Chapter 3

three

GIOVANNI

I rounded the car and stole Kitania from Dimitri the moment Marco parked in our usual spot. Cradling her petite frame against my chest, I carried her into the elevator, letting D scan his fingerprint and hit the button for the penthouse. My brothers piled in around me, refusing to be more than a foot from our Omega.

Between her exhaustion, the stress of the evening, and her clear lack of nutrition, Kitania had passed out about ten minutes ago. The only thing keeping my Alpha from raging was the steady rise and fall of her chest. Proof that she was breathing. Alive, if not well.

“We need to call Doc,” I rumbled, unable to tear my gaze from the woman in my arms.

“Agreed,” Dimitri said, nodding to Tommas, delegating the task. “I want him here in the next ten fucking minutes.”

My younger brother was already digging into his pockets, ripping his phone out and dialing as the elevator slowed and dinged open on our private floors. “On it,” he murmured, peeling off from the pack to deal with the call while the rest of us got Kitania inside.

I glanced down at her still form. My heart thundered in my chest. Not even a cage fight could rev me up this hard. Every instinct I had shouted at me that this Omega was mine.

Ours .

I set Kitania gently on the leather sofa, sliding a throw pillow beneath her head. She looked so damn fragile, her dark hair fanned out like a halo against the cream fabric. I tucked a soft cashmere blanket around her, my fingers lingering on its hem as I drank in the sight of her delicate features—the gentle slope of her button nose, the long lashes resting against her pale cheeks, the naturally rosy color of her lips. Every part of me screamed to gather her back into my arms, to shield her from any further cruelty, to give her a better life.

Only an hour ago, Kitania had been a stranger, another faceless Omega lost in a fucked up system. But now... now she was everything. The axis my world spun on. The very air in my lungs. In an instant, my reality had shifted and reformed itself around her, every instinct roaring to life with a single purpose—to protect and cherish my mate.

I’d heard the stories of what it was like to meet your scent match, but I hadn’t understood until now.

Fuck , it was intense.

I dragged a hand down my face, trying to comprehend the magnitude of it all. Questions raced through my mind even as I watched the gentle rise and fall of her chest.

Who was she? Where had she come from? Did she have a family or a pack who had been searching for her? Or was she alone in the world?

Heavy footsteps sounded behind me, pulling me from my daze. I turned to see my brothers filing into the room, identical masks of shock and awe on their faces as their attention fell to our girl’s unconscious form.

“Doc’s on his way,” Tommas promised, pocketing his cell. “But holy shit,” he breathed, shaking his head. “I can’t believe this is real. That she’s real.”

Dimitri crossed to Kitania and perched on the coffee table that sat in front of the couch. Reaching for her, he gently brushed a lock of hair off her forehead. “There’s no mistaking it. I felt the initial bond snap into place the second I caught her scent.”

“It’s fucking addicting.” I dragged in another lungful, noting the earthy tones of dark moss and moon flowers. As Alphas, we were attuned to pick up on the intricacies of scents, always searching for the one that drew us in, that captured us heart, body, and soul.

I never thought we’d find it. Find her .

“What the hell do we do now?” Marco asked, his tone uncharacteristically uncertain. Needing to move, as he often did, he paced behind the couch. “We can’t just let her go back to the Omega Matching Agency. Those fuckers didn’t keep her safe the first time.”

To be fair, it hadn’t been completely their fault.

The Omega Matching Agency, otherwise known as the OMA, was a program set in place by the government, a proactive effort to keep Omegas safe from Alphas. Their scents were too potent, and our urges too strong. The number of sexual assaults and forced matings had dropped significantly since the program started, but over the years, the OMA had taken on a life of its own.

When an Omega designated at the age of eighteen, they were supposed to report immediately to the OMA where they’d be put on the Omega Registry and placed into a special curriculum that would prepare them for life as an Omega. It had always seemed like college, except instead of classes like Psychology or English Lit, they had to take classes on homemaking and child-rearing.

I’d never given it much thought, to be honest, until my little sister had designated and we’d been forced to turn her over to the OMA.

Julia hated the hypocrisy of the system, and she’d open her mouth to anyone who would listen about the complete bullshit it was that she had to take classes on ‘How to Please Your Alphas’ and ‘Making The Most of Your Heat Cycle’ rather than getting to choose a major and plan the course of her own future like Betas and Alphas could.

While the original intent of the OMA had been noble, it definitely had its flaws. Many packs waited for years to be matched with an Omega, which led to the most recent scandal where a prominent politician had bribed low-level workers at the OMA to scrub Omegas’ names off the registry. They targeted Omegas with no known family ties, then kidnapped them and placed them into underground auctions.

Julia had used our mother’s maiden name to distance herself from our infamous reputation. Unfortunately, that move had made her vulnerable, placing her directly in the crosshairs.

I didn’t know Kitania’s backstory, but my gut told me something similar must’ve happened to her. Only low risk Omegas were taken, which usually meant they didn’t have anyone in their corner looking out for them. No one but the OMA to make waves when they simply vanished.

Thankfully, we’d already taken out the assholes who’d run the sex trafficking ring. Things were safer again, not that it mattered in this situation. I knew I’d never bring myself to turn Kitania back over to the OMA when she’d been stolen right out from under them. My Alpha would never allow it.

It was hard enough knowing my sister Julia was back there, determined to find her pack so she could start living her life.

And Kitania was different. She was mine .

I shook my head vehemently. “No way in hell she’s going back to the OMA. She belongs with us.”

A heavy silence fell over the room, the weight of our new reality settling onto our shoulders. I knew without a doubt that my brothers felt it too—the overwhelming need to shelter Kitania, to earn her trust, to erase the shadows of pain and fear from her eyes. To make her happy. To show her she was loved.

“She’s been through so much already,” I said quietly, my chest tightening at the thought. “But she’s strong. A fighter. You can see it in the way she carries herself, even when she’s afraid.”

Dimitri nodded, his expression thoughtful. “We’ll need to be careful with her. Earn her trust. Show her that she’s safe with us.”

“And if the OMA has a problem with that, they can suck it. I’d like to see them try to take her from us.” Marco’s hands curled into fists at his sides, already prepared for a fight.

“One thing at a time,” Dimitri interjected, though the fire in his eyes betrayed his own steadfast resolve to keep our girl where she belonged—here with us. “Right now, Kitania is our priority. We need to make sure she’s okay, and that she knows we’ll never let anyone hurt her again.”

I turned back to the sleeping woman, studying the delicate curves of her face, committing every detail to memory. It had only been an hour, and yet, it had only taken one interaction to know that beneath her timid exterior lay a strong spirit. A soul that refused to be broken, no matter how many times the world tried to shatter her.

And now, she was ours to protect. Ours to love. The missing piece we hadn’t truly believed was out there.

“Surely Chaddrick Hurst will understand that we’re scent matches,” I surmised. The CEO of the OMA had been grateful for our help in recovering the purchased Omegas. “He wouldn’t insist we return her, would he?”

Dimitri appeared thoughtful. “He strikes me as a reasonable man. Given that we’re a registered pack in their system, we’ll explain that we’re scent matches and make it clear our intent is to court Kitania. I highly doubt after everything that has happened, he’d stand in our way. He owes us this much.”

I nodded to my older brother. As his second in command, I knew he valued my opinion. “Make the call.”

KITANIA

My eyelashes fluttered against my cheeks as the sweet hold of sleep began to release its grasp. Strange voices floated in and out, but I didn’t want to wake up. Everything smelled nice here, safely cocooned within my dream.

I’d learned long ago that sleep was the only place that brought sweet relief. But those voices sounded... concerned. Worried, even. They dragged me closer to the surface, inch by clawing inch. Reality crept in. The aches and pains in my body, which had been so distant earlier, were now bothersome and uncomfortable.

I squeezed my eyes tighter, trying to swim back down, because I knew when I opened them, when I was awake, bad things would happen.

They always did.

The Valentino brothers were cruel and vindictive. They enjoyed my pain and misery, often inflicting as much as they could to bring me to the brink of begging for death.

An uncontrollable shiver racked me.

No matter how brave I tried to be, I knew I couldn’t take much more.

A whimper slipped up my throat and the room beyond went utterly silent.

I froze, as still as a glacier, refusing to even breathe.

A deep voice spoke at the same moment the cushion beneath me dipped. “You’re safe, Kitania. We got you out. You’re safe.”

The sentiment was followed by the lightest touch on my arm. Reassuring and gentle. Though the man’s voice was oddly familiar and his words comforting, I flinched instinctively from the contact. It took a few moments for it all to sink in.

Safe?

Everything came flooding back to me then. The men. The rescue.

My heart thundered as I ripped my eyes open, needing to see for myself. The world had infinitely changed. Gone were the grungy walls and the bed with old sheets. I was lying on a couch as soft as a cloud, surrounded by men I didn’t know but instantly recognized as my saviors. They stood near the sofa, all staring down at me with varying expressions of concern.

Their faces were bathed in warm light that felt inviting instead of violating. Steadying myself, I glanced around, taking in the vast room before me. Everything I saw was pure luxury, from the massive TV on the wall to the tall windows opposite me that let in a stunning view of the glowing cityscape spread out below. Far, far below.

Where am I?

But the truth was, it didn’t matter, because I wasn’t there . In that awful, horrible place.

I drew in a full lungful of air as though I’d just emerged from beneath battering ocean waves that’d held me under for far too long.

“It wasn’t a dream, after all,” I whispered, my voice hoarse and scratchy from disuse.

The handsome man next to me smiled, if you could call it that, his lips hitching up on one side. The smirk softened something in his intense brown eyes that instantly captivated me. “No, Kitten,” he purred. “It wasn’t.”