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“You’ll stay in my bedroom,” I told her, flipping the lights on. She didn’t acknowledge anything I said. She stopped being responsive in Costa Rica. I guided her to lie on my bed, and she followed my lead. “Do you need anything?”

Tears pooled in her eyes and fell down her face. At least it was something, I guess. Enough to let me know she was still in there. I wiped the tears away and tried to ignore the way it ripped at my own sense of wellbeing.

I kissed her forehead and left, then headed to the living room, unwilling to watch her agony any further. I rubbed my eyes, and when I opened them, there wasn’t anything better in the living room.

Kadeem was covered in bandages that were still seeping blood. He should have healed by now. Those burns were deep.

He stared into my bedroom with a serious expression as he toyed with a gold chain in his hands. I left the safe house, needing the fresh air. Anger that had been trained out of me welled in my chest.

You’re the alpha. They need you to hold them together.

No. They needed the conniving fuckers who did this to pay.

No, you can’t leave them vulnerable. Stay calm.

They won’t be vulnerable if there is nothing threatening them anymore.

Shit, what was this? It was like being an alpha times a thousand. The intense protective instinct was smothering all my training and strangling common sense. I punched the concrete wall as I walked past, hoping the pain of my knuckles breaking would slice through the insanity quickly building.

Protect your pack.

Protect your pack.

Even when the instincts agreed, they were at odds with each other.

***

I stomped through the perfect marble halls of the celestial villa, taking a straight shot to the main den. The rage I’d held together finally seeped through my control. Death and destruction itched under my skin.

I needed to take action. No one was allowed to think they could send my team to their deaths. No one could almost kill my best friend and hurt his kind heart. No one could shatter my omega like that and get away with it.

Nadine ‘the golden’ would no longer think she was immune to the blowback from her actions. I didn’t give any fucks about why she did what she did. It didn’t matter.

A snarl ripped through my chest as I took a corner. The giant gold door of her den was guarded by two wolves. She was so arrogant to think no one would come after her. How long had this bitch gotten away with this shit? How many centuries?

Not any more.

The two wolves waved at me. “Hey there, Morales.”

“She’s expecting my report,” I lied.

They opened the door, not questioning my presence, but when I stepped through, the perfect pristine woman sitting at the end of the table turned whiter than a ghost. Her golden eyes, that were so much like Astria’s, went wide. Her bright blonde hair bounced around her as she jerked in her chair.

I ignored the five alphas sitting in their chairs around her. She craved my attention so much, but I never pandered to her like the others. Now she had it. I only had eyes for her.

The door behind me closed, but I stayed locked in our staring contest. The tremble on her lips told me she understood the shit she was in.

She gave a sweet, bubbly laugh, but couldn’t hide the discomfort in her voice. “There is my favorite–”

“Save the bullshit, Nadine.”

“Lower Alpha Morales, watch your tongue and kneel,” a higher Alpha, her right-hand man, Charles Swanson, commanded. But his dominance was nothing. It meant nothing to me. It hadn’t been like that before I left.

Probably because I wasn’t Nadine’s lower alpha anymore. I was a high alpha for Astria. I stared C. Swanson in the eyes as I stepped forward, wanting him to know exactly how little his command affected me.

Recognition filled Nadine’s eyes, and she jumped back. “Stay there.”

“I’m going to rip your fucking trachea out, you selfish bitch.” Before I could take another step, one of my alphas jumped into action.

Ji Kim was one of the most powerful wolves I ever met, and he’d been the one who taught me how to be the man I became. I’d hoped he wouldn’t be here, but I was also mentally ready to tear right through him if I needed to. Anything for her.

Amazing how a few days ago I would have never seen myself doing any of this. She woke up something inside me that was ready to scorch the earth in her name.

Kim snarled, putting his full force as an alpha behind it. It rattled me, but I wasn’t sure how much of that was my faith and respect in him and what was his dominance. It might have slowed me down, but it didn’t stop me.

I wasn’t going to fight him. I’d lose. I had no intention of losing anymore. There was no way to beat an alpha who had two millennia of experience and taught me everything I knew. So I shifted and leaped around him. Jumping on the table and running right for her.

She screamed and fell back onto the ground when she failed to scramble away. Good. She should know the terror my celestial knew.

“Sit down,” the command was familiar and there was no fighting it. I laid down in submission before my legs stopped running, so I slid across the food on the table. Raj Ahmed came into view with disappointment in his eyes, and it was like being a cock happy pup again, fucking up.

That pointed look put some sanity back on me, and I realized what I was doing. If I died, Astria would be left wide open and vulnerable. Even if I killed Nadine, I wasn’t getting out of here. I’d be killed by the thousands of wolves who worshiped her. What was I thinking?

“Don’t move, Dirus,” Ahmed told me. His brown eyes seared me, and I averted my gaze. I earned every ounce of his disappointment.

“He threatened our omega,” C. Swanson yelled. “Put that mutt down. Now.”

Ahmed and Kim stared at each other, an entire conversation happening, and I knew they would get me out of this mess I let my impulses get me into. I wouldn’t get out of this based on my skill or merit. No. My daddies were going to make this disappear.

Fuck. I really was acting like a pup.

“That’s a bit rash, don’t you think?” Ahmed said in that calm voice he used when he was about to slick talk his way out of something. “The pup is clearly in distress.”

“When was his last psych evaluation?” Kim asked, but he didn’t wait for an answer. He gave a haughty grin to Swanson. “Oh, that’s right. You overrode my rule about requiring them after every mission. So it’s been a year.”

“That was unwise,” Ahmed casually agreed, scratching at his beard as if he were thinking it over.

“When I had full control of our soldier’s schedules, nothing like this happened.” Leave it to Kim to find a way to squeeze in an ‘I told you so.’ “You had me dispatch him on five back-to-back missions, one of which was six months long, with no break or evaluation. Now one of our best alphas has snapped under the pressure of his responsibilities.”

“You’re saying this is my fault?” Swanson snarled.

“Of course, you moron,” Kim snorted.

Ahmed chuckled to slice through the tension. “Now, gentlemen. Pointing fingers at each other won’t help this poor pup.”

Fuck me. Poor pup. I snorted and went limp on the table. Whatever. If I could make it back to my celestial and regroup, I had to go with it.

Ahmed shot me an icy glare that said to shut up and play nice.

“Explain yourself, alpha,” a different high alpha said, obviously biting on what Kim and Ahmed were putting down.

My eyes found Nadine creeping close and glaring at me with those hateful eyes of hers. The warning was clear. Don’t say a fucking thing about the celestial.

I shifted and turned to press my forehead to the table. If I mentioned her, they would have to protect her. But they’d ‘protected’ the others, and they all died. This pack was still Nadine’s, it was her people. Kadeem was right. She didn’t need to be here.

They didn’t even need to know she existed. Maybe that would also keep Nadine at bay, too. Ahmed was a perfect example of playing the game. He played the loyal high alpha, but he also hated her. Maybe it was time to take another page from his play book.

“I lost most of my team,” I admitted. “I need to cool off and think.”

All of that was true, at least. Maybe I’d score some points for honesty.

“Wallace?” Kim asked with a thread of worry in his voice.

“Alive,” I answered. “Barely.”

“We need the debrief,” Nadine spoke up.

“Not now,” Kim told her. “He’s got to get his head on straight before he can tell us what happened. Get up. pup, I’ll take you home.”

He tapped my head, and I leaned back to make sure the alpha that put me belly down in the first place approved. Ahmed nodded his chin, and I jumped to my feet. The other alphas crowded around Nadine.

“Don’t worry. She gets to live another day.” At least until I could find a way to kill her, that wouldn’t kill me or my celestial in the process. Maybe if I brought Astria the tongue and hands that were responsible for this mess, I could see a little life back in my Starshine’s eyes.

“Stop talking,” Kim growled under his breath, and grabbed the back of my neck, like he’d done so many times before. Granted, it’s been a long time since he needed to. “Act like you have some fucking sense. I taught you better than this. Stupid, pup.”

“I expect to see you later.” Nadine sneered at me. Easy to do when you had a bunch of wolves protecting you. She wasn’t so fucking ballsy when I barreled in here. She would never be half the omega Astria was.

“I don’t take my orders from you anymore, Nadine.” I walked toward the door. “Don’t worry, we aren’t done yet. I’ll be back for you.”

This was far from over.

“One more veiled threat and I will shoot you between the eyes. Do you understand me, pup?” Kim snarled.

I’m sure it sounded like he was taking Nadine’s side, but I knew Kim. He said it and he meant it. But not the way the other alphas thought. He’d do it as a mercy, so the others couldn’t make an example out of me.

“Yes, Sir.”

At least until things shifted in my favor.

To be continued…