Find him

KAEL

Those words cut through the air like a double-edged blade.

"What the fuck have you done?"

This was the moment I could have used to change back. I didn't. Couldn't. My wolf stood frozen in that clearing, our hackles still raised, while our body hummed with both power and confusion. My wolf was confused on why our mate seemed not to want us.

The taste of his blood still clung to my tongue... all sharp, coppery, and multiple shades of wrong. I hadn't meant to bite. I hadn't meant to do any of this.

I had not meant to mark the boy.

But the instincts had taken over, and it was a full moon, and...

Fuck, the boy was coming at me.

Fast, naked, and bleeding from where I had scratched him. Eyes all wild and lips trembling with what could only be fury. But I wasn't thinking about any of that when he launched himself at my wolf form, his fists slamming against the fur and muscle there.

He was beautiful.

Damn, gorgeous. With silver hair like the moon, and a face many would go to war for. He had a sort of feminine beauty no male would be able to resist.

Thoughts of other men wanting him was enough to turn my stomach. He was mine...

Oh, fuck.

Each punch was followed by a question.

"What did you fucking do to me?"

Punch.

"Why the fuck would you do that?"

Punch. Punch.

"I don't want this. Get it off me."

I didn't move. My wolf held steady under the blows, as if this was his way of offering penance for what we had done. The anger radiating off him was hotter than any fire I had ever built. But it wasn't just the rage, there was something else behind the omega’s voice... something much more brittle, terrified, and violated.

I, Kael Blackwood, had violated this young man.

"I'm not interested in this!" The omega screamed. "I'm not interested in you! I didn't ask for this! I didn't ask to be yours! You can't just..." his breath hitched. "You can't just do that!"

I finally shifted.

In a snap of bone and breath, my large dark wold form was gone, replaced by me... tall, broad-shouldered, bare and battered. There were scratches on my chest where the omega had hit me, and my eyes... which on a normal day would glow with the Alpha dominance in me, were dimmed from the shame of what I had done.

Shame.

"I didn't mean to," I said. My voice came out rough, hoarse. "I didn't know..."

"Bullshit." The omega shoved me hard, not a single care in the world about what I had to say. "You knew exactly what you were doing. Your wolf knew. You bit me."

I took another look at the angry, naked omega in front of me and hated myself even more.

The mark was already there... stark against River’s damp skin, bleeding slightly at the edges where my canines had punctured flesh. It wasn't a full mark, praise be to the goddess, but it was enough to start the bond. Enough to bind us in ways that could never be undone.

Fuck me.

"I'll reject you," the omega spat, as if the thought would be enough to undo the horror. "I will do just that. I don't care if it kills me, or kills you. It probably wouldn't kill the big, bad wolf anyway. Do you think I want this? To be tied to an Alpha who doesn't know anything about consent since he couldn't be bothered to ask before..."

Big bad wolf. Interesting.

"You can't reject me," I said quietly.

The omega's face twisted into something that was partly rage, and partly annoyance. "Don't you dare tell me what I can or cannot do..."

"Not because of me," I interrupted. "Because of the mark. It's... partial already. It's already begun."

The omega went still.

The fury in his eyes faltered for the first time since he turned back to his human self, and for a split second, I saw something else behind it... panic. Grief, maybe. Deep, shuddering disbelief.

"No," He whispered, mostly to himself. "No, that's not... I didn't..."

He took a step back. And then another.

I wanted to say something. Anything at all. But what could I say that would soothe the wound I had caused.

Sorry I list control? Or sorry my instincts claimed you like you were some sort of object? Sorry I ruined everything good and wonderful? You shouldn’t have been given a mate like me?

Fuck. There was nothing I could say that would sound remotely good. This was a fucking tragedy.

The omega stared at me, his chest rising and falling rapidly. His fists were still clenched, and the blood from his neck had begun to dry, trailing down his collarbone.

He had such splendid collarbone. Maybe...

"You don't get to try and fix this," he said, voice shaking. "You don't get to fix this with whatever words you're thinking in that head of yours. You fucked up, and I am the one who would have to live with it."

Then he turned around, but it wasn't to rub or hide from me, but to stand alone. Strong, shaking, but unbowed.

My wolf whimpered inside me.

The scent of blood and betrayal here was suffocating. I couldn't stand here any longer.

So I did what any other wolf in my place would have done, Alpha or not. I turned and ran, shifting into my wolf mid-stride.

***

The woods blurred around me, all green and gold and wild. I sprinted through the forest, leaping over fallen branches, snapping past thickets, all while following the distant trail of scent that belonged to the men in my patrol team.

My heart pounded with more than exertion. Shame clung to me like a second skin. What the fuck had I done?

I was supposed to be an Alpha. In control at all times, and unshakeable. My pack followed me because I was rational. I let with precision and purpose, never straying from that. That was the whole reason the elders had promised me Lyria.

A union of power, and a merging of bloodlines.

And now?

I just did the one thing nobody from my pack would ever had done. I had bitten a male omega.

Not just bitten... marked.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

My wolf had chosen for me. There was no amount of planning or promises or arranged mates that could change that now. The bond had begun, whether any of us wanted it or not. It would pull us toward each other... mentally, emotionally, physically... until it either deepened or destroyed us.

I did not want it.

Did not deserve it.

I would be with Lyria, and that was final.

I broke through a line of trees and finally caught the scent of the men... Brant, Corwin, Eland, Monroe, Faris, and Damone. They were setting up camp near the riverbank, laughing about something, a fire half-built between them.

I didn't stop.

I shifted mid-run, stumbling into the clearing as a man, dirt-streaked and gasping, while my vision swam.

Faris turned first. “Alpha?”

“Shit... Kael?” Brant shot to his feet. “What the hell happened?”

I barely heard them. My legs gave out as the world tilted sideways. The pain behind my eyes exploded to a deep throb, dull and pulsing, like my body was already rejecting the distance from the omega.

I hit the ground hard, my skin scraping over the stone, and forced the words out through dry lips.

"There is a male omega... at the edge of the pack."

They all froze.

My vision began to darken.

"Find him..."

And then everything went black.