Chapter 8

James

Despite my newly knitted flesh and renewed hatred of the alpha by my side, relief pours through me as I lay eyes on my omega.

Until her ashen face, bloody shoulder, and unfocused eyes register.

She's not okay.

I knew she wouldn't be by the emotions and pain flowing through our weak bond, but I thought she'd be in better shape than the city slicker. She's not. At all. If anything, she looks like she's on death's doorstep.

Sathanas can't have her. She's mine.

Not only mine.

Ours.

If what I'm feeling is only secondhand to the agony resounding through my omega and her other mate's bond, then it's no wonder she's miserable.

Her unfocused eyes find mine in the darkness.

She called us here, both me and the city slicker. She needs us. Now.

I growl as my attention expands to our surroundings for the first time.

The two human males she walked down the hill with the first time I saw her have their hands on her.

Rage consumes me. They're dead meat.

The city slicker's furious growl assures me he feels the same.

Without words, we lunge forward and attack with lethal precision. I grab the closest idiot's throat and crush his windpipe with my fist. His eyes bulge. I peel his seizing fingers off Heather's wrist, jerk his head back by his greasy hair, and sink my fingertips into his flesh, past muscles and tendons, until I curl my fingers around solid bone. With a jerk and a pop, I sever his spinal cord before yanking his spine from his body. The wet sucking sound as I remove his backbone brings me immense satisfaction. I grunt in amusement and wrench a lone rib off its vertebra and toss it into the corn before dropping the stringy, floppy spinal column to the dirt.

His gutted body crumples like an accordion.

My omega goes limp in my periphery. I catch her before she hits the ground. Alarm spears through me at her shallow breathing. She's too pale.

I gather her into my arms and cradle her to my chest as I sit in the middle of the filthy trail. Even covered in blood and another male's seed, the urge to rut and mark her thrusts me toward an alpha rampage, but her lashes fanning across her cheeks and her utter stillness scare me into sanity.

I snarl as boots approach from my left but stop when I recognize the city slicker.

"What are you waiting for? Mark her already," he mumbles.

As his bloodlust drains away, he staggers and falls to a knee in front of me.

"I can't," I snarl. "You first."

He shakes his head, loses his balance, and tips onto his ass.

"I got you because she needs you, stupid halfwit," he says as his breaths turn choppy.

The red light in his eyes fades until they emit the barest glow, and if it weren't for the artificial lamps, he'd blend into the darkness.

My spicy little pumpkin isn't the only one about to die.

I grab him by the collar and pull him through the sand until his face hovers over hers as I snarl.

"She needs you first, asshole." I grab his coat lapels and yank them apart with so much force the big black buttons pop free and skitter along the gore-filled ground. "You fucked her, forced a half bond on her, and left her bleeding out." I grip the collar of his black shirt and rip it down the center. "I can't mark her until your bond is complete." With a furious shove, I push his clothes off one shoulder and expose his thick trapezius. "Since you stabbed me in the back and rutted her without me, I won't feel bad about this," I snarl.

His brows knit in confusion.

I gouge his shoulder with my nails before wrapping my fingers around his jaw, weaving my hand in my omega's hair, angling her head, and forcing him down so her lips brush against his wound.

"Without the pleasure of rutting her, this will hurt. A lot. But don't worry, city slicker, this pain doesn't settle the score between us."

Heather doesn't stir, so I rotate my wrist and run her lips over his wound.

"My revenge will come when you least expect it," I promise.

He grunts and slips his hand behind her back, rubbing his knuckles along my leg, but she doesn't wake. I release him, swipe my finger through his blood, then wedge my fingertip between her teeth. When I run my digit over her tongue, her entire body jerks and she lunges upward. I yank my finger out of her mouth and press my two mates together. She sinks her teeth into his shoulder and moans. He hisses and scrunches his brow in pain, but he skims his hand up her back and massages her nape. She soaks up his silent encouragement and grinds her teeth deeper into his muscle.

When her mouth fills with his blood, she swallows. Her moan deepens to a purr.

Lust drains all thoughts from my head. My cock hardens to steel, and my balls throb with need.

Her feminine rumble rewires my circuits with her in the center of my hard drive. Nothing matters beyond her and her happiness.

I can't wait to mark her.

With a tortured growl, I push the city slicker onto his back—supporting our omega as she savages his shoulder—and settle her on his chest. I shuck her leggings off, fling them away, and part her knees around his hips.

Needing all of her, I pull her shredded sweater and shirt off her arms and move the city slicker's hand from her lower back to her hair.

"Hold her there," I demand.

His bright red eyes glow in the lamplight. He growls and nods as he tightens his grip on her nape and hair.

Her perfect pussy glistens in the light. A mix of slick and alpha seed paints her inner thighs and drips from her swollen cunt. I yearn for a taste of her, but I'll lose control and mark her thighs and pussy with my teeth if I put my face between her legs now, so I sink two fingers into her body and groan as she clamps around me.

She's ready. So ready. With her teeth sunk into the city slicker's throat and completing their bond, her omega body begs for an alpha's knot. She's desperate for a proper rutting.

Her whine as I pull my digits out of her pussy and the taste of her on my tongue when I stick them in my mouth satisfies me as nothing ever has before. I roll my eyes and savor her taste as I unzip my jeans and pull out my cock.

With jerky movements, I spread her knees further apart and kneel behind her, bracketing my mortal enemy's thighs with my legs. She whines again as I run the broad head of my cock through her folds.

I meet his eyes over her head and snarl.

"Hold her tighter."

He smirks, nods, and digs his fingertips into her nape.

I thrust balls deep into her and freeze as magma escapes from my balls, bypasses my knot, and bursts from my tip. I struggle to breathe as her tight, wet pussy clamps around me.

She screams, releasing her bite on the city slicker, but he presses her face to his neck and murmurs deliciously dark promises into her filthy hair as my first wave of seed fills her womb. Without my knot trapping my cum inside, it escapes from around my invasion and seeps down our thighs.

I growl and splay my hand over her upper back, pinning her against our living furniture, and grab her hip.

Unable to form words, I drop my rumble an octave and fight to breathe as her channel flutters around my shaft.

I fuck her with wild abandon, giving her exactly what her body needs and more, pulling back until my tip peeks out of her entrance before surging back in, forcing the expanding balloon at my base in and out of her body with every thrust. Her muffled screams and weak attempts to evade my mastery of her body only encourage me to rut her harder. I angle my hips and drag my cock along her walls, enjoying her mewling and gasping as I rearrange her insides.

The sight of her tiny pussy struggling to accept my massive cock unravels me.

I bury myself impossibly deeper with a brutal thrust as my release slams through me. Liquid fire rushes from my balls and fills my knot. Stars burst behind my eyes as she clenches around me, pulling me so deep into her body my tip mashes against the spongy ring of her cervix. Fire scorches the inside of my shaft and spurts against the entrance to her womb as my knot locks us together.

She's too tight. Too hot. Too perfect.

I lean forward and bite her unmarred shoulder, staking my claim and sinking my teeth into her smooth flesh, ensuring my mark stays with her for eternity. Coppery spice fills my mouth, and I growl as euphoria slides down my throat and settles in my stomach.

The tie between our souls thickens and emits an ethereal glow. Pleasure consumes me. I grind my teeth into her shoulder and fill her womb with my seed.

She whimpers. I snarl and flex my hips. We both groan as my cock shifts within her.

Thick fingers weave into my hair. I snarl and bite harder, furious the city slicker has the audacity to touch me in such an intimate moment.

"Let go, hillbilly," he growls.

She shakes underneath and around me as his voice vibrates through her. I scratch down her side, slip a hand to her belly, and smirk against her shoulder as I feel how swollen she is from my invasion.

I can't wait to see her round and ripe with my offspring.

"She's gnawing a hole in my throat, you asshole," the city slicker snarls.

I growl. The muffled quality of her whimper registers.

Despite my reluctance, I open my jaw and run my tongue over her torn flesh before lifting my head. The sight of her crimson-covered lips plastered to his throat fills me with longing. Our partial bond throbs.

I need her teeth in my flesh, not his, yet even with hatred coursing through me from years' worth of animosity, no jealousy rises.

She's right where she should be—between her two scarecrows.

I whack his arm away from my head and wrap my fingers around her throat.

"Release him. It's my turn," I snarl. She whimpers and grinds her teeth together. "Bite me harder than you're biting him. Make it hurt. I want to feel your teeth in me. Now, my spicy little pumpkin," I murmur into her ear.

She shakes. Her emotions flow through our bond, jarring me from the unexpected feminine presence in my chest.

I drop my growl into a purr, but still she wars with her instincts. Too impatient, I give an evil jerk of my hips.

She gasps. I yank her head back and angle her lips to my throat.

Stuffed full of my cock and wedged between me and the city slicker, she seals our fate and bites high on my neck, almost catching my ear in her desperation, while completing our bond and tying us together for eternity.

I explode. Surges of desire overtake my entire existence. Nothing matters beyond the tiny omega accepting my seed and the alpha bracketing her other side. Both creatures infiltrate my heart and become permanent fixtures despite my heavy reluctance to accept the foreign masculine presence. Even though we don't share a direct link, the city slicker and I connect through the female trapped between us.

With her teeth in my flesh, my knot locked in her body, and my seed flooding her womb, I see her for what she truly is.

She's a natural amplifier. An antenna. She takes the power Sathanas gave us and multiplies it exponentially.

The wraiths crossed the portal and sought her out because of it. She found her way back to the humans because of it. Her energy draws both the city slicker and me to her.

She's ours. She belongs with us.

Forever.