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“I’ll make it swift. No pain at all. Far,farbetter than what they’ll offer you once you’re in their dungeons. I can promise you that.” Greely’s tone grew somber, as if he really were making an offer Dmitri would be foolish to refuse. “I give you my word. And you know such a thing isnotgiven lightly between wolf and vampire…”
“You’re no vampire.” Dmitri drew his sword, the ichor from the previously slain vampires still staining the razor-sharp edge. “You’re amurderer.”
Dmitri’s strike was so swift, the vampire seemed to freeze for just the briefest of moments, before his eyes rolled up to the whites. Thethunkof Greely’s decapitated head bouncing to the ground was loud in the quiet of the night, his lifeless body slumping over to the left, black blood flooding across the soft loam.
“Oh my… oh myGod!” Stacy cried out, lying on her side, her face pressed to the dirt.
Dmitri rushed to her, gently turning her upright, Knox at her feet undoing the bonds at her ankles. Dmitri sliced away the rope at her wrists, and instantly she sprang upon him, digging her tear-soaked face into his throat, her arms feverishly squeezing him. “Oh fuck… fuck…Dmitri!I thought you… that I. I’m so glad you’re… you’re okay.”
Ryan’s voice sounded from the darkness, then he came shambling into view, the wolves back in human form, his arm around the shoulder of a stumbling and clearly bleeding Mattias. “Uh, little help over here?”
Dmitri tipped his head toward them. “Knox, take care of them.”
“Right,” his friend said, rising.
Dmitri touched his shoulder for a brief moment. “Thank you. Thank you, brother.”
“Just make sure she’s okay,” Knox muttered, dashing off toward his packmates.
Dmitri returned his attention to the woman in his arms, turning her face up to his as he smiled at her. “Are you okay? Did they…?”
She shook her head, a fresh tear dashing down into the fine hair at her temple. “I hurt everywhere, but it’s… it’s not bad.”
He took hold of her chin, making her look into his eyes. “I thought… I thought I’dlostyou, sweet girl. My sweet omega.” And then he kissed her, hard, frantically, bruising her lips.
But he didn’t care. She was there, and alive. Warm, safe in his arms. Where she belonged.
“Stasia…Stasia. You are mine. Always mine.”
Shockingly, she kissed him back, driving her tongue into his mouth, breathing of his breath, crying and weeping and laughing all at once. They kissed that way for long minutes, until Stacy cradled his face in her soft, warm palms, kissing him on the nose.
She was exquisitely beautiful, tears glistening in her fathomless, sparkling eyes. He longed to taste her reddened, swollen lips again.
“You… you told me once. That it was up to me… to accept the truth. This is the first time in my life that I feel like… I’m where I belong. That this is home.” She sniffled, but her winning smile filled his heart to bursting with joy. “And you… you were the only one… the first one. To acceptme. For who I am. The first one who”—her voice warbled the tiniest bit—“lovedme.”
“Oh, Stasia… my beautiful girl.” He nuzzled her temple, kissing her warm ear, licking the salt of her tears there.
“Is… is that what this is?” She searched his eyes, her lashes fluttering. “I’ve… I’ve never known it. I don’t even know what it looks like. Is… is thislove?”
A lump had formed in his throat at the heart-breaking words, and in that instant, he resolved that she would never know the absence of it. Not ever would she live another second without knowing what love felt like.
“Yes, my sweet Stasia. This is love. My love for you—for who you’ve always been. And love for what we might yet be, together. Someday.”
She sobbed against him then, hugging him tight, and he held her in that miserable, dark thicket, surrounded by death, by horror.
But with her in his arms, he could face anything, defeat any foe.
For love was the most powerful weapon of all.
The love of an omega, for her alpha.
CHAPTER28
Dmitri
Scanlon said nothing for a long moment, drumming his fingers on the deep cherry wood of the conference table. Outside the tinted windows, the sun was shining bright and warm.
But inside the room, it was ice cold.
