Page 30 of Outcast Island

I brush aside a strand of her hair and watch her sleep.

Precious diamond,I marvel.I’m not worthy of you.

But I want to be.

And when my sensitive hearing picks up Ja’ar’s familiar rushing gait through the forest, I know I’ll have my chance to prove myself very soon.

And based on the accompanying footsteps, he’s not alone. There’s a rattling that accompanies each vampire—meaning they’ve brought gear, too.

I brace myself for a fight.

“Sleep well, my diamond,” I tell her as I brush a kiss across her scrunched brow. “I’ll be right back.”

It takes a few attempts, but I manage to ease off the bed without disturbing my Omega’s carefully orchestrated design of her nest. I don’t want to do anything that might disturb her sleep.

Hopefully the bloodshed that’s about to happen doesn’t bother her too much.

After setting the metal door closed and hearing every bolt lock into place, I make my way through the hall and rooms of my lair, only to find Ja’ar outside with a pack spread out behind him. He’s wearing a loose-fitting shirt and jeans, but I’m not fooled by the casual appearance.

Ja’ar is deadly.

He has a canister on his back and his finger is on the trigger of a flame thrower. He shoots it into the air, hurting my eyes with the burst of flame.

He’s threatened me with it before.

Vampires don’t like fire. It’s one of the few things that can really hurt us.

Ja’ar isn’t afraid of fire. His skin has a stronger resistance to it than most. He can still burn, but not as easily as the rest of us.

He could set my entire lair on fire if he wanted to and probably walk out of it with a smile on his charred face.

The crazy asshole.

“I hear you have a little Omega holed up in your lair, Magnus,” he says as he grins. His gaze sweeps over me, then comes back to my eyes that I know betray my hunger with how dark they are. “And more so, you aren’t even feeding on her. Well, if you won’t bite her then we certainly will.” He waves his hands to the vampires still as statues behind him. Their black eyes glow with hunger, likely even darker than mine given I can at least feed on Vampire Alpha blood on occasion, unlike them. “Care to let us play with her so this doesn’t get messy?”

A growl rumbles in my chest and I don’t make any effort to swallow it down. Torpor means my Omega won’t wake until Ipersonallywake her, as her Alpha.

And the only way I can do that is with my knot.

I’m certainly not going to be knotting her with these dick faces around.

“She’s mine,” I tell him, hoping he’ll listen to reason. Just because I could command all these vampires to fuck themselves doesn’t mean I should. Plus, my power has limitations. I can’t command all of them at once. I would have to get into their faces and order them one at a time, which would involve fighting.

Then, the cost would hit me hard and I need to be lucid for my Omega right now.

After killing multiple Vampire Alphas with my bare hands, I’m also exhausted. I don’t usually need sleep, but I had slept in my Omega’s nest also because she had made me feel comfortable to do so. It rejuvenated me enough to deal with this encounter.

But I didn’t feed on her—that would have rejuvenated me so much more.

My stomach twists, wanting to give up the Alpha blood I had imbibed to make room for the sweeter Omega blood that will actually sustain me.

He must misunderstand what I mean, because Ja’ar holds out a bag of blood and pops it open. It smells like tart grapefruit to my senses. “I brought a peace offering. I don’t expect you to starve. But you are going to have to share.”

Snarling, I bark a command. “Burn it.” My stomach dips as the cost of ordering a Vampire Alpha boils a portion of my blood. That’s partially why I require to feed on any blood I can find after I use my power to bloodmist or to command. It eats up my blood in response, making me feel empty. The more resistant a Vampire Alpha is to my command, the higher the cost.

Luckily, Ja’ar likes burning things, so it’s not such a stretch for him.

He doesn’t even bother to throw the bag on the ground. Ja’ar’s flame thrower lights with fire at the same time the bag in his hand ignites.

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