.jpg)
by Alison Aimes
Nikolai had retired the other Alpha permanently and then gently and politely convinced the beta to consider a career change and relocation to Abzal. He’d been putting his energies into Nikolai’s projects ever since.
From the way the doctor’s gray and pink-streaked eyes were blinking fast, Nikolai was pretty sure the beta scientist was currently regretting that decision.
“It’s not working.” Nikolai got right to it. His words were so close to a growl he wondered if the guy would understand him.
“What exactly isn’t working?”
“The vision. Didn’t happen. Something is blocking it.”
“I see.”
He couldn’t see his omega with his back turned, but he could feel her gaze burning into his back, scent her curiosity.
He would have tossed her outside, but there was no way in hells his instinct would allow that. The Alpha in him roared in fury at the idea of being as separated from her as he was currently.
Hunching his shoulders over the screen as much as possible, he leaned in and spoke as low as he could. “Her eyes are still blue. The visions aren’t coming, but the damn fated-mate bond is working too well.”
“I see.”
“Say I see again, and you won’t anymore. Ever.”
The doc cleared his throat. “We knew it might take time.”
Nikolai didn’t wait. “No. Something is wrong.”
More slow blinking from the healer. “What exactly, Alpha Lord?” Randalff’s gaze flickered over his shoulder. “She looks—”
“Don’t fucking look at her.”
The beta paled. “Of course, sir. I meant no disrespect. I’m simply trying to understand. What is your concern?”
Another snarl. “I don’t . . .” He pressed his nose closer to the screen and spoke through gritted teeth. “There’s some kind of block. And the throbbing in my wrist, gums, and dick won’t stop. I . . .” He shoved the words out, the admission like acid against his throat. “I can barely think. All I want to do is breed her.”
A brief silence. “Yes, my lord. That . . . that is to be expected.”
“I do not want to be affected.”
A longer silence.
“It is the bond, Alpha Lord,” the beta said at last. “It works both ways.”
Another low, angry growl.
His fingers itched to close around his favorite laser and start shooting. Which was unusual because while most crime family members carried pieces, Nikolai had always viewed them as more of a last resort. An Alpha’s body was itself a weapon, so reliance on an outside defense like a laser seemed like a lazy male’s strategy. He preferred a more hands-on approach when dealing with a problem.
But his desire to use a hands-on approach was the problem in this case.
“The deepening of the fated bond is necessary for what you want.” The doc’s measured voice pierced Nikolai’s thoughts.
He slammed his hand down. The screen cracked. Now, two slow blinking betas stared up at him. “What I want is for her to stop blocking her gift. What I want is for her to corroborate my witnesses’ stories. What I want is for her to provide the missing pieces about the fire and send that bastard Olan Lundin to his doom.” And he wanted so much fucking more too, but he kept the rest to himself.
“My lord, have you fucked your omega yet?”
“What do you think?” He roared—and then, at the low gasp behind him, modulated his voice to a lower decibel for some unknown reason. “I am trying to stay focused on using her gift, not her cunt.”
“I understand, Alpha Lord.” Randalff dragged a dusty tome forward and flipped to a well- worn page. “But according to one passage in the fated-mate research I discovered, the firing up of one might bring forth the other. Perhaps that will be enough to overcome the block.”
“What is he talking about?” The question came from behind, the pleasing sound of her voice rippling over his skin. Precum leaked from his dick.
They both moaned.
He willed himself to ignore her and her question.
He was usually in more control than this, but it had been fifteen fucking years.
“So, you’re saying fucking her might bring on the vision?” He had to be sure because that was exactly what he wanted to hear. Now. Immediately. “I thought the whole reason for keeping omegas untouched was to try and keep their gift around longer.”
“It is. But a fated-mate bond is said to be different. It shifts the dynamic between Alpha and omega.” There was another slight pause. “It might also alleviate your mood swings and help you to think more clearly. There is the chance too—”
Nikolai cut the line, his Alpha instincts a drumbeat in his brain, drowning out anything else.
He could let his instinct reign.
Years of waiting were finally over.
He whirled around—and barely dodged the heavy object headed straight for his temple.
“Resourceful, little omega.” She was still in mid swing—black sheets tucked around her like a sleeveless dress, hair a tangled halo around her spectacular face—when he seized her wrist and spun her around, twisting her hand so it pressed against her spine.
He’d always liked her spirit. Fifteen years ago, it had pleased him as much as her beauty and kindness. He was relieved to see time spent with her Lundin family hadn’t destroyed her backbone altogether. But that didn’t mean he intended to let her walk all over him.
He intended it to be very clear from the start who was in charge.
“Foolish, little omega.” He plucked the small marble globe of Abzal from her hand and tossed it over his shoulder onto the bed.
Then, he claimed the hand and, despite her puny attempt at resistance, easily added it to his hold, crossing it over her other wrist and securing them in one of his. “Do you know what I do whenever something blocks my way?”
He used his free hand to jerk the sheet from her body. “I ram through it. Hard.”
With a curse, she threw her head back, attempting to hit his nose. “I am not going to lay down and let you fuck me so you can use my gift to hurt my family.”
Her aggression triggered his own. His fangs dropped as the need to dominate surged through his blood like a raging river. He shoved his pants to his thighs, too far gone to take the time to remove them.
“Who said anything about laying down?” He licked her throat, savoring the wild flutter of her pulse against his tongue. “You’ll be bent over on all fours when I punish you for your disobedience, and you’ll be in the same position when I stick my cock inside you.”
“You think your threats scare me? Fuck you. You have no idea what I’ve endured.”
Her words didn’t sit well with him. Rage blazed hot and fast. But not at her defiance. No, that made him hard as hells. What bothered him was the idea of anyone hurting her. That same unfamiliar protectiveness that he’d only ever felt with his family surged to the fore.
A weakness to be sure, but one he couldn’t shake.
He’d wanted to tear Olan Lundin limb from limb for a very long time, but never more than he did at that moment picturing her having to endure pain at the hands of a brute three times her size.
Still, he could not afford to weaken. “You will speak to me with respect, omega.”
“My father demanded the same, and all it did was make me despise him more.”
He snarled. He didn’t like being compared to Olan in any way.
“Like him, you want something from me too much to actually kill me outright.” Anger sharpened her tone. “But unlike him, you don’t have something hanging over me to keep me in line.”
She was smarter than he’d realized. Or so she thought. “Your little sister,” he volunteered.
She stiffened, and he took pleasure in saying, “I know everything there is to know about you, little omega.” He didn’t wait for her answer but went for the jugular. “Do you really think your father is the only one who can get to Kaiya?”
His omega sucked down a shuddered bre
ath.
“That’s right. I know how to pull each string so you dance just for me now.”
“You claim to know so much. Did you know I think you’re a bastard?”
He dropped to his knees, taking her with him.
She fell forward, her palms slapping the ground. Ass high in the air.
“You. Will. Learn. Respect.” Growling low, he covered her body with his, fisting her hair and tugging her neck upward so that her back arched. Presentation pose. Offering herself up like a good omega should.
“Don’t.” But she was already panting hard. Her hips pushed back into his cock despite her words of protest.
“That’s Alpha Lord bastard to you, omega.” He growled low once more. “I’m going to tear through every barricade in my way, little virgin. Soon enough you’ll learn that trying to block me out is a bad plan.”
She cursed and rocked back harder, her spine arching deeper as she lifted her ass higher. Presenting now all on her own. The instinct taking over.
The sight sent more precum leaking out. He liked her spirit. He liked her desperation to be fucked by him more.
He rubbed the swollen head of his cock against her tight, wet cunt.
The rut stole a little more of his control.
He was going to fuck that tight little hole. But first, he’d spank her ass pink and work her clit until she was crying, begging, and showing him the respect he deserved. Until she apologized for whatever block she’d placed on her visions and dropped it immediately. Then, he’d ram inside and claim all that was his due.
He raised his hand—
“Alert! Alert!” The computerized voice echoed through the room. “Two unidentified class B ships closing in fast, cloaked and armed. Initiating tactical evasive maneuvers and combat response. Fasten restraints immediately.”
The ship lurched to the side.
8
The blare of an alarm ripped Dahlia from her lust-induced haze.
She tipped forward and to the side. The ground was coming up fast.
Except she never hit.
Powerful arms pulled her backward, slamming her into the hard rock of Skolov’s body as he twisted into a roll and took her with him
He landed face side up, her on top. His huge cock dug into her ass.
Stunned, it took her a moment to find her voice. “What’s happening?” She had to shout to be heard over the alarms.
“Your father, I suspect. He doesn’t like to lose.” Skolov sounded pissed, but not at all surprised.
They slid together across the floor, the other wall coming up fast.
Gods help her, the ache for his hands to be between her legs throbbed so bad that even fear and shock were not enough to staunch it. He truly was pulling her strings to make her dance for him.
But she had another worry to contend with first.
“Olan is trying to shoot us out of the sky?” She flailed outward, searching for purchase.
“No.” Skolov caught the leg of the bolted-down desk with his palm, anchoring them in place. It was just in time as the shuttle tilted back in the other direction, and everything not pinned down slid back across the floor, slamming into the opposite wall. “Not us, only me. He wants me to know he’s taking you back before his goons deliver him a picture of my severed head.”
“How could you know that?”
“It’s what I’d do.” The ship rolled once more. “But he’s got to know it’s a suicide mission. No one is taking what belongs to me.”
“But the Brotherhood said not to retaliate against one another.”
“You think Olan cares about that? He’s spent years trying to kill me and mine.” He batted away a lamp headed straight for them. “Keep your head down.” He tucked her head beneath his free arm, shoving her nose into the crook of his elbow.
The potent scent of Alpha male and power filled her lungs, arrowing straight to her core. But what flared in her chest was more tantalizing. Warmth. Longing. Awe.
No one had ever protected her before.
This morning, she’d been stuck in the same four rooms for over 5,475 rotations. Outside of her clashes with her father, her schemes for escape, and the few times Olan had taken her out of her room, like a doll off the shelf, to be presented to his allies, nothing exciting ever occurred.
She hadn’t realized until this very moment that she’d been dying a slow death.
She hadn’t realized she’d been waiting for Nikolai Skolov to come back and wake her up.
Every nerve tingled. Every inch of her skin desperate for his touch.
A small faint voice in the back of her head whispered that this was the heat clouding her thinking.
But she felt too alive to care. Too treasured to mind.
Out of nowhere, a soft purr erupted from her. A sound she’d never made before in her life. The sensation and the emotion behind it were so wonderful it took her a moment to remember Nikolai Skolov wasn’t her savior at all.
“Two intruders,” announced the computer. “Entering through the airlock. Requesting permission to initiate vaporization.”
He could do that?
“Request denied.” The growl that issued from Skolov’s chest was so deadly it vibrated down to her toes and sent more slick pearling on her cunt. “Let. Them. Come.”
She pressed her thighs together and prayed he didn’t notice. “What? Why?”
Powerful arms flipped her over, bringing her face to face with full lips, elongated fangs, and fierce eyes the color of blood.
Panic and need slammed through her in equal measure.
Something had tripped him into full rut.
His nostrils flared wide. “I will rip them limb from limb. Then you will purr for me again and give me your gift and your body.”
Every possessive word, coupled with a blast of testosterone and aggression, muddled her mind worse than before. “I-I didn’t purr for you.”
Or had she?
He inhaled deep. “You like my aggression.”
“What? No.”
His palms skimmed down her body, gripping her ass and jerking her upward so that she rubbed over his cock.
They moaned in unison.
“You. Like. It.” Even in his rut, he was arrogant. “That pull is still there, even years later.”
“N-no.”
Crack. A slight sting radiated across her bottom. Crack. Another, this time on the other cheek.
She cried out. “Stop!”
“Punishment. For disobedience.” Crack. “And your lies.”
With each forceful spank, her ass throbbed with pain—and terrible heat. It traveled from her sore bottom to her pussy, her thighs so wet now she could feel them sliding open as she tried to keep them pressed tight.
“Tell me.” Crack.
“Yes,” she moaned. “You’re right, Skolov. The omega in me likes your aggression.”
“Mmmm.” He licked the side of her neck, his big palm molding her ass cheek like clay, spreading the heat, working her arousal higher. “Good omega. Obedient omega.” He breathed against her temple. “Mine.” Another low growl rumbled from his chest. “You will call me Nikolai or Alpha when I am fucking you, omega.”
Panting, she fought to stay lucid. Despite every effort, her body was responding to him, but she had no idea if whatever had been blocking her vision was weakening, too.
“The intruders have entered and are in hallway three,” announced the computer.
In the next moment, she was lifted bridal style and set down on her feet. He jerked his pants to his hips.
“Stay.” He marched toward the door, knuckles cracking.
“Wait.” Her heart slammed in her throat. “I . . . I need a weapon.” It was worth a try.
His fangs flashed. “You have one.” He slammed his chest with his fist. It was such an Alpha declaration. Primitive. Primal. Entitled.
Her traitorous clit throbbed harder.
Then he was gone.
Now was her chance.
She had n
o idea how long whatever had blocked the last vision would remain, or if it would be there the next time.
She grabbed the sheet from the mess on the floor and, folding it high enough to clear her ankles, wrapped it around her and tucked the end between her cleavage.
It seemed to take forever.
Then, she was weeding through the wreckage, tossing disks and papers and pillows aside until she froze.
Yes!
She’d found it. The tool Skolov had used to pull Olan’s tracker from her. She’d need it to remove the one inside her as well as similar trackers from her mother and sister—and the tool was solid enough to slam at someone’s head if she got lucky enough to get a swing in.
Perfect. She yanked it from the heap and made her next plan. She’d head in the other direction than the one the Alpha had taken. She’d locate the emergency escape pod. All shuttles this high tech had one, maybe two.
If she left now and returned to the Lundin compound, she might be able to get to her sister, remove her tracker, and run before her father realized she was no longer in Skolov’s custody. She would figure out how to get to her mother later.
For the first time in forever, she actually had a real chance at getting her sister away from all this.
Energized, Dahlia started forward and then stifled a moan. Her body was so primed, so swollen and wet from Nikolai’s Alpha growl, even that bit of friction was torment.
She’d have to push through.
A roar sounded.
Skolov’s call. Vicious and aggressive. Powerful. The call of the most powerful of Alphas.
The one most suited to breed her. Dominate her. Protect her.
Her knees shook, the instinct to drop and wait for him so strong it hurt to deny it.
She ached to be filled. Fucked.
Listing sideways, she clutched the edge of the desk. She shook her head as if she could shake off the effect.
Still, a voice inside whispered, he’s out there. Fighting. Protecting. Muscles rippling. Fangs on display. Her Alpha. The fiercest of them all.
No. She could not succumb. She could not allow the heat to consume her. She had to escape.
She forced her feet forward.