weren’t braided back anymore. She felt me looking at her, so I pointed to my scalp before giving her the okay sign that I liked her change in style. She smiled, dipping her chin at my recognition. No one had spoken yet after Raphael brought them in, so we acted like it was our first middle school dance all over again. Ryatt finally cleared his throat to begin as the leading Alpha. “Damien, thank you for being willing to try this. I know it’ll be a little unorthodox-”

“But Kit is worth it,” Damien finished. “As requested, these are the only men I trust within my compound. They’ve known about Kit from being my age when our fathers brought her in the first time.”

“You were forced in by association,” Turner leaned onto the table a little more to study over them with his dark stare.

“We were,” one spoke up. “I’m Edgar, and my father was in Saul’s inner circle. He made me join to provide more numbers in Saul’s ranks. Most of us didn’t choose this life, much-like the lot of you. The only difference between you and us were the positions offered.”

“And how can we know you’ll treat Kit right?” Franco asked.

Edgar placed his elbows on the table before meeting his gaze to let him read the honesty he was about to say. “We were forced to witness what they did to your Omega the first time. We watched as they tore her pussy open with bottles and baseball bats in the name of fun. We were the ones who covered for Damien when he began removing the screws in the floorboards for her to hide in. If we didn’t turn on her then or now, I feel like it’s a good leap of faith to believe we won’t. Kit Andrews has been through too much to make her give herself to us just because we share a bond. We respect what she’s endured.”

His words stuck with me. There was no undoing the past but hearing more about hers made me sick to my stomach. While the others chatted and learned names, I zoned them out completely because I still didn’t feel like we deserved her forgiveness. It wasn’t until I heard my name being called that I noticed everyone watching me. Ryatt tipped his chin to the side, asking without words if I needed him. Doing the same motion in the opposite direction, I told him I’d be fine.

“The ritual?” Damien mentioned as though I missed my cue.

Clearing my throat, I pointed to Anika. “We got word back from my sister, and it’ll be easy enough. You Alphas will have to share your own blood before biting her neck at the same time. The best way to mark her after will be for her to press your heads down on opposite sides to control the pace.”

Ryatt and Damien looked to each other, sharing a silent conversation with how they wanted to go about it. We could all see when they came to their decision, smirking at whatever idea they were daring each other with. I could only imagine they planned to help Kit with her next wave of heat while bonding her to their packs. At least the conference had gone smoothly between us. We’d take the men back to our room to get to know them better while the leading Alphas did their ritual without an audience.

52: Kit

Torture.

This heat had been absolute torture to live through, and I grew tired of it. Even though my insides felt like they were melting away with every spasm of need, I fixed my nest. If I ever needed peace and security, it was right now, and my nest provided that for me. It was hardwired into my code to set up a place where I could be cherished and loved on, but it usually came with the claim of a pack. Since I didn’t have that, I nested for myself, rounding the blankets along the edge to make the hole feel more settled with Damien’s shirts. I had his sandalwood and the lingering scent of Ryatt’s pack.

Everything had a coating of sweat, but I knew better than to change my sheets when in the middle of my cycle. Once everything went back to being where I wanted it, I let myself sprawl over the back pillow to face the door. My canopy of lavender hung around, and I let myself pretend I belonged to someone special enough to walk in and claim me. I’d be their princess in this lavish life, and they’d want to dote on me.

Closing my eyes, I had to stop these fantasies before they became too much. My reality was already hard to handle sometimes. Hearing my door handle turn, I opened my eyes as fast as they had closed. I found Ryatt with Damien in my entry. Both looked primal, predatory, and I was their prey. Slinking into my room, neither waited for me to give them the okay.

“Kitty,” Ryatt greeted me by my nickname as though it was fair game now that we fucked.

“What’s going on?” I looked between them both as they took to traveling on opposite sides of the room, climbing onto my bed.

“Remember when I asked if you could have us both, would you want us?” Ryatt’s stare displayed danger, daring me to press him for more.

“I told you yes, but we know that’s impossible.” I sat up just as each Alpha neared me. My heart skipped a beat when they removed their shirts for me to see their hardened abs. Ryatt was stockier than Damien, but Damien had the scars of surviving that I loved to study.

“We found a way,” Damien whispered, diving in for my neck to begin kissing from the left.

“All you need to do is trust us,” Ryatt added, joining Damien’s idea from the right.

Blinking, I tried to make sure this was all real as my head tossed back to give them better access. Gasping, I could barely breathe now that my mind picked up on this being real as Damien skimmed the nerve right below my ear. Ryatt nibbled on the lobe on his side, and I lost my mind.

Two sets of hands began roaming over every ounce of flesh, lifting my lingerie over my head to expose me completely between them. Neither wasted a second, fondling the breast on their side while still devouring my neck, nipping along their paths. I could only focus on the intricate sensations their combinations were making along my exposed skin. Spiced sandalwood. I never knew I’d long for it until the permutation presented itself, but they fused into one intoxicating scent.

Whimpering, my thighs began to rub together, coaxing them to hear the wetness gathering between them. Damien turned me to face Ryatt so I could kiss a pair of lips as his traveled down my spine, nibbling over every sensitive nerve back there. This had to be the most erotic kiss of my life, but I grew greedier. I wanted more from both.

If they had a way to give me everything I wanted, I knew I’d never say no to trying. Maybe by feeling a sense of belonging again, it would take away the absence in my soul that Saul created by claiming me too soon. Maybe by merging with two, I wouldn’t feel it again. That hope was dim, but I loved the two who had me now. If I belonged to them, it would drown out this harrowing sorrow.

I gripped Ryatt’s shoulders, more than aware I’d have them both at once. It wasn’t my first threesome, but it would be with two men who didn’t know each other as well as Ryatt’s pack. Damien gave me confidence without knowing it. Trusting me with someone I trusted, joining for me to be fully satisfied. Ryatt also agreed, and I couldn’t comprehend how hard that had been when he wanted me for his pack. I deepened our kiss, swiping my tongue along the roof of his mouth before flicking the back of his teeth and pulling out.

Moving away, I wanted to meet his stare, questioning with my eyes if he was truly okay with this path between us. There’d be no going back. He nodded, caressing my cheek before kissing me again. He then moved to my ear, blowing gently into it. “I’m a big boy, Kitty. I know how to share my favorite toy.”

A shiver racked through me, trembling the skin Damien kept kissing. He licked all the way back up from the base of my spine, shifting my nightie to complete it, making a cool path from the air hitting the damp skin. He found my other ear, running his nose along the edge of it. “Don’t worry, we sniffed each other’s asses to make sure we’d get along. My pack is here right now, hitting it off with the others.”

I hummed my approval to their words, but it came out as a moan, causing them to groan in response. Biting the corner of my lip, I let my hands reach to each crotch, rubbing the hardness hidden within their pants. They didn’t need another hint, taking off their jeans by getting on their knees then their asses. Shirts and my negligée were easily tossed off and forgotten as they held me between them with our three naked bodies.

Glorious praising left their lips, calming my nerves even more. They showed being capable of working together to let me have both. Loving it, I let them move my body to sit where they wanted me. Ryatt was the one who stopped my hands from jerking them with my saliva. “Should we mate her now for her to know exactly how it’s going to feel being ours during her heat?”

“Good idea.” Damien pulled away from me with Ryatt. They shared a mischievous smirk. “Should we melt her panties a little more first?”

“Panties? When have either of you known me to wear them?” I huffed, breathless from their teasing.

“We’re more powerful than I thought. They melt before she can think about putting them on,” Ryatt jested.

Rolling my eyes, I was over their bromance. Well, until they pulled a fast one on me that would’ve ruined my panties. Leaning over me, the Alpha males began kissing sensually. I witnessed how they came together with their corded necks of muscle, smelling of different packs. Ryatt had light brown hair that paled to Damien’s midnight shade. Though, their tans were opposite because Damien didn’t see the sun much.

They moved closer, only keeping my closed thighs between them, so the tips of their cocks began rubbing. Neither denied how good it felt, so they swiveled their hips lightly to keep up their sword play. It was nearly too much for me.

While I had seen male on male action plenty—just like yesterday with Kashmir and Franco—it hadn’t been two rivaling Alphas. They were laying it all on the line for me because they loved me this much. Plus, this formed a bond between them that promised me they’d think of each other as a mate outside of their own bonds.

Biting the corner of their mouths, they let me see they were sharing blood. This must be how it had to be done, and I wondered if Leia told them. A savvy tech girl who knew way too much about everything, and the reason we had so much information to build this place. Our eyes in disguise, Leia played her part perfectly in all of this. Though, thoughts of her went out the window as the two men let their hands move down to join their dicks in the play time. Stroking the other, I watched how their arms made an X over me to handle the opposite cock.

My chest heaved with all the lust beginning to drip from my core, leaking my smell even more. It only encouraged their fun to ignore me for a while longer. Now that their mouths were coated in the other’s blood, they looked my way. This was it, and I knew I’d finally fill the hollow hole inside of me enough to breathe normally again.

“We’re going to place our mouths over your neck, and you’re going to have to shove us to break the skin all at once. It must be at the same time, so we’re having you control it instead of counting. Once you force us down, we’ll bite. We’ve practiced on each before coming to know how to gauge the timing.” Ryatt set himself back to being on my right, letting his mouth find the hollow of my throat, leaving Damien the scarred side his father created.

It fit for him to have it, and I understood the reasoning. We lost the same Alpha we disdained. He’d replace that bite over the burn to help me recover from it. Surprisingly, none of the men mentioned my face with the dud insignia on it, and I was grateful for it. They never stared at the mark when I could see it, making me feel a little more normal than my body protested.

Once they were in place, I knew the time arrived. I was about to be part of two packs. Their mouths exhaled against my skin, triggering goosebumps to line the flesh. This was it, and I had to do it perfectly to not lose the other. With so much weighted on my shoulders, I blocked all the problems that could happen from entering and yanked them toward me.

My eyes were closed as I felt their teeth sink into me at the same time. Gasping, I tried to hold still as the merge began. Live wires lit throughout every vein in my body, grounding to my core, centering in my soul. This was what home felt like as it warmed through the marrow of my bones, igniting the part of me I thought had been dead for years. I felt alive for the first time in almost a decade, and I belonged.

Crying, I couldn’t help the overflow of emotions. Maybe recovering from the drugs heightened my real-life feelings, but I was happy to show them the joy this brought me. Ryatt was the first to remove his mouth, turning my body for Damien to have my pussy. Their stares communicated without words as Ryatt kissed me while Damien slipped inside of me. For the first time, I was being taken by my mates.

I never thought this would happen. It nearly erased the body count I had in their absence, forgetting the worst of it now that I had the best. Damien met my eyes before shoving in, so I nodded that I was fine with it. Ryatt wanted me to focus on Damien making love to me, so he began rubbing my shoulders, relaxing me to take his knot.

It brought back so many memories, ones I missed. Who knew so much could remain after time ruined so much? My empire might be ruined, but I didn’t care right now. I had the life I wanted with the men I needed. Rebuilding was what I became good at, and I had them to help this round.

“You look beautiful, taking his cock like the pretty little Omega you are,” Ryatt cooed. My pussy ached in satisfaction as his cock stretched me to take him, but I whimpered from the words. Damien humped me by rounding his hips fully for me to feel him even more. Ryatt used it against me. “You’re such a good girl, Kitty. Always wanting to please us with those sounds.”

I mewled even more, but I wasn’t happy because he wasn’t getting pleasured. Rolling myself over, Damien had no complaints taking me in this position. He fucked me from behind, our instinctual position. My mouth devoured Ryatt’s dick in a single swallow to shove him down my throat. I wouldn’t let up as I gagged and choked on his girth.

“W-what?” he wanted to ask, but his words ended when I kept curling my tongue around his tip. Being spit roasted, I hadn’t felt this good in forever.

As much as I wanted it to last, I could already feel my orgasm coming. Thanks to my heat, it didn’t take much penetration. Both men scented the change as I readied to squirt. Ryatt began fucking my face because I paused for the crash of ecstasy. Rearing back, I forced him to stay inside me as it began. I cried out, but Ryatt’s shaft gargled the sounds.

The muffling triggered him to begin cumming. Pouring down my throat, I took his heaping spurts of cum and swallowed repeatedly. Damien began to explode with me, knotting deep within to give me his hooked load. I opened right up for it, riding each wave as both my holes were filled to the dripping brim, readying to overflow.

Most of it stayed in my mouth, but some managed to leak from the corners. I knew my eyes were watering, but Ryatt only loved that more as I looked like a proper whore to handle his mess. Unlike the men who treated me like one, he kept rubbing my cheek, brushing the hair out of my face, and he whispered how perfect I was for him. The praise had been new, but I learned I loved it from all the rubbish I went through before.

Drowning in their cum, I let myself bask in it. I was an Omega finally taking her Alphas’ knots. I finally belonged, and I handled them like a pro. My body gave completely, telling me this was the last wave to my heat cycle. A sigh of relief left my lips because I now had the brain power for other things, and I wouldn’t be so exhausted. I’d be free of this sexual imprisonment.

I drained them dry, and they held me in their arms after we finished, promising not to leave my bed until I woke up this time. Ryatt learned the hard way to not put me through that again, so he patted the pillow for my head to rest on as each man placed an arm over my middle. He also set his shirt beside Damien’s two, understanding why I had them now. My reminders of freedom, and his would remind me of the day they gave me my heart back.

I was now the Omega of two packs, but I felt like we were one.

53: Turner

Imade sure everyone found their way into the meeting room again to guide the news we gathered. Now that Kit had rested for a few days following her heat, she appeared a little more human to discuss the business side to everything. She entered in her heels and tight purple dress, showing everyone that she came back.

Her eyes still slanted to check behind her occasionally, and it hurt to see that fear. We could also sense it in our bond to her. She wouldn’t be fully better for the rest of her life, but she mastered learning to put other things first.

I was just happy to see the pink tint back in her cheeks. Her glow might’ve come from the new bonds that settled within us, but her own strength played a part too. Kit might end up pregnant from her heat cycle, so we had to keep an eye on her for any early signs that might come up. Of course, that wouldn’t stop her from being the powerhouse with badassery she had become. Now that she was out of her room, she had paid all the Alphas personal visits to check on them. I was surprised to see her and Darius discussing things in private out of everyone.

Not liking that one, she just tossed me a wink, saying it she did it for another business arrangement. Whatever transaction occurred, it earned him a seat in the room we were all gathered in now. Darius sat in his spot with this trusted second as our two packs fanned around him. Castiel and Damien were speaking in the corner amongst themselves about something, and that something told me it had to do with whatever Kit brought Darius in for.

Kit took her place at the front of the room where everyone could see her. I loved the glow she had now that she felt more like herself. God, she looked perfect being back in action, but that perfection came from her now being mine. I’d never tire of sniffing our scent along her, even if it had a tang of Damien’s sandalwood with it.

Seeing her get what she wanted was worth now having ties to Saul’s old crew. Though, these men weren’t too bad now that we vetted them. They weren’t lying when they said they were onboard with burning Saul’s empire to the ground, but Castiel needed something else before we could strike the match. Damien also mentioned Ryatt’s dad, so we had that to figure out.

“I thought Saul was dead,” Darius said, breaking the quieter conversations for the real meeting to begin.

Kit smirked and nodded her head for Damien to join her up front. Once he did, she met the random Alpha’s gaze. I still wanted to know why he was here. “Darius, you’re one of few I feel like can be trusted with this information.” She straightened her shoulders. “Damien wasn’t my Alpha until shit hit the fan. I ran this place on my own under the guise of having a secret Alpha, but I now belong to Ryatt and Damien, so none of the others need to know.”

“What?” his eyes widened.

“You only get to be privy because we require your assistance. I need an outside pack’s help to assist us for what needs done, so welcome to the secret circle of the inner circle where Saul’s son now rules his empire, discreetly working with us to take it down.”

“What the fuck needs done for him to know?” I asked, wondering why we had so many in the room, sniffing into our personal business. Luckily, the other outside packs didn’t know Kit was ours, and she still masked her scent to hide it.

“Castiel tipped Damien off about his father’s empire expanding into something new, so Damien made sure to take over to have control.” Kit stopped talking for Damien to step into whatever role they were doing.

Pressing a button, he showed us a warehouse downtown that wouldn’t be too far from here. Just like Kit’s place, this warehouse looked like it needed to be condemned. The next picture slid into place, and we found it mirrored Kit’s home more than we thought. The whole inside had been rebuilt below ground for a stadium to fill the edges, and in the center sat something none of us were prepared for. “Is that?”

“Yes, Turner, it’s a fighting cage. Apparently, my father was in cahoots with Randall, rebuilding the underground fighting ring. I am now the partner in place of my father, so I have all access to their fuckery,” Damien nearly growled out.

“But it was outlawed. Mayor Goodwin declared his stance on such matters and won’t change his mind.” Darius was right, but I could see how Kit fidgeted.

“The election is in a few short months. Their hope was to put Mandy in office to make their change,” Kit informed him of what we already knew after finding the wretched hag. She’d been behind Kit being taken both times.

“But Mandy is dead. Castiel killed her,” I pointed out.

Damien pushed the next button for us all to see a face we recognized and despised. Randall now had a poster made for himself, placing him to race against Goodwin. Kayos hissed. “Bloody hell. What’s he thinking?”

“That he lost his empire to his sons, so he wants an upgrade,” Kit deadpanned. I had to cough in order to hide my laugh. She bit back her own grin, looking in my direction.

“Who’s to say he’ll win?” Darius crossed his arms. “No one likes Randall.”

“A favor owed…” Castiel trailed off for Darius to catch on.

“Is a favor due.” Sighing, he closed his eyes and let his elbows rest on the table to scrub his face. “All of us Alphas owe him one. He had a conniving way to weasel them out of us.”

“He’ll use them for the election, and he’ll have access to see if anyone double-crosses him,” Damien shared his input. “Without Randall’s help, I wouldn’t have been able to claim my father’s kingdom, so I owe him as well.”

“Why are you acting like my father being the mayor wouldn’t end the world?” Ryatt picked up on their behavior.

“When everything first happened with needing to get word out about Kit’s location, Castiel asked me to do something for him. A favor in exchange for killing my father.” Damien met the eyes of Castiel. The man with an eye patch released his arms that were crossed, a flash of hope soon revealed.

“Did you find him?”

“I did, but no one is going to like why.” Damien let the next picture come up onto the screen. I didn’t know what we were looking at, but Kit, Anika, and Castiel sure did.

Gasping, Anika studied the small man inside the cage. “Ryan…”

Damien let his gaze fall to the floor because he knew his next words were going to bother them all. “Ryan is the prize for whatever pack’s fighter wins the tournament. He’s a rare male Omega.”

“There’s enough male Omegas out there that one wouldn’t be a prize for a fight,” Darius stated what I thought. When he saw the anger flash over Anika’s face, he was quick to add, “Anika, no offense. Your love for whoever this is does not equate for his true value.”

“So what’s the catch with him?” Ryatt asked. “Why is he so special?”

It wasn’t Damien who opened his mouth. Surprising enough, it was Castiel. “Ryan isn’t just a rare male Omega that can take a knot. He’s also one that can be bred to carry life.”

Another picture appeared where the arm wasn’t covering his torso for us to see the swollen center. He fell pregnant with a future Omega. Watching Castiel’s fists clench, we knew that changed everything. It meant this man had heat cycles like Kit, and he could carry life the same way. A male Omega like him was one a century, and the promise of his conception would be to always produce another Omega, male or female. In the right hands, he’d be a moneymaker. Someone would breed him and sell the children off to the highest bidder, continuing the cycle even if it risked his life.

“I thought they were a myth,” Kashmir observed the scrawny man in the cage.

“What Cass said is true,” Anika confirmed. “With this happening, we have to place ourselves in the fight to have a better chance at saving him and the baby.”

“So you want Randall to take over as mayor of the city?” Darius was outraged. “Why not just steal the boy and be done with it?”

“Randall has Ryan at an undisclosed location. He won’t tell me where, but he sends me updates he’s alive. If we don’t intervene this way, Ryan will be bred until it kills him.”

“It’s one man versus the whole city for me. I cannot, on good conscience, agree.” Darius went to stand from the table.

“But you still owe Randall a favor.” Kit caught his attention before he could get too far. Darius paused, seeing more of a plan formulating. “You also still owe me one.”

“You want to use yours to get me to vote for him too?” Darius was appalled.

Kit shook her head. “No. That would be a waste. We know it’s coming, so mine will be for you to enter Anika as your fighter.”

“Me? Why not one of these other packs?” His hand waved between Ryatt and Damien.

“Randall knows everyone in this room. If he saw Anika with me or his sons, he’d know we were up to something. If he sees her with you, he won’t make the connection.” Kit silently applauded Anika. Her masculine friend rolled her shoulders to show how much work she put into her form. Some was natural, but Anika spent more time in the gym than the rest of us. “No one can fight like her.”

Darius let his eyes roam over the Beta, knowing he couldn’t argue. Betas were made for fighting, and Anika had proven herself by how she ran things here. Now that we knew about Jericho being trained by her, we got to see her workmanship through him when we raided Saul’s compound. She taught him well.

“You’re the only other Alpha I can let my eggs sit in the basket of,” Kit added, selling her need for him. “And, we will be taking down Randall when the time is right. We’ll just have to plan while everything else is happening. One step at a time.”

“And you’ll keep me in the loop?” Darius arched an eyebrow.

“As long as my secrets don’t get shared,” Kit agreed.

“Then we’re in agreement. By allowing Anika to become my fighter, I no longer owe you a debt, and you will come up with a plan that’ll take out Randall without it involving me.” Darius raised his hand for her to shake. She shook it like a real Alpha, meeting his gaze.

“When the time is right, we’ll be in contact. The election is in three months, so that gives us time to prepare.”

“We’ll also be adding Franco to the ring,” Ryatt butted in. Everyone stared back at him in shock. “Anika will need someone to train with, and it’ll piss off my father to new heights, seeing us in his ring. It’ll also distract him from noticing Anika.”

Smirking, we couldn’t argue the logic. Plus, Franco was a Beta to blend in. Usually, it came down to him or me getting picked for fist fighting, but I’d been injured and an Alpha. Everyone around the room easily agreed to the added part of the plan. It was official, Anika would be fighting in the new underground ring once Randall was elected mayor. God, I couldn’t believe how crazy this plan sounded, but none of us were normal to begin with.

My mind went to the happier new, seeing my female Omega. Kit was officially ours, and we had our empire back. Though, we still had some things to figure out. The slight tremble in her hand told everyone that noticed she wasn’t in perfect condition from her addiction still fading to a tolerable level. Her strength made her resilient, but it wouldn’t last long before signs began to show to everyone else. I hated that for her, and I wished I could take her burden upon myself to free her of it. For now, I’d love her through it, encourage her to keep striving for the life she had already built.

She thought she was ruined, but she’d been reborn. Anika called her a phoenix, and I had to agree. She would always be reborn as something more than she was before, and I loved supporting that. She regarded me, our connection alerting her of the thoughts I had about her. She blushed slightly, telling me she wouldn’t ever be used to feeling how much I loved her. Good. I had a lifetime to make up for.

54: Kashmir

More came up than I thought we could bite off, but we were making progress. Even if we weren’t, I was on cloud nine because we officially had Kit. She chose us, and that elated me beyond belief. The woman we all loved, still loved us enough to forgive us for our wrongs. Even if we thought we were leaving her in good hands withs someone we thought we could trust, the truth scorched our souls. The knowledge of her destruction would haunt me forever now that we got a glimpse of it.

“Are you okay?” Kit paused entering our room as the others made their way inside.

“Oh, um, yeah. I just feel like this is a dream. You’re mine, but I don’t feel like I’ve earned it, so it can’t be real.” Rubbing the back of my head, I hated how juvenile I sounded.

Kit just smirked at me, acting like what I said made her laugh. When I gave her a look of confusion, she stepped right up into my bubble and planted an affectionate kiss against my lips. Just like old times, she leapt up to wrap her legs around me, and I caught her like I rode a bike on the first day of summer.

My heart hurt because this new freedom cost more than I had ever planned. I ached within my soul because she was finally mine. It might not make sense to everyone, but it did for me. This pain captured my breath seeing her smile, feeling the heat of her body against me again.

We were once wild and free, doing this maneuver in the hallways of our high school in between classes because I could never keep my hands off her. We were often late because we couldn’t stop without being pulled apart by Turner. Though, when he found us this time, he pulled us into an empty room and continued watching how her body gyrated against me for better friction.

I was already harder than a rock, yearning for where this would lead. She felt that stiffness, begging for our clothes to dissolve right now to have me inside of her. Exactly how we had always been, and we got to have it forever this time. No more goodbyes, no more suffering. Our footsteps paved through the fires of our trauma, lost to the torments that no longer held us prisoner.

If the nightmares came for any of us, we’d wake in the arms of each other. That idea alone would make the worst day better. Moaning, I couldn’t help myself. She smelled of us with a tinge of sandalwood. I could handle that as long as her pussy still tasted of her sweet lemon scent.

She lifted my shirt to go over my head, breaking our rushed kiss for a single second. It felt too long as I did the same to her. Kit knew the others were all around us, but she didn’t care. We were pack and wanted to see her naked just like she undressed me right now to do the same.

Shivering, I couldn’t help it because we had this again, and we were pack. Kit was ours for the taking, and I’d be loving every minute of this first sampling. Lying her back on the big bed, I let the others file in as I slowly removed her pants. As usual, no underwear stood in my way of her delicious cunt. Her sweet scent fumigated the area once her pants were off for us to enjoy.

Salivating, I couldn’t believe how lucky I got to be eyeing her swollen folds of pink again. Kit Andrews lied underneath me, and I planned to devour her like it was my last meal. Not hesitating or pausing, I dove right in. My tongue split open every small crevice to taste her, cleaning her completely to have her linger in my mouth. I was savage, ruining her right in front of the others without making room for them. They were forced to observe as she began rocking her hips against my mouth, squeezing my head between her thighs.

If I died like this, I’d be fine with it, drowning in her sweet juices while suffocating in her lemon scent. My arms helped her clench around me, refusing to evacuate at the risk of dying in this position. There would be no living until she came all over my face. She was close, I could feel her seizing up to begin her climax. It built in pressure, making her cursing turn into breathy mutters of perfection.

“Cheshire,” she murmured my nickname, praising me for what I was about to do to her. Her hands fisted into my hair, refusing me to move too because she wanted this just as much as I did. When she couldn’t hold out a second longer, she sprayed all over me, I felt the first gush slip from her lower lips, but before I could delve deeper, someone ripped me by the back of the neck to move me out.

Ryatt did it as Franco and Kayos took over my spot to lick her release for themselves. It was my prize, but I also understood why they wanted to taste her. She’d be our own addiction, and we never had to give it up with us claiming her. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were served.

55: Franco

She became too much and not enough in the same breath. Kashmir and I had our fun in front of her the other day, but I still hadn’t been inside of her since before our separation. Kayos could see the need within me as I thought about having her tight cunt around my shaft, my hand squeezing it through my pants.

“I’ve already had her, so I’ll let you enjoy her first. But prep your ass because I’m fucking something.” Kayos got up, his chin dripping in her cum. He moved behind me, working off my pants, so I helped him out by stepping out of the legs. He didn’t give me much notice right as his mouth dove in for a taste of my back door. He swirled my tight bud, teasing me for a while as I geared up to fuck Kit.

I hovered over her to make sure she wanted this. Without hesitation, she hooked her arms under mine and jerked me forward to land on her a little harder. She hissed just a bit from still healing, but I made sure to get above her enough to not take the brunt of my weight.

My cock slipped into her, and I couldn’t believe I found the feeling of this bliss again. Goosebumps settled down my spine as I tried to shake out the nerves. My fat cock loved stuffing himself within her sheath, missing her warmth and wetness.

Behind me, I could hear Ryatt whispering dirty things into Jericho’s ear, knowing he focused on our other Omega. “You get to see how riled up we get over our new Omega, knowing this is how we feel about you too. We can’t wait to taste both of you, be inside both of you.”

Jericho could barely stand as I watched Ryatt shove his hand down the back of his pants to begin his own foreplay. Being a witness to this chaos became almost too much, but Jericho needed to feel like he was still part of the core that held us together. I had my own ideas for how this would go, but I’d let our Alpha lead.

Humping Kit, I made her take me with all the force I had, but I knew I wouldn’t come inside of her. I’d leave her feeling slighting unfulfilled. The sensation was heavenly, and I had missed it greatly. While I absolutely loved fucking Jericho, there was still a difference between an ass and a pussy. My shoulder blades felt tense between because I couldn’t relax. I found it hard not to cum right away when all I wanted to do was give her my release.

As I slowed down, Kashmir and Turner moved up to be on the bed at each of her sides. Both were completely naked, easier to be undressed before the real fun began to not waste anytime. They each took one of her breasts and began fondling it with their hands, licking with their tongues.

Kit knew what to do immediately as her hands gripped around their shafts, tugging them for another level of satisfaction. It was like the seven years hadn’t passed because we each knew how to do this still. Our pack had many group encounters over the years, but Kit merged with us as though she never left a vacancy in our lives. It was absolute perfection, and I wouldn’t be able to get over it.

The room was filled with moans as each of us took part in some sort of pleasure. The only one not being pleasured was Ryatt, but he liked the idea of control. He loved being the one who watched everyone else come undone as he restrained himself to enjoy the ending longer. I envied his control, but I also knew I could never walk away from Kit being naked on the bed. Her fresh climax made the sheets damp below her bottom, making me salivate.

Kayos kept working my hole open for his shaft to find access. That took a little maneuvering, but I was able to drop my lower back to arch my ass better for his play while still being inside Kit. He eased his head into me, slowly rolling his hips just a little at a time to go deeper with each new thrust. When people looked at me, they never saw a bottom, but I relished in it. Aside from Turner, I was the largest in our group, able to fight without flinching, but I liked bottoming for the men in my pack. My sexual role became opposite from my daily protective role as a Beta, but none of these guys judged me for what I liked.

Kayos hit the sweet spot inside of me that made me groan in pleasure. I wasn’t sure how I could last more than a minute, so I had to pull out of Kit even though I didn’t want to. Heaving, everyone noticed how I had to stop myself once my G-spot had been toyed with from behind. Kayos stopped moving, but he knew better than to leave me empty.

Ryatt could only smile at everyone in the room as we each paused because of my sounds and jerky movement I made. His eyes were a mix of more lust yet still in control as a dominating predator. “You know, we’ve all been able to be with Kit besides one person in this room. Jericho, would you like to find out what a pussy feels like?”

Jericho turned to putty in his hands because Ryatt hadn’t stopped playing with his back door. I did take notice to how his pants were now around his ankles for his cock to be free.

“Would Kit be okay with that?” Jericho was lucid enough to ask the other Omega.

Kit smiled at him, letting go of Turner’s dick long enough to wave him over. “I’d love nothing more than to learn how you feel inside of me.”

That made all our men hiss with a moan because we did know what she felt like. Jericho stepped up to the plate and readied himself to dabble in the addiction we had. To be fair, we had it with him too, but he didn’t have it with himself.

Everyone stood around and waited for Jericho to enter Kit. This was it. The final merge to complete us. Holding my breath, I watched as Ryatt walked Jericho forward with his hands still in our Omega’s ass. God, this turned into absolute torture, but I found myself dying to find out what would happen next.

***

Jericho

I was terrified. Even though I kept my cool and tried to focus on what Ryatt did to me from behind, it didn’t ease anything inside of me. Truth be told, I hadn’t ever been inside a female before. I listened to all the stories of my lovers having their fun with what a pussy felt like, but I liked them being inside of me. I liked choking on their cock when they tortured me endlessly with what turned them on.

Swallowing hard, Franco and Kayos moved sideways for me to take my place among them. I bent over, keeping Ryatt in place, and began climbing onto the bed with my knees to get between her legs. In a similar position as Franco, I held my tip at her entrance.

Terror riddled me because I saw the pink of her inner walls as she kept her legs wide open for me. Instead of jerking the guys off, she held on to their shafts like they were handlebars for her to have as moral support. Everyone eyed me about to go inside of her, so there was no privacy with this new thing I attempted.

My issue wasn’t being hard enough because my dick strained from my attraction to her. A nervousness found me like I wouldn’t be good enough at this compared to the others. Kit planted her feet on the bed and raised her hips for her slit to drag over my tip. I felt the heat of her core as her juices smeared over me. My eyes were fixated on the erotic sight of where we met because it was truly beautiful.

Her folds parted naturally for my tip to make its way through them. The nerves along my back were already tingling because of being played with from behind while viewing something so pornographic. Finally being bold enough, I let myself enter Kit.

My shaft sank into her until her lips hit the base of my crotch. She rolled her hips just a little bit more to excite me with what it felt like to be within her tight walls. Even though she just had Franco inside her, she gripped me for everything I had. Her scent was euphoric in ways I couldn’t naturally describe outside of the lemony zest it had.

Barely moving, I didn’t know what to do. Kit moaned and met me with each thrust to push against me harder, and she started touching the men again. Closing my eyes, I could barely breathe just as Ryatt released his fingers from inside me. There was cool air behind me that told me he left, but it didn’t take long for Franco to fill it.

The beta had somehow already lubed himself up as he placed his tip against my puckered hole. Easing himself in, we were now a train of four people. Kit was the start of the train, and Kayos ended it. Ryatt moved himself to the top of the bed where Kit’s face was as he eased his swollen tip into her mouth. He must have been stripping while Franco took over because he was now naked with the rest of us. Kit and I were the centers of this fun, and I didn’t feel like we were competing. Secretly, that had been a concern I had even though I was okay with sharing my men. She fit in well, and my eyes bore into hers as I kept going.

Even with her mouth full of cock she never let her stare leave mine. She held still for the others to fuck her hands and mouth, but she did it like a pro. We were built for this type of gratification, and we were going to reach it together with our pack.

Pumping myself into her, I enjoyed the sensation of this more than I could ever dream of. The bonds within my chest were like hotwires of love, and I felt one coming from the female below me. We were connected just like the men were with me, and I felt how much she truly wanted me to do this to her.

Maybe that’s what did it, triggering my end. Maybe it was from how Franco fucked my ass at the same tempo with what I gave Kit. It didn’t matter because I shot my load inside of her. Kit’s whole body grew flush from being so turned on, and she turned breathless just as she began coming with me.

Her channel began milking me for everything it had within it. It tightened then released in quick successions, spiraling me even more into being almost too sensitive as I finished my own orgasm.

Trying to breathe, I couldn’t. Everything going on felt too good to be true, and Franco still wasn’t done taking me from behind. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me just enough to move me over.

The three men that were over Kit’s top half gave each other a look before Ryatt waved them down.

“I’ve already enjoyed Kit multiple times. I think you guys are the ones who deserve to be inside her right now. Plus, I love what this little hot mouth is doing to me.” Ryatt pulled out for the other two to situate, and I climbed onto the bed for Franco to use me a little easier. There were no words to describe how hot this was, and I knew I’d never be able to. Between our connection and the looks of lust, nothing could compare.

56: Kit

Holy shit!

Turner and Kashmir were up next to handle my body after I had just been pierced with another orgasm. I loved that Jericho and I were able to share that moment together, embracing one another as the two Omegas of this pack. But now I was super sensitive to every touch.

Turner didn’t waste any time as he arranged my legs to take me in the ass, prepping me for his size. Kashmir just stood in front of me and waited for when Turner gave him the okay.

In our new position, I would be seated over both dicks as Ryatt stood above me to fuck my mouth. Turner knew I had several orgasms that would help loosen me up and relax me, so he lifted his tip up to swirl my entrance. Thanks to me being an Omega, I was practically ready no matter the situation, but I enjoyed his short play time to make sure I’d be okay to take him.

Once he sheathed himself, I stayed on my hands and knees for Kashmir to slip his legs through. Their thighs would cross a little awkwardly for their groins to be right next to each other to reach both my holes. With Kashmir being on top and in my front side, it made it easier for me to do a sitting position on my knees to ride without straining my muscles.

What made it trickier was when Ryatt joined and placed his shaft in my mouth to choke on. He held me by the back of my hair to force my face to fuck his shaft. Taking several deep breaths, Kashmir finally entered me all the way as I stabilized by holding Ryatt’s thighs in front of me. This was the life I’d been made for, and my body performed perfectly because she knew what we were doing. She recognized our mates.

Next to us, I noticed how the others still trained behind Jericho as the male Omega moaned and cried in pleasure. I could already see the tip of his shaft beginning to lift again because Omega’s were made for more than one round. Franco found it as well, reaching around the bent position Jericho stayed in. He wanted to handle the Omega from the front as Kayos took the Beta from behind. The sight of men training each other was something to behold, and I felt myself teetering on the edge again already.

On my knees, I rolled my hips back and forth while using Ryatt to stabilize me. My mouth kept burying and taking his dick all the way down, being used like a proper whore. I hated when Saul used me with his men like this, but it was different with the men I loved, giving them my body.

After viewing all the sexual stimulation around me, I closed my eyes and basked in the smell of their spiced scent. I let the pores along my body sweat the endurance I created with each roll of my hips. My thighs had to clench and take some of the weight as I made sure to keep the two cocks within both holes. A few of my swivels made it so I went nearly to their tips before coming back down, but I needed to clench and kegel to keep them inside.

“You’re still our pretty girl, Pretty Kitty.” Ryatt used the hand that wasn’t in my hair to stroke my cheek. He doted and loved on me in ways only an Alpha could as I preened below him to be his Pretty Kitty.

The workmanship of our bodies was intoxicating, eradicating all sporadic thoughts about being lost and alone. Before I mated them, this could have disappeared at the drop of a hat, but I now belonged to them. I was their Omega, and I felt the reassurance within my soul that they would never give me up again.

I knew my mind would fight me here and there because abandonment issues didn’t just disappear, but our bond would be a helpful reminder that I wasn’t isolated and alone anymore. They wouldn’t leave me in the quiet of the night again, and I’d wake to know they were nearby. I could feel them within my soul.

The idea of our love that did me in. I squealed while choking and deep-throating. Ryatt couldn’t let his stare leave my face when I opened my eyes to look up at him with tears falling down my cheeks. The orgasm crashed into me hard, and the two men fell victim that were inside me. Their releases joined mine because they couldn’t fight the tightening sensation my body offered when milking their glorious members.

Whether it was the sound I made or just their own timing, Kayos had been triggered as well. Deep inside Franco’s ass, we watched as he readied from behind for the Beta to take his spill. Even though he wouldn’t be able to latch inside of Franco like he did with me and Jericho, it would still feel good to release the pent-up cum.

Kashmir scrubbed his face with his hands as he hid behind them to curse and mutter about me having some type of spell cast over him with how magical my pussy was. He always knew how to make me feel pretty when taking him because he couldn’t ever hide how much he enjoyed me. Turner allowed his hands to travel to the front of my thighs, squeezing the flesh as hard as possible to hold me down as he filled me to the brim in my backside.

Ryatt moved his hand to cup my jaw, forcing his fingers to be right in front of my ears that made it so my mouth would have to stay open from how he pinched it. Even though he knew I would take him, he wanted to forcefully make me from his dominant ways. Only with these guys would I ever allow it, and I knew he would respect me if I pulled back.

Jericho began to spray the bed in front of him because Franco filled his ass up. We were a pile of coming men, and I their squirting female in the mix of it all. Ropes of cum were everywhere, and I knew it would be a pain in the rear to clean up. Yet again, I knew it wouldn’t be the last time because I loved it so much.

The smell of everyone’s releases were mixing with the scent of our pack, and I delighted in the salty tang right as Ryatt began shooting his down my throat. His orgasms never ceased to amaze me with how much he procured to shoot, and I took it all like the Omega he wanted me to be. He was the one who trained me to take a knot, so it felt right that I would be taking his forever.

Swallowing as much as I could, some still leaked from the corners of my mouth to dribble down, but all the men loved that. With my eyes having tears, they worshiped watching the cum ooze from the corners of my mouth in a way that told them I took too much yet not enough all at once.

Closing my eyes, this was it. This was my forever. Our road had a lot of unknowns ahead of us, but as we all plopped on the bed for Jericho and me to be the center, I finally found it. I found my home. It didn’t come with building my domain. Instead, it came from my heart. She found the one place she had never left. This pack, my pack. I had everything I ever dreamed of, and I even got Damien. I loved seven men, and they returned my affection. Nothing would ever separate us again. We were all fighters now, and I’d fight forever to keep this feeling.

The End for Kit's story

About the Author

A. Purr is only writing Omegaverse stories and enjoys the excitement of this dynamic. If you recognized this redone piece, you'll know my other pen name, so this is not a stolen work. I am keeping them separate. This piece was remastered and released to fit the modern themes now expected in Omegaverse while changing some of the plot to read smoother all in one book. Plenty more will come, so I hope you keep reading with me!

If you enjoyed it, a review would be very helpful.

Follow A. Purr on Social Media @authorapurr