Page 18 of Captive Omega
If I could have been bothered to care, I would have told him I’d long ago stopped being a Wolfsbane. I was a rogue now, and the only thing that tied me to my former pack was Luna.
But none of us really cared about that. What mattered was that he was in my way, and he’d die for that crime. And so I didn’t answer. Instead, I attacked, going directly for his throat.
The other two wolves snarled and tried to intercept me, but Sam was there and had my back. He saw them coming and jumped on the first one, easily incapacitating him. He didn’t have time to finish his opponent off, since he had to focus on the second one. But the damage he’d done bought me time, enough that I could handle the wolf I’d taken on.
He was strong and fierce, the chaos making his instincts even more powerful than before. But he couldn’t beat my fury and anguish. My brother and I had been banished from our pack because we’d done our best to protect a female we’d cared for. The chaos itself had turned on us, because we’d been too young to claim her as our own. And then it had abandoned us, leaving us wandering in the Badlands for years, like cursed exiles.
No more. We wouldn’t lose her again. Maybe we were mates, or maybe we weren’t, but we wouldn’t let Luna suffer.
The Firewolf howled as I dug my fangs into his flesh. With the corner of my eye, I caught sight of my brother doing the same thing to one of the other, smaller wolves, while the third one was getting up and trying to counter-attack.
The power of the chaos was getting thicker and thicker, and the haze that descended over us grew denser. Somehow, within it all, we found unprecedented clarity. And at that moment, the Firewolves sensed it. They sensed us.
“Intruder!” someone shouted. “Rogue!”
Sam shut him up pretty quickly, and in the end, the warning didn’t matter, since the Firewolves would have been just as hostile to us if we had been Wolfsbanes. Everything was happening too quickly for anyone to figure out what was going on. And maybe that would have been a good thing, but with every second that passed, it became harder and harder to pinpoint Luna’s exact location.
This was wrong. This was all wrong. I tried to shove my way through the crowd, wildly looking around in an attempt to find out where she was. I caught a glimpse of the Alpha picking himself up, and his blood-stained fur suggested his opponent had beaten him. When I looked past him, I saw Luna, frozen in terror as she watched the mysterious wolf face one of our pack Betas.
It was all over far more quickly than I’d expected. Against all odds, the Firewolf defeated our former pack mates without too much trouble. Less than a minute later, he picked Luna up and vanished in the distance.
Everything inside me screamed to go after them, to hunt them down. But I wasn’t the only one in that position. Rufus Savage howled, and the power of his Alpha command rushed over the pack, into the minds of all his pack members.
It didn’t affect me, but it was bad news, anyway. With the Alpha coordinating them, the Firewolves were much too strong for me and Sam to fight off.
It was time for us to retreat. Besides, there was nothing we could do here. What we truly wanted was to track Luna down and save her from her kidnapper.
“Back!” I growled at my brother. “Get back!”
Sam didn’t need to be told twice. Still clawing and biting at every wolf attempting to approach him, he started to retreat. It was far more difficult than I’d have liked, but we weren’t completely out of luck. Even with the Alpha’s power holding them under its sway, the Firewolves were still almost feral. The remaining Wolfsbanes unknowingly helped us out by turning their guns on the Firewolves.
As the bullets started flying, Sam and I fled, heading back the way we’d come. It would take some time to find Luna again, but we would do it. There was only one place where the mysterious Firewolf could have taken Luna. The Badlands. The past nine years had taught us a lot about the canyon. It was our turf. The Firewolf would never be able to escape us. We’d find Luna, no matter what it cost us.
Five
Chapter 5
Rowan
After we completed our bond, Luna and I spent hours holding onto one another, kissing, making out. I wanted to have sex with her again, but even if she didn’t realize it, she was tired. The day had been difficult for her, and she needed her rest.
When she fell asleep in my arms, I cradled her close and thought about where we were supposed to go from here. My brother wasn’t an idiot. He wouldn’t want to take my true mate from me. It just wasn’t done. But Luna wasn’t just any female. She was far more beautiful than anyone could have expected. Sure, there was a chance that Rufus would find his own mate, now that the chaos had returned. But why would he try, when Luna was a much better option?
My mind was swirling with a mix of confusing emotions. My wounds had started to hurt again. I closed my eyes too. I would rest, just for a little while. Once Luna woke up, we could be on our way. That… That made sense.
Or so I thought. As darkness descended over me, a voice at the back of my consciousness screamed in warning. But when I tried to discern what it wanted to tell me, it faded away, and I succumbed to the unavoidable.
Out of nowhere, Rufus appeared by my side. He bared his fangs at me, and the blood still seeping from his face wound stood out glaringly against the pallor of his skin. “So you think you can be free of me so easily. You can’t escape. I’m your Alpha. I won’t let you take what is mine.”
“She’s not yours,” I snapped at him. “She never was. She’s my mate, and I’ve claimed her.”
“Maybe, but even mate bonds can be broken.”
The darkness around him swirled like a liquid, poisonous thing. A hand landed on my shoulder, soft, yet strong. “He’s right, Rowan. He’s the Alpha of our pack. You shouldn’t have defied him.”
I turned, only to find my mother standing there, right in front of me. “I don’t want to hear that from you,” I sneered at her, “not after the way you treated Luna.”
“Oh, don’t be such a hypocrite.” Rufus snorted. “You were perfectly willing to accept it before you found out what she meant to you.”
