His Rebellious Omega (The Royal Omegas Book 3) Page 6

  Charolet hissed as she passed through, and shook out her hand before staring down at her palm. “Damn it. Cut myself.”

  “Let me see.” I took her hand, spreading her fingers wide. A dark red line ran down the center.

  “Here,” Rielle said as she ripped a strip of fabric from her undershirt and passed it over. I used it to wipe the blood away, but my heart stilled as I noticed brown fleck in the wound. Rust. Shit. She would need medicine to make sure the tarnished metal didn’t poison her.

  “We’ll find medicine,” I said, under my breath.

  “It’s fine.” Charolet pulled her hand away, and I found her eyes.

  “There are flecks of rust in your wound.”

  “It’s fine,” she insisted. “I’ve had worse in the Badlands.”

  “You always say that,” I shot off, angry that she was hurt, once again. First her head, now this. Was she determined to forever be in danger?

  “Because it’s true,” she snapped back.

  I met Rielle’s concerned gaze, but she said nothing.

  “Let’s move,” I grumbled.

  The closest building was only a few feet away from the fence and there were no guards in sight. Most of them would be preoccupied watching the main road into the keep, or scouting the desert. I wasn’t sure where to look for the omegas, but my gut told me not to think like an alpha Weren.

  Getting my bearings, I headed for the least decrepit building I could find. The mutants, or Elite, as Rupert had called them, were housed in the main facility along with the human generals. The rundown concrete building with its broken fountain out front and steel walls inside, was considered the most opulent of dwellings in the Human Keep. But I suspected the other omegas were given the next most comfortable accommodations.

  The question was… should I look for comfortable by Luxorian standards or Badlands standards? How far had these humans gone to woo the omegas?

  “Where are we going?” Charolet asked.

  I didn’t answer immediately. “Looking for omegas.”

  “In there?” She gestured to the scrolling façade of an ancient gambling place. It looked the most untouched out of all the buildings I’d seen. Yet also the least secure.

  “Didn’t Rupert say the omegas lived in comfort? We should look in the nicest areas first.”

  Rielle shivered. “Nice areas. What nice areas?”

  Charolet shook her head. “Omegas don’t want comfort. They want safety.”

  “What’s wrong with both?” Rielle muttered.

  “We should look for them in secure places.”

  “Let’s hope you’re wrong about that, little rebel, because secure places are much harder to sneak into.”

  Charolet scanned our surroundings. “What about that one over there?” I followed her outstretched arm to a point across several abandoned roadways. It wouldn’t be easy to get to. There was a lot of rubble for us to climb and if we ran into any mutants…

  I found Charolet’s gaze. “You sure?”

  “No,” she admitted, “but it’s as good a place as any to start.”

  “All right. Let’s go.”

  Leading the way, I plotted out a path around the ruins of buildings and ancient signage. Glass shards jutted out precariously, and I did my best to guide the females around them. My omega probably didn’t appreciate my looking out for her, but my alpha instincts insisted I protect my mate.

  I grabbed Charolet’s arm to help her avoid a steel bar in our path and she stumbled backward, catching herself on my chest. I expected her to reel back, curse me for getting in her way. It’s your fault, she would say as she tipped her chin up in defiance.

  Except she did none of that.

  She gave in to my hold, leaning against me as she found her footing. My arms cradled her, and it was the first time we’d been this close. I couldn’t believe how absolutely right it felt to have her against me like this, her hot body molding to my chest. The animal locked inside me rumbled its appreciation. Mine. For the first time, I wondered if our mating was as doomed as I thought it to be.

  Charolet held her breath as her eyes slowly moved upward to find mine. When our gazes clashed, it wasn’t with challenge or anger. It was something else. Something that made my chest throb and my cock grow hard with desire. There was a softness in her stare, and when she looked at me like that, at me… it made me want to break every rule in existence to have her.

  Rielle cleared her throat, and like a mirage flickering to reality, Charolet’s tender expression vanished. She straightened, continuing toward our destination.

  The next time I reached to move her away from danger, she jerked away from me. “I got it,” she snapped.

  Grinding my jaw, I refused to acknowledge how her recoil stung. She didn’t want to feel things for me, but that moment, that small breath of time, was proof that she did.

  As we approached the building she had pointed out, I began to look for an entrance. It was a sturdy place. The crumbing walls had been fortified with iron and newer materials. The windows weren’t lying in shards on the ground. In the light of day we couldn’t see inside, but I suspected my mate might be right about omegas living here.

  “Char, look!” Rielle exclaimed. “Is that…”

  “Jacoby!” Charolet’s face lit up like fireworks, and I followed her gaze to the alleyway beside the building. I recognized the omega from our last visit. He had convinced Tavia and Charolet that the omegas were in the keep willingly. Now I noticed he carried weapons strapped to his arms and waist, and held an air of authority.

  His gaze landed on the two omega females and his face spread wide in a smile. “Charolet. Rielle. You came! Are the others here? Tavia?” He stopped abruptly when his eyes landed on me. His expression turned hard and his hand settled on the gun at his hips. My inner animal bucked up at the challenge of a weaker Weren, but I wrangled it down, not wanting to cause a scene that would attract the mutants. “You brought an alpha,” he snarled.

  “Jacoby, no. Listen, it’s okay,” Charolet started. “Cassian is—”

  “A goddamned alpha,” the omega spat, his eyes turning crazed. Something was wrong.

  “Char…” Rielle warned, backing away.

  “This is ridiculous,” Charolet said, laughing nervously. “Jacoby, calm down. I can explain.”

  The hair at the back of my neck prickled. Danger, my instincts screamed. Mate is in danger. Charolet was too close to the omega, and his hand was too firm on that gun. My eyes tracked his every minute move, waiting… watching…

  I wouldn’t let him hurt her.

  Charolet huffed and stepped forward as if to approach the omega, and I couldn’t shackle my instincts any longer. With a roar, I lunged in front of her, desperate to keep her from getting closer to danger.

  Jacoby drew his gun.

  Pointed it at Charolet.

  My wolf went blind with rage, shredding my insides in an attempt to get free of my body.

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

  And a wolf roared to life, snapping and snarling, ready to fight. Ready to protect.

  But to my surprise, the animal wasn’t mine.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Charolet

  Heat rocketed my body when Jacoby lifted the barrel of the gun. At first, I thought he’d shoot Cassian. The alpha. The enemy. He was so wrong. Cassian wasn’t the enemy, but I didn’t have time to explain.

  Because the gun was pointed at me.

  He thought…

  I didn’t have time to figure it out as my skin melted away, and my wolf emerged, ripping my clothes away from my body. Jacoby thought I’d brought trouble to the keep. He was probably right. But if I died here, he only thought he knew what trouble was. Cassian would make misery rain down on him in a way that would make him pine for the good old days in the Badlands.

  A momentary doubt played at my mind. Would Cassian care? Or would the alpha let me die here, in this wasted place, hated by people who used to be my friends?

  “Charolet
!” Rielle shrieked.

  The barrel of the gun shook in Jacoby’s grip. He used both hands to steady it. I had to assume he finally had access to the silver bullets the guards always used to threaten omegas with. The kind that could shatter our bones and poison our blood.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cassian put his hand on Rielle’s arm. But I couldn’t take my gaze off Jacoby, not even for a second. That was when I noticed his eyes were red and his skin gray.

  “What has he done to you, Char, that you’d choose to protect him over your own kind?” Jacoby’s mouth settled into an ugly snarl, and now the gun was trained on Cassian.

  I growled.

  “He didn’t do anything,” Rielle said. “Please, Jacoby. Put the gun down.”

  “We can settle this like Weren, omega.” Cassian said.

  “Damn straight we will,” Jacoby said before he fired.

  Rielle’s scream triggered the thunder of bootfall as other omegas, and probably a few humans, came running. I didn’t care about any of them.

  The black shirt hid the color of the blood, but nothing could contain the wetness blossoming under Cassian’s left shoulder. Jacoby had missed his heart.

  Cassian stood stalk still, his gaze bore into the man who shot him. “You made a big mistake, wolf.”

  “A little silver is all it takes to make us equal.” Jacoby let out an ugly chuckle. “Did you bring your prisoners here to lure us back to your hell? Things are different here in the keep, alpha. And it’s about time you learn how to heel.”

  He motioned with the gun that he wanted Cassian to get on his knees. The coppery scent of his blood burned my super sensitive wolf senses.

  My alpha would kneel for no wolf.

  My alpha… What the—

  “Don’t do it, Jacoby,” an omega I didn’t recognize warned. “Killing an alpha will have consequences that none of us are prepared to deal with.”

  The side of his mouth quirked up in the ugliest smirk. In that moment, Jacoby wasn’t my friend. I wasn’t even sure he could be considered omega. He was a living breathing machine with one mission.

  “I’ve been planning for this my whole life.” His finger curled around the trigger and I pounced. The impact of the bullet leaving the barrel sent us backward onto the ground. He fired multiple shots.

  I had to keep Jacoby down.

  “Cassian!” I cried, having no idea if he’d be able to understand me when I was in my wolf form. But Rielle would.

  She was in between two omegas, and they each held her by the arm. She struggled between them.

  “Someone needs to help him.” Rielle’s voice was little more than a breath.

  “Cassian.” I turned to see him on the ground, clutching his chest. I lunged at Jacoby, my lips peeling back and my fangs so close to the flesh on his neck. But someone pulled me back by the scruff.

  “Your alpha will never make it out of the keep alive.” Jacoby’s eyes were wild. Not omega, not human. They were something they shouldn’t be.

  “If he doesn’t survive…” I didn’t know what I’d do. Chances were excellent I’d spend the rest of my life in the dungeon if I returned to Luxoria without Cassian, and had to explain he was dead because of me.

  “Choosing an alpha over your own,” Jacoby clicked his tongue as he stood over me. “Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you’ll never do that again.”

  The entire front of Cassian’s shirt shined with blood, and some of it began to stain the ground below him. I roared, jumping off Jacoby when a group of omegas descended on his body and started dragging him away.

  “Charolet!” Rielle cried.

  A tranquilizer gun was pointed at me, but the dart was in my skin before I could move.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Cassian

  “Cassian.” Charolet’s horrified scream reverberated through my mind. Even in her wolf form, I could sense her desperation to get to me. I reached for her, realizing how much blood was flowing down my arm to my fingertips.

  Jacoby said something I couldn’t understand and Charolet’s wolf lunged at him, pinning him to the ground.

  I growled, rolling onto my side to help her. Mate is in danger. I would kill Jacoby if I could only get my hands on him.

  “Stay still, alpha,” a voice hissed through the melee. A group of omegas surrounded me but I quickly picked out the one speaking. It was an older woman I didn’t recognize. So, one who didn’t work in the castle during the Division.

  “I won’t,” I snarled, trying to fight them off. “My mate… my… Char…” My vision was going cross, but I caught the firm frown on the older lady’s face.

  “He won’t hurt her,” she rasped. “You, on the other hand, are in danger. Be still, and trust me.”

  Trust an omega. After what had just happened?

  “His wounds are deep,” she told another one, “but nothing his beast can’t heal from the inside.”

  “You were right to switch out the bullets, June,” a faceless voice murmured. “If one of us had killed an alpha… we wouldn’t stand a chance of getting out of here.”

  “I know.” The older omega, June, stared down at me as if I couldn’t hear her. “Still might not. Let’s get him somewhere safe.”

  Things became fuzzy as I was shuffled onto a gurney and wheeled through the dim hallways of the omega barracks. I struggled to keep conscious as my wolf began healing some of the damage to my body. Normally, I would sleep off battle wounds but I couldn’t succumb to that healing slumber now. Not when I was being wheeled farther and farther away from Charolet.

  “Char…” I croaked, grabbing the woman’s arm with bloody fingers. “I need to protect mine.”

  “There are others like us watching,” June said. “They will see that she isn’t harmed.”

  “She doesn’t need someone watching her,” the other voice said gruffly. I couldn’t tell if it was male or female. “She can take care of herself. She is omega.”

  June raised an eyebrow. “Yes, but that means several different things these days.”

  “True,” the other one eventually agreed.

  Sharp pain ricocheted through my chest and I let out a groan, tensing. Soon the human part of me would be at war with the animal part. It would continue that way until I slept. Or was healed. Whichever came first.

  “We need to remove the bullets before his ridiculous animal heals around them.”

  “Yes, but he will no doubt fight us. A wounded animal is dangerous, but a wounded alpha… we might not live to see that liberation we always dreamed about.”

  June stared down at me. “We have to try.”

  There was a long silence. If it wasn’t for the pain my animal was inflicting on me, I would have thought I’d blacked out.

  “We could give him the juice.”

  June’s head snapped up to glare at her counterpart. “No.”

  “It will be safer that way,” the other one hissed, and I turned to see who it was. This omega was young. Barely more than a child, small in stature, with hair cut short. My wolf was preoccupied otherwise I might have been able to scent whether they were male or female. Something about them…

  June’s harsh “No,” brought my attention back to her.

  “They say it won’t work on alphas anyways,” the other one argued. “That their body composition is too strong. They burn it off too fast.”

  “Then what would be the point in giving it to him?” June snapped.

  “I’ll take it,” I snarled through my weakness. “Either that or give me a goddamn bed so I can heal. I don’t care. I just need to get back to my mate.”

  June’s expression turned grim. “Alpha, you won’t be getting back to your mate any time soon. There is much to tell you.”

  “It can wait.”

  “No, I don’t think you understand. The king is in danger.”

  I stared at her, wincing as each heartbeat throbbed against my insides. Adalai was in danger. Fine, but he had a whole troop of guards to protect him, an
d he was a formidable fighter himself. My Charolet had no one but Rielle.

  “My mate,” I ground out.

  “Not just the king,” June continued. “The entire Weren kingdom.”

  The kingdom, my people. Shit. Was fate really going to make me choose between my female and the entire Weren population?

  My animal made the choice for me.

  “Mate first.” The words barely escaped my lips before pain ripped a roar from my chest.

  The gurney jerked to a stop and nearby, a door slammed. I blinked, and the other omega’s face appeared before my eyes. The expression it held was half desperate half angry.

  “Listen to me,” the omega barked. “All you can think about is your mate. But here’s the cruel twist. There won’t be a Luxoria left to live happily ever after in, if you don’t do something. There is a beta faction within the city preparing to rebel. They are vast and they will strike from the inside unless you can stop them.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I am one of them. I was sent here to form an alliance with the humans. We couldn’t have known what was happening here. Not until… not…” The omega glanced at June and that’s when I realized what my wolf was missing.

  The other omega wasn’t an omega at all.

  “You’re beta.”

  “I am. Now, are you going to help us or not?”

  A beta had come to the human keep to make an alliance. A traitor to the crown.

  “Who is us?” I growled, furious.

  The beta looked at June and then back to me.

  “Your people. All of them.”

  Oh, I was going to help them all right. I was going to rip this place apart until I found Charolet, and then I was going to run like hell to Luxoria to expose the beta faction.

  “Give me the fucking juice.”

  My wolf was furious and clawing me from the inside.

  June nodded, her expression solemn. “One dose,” she told the beta. “Nothing more. And when we’re done cutting the bullets out, we tell him the rest.”

  “Agreed.”

  “The rest of what?” I asked, but a small cup of yellow liquid was pressed to my lips before I could get an answer, and that was only the beginning of the nasty shit I would swallow over the next four hours.