Chapter 3

My bones shake with fear, but I place my body between the behemoth and the hideaway. I’ll protect my brothers until my last breath, even though this alpha has already proven himself more cunning and diabolical than my father.

I pull the torn halves of my shirt closed over my breasts, swallow the lump in my throat, and call out through the thin metal.

“Open the panel, Sail. Bring Reef. Hold his hand and don’t let go.”

I don’t hide the tightness in my voice. Neither will benefit from false promises.

Metal scrapes against metal before my brothers tiptoe out of the space. I shift my weight, hiding them from view as much as I can with my body.

The Battleshipsnarls and grabs me by the nape. I stumble forward as he yanks me across the kitchen. When I find my footing, I lash out, but he pins my back to his front with a bloody arm wrapped around my midsection.

He shifts his hand from my nape to my face, forcing me to watch as my father pulls himself to his feet using the faded and broken couch.

Fissures of electricity streak down my spine as he leans down and growls in my ear. Damning wetness seeps into my panties.

“Call them closer. Tell them not to look away.” Ice seeps into my heart. “You’ll all die with him today if they don’t watch.”

“Please, don’t do this. They’re too young,” I whisper through numb lips.

Shock and confusion run through me as my captor releases my waist and wraps my fingers around the hilt of a knife. Not my pathetic kitchen knife. The grip is thicker. Smoother. Heavier.

I swallow.

“I’m not doing anything, kitten. You are.” With his massive hand engulfing mine, he guides the knife out of his hip holster and lifts my arm to show me the long, serrated blade. “Kill him slowly.” He trails his fingertips down my forearm before skimming them across my abdomen. “Make it hurt.”

His words cater to my raging omega instincts, but I grind my teeth and swallow again.

He loosens his grip on my face and trails his digits down my throat. Heat rages through my veins as he draws designs over my collarbone.

My father’s hate-filled eyes fill my vision.

“He’s hurt you for a long time, hasn’t he, kitten?” The Battleship’s tongue flicks over the top of my ear. “You hate him so much, don’t you?”

I do. My father stands before me, beaten bloody by the alpha behind me, and for the first time in my life, I might have a chance at retribution. Red hazes the edges of my vision. I want what this devil offers, even if it means giving him parts of me I never wanted to lose.

My insides clench as The Battleship flexes his massive arm around my stomach. “Don’t hold back. Show him how pathetic he is.” His breath ghosts over my ear and delicious pheromones sneak into my nostrils as he dips his fingertips lower on my sternum. The flesh exposed by my torn shirt tingles in anticipation. My nipples harden. “Steal his last breath from him, just like how he stole your mother from you.” The Battleship releases me and gives my ass a parting pat before stepping to the side.

My father’s swollen eyes widen in disbelief as he works through the alpha’s words.

Torn between lust, terror, and hate, I hesitate. The Battleship props his ass on the counter and gives my brothers a pointed look as he crosses his arms over his chest. Sail pulls Reef closer to his side. Reef hugs his doll and stares at me with wide, terrified blue eyes.

My father chuckles and hacks another wad of spit onto the floor. I stare at the splatters of blood on Reef’s blocks and step forward.

“Don’t look away, boys,” I whisper through numb lips.

No matter how many times I’ve fantasized about killing my father, I never thought it would happen. He’s always been too big. Too scary. Too strong.

But next to The Battleship, he seems puny. Diminished. Old and worn out.

My heart cries for my mother. She suffered so much underneath this horrible, unworthy male.

I tighten my grip on the knife and step forward.

My father scoffs and shakes his head, but his stench gives away his fear.

“You don’t have the guts, or you’d have killed me years ago,” he hisses and spits again.

“You never looked this pathetic before,” I say through the buffer of bloodlust, “and I never had a knife like this one, either.”

I lift the blade and take another calculated step toward him.

He lunges at me, but I drop and slash the knife across his shins. He screams and catches himself on his knees.

I punch the serrated blade into his belly button and use both hands to jerk it sideways. His entrails splatter over my side as I roll out of the way.

“What’s that about guts?” I ask as I bury my weapon in his shoulder.

His garbled scream feeds my rage. I yank the knife free, find my feet, and loom over him.

“It looks like you had more than enough guts for both of us,” I say from the far side of a tunnel.

With one arm limp at his side, he scoops his entrails off the floor and shoves them back into his gaping abdomen, but they fall back to the floor with squishy plops.

Bile climbs my throat, but memories rush through me as he turns pathetic eyes up to me.

My mother always begged him to stop. He never listened.

He opens his mouth to speak. I swing. A crimson smile replaces his lips. Blood gushes down his chin and throat. He falls back. His heels kick along the floor as he chokes on his own blood.

Massive boots frame his head. The Battleship squats, fists my father’s hair, and forces him to meet my eyes.

“You’re a failure, Gordon. You’re nothing. Killed by the daughter you could never tame,” he growls before twisting his grip and aiming my father’s face toward my brothers. “You’re pathetic, even in the eyes of your runts.”

As the light fades from my sire’s eyes, The Battleship twists his fingers and smirks down at him.

“And it’s all because of me. I hope you writhe in Hell knowing I’m enjoying the spoils of war. You couldn’t break them, but I will. They’re mine now. All mine. Bonded through your death.”

His words pierce through me.

Fear fills me. Deeper than the horror my father orchestrated throughout the years, the terror wells up from the inner recesses of my soul.

My father lashed out at those weaker than him because he felt it was his right.

The Battleshipuses more than brute strength to get what he wants, making him far more dangerous than my father. In only a few minutes, he’s played mind games and used me in ways my father couldn’t in over two decades.

He made a promise with a dying man, and the cold ruthlessness in his gaze tells me he won’t break his promise. Ever.

He stated what he wants. Me and my brothers.

Claiming me makes sense, since I’m an omega. Alphas murder entire civilizations for omegas.

But he included my brothers in his promise.

Sticky blood drips from the blade in my hand and lands in the growing puddle at my feet.

I lunge forward, aiming the tip of the knife toward The Battleship’s jugular, but he moves faster than someone so large should be capable. He grabs my wrist and alters my trajectory. The blade sinks into my father’s chest. Thick fingers weave into my hair and hold my head down. I stare into my father’s empty gaze.

Vomit spews from my mouth without warning.

He peels my digits off the hilt and lifts me into the air.

Unmoored and filled with fresh horror as my mind replays the last few minutes, I fight the arms around me until two innocent faces blip through my vision. I freeze.

With my nails embedded in his forearms and my heels bopping against his shins, my captor stands a few feet away from my brothers.

“They were such good, obedient boys. Are you going to destroy their efforts, kitten?”

His deep rumble infects my chest.

“Don’t hurt them,” I plead.

I can’t manage saying more without damning myself. I long to sink my nails into his eyes and rip his wicked tongue from his mouth, but he holds my brothers’ fate in his massive hands.

“What should I do with them, then?” he asks.

I shake my head and carefully extract my nails from his arms.

“Let me go to them,” I whisper.

After a tense moment of silence, the devil trapping me against his chest scoffs and shakes his head. With a flick of his wrist, he calls his minions forward.

I fight, but he throws me over his shoulder and stalks from the room.

“Take the boys to the ward,” he instructs.

Relief blips through me over his decision to not kill them, but worry washes it away.

Little feet shuffle further into the kitchen and Reef’s terrified cries follow me as the gigantic alpha stomps into the hall.

I pummel his back with my fists, but he pays me no mind, and no one dares stop him as he stalks through the maze of metal. I scream and curse. Bite and scratch. Pull his crimson-matted curly hair. Elbow his spine. Kick my toes into his stomach.

He steps into blinding sunlight, carrying me away from everything I’ve ever known. The blood flowing down his other side catches my attention.

I jab my fingers into his wound.

Blinding pain jolts through my backside. He spanks me again before jumping onto the railing.

“Be still, kitten, or you might never see your brothers again.”

Waves crash far below us. He steps down onto a narrow bridge made of a mishmash of grates and scrap metal.

I ball my fists against his lower back and force myself to be still as he crosses from one ship to another.

We enter a whole different world as he drops onto the deck of his domain.

Eerie silence echoes through the halls as he descends into the darkness. My soul shrivels as he weaves deeper into hell on earth.

I dreamed of finding freedom from my father, but found evil incarnate instead. A male willing to do anything for revenge, including give a knife to a female full of hatred. An alpha willing to use my brothers against me.

The Battleshipwill do anything to break me. Tame me. Own me.

I’m doomed.