Chapter 15

“I am going to fucking kill you ,” Gabriella hissed as she slammed her bloody hand against her cell’s metal bars. “And if you ever put your hand on me again, I will rip it from your body and shove it so far up your ass, you can give yourself your own rectal exam. Do you fucking hear me? Do you hear me , you little shit?”

Petyr grinned at her through the bars, and she was disappointed that his bleeding nose stopped leaking. His hand, however, was still against his chest, a towel wrapped around it from where she had stabbed him with a knife. Both moves were more instinct than planned, and she barely even remembered the punch to his nose, although her throbbing knuckles certainly did.

“Keep fucking grinning like that, and I’ll add knocking your teeth out to the list of things I plan to do to you,” she hissed and slapped the bar again. “Do you fucking hear me?”

“I hear you, Gabriella but the words coming out of your mouth contradict the pheromones rolling off your body. You may say you hate me but soon, you’ll be begging me to put my hands all over you.”

“I would sooner die,” she hissed, gripping the bars as though she could pull them apart. “You just wait until I get out of here.”

“You’re not coming out of that cell until your little violent streak has passed.” Petyr laughed, shaking his head as he backed up. “Striking your Alpha? Struggling rather than giving in? I’m pleased to see you are no a whimpering petal but I wasn’t expecting you to be so angry. Why would you have called to me, if you weren’t ready for me?”

“My Alpha?” she scoffed, shuddering. “I didn’t do shit . I cannot stand you. I think you’re an idiot. A complete waste of space. Too fucking stupid to—”

“Would an idiot have known how to track you down and carry you off? Would an idiot have you tucked away where no one will find you? Would an idiot be prepared with everything you need?”

“Everything I need?” She cackled. “You mean the pillows and blankets you had all over the bed upstairs? Fucking weirdo.”

“Things you need,” Petyr pointed out, so sure of himself. “You’ll see in time, when you stop fighting it.”

“Fighting what? You? I will never stop fighting you.”

“Come now, Gabriella. You know the truth. You’ve known it for some time. Ever since you shuddered in my presence. I was luring you in, even then.”

“Oh my God, what is wrong with you?” she asked, finally releasing the bars and stepping back. “You have lost your mind. Lost your senses. Never once was I lured in by you. Never once have I been attracted to you! Now let me go before I make your punishment far worse.”

“Oh, Gabriella, you are in no position to try and harm me again.”

“Then let me out of this cell, so I can show you just how much more pain I can bring.”

“I should tell you, now, that you are not actually in that cell to protect me from you. Oh no. You are in there to protect you from me. To protect you from my anger. My rage. Being struck by someone as small as you... I don’t want to scare you but I want to destroy you just as much as I want to devour you.”

“I am not afraid of you.” She moved back to the cell bars, slamming her hand once more on the metal. “I am furious. I am enraged. I am seething with a vitriolic need to destroy you. And if you give me a weapon, I will put you down like the fucking mongrel you are.”

Petyr stared back at her, his face completely blank, before he started laughing. He shook his head as moved to the small table and shuffled things around.

She thought it was metal clinking—perhaps the cell’s keys? She hadn’t seen the lock when he carted her in there, but the space itself was something from older times, no electronics, which meant no override. Everything mechanical.

“Soon, Gabriella, you will be begging me to touch you,” Petyr hummed and leaned against the desk while holding something seemingly important. “You won’t be able to resist. You were already so close before I got there but after that little injection I gave you, there won’t be much more fighting left in you. I give it another fifteen minutes, tops before the full effect will kick in and then you’ll be—”

“Begging?” she scoffed. “I wouldn’t beg you for a fucking napkin to blot my lipstick with. Nothing could ever make me want you to touch me. Ever.”

There was no way. No way in hell.

A wave of pheromones slammed into her, and she nearly wretched at the stink. Like something dead or dying—decaying even—it was overwhelming and foul. She was disgusted to even be in the same room as Petyr, let alone be so close to him. If not for the bars separating them, she’d strike him.

Disgusting. Fucking Alpha pheromones.

“It’s going to get worse,” Petyr hummed, and she dry heaved again as she looked up. Anger clear in his posture, he moved closer. “So much worse. I might make you suffer before I give you relief. You would deserve it, spiteful bitch. And you can’t stop it. Can’t fight it. It’s going to fucking break you. And then you’ll be mine.”

“What is wrong with you?” she asked as she forced herself to stand once more. She wanted to puke desperately, but her body refused to cooperate. “What the hell is actually wrong with you? Are you mental? Seriously. Because you’re imagining things that don’t exist. I don’t want you. I will never wanted you. And nothing you do could ever change that.”

“I’m the crazy one?” he asked, grinning and pocketing whatever what he was holding. “You’re the one still ignoring the obvious signs. I have to wonder if you’ve just convinced yourself it’s not possible or if you’re actually too stupid to realize what’s happening here.”

Her rage was overflowing.

“What the hell are you talking about? What signs? Are you still talking about a connection between us? Because no, I was not connecting with you! I was not calling to you! I was running away from you! And I’m going to fucking destroy you when I—”

“You’re going into heat, Gabriella,” Petyr announced, followed by laughter. “And you won’t be able to fight it. Oh, it’s going to taste delicious when you finally give in. But until then, you can sit here and suffer. I still haven’t cleaned this garbage out of my system completely but as soon as you’re ready, I’ll take you upstairs and finish what we started.”

Gabriella stared at Petyr in complete shock.

He was mental. Completely mental.

“Only Omegas can go into heat, you idiot,” she hissed and shook the bars again. “So you’re going to be waiting a long fucking time for me to start begging.”

“Precisely.” Petyr shook his head. “And I’m the lucky fool you started changing for. I could smell it when I came over the other night. Your father wasn’t home, so he didn’t know but I was there. I could smell it. You must have smelled me as you entered the house. And now, here we are.”

What the hell was he...

Wait, where was he going? She had barely even thought about that barrier, given how she was already contained within one cell, but now, she was starting to worry about just how trapped she was and if anyone would be able to find her.

“Where are you going?” Gabriella demanded as Petyr walked away, toward the metal door. “Stop! You can’t leave me down here!”

“I’ll be back soon,” Petyr promised with a nod. “I need to check in with my men and clean up what you destroyed upstairs. Hide the knives as well. I wouldn’t want your passion to overwhelm you and you destroy me when I mate you.”

The urge to puke overwhelmed her once more, and she missed as he left the room, shutting the heavy metal door behind him.

All that was left was her and silence and an empty room that still smelled like dying flesh, even though he was gone.

He was crazy. He was actually crazy. He needed help. Clearly. He had completely lost his mind. To say that she had called to him, that he was her Alpha and that she was going into heat? The idea was so laughable she was too shocked to utter a sound. He had lost his fucking mind. He was going to mate her? What the hell was going on in his head? Had he been dropped too many times as a baby? What the... How the...

An Omega! He thought she was an Omega! An Omega in denial, apparently, but she wasn’t an Omega! If she was an Omega, then...

Gabriella backed away from the bars until she hit the solid concrete wall and sank down slowly, processing his words and her ideas. Letting it all... work itself out.

She wasn’t an Omega. She couldn’t be an Omega. Her father was a Beta, and her mother was a Beta as well. If her mother wasn’t a Beta, then someone would have said something.

She was in her mid-twenties, which was past the time of presentation if the doctors had somehow missed the signs when she was born. By now, she should have aching, protruding glands under her throat, at her wrists, and between her thighs. She rubbed her wrists, noting the way they were swollen and then at her throat. She had thought she was coming down with something and maybe needed some lymphatic drainage or something, but... it was just bloating, right? It wasn’t...

She didn’t know much about Omegas, not really, as she had never concerned herself with them. She wasn’t one, and she didn’t work with any, so there was no reason to think about it, but she knew enough. She knew things.

If she were an Omega, rather than the smell of an Alpha disgusting her or freaking her out, she would be attracted to it. She would find Petyr’s scent appealing. Instead, he disgusted her. In fact, most Alphas made her wary save perhaps for... Well, yes, she liked Matthew’s scent, but that was different. She liked him in general, not because he was an Alpha, although she had more than once enjoyed his pheromones, which was odd for a Beta, but...

If she were an Omega, she would be thinking about things like wanting to be knotted... and bred... and...

And, apparently, Omegas had a thing about textures, like fabrics and pillows and softness. If she were an Omega, she would be worrying about how things felt on her skin and even her own touch.

If she was an Omega, then...

Then...

Then she would...

Nausea slammed into her stomach out of nowhere. Because it was right there. Somehow, Petyr had realized and knew what she had ignored. The idea hadn’t crossed her mind. She had never contemplated it. Being an Omega wasn’t something a person just found out one day. They were born that way.

There was no way she could be an Omega because her father would have known since birth, and if he knew she was an Omega, then...

The urge to cry was the next thing to slam into her, and she was struggling to breathe.

If she were an Omega going into heat, the only thing she could do now was pray. Pray that Petyr didn’t return to her before she lost her shit entirely. Pray that another Alpha found her sooner.

Like Matthew. Matthew, who she longed for. Matthew, who she craved.

Matthew, who had been on his way to her before Petyr captured her.

Did he know? He had to. If Petyr had figured it out, Matthew had to know.

Why hadn’t he told her? Why had he never mentioned it?

And if he knew she was an Omega, why had he shoved her away? He said he had things to tell her, that he was a fool...

Oh, she would kill Matthew for keeping things from her and then kiss him and beg him for relief.

Fuck Petyr. All she wanted was Matthew.

An Omega. She was possibly an Omega. No, not possibly. Probably. Likely.

Fuck. She was an idiot. The signs were there.

Although, none of it made sense. She should have struggled to be around Alphas before she even started grad school, along with other signs. Yes, she checked more boxes on the Omega side of the chart than the Beta side, but it was almost like she was delayed or not fully developed.

What the hell had Petyr been going on about, with injections and clearing her system? What was in the syringe he injected her with? And what did he need to clear out of her? The only sort of medication she took was the pills for her heart, which she hadn’t been the most reliable to take lately, given how much her heart was flip-flopping around. Well, and the regular injections when she was younger, but those had made way for pills when she went off to grad school.

The doctors, her father’s physician, the heart condition, the pills, the comparisons to her mother...

Fuck... She was a fucking idiot... And rather than asking questions or more demanding answers, she had just accepted things as they were for years. Her uncle had mentioned finding her own doctor and talking to her father about it and now...

What the hell kind of pills had they been giving her?

Another wave of pain hit her, and she wanted to rip out her own hair and sink into an ice bath. It would get worse before it got better, yet she was in agony now, ready to shred her skin. Fire was in her veins, burning her from within, and she wanted to claw it out of her body, to do something, anything. All at once, it was happening, and the throbbing between her thighs quickly progressed from being a needy ache to feeling like an aching wound.

It was something only one thing could cure, and she didn’t know how long she could wait for it.

She just had to hope that Matthew was looking for her and that he would find her soon.

In the meantime, she had to figure out a way to save herself, starting with shooting Petyr Antorelli.

A different Antorelli stepped through the metal door, and with his arrival, any hope it was someone coming to her rescue disappeared.

“Fuck you,” Gabriella hissed as she forced herself to stand, refusing to show the weakness and pain wracking her body. “Showing your face here? Had to see proof of what your nephew has done?”

“Gabriella,” Marco answered, shaking his head. “I couldn’t believe... when he said he...”

“What? You didn’t think your nephew had the balls to take me? He did and I’m going to fucking kill him for it. But first, I’m going to kill you.”

“Gabriella, I’m—”

“Look me in my eyes, Marco, and tell me I won’t do it. Tell me that I’m not angry enough. Tell me you think I am too weak to rip your heart out of your fucking chest if you don’t let me out of this cell in the next ten fucking seconds.”

She was pissed. Beyond pissed. Rage she had never thought possible coursed through her. She would destroy everything and everyone who stood in her way. Destroy anyone who had a hand in locking her in this cell.

“Gabriella, I am so sorry,” Marco answered, shaking his head. “I wanted him to be your choice but I never imagined he would—”

“I obviously didn’t fucking choose him,” she snapped, shaking with rage as she forced her steps forward. “Let me out of this goddamn cell, Marco, and I might let you live long enough to beg for my mercy.”

“The keys.” Marco scanned the room. “Let me find the keys.”

His answer was not what she had expected, and she stepped back on teetering legs before grasping the bars for support. The man before her wasn’t gloating, nor was he there to behold some sort of spectacle. In fact, he looked nervous. Scared, even. As though...

As though he disagreed with Petyr’s actions. As though he truly would let her out of the cell.

She deflated as her father’s right hand moved to the table, shifting things about. He was looking for the keys, doing as told, but he seemed to be finding nothing.

“No,” Marco muttered, his back turned toward her. “Did he... did he inject you with something?”

She wanted to know what it was, what he was thinking, but she also didn’t want to rush him. Not quite yet. Not when there was a chance he was willing to help her.

“Yes,” she answered, gripping the bars. “Earlier. He said it was to clear my system.”

She was unsteady and hot all over, and her pounding migraine was now spreading into her neck and back.

“To get the suppression meds out of you,” Marco answered, not looking back at her. “Only one injection?”

“Only one, as far as I can remember,” Gabriella confirmed. “Suppression meds? The only medication I take is for my heart, which...”

She really was an idiot and let out a sigh as she hung her head. She had rarely questioned it, seeing as how she had been taking medication for as long as she could remember, but it was all so clear now.

“There’s nothing wrong with my heart, is there?”

“Just as there was nothing wrong with your mother’s,” Marco confirmed as tossed things from the table onto the floor. “The keys. He must have the keys on him.”

“My mother? So, wait, you want to let me out?” Dread ran down her spine. “I’m confused. I thought you wanted Petyr to be at my side. I mean, this right here, trapping me, then—”

“Not like this!” Marco hissed as he whipped around to look at her. “Not... He has gone too far. You can never convince an Omega to love someone they do not. The pull for their Alpha is too much. He can’t force it. I don’t know why he refuses to see the truth because he was warned that no one could force your choice but it seems as though your father has forgotten what happened to your mother as well.”

“Wait, about my mother... What killed her? Did my father—”

“No, no. It was... Well, he might as well have. Leaving an Omega in pain like that, trapped, it was killing her. She could never find peace with your father, not after finding her Alpha. You were so young, brand new, and your father wanted to try again, wanted an Alpha instead of an Omega, but your mother couldn’t stand it. Your father took care of her Alpha mate and it broke something inside of her. Perhaps it was a broken heart—I don’t know—or something in the bond. That’s not for Betas to understand. What matters is that you have been on these drugs, to try and save you from your mother’s fate for years, and this...”

He held up an empty vial to her, then shook his head.

“Okay.” Gabriella breathed out and nodded. “Okay. So. I’m going into heat. How do I stop this?”

“I doubt your medication could do much of anything. The Alpha injections can’t stop a rut once it’s in action. It can only delay it, although that one Alpha your father relies on fell into one once. That was before they upped the doses. For you to be pushing through your medications, entering into a heat, you must have found your Alpha.”

“Matthew.”

She had already figured that out after she had finished processing the truth of her hidden nature. It was definitely him. He was... hers . What she had wished for, back in the car, was to be an Omega, to be his Omega , to be bred and marked and knotted by him. She didn’t know exactly how it all worked, the whole committing-yourself-to-an-Alpha thing, throwing yourself into your own heat by choice, whatever but that wish, that desire, had started it all.

He had flung himself out of the car to get away from her. She had been flooded with aches and pains from that moment on, and that was it. That was the catalyst.

However, the only thing she didn’t understand was how it had happened when he wasn’t in a rut, one of the bullet points she had learned in health class. An Alpha’s rut triggered an Omega’s desire to enter their heat. Matthew hadn’t been in a rut. She was sure of that.

Was it sheer force of will, or had the stupid meds she had been taking for years to suppress her true nature failed at the best and worst possible moment?

“There’s no key here,” Marco announced, his shoulders dropping. “I can try and find my nephew but I am no match for him. I will be sending your location to a trusted friend, so they will come to rescue you but—”

“Who?” Her voice cracked. “The enforcers? Matthew?”

“Toronto,” he corrected, then looked toward the door. “He has been looking for you.”

“Uncle Toto? Why... He’s part of this! He knew that my father was keeping secrets from me. He—”

“He was a man with business debts who allowed his beloved niece to pay the price for his gambling. Your father wanted an Alpha heir so he married an Omega. None would willingly choose a Beta, not when an Alpha was out there for them. He never forgave himself for it and has agreed to keep it a secret in hopes that this suppressant, the very one your father paid to be researched and produced, would save you from your mother’s fate. He is still your ally and when you went missing, he called me. He and I were friends in our younger years before he sold your mother. She was... not for me, and I was angry but it was my fault for the gambling. My fault for all of this.”

Gambling, her mother, research, all of it...

“This is... too much.” Gabriella gasped as another wave of pain run over her. “We can have a long conversation later but right now, I need Matthew. I need... I need—”

“I will leave the doors unlocked on my way out, so they can find their way to you,” Marco agreed, then looked toward the floors above. “I shall try to stall my nephew until you are gone.”

While she was furious with Marco, he also held answers she needed and could help her move forward with her plans, if he was truly on her side.

“You will do no such thing,” Gabriella hissed, knowing a Beta against an angry Alpha would not fare well. “You are to leave this place and not look back. Await my phone call. When the time comes, you will support me. Do you understand me?”

His expression told her more than she could have ever questioned. Fear, respect, acknowledgment... She needed connections around the inner circle. Having the support of her father’s right hand? There could be no better bargaining chip. She just needed the man alive so he could argue her case.

“I understand.” He bowed his head. “I shall see you soon, Gabriella.” He headed for the heavy metal door.

She called out, “Wait. Are you not going to plea for your nephew’s life?”

Marco looked back at her, his eyebrows furrowed, and shook his head. “I held too much respect for your mother to dare to beg for such a selfish thing from you.”

The aches in her body had started to fade, which probably not a good thing. Every part of her was starting to go numb, as though she could no longer process pain and was losing her sense of self. Every other thought was of being bred, being knotted, being mated. She wanted to nest, wanted to soak herself in soft blankets and comfortable pillows. She wanted to strip herself naked, to roll around in sheets scented of him . She wanted to please him, to be pleased by him. It was all she could think about, him .

With a deep breath, she could smell the fading remnants of Petyr Antorelli. She nearly puked every time, only to save herself when she remembered that Matthew was coming for her.

She didn’t need Marco’s promise or her uncle’s help to verify that. It thrummed in her soul, in her bones. A line was connecting her to him and it was drawing tighter, as though he was pulling on it.

He would be there soon. She just had to survive until then.

Matthew. She wanted Matthew. Matthew to walk through the door. Matthew to save her from this room. Matthew to pull her in close and kiss her and apologize for being a garbage Alpha and to—

When the heavy door opened, Petyr walked in, wearing a grin.

“I told you it would start to hurt,” Petyr purred as he drew closer. Key in hand, he stood beside the door, not actually opening it. “Have anything to say, Gabriella?”

She had a lot of things to say, but if Matthew was on his way, she would meet him in the middle.

And make it hurt for Petyr in the process.

“I... I want... I don’t... I don’t understand.”

She knew she should lie, should beg him to touch her, but Alphas knew when a person lied, and she couldn’t even force herself to utter one.

“Don’t understand what?” Petyr asked, clinking metal in his hands. “What is it, Gabriella. You can talk to me, my Omega.”

She bit her tongue so hard she could taste blood to keep herself from snapping at him. Wanting to look pitiful from where she sat in the corner of her cell, she looked up slowly so he would have to walk in to reach her, to put his hands on her.

Then she would strike.

“It all hurts,” she whispered. “Everything hurts. I just... I want it to go away. I want the pain to stop.”

The shudder that wracked her whole body was not one she could fake, and she reached out toward Petyr. She didn’t want him to touch her, but she would have to touch him to check if he was armed.

“Oh, you pathetic thing,” Petyr laughed, followed by clicking and the bolt sliding in the lock. “The begging will have to wait until I have you upstairs, I suppose. You will beg so pretty, won’t you?”

“I’ll do... anything,” she gasped, trying to sound honest. “Anything.”

“Good,” Petyr purred, the sound horrible enough to make her shudder again. “It’s about time.”

She didn’t look up as Petyr approached, head hanging to hide her reaction, and he touched her hand but yanked it back as though it had been burned. The same hand she had stabbed was free of blood, shaking as he looked down at her.

“Fuck, you really are hot.”

“I’m burning,” she gasped, parched. “It all hurts. It hurts even worse.”

“Shh.” Petyr reached down to her. “Here.”

He shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped it around his hands before touching her carefully. She was thankful to have a barrier between them, but she was even more grateful to see what she had already been expecting. He was carrying—because of course he was—and his gun was holstered on his back. She would have no issue grabbing that from him.

Gabriella stepped with care, Petyr beside her, as they approached the open door. She could find the strength to rush forward and slam the door behind her, but with the key in the lock, she would have to turn it before Petyr managed to push his way out, which was impossible. The entrance to the big room she was in was also still propped open, but she had no idea how it locked, meaning she couldn’t slam it shut and keep him inside when she escaped.

Interesting, that Petyr hadn’t realized it was unlocked when he entered.

The gun. It had to be the gun. There was no other way.

“Wait,” she gasped as they stepped out of the cell. “I... It hurts to walk.”

Petyr groaned and moved her along, then leaned her against the bars. “Stay right here. I’m going to—”

He pulled away from her and headed toward the door so quickly she didn’t even have a chance to reach for the gun. He had stayed behind her as they left the cell, so she couldn’t reach back, and now he was out of reach. She needed the gun before he would have the chance to walk off because should he have left her in the room alone, she would make a run for it whether she actually wanted to, and she had no intention of being shot in the back as she did so.

“Wait.” She pushed herself from the bars to walk to him. “Don’t... Don’t leave me here. Please. Don’t leave me here alone.”

She didn’t want to touch him, but she needed to. Needed him to not be surprised by her hands on him. Needed him relaxed.

Fuck, he was a piss-poor shot and terrible at handling it, but he was still an Alpha, and she was an Omega in heat. Yes, she was better with a gun and had taken some basic self-defense classes, but this was . . . She was . . .

She needed luck and Omega magic on her side.

She needed Matthew. She needed Matthew with her. Matthew to encourage her. Matthew to...

“Oh, that is the sweetest scent,” Petyr groaned as he turned back toward her. “Upstairs will have to wait, my Omega. I desire a taste now.”

His eyes were closed, and she realized, in horror, what he could smell. Her thoughts of Matthew had made her ache for him again, ache for him in the pit of her stomach. In turn, it made her ache to be filled by him, which would then send a wave of slick down the inside of her thighs.

Petyr crossed the room and grabbed her throat without the coat on his hand. He hissed, likely from the pain, but Gabriella shivered in disgust. No pain. The pain would have been better than the wave of nausea in her stomach.

He took another deep breath in and leaned forward, his nose trailing between her breasts and then toward her throat. She slid her palm to his shoulder, and he bent down again, lower, as if heading to her cunt. She slid her fingers lower, then up, guiding him—

Her fingers brushed the grip and then she was lunging forward, grabbing the gun. She already knew it would be loaded and the safety likely off. Petyr was too stupid to remember to do it on their date, so she doubted he ever did it in his day-to-day life. Only an idiot would even bring a weapon around a woman he had just kidnapped and was planning to assault, so planning for it to be ready to fire?

She was willing to bet her life on it.

Petyr gripped her upper arm before she could do much more than pull it out of the holster, and she struggled against him, not willing to let go of her prize. She doubted he would kill her for this, but he would lock her up again. She didn’t want anyone getting hurt save for this bastard.

Two shots went off, but not from the gun in her hand. Gabriella ignored them, assuming it was her rescue, but Petyr released her as he looked toward the door, as though that was where the danger was.

Idiot.

Pointing the gun at him, she took a step back.

“You really are fucking stupid,” Gabriella snapped, pulling Petyr’s attention back to her.

“Gabriella, but—”

“No. There’s no last words, dumbass. I hold the gun. You don’t get to make a plea.”

“But—”

She smiled and pulled the trigger.