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“So sweet. Worrying about the woman who betrayed you,” Phillip said. He used the same fake, polite tone from earlier, as he wiped a smear of blood off his finger with a handkerchief. It was the same tone I imagined he’d honed schmoozing other rich people at charity dinners. Only his eyes had changed. The scent of blood on the air had sharpened them.
I wanted to help Nicole, but Angel was lying on the couch between Phillip and me. Nicole whimpered under her breath as she did as I suggested, pushing a cushion into her side. “Help Angel,” she mouthed at me when I glanced at her, and I nodded. It seemed she wasn’t completely heartless.
“There’s always been something different about you Ava, I just couldn’t figure out what. And I like to know what my possessions can do. I would have put you down in the labs, but Wolf would have rioted and we barely had him contained as it was. I’m intrigued though. I thought you might have been able to deny a bark, the same as Maia, but you froze just now. So what is it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
“I was hoping you’d be a good little omega and not fight me on this, but it seems you require some more persuasion.” His eyes flicked to Angel, and we both noticed her stirring as her eyes fluttered open. My heart sank through the floor. She didn’t need to see this.
“Ava?” she whimpered, sounding groggy and confused.
“I’m here, Angel. It’s going to be okay,” I tried to reassure her. Phillip just grinned wider, showing me his teeth.
I couldn’t let him hurt her, not while I had any life in my body. Yet I also couldn’t let him bite me. His vile emotions would taint me for the rest of his life, and I knew Angel still wouldn’t be safe. So fight, it had to be.
I felt Wolf’s energy cycle rapidly through our pack, building towards a colossal peak. It moved like a pure, wild energy in my veins and I could feel Cary channeling it alongside me. Yet the power was also tinged with that of our friends. I could feel Damon and Sam in there, too.
I didn’t have time to dwell on it, though. Phillip’s face lit up as he read the determination on mine. My calm, submissive façade had fled. What it left behind was pure, raw omega. A mama bear defending her cub.
I jumped up as Wolf flooded our bond with dominant energy. Phillip laughed as he lunged towards Angel, and the knife flashed wickedly in front of him. He vaulted over the back of the couch, dragged her still limp body up to his chest, and angled the knife towards her throat. Her eyes widened in fear as her gaze locked on mine, but I felt utter trust coming from her.
“I need you,”I screamed at Wolf in the bond, shoving a sense of urgency at him as my adrenaline pounded. But I already knew they wouldn’t make it up here in time. There was only me, Angel, and the knife as death slid towards her.
“Now, Ava,”Wolf screamed back in my head as he released his energy, and drove it towards the massing enemies outside. It spread out in a wave that reverberated with a sonic boom. I pulled at that energy with every ounce of inner strength I had, then flung out my hands and pushed it straight at Phillip. It forged its way through me and out of me through sheer force of will, burning a heated path through my veins as I roared my fury.
It was impossible. Yet, power poured from me, pushed by Wolf as my pack sensed what I was doing. They shored me up as Cary held the flow steady, taking as much of the strain as he could. It flowed around Angel and tore into Phillip, making him stagger backwards slightly before he froze. The knife halted, suspended in mid-air, centimeters from Angel’s neck.
“Everyone’s collapsed outside. All of them. They’re either dead or out cold,” Arthur shouted in disbelief as he stepped back from the window. He clutched his face in horror when he spun and saw Phillip frozen behind him.
Phillip’s eyes blazed with rage as we became locked in an epic struggle. I could feel him fighting to break my hold. But I kept every ounce of my concentration fixed on holding him in place. I felt Lexie and Maia join Cary in holding me up and funneling power to me. My girls were here, and they were furious. I felt fierce as I let their fury join my own and I pushed itallat him.
“Did Wolf do that from outside?” Richard asked, his voice shaking as he looked from Phillip’s frozen body to the window.
“No, she did,” Arthur said, disbelief in his voice as he raised a shaky hand and pointed at me.
“She can’t. She’s an omega,” William sputtered, but he had paled and his eyes were wide open in shock.
I growled low in my throat and felt a twisted smile cross my face, as I flung dominance over them, too. It wasn’t a lot. I didn’t want to lose my hold on Phillip, but it was enough to spook them. I sensed them shift away, trying to get as far from me as they could. They were alphas, yet not one of them tried to use their own dominance to stop me. They truly were cowards.
“Let. Angel. Go,” I demanded, throwing sharp intention into every word. His arm relaxed just enough to loosen around Angel, and she wriggled free, carefully eyeing the hovering knife as she slid down. As soon as she hit the floor, she stumbled towards me on shaky legs. I grabbed her with one hand and pulled her behind me as I kept my other hand raised towards Phillip.
I wanted to tell her to run, but I didn’t know who was outside the door. She was safer with me. I could feel Wolf getting closer, and it only fueled me further. Every step my pack took towards me was a drumbeat in my heart and added power in my veins. “Keep a hand on my back, Angel. So I know where you are. But don’t look, okay?”
“Okay, Ava,” she whispered, and I felt her small hand press into my back as she tucked into me. That tiny, trusting hand felt like a brand on my skin. It mirrored the one she’d already left on my heart. The one that had quietly melted me every time she sought me, or my pack, out.
I took a slow step towards Phillip, making sure my dominant hold stayed firm, before I took another one. It held like it was mine to mold. It didn’t even drain me. The power buzzed through my veins as if it had come home. I reached out and pried the knife from his hands. He tried to hold on, but I growled and his fingers released the knife into my waiting palm.
“Kneel,” I ordered, and he dropped to his knees even as his eyes blazed with the need to commit violence. I spun the knife around and pressed it against his neck, hard enough for drops of blood to trail down into his pristine white shirt. It didn’t change his expression.
“You underestimated Wolf, and me, too, Phillip. I’m not your possession to do with as you please. I belong to me,” I told him, feeling powerful and alive. I was tired of seeing omegas manipulated and mistreated by entitled alphas. Of pretending to be submissive just to stroke their egos. I didn’t enjoy hurting people, unlike the man on his knees at my feet, but I wanted him to feel what it was like to be on the tip of someone’s knife. Your life in their hands. “You want to play with knives, Phillip? What about people? You want to play with lives, too? Maybe I should play with yours?”
“Stab the arrogant fucker,” Nicole grated out behind me. Words I don’t think she’d ever uttered before.
The front doors of the manor smashed open. The crash reverberated in the marble entry and chased the sound of footsteps on the stairs. They rang closer every second. I smiled at Phillip. My mates and my family were here.
“Your fate is coming for you,” I said with quiet conviction, and the words seemed to echo around the room.
forty-three
