Page 10

His lips are full, with a thick scar running from his left eye to his right chin, overlapping his sneer.

On his left cheek, there’s a matching, smaller scar that forms an uneven X.

I imagine he’s just as scared as Leo underneath his clothing, but I catch a glimpse of black ink on his wrists. Maybe he’s tattooed all over them.

Raphael can feel me staring, electric blue eyes snapping to my face, slightly upturned, just like a fox. He tips his head back, glaring down at me, an inch or two taller than Leo, and he’s a giant at six-feet something, all lean muscle.

“Look who’s awake, all hot and bothered. Tell me, Leo, does she have a tight cunt, no manners, and a smart mouth like all Wilder women? Or did you wait, so we can all find out together?”

Leo growls, and this one is lower, darker. I flinch away from both of them as they get chest to chest and nose to nose like they’re about to brawl. Over what? Me? Ridiculous! What, is Leo going to kill for my honor before he ultimately finds out if I’m like “all Wilder women,” apparently.

“Who the fuck are you growling at,” Raphael growls back. “I am your pack leader when Nakoa is away. “Back off, or I’ll tell him you’ve disobeyed rank over this bitch!”

Three? Are there three of them in Leo’s pack?

For some reason, that scares me more than the other alphas and betas surrounding me.

Leo can leap like a wild animal, with the aim of an apex predator, and Raphael can bend fucking metal.

What in the world can this mysterious third alpha do that would make them defer to him?

To command the respect and loyalty of an island full of lunatics?

But to my surprise, and apparently Raphael’s, who goes slack-jawed, Leo doesn’t back down.

“Shut the hell up! You’re scaring her. And no, I was patient. I want to claim her, together. She’s ours, Raphael. Can’t you smell it, don’t you feel it in your bones? How was she born to be with us?”

He laughs in Leo’s face, and the sound is so bitter it makes my tongue prickle, like I’m tasting dark chocolate.

“You’re insane. This bitch really has done a number on your head,” Raphael murmurs, refusing to look at me, like I’m a piece of trash that can be dismissed when his pack mate kidnapped me!

“You–” Leo is cut off, dropping his mask as he steps forward to grab Raphael by the collar, his bare chest plastered against the slightly taller, but obviously higher-ranked, alpha.

And why, despite everything, is Raphael’s presence oddly comforting, even if this scentless alpha wields murderous intent?

“ Grace Wilder, ” Raphael grunts, ignoring the hand fisting his shirt with a sickeningly sweet grin, like he’s imagining all the ways he’ll break me. “To think you’d come to me.”

How is this new mutant bastard? And again, how does he know me?

I don’t need to know how strong he is to understand this new alpha is more lethal than Leo with his bare hands, and that’s saying something.

Somehow, he also makes omega sound more like a slur, more hurtful than calling me a bitch.

I flinch away like I’ve been slapped and go back to being a tightly wound ball in the corner.

I’d rather the ghost get me before I let Raphael get his hand on me.

Raphael frowns, and Leo smiles at me. I’ve done something to piss him off, and make Leo proud, but I don’t know what.

“You’re scaring her; leave her alone and cool down,” Leo says in a measured tone, stepping protectively towards my cage to block me from Raphael, apparently. The same cage he locked me inside. Hypocrite!

It’s for your protection.

I suddenly hear my father’s voice in my mind, and chuckle to myself. Maybe he’ll use the same excuse, for my protection. Either way, I was robbed of a choice. But I’d rather have my alphas than this new guy. Something looks even more off about him.

My alphas? Get a grip, bitch! These men are your enemies, just like the rest.

“Enough, Raphael! Leo! Back down,” A gravely booming voice fills the room, and everyone is at attention.

Suddenly, the betas drop to the floor and drop their heads in submission like an omega would.

The alphas take a knee, including Leo. Curiously, Raphael remains standing, but he’s stiffer like a solider at attention.

And I also notice his chin tuck in just a tad, his eyes burning with rage and another emotion I can’t decipher quite yet.

I crane my sore neck towards the entrance.

There stands one of the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen, and Leo and Raphael aren’t exactly hard on the eyes despite being lunatics.

He’s tall, maybe six feet two inches or three, so a few inches taller than Leo and Raphael.

He has the same midnight colored hair as his second in command, but a streak of gray runs through his bangs, compliment his amber brown skin.

Swirling, solid black tattoos with sharp edges cover his arm, chest, legs, and calves, the intricate patterns telling a story I can’t make sense of.

This alpha’s hair is shorter in the front and wild in the back; loose spikes and curls cling to his nape.

He resembles a wolf more than his black fox mask lets on from the cut.

He marches forward, flanked by two men wearing gas masks and matching suits.

Strangely enough, this pack leader–for it’s undeniable what he is–is naked!

I gasp as he walks closer, his thick, meaty cock at half-mast between his legs.

I rip my eyes away but can only take in more of his magnificent, bronze body.

When he stops at my cage, he removes his masks, and I’m stunned by his onyx gaze flecked with silver that resembles the stars.

And when he leans down, the colors shifts to a stormy gray that seems unnatural.

The tips of his eyelids tilt upward, giving him an animalistic appearance.

He’s handsome, older, but still far too young to be going gray.

But maybe that’s what happens to pack leaders in a tropical hellhole disguised as paradise.

They start to go gray from stress in their late twenties, or early thirties, since I don’t peg him as much older.

“Nakoa, this is her, our mate,” Leo says, rising from his kneeling position to his full height at the faintest flick of his leader’s fingertips like an obedient pack mate.

Leo and obediently in the same sentence seems like an oxymoron as he comes closer, smiling down at me like I’m someone precious to him and not a pussy in heat he’s desperate to fuck.

Suddenly, Nakoa grins at me too, sporting white teeth and enlarged canines like the rest of his pack.

However, instead of being comforted by the display of friendliness, I fear that charming smile hides his deadly intentions.

“So this is her…” he murmurs, sending a jolt of electricity racing down my spine.

He’s not purposely using pheromone manipulation. I know what that feels like for sure. But somehow, his presence is having the same effect on me. And to my absolute shame, I’m dripping wet!

Nakoa seems to notice, lust overtaking his serene expression, “A beautiful woman, even under all that dirt and grime. Good job saving her, Leo. Though I don’t appreciate you trying to hide her from us.”

Leo demurs, and I let out a woosh of air. Saved her? So he’s the one who patched me up? And if he hid me, I guess my assumption was correct that I was out for days, maybe even weeks.

Shit, shit, shit!

Apex alpha is just a more powerful variant of our basic biology. Freaks of nature, if you want to be cruel about it. And, out here, genetically disposed to rule, unlike the false birthright of kings.

Nakoa is their king. And I’m his captive, I think, taking a slow, steadying break and standing back up, hoping against all odds he’ll see reason and not…

Not to do what? The worst things imaginable because he’ll suddenly grow a conscience for an omega he doesn’t know over the desires of his pack? Who’s going to stop him? Didn’t I always accuse Faith of being a hopeless optimist?

I shake away my defeatist thoughts, and I fight the urge to kneel.

I resist the surge of submission that courses through my blood.

It’s not like what happened to me with Raphael, where some primordial instinct reacts from raw fear.

This is like the first time I presented as an omega, where the slightest hint of pheromones in the air and an order would make me buckle. But only ten times worse.

Apex alpha. He feels stronger, wilder, than any alpha I’ve ever seen, despite that mask of composure. This nightmare just keeps getting worse and worse, and I can’t seem to figure out how to wake up.

Stomping feet and clinging transform into a chant of, “Hunt! Hunt! Rabbit, hunt!”

I reach up to grasp my forgotten mask, getting used to the foreign object plastered to my face quicker than I imagined I would.

Oh shit. Are they going to set me free only to hunt me down and eat me?

I get my answer right away, as Nakoa leans in, reaches out, and snatches my chin before I can move away. We stand there, eye to eye, and I’m forced on my tippy toes as he cracks the smallest of smiles. And for the first time, my skin crawls.

“No,” he says forcibly, suddenly flashing all his teeth that, for a second, I mistake as gangs. “This omega belongs to me. She belongs to Raphael, Leo, and me.”

There’s a roar, and then the cheering turns to chanting so loud the warehouse seems to shake.

“We celebrate, as tradition calls for., and soon, our whole pack goes hunting for a mate”.

“Oh hell no,” I say out loud by mistake as my cage clicks open and I’m dragged out against my will by the same man who locked me up.