Page 70 of Reclaiming Quinn
Zach grinned. “The Vampyri were matchless warriors, as we were meant to be. Blood will only get me so far, though. The true strength comes from the Omega. When we protected them, we were unstoppable. We moved so fast, people only saw a blur. We had the agility of a mountain cat and the human instincts to do whatever it took to win a fight. It’s why the Alphas had to use trickery to get us away from the Omegas, thereby removing the source of our strength. If I were at my full power, I could kill all these wolves with ease.”
Holy shit.“And Klein?”
“I admit, he would be a tougher fight. He has years of experience in fighting not just to win, but to survive, and those animals are always the most dangerous. I, meanwhile, am out of practice and running low on strength. But I would find a way to kill Klein.”
“Our Alpha Supreme fought Ryker, the one who’d abused Sean and my mate. He snapped his neck.”
“Then he sounds like a good man. I look forward to meeting him.”
“He is. Both Gareth and Lyram are. I’m going to be honest, though. There are some decent Alphas out there, but they’re far outnumbered by the bad ones. When Sean was out in the world, he encountered more than a fair share of them who would have gladly turned him over to Ryker in exchange for money.”
The growl from Zach had the hair on Deke’s neck standing up. “They would have betrayed an Omega?”
“Willingly, I’m afraid. Gareth is doing what he can. He’s removing the bad ones, either by kicking them out like he did with Klein, or killing them. He’s also shown at least one the error of his ways and hopefully turned him into a better Alpha.”
“This world has gone to hell.”
“In the proverbial handbasket. But Mother is trying to make things right, and she started with Sean and Gareth. Quinn said she also came and spoke with him.”
“They… speak to her?” he asked, sounding almost desperate.
Deke shrugged. “More like she talks to them when she wants. She told Quinn about how she wanted to save him so badly, but there wasn’t anything left of her to beat Ryker.”
A soft smile played on Zach’s lips. “I often wondered what happened to her after the Omegas were killed. She loved them so much, and I couldn’t imagine the kind of pain she had to be experiencing.”
Any remaining hurt or anger that Deke felt toward Mother drained out. “I was angry with her. I mean, intellectually I knew she had to be hurting, but that doesn’t help much when your mate can’t look you in the eye, or is afraid you’re going to beat him at any moment.”
“I wish I could understand, but the Vampyri don’t have mates. We have our caste, and that’s it. That’s our family. The one we were born to.”
“That sounds so… lonely.”
A shrug. “We had the mission, and that was enough to fulfill us. Once the Omegas were gone, we had nothing. I guess it got lonely then because we couldn’t stand to look at one another. We drifted apart and rarely had any contact.” He brightened. “That’ll change, though. Now that we have an Omega, we’ll have a purpose again.”
“Listen, you’ll have to work things out with Sean and Gareth.”
“There’s nothing to work out. We are the guardians of the Omega, and that’s all that matters. We were tasked by the Mother herself, and no one, not even this Alpha Supreme, can tell us otherwise.”
Deke swallowed hard. “Zach—”
“There will be no discussion on this. When we get out of here, I’m going to join with the rest of the caste, and we shall fulfill our duty once more.” He must have noticed Deke’s pleading look, because his scowl softened. “It’s been far too long, Deke. Weneedour true purpose again. Without it, we’re living but are dead on the inside.”
Though he wanted to say something, the lock clicked, their door was thrown open, and one of Klein’s men stepped inside, a frown on his pockmarked face.
“Get to work, bitches. Lots going on today.”
“Oh?”
He gave a nasty smile as he peered at Zach. “It’s auction day. Alpha Klein finally got enough Alphas to send buyers on their behalf.” He stepped closer, glared at Zach, and licked his lips. “That means it’s roast night.”
“I thought it wasn’t until next week or something?” Deke asked, desperate to find out what was happening.
“Nah, Klein gives a rough estimate, but only he knows until the day of the auction when it’ll be. He told us a bit ago—it’s tonight.”
Deke and Zach shared a look. Their time had just run out. If they didn’t do something today, they would lose their window to get the humans out safely.
Quinn, we’re going to have to move tonight. No matter what happens, I love you.
It was time for this charade to end.
