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CHAPTER FOUR

LEO

I crave the chase. I live for the hunt. Most of all, I find ecstasy with each kill, be they animals or men.

Alphas or betas, it’s never mattered to me, that petty distinction.

Because only the strong survive on Providence.

I’ve seen many a beta put up a better fight when confronted with their imminent death, because they tend to be less cocky.

And now I know omegas are just the same.

“Haah! Haah!” I pause mid-swing, dangling from a branch as I listen to my mate’s exhausted panting. The hunt is all I used to crave before I met her. But now I seek a better prize, and a higher high.

I had come to believe my destiny was to rule Providence alongside my pack.

That is, until the giant metal bird, the airplane, our pack leader had taught me about long ago when I was a child, fell from the sky.

And out of the churning ocean, a goddess crawled onto the beach in a little black dress, her wavy brown hair matted with seaweed and shells.

She resembled a mermaid from the fairytale books still left in the crumbling library in the city, and then a woodland spirit as she curled inside the trunk of the tree I found her in.

I hold in a shuddering breath as I swing through the trees now, chasing her, hunting her, but not to kill.

No. She’s mine. She’s ours. I can feel it deep within, inside the hole where my soul should be.

But first, I have to take the fight out of her and pin her down before Raphael and Nakoa get to her and break her.

Raphael will take pleasure in the act. As for our apex alpha, Nakoa?

Well, he won’t be able to help himself if she comes to him so proud.

They won’t be so kind as I will be with her when they discover the truth.

They won’t be gentle with her wounds and injuries, which she’s making worse by hobbling through the woods.

Wounds I took days to tend to, patiently, murdering anyone who dared get too close as she rested and rode out the peak of her heat.

W. I. L. D. E. R. Comma. I. N. C.

I had to spell the message out on the side of the plane, going on a short adventure to locate what remained of it to recover what I could for my omega’s new nest. I figured she’d want things from the mainland to make her new home feel like her old one.

It’s hard for me to read. But I do good when I take my time.

And by the time I figured it out, she’d slipped back into the woods when I returned.

My stupid fucking curiosity took me away just long enough for my omega to get into trouble. I lick my lips.

She’s a fierce little thing, isn’t she, my pack princess to be?

A shudder of lust races down my spine at the thought of her raising that rock with murder in her heart.

I took too long mutilating the first two bastards after they died, so long she got attacked again.

But that first scrawny alpha wolf deserved it for touching what’s ours.

How dare he turn her beautiful tropical scent into something so sour, her slick like salt, rather than the sugary scent that drove me mad for that long, hard week I was standing watch.

I killed three wolves too many, only to still have to chase her down. And now I don’t have time to bring my omega back to our hiding spot. I have no choice. I have to drive her into the center of town.

“Arwoooaah!” With a howl, I drop low enough to scare her and change her direction from the lighthouse to the path leading to the warehouse instead.

Her black dress clings to her body like a second skin, and all I want to do is rip it off and bury my face between her legs.

I should’ve dressed her after I took her into the springs the first night, to wash her off.

But if I couldn’t touch my omega, I wanted to watch, using her dress as a pillow and the forest floor as her bed.

How many times did I empty my sack to the rise and fall of her full breasts?

To the scent of her slick-scented thighs.

How many times did my lips hover dangerously close to the pink petals of her bow-shaped lips as I soaked in her pheromones?

Too many times. My resolve almost broke.

But I knew she had to be stronger to survive not only my first rut, but also the island.

Even betas must be stronger than alphas here.

Even with my pack by my side, there was no way my omega would be safe until she could stand on her own two feet, and until she healed.

And run like this, I think, as I can’t deny anymore that she is running. Maybe I gave her too much time to heal, but it fills me with pride to see how resolved she is to fight the way a wise person does when they’re weaker, by running and hiding from the threat.

A smile tugs on my lips at that because soon, she’ll never have to run again.

She can always hold her head high among the pack.

I’ll be her shelter, her protector, and her ultimate enforcer to cement her rule.

She won’t have to fight anymore or get her pretty hands dirty.

Her brown eyes will one day light up with something not laced with fear.

And, oh, her voice I’ve longed to hear will one day call me “my alpha” instead of only whimpering the names of people I’ve never seen and will never meet in her feverish dreams.

I can’t wait until I learn her name, and she knows mine, so she can scream for me in that heavenly voice until I’m drained.

What sound will she make when I wrap my hands around her pretty neck while she’s strangling my cock with her pussy I’ve fucked in my dreams night after night?

I’ll mark her and breed her hard, bury my knot deep inside my omega until she swells with my seed.

I can’t wait to hear the music she’ll make with me.

“Haaah!” I hear her gasp, and it hurts me to hear that she’s hurting.

It’s time to end this moonlit chase. The sun will rise soon enough, and she might break her ankle at the pace she’s going. She’s loud and clumsy. She’s not used to hunting. But the animals and alphas of this forest are.

Thankfully, she’s close to our fortress.

She’s so close to being under our protection.

Does she know she ran straight into our arms?

Does she feel the same invisible pull? I don’t know; I’ll ask her soon.

But first, we have to make sure every alpha and beta on this forsaken rock knows that she is ours.

We rule the South Shore. Crown princes of this feral mayhem, we call the Island. It’s about time my long-suffering pack found their omega princess and future pack queen to rule beside us.