Chapter 9

Vincent

When I first began my life as a scarecrow, the beauty of the sunset in the middle of bumfuck nowhere took me by surprise, but my enjoyment quickly faded as the days and nights continued without mercy.

I'll never tire of this view, though. Thoroughly wrecked and lying atop me with her teeth mangling the country bumpkin's throat, my female writhes in the throes of passion. With her reluctant submission, she completes the tie between me and my mortal enemy.

Ever since we met fifty years ago, fate decided the hillbilly and I would hate each other. Sathanas saw our absolute abhorrence for each other and used it for his own gain, but the tiny omega sandwiched between us brings us together in the ultimate mindfuck.

I still hate the hillbilly, but she needs him just as much as she needs me, so I willingly allow him close.

When her grip loosens on my chest, I snap out of my musings and study her face. Beyond her bloodstained lips and flushed cheeks, she glows with vitality, but her lashes dip as she battles with exhaustion. The lines bracketing her closed eyes highlight her pain as it seeps through our bond.

I want more. My hard cock, still wet and pinched by the seam of my trousers from hastily shoving it into the fabric after I rutted and left my omega, throbs as her distended belly presses against me.

The country bumpkin groans and tilts his hips, mashing my female against me and pinning me harder to the cold ground. I hiss and swat him upside the head. She releases her bite on his throat and turns glazed eyes down to me.

My knot balloons as my heart gives a prolonged squeeze. Fresh wetness leaks from my tip and soaks my trousers. She's gorgeous. Perfect. Mine.

Ours. The blood on her lips belongs to both me and the inbreed. She's ours.

Her slurred snarl arrows straight to my balls.

"Mine. Do not hit," she growls.

The hillbilly chuckles and grinds his hips against hers. She whimpers and drops her face to my chest. I cup the back of her head and meet his heavy-lidded gaze.

"Get out of her. We need to leave," I manage through clenched teeth.

I want to fuck and knot her so badly my entire body aches, but not here. Not with the cloying scent of death filling my nostrils and my omega shivering from the cold, even though our bodies shield her from the wind.

He snarls and reaches around her. His knuckles brush against my bare chest as he kneads her breasts and pinches her nipples. I snarl and whack him upside the head again. She rumbles an unhappy, tortured sound as his knot shifts inside her. Her nails dig into my chest.

"It hurts," she whispers.

I glare into his eyes and snarl through clenched teeth.

"Stop before I make you."

He groans, obviously releasing a fresh wave of seed into her womb, and smirks.

I reach underneath my omega and grab his balls. His eyes widen in alarm.

"Add this to your reasons for revenge, motherfucker," I snarl before squeezing and twisting his balls with every ounce of hatred I've harbored over the years.

His red eyes flare, and he opens his mouth on a silent scream. With a vise grip on his balls, I yank him away from our omega. His knot deflates, and with an audible pop, he extracts himself from her pussy. Their mixed essences rain down on me, but I release his balls and cover her pussy with my hand, blocking him from burying his face between her legs. My own instincts demand I consume the slick and seed pouring from her, but we won't stop at only one taste, and she needs a safer, more comfortable place before we rut her again.

The halfwit grabs my arm, but I pull her up my body and plant my knee in his chest.

"Not here," I snarl.

He drops his hand to the ground, only to jerk away. The human male's blood drips down his forearm. I enjoy his look of disgust as he flings as much off as he can, splattering the bodies and nearby cornstalks.

As though it were his own idea, he surveys the area, meets my stare, and says, "We can't stay here."

"No shit, Sherlock," I mumble into our omega's filthy hair.

Her entire body shakes and her emotions flip through our bond too fast for me to comprehend. As the hillbilly rises and stalks over to wipe his hand on the dead's clothes, I pull my leather jacket around my omega, closing her in against my chest and using my body heat to warm her.

Without buttons to hold the fabric together, I overlap the material and wrap an arm around her back and the other under her ass.

"Put your arms around my neck, doll," I murmur.

When she doesn't move, I encourage her with a comforting purr and tighten my arms around her to shift her higher on my chest. She slowly pulls her nails out of my flesh and weaves her fingers together around my nape.

"Good girl," I say.

She sighs and tucks her face into the crook of my neck, smearing my blood over both of us. When she sneaks a tiny lick over her bite mark, pleasure streaks down my spine. I suck down an unsteady breath and use my abdominals to sit up. Her bare, weeping pussy slides along my stomach and she groans. Even with my forearm underneath her, her ass fits too perfectly in my lap, so I swing my legs behind me and rise onto my knees before I give in to temptation.

"C'mon, I know where we can go," the hillbilly says.

He startles me by squatting beside me, bracing my lower back, grabbing my arm, and helping me to my feet. I study him with a healthy dose of skepticism, because even though he exudes the single-minded determination of an alpha set on protecting his omega mate, he promised to enact his retribution.

"Fine, lead the way," I respond, not willing to have him at my back while I carry such precious cargo.

He steps closer and presses his forehead to the top of her head and inhales. I allow him a moment of shoring up his defenses, knowing all too well how difficult it is to put space between yourself and your newly marked female, but when he strokes her hair, I growl and step away.

"Let's go, hillbilly."

He licks her temple and chuckles as fresh wetness leaks from her and slides down my legs. She lifts her head and gives him the cutest glare before slipping into an exhausted slumber. Her skin flushes and she trembles.

The change in her scent, although subtle, punches through my nostrils. My mouth waters.

I meet glowing red eyes in the darkness as we share the same realization.

Our omega whimpers and clings tighter to me in her sleep as the first cramp of estrous steals through her.

"It's Halloween," I say through tingling lips.

His eyes shrink as he studies her.

"She's an omega now. Our omega. We're scarecrows of Sathanas, The Keeper of Halloween," he mumbles.

"Omegas go into heat on their holidays," I rumble.

He curses under his breath and turns toward the cornfield.

"Let's go, then. It won't be long before she's desperate for another rutting, and I sure as hell won't be able to resist when she begs with that pretty little mouth again," he says.

With an annoyed glare at his back, I follow him off the man-made path away from the mess of our killing spree and into the darkness. He leads us across the field and over several hills before veering onto the adjacent land.

I roll my eyes as I realize where he intends to take us.

"We're not going to the trailer park, asshole," I snarl.

He stops in his tracks and spins around on his heel. His nostrils flare as our omega suffers through another surge of hormones in her sleep.

"Do you have a better idea, city boy?" he snarls.

"Yeah, I do. Keep up, halfwit," I respond as I head back the way we came.

He follows close on my heels as I cross several corn fields, slinking closer to the portal, and step into the woods on the far side of our normal sentry circuit.

Tucked between the trees, a narrow trail leads us to a small clearing with an old barn and farmhouse. A truck sits in the driveway, but the area is empty of living souls.

It's exactly how I left it.

"What is this?" the hillbilly asks.

I shrug and step onto the porch. It squeaks under my boots, but the boards remain solid. I kick the corner of the welcome mat over with my boot to reveal the key.

"Remember the woman you stole from me fifty years ago?" I snarl.

He squats and pinches the key between his fingers before looking up and meeting my gaze.

"No, not really," he challenges despite his inferior position.

"Me neither," I admit. "But I always knew I'd find someone to fill the hole in my chest."

Surprise flits through me as his expression softens. He surges to his feet and fits the key in the lock.

"I'm not sorry for what I've done—it's your fault for not satisfying your female—but the pain I felt when you trapped me under the harvester wasn't purely physical, so I understand, city slicker," he says as he opens the door and steps inside. "Let's get our female settled so we can rut, knot, and fill her with our offspring. She'll never be able to leave either of us then."

I roll my eyes and push past him into the darkness.

"I don't need her belly full of my younglings to make her want to stay with me. Watch and learn, hillbilly. Rutting is only half the fun."

He mumbles under his breath but shuts the door behind him and follows me deeper into the house.

Anticipation fills me. I can't wait to have our pretty little doll trapped between us and locked on both our knots for the first time.

She's the only thing stopping us from tearing each other apart. She is our future. Our hearts.

Ours. Forever.

I need her healthy, whole, and pampered. I need her overflowing with both my seed and my love. I need her to know she has every ounce of my devotion from now until the end of time.

From this point on, nothing is more important than making up for the horrors she's faced in the last few hours. She suffered the most as her alphas allowed their feud to ruin what should have been the most glorious moments of her life.

We'll make up for it, even if it means I must constantly protect her from the narrow-minded jerk who loves to irk me at every opportunity.

She's as much his as she is mine. We're nothing without her.

As another cramp steals through her, I snarl out instructions for the hillbilly. He wisely follows my commands.

A sliver of appreciation steals through me. We agree.

Our omega comes first.

Always.