Page 32 of The Dragon's Omega

“This is insane, man. We just?—”

I let go of his hand just as Vidar rounded in place, and he was in Dewey’s face so fast it made my head spin. The Synn alpha staggered back like he’d been slapped, though my mate had yet to touch a platinum hair on his head.

“If you contact her father or make trouble for her hospitalized brother…” Hands clasped behind his back, Vidar had to hunch to meet Dewey’s anxious eyeline. “If you reach out to her via any form of communication, be it digital or otherwise, I will eat you.”

I swallowed my snort, because that was a serious threat, his tone making me sweat and I was just on the periphery, but, ugh, Dewey’s face?—

So fucking satisfying. The same fear I felt when he and his bonds threw me to the gravel, joked about knotting me, giving me what I deserved—it oozed from his pores now. Darkened his eyes. Made his knees weak.

“I will devour you,” Vidar continued softly. His words were quiet but his scent was loud, heavy and fierce. It drew eyes from passersby—sent some scurrying away, while also giving a few alphas pause. A group of four surfers with boards and wetsuits, with hulking frames and beachy waves, hesitated. Their pupils dilated. Their nostrils flared. They sensed danger, aggression. Dewey was blood in the water—and my mate was the shark. I lifted my chin high, proud, secure as an omega in a crowd of mixed designations for the first time in my life, then tiptoed back to grab my forgotten sandals like this was business as usual.

Like my dragon wasn’t threatening to consume a media darling, crown prince to a tech empire.

“I will feast on you, on your bonds, on your fathers,” Vidar hissed as I shook my sandy sandals clean, dusting Dewey’s quivering calves in the process. “One. Limb. At a time. I am no longer burdened.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I stood by his side, rising to my full height—hair streaks, hip tatts, foul mouth and all, bold as brass, proud of everything that had made this asshole turn his nose up and judge me.

Vidar’s hand found mine, our fingers weaving together loosely. “My heart is free, and it belongs to Lianna. I will go to war for her, do you understand?” He angled his body closer, puncturing Dewey’s personal space—shattering it forever. “I am a Deathless God, boy, and you will heed my word or suffer the consequences. This is your one and only warning.”

His aura thickened. His scent drenched me, Dewey—the beach at large. Something like thunder rippled all around us, yet there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I smirked at Dewey’s wide, panicked gaze. He was searching for the dragon somewhere above, but the monster was right here, with me.

The surfers bailed. The crowds thinned. Festivalgoers gravitated toward the main event now, clearing the beach around us as Vidar’s green gaze bore deep into Dewey, like he could cut through the bullshit straight to his soul.

And my mate didn’t seem very impressed with what he found.

When I spotted a small army of security headed our way, I sniffed dismissively and tugged on Vidar’s hand.

“Bye, Dewey.”

His gaze snapped to me, and fear gave way to raw fury. His lips parted. He took a sharp breath?—

“What did I say?” Vidar flashed a feral smile, like he relished the thought of eating this idiot one piece at a time. “Any form of communication…”

Dewey shut his stupid mouth, then backed away, his head bowed and… submissive.

I let the snort out this time, hoping it stuck with him.

Hand in hand, we turned and strolled along the beach, our pace slow and leisurely. My mate’s alpha energy softened, allowing us to pass groups and families without drawing too much attention. We breezed by this solstice’s fire wall, which seemed to wilt in the presence of true fire, staff feeding it, stoking it, a few armed with accelerant.

Toward the tail end of it, Vidar passed his bare hand through the snapping orange flames, shaking his head and sighing. Again, just—so unimpressed.

Not that I could blame him. I saw dragonfire in the pit last night, saw its rage, its fury. His fire walls weren’t a feat of Synn brilliance—but a gift from of the gods.

A gift that would go to people who wanted it for the right reasons.

Eventually, we reached the final stretch of festival grounds blocked off by signs and fences. Vidar asked—not barked—for an attendant to open the locked chain-link gate and let us through. As we crossed into a dirt lot, rocky hills snagged with thorny green rising to the right and sand sinking down to the shoreline to our left, Vidar was all smiles as he thanked the gray-haired beta by name.

“You’re welcome, Vidar. See you next year?”

“No. I’m afraid not.”

Behind us, Dewey, Thad, and Chad followed at a brisk power walk, all three on their phones. Farther back, more alphas joined the hunt, older, gruffer, and, unlike their heirs, not shirtless but covered in white linen instead. I recognized a few faces from my Pack Synn deep dives, but I carried on like they didn’t matter.

Because they didn’t.

None of them mattered anymore.

“Keep hold of me, little Luna,” Vidar murmured, his reminder followed by the icy sensation of invisibility sluicing down my body. I gasped and nestled closer to him, a secret thrill warming in my chest when those Synn jerks pointed and shouted and whirled around, searching for us, for the supernatural meal ticket they had lost once and for all.

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