2. The Hunt
Chapter 2
The Hunt
Ecker
A nger rushes the air, engulfing the three of us. It thrums, and finally it’s not directed at each other but trained instead on the people who deserve it, like a sniper’s sight.
I reach for the speaker, wanting to rip it from the wall, crush it to smithereens, but Bishop stops me. “We need to hear the rest to get her back.” Always the diplomat .
“ To pass the Vigilance Trial , you must repossess your omega .”
Repossess . Like a fucking car or goddamn piece of property. I can’t help but snarl, my lip curling and the rut tingling my senses.
“ Vigilance is not only about preventing misfortune but also being able to adapt and find a resolution before misfortune turns to tragedy . To put this to the test , the thieves are not to harm the omegas .”
Thieves. Not kidnappers or abductors but thieves . Because, to them, omegas aren’t people but property. My stomach roils. Not supposed to harm her? Then why is Sinclair’s blood staining the carpet?
“ You have twenty minutes until that order expires and they are given free rein to do as they wish .”
“Jesus Christ,” Titus scoffs in disgust.
I don’t trust their rules, not for a second. It only makes me more desperate to find her, to hold her, to count her limbs and toes and make sure that every perfect piece of her is returned to me whole.
“ Do not squander this time . . . . Your clock starts now .”
I’m surprised when Titus is the first one to move toward the door. “Grab a knife if you have it and let’s go,” he says while starting a timer on his phone.
Neither Bishop nor I took the switchblades we usually carry with us on our run and quickly dash to grab them.
Before we leave, another message is delivered through the intercom. This time I recognize the Cyan Elder’s slimy voice. “If your omega has been claimed, do not be comforted by your protective bond. These thieves are all undesignated males so they will not be stopped.” He cackles vulgarly, and the connection cuts with a final, static buzz.
He didn’t need to finish that sentence. We all know what will happen.
We march down the hallway with quick steps. Steps I can hardly hear over the hammering of my heart. The thought of those men’s hands on her makes me murderous, but the idea of them inside her . . . I can’t even fathom what I’d do. The gruesome images and possibilities are like dynamite inside me. I finally allow the rut to flood my system, and with it all my senses heighten, including my sense of smell.
I’m able to inhale and catch her distinctive vanilla and citrus blossom scent. Picking up her warm trail is like a salve to my burning chest. The soothing effects don’t last long. I pick up on another scent, something sharp and acrid with a hint of bitterness. Her fear .
It burns the back of my throat like acid, and soon, it’s all I can smell. Until we follow it outside and it disappears.
The light was fading on our run, but now the sky is inky and the faint flicker of stars are beginning to appear. Goddamn, we really are searching in the dark.
Frustrated, I turn to Bishop. “Can you feel anything through the bond? Where do we go?”
His eyes squeeze shut like he’s concentrating really hard, his nose scrunching.
“Jesus, you look like you’re about to shit yourself,” Titus says.
“Shut the fuck up, Titty .” I huff and punch him in the shoulder. He grunts and scowls back.
“This way.” Bishop’s eyes fly open, now fully gold. A look of intense determination settles on his face. I feel cut off at the knees not being able to sense her the way he can as her mate, like a piece of me I didn’t even know existed has been ripped away.
Once we have her back, I know what I’ll do to make myself whole. But first we need to find her, make sure she’s whole, then, and only then, can I worry about myself.
Titus and I follow Bishop as he runs toward a dense tree line that stretches from the north end of the Estate to the lake. I look over my shoulder at the sound of shouting and see the Cobalts running across the lawn. One of them is carrying a broken table leg.
As we enter the cool shade of the forest, my body buzzes. I don’t know if it’s adrenaline or nerves or maybe, just maybe , it’s her. Bond or no bond.
“ Shit ,” Bishop curses and drags his hand across a tree trunk. When he brings it to his nose, his face contorts with ire. “More blood. It’s hers,” he adds with a growl.
My teeth grind together. I didn’t have much faith in their harm-free grace period to begin with, but now there’s none. We need to get to her, and fast . “Where is she, B? I have a feeling we have a lot less than twenty minutes.”
He doesn’t have to close his eyes this time. Intuitively, he knows and immediately carves a path through the trees with us right behind him.
The sunlight seems to be fading quickly. Has more time passed than I realized, or are we just getting deeper into the woods? Sinclair must be scared right now. As the light dwindles, is more and more fear setting in?
At least she knows we’ll come for her. Always.
She has to know that, right?
A sharp scream slices through the air. 1 We freeze for half a second before Bishop yells her name and we barrel toward the sound at twice the speed. I feel like I can hear the ticking of a bomb in my mind.
Tick , tick , tick—
It’s immediately silenced when I catch her scent again in the wind and know we will get to her in time. She’s so close.
When I spot her white hair like a bright light through the leaves, my heart leaps. At least she’s standing. Her abductors are harder to make out in their all-black outfits, but I can count at least four of them. A growl builds in my chest.
Four of them. Four men have had their hands on her. Four .
They hear us coming and quickly spin around in defense. The moonlight catches the metallic sheen of the knives in their hands. The image of the blades dripping in their blood flashes in my mind as we descend on them like a pack of wolves.
One of them runs toward Titus, who rips off a low branch and skewers the charging man on the broken, jagged end. Sinclair screams as the point juts through his back and another male grabs her. He tugs her back, wrapping one hand around her mouth, and her beautiful blue eyes widen. Bishop roars when the abductor brings his knife to her throat, her handcuffed wrists in front of her.
My bloodthirst rages so strong that I don’t even take out my switchblade. I need to feel the warmth of their spilled blood on my bare hands.
Everything is happening so fast, it would be a blur without the rut. But I’m so hyperaware and in tune with every movement, every sensation, that I move with clear precision. Titus fights with one man while Bishop goes to Sinclair, and I turn my attention to the poor fucker in front of me.
Behind his black balaclava, fear flashes in his eyes and it looks like he’s moving his lips. He better be saying his final prayers because he’s about to meet his maker. In an unconfident crouch, he pedals backward.
He lifts his knife as I stalk forward. He must realize there’s nowhere he can run when a cold smile paints my face, so he lunges at me.
I grab his wrist, forcefully twisting it so he drops the knife. Then I pull his arm out and down, driving my knee up until his forearm snaps like a two-by-four. His howl rattles my eardrums, but I love it.
Pretty white bone breaks through his skin. He wobbles and his eyelids flutter like he’s going to pass out. A small silver key falls from his other fist.
“Not yet, asshole,” I say while holding him upright by his splintered arm. Forcing his injury to his throat, I stab him in the carotid with his own radius or ulna—I don’t know which. I’m a hooker not a fucking doctor.
I groan at the release the slick feel of his blood brings. A delicious chill runs down my spine that, paired with Sinclair’s scent, makes my cock harden. I swipe up the key the man dropped and go to where she stands, trembling in shock in an oversized shirt.
Her eyes are wide with a thousand-yard stare as she slowly holds out her shackled wrists.
Dirt and dried blood streaks her face. It takes all of my rut-addled mind’s focus to not clasp it between my hands and kiss her until neither of us can breathe. But somewhere in the rational recesses of my mind, I know that’s not what she needs right now. By the way she’s hyperventilating and the wired look in her eyes, I know she needs to be uncuffed.
Bishop is still grappling with the man that grabbed her, and Titus is busy ripping every dead man’s mask off—I don’t know what or who he’s looking for, but it doesn’t matter right now.
I want to hold her. I want to hold her so goddamn tight.
She flinches when I lightly touch her hand, breath still harried and heavy. So instead of wrapping her in my arms, I focus on freeing her. Adrenaline makes my hand shake as I fit the small key into the lock of the metal handcuffs.
As soon as the unlocked cuffs fall to the ground with a clink, she takes off sprinting.
I feel absolutely sucker punched as I watch, frozen, as her bare feet fly across the forest floor.
We saved her and she’s running from us?
“What the fuck?” Bishop says without any harshness, just disbelief.
Titus scoffs. “Fucking typical. Hope you weren’t expecting a thank you.” He rolls a corpse over with a kick of his foot like it’s a pebble on the ground.
“No,” is all I can manage to say.
No, this isn’t how it’s supposed to go.
No .
I run after her because doesn’t she know she’s mine? Doesn’t she know I’m hers?
I run because I can’t breathe without her, and I can’t let her go again.
And I run because every alpha instinct is fucking screaming at me to chase .
The thrill of the hunt gives me the strongest second wind. My entire body hums like a tightly strung bow in anticipation of catching her, pinning her, having her beneath me with my cock buried deep inside her.
I doubt she knows where she’s going. Does she even care? Surely she knows that I will chase her wherever she goes.
My blood pumps heavier when she looks back over her shoulder, wild wisps of hair fluttering across her face. Our eyes meet and my chest rumbles when I see the gold in hers. And I realize she’s not running to get away from me. She’s running to get caught by me.
She loves the hunt as much as I do. She can’t help it; it’s her nature. And who am I to deny her what she needs?
An icy laugh spills from my lips and I call out, “Run all you want, Omega, but nothing and no one will be able to keep me from you again. And once I catch you, I’ll claim you to make sure of it.”
Her steps stutter, and she shouts back, “Fuck no!” A primal sort of anger ignites inside of me.
How dare she deny me what’s mine, what’s ours .
Bishop catches up with me. “Are you gonna bite her?”
“I don’t need your permission,” I snarl. It’s true. I already have all the permission I need. I haven’t fucked her pussy out of respect for him, not because I can’t.
“She’s my mate!” He shoves me from the side.
I throw his hands off me. “And our omega.”
As we stand off, she keeps putting more and more distance between us, making me antsy to a volatile extent. “Yeah, but not if she doesn’t want it.” He must have heard Sinclair’s response.
We’ve only been still for five seconds, but the rut feels like it’s rattling my bones with the need to chase after her. “It’s not up to her,” I growl.
He lunges, but Titus pulls him back. “He’s right. She’s ours. He needs to do this on his own, Bish.”
Bishop looks torn as his gaze jumps between Sinclair’s fleeting form and me. His jaw clenches and unclenches before he says, “You make sure she’s okay, alright? Bring our girl back whole.”
There’s a solemn sacredness in his words. His approval and trust.
“I will.” I nod earnestly.
He seems reluctant, but Titus pats him on the shoulder. “Come on, man, let’s go.”
Their footsteps fade as I focus all my senses on Sinclair, now a hundred yards away. This distance excites the animalistic part of me, as it knows it will only make me savor the hunt and my prize all the more.
My mouth waters as I take off, a foreign aching sensation pricking at my gums. My body is preparing to claim her. My muscles light up, surging with strength as I quickly close the distance to less than ten feet.
I can smell her fear on the wind. But now, unlike earlier, it’s sweet. And fucking addicting.
As she feels me closing in, she tries to speed up. Her arms pump harder, and I hear her heart beat faster.
Finally, I reach out and grab her. My hand wraps around her wrist, and I swing her around and into my chest. I clamp my arms around her, and she pushes against my chest with both hands, twisting and yelling.
“Haven’t you learned the more you fight, the harder I get?” I chuckle darkly, and she huffs in aggravation.
I force us back until her shoulders hit a trunk and I pin both wrists above her head. She’s fuming, breathing heavily, and a harsh scowl knits her brows. I lean forward and her breath stutters when I almost graze her cheek with the tip of my nose. I pull back and she looks temporarily stunned.
Clasping both of her wrists in one hand, I trail my thumb up her jaw and down her throat. My gaze narrows on the jump of her pulse, and I tongue my canines. She juts her chin defiantly.
“Don’t you fucking dare bite me.” Even as she snarls, the scent of her arousal fills my lungs. My dirty little omega can’t help herself.
“Oh, you’ll change your tune soon enough, baby girl,” I taunt. “Just wait until I’m stretching your tight pussy— oof! ” She knees me in the crotch. Instinctively, I release her as I double over.
She shoves me and breaks away at a run. I smile despite the pain when I swear I hear her fucking laugh . I suck down a gulp of air before returning to the chase and hollering, “Trust me, I’ll be putting my mark on you sooner or later.”
It’s as much a promise as it is a threat.
Now that I’m done with these cat and mouse games, it takes me a matter of seconds to catch her and pin her back to the ground.
I inhale her scent hungrily, like it will somehow sate this burning need. But I know there’s only one thing that truly will.
“Do you have any idea how useless I felt? I lost your scent, then you were just gone . If it wasn’t for Bishop, we wouldn’t have found you in time.” It hurts to admit. “I would have given anything to be able to feel you through the bond.”
Her glare softens at the anguish behind my growl, and I cup her face between my palms. My heart skips a beat as I close my eyes and lower my mouth. My lips brush against hers and a sweet and soft feeling washes over me.
This . This is what I need.
“Ow!” I rear back when she bites me. “ Jesus fuck ,” I hiss, tasting copper.
I wipe blood from my bottom lip with my thumb, and she weasels out from under me.
I huff then vow as she scrambles onto her feet, “Just for that, I’m going to make you beg. For my mark, for my mercy, for every bit of pleasure I’ll wring from your body.”
She takes a few wobbly steps back, panting and eyes wild as I slowly stand. “I was going to make it sweet for you, but now I’m going to make it hurt.”
She narrows her eyes in challenge but still doesn’t turn around to run. She’s finally realized there’s nowhere for her to go. Because I’ll catch her, now or later doesn’t matter.
I won’t stop until she’s mine.
I stalk closer. “I will bite you and once I do, you’ll take my knot. I don’t care if it rips you in two.” Her lips part on a lusty, sharp inhale. I try not to smirk as I continue. She so clearly loves the hunt as much as I do. “You can fight me the entire time if you want. It won’t change a damn thing.”
She stops moving backward when I get within arm’s reach of her. Her knees and palms are now dirty from crawling on the ground. She looks beautifully feral, untamed.
“So why don’t you make it easy for yourself and present,” I say with a mocking drawl.
She clenches her jaw and scrutinizes me as if trying to determine whether I’m bluffing. I help her out. “I’m deathly serious, Sinclair.”
With one last, sharp glare and curl of her lip, she turns around and lowers onto all fours. Smug satisfaction fills me as she arches her back, and I settle into a kneel behind her. My stomach bottoms out as she hikes the long shirt up over her ass. I lick my lips, seeing she’s not wearing anything underneath, her pussy already dripping with slick.
Mindlessly, I reach between her parted knees and drag my fingers through the wetness lining her inner thigh. “You really are a filthy whore,” I breathe in admiration. I pull down my shorts, letting my cock bob free. “Spreading yourself right here in the dirt, ready to get fucked like an animal in the forest.”
I grip my cock, wetting it with her slick. My head rushes, the rut like a strong, mind-numbing high now that I’m so close to fucking her . . . “ Fuck! ” My mind snaps into focus when she kicks back and slams her heel into my chin, making me bite down hard on my tongue.
She hurriedly crawls forward, and I snarl, “ You nasty , fucking slut .” Red-hot rage pumps through me, aggression rut blooming and merging with my lustful one. “You’re gonna get what’s fucking coming to you.”
I catch her almost instantly, grabbing her ankle and tugging her through the dirt. I pin her flat on her stomach with my body and grind her face into the ground. She wheezes a dry, sinister laugh.
“Is this what you needed, hm?” I growl right next to her ear and her eyelids flutter. “Needed to be chased down and fucked senseless as a reminder that no matter what happens, you’ll always be ours?”
I have her completely powerless, and yet a dazed, lusty look still paints her face. I scoff. “You’re one fucked-up omega.”
My hips and hard cock press against her ass, and she says breathlessly, “ Yes , Alpha . . . ”
I can hear how deep in heat she is by her voice. It’s husky and needy and— fuck , I can’t help but grind my pelvis against her ass.
“ Don’t move ,” I alpha growl, and her whimpering and squirming under me stops immediately. She lies still while I reach between us and slot my dick at her wet entrance. My whole body shudders.
“Fuck, I’ve wanted to take you like this since Titus fucked your virgin pussy bloody. You already know I think about it all the damn time.”
I suck in a deep inhale as I push just the tip inside.
“Think about how wet and silky you’d be. How your pussy would feel gripping my cock as you come. But most of all, I think about . . .” I slowly sheathe myself in her pussy with a long, gruff groan. “About . . . you . . . this . . . fuck . . . how I was made to be yours.”
Now that I have her subdued, I move, relaxed and unhurried. I make my thrusts as short as possible, so that I still get some friction without ever leaving her tight heaven.
I place my palms on the back of her waist and push myself up. “God, I just want to fuck you into the ground,” I muse out loud but think about her soft flesh grating against the dirt.
So instead, I lift her hips. We’re both on our knees now, her chest to the ground. As she’s still under my command, I can move her like a doll. I drag my hips back, withdrawing almost all the way.
“You can move your mouth but nothing else,” I permit then thrust brutally into her.
“ Oh , fuck! ” she cries, and I snap my hips again, plunging into her while also tugging her ass back.
“You feel that? You feel how good we are together?” I say as I wrap one arm under her and begin to rub her clit.
“ Ohmygod . . . , ” she mewls as one word. “ Yes , yes .”
I clench my jaw with another punch of my hips, then ask through gritted teeth, “Do you get it now? Do you understand that you’re mine and I’m all . Fucking . Yours ?”
“Mm-hmm,” she moans, her brows pinching together, and she bites her lip.
“If I let you go, will you stay, or do I have to keep you like this until I claim you?” There’s no hiding the wanting in my tone, the true and hearty ache for her trust.
“I’ll stay.”
Her two sure words hit me like a wave.
“Okay, you can move.” I break the command and instantly get a flash of fleeting fear when she pushes onto her palms.
“Fuck me, Ecker,” she begs, hot and desperate, and the fear evaporates as she doesn’t try to get away but instead just rocks back into me harder.
“Oh, fuck, baby girl.” I groan when she clenches around me and meets me thrust for thrust.
“Oh, please, please ,” she whines for more, and I slap her ass, leaving a beautiful mark. She yelps and I spank her again on the same red spot. “Ow, fuck .” She hisses, and I smirk.
“I told you I’d make it hurt.” Then, I circle her clit with slick fingers, making her sigh heavily and hang her head with a moan. “But I’ll make you feel good too.”
“ Shit , Ecker, I’m gonna com — ” She mewls, her abs twitching.
“Fuck yeah, show me how a desperate slut like you makes a mess of my cock,” I grind out, fighting to hold back my own orgasm as her pussy begins to squeeze and flutter around me.
She keens, thighs clenching and body shaking. A moan gets caught in her throat as she topples over the edge, coming hard for me, her mouth falling open on a silent gasp.
“ Jesus—fucking—Christ ,” I spit as her cunt milks me. My balls draw tight and my hips flex. “I’m about to come.” It’s a strain to talk. “If you want my knot, you know what to do.”
A few loaded breaths and heavy thrusts pass, and my stomach begins to sink despite the cresting pleasure. If she doesn’t say anything, I could still bite her, but the idea of forcing an unwanted bond on her feels wrong.
I exhale through my teeth, every muscle in my body preparing for release.
“Bite me, Ecker.”
My hips stutter. “What?”
“I want you to claim me. Please. Fucking bite me, then knot—”
I pull out, flip her over, and am plunging back inside her within a single second. My heart races as I hover over her, and she rolls her head to the side, exposing her neck. My nerve endings spark with electricity the moment my lips lightly brush her delicate skin. I pause here to savor this beautiful moment, but she must mistake it for hesitancy because she arches up into me and begs, “I fucking need you, please .”
I sink my teeth into her corded muscle. It feels like the earth quakes.
Intense, mystifying rapture consumes me in a sudden burst, and I feel like I could fly. My cock thickens inside her, and when I feel her pleasure and desperation through the newly minted bond as I stretch her even further, I can hardly breathe.
“ So good . . . , ” she says on the sweetest, drawn-out moan. The sound rolls over my skin like divine chills.
Suddenly, her eyes—a dazzling gold—and her mouth fly open. “ Your knot . . . Oh my god .”
Before my knot locks in place, I roll off her and onto my back. “Get on top, baby girl. Sit on my cock and take what’s yours. I want to watch your perfect pussy stretch around my knot.”
She straddles me and tugs her shirt off in a flash. Seeing her naked body makes my brain short-circuit. She’s a fucking vision. My mate .
I’m in a stupor of awe until she presses my tip against her entrance, and pleasure rocks through me. Just the lightest feel of her pussy dripping for me is almost as intense as a full orgasm.
“Shit, baby,” I sputter. “If you don’t put me inside you right now . . .” A throaty groan is pulled from me as she sinks down.
Her chest blooms with a pink that crawls up her throat to the bite marks now on either side of her neck. She rolls her head back and rocks her pelvis forward to rub her clit against me.
“ Yesss ,” she moans greedily and grinds harder, more feverishly. Her eyelids are half-mast, and a continuous, hungry whimper keeps spilling from her lips.
I could watch her take and take and take from me all. Fucking. Day. “Use me, Omega.”
My knot continues to expand, and she mewls. “You feel. So. Fucking. Good, Alpha.” The sound of her taking her pleasure from me makes me lightheaded. She chants a combination of sharp moans and sweet, little, oh , oh , ohs .
She comes with a loud gasp, falling forward as she plants her palms on my chest and takes my knot.
“God damn .” My knot inflating and filling her is a deep and throbbing pressure. And when it locks into place, the release takes my breath away. I come harder than I ever have before. I can’t help but wrap my arms around Sinclair and squeeze her tight to my chest as my cock pulses again and again.
“You take me so fucking well. Such a good fucking girl for your mate.” I rumble into her ear and can feel her smile into my neck before pressing a soft kiss to my heated skin.
I brush my hand over her hair, pulling it back from her sweaty temples to fall down her back. The feel of her pleasured shudder makes me warm with contentment. I repeat the motion as we bask in our new bond. It seems to soothe her as much as me.
Feeling her safe in my arms is like fitting a missing puzzle piece into place. But feeling her in my bond, in my heart, is like nothing was ever missing to begin with. I’m whole, as if I were never broken.
Brushing her hair off her shoulder, I run my fingers over the scar on her neck and ask, not for the first time, “Who did this to you?”
She chuckles then says with a hint of attitude, “You know, it would be easy to figure out if you really wanted to.”
“Always the brat.” I laugh and nip her shoulder. She squeals then nuzzles back into me. I sigh into her hair, looking up at the stars that break through the tree canopy, and can’t imagine ever letting her go.
1. “Formaldehyde Footsteps” — Houndrel