Page 61 of Ruled By The Alpha

When they couldn’t force her to come out from between the rocks, they growled and chanted filthy things at her, forcing her body to respond even as her mind staunchly rebelled against their taunts and demands.

Her normal nesting spots were far removed and well disguised. It had been years since an Alpha had found her during a cycle. She’d been careless, staying so long near Riden, when she knew it was coming. She hadn’t given herself the proper time to find a safe place to weather her heat.

On top of a mountain, everything was downwind of her current location. Syra grimaced at the idea that she’d brought them right to Riden’s door. Her only solace was that she couldn’t smell him on them. If they were smart at all, they’d avoided him on the way through.

Syra could only hope. The last thing she wanted was for Riden to be injured or killed because of her carelessness.

“Come on, Pretty. You know you want this Alpha dick.” One man purred from beyond her crevice. “I can smell your slick. Come out, and I’ll fuck that pussy while my friend stuffs his cock down your throat, and fills your belly with his cum. Omegas like cum. Come out, and we’ll show you.”

Syra pinched her eyes shut as a wave of nausea rolled over her. These men were as disgusting as their words. She didn’t have to wonder how they’d treat her if they got the chance.They’d made it very clear over the past few hours what they’d do to her if she came out.

The sensation of sweat dripping off her skin, made clammy by the tight space and her high body temperature, irritated her irrationally. The air in her crevice was suffocating and thick, filled with her own scent and the smell ofwrongAlphas. Syra just wanted them to go away.

No matter how repulsive they were, the instinctive need to mate was already high, and she hadn’t even crested yet. It would get harder to resist the urge to crawl out to those stinking, awful men as the days went by, and she knew it.

Alphas seemed to develop an inordinate amount of patience when it came to catching an Omega in heat. Unfortunately, the longer they lingered, the greater risk there was to herself, and to Riden. Syra knew there was nothing to be done now except to hope her will was strong enough to resist the vile invitations.

Riden would probably try to stay away out of respect for her if he didn’t catch wind of these two. The way things ended between them last night, he had to know what was happening, even if he hadn’t said. That he’d let her leave and hadn’t pressured or forced her to stay spoke volumes about him as a man.

Syra’s throat tightened. Ridenwasa good man. AgoodAlpha. She didn’t belong here, hiding from a couple of filthy men who only saw her as holes to fuck. She belonged back in camp with Riden. Fear forced her to run but staring the threat of a miserable future in the face, she was consumed with a feeling of loss for the relationship she hadn’t been brave enough to pursue.

Her eyes burned as the first few tears of regret slid down her cheeks. She clutched her knees to her chest and shook her head, willing herself not to think about it. Spending time with Riden had been some of the happiest days she’d had in recent years, and the memory of that was going to have to be good enough.

There was no changing the past.

She tried hard to block out the sound of their voices as they continued catcalling and rumbling enticements, but there was nowhere to go, no way to escape the awful sound of their jeering laughter.

But a vicious, earth-shattering roar broke through the din of their noise unexpectedly, flooding Syra with pleasure so intense and that she fell apart under the weight of it. She cried out in surprise as the orgasm rocketed through her body, setting every fiber of her being alight with electricity.

The sound cut off, followed by a booming, familiar voice exchanging words with the men who’d been harassing her. Syra panted through the backside of her orgasm, struggling to focus despite the wave of disarming pleasure.

Riden.

Hope and dread knotted together in her stomach. Riden would try to protect her, but he was outnumbered. Something in the back of her mind assured her it didn’t matter, that he was the better Alpha. Syra was too practical to put much weight in optimism. She hadn’t seen these strange Alphas outside, but she’d learned enough by sound and smell the past few hours to tell they weren’t honorable men. They wouldn’t fight fair, and those kinds of men were the most dangerous.

All hell broke loose outside her hiding spot, and Syra clamped her hands over her ears to muffle the awful sounds of fighting. She didn’t dare get close enough to the front of the crevice to see. One, she had no interest in seeing the carnage she was responsible for, and two, she didn’t want to be a distraction if anyone caught sight of her.

Her body ached and throbbed at the muffled sounds of fighting, drawn instinctively to the sound of Alphas battling to prove their worth. It was a special sort of misery, being an Omega. Not being able to control her own body, being reducedto a baser level where nothing mattered but serving a biological imperative older than time itself, and yet still being consciously aware of just how degrading and wrong it all was… Syra hated it.

Outside, the scrabble continued. No matter how hard she pressed her hands over her ears, she couldn’t block out the angry shouting, cries of pain, and dull throb of bodies colliding. Syra rocked back and forth, anxiety and fear making it impossible to sit still. The stench of the angry, aroused strangers bloomed in the air as they fought, bringing with it the delicious scent of Riden: spiced and wild, it overpowered the other men’s smell.

Syra groaned as a full body shudder took her, her insides clenching with longing as his scent washed through her system. She rubbed her thighs together, struggling to ignore the new flood of slick that bubbled between her legs as her body recognized his presence.

His rightness.

“Please let him win.” Syra whispered into the darkness, sending out a plea to whatever Gods existed, desperate for therightAlpha to win.

Chapter 7

Riden leapt back as the point of a knife flashed through the air in front of him, but the sizzling track of pain that bloomed across his chest told him he hadn’t been fast enough to avoid the blade. Thankfully, the little bastard had put too much force behind his swing. As momentum carried the man’s upper body through the backside of the blow, Riden snatched hold of his wrist and jerked, upsetting his balance. The man stumbled and Riden lashed out, striking him in the back of the head with the butt of his own knife and sending the stunned Alpha to the ground.

His friend roared in anger and launched himself at Riden, swinging a barbed wire wrapped bat at his head with the same reckless energy as his friend. Riden ducked and threw his shoulder into the man’s gut, driving him back against the boulders and sinking his knife into the soft space between his ribs and hip.

The man howled in pain and brought the bat down against Riden’s back, but he grit his teeth against the bite of the barbed teeth and drove his knife into the man again, twisting and jerking the blade as the younger Alpha screamed and struggled to get away.

The next few minutes were a harrowing blur of violence and blood. The first Alpha pulled him off his friend, but he’d lost his weapon in the fall and couldn’t keep his grip on the much larger Riden as the three of them battled for the upper hand.

In the end, only one man was left standing.

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