Chapter 3

Electric heat jolts through me as the giant, terrifying alpha slaps my ass. Hung over his shoulder like a sack of rubbish—with his jacket pinning my arms to my sides and my hair falling around my face—I'm trapped in a world overflowing with him. His wild, rich masculine pheromones sink into my bones and loosen my joints. The warmth still emanating from his jacket seeps under my skin and melts my muscles.

His massive hand settles over the area he spanked, spanning across both cheeks and covering where my ass and legs meet. The heat of his palm emanates where no man has ever touched before, filling me with terrified nausea. My mouth dries as liquid warmth pools low in my belly.

I silently curse my traitorous body. His pheromones are too potent. Too rich. Too enticing.

"Treat this as your first lesson. No one damages what's mine except for me. Understand, tiny scorpion?"

My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. His shoulder digs into my stomach, but his chest vibrates against my thighs while the hard muscles of his back tease my breasts, sending shockwaves through my fear.

He brushes his thumb along the crease of my ass and shifts his hand until his fingers splay over my right cheek and his thumb pad rests millimeters from my pussy.

"Does lesson two need to be how I don't repeat myself?"

"N-no. I understand," I manage through both the lump in my throat and my gritted teeth.

His hum arrows straight to my core. My jaw aches as I fight against the heat raging in my center and I pray the liquid warmth of my unwanted desire doesn't spill from my body and give me away.

"Good girl. Now make as much noise as you can as we walk down the hall, just in case your father's calling card wasn't loud enough," he says as he spins toward the door.

The metallic tang of his blood clogs my sinuses. I arch my back and strain to catch sight of my omma, but his stiff leather jacket pulls tight over my shoulders and my lower back seizes.

Fire streaks across my backside as the brute smacks my ass again. An unconscious yip escapes from me before I clamp my mouth shut.

"Louder, tiny scorpion."

I tremble in terror but swallow the pleas building in my chest.

He spanks me again. I hiss through my teeth.

Shockingly powerful sensations lance from between my legs as he grinds the heel of his palm over my pussy.

My stoicism fails me. I buck and fight for freedom, but he chuckles and pins my thighs to his chest with ease, never losing his stride as he weaves through the maze of halls.

A commotion sounds from behind us, breaking my attention. The Destroyer's satisfied chuckle fills me with dread.

"C'mon, tiny scorpion. Call for daddy. Beg him to save you."

The goading in his deep voice reveals the depths of his evilness.

"Go to hell," I hiss.

It may be the stupidest thing I've ever done, but I pour every ounce of my anger and fear into my words.

"Been there, done that. It's your turn now, little omega."

His facial scruff scratches my outer thigh as he turns his head and opens his mouth. Panic rips through my control, and I scream as his teeth close over my flesh.

He bares down hard enough to leave a bruise but not break skin.

An embarrassing sob wracks my chest and I plead for mercy, terrified he'll mark me and irrevocably tie my soul to his. To lose my freedom would hurt, but to have his cruelty invade my innermost self would crush me. I'd never recover.

He pulls back, but before I can sob in relief, he licks the impression his teeth left on my leg and murmurs against my skin.

"That wasn't too hard now, was it, tiny scorpion?"

I jerk as he nips my thigh. He chuckles and ducks through a porthole. I struggle to breathe as my tears plaster my hair to my face and my sinuses clog from being hung upside down. My head throbs just as fiercely as his shallow bite.

I haven't cried since I was a toddler, but I'll forgive myself under the circumstances.

The sound of his boot heels striking the ground rings off the walls as he quickens his pace. Eagerness emanates from him.

He stops, spins, shrugs me off his shoulder, catches me in midair, sets me on my feet, and pins my back against his chest with his hand wrapped around my throat. The band around my chest eases with the distance between his fingers and my nether parts.

My omma whimpers and groans as the beta carries her past us. Looking through my tangled hair, I realize we stand in the center of a large, empty room. White paint covers every surface, making the sunlight streaming in through the windows—actual fully intact glass paned windows—seem overly bright. I squint through the glare and freeze when half a dozen more men stomp into the room.

My stomach drops.

With blood streaming from his ear, half his face swollen, his arms bound behind his back, and shackles on his ankles, my appa shuffles into the room with his shoulders rolled back and his eyes alert. The alphas and betas surrounding him may not be as tall as he is, but most have more bulk and colder, meaner faces.

He meets my gaze and hardens his features before glancing at omma and turning his attention to my captor.

"Don't do this, Fore," my appa says without a trace of fear in his voice.

My tormentor chuckles.

"You've put me in a tight spot, Ru. Omegas are too rare and precious to waste, yet here you are with two. One you stole from me, the other you sired."

"My daughter has done nothing wrong."

"But you have, Ru." Fore tightens his grip around my throat, lifts my chin, and leans down to span his massive hand across my stomach. I grunt when he jerks me against his chest. He grinds his hard cock against my back. Terror ices my blood even as need liquifies between my legs.

"She's the result of your treachery. I'll enjoy taking her. Breaking her. Owning her."

My omma's weak, agonized voice pierces my soul.

"No! Please, Alpha Fore, please don't—"

His growl steals my senses. The ground disappears underneath my bare feet. Nothing exists beyond his strength and fury. I drown in horrible bliss for long, unending moments. Wetness trickles down my inner thigh.

When he speaks through the rumble, I struggle to decipher the meaning behind the syllables, but once I do, a black hole opens in my heart and threatens to swallow me whole.

"All the comfort and protection I'd planned to give you is gone, Sera. Because of you, she'll feel nothing but my wrath."

A low, keening sound begins as my omma's heart shatters. I ball my hands into fists as our mother-daughter bond aches.

"Omma, breathe. The baby—"

The hand around my throat cuts me off. My pulse pounds in my head and my vision blurs.

Alpha Fore loosens his grip. I suck down oxygen and ignore the fresh tears spilling down my face. I can't wipe them away with my arms bound in his jacket, anyway.

High above my head, the giant alpha lifts his chin, signaling for his men to bring my appa closer. He doesn't fight as they push and pull him forward.

"Sera will never know the touch of human flesh again. You'll sit in the cell next to her and watch her slowly rot." He digs his fingertips into my belly and drops his voice into an impossibly lower key. "And with every passing second, you'll know I'm using your daughter's body."

My appa's pupils shrink as he digests Alpha Fore's horrible words.

"You'll regret your betrayal with every breath you take until the pain of losing your omega drives you into madness. All while I enjoy debasing your offspring."

My appa grits his teeth and flexes his shoulders, but not to test his restraints. He struggles to remain in control.

I've only seen him so close to rampaging twice in my entire life. Once when I was a toddler and a group of betas cornered omma and I in the hall and a few months ago when omma's heat broke and revealed her pregnancy. He'd barely been able to snarl, much less form words.

"Unless you kneel," Fore says, jerking me into the present.

My spine aches as I stiffen against the alpha's hard body.

My appa's jaw flexes and anguish flares within his partially blown pupils.

Life in this rusty wasteland has never been easy, but my father's pride flows through his veins. Without it, he'll break.

"Don't, appa. Don't kneel to him. I'll do it," I say out of desperation.

My captor chuckles, jostling me against his chest, and splays his fingers around my throat, forcing me to look up at him.

"Oh, you'll kneel, tiny scorpion, but not here. Not yet. It's your sire's turn now, if he accepts my offer."

"You haven't made an offer, only threats," I hiss through my clenched teeth and stretched throat.

I don't know where the courage—or maybe it's stupidity—comes from, but my omega self would do anything to protect my family, including challenge the behemoth who plans to make the rest of my life a living hell.

Warped delight curves the scarred side of his lips.

"Those weren't threats, tiny scorpion. They were promises," he rumbles. The thick pad of his thumb digs into the underside of my jaw.

He turns his attention back to my appa.

"Kneel and I'll allow you daily visits with Sera, at least until she births your bastard. If she survives that long."

Icicles form along the edges of the black hole in my heart.

My appa's tortured dark brown eyes meet mine, and I lament his decision. Before his knees hit the ground, I close my eyes and fight back a sob. A single, fat tear escapes from my lashes, and I distract myself by tracking it down my face and off my chin.

Long fingers skim up my ribs and poise just below my right breast. The hand around my throat disappears, only to weave into my hair and yank my face toward my father.

"He'll stay on his knees until you open your eyes," Alpha Fore snarls.

My heart quails, but I lift my lashes and swallow bile as I take in the sight of my appa kneeling in submission to this heartless beast.

"Remember this, tiny scorpion. Remember how pathetic and helpless your father looks right now, because it only gets worse from here. Say goodbye to your beloved appa," he sneers the word of endearment as though it's a curse, "because it might be the last time you ever see him."

My vision narrows, but before the weight of his words fully hit, he lifts me into a cradle hold and stomps from the room.

I lose all control, screaming and bucking, but he carries me away from my parents without allowing me a final glance back at them.

Despair, fury, and fear send me into a downward spiral. I fight harder, but freeze when the brute cups my breast through his jacket. The hairs on his arm brush against my bare bottom. I curse the heated blush coloring my face as my body's betrayal becomes evident.

He ducks his head and shifts me higher on his chest, bringing his face mere inches from mine. His startling grey eyes pierce through my defenses and I wonder how any creature can be so mesmerizing yet heartless.

His low hum pulses through me and my mortification grows as liquid heat seeps from between my legs.

"I like your slick on me, tiny scorpion, but you'll have to be patient. I'm going to savor every moment as I make you mine."

My lips tingle as he leans forward and the deepest part of my omega soul longs to kiss him, but I jerk my head to the side and clamp my teeth together.

"Go to hell," I grit out.

"Ah, but we've been over this before. I've done my time in hell. Now it's your turn."

Tears clog my throat and scratch the back of my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall.

I won't be his broken plaything. No matter what he does to me, I'll never run out of hatred for him.

With the memory of my appa on his knees and the sound of my omma's wailing fresh in my ears, I vow to never forgive him.

I'll do whatever it takes to survive him. He'll have to let down his guard one day, and when he does, he'll feel how lethal his tiny scorpion can sting.

The Destroyer isn't the only one capable of revenge.