Chapter 5

James

I jab my hand into the nearest wraith, wrap my fingers around his heart, and yank the organ out of his chest. Black sludge oozes down my arm and turns to smoke as it drips onto the earth. The wraith screeches and poofs into nonexistence as it touches the ground.

A werewolf howls in the distance.

I dart toward the other side of the clearing and eviscerate another wraith as the city slicker grabs one out of the air and slams it into the ground by sheer force. Tiny black tendrils of smoke waft up his body as he steps away from his kill.

As the remaining wraiths swarm above us, preparing for their next attack, I roll my shoulders and sweep my hand over the bottom half of my face. Unwilling to waste a single drop of my omega's slick, I lick my palm and hum low in my throat at the heavenly flavor.

Wraiths don't normally cross over into the human realm, but with the veil so thin, they must have slipped through the portal, and since the nearest call of distress was my female, they flocked to the skies above us.

For a moment, I allow myself to feel grateful for the city boy's presence before sloughing off the disgusting emotion and leaning into my rage.

I annihilate soul sucker after soul sucker until only the bright, full moon and sparkling stars fill the night sky.

When my arch nemesis squats and scoops dirt into his hands to clean wraith filth off his clothes, I move without thinking, still riding the high of battle.

He turns just in time to catch my fist before it collides with the back of his head. His glare would send a lesser male to his knees, but I curl my lip in a sneer and lean into his space.

"Don't think one round of sharing a taste will end our hatred, stupid city boy. We're still enemies," I say.

He cocks his head and looks me up and down before scoffing.

"Sure, inbred halfwit. Go ahead and break our agreement. I was an idiot to believe you'd keep your word, anyway."

My hackles rise.

"Excuse me?" I snarl.

"You heard me," he challenges.

We bump chests and glare at one another.

"Yeah, I heard you, but you're not making any fucking sense," I say.

"Is your memory that bad, or are you being dense on purpose? We said first come, first served. Together. Just this once." He tightens his grip on my knuckles. "And as far as I can tell, neither of us has fucked the little bitch, so…"

I grind my teeth and take a deep breath before yanking out of his hold.

"Fine. I won't kill you until after we both knot her. It can be my dying gift to you," I snark before turning and bumping him with my shoulder as I step toward my female.

She's gone.

Besides the divots in the dirt left behind by her writhing, her bright pink panties dangling from a nearby corn stalk, and her boots glimmering in the moonlight, there's no trace of the female we left catatonic on the ground. She grabbed her leggings and snuck away while we were saving her from the wraiths.

Damn, this fucking female keeps surprising me. I don't like it, but color me more intrigued than I already was.

"Looks like our truce may last a little longer than we expected," I snark at the asshat prowling past me.

His only response is to grunt as he slinks between the stalks toward the farm.

Our omega leaves an obvious trail. Her tiny footprints in the damp earth, coupled with the cloud of her pheromones, lead us directly to her. As we approach the big green harvester parked between fields, my chest tightens at the sight of the bloody, smeared handprints she left along the side.

She's close.

Following behind the yank rankles my pride, so when he stops near the front bumper of the harvester, I push past him. With a vicious shove, he knocks me off balance and kicks the back of my knee. As I fall under the blades, he yanks the lever and drops the arm.

White-hot agony slices into my spine. I hiss and fight for freedom, but when I try to push up, the blades sink deeper into my body and fresh blood gushes down my sides. Sathanas' energy pours through me, maintaining my animation, but without his gift of supernatural life, I'd die from pain and blood loss.

"You fucking prick," I snarl.

I cough as dirt, grass, and blood invade my mouth.

Boots saunter into view and stop in front of me. The asshat squats and braces his hand on the front of the vehicle before lowering his face so our eyes meet.

"Deal's off because of you, inbreed. If you hadn't given in to your backstabbing impulses, I wouldn't have had to show you how to do it properly. Now wait here like a good little bitch while I go claim my female." He reaches between the blades and pats my head, but when I hiss, he shoves my face into the dirt and snarls. He stands and saunters back toward the lever.

"Maybe I'll forget to come save you before the farmer comes for harvest…" All the air escapes from my lungs as he lowers the blades. "Sounds like a fitting punishment to me. See you in a few weeks, halfwit," he says in the most demeaning tone I've ever heard.

Unable to expand my chest under the weight of the machine and drowning in blood and agony, I can't respond as his boots traverse the length of my vision. With half my face buried in the dirt and a blade sunk deep into my skull, even moving my eyes proves painful, but closing them blankets me in a world of dark torture, so I stare at the faint moonlight bouncing off the base of the cornstalks.

Time creeps onward. My heart continues to beat. I bleed. The pain remains unbearable, but there's no escape.

The city slicker stabbed me in the back—literally—and trapped me in a world of agony.

As much as my body hurts, nothing compares to the mental anguish of knowing he'll claim the tiny female without me.

She's mine. I need her.

And if I'm being totally honest, I need to see his hands on her. I need to see her writhe, moan, and fall apart between us.

When I get free, nothing will stop me from taking revenge on the city asshat and marking the tiny omega.

I'll sink my teeth over the mark he left on her, tying all three of us together for eternity.

I can't think of a more fitting punishment for the alpha who thought he could steal a female from me.