Conrad

She was so small.

Eyes glued to the omega in the hospital bed, I watched the machines beep and light up. My uncertainty grew. Did the doctors even know what the hell they were doing?

What if these machines weren’t working? What if she was dying right now, and everyone thought she was on the mend because some hundred-thousand-dollar machine wasn’t working, and nobody knew?

How could someone hurt an omega like this? In most cases, wolves were wired to protect an omega. Who the hell in their right mind would try to kill one?

Other than us.

We’d never told anyone the truth about Lana. Not even King Cyrus, although he’d probably guessed. Everyone else assumed our old omega had died with the rest of the betas.

Omegas were precious and rare. It took someone perverse and twisted to hurt an omega like this.

Unfortunately, wolves with darker tastes weren’t hard to come by. I feared what would happen to Kieran if we didn’t find some way to get him some help. What would happen to all of us—no matter what Kieran turned into, Lucien and I would never leave him.

We had to protect her. What if the would-be killer comes back? He could come back, because I couldn’t catch him. In fact, he was damn likely to come back—trying to kill an omega was punishable by death.

I was fast. In the two years since we’d lost our pack, all I’d done was train. Push myself to be better. Harder. But the fucker had too much of a head start. I knew I was close, but when Kieran called me back, all I could do was obey.

“When was the last time the goddamn doctor checked on her?” I growled and started back to the hall, but a gasp brought me up short.

She was awake.

I didn’t need to communicate through the bond. Lucien and Kieran would have felt it. Both of them were staying as far away as they could.

They assumed I’d be the most immune to her because I hadn’t been all that enamored with Lana.

My reaction to this omega was nothing like my reaction to Lana.

The woman blinked and moaned a little as she started to shift. Her gaze didn’t seem to focus anywhere, but she tried to roll to her side before she whimpered in pain.

My wolf pulled desperately and howled at the sound.

“This is Candy!” Betty said, toddling toward the omega on the bed.

Immediately, I put my hand on Betty’s shoulder and started to pull her back. Wolves in pain often didn’t react well, and I had no idea what they’d pumped into the omega.

Although they rarely shifted, I knew nothing about this one. I wasn’t about to let her hurt Betty, even if that wasn’t in their nature.

It sure as fuck shouldn’t have been in Lana’s, and look where that thinking had gotten us.

The omega’s hand shot out, and she grabbed Betty.

“Don’t...hurt...her,” she said as she struggled to sit up. “Please.”

It wasn’t hard to pull Betty out of the omega’s grasp in her weakened state, and I narrowed my eyes as I fought the tide of emotions rising in me. Please. The word nearly sent me into overdrive.

“Candy,” Betty repeated, holding her bear out.

“Betty!”

The omega’s eyes landed on me, and sheer panic swept over her face. She bolted upright. I could smell the adrenaline pulsing through her as she started to pull at the needle and tubes attached to her.

“Stop,” I ordered as I swept Betty into my arms and carried her to the door. “We need a doctor in here!"

Another scent hit me, and I snapped my head around and stared at the omega as she continued to fight with the machines. We hadn’t smelled it before, maybe because she was so close to death, but it was there, plain as day.

Her alpha bond.

The omega belonged to another.

“Conrad, no,” Kieran ordered. He could feel my wolf about to rip out of me. “Pull it together.”

Pull it together.

I felt him getting closer, and it calmed me a little. I couldn’t explain my reaction. Of course she belonged to another—it wasn’t like omegas ran around rogue.

But I did know that whoever had claimed her didn’t deserve her and had taken something that wasn’t his.

But God, she couldn’t be ours. She could never be ours. Kieran had already made his decree after both he and Lucien had been covered in Lana’s blood.

We would never welcome another omega into our pack.

Ashley

“You’re a fucking broken omega, and I’m going to make sure no one ever fucks you.”

Pain exploded in me, and I cried out and began clawing at my gown. Stabbed. He’d stabbed me over and over. So much pain—and I couldn’t fight back. He’d held me with his bond, and I’d just laid there and taken it.

In an instant, the alpha was there, grabbing my hands. Terrified, I tried to jerk away, but he held fast.

“Fuck, stop it. We’re not here to hurt you. Just breathe. The doctor is on her way.”

“The doctor is here,” a woman said as she walked in and stared at the scene before her.

She was an older wolf with gray strands peppering her dark hair. Despite being a beta, she had that no-nonsense look of a healer. She gave that look to the alpha now through narrow eyes.

“Alpha, you’re scaring my patient. Please step away from her.”

He growled but released me, and I huddled in the corner of my bed.

“If you could just give us some space,” the doctor began, only to be hustled further into the room as another alpha entered, blocked the doorway, and crossed his arms. She looked back and muttered something under her breath about alphas as she walked closer to me.

“Hello,” she said in a gentle voice. “My name is Dr. Shriver. You’re at the Matterville Hospital. You had to have emergency surgery and an infusion of blood. There was no identification on you. Can you tell me your name?”

I didn’t want to tell her anything, but her voice was soothing. I’d only met one other healer, and he’d been kind to me—not kind enough to help me escape, but his touch had been soothing when he’d bandaged my wounds. I glanced nervously at the other two alphas.

“Ashley,” I answered quietly.

“Ashley. Very good. Ashley, you were attacked in the woods not far from here. Do you remember that?”

How the hell could I forget? He’d taken me there under the guise of helping me understand how to be an omega. I was automatically suspicious because he’d never shown me any kindness, but I’d been so tired of it all. I didn’t even know how to fight back. Slowly, I nodded.

“Good. I didn’t see any head injuries, but you never know with traumatic experiences. Do you know who attacked you?”

Danger, my wolf whispered. I agreed with her. He was still alive, and for the moment, I was free. If I dropped his name, it would leave a trail. Swallowing hard, I shook my head and hoped she didn’t know that I was lying.

The doctor sighed. “An attack on any wolf is a serious business, but an attack on an omega is a whole different story. I was really hoping we could catch this guy. We’ll contact your alpha.”

“No, you can’t,” I shouted before I knew what I was doing. She gave me an odd look, and I backtracked.

“He’s dead.”

“Oh, you poor dear. I’m so sorry. I know how hard that is.” Grabbed my hand, she squeezed. “Luck is on your side now. You were found just in time. The alphas have covered your medical costs, so you don’t need to worry about that. I’m going to keep you here for a few more days for observation, but you’ve responded to the surgery very well. We’re just making sure that an infection doesn’t set in, okay?”

I couldn’t even respond to her. A strange sensation was happening in my chest. A familiar one.

A tug.

The doctor turned as a man entered the room. She cleared her throat. “If you could please move.”

The man grunted and stepped aside. He was blonde and just as tall as the large, dark-haired alpha, but his face was unmarked and classically handsome. I felt a strange sensation as I looked at them, but the odd tug in my chest took precedence. I hadn’t felt anything like it since the day I’d been sold.

“Wait,” Conrad growled. “Will she go into heat?”

The doctor paused. “In this state? Highly unlikely. She’ll need to heal and get some more nutrients in her.”

Great. Discussions about heat often happened around me, and I had no idea what they meant.

The alphas left the room, and for the first time, I was alone.

Quickly, I ripped the needles back out of my arm again. I wasn’t tethered to the bed, so slowly, I sat up and scooted to the edge. The tugging grew stronger. Gripping the railing of the bed, I stood.

And wobbled.

Escape was going to be a little more difficult than I thought. Gritting my teeth, I breathed deeply and took a step.

And immediately pitched forward.

A growl filled the room, and hands grabbed me before I hit the floor. Heat flooded my body, and I gasped and looked up. Dark eyes stared at me. Dark, familiar eyes.

“You,” I whispered.

The dark beard was longer than I remembered, but I would never forget those eyes. The way they’d connected to me.

The way they’d rejected me.