I lean back and meet her gaze.
Her bottomless blue eyes suck me in and ensnare my soul with the pain and longing hidden within her beauty.
I snarl and tighten my grip around her throat.
“Then there’s no reason for me to promise you anything. You have no power here, kitten.”
After a moment of consideration, she smirks and pierces me with a glare so full of challenge my cock hardens to granite and my knot partially inflates. A thrill runs down my spine, so intense it infects my heart, and anticipation heightens my senses.
I blink in confusion when she closes her eyes and goes completely limp. Her entire weight settles on my hand around her neck. She slides down the wall until understanding snaps through me.
I snarl and fling her to the floor. She braces her fall, but then lowers herself to the rusty surface and lies like a rag doll.
My fury skyrockets.
I flip her onto her back and tear her loose, faded dress down the middle. Her dusky nipples pebble in the warm air. My fingers itch to pluck and twist, but other than her hands twitching along the floor and her pulse pounding in her throat, she doesn’t respond to my aggression.
I change tactics and lower my face to hers. With an iron grip around my control, I fight against my alpha instincts and tease her closed lips with gentle flicks of my tongue. Her sweetness nearly topples me over the edge into madness, but I refrain from purring by sheer force of will.
She will not deny me my revenge.
I trail my lips along her jaw and trace the shell of her ear with my tongue. She stiffens and balls her hands into fists but continues to ignore me.
Deciding I’ve had enough, I nip her ear and growl.
Her omega body reacts without her consent. She squeezes her closed eyes and clenches her thighs together. Her flesh pebbles and her nipples harden further. A flush colors her cheeks. Her pheromones thicken, but a sour note reveals she’s not quite ready for an alpha’s knot.
A garbled, wet laugh filters in through my mania. I lift my head to glare at the source.
Her father, held upright by his shoulders between two of my beta fighters, spits a glob of blood onto the floor before aiming his black and swollen eyes at me.
“She’s always been a bitch, but if I’d known she’d cause this much trouble, I’d have killed those runts and sold her years ago just to watch her ruin some other idiot’s life. Good luck getting anything but a headache from that wench,” he snickers and spits another string of bloody spit.
A red haze settles over my vision. Inexplicable fury fills me, but I shove it into the storm of hatred whirling in my soul, adding more fuel for my need for revenge. Lethal calm heightens my senses and clears my path ahead. I stand and yank the female to her feet, giving her the choice to either hang by her arm or support her own weight.
“Just because you were too weak to bring her to heel doesn’t mean I won’t have fun breaking her. Doesn’t this prove how worthless you are as an alpha?” I goad.
He sneers. I make eye contact with my men and jerk my chin toward the door. They drop him like he has the plague and stomp out of the room to block the hallway.
I turn my attention to his daughter.
“Call them out or I’ll send your father in to get them.”
Her blue irises shrink as her pupils grow. She grinds her teeth and yanks her arm out of my grip. I let her go and quirk a brow.
Blood oozes down my side and pain radiates through my abdomen, but I’ve had worse. Plus, her delicious perfume lends me strength.
She’ll pay for every drop of my blood she shed today.
But first, she’ll give me my revenge.
Chapter 3
Iris
My bones shake with fear, but I place my body between the behemoth and the hideaway. I’ll protect my brothers until my last breath, even though this alpha has already proven himself more cunning and diabolical than my father.
I pull the torn halves of my shirt closed over my breasts, swallow the lump in my throat, and call out through the thin metal.