Page 106 of Awakened

My Omega.

Fucking mine.

Centuries of experience at keeping my emotions locked down around frightened and abused Omegas is all that’s preventing me from losing my shit when I take in her appearance. Her hair hangs in a thick, loose braid down her back; messy tendrils escape, framing a too-thin face. Her bright blue eyes are trained on the floor, hands clasped in front of her, trembling fingers twisting nervously.

She’s too thin, just like in the meadow. Just remembering how her bones felt beneath that scratchy cotton shirt, under my fingertips, makes my fangs lengthen.

She takes two wary steps into the room and stops, tensing like she’s waiting for someone to yell at her or… or…

“Idril.”

Her name escapes a breath, falling from my lips into the eight feet of space between us.

Time seems suspended, like the world itself has ceased spinning to watch what happens next. I mentally will her to look up, sending as much love and longing through the Bond as I can, but she still doesn’t look at me. She’s so tense her fucking shoulders are shaking.

I take a chance and inch closer.

“Idril…”

I know the exact moment the pleading in my voice registers. She flinches, and an Omega whine tears out of her, drowning in pain and hope and despair and fucking exhaustion.

I recognize the sound of heavy wood scraping against stone as my brothers lunge from their seats, Idril’s whine catapulting their instincts into action. I know it the way a predator stays constantly aware of any threat to its Mate. The fact that I know it’s Vae and Dax instinctively reacting to the sound of their Scent-Match’s pain doesn’t soothe my rage. If anything, it pushes me closer to the edge.

I spin, whipping around to face my Packmates. My growl bursts from my chest, exploding through the room in a booming, thunderous roar of warning to stay back.

Dax’s eyes widen when my gaze snaps to his. My eyes narrow, and I know, with a certainty I feel in my soul, I could rip out his throat in less time than it takes him to blink. He’d die on this fucking floor, in a puddle of his own blood, before his brilliant mind could even process what happened.

Both males take a few steps back, but nowhere near far enough. My lips curl back from my teeth, and I bare my fangs with a threatening hiss. Right now, I don’t even care that I’m more animal than man. I’ll be whatever I need to be to protect my Omega and make her happy.

Vae’s face twists in pain. He lifts a hand and sways forward. “Caelan⁠—”

My hand moves to my lower back, fingers curling around the hilt of my dagger before he even finishes speaking. I blink, and my arm’s extended, hand hovering mid-air. My wrist is bent at a perfect ninety-degree angle, middle and index fingers pointed straight at my target.

My so-called brothers.

The polished steel reflects off the lights from above, flashing with each rotation as it spins through the air with deadly precision. I don’t know which male I was aiming for—Dax? Vae? Both?—but it doesn’t matter. Dax, who was standing in front of Vae, was smart enough to duck the moment the dagger left my hand.

It takes Vae a second longer to comprehend what’s happening before he, too, falls to the floor—escaping a blade to the throat by mere seconds.

My dagger hits the stone wall behind them, scoring a deep groove in the stone before landing to clatter against the floor.

Silence.

Then the black-haired Omega throws back her head and laughs.

And laughs…

And keeps laughing.

Riven’s lips curve into a smile, and like they’re both in on some kind of private joke, the two devolve into wheezing laughter until all eyes are on them—except for those belonging to the two males who’ve just been taught the first of many valuable lessons.

Stay the fuck away from my Mate—or die.

Our Pack Bonds are screaming, but I can’t be fucked enough to care. Vae looks up at me from the floor where he fell, eyes wide and full of betrayal.

I respond with a disgusted sneer, because fuck their pain.

The confrontation lasts no more than a minute, but it’s a minute too fucking long when my focus should be on my Mate. Turning back to face Idril and dismissing my Pack is easy.