Page 18 of Fall of the Alpha

18

OMEGA VS BETA

Alek

Watching Cora question Redmond, Alek struggled to focus. His mind kept wandering to the Zones. Thinking about his father. Thinking about everyone he’d ever met. If Redmond spied for his father, who else had?

Kenet?

Liana?

Was there anyone he could trust?

Bella. Probably. If she was Paldon’s secret daughter, she was an unlikely spy. She’d be too important.

As much as he didn’t want to think that Kenet or Liana could be like Redmond, he couldn’t be sure. Once again, it felt like his entire world had been turned on its head.

“Please, that’s all I know. Just get her off me.” Redmond’s voice had turned pleading. He was red-faced, sweating so much that it had turned the fabric of his shirt damp, and he looked close to passing out. Aria giggled and squirmed again.

Before Cora could answer, the door slid open, and the Wolf strode in.

Alek went rigid.

The big male was alone, and he looked exactly the same as he had when Alek had first met him. His jade gaze swept the room, lingering on Alek for almost a moment, but the change in his expression was too fleeting to interpret. There had been some reaction to Alek’s presence, though, and remembering what Cora and Trace had told him, he could not help but tense.

He did not think they would allow the Wolf to harm him, not after the past few days, yet he did not feel entirely secure. He was also resisting the urge to demand to know where Bella was.

“Oh, good, you’re here.” Cora looked the Wolf up and down. “Do you have any questions for our guest?”

The Wolf snorted, presumably at her use of the word ‘guest’ to describe Redmond. He looked the Beta up and down coldly, absolute ice in his eyes.

“No, you can fill me in later.” The Wolf prowled closer to Redmond, jerking his head at Aria, who immediately scrambled off the male’s lap and bolted to Alek’s side. He put his arm around her instinctively, even though the Wolf wasn’t paying attention to her. His focus was entirely narrowed in on Redmond, and as he got closer to the Beta, the male’s red face paled in a sickly manner, and his eyes widened.

There was something incredibly intimidating about the Wolf. An edge of madness that Cora and Trace did not have.

Because he lost his mate?

Alek didn’t know.

But even Redmond sensed the difference. He might have been intimidated by Trace and Cora, scared of them even, but he was terrified of the Wolf. He planted his feet on the floor, trying to scoot his chair back, but the Wolf crouched down, his hand snapping out and grabbing hold of the chair leg. He pulled Redmond closer.

He was big enough that even crouched, he was on eye level with Redmond, and the Beta whimpered.

“You are going to send a message to Grigori for me.” There was a snarl threaded through each of the Wolf’s words, separate from the gravel of his voice, which made Alek shudder, even though it wasn’t directed at him. Aria squeaked and buried her face in Alek’s side at the sound. Redmond looked like he was about to piss himself. Only Trace and Cora seemed unaffected, but Alek couldn’t tell if they were actually so or just very good at covering it.

“I-I-I…” Redmond stammered, then whimpered again as the wood of the chair he was sitting on creaked.

“You are going to send a message. Then if I see you in my territory again, I will rip you apart myself. Do you understand?”

Redmond nodded frantically.

Bella

This time, when she woke up, she was alone.

No, not alone.

There was a female sitting beside the bed. A small one with long, very pale blonde hair and wide blue eyes.

“Hello again,” she said softly.

Bella blinked in surprise. Trish. That was her name. The little Omega who had been taken at the same time as her and Alek. The one the Wolf had called Jordan’s mate.

To her shame, Bella had almost forgotten about her.

Then again, she had hardly been in her right mind the past few days.

“Hello.” Bella sat up, very aware of her nudity. Pulling a sheet up to cover her, she bent her knees to curl into a little ball. “What are you doing here?”

It was the only thing she could think of to say. Because what was there to say when waking up in a nest full of… Bella didn’t want to think about it.

“I’m here to help you. Jordan is in the front room.” Trish’s gaze flicked to the door separating the rooms. “He thought it might be better if you woke up with just me in the room.”

She got the impression Trish was warning her against trying to run. Not that Bella would at the moment. She had no idea where she would run to. She also wasn’t sure she could run. All of her muscles still felt watery. The soreness between her legs had not subsided. Thinking about the reason made her flush.

“It’s okay. I’ve been through my heat, too.” Trish blushed and looked down at the ground before lifting her gaze again to meet Bella’s eyes. “I think that’s why they thought you might be more comfortable with me.”

Because they were in similar situations.

“What am I supposed to do?” The question came out a little shrill, but her tone didn’t seem to bother Trish.

The other Omega gave her a half-hearted smile.

“Well, for now, bathe. Eat. Drink. The bathing room is over there.” She pointed at one of the doors. Bella had known that already, but Trish couldn’t have known that she knew. “I’ll tell Jordan you’re awake.”

“Do you have to?” Bella suppressed a shiver. After the Wolf, Jordan was not quite as scary as before, but that didn’t mean she wanted to see him again.

“Yes.” Trish shot her a sympathetic look but didn’t back down. “Go. Get clean. You’ll feel better.” She looked away, dropping her head and muttering under her breath. “At least you’ll get to do it alone.”

Despite the softness of her complaint, Bella still heard it. She pressed her lips together. Jordan must not have let Trish bathe alone. She didn’t know how to feel about that.

Part of her was relieved she could be on her own for precious minutes… another part of her felt odd about knowing that Jordan had bathed Trish, but the Wolf had left Bella alone.

The odd feeling solidified.

Envy.

Surely not.

She pushed the emotions away, concentrating on her relief that he was not here.

Because she did not want him here.

She did not want to be here.

Everything had gone horribly wrong, and it was absolute insanity to feel anything but relief that he was not here this time when she woke up, that she would be able to bathe alone.

“Thank you,” Bella said softly, then headed into the bathing room, the sheet still wrapped around her. There was a mirror in there, which she’d noticed before but had not taken the time to look in. She had not cared about anything but the Wolf and how good he smelled. How much she’d wanted him. Needed him.

Closing her eyes, she shuddered as the memories wracked her for a long moment, then she took a deep breath and returned to the present. Dropping the sheet, she stared at herself in the mirror. Her dark hair was nearly as wild as the look in her eyes.

Her body was covered with marks. Bites that did not include any teeth, mostly on her breasts, but also on her hips and thighs. Her nipples looked darker than normal, as did the color of her pussy lips—at least from what she remembered. Or maybe she was imagining it because she knew of the attention they’d received over the past few days.

Turning, she could see several marks on her bottom as well.

When she lifted her hair, there was one on her neck.

The worst part was part of her liked looking at them.

Part of her felt a sense of satisfaction at seeing his marks all over her.

Part of me is sick in the head.

She knew she shouldn’t like any of this. Logically, she knew that. Yet that didn’t stop the emotions that surged when she looked at herself.

Bella turned away from the mirror.

The best solution for right now was not to look at herself again.

She ran some water. It came out hot. When she began to scrub, she had to stifle her regret that she was scrubbing off his scent. His touch. The lingering evidence of the Wolf.

The marks are still there.

When she got out, she had to ignore the little thrill of elation when she realized some of his scent still lingered, despite all her scrubbing. When she got back to the Zones, she would tell her father she needed to see a mentalist, someone to help her get past all these ridiculous thoughts and feelings that were popping up.

Maybe just being back on the suppressors would help.

The thought gave her no joy.