Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
ELLIOTT
" W hat's wrong with her?" I snarl, trying to jerk away from the three enforcers that have me locked between them.
Freya looks completely lost and rabid as she yanks against the shackles holding her back from us. She's all hunger and need if her scent is anything to go by.
The moment Ronan was brought back fucking feral and bonded left me stunned and rooted to my spot. Never would I have thought I would see the big, controlled alpha losing his absolute mind. It was enough to make me lose my own for a beat too long. I barely registered the threat of another being nabbed from our cells until I was surrounded and restrained.
Ken, as he so graciously introduced himself as I was dragged through the white halls, drawls, "Don't worry, I'll fix it."
He winks, then I'm doubled over by the pain blooming in my gut. Just as I catch my breath, I'm grunting out a curse as someone dead legs me, sending my left knee crashing into the tiles.
Anger is hot in my veins, and my ears ring, but I still make out the taunting voice of Ken. "What's it gonna be? Control yourself, or the big guy gets a mouth full of knuckles."
For a second I think he's talking to me, but the snarling and clanking chains of my mate quiet. I bare my teeth at the enforcer whose fist is cocked and ready to break his fingers on my face.
"Gooooood," Ken croons, clapping once again like a fucking crazy man. "Remember this moment when I keep bringing you your gifts, pet. Nobody has to get hurt if you don't lash out. I mean, honestly Freya, I've done you a favor. I brought the biggest, baddest ones first to take your growing pains out on. What happens if you're still resistant and your sweet beta breaks beneath the punishment you will force on him if you don't fucking submit ?"
"What the hell is this?!" I snap, completely fed up with all the bullshit going on and the ominous stories Beckett's been weaving.
The threat to Casey makes my blood boil, and my alpha rise with a snarl. My cock aches in the confines of my jeans, but I ignore it. The need for answers and clarity more important than the need to lick the slick I can clearly see dripping down my mate's bare fucking thighs.
Ken's smile drops, replaced with a repulsive look of innocence. "What? Isn't she so much better like this?"
He gestures toward Freya, who's now allowing her arms to hang limp and her head to bow in submission. I hate it. I hate it so damn much that it takes every ounce of willpower not to scream at her to keep fighting. To sass this fucking asshole and his stupid, ridiculous name.
"I'm making her the perfect form of what she is."
"And what's that?" I ask through gritted teeth, knowing I'm going to hate whatever stereotype he spits out.
Ken frowns at me like he's confused I don't already know. "A breeder. She will become a perfect, pretty, docile, little breeder. What else is an omega good for besides to get your dick wet and pop out babies?"
Holy fuck, he is deranged.
"Alpha," Freya whimpers quietly while shuffling on her knees.
Ken narrows his eyes on her like she's a fucking dog. "Quiet!"
There is no holding back the snarl and rise of my instincts any longer. My mate is suffering and there's nothing I can do to ease it until these assholes drop their hold on me.
"So, she's in heat," Ken continues like we're having a normal ass conversation. "I injected the omega with a little heat juice to enhance the experience. I'm forgetting something though," he mumbles, tapping his chin.
I'm about to go fucking ape shit, but he claps his hands again, making Freya jump. "Oh! Your pack lead helped her through the first deadly spike, and now you get the second one. Just as deadly. You'll have to bond her to soothe the demands of her body, mind, and soul."
The six hands finally fall away from me allowing me to scoop my shaking omega into my arms. I hush my little ray of sunshine and promise her I'm here now and not going anywhere.
Then the door closes after the enforcers file out the door.
Should I have tried to take them out or did I do the right thing coming to my omega's aid when she needs me?
I have no experience following my instincts, and now I'm being left alone with my delicious smelling mate and a knot that's already fucking inflating.
How am I supposed to make rational decisions for both of us when I can see she is already lost to another heat spike?!
My panic is interrupted by Ken as he ambles his way out the door too. "I wonder what would break first if you deprive her of what she needs the most. Will her heart break at your rejection? Maybe her soul will darken without you tethering her to reality. Or would her mind splinter, unable to take the agony? Rejection from one mate and separation from a bonded one... oof. You would be a monster."
Knot Freya, bond her, mate her while she's lost to her heat haze, or break her irrevocably?
I'm a monster either way.