I shoved the tenuous bond right back at Cordian, the grey glow dissolving into a million pieces with my rejection. That mark on Kiara’s neck was just that—a bite mark. One that would heal like any other.
Cordian hissed, pulling back from my omega’s neck. He didn’t look at me, shifting until he blocked my view of every part of Kiara. “She rejected it,” he confirmed to Tobias.
Tobias strolled closer to the door, leaning down to peer at me through the hole. His grin hadn’t been dislodged, not even by my defiance. In fact, he looked more gleeful than he had before.
“All the better,” he murmured, quiet enough the words were only for me. “She’s got a few more days of heat. My sister is only going to be worse off with every hour. And if you still haven’t accepted it by the time the heat is over… I’ll kill you. Done. No more pesky alpha to get in the way of the bond my sister was always supposed to have.”
I didn’t say a word. Didn’t panic. I couldn’t let Kiara know what his plan was, because it would only make this worse.
He stared at me, waiting for something, until his jaw ticked and he scoffed. Standing to his full height, he strolled over to the guards. “Get them ready to move. If this is going to take a while, we should use a different location. Father hates when there’s too much screaming in his basement.”
I never looked away from Kiara. People moved around her, but my small peep hole didn’t give me the right angle to see her. Not while Cordian Ashby blocked most of my view.
She was hauled to her feet amidst heavy footfalls and spoken orders. A keening whine was drawn from her throat as they dragged her toward the exit.
Finally, my wrists came free of the rope.
This was it.
The best chance I would ever have to get us the fuck out of here.
If they were moving us somewhere else, I could fight back. Since my omega was here, I wouldn’t go willingly like I had before. I’d strengthen myself with my aura as much as I possibly could, even though my female alpha aura wasn’t built for fighting.
I watched through the gap as they cleared out my omega and all the evidence of her existence here, waiting for the moment they opened this stupid fucking door.
Whoever opened it would regret it.
FIFTY-EIGHT
KIARA
The bite from Cordian burned.
It was far worse than Leighton’s dark bond.
Maybe it was because I hadn’t wanted Cordian’s bite, or because my body was overwhelmed with the stress of an unsatisfied heat.
Either way, fire had rushed through my veins when his teeth sank in. I’d choked down a scream, hoping Leighton couldn’t tell. I didn’t want her to know how much it hurt me, because she might do something rash.
She might have accepted the bond.
The last thing I wanted.
But no. She’d rejected it.
My alpha knew it would break me if she accepted Cordian in, even though most omegas would do anything to escape the heat pain. She’d trusted herself to know what I wanted, despite her instincts screaming at her to take away her omega’s discomfort.
The pain was unfathomable, the bite mark throbbing. It was nothing more than a normal bite now that Cordian’s attempt at a claim had been rejected. But along with the constant twist in my stomach and the increasing pulse in all my limbs, I couldn’t forget it had happened.
I was forced to remember how close I’d come to being bonded to someone I didn’t want.
You’d think I wouldn’t be terrified of that, after my frantic race to find a bond when I escaped this house the first time.
I was.
Images of faceless alphas danced in my nightmares, their teeth sinking in my flesh. In those horrible dreams, the only faces I could see were my father and brother, because they were the ones in control.
Not me. Not even the potential alphas bonding me by force. Them.
