Page 14 of Captive Omega
“She’s mine,” I snarled at him. “You can’t have her.”
“Is that a fact?” he asked, baring his fangs at me. “That little slut belongs to me. Tonight, I’ll breed her and make her mine. Nobody can stop that, not even you.”
The mantle of the chaos descended upon us, and the bitter taste of rage and jealousy filled my mouth. “Over my dead body.”
“That can be arranged,” my brother said darkly, his eyes flickering in the increasing darkness.
And then he was lunging at me, his body shifting mid-air. I changed shapes too, avoiding his attack and launching one of my own. He could have probably dodged, but for whatever reason, he chose not to. We rolled on the ground together, clawing and biting at each other, tearing into flesh, snapping bones, ignoring the pain of our wounds. He got in a lucky hit when he targeted my abdomen, and he came close to disemboweling me with his hind legs. I rolled my body sideways and took the blow on my flank instead, which saved me from getting my guts spilled all over the ground, but left me with an almost useless hind leg.
I didn’t let that stop me. Now that I’d found my mate, nothing, not even the chaos itself, would keep me from her.
“No!” I heard Luna scream.
I ached to reassure her, and I swore to myself that I would. But for the moment, I couldn’t afford to lose my focus. My brother was still right in front of me, and I had one chance to win this battle.
I forced myself to wait, knowing Rufus would unavoidably try to pursue his advantage and finish me off. He’d never underestimated me, but my wound was serious enough that it didn’t immediately heal, and even under normal circumstances, he’d have wanted to take me out before I could recover.
My instincts were roaring at me, warning me of the imminent danger to my life. But when he lunged at me again, I saw the exact moment when I needed to strike. Somehow, maybe through sheer good fortune, I managed to rake my claws over his eye.
He yelped and recoiled, taken aback by the unexpected counter-attack. I knew it wouldn’t incapacitate him for too long. We had to get out of here while we still could.
That was easier said than done. While Rufus and I had been fighting, the unavoidable tension between the two packs had exploded. Everyone around us had succumbed to their vicious fury. Hell, I was pretty sure I could see a few Firewolves fighting one another instead of teaming up against the Wolfsbanes. But that wasn’t any of my business, not anymore.
I shifted into my humanoid form and rushed to Luna’s side. “Come on. We have to get out of here.”
She nodded, although she still looked a little dazed. “Your leg…”
“I’ll be fine. It’ll heal.”
The wound had already stopped bleeding. It would take a little longer for it to fully close, but that was all right. Hopefully, by then, Luna and I would be far away from here.
I picked her up in my arms, knowing that even like this, I would be faster than her. She might not be injured, but the chaos had overwhelmed her. Come to think of it, this was probably the first time she was experiencing it, since she was fairly young. The last time it had hit, she would have been still an adolescent.
Come to think of it, that explained a lot. I’d been drawn toward the Wolfsbane Pack during the last chaos, but something had kept me from tracking her down. It must have been her age. She had been too young for me to bond with her, and that had kept us apart. No longer.
The fight that had broken out between the other shifters provided me with the distraction I needed to escape the settlement. I veered around the Great Tree, staying out of everyone’s way and already making plans on the best course of action. I had to put as much distance between us and our two packs as possible. Otherwise, my brother would try to take my female. That meant heading through the Badlands, out of the valley. Rufus wouldn’t be able to follow us into the human world. He had a duty to the pack, and he couldn’t hunt us if we left the valley.
Unfortunately for me, I underestimated the reach and stubbornness of certain members of the Wolfsbane pack. “You’re not taking her anywhere, Firewolf,” someone snarled from behind me.
Instinctively, I pivoted on my heel, facing my new enemy. It was Cuthbert Dixon, Alpha Clayton’s Beta, and several other shifters were with him. At one point, they’d shaken off the hold the chaos had on them, and had turned to their weapons.
Another werewolf pointed his gun at me and pressed the trigger. I ducked to the side, dodging the bullet. When the second one shot at me, I wasn’t so lucky, and the projectile grazed my cheek.
Fury rushed through me, brighter and hotter than ever before. This wasn’t about me and the danger I was in. The idiots were completely ignoring the fact that Luna was in my arms and they could easily hit her while targeting me. The bullet that had grazed me had missed her, but that was only because I’d moved her out of the way.
There was a reason why silver was so difficult to find in some regions of the valley. It was so dangerous for us that many packs were leery to even have it close. The Wolfsbanes ignored that, and I could understand their point of view. Their weapons gave them an edge over other packs, and it was necessary, this close to the Badlands.
But with this, they were endangering Luna, and it was unacceptable. They were a threat to my mate, and they had to be eliminated.
A red haze settled over my mind. I set my beautiful female down, behind the Great Tree. “Hide,” I told her.
She shot me a concerned look but listened. “Be careful.”
She didn’t tell me to be merciful with her fellow pack members. She must have realized what I was planning to do, but she didn’t seem to care. I was the one she was worried about. That made perfect sense, because the two of us were the only ones who mattered in this equation. These anomalies were standing in the way of a bond that was as natural as the chaos. They would be punished for their crime.
Mindful of my leg injury and the threat my brother still posed, I moved as quickly and efficiently as I could. Their ranged weaponry gave them an advantage, but even wounded, I was fast enough to avoid the bullets. The chaos burned through my veins, and in mere seconds, I’d reached my new opponents.
With the first one, I went straight for the kill and ripped his throat out with my bare hands. I jumped back just in time to avoid being shot by the dead wolf’s companions. The bullets hit the body of the Wolfsbane shifter instead, but the others didn’t let that stop them. One of the wolves changed shapes and tried to attack me in close quarters combat. The other two stuck to their previous strategy. They were so disorganized and all over the place it was pathetic. If things had been different, I’d have taken my time to tear them apart and teach them a lesson. Instead, I decided to be practical.
