Page 26 of The Alpha King's Mate

Ryan gave me a look, cocking his head to the side. He wanted me to be gentler, I could feel it, but how could I be gentle with this man? How?

“I don’t know their names. They tell me what to do. They told me to take Ryan. I don’t have a choice. They…look.” He jutted his dirty arm out for me to look at. There was a tiny red scar on his forearm. So tiny, with human eyes, I probably wouldn’t have been able to see it.

“What is that?”

“A chip. They took me after my alpha died. They put it in me and said they owned me now. I can’t have babies like the other omegas, but they promised me they would find me another alpha if I just… I’m sorry. I had to. I’m dying without the bond.”

“But, when he died, the bond with your alpha should have broken.”

“It didn’t. I’m in constant limbo, wanting an alpha I can’t have. They promised to break it for me, this half bond.”

“Can we remove it?” I asked Ryan. He shook his head. “Come on, omega. I’m not going to hurt him.” Ryan stood, eyeing Aziz. “He won’t hurt him either. Go on, Aziz. It’s fine.”

Aziz yipped and then walked off, checking several times before going out of sight.

I asked the omega, “Can we remove your chip?”

He sighed. “You don’t know how many times I’ve tried. The more I dig, the deeper it embeds itself.”

“We can’t take him with us, mate. They might track us and find out all the omegas we have. Find our family.” I tried to console him.

Hammer had been smart when he set up the warehouse as our base camp. The bosses knew we had a base but didn’t have the location.

“What do we do?” Ryan asked, hope in his eyes.

My lion still wanted to end the omega who stole my mate, a little bit.

“The only thing I can do is let him go. If he swears not to go after us again.”

“I can’t swear,” the omega said. “They make me…”

“Then run. Run before my lion or the hyena can change their minds and chew you up. You’re going through hell and we get that, but I won’t have you hurting my mate. Ever.”

The omega looked at Ryan. Ryan yelled in his direction, “Go. Run. Go.”

He took off, shifting to a jackal with one leap. Aziz tracked his movements and then looked to me. “Let him go. We can’t help him now.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Ryan

We were home and King and I alone for the first time since they rescued me. He’d been eerily silent the entire trip back and during our initial meeting here. At first, I thought he was angry with me, but now, I was leaning more to him being angry with himself, as if he could’ve controlled any of this.

“Don’t be mad, King, but I want to help him.” I didn’t bother easing into the idea. He was going to hate it no matter how it was presented, but I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I didn’t try.

“I know you do, love. You’re a good man, but also…he’s not.”

“You don’t believe that any more than I do.” At least I hoped he didn’t.

“He kidnapped my mate!” Fair point.

“Yeah, he did. And sometimes good people do bad things because they have no choice.” I cupped his cheek, and he watched my face carefully, not letting go of my eyes, just staring into them like he was trying to decipher something deep within my soul.

“We can’t help him,” he finally asserted. “I promised we wouldn’t chase after him.”

“I know we did, but his life…his life will never be okay. He didn’t go into his mating the way we did. He didn’t scent his one true love. He was kidnapped and forced, kept in a half bond so that he was under the alpha’s full control.”

Understanding crossed his eyes.

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