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Possessive rage flamed through Jake. Whothe fuckwas touching his mate? He dug his nails into the bench, feeling the wood splinter and dig under his fingernails. Jake wanted to drag both of them out into the yard and set them both on fire, Riddick and the oily bastard clearly enjoying what he thought was his prize. The cousin, that must be the fucking cousin.
"That's not how it works here," Riddick continued loudly. "Omegas choose their mates. Is this what you want, Zorah? To mate this fucking guy?" Riddick spat, turning toward Jake's Omega.
Zorah's face paled, and the entire picture snapped into harsh clarity. The furious-looking man was Zorah's father, who'd come to collect her along with thefucking cousin— Riddick had that part correct, at least — they'd betrothed her to. On Zorah's right sat a rigid woman with cold, unforgiving eyes that bore into Riddick like she could peel his skin from his body with a look. Zorah's mother, no doubt. Zorah held herself stiff and unyielding in her cousin's lap, her eyes pointed at the ground. She looked as if she wanted to vomit.
Fuck!Fuck!
"Riddick," Hunter warned, loud enough for the entire mess hall to hear.
"And who are you to make demands of my daughter?" Zorah's father countered. "You believe you have some claim on her? What's going on here, Hunter?"
Hunter wrapped a hand around Riddick's shoulder and tugged him, but even in the back of the room, Jake could see Riddick's balled fists and read the violence brewing in his body. What kind an idiot was he? Zorah was right there! If he threw a punch, she would undoubtedly get hurt no matter where it landed. Jake swore to himself. If any violence touched her, Jake would kill Riddick before the night ended. Pure and simple, he would be a dead man.
"Was this some kind of game to you?" Riddick turned his attention toward Zorah. "Were you just toying with me?" He flung an arm in a wild gesture toward the crowd of Alphas. "With all of us?"
Riddick obscured his view of Zorah, but Jake felt the miserable clanging in the bond when Zorah said flatly, "I never promised you anything, Riddick. The decision has already been made."
The sentence clanged like a death knell in his head. It was like she spoke directly to him.The decision has already been made. He could hear it for the apology that it was, "I'm sorry Jake, but the decision has already been made." She'd made a mistake. With him, with Riddick, with all of them, because here was her unhappy selection right in front of his eyes. She could stand up, right now, with the full support of the Morris Hill Pack, and publicly declare everything she'd told Jake in all those quiet conversations. But that wasn't what was happening. There was no argument to be had, no protest to lodge, because the choice had already been made.
Zorah's father pushed between Riddick and his daughter but kept his blazing eyes on Hunter. "You gave us your assurance that no harm would come to Zorah in your care, and now we hear there has been some kind of covert attempt to matchmake our daughter in your Pack? Is that what goes on here?"
"Nothing like that, I assure you," Hunt said with careful patience, clearly trying to corral the situation back into something civil. He motioned to Colt and Duncan, who stepped forward to extract a still-seething Riddick from the altercation. "We have no intention of interfering in your family's" — Hunt's jaw tightened — "business."
"Stealing an Omega is a serious breach of trust," the Alpha said with ponderous condescension. "Your Pack would no longer be welcome in River Bend. For trade or anything else."
Riddick exploded. "It's not stealing if she wants to stay!" He pushed at Zorah's father and spoke to her over his shoulder. "Is this what you want, Zorah?Is it?"
Every Alpha leaped to his feet, Jake included, the room erupting in a mess of moving bodies and furniture. Too many Alphas crowded forward, limited by the narrow aisle between the two tables where this whole drama was playing out. Colt and Duncan wrestled Riddick away from the fray. He didn't fight them, but he didn't go peacefully, either.
With a smirk, the cousin slowly got to his feet, keeping a hold on a defeated-looking Zorah. The sight of her blank, expressionless face cracked something in his chest. She watched the proceedings with a distant detachment, all her normal vitality and spirit now absent. What had they done to her in the hours since she'd left his cabin?
"What kind of a life would she have here?" the cousin sneered at Riddick. "Taking care of your snot-nosed pups and living in these filthy little shacks?" He spat on the floor, and an answering growl from multiple Alphas shook the rafters, the disrespect not going unnoticed. "In a few years, I'll be Alpha of Alphas of our Pack, and Zorah will have the best of everything. Her own house, with running water, windows, and more than one room. What have you got to offer her, pup?"
Static roared in Jake's ears, the activity around him slowing to a blur. He'd had no idea what she'd be giving up to be with him, and he cursed himself for never even asking. If their mating came to light, would Jake be cast out from this Pack? Possibly. Probably. Given the scene in front of him, Zorah would certainly be cast out from hers, and if not, Jake would never be welcome there. The two of them would be on their own, and then what? Go back to OT? Go somewhere else? Where? And do what?
He had no idea. He could work if he found someplace to do that. But what if they had to live rough? He couldn't hunt to keep her fed and he could count on one hand the number of fish he'd caught in his life. They would have to find shelter somewhere, be forced to live on the periphery of whatever kind of Pack or town that would accept them, forever vulnerable and under threat.
A terrible proposition. A wretched, horrible life.
Compared with being mated to a Pack leader and living in a house with running water? No contest. Jake stood in the back of the mess hall, inert and unmoving, as Hunter and Zorah's father continued a tense conversation and Riddick, restrained between Colt and Duncan, shouted insults at the cousin. Jake heard none of it. He fixed on her big, amber eyes, willing her with his entire body to look at him as their future together vanished like a forgotten dream. His heart gave a heavy throb, as if trying to hold itself together from the tearing pain.
He was never going to be able to give her anything close to what she deserved, and she must've realized it.The decision has already been made.How could he have entertained the possibility otherwise? Had he forgotten what he was? A weak, pathetic, irredeemable waste of a human. Here he was, cowering in the back of the mess hall whilefucking Riddickfought this fight. Pathetic. The Brethren had been right: he'd only been good for one thing, his brute strength and ability to follow directions, little more than a mutant, overgrown animal.
You're her Alpha. She isyours, his inner Alpha snarled.
But what did that mean? What did that mean, she was his? His to have and possess, like an object? Like a doll to sit on a shelf and admire every time his eyes fell upon her? Or, worse, to own and use for his sexual needs, a warm place to bury his knot?
Did that make any sense? That he'd condemn her to a life of struggle and hardship and uncertainty just so he could fuck?
Or did it mean something else entirely? That she was his to care for and to protect. To provide for and devote himself to. To put first and sacrifice for. To ensure she had every comfort she deserved, and more.
To do everything for her that he hadn't been able to do for Ava all those years ago, and to do that — his stomach bottomed out — he had to let her go.
As if she could hear his thoughts, the bond wailed in sorrow. Jake braced himself against it, silencing his own breaking heart. He needed to shield Zorah from this, too. From across the room, obscured by dozens of hulking bodies between them, he caught a glimpse of her precious face and tested an experimental push of reassurance down that golden thread.It would be okay, he tried to say.It would be okay.
Maybe he imagined the slight flutter of her lashes and the softened curve of her cheek, but he didn't think so. So, he did it again. Released all the love and affection he had for his smart, brave, beautiful girl, even as his own heart shattered.
CHAPTER 36
