Chapter 4 Markus

Just a moment ago, I said that Syra hasn't changed a bit. That's not strictly true. Her personality may be as tough and stubborn as ever, but her body has changed a great deal, and right now, all those changes are on full display for me to see. Her crouching body almost seems to glow in the golden light of the rising flames consuming the wall of the barn. Her bared breasts are round and full, and her erect nipples look as ripe and tempting as two berries. Her hips are wide, her thighs thick. It is a body built for breeding.

I know I shouldn't stare at her like this. She doesn't want anyone to see her in this naked and needful state. That's the whole reason she came out here to this barn in the first place. I know that, and yet…

I can't stop looking at her.

I try, I really do, but my eyes refuse to look away.

It's her scent that's making me act this way. Her heat-scent, hot and dirty and delicious.

"Markus, what are you doing here?"

I lift my eyes from her body to her face, and my arousal doubles. Her eyes are the color of pale jade, just how I remember them, and they call to me with an almost hypnotic power.

I take a step in her direction.

"What are you doing here?" she asks again. This time, there's a growl in her voice. Her spear remains leveled at my chest.

"We can talk about that later," I tell her. "It's not safe here."

That's an understatement. One entire wall of the barn is engulfed in flames now, and it won't be long before the rest of the barn catches too. We should both be running for our lives, but instead I just keep walking toward her like some mindless beta, and she just keeps staring at me with her spear aimed straight at my heart.

A couple more steps, and I'm going to impale myself on that thing, but I can't stop advancing. The scent of her heat is pulling me in. The desire to be near her is overriding everything else, even my instinct for self-preservation.

I need to touch her. I need to hold her.

I need to breed her.

At the last moment, just as the tip of her spear is about to pierce me, she moves the weapon aside and stands to face me.

The last time we looked each other in the eyes like this, she was a good bit taller than me. Now that height difference is reversed. Her face only comes to the level of my chest, and she has to tilt her head all the way back to look up at me.

"Markus?" she whispers.

But Markus isn't in control anymore. There's something else inside me, something that's wearing me like a skin. It's my inner alpha, my primal instinct to mate and breed. Until now, it's lain dormant, content to let me do my own thing, but now that it has caught Syra's heat-scent, there's nothing I can do to hold it back.

My hands come up and grab Syra around her ribs. With a hungry growl, I shove her back against the wall of the barn—the side that's not on fire yet—and I press into her hard. She gasps lightly as her soft breasts flatten against my harder muscles. Now the only thing separating her skin from mine is the thin film of dried plant-paste I spread over my body earlier to mask my scent.

That paste is one of the reasons Syra didn't recognize me right away.

The other reason is that she hasn't seen me for nine years.

But I've certainly seen her.

I lower my face to hers and claim her lips in a hard, deep kiss. It's something I've been wanting to do for a very long time. The last time it happened, she got so angry, she slammed my head against the bottom of an air duct.

This time, she presses the tip of her spear against my throat and growls a warning into my mouth.

I don't stop kissing her.

I can't.

Her scent is inside me now. It's setting my blood on fire, consuming me the same way those hot flames are consuming the barn around us.

Syra presses her spear harder against my throat. I feel a warm trickle of blood run down my skin. At the same time, she opens her lips for me, and her tongue slides against my own, warm and soft and wet. She grinds herself against me, staining my loincloth with her slick. Her growls turn to moans.

And she digs the speartip even harder against my throat.

Fuck it. She can kill me if she wants to. At this point, I don't care. We all have to die sooner or later, and I cannot think of a better way to go out than this, kissing the most beautiful and hot-blooded omega ever to walk the Zone. Source, I've waited my whole life for a death like this.

Beside us, a flaming rafter comes crashing down amid a shower of orange sparks. It is enough to startle us both back to our senses for a moment.

I break off our kiss and pull back. Syra looks up at me, flushed and panting.

"We need to get out of here," I tell her. "Now."

"I need my things."

"Fuck your things, Syra, we need—"

But she twists away from me before I can catch her, and she runs across the barn. Instinctively, I chase after her. The air inside the barn is filled with smoke, but it's not enough to mask the omega's heat-scent.

Her loincloth and top are lying in the middle of the barn. She snatches those up, then she goes for her satchel lying by the wall, where the fire is worst. By then, I've caught up with her, and I grab her arm to hold her back.

"Let go of me!" she shouts. "I need my satchel!"

I'm not sure what she's got in there that's so damned important to her, but I decide it's not worth dying for. I tighten my grip on her arm.

A moment later, a whole section of the room collapses, burying her satchel in a heap of burning wood.

"Nooo!" Syra screams.

"We have to go!" I shout to her over the roaring of the flames.

For a moment, she resists my attempts to pull her away, and I think I might have to fling her over my shoulder and carry her out, but at last she relents, and together we race for the door.

The night is exceptionally dark and cool after the blazing heat inside the barn. We stand for a moment and watch as the structure burns and crumbles, sending swirls of orange sparks dancing up into the night sky.

"That blaze is bound to attract attention," I say.

Syra frowns. She has already put her loincloth back on, and now she's starting to lace up her top.

"Delphine said she and her alphas were supposed to be meeting some friends here."

Delphine. That's the omega who attacked Syra earlier. I've never met her before, but I heard one of the alphas shout her name after I threw her into the wall. Normally, I would never think of harming an omega, but I was willing to make an exception in her case. She hurt Syra, and that is not something I will allow.

I also think it's safe to say we don't want to meet Delphine's friends, whoever they are.

"We need to get away from this place," I say.

"Where will we go?" Syra has tears in her eyes, and I think it must have something to do with whatever was in that satchel of hers. "We can't go back to the Central Ruins."

I would never think of taking her back there. Not while she's in heat.

"I know a place," I tell her. "It's not too far from here. We should be able to reach it in an hour or two. It's a safe place. No one will bother us there."

Syra's face goes still, but I can see the thoughts racing behind her eyes. At last, she makes up her mind and gives me a curt nod.

"Okay," she says. "Let's go."

"Follow me," I tell her.

I'm almost disappointed by her answer. If Syra had refused, I would have thrown her over my shoulder and carried her.

It's probably for the best I don't get to do that. I'm going to have a hard enough time keeping my urges in check as it is.

I just hope I can maintain control until we reach our destination.