Page 2 of A Twist of Luck (Shifter City Fated Mates #2)

CHAPTER 2

EMME

“ Y ou have been a burden to me from the day you were born, Emmeline Anders. I wish I’d done exactly what your daddy wanted and tore you from the womb before you took your first breath.”

Tears burned my eyes as Momma spewed venom all over me. I knew better than to openly cry and sob, but today it hurt more than usual. Today I felt it all the way to my exhausted, lonely eight-year-old bones as I cowered in the corner. Momma had never treated me well, but she was extra mean this year with the sneering faces of her pack to back her up.

Alpha Blaine Rogers stepped forward, the entitled alpha of the pack. I feared him the most, with his dark, angry eyes. “Maybe your little princess needs to be taught a proper lesson in obedience, Omega.”

They always called her “omega.” I was fairly sure they didn’t even know her actual name. Or care what it was. The only part they cared about was her being an omega, and I prayed with every part of my being that when my wolf finally appeared, I wasn’t the same designation.

Momma lifted her head and simpered at the big shifter. “What did you have in mind, Alpha?”

Blaine examined me. I was already pressed as hard as my slight frame could go into the corner, but I found myself trying to scoot back further. If his smug smirk was any indication, he enjoyed my fear.

“A reminder she won’t forget, perhaps,” he said, rubbing his chin like one of the villains from the cartoons I snuck into the living room to watch whenever the pack left the house. Crappy old television or not, it was one of my few glimpses of the outside world.

“Whatever my alpha thinks is suitable, I’m happy to agree to.”

Momma popped up on her toes and started to kiss him, and I heard the rumbles and grunts from the rest of the pack as they leaned toward Momma. But no one touched her except Blaine.

“Hewie, grab my hunting blade,” Blaine said when he pulled back from licking Momma’s face. The very sight turned my stomach, and if I’d eaten at all today, I’d have vomited all over the floor. Alphas not only scared me, they were gross.

Hewie, Josiah, and Donnie left the room, and Hewie returned with a giant blade in his hand. It was sheathed in a leather holder that I’d seen clipped to Blaine’s belt more than once. When the entitled alpha took the sheathed blade, he caressed it softly, and then unclipped the loop and pulled the long hunting knife free. The handle was white and carved, and while it looked old, the blade was wickedly sharp.

Warmth trickled between my legs, and I realized I’d peed myself. Again, a lack of food and water had saved me from more than a trickle, but it was enough to send shame cutting through my fear.

My body lurched forward as I held my hands up. “I promise. I promise, Momma,” I screamed. “I won’t ever leave my room without permission again. I won’t sneak food from the pack’s stores. I’m sorry. I was just so hungry.”

She stared down in disgust, before her booted foot shot out and she shoved me back. “You disgusting little shit. You say you’re sorry, and then you do it again.”

Because I’m starving , I wanted to shout again, but I swallowed my anger. I always swallowed my anger.

Hewie left again, apparently uninterested, and Blaine and Momma stepped forward. “Hold her,” Blaine snarled, and all I saw was the glint of a blade as it sliced toward me. “The silver will ensure the little princess remembers this for the rest of her life. Her wolf will be too late to save her.”

“Emmeline! Focus on me, Omega. Focus!”

The roar shook me from the memory, and I sucked in deep breaths, over and over, my mind stuck in the past as I fought to focus on the present. My panic attack tore at me with the force of a tsunami, and I hadn’t even noticed that Blaine Rogers, who’d been standing in front of me minutes ago, was gone from my cell.

After the attack in Golden Claw, I’d woken up here, in what looked like a basement turned prison. Two cells stood on either side of the room, with a large path between them that led up to a set of stairs. From where I was chained, I could not see much more than that.

What I could see though, was the cell across from me.

Furious, unearthly green eyes were locked on my face, as low rumbles filled the room. Slade’s godlike beauty was enough to briefly break through my panic, and I stopped clawing at my face in an attempt to rip those memories free.

But I couldn’t slow my breathing.

I couldn’t halt the fear response.

“Listen to me, Emmeline,” the dragon shifter commanded, his huge body locked down with multiple chains and witch cuffs. “We are going to get out of here. I will not let him hurt you.”

Slade was one of the four alphas who were my scent match and goddess chosen mates. Mates, who thanks to Blaine and those assholes who destroyed my mother, I’d been rejecting from the moment I met them.

I’d rejected them to never end up like mom, who had given away all her power to her alphas. Not that any of my scent matches were remotely like the Rogers pack.

At least not yet.

An omega could share their power when bonded into an alpha pack, and my understanding was that this process would change and corrupt the alphas who received it. For this reason alone, I’d spent most of my life running from the shifter cities so I’d never end up in a pack.

Only to encounter one alpha, who’d changed everything.

He’d dragged me to Golden Claw, where I’d been scented by one of my true mates, and despite my immediate rejection, I’d somehow ended up living with them. Living with and liking most of them. I’d even contemplated, briefly, the possibility of letting myself belong to and with my pack, right around the time Blaine blasted me and Slade off our bikes and dragged us here to his secret lair. It was a timely and painful reminder of what I’d been fighting against all along.

When I’d woken in this basement cell, Blaine had appeared, and I’d found myself screaming into a waking nightmare. Back to the day he’d carved his blade through my back, leaving a thick ropey scar as a forever reminder.

Scars. Pain. Fear.

Small, mewling sobs escaped me as I used my arms to drag myself closer to the wall. My back had been damaged in the initial attack, and my legs still weren’t responding. Slade’s rumbles picked up in intensity, but they sounded muffled as the panic dragged me back under.

The blade sliced into my spine, the scent of metal surrounding me as I screamed and choked on spit. I’d never felt pain so intense, even with all the beatings Momma had given me.

The roar grew louder as I prayed for oblivion. I’d have taken another knife to my body before I chose to experience suppressed trauma exploding from my psyche again.

It consumed me in a black hole of despair.

Heat and roars shattered through the room as the floors and walls rattled; small pebbles of mortar and debris rained down over me.

I gasped when strong arms wrapped around my shoulders, and I fought against the hold until the scent of toasted marshmallow filled me, blending with my chocolate and honey tones. My wolf howled and scraped against the magical bands holding us, wanting to shift closer to her mate, fighting against our restrictions.

Chains clanked as Slade pulled me closer, and as if he’d somehow used magic too, his touch had my hysteria dying down into choked sobs. “Calm,” he murmured, in his low, slightly accented rumble. “Calm yourself, Emmeline. You are not alone. I will not let them harm you.”

Not alone.

That sentiment echoed through my mind, louder than those ghosts of the past.

Slade’s energy was like liquid lava, burning into my skin, but it didn’t bother me. The heat helped to slow the tremors racking my frame, and as he held me I found myself doing exactly as he’d commanded: calming.

I had very little experience with hugs, but I was starting to learn that when they came from my alphas, they were one of the nicest moments of my life. Surrounded by warmth and energy, comforted and content. Especially with Slade, who was coldly aloof most of the time.

Even as the last of my tremors subsided, he never let go, his massive frame protectively shielding me from whatever could enter through the now-broken bars of my cell.

When my tense muscles finally released, I fully collapsed against him, spent and broken. A few soft sobs escaped as I clung to my anchor in the storm. It wasn’t until he reached behind me and tore my chains from the wall—using one hand like they weren’t embedded in four feet of concrete—that I remembered a super important detail about the dragon shifter.

He hated to be touched. Oh shit.

Slade had a strong touch aversion, and while I had no idea what had specifically caused it, I knew it was trauma from his past. The dragon, with his genius computer brain, was cold and formal most of the time, but not today. Today, he’d saved me, and at great personal cost.

Pulling away, I blinked to clear the haze over my vision and see him clearly. His thick black hair was disheveled, blood streaking his throat where the magically enhanced neck band had cut into his skin. I could only assume that happened when he’d torn his own chains from the wall in his cell.

Bands still encased his wrists, waist, and both ankles. These magical bands stopped him from shifting into his beast, but he’d clearly retained enough strength to wrench the chains from the wall.

As Slade adjusted his position, keeping me close, I noticed he still wore his black leather jacket from when we’d taken out the motorbikes. The shirt beneath was torn up, exposing a lot of his bronze skin, and allowing hints of his tattoos to peek through. I swore I saw a realistic jewel-like green eye near his right pec, but I couldn’t make out the rest. At least there were no visible injuries, even though I’d seen him take the brunt of the blast and get blown off his bike.

I’d lost my jacket during the attack, which hurt almost as much as the memories of the past assaulting me. The jacket had been a gift from Kellan.

My beautiful Kellan. He’d be freaking out not knowing if we were okay or not, and I hoped that the rest of our pack didn’t put themselves in danger while they tracked us down.

I had no doubt they would come after us. For the first time in my life, I had a pack, and they would rain down hell on Blaine and co when they got here.

“Slade, are you okay?” I rasped, my voice busted up from all the screaming I’d done. “You’re touching me. You don’t have to make yourself uncomfortable. I’m fine now.”

Despite wanting to remain in his comforting embrace, I tried to scramble away, but my useless legs hindered my progress. I was slower to heal than a regular shifter due to years of suppressing my beast.

“Stop,” he commanded, more bite in his tone. Had I been anyone other than an omega, I wouldn’t have had any choice but to obey this bark of dominance from the strongest alpha in the world. But omegas stood outside the normal dominance hierarchy—one of our lovely superpowers—which made it quite the statement when I chose to obey my alphas.

“I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” I said, voice barely audible.

Slade ignored my feeble attempts to remove myself from his arms. “Rest,” he murmured, still with the single word commands. “I need you at full strength to get out of here. I can’t shift until these chains are removed, and I would be risking your safety if I took on the number of shifters I sense above us. We must plan and heal, Emmeline. I will hold you until you can hold yourself.”

My stomach whirled and flipped at those words, along with the overwhelming sensation of being held by Slade. Until this moment, I’d never so much as grazed his skin, and now his near seven-foot frame was wrapped around me, binding all my shattered pieces together.

Just five more minutes, I told myself, soaking in the comfort of not being alone in a house of alphas who starred center stage in my worst nightmares.

“All along,” I mumbled, half delirious, “I thought I was hiding from my pack. From what would happen if I ever bonded.”

A deep, reverberating sound echoed from Slade’s chest. “Who were you really hiding from? Who are these alphas who took us?”

“My mom’s old pack,” I said as the edge of my vision darkened, pure exhaustion tugging at my consciousness. Every part of me was in danger, but here in Slade’s arms I could forget about it for five minutes. For five minutes, I was safe.