LOGINAshley Hauling me up, the stranger placed me back on the bed. “What the fuck are you doing? Yesterday, you were nearly dead, and now you’re trying to run?”Something pulled me toward him, and I couldn’t form any coherent thoughts. I just needed to press my body against his, and I’d be just fine. He’d protect me.Instead, I found myself unable to move as he held me to the bed. “Don’t touch me,” he snarled as if he could read my thoughts. “Do you understand? Don’t ever touch me.”My gaze moved down to where he was touching me, and he snatched his hands back like he’d been burned.“But it’s you,” I said as if that should mean something to him. As if it should mean something to me. I was so confused.“You don’t know me,” he snarled and moved to the far side of the room. I didn’t contradict him, and we stared at each other. I should thank him. He and his alphas had saved my life, but from how he looked at me, I didn’t think he was happy about that.He looked like he abhorred me, but I’d
Ashley “You’re a fucking broken omega, and I’m going to make sure no one ever fucks you.”Pain exploded in me, and I cried out and began clawing at my gown. Stabbed. He’d stabbed me over and over. So much pain—and I couldn’t fight back. He’d held me with his bond, and I’d just laid there and taken it.In an instant, the alpha was there, grabbing my hands. Terrified, I tried to jerk away, but he held fast.“Fuck, stop it. We’re not here to hurt you. Just breathe. The doctor is on her way.”“The doctor is here,” a woman said as she walked in and stared at the scene before her. She was an older wolf with gray strands peppering her dark hair. Despite being a beta, she had that no-nonsense look of a healer. She gave that look to the alpha now through narrow eyes.“Alpha, you’re scaring my patient. Please step away from her.”He growled but released me, and I huddled in the corner of my bed.“If you could just give us some space,” the doctor began, only to be hustled further into the room
ConradShe was so small.Eyes glued to the omega in the hospital bed, I watched the machines beep and light up. My uncertainty grew. Did the doctors even know what the hell they were doing? What if these machines weren’t working? What if she was dying right now, and everyone thought she was on the mend because some hundred-thousand-dollar machine wasn’t working, and nobody knew?How could someone hurt an omega like this? In most cases, wolves were wired to protect an omega. Who the hell in their right mind would try to kill one?Other than us.We’d never told anyone the truth about Lana. Not even King Cyrus, although he’d probably guessed. Everyone else assumed our old omega had died with the rest of the betas.Omegas were precious and rare. It took someone perverse and twisted to hurt an omega like this.Unfortunately, wolves with darker tastes weren’t hard to come by. I feared what would happen to Kieran if we didn’t find some way to get him some help. What would happen to all o
LucienWith a moan, she closed her eyes, and her head fell to the side. Guilt was a part of Kieran’s personality now. It lurked in our bonds and had become a fixture, but it seared through me stronger than ever as I stared down at the omega.“What the fuck is happening?” Conrad shouted at me. Even through the bond, he sounded out of breath.My reply—that I had no idea what was happening—was terse as I stared at the omega. Kieran wasn’t moving fast enough. Every fiber of my being needed to help, so I put Betty down gently.“Sit here, Betty.” When I was sure that she wouldn’t toddle off, I stripped my shirt to pieces and began trying to pack them into the omega’s wounds.Blood stained my fingers as it continued to leak from her, and I started to shake. Three stabs. Had they hit any vital organs? Was I only buying her a few seconds before she died in my arms?She wouldn’t be the first.I’d caught Lana before she even hit the ground. The gun fell to the grass—so goddamn harmless once it
KieranThe king’s involvement was a source of irritation for me. I did my best to avoid him, which had been easy for the past couple of years—he’d been giving me a wide berth.Following Conrad’s scent, we moved carefully, keeping an eye out for any wolves who might be lingering, until we found a woman’s prone body bleeding in the leaves. I kneeled by the body and pressed my fingers to her neck.“She’s alive,” I muttered. Blood poured out of her stomach. She’d been stabbed.I inhaled sharply when a different scent hit me. Panic and surprise flooded our bond, and I hissed. “She’s an omega.”Fuck. What the hell was an omega—an injured one—doing all the way out here? My instincts to race forward and protect her warred with my disgust. I wouldn’t let my alphas get involved with another omega.I wouldn’t get involved with an omega.Lucien dropped down to his knees next to me. Betty was still in his arms. “No,” I growled. “Get back.”“She’s...” Lucien whispered. His alpha genes were starting
Ashley “Down, beta. I don’t want anything to mark that pretty face,” the man with the clipboard cautioned him. “Now she has a reputation for being feisty. The crowd is gonna like that. You got her, Sylvester?”A man grunted behind me, and my dress was once again hiked to my armpits. “No bite marks. No stretch marks. You say she’s a virgin?”“Pure as the day she was born.”“We’ll start her at three thousand. You get sixty percent of what she goes for. Sylvester, turn her around.”Sylvester turned me as the man with the clipboard retrieved a hot poker from the fire pit.I tried to fight, but it was useless. The man swept my hair up, and torturous pain seared in the back of my neck as I was branded. A hand wrapped around my mouth as I screamed, and when I was put back on my feet, all my fight was gone.I swayed, not even sure I could walk. The man tossed the brand back in the fire, and I whimpered.“Number six,” he bellowed, and Sylvester pulled me toward the other women. In shock, I st
Natalie The small Italian bistro downtown hums with the chatter of weeknight diners, the warm lighting casting a golden glow over the checkered tablecloths.I sit across from Mark, watching him twirl pasta around his fork.Mark has been my steady anchor since Paul first paired us together when I w
Jaxon Twenty-three unread texts. Fifteen missed calls that went straight to voicemail.A day and a half later, and I'm still standing in the wreckage of whatever the hell happened in that park, turning over every word I said to Freckles like evidence at a crime scene.Everything had been going be
Natalie “You are gonna poke a hole in his face if you keep staring at him like that.” Freda’s voice slams me from behind, and I turn around, hand on my heart.“Jesus Christ, you scared me.”Standing in the doorway, my best-friend-slash-roommate holds grocery bags in one hand and a gym bag slung ov
NatalieDominant in the field. A fiend with the spirals. Unstoppable.The words glow on my laptop screen, stark against a high-resolution photo of Jaxon Wolfgang. I should be focusing on the next article, the one hyping him as the greatest comeback story in the league at the age of nineteen, but my







