Page 38 of Dark Company

She wanted an Alpha, yes, but she never wanted to be controlled. Not like this. Not with the iron will and dedication that I plan to make her submit to. She’s reckless, thoughtless, fickle, and naïve. She’s all of these things, and yet, she is also now irrevocably mine.

Even in the eyes of the old law, she would never be taken from me. We are now one flesh. Her blood flows through my veins, bringing us closer than even she could have imagined. She thought she had everything figured out. She thought she knew what she wanted.

She has no idea of the monster that she just allowed to crawl in between her thighs. Now that she’s mine, she isn’t going anywhere. I will hold her to me, keeping her by my side, keeping her safe. She’s the best fucking thing that ever happened to me, and I’ll be damned if I lose her.

If fucking her tonight doesn’t kill her, nothing else I do will. At that thought, agony slides through my heart like shards of glass, cutting me to the quick. They aren’t gigantic pieces either, like the ones you can just pluck out and cast aside. It’s more like those small slivers that burrow under your skin, causing you relentless pain with no way to pull them back out. The idea alone leaves me breathless and weak.

She’s the one perfect thing I’ve been able to hold, to call my own, and in my stupidity and flippant attitude, I could ruin it all. My fingers slide over his skin, reassuring myself that she’s truly mine and truly alive, but that’s not enough.

Closing my eyes, I go back inside myself, comforting my brain with the thumping refrain of her heartbeat. It’s steady, strong, and full of life. Pulling back from her shoulder, I lap at the wound, cleaning it with my tongue until she’s as clean as she can be without bandages.

Thank the gods I had the foresight to put flooring down. If sand got into this wound, it would take a miracle to get it out without causing her undo anguish. Dark circles line under her eyes as she lies there underneath me, her breathing shallow but steady.

I don’t like the look of her skin. It’s far too pale. She’s far too weak. I didn’t drain her of that much blood, so it must be something else. Connected as I am, I cannot go find help for her. I’m stuck, feeling the coolness creep into her limbs. What does it mean? I can still feel her like a living thing, squirming through my insides, but I can’t decipher what I’m feeling.

Holding my hands over Karis’s ears, I turn my head as far away from hers as I can before bellowing into the night. The feisty omega promised she’d be here in case I needed her. Well, now is as good a time as any for her to prove her worth to me.

Within minutes, she flies in, her dark hair streaming behind her, making her look like some feral wraith. Somehow, she’s found herself a pale gown, shimmering as if made of gossamer instead of running around naked. She looks as if she’s death herself, coming to take my precious omega. I tamp down my feelings as best as I can so as not to distress Karis, but something about tonight feels wrong. Off somehow.

“My Lord Alpha. What is the matter -.” She looks down at Karis’s form and holds a delicate hand over her mouth. “You have marked her.”

“Yes. That part is plain to see. That’s not why I’ve called you in here.”

To her credit, she doesn’t even look down to where our hips are joined, but keeps her gaze firmly locked on Karis’s face.

“Did she ask you to?”

Bristling, I attempt to hold Karis even closer, as if I need to convey my ownership of her in a more physical way. “That’s not how this works. I fucked her, I claimed her. She. Is. Mine.”

Only then does she turn her teary gaze from my mate to lock eyes with me. The hatred I smell in the air pours off of her, polluting what was supposed to be a happy moment. What has this omega so riled? It is the way of things. Alphas and omegas are meant to be pairs.

“She didn’t even know if she liked men. After her heat was broken, she was going to decide if she wanted to be with a woman or stay with the males. You stole that choice from her, you imbecile. Besides, even if she decides to like males, it doesn’t mean that she would have chosen you.”

Anger settles over my body like a second skin as I watch her, seething as she drops to her knees to brush Karis’s hair out of her face. “I take it you were to be the woman she chose?”

“Quite possibly. Gods. We were so fucking happy before you came along.”

“That’s not what I feel from her. She was stuck in a miasma of despair. I don’t know if I can ever change that, but I at least want the chance to try. Do not judge me or my intentions. You were the one that started all of this when you tore out my respirator. You better be lucky I’m conjoined with my mate, or I would rip your throat out by now, omega or not.”

“You better fucking do right by her. She was innocent, untainted, free from the corruption of you Alphas.”

“I will not talk politics or dynamics with you, woman. Now tell me what’s wrong with Karis so you can leave us in peace.”

Once more, she looks down and rests the back of her hand against Karis’s forehead, frowning for a moment as she looks down at her pale form. Anxiety spikes as I watch her, judging every minute motion she does. I’m not a physician. I have no way of diagnosing anything, and this omega’s silence isn’t helping my calm.

“Her temperature has fallen, which is a good thing. Obviously being in heat and having you help her through it is a good thing, so I will no longer stand in your way. Nourish her as often as she will allow you. I’ll have Lord Alpha Leon place water outside your tent for when you need it, but since omegas and Alphas don’t eat during the rut, you’ll have to find some other way to give her the sustenance she needs. I will leave you to it.”

Her tone of derision as she refers to Leon doesn’t escape my notice, but I have more things to worry about than a recalcitrant omega who obviously has a large stick up her ass. Seeing as she’s not mine, I don’t care exactly, but I hope that if she ever succumbs to an Alpha, they’ll put her in her place.

“Please,” I bark out, unable to temper my response in time. Worry and anger lace my tone, giving it a hardened edge. “I - I’ve never done this before.”

I detest the show of weakness, especially with an omega this hostile, who is so dead set in watching me fail. I had no idea that she had plans between her and my omega, but then, Karis didn’t say anything to the effect of desiring a woman either. Everything deep within her screams out for my body, my knot. Hopefully that means once her heat is broken, she’ll still choose me.

Until this moment, I thought that by giving her my mark it was a done deal, assured, unable to be revoked. Could it be that I’ve actually locked her in this prison, forcing her to remain with me when her heart chooses another?

The omega softens her gaze and slides to her knees next to me. “First time with an omega, you mean?”

“No,” I admit, looking down at Karis’s face. “First time at all. I know I’ve angered you with my very existence, but Karis is irrevocably tied to me now. I don’t wish to see any harm come to her.”