Page 13 of Shades of Scars

The alpha fromRavenwith the fiery red hair and honed to kill body is tearing into the two alphas right there in front of me. The one who I’d nearly gouged the eyes out of is already laying in a crumpled heap a few feet away. His face is twisted towards me where he lays belly down on the sidewalk, but his arm is sticking out at an unnatural angle, and his jaw is definitely unhinged. There are even several bloody teeth laying on the concrete right by his dripping mouth.

But the one thing that freaks me out the most are his wide, bloody and lifeless eyes staring back at me.

I jerk my gaze away from the corpse and over to the incredibly enraged alpha beating the life out of the other one another dozen or so feet away. This one’s face is barely recognizable while fist after fist slams into him, blood and teeth flying with every powerful strike. Even from here, I can hear the meaty sounds of flesh hitting flesh, but it’s not nearly as nauseating as the sound of bones shattering with the impact of his fury.

He doesn’t stop. Not until the man falls limp and his eyes are just as unseeing as the other. The alpha lets out a ferocious snarl, sending a shudder racing down my spine, before he literally picks the man up and tosses him a good six feet away.

Blood drips from his knuckles and coats his chest and thighs as he straightens, lip curling back when he looks over at the crumpled corpses of the alphas that had dared attack me. Whenhis eyes finally turn towards me, they’re nearly black with a bottomless rage that makes my core clench in a way that’s entirely inappropriate for the moment.

He’s just killed two men in front of me. I shouldnotbe turned on. The fuck is wrong with me?

He takes a few steps towards me, and this time, I don’t retreat like I had inRaven. Even though he’s still practically vibrating with barely restrained fury and blood lust, an innate part of me knows that he’d never raise those fists to me.

It’s weird. And incredibly terrifying.

A rumble starts up in his chest when he steadily approaches where I’m frozen on my ass on the sidewalk. It isn’t until he crouches down, just a few inches away from me, that I register the sound. Awe spears through me like a golden beam of sunshine. He’s purring. Forme.

An alpha only ever purrs for their omega.

He reaches out a hand, and just as I subconsciously lean in so he can touch me, he stops before he touches me. His hand is coated in blood, and he opens his palm, eyeing it with an expression I can’t read, but I understand the hesitation.

I lean in to his touch before he can pull his hand away, and I preen when he sucks in a sharp breath, blinking at me as awe morphs his expression into something both deadly and beautiful. “Are you alright?” His words come out in a rasp of sound, as if his throat is raw from too much screaming.

It takes me another thirty seconds to clear my head enough to respond. “I think so. Just sore.” I’m pretty sure I have a concussion, and maybe a fractured shoulder or something, but I don’t say that. He’s already on edge. I don’t need to voice any possible injuries to set him off. Not right now.

“Can I hold you? I’d like to get you to safety.” I blink at his request, peering around him towards the corpses laying a few feet away. “Eyes on me,mo chroí. Tell me I can touch you.” It’sjust shy of a demand, but he leaves the statement open for me to refuse.

The problem is, I don’t want to.

“I was heading toRavento speak with Mr. Madden. W-will you take me to him?” I know it’s a bad idea in my current state, but my inner omega wants nothing more than to be comforted by her alphas. I need it, too, if I’m willing to be honest with myself.

He wastes no time scooping me up into his arms. I grit my teeth against the aches and pains of my body while he marches us over to the curb, where a shiny silver Mercedes is idling, half up on the sidewalk with black skid marks stretched out behind the back tires.

He sets me gently into the passenger seat, buckling me in before he rounds the hood and slips into the driver’s seat, backing the car off the curb with a slight bump to get it off the sidewalk. Then we’re speeding down the street. I want to ask about the bodies he’s leaving behind, but I can’t even comprehend that at the moment.

“I’m sorry.” I murmur after a long, tense few seconds of silence. Out of the corner of my eye, I see his hands tighten on the steering wheel.

“Don’t.” He growls, and I finally chance a peek over at him. His eyes meet mine for the briefest of seconds, before he returns his attention back to the road. He’s clearly still very much on the edge. He’ll probably be that way for a long while yet. “You don’t need to apologize for being attacked,mo chroí.”

I shake my head and grit my teeth. “I’m not apologizing for that. I usually wear suppressants before I leave the house. If I’d taken one before I left, none of this would’ve happened.”

“Alphas are capable of controlling themselves around unbonded omegas. This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. They should have known better.That’s what’s wrong with this damn world. Alphas think they’re entitled to anything and everything they want, consequences be damned. I promise you, we are not like that.”

It isn’t the conviction in his tone that surprises me so much as the words themselves. I’ve never heard an alpha speak like this. Omegas are rare, and typically most alphas treat their omega like property.

I would know. I have first fucking hand experience with the behavior of sadistic, egotistical, entitled alphas.

“I never said you were.” I say softly, needing him to understand. I don’t know what they’ve been thinking the last nine days since I’d disappeared from them. It’s obvious they don’t think I’ve rejected them. If they had, this one wouldn’t be so damn considerate.

I fucking hate how complicated my life is.

I just want to be a normal omega, dammit.

Instead of commenting, he says in a soft tone, “My name is Caito, by the way. In case you didn’t know that.” There’s a slight accent to his words that draws me in like a moth to a flame. I want to know where he came from. I want to know everything about him.

“Scarlett.” I offer, though I’m sure he already knows that, since I’d used that name on the application forRaven.

“Scarlett is a beautiful name.” He offers as he turns the car down the Parkway. I think he’s heading toRaven, but then he passes right by the parking lot, and keeps going for another mile. Eventually, he turns, the car inching down a ramp to a garage door.

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