Annie Nicholas: Omegas In Love

“No, of course not.” She wiped her nose on the back of her hand. “Only for breeding purposes. I come from a very pure line of shifters, which is important in China. Things are done differently in the east.”

“No shit.” Spice helped Katrina to sit facing her. “Why can’t I shift? Is it these collars?”

Katrina met her alpha’s gaze. She expected contempt, or at least anger, but Spice’s face was pale and she chewed on her bottom lip. “Your beast is still there. It’s a silver-tainted drug they’ve given us, which stops the shift.”

“How long does it last?” Tearing at the metal collar again.

“I don’t know.” Katrina grabbed at Spice’s hands as her nails gouged the tender skin of her neck. “Careful. You’re making yourself bleed.” With a tight grip, Katrina pulled her hands away. Her alpha never lost control to fear. To anger, yes, but the terror in her eyes unnerved Katrina.

“I can’t stand being held captive.”

She gripped Spice’s hands. No words of comfort came to mind. They’d be lies and Katrina had lied enough for a lifetime.

The door to their room swung open.

Both of them jumped and faced their captors.

Two large Asian males stepped inside, followed by Chen. His presence sucked all the oxygen from the room.

Katrina cowered. For a fraction of time, her heart stopped beating. The memories she’d thought buried and gone sprung fresh in her mind.

Being passed around like a whore when she wasn’t in heat. Then during her fertile periods being the focus of Chen’s horrid ideas of intimacy.

This crazed male had killed his own father and brother to become alpha of his pack as a teenager, before he’d even been made a shifter. To keep his power, he’d taken a huge risk and endured the same fast shifter infection like Spice, getting stabbed in the heart so the virus could seed quicker and root faster.

She’d been made to witness this ceremony.

The room shrank and she felt exposed with nowhere to run or hide. She missed Tyler and wanted his warm, reassuring presence, his strength, and his love. But he was better off without a lying, two-timing whore.

Spice blocked Chen’s direct path to Katrina. “What do you want with us?”

Chen circled Spice, stepping over the chain connected to her collar.

Katrina’s stomach rolled with nausea when she recognized his heated interest.

“So, this is the Vasi’s alpha female.” He tracked a finger down Spice’s arm. “Attractive.”

She shrugged it off. “What are you doing on our territory?”

“Taking back what’s mine.” He dismissed Katrina with his hand and eyed Spice from head to foot. “With interest. I’m making an example of your pack. No one steals from me.”

“They did not steal me. I ran from you.” Katrina stood on shaky legs, facing her demon. Fear gnawed at what little courage she owned and would reduce her to a submissive dog again if she let it. She hated the old Katrina and didn’t want to change back. “They should not be punished for my behavior. They don’t even know anything about my past.”

Chen grabbed her by the collar and yanked her close. “No matter to me. If you weren’t so pure of blood, I would have slaughtered you on the streets of so-called Chinatown.” He sneered his words into her face, his breath minty and sharp, before tossing her to the floor.

She hit with a force that rattled her teeth. Leaning on her elbows, she tried to focus her vision on Chen, but three of him loomed over her. She blinked and shook her head.

Spice shoved him away. “Leave her alone.” Some strength from her beast still present even with the drug, she truly was special among shifters: White of fur, pure of spirit, and vicious like a mother protecting her pups. Spice deserved her title as alpha.

Katrina narrowed her eyes as she glared at Chen. He didn’t.

Without effort, Chen spun around Spice and captured her from behind, pinning her arms. He pressed his body against hers so his groin met her ass. “You, my pet, are my prize.”

Sugar’s rapid heartbeat beeped on the hospital monitor. It drove Tyler crazy, sounding like a frightened trapped animal. His beast wanted to hunt the delicate flutter and put an end to it. Sam, another of his roommates, sat in a chair across from him. He stared at nothing, lost in his thoughts.

Her injuries were so bad she needed a ventilator, which had gotten her a room in the intensive care unit. A long tube extended from her mouth connected to the machine that breathed for her. Matching black eyes almost made her face unrecognizable. Hell, she even had tubes coming from her chest, draining blood.

The sight had devastated Tyler when he’d first walked in. Now, he kept his eyes from wandering over her, unable to process the anger and frustration the sight caused him. Those emotions fed his beast. The last thing he needed was to shift in public again.

Bad enough Daedalus would go apeshit when he saw Sugar in this condition. Eric had decided they should wait for news at the hospital and keep the vampire from ripping the medical staff apart. He’d sent Tony to Chinatown to speak with the elders of the community.

They had no leads to find their mates, so they rallied around the only survivor, the frailest of their small family. Shifters could do a lot of damage to a human, and whoever hit Sugar hadn’t held back.

Night reflected in the hospital window. Slouching in his hard plastic seat, Tyler watched the flickering light of a plane fly across the sky. The fleeting beacon blinked in time with Sugar’s heartbeat. Life as a shifter was savage. No place for a human. They never should have convinced her to let them into her home.

Heavy footsteps rang outside the room, announcing Daedalus’s arrival. “Shut up, Eric. I need to see her first, before talking to any healer.” He strode in, followed by their alpha, fury pulsing from his body as he loomed over Sugar’s unmoving form.

The air grew heavy and Tyler’s throat constricted. He didn’t want to witness this but he couldn’t pull his gaze away from his mentor. The Nosferatu never pushed him to learn how to fight like he did the others. Tyler wanted a quiet life for himself and Katrina. Daedalus respected that wish. What a fool he’d been to refuse the training–his mate could have been sitting next to him instead of in the hands of a monster.

Reaching out for her, the ancient vampire’s hand hovered over hers for a second before grasping it. “Why is she tied to the bed?” His sharp question wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular.

Tyler cleared the cobwebs from his throat. “It’s to protect her from accidentally pulling the tube from her throat.” Normally, he’d be tempted to make a joke so everyone could have a laugh. But nothing seemed funny anymore.

“She might wake up?” Daedalus knelt by the head of her bed, pressing his face on the mattress close to her. The tube kept them apart. With a fingertip, he brushed her cheek, staring at her face as silence strangled the room. Tyler had never seen the vampire so distraught. Breakable.

Sam lifted his head from between his hands, but didn’t look at Daedalus. “They’re keeping her asleep so she can be comfortable. That’s all the doctor will tell us. We’ve been waiting for you.” Tyler knew Sam blamed himself for Sugar’s injuries. He was her shadow during the day, her protector, his unofficial job in the pack. Her Sigma.

Brushing a matted curl from Sugar’s face, Daedalus rose to his feet and faced Tyler. “Eric told me Katrina’s old pack is responsible for this. What do you know?”

The question stabbed Tyler in the gut. He was just as much in the dark as everyone else. Worse, his so-called soulmate had never confided anything in him. He’d wanted to push her to tell him about her past, but they’d found her in such a terrible state that he feared she’d return to her shell again. What an idiot he’d been. “She’s mated to their alpha.”