Page 36 of Rathgar

He spurs his mount into a gallop and I rush to keep up, my heart thundering in time with each hoof beat. It couldn’t be. Couldn’t be…

“What’s wrong?” I yell when I catch up. I’ve only seen him like this once before, and that’s when his heart-mate Lara had to leave Aesirheim to take care of her sister after she was injured. The fear I tried to put aside rises to the fore all over again. I wasn’t imagining things. Something had happened. Even I could feel it.

“It’s Lara,” Soren pants, rushing toward the shuttle at breakneck speed. “It was a trap, this whole setup was a trap. There was an ambush back home. We were fools, Rathgar. Fools!”

Equal parts terror and fury wash over me like a storm. All the rest of the world fades away, sounds and sensations easing into the background as my thoughts and energy redirect to one purpose and one purpose only:

Saving my mate.

We make it home in record time, but it’s too late. Charred remains smolder against the once-lush landscape. It’s a bleak picture compared to the thriving community we left, but now it’s like a ghost town.

“Janie!” I cry out when I see our house still standing but damaged. The door hangs weakly on its destroyed hinges. Shattered glass litters the ground where the windows broke and sharp splinters poke out from the wooden frame. If something happened to her and the kids —

No force in the galaxy will stop me from taking my revenge.

“Janie!” I roar again, praying that I’ll hear her voice. That she will be there, with that same soft smile on her face. That Iris will wake up next to her and cry out to me with that endearing nickname of hers.

But the house stands ransacked and empty. My blood runs hotter with each room I check. My rage fuels my movements, clouding out everything else. The last room I check is our bedroom. Janie’s nest.

The door’s destroyed here too, but there’s signs of a struggle. Did my omega actually try to fight them off? I should never have left her, and the fact that they stooped so low as to abduct a child…

Mark my words. When I find the bastards that did this, they will regret ever crossing an Aesirheim Alpha.

I turn to leave, wild with panic and rage, until something smeared across the wood catches my eye. I freeze at first, thinking that it is blood, but a closer inspection reveals the truth.

It’s paint. Red face paint.

The very same that Kovarx’s men use in the field.

A cold, grisly certainty fills my chest and I let out a loud, mournful roar that shakes the still-standing timbers. Memories of his threat come back to me in full color, remembering all too well his crimes and his vow for revenge.

I should have killed the bastard when I had the chance, after I saw what he had done to his own wife and child. Should have tossed him from the tower and watched as he splattered into a pulp on the cobblestones. I showed a rare moment of mercy, and this is what I got.

When I find him again, he will not be so lucky.

I will make him pay for every breath, every life he’s stolen here today. When I’m finished with him, not even the crows will want his corpse.

Everything’s a blur after that. I rush back out into the main square, where Soren’s just as unhinged as I am.

“They took her.” I spit, snarling at the scorched ground. “Taking a pregnant omega, and her child, too…” My fists clench so tightly my nails dig into the skin. “The monsters!”

“Got any leads?” Soren’s voice is low, monotone. Deadly.

“I do.” I say. And this time, with all the might of Aesirheim behind us, we will not fail. We cannot afford to fail our women and children. There is no cost too high to pay to get them back.

IMPRISONED IN A CELL

JANIE

I heard stories of alien brutality in passing from listening to Soren’s old war stories. I never thought I would be part of one.

I’m sitting in a dank cell with Iris, Lara, and one other woman. She’s human like us, just moved in with her match not long ago. Isabella, I think she said her name was.

I’m barefoot and pregnant — literally — in a smelly prison cell, but Isabella’s got it even worse. We learn amidst sobs that her alpha mate fought valiantly to protect her as one of the few remaining warriors, but ultimately the attackers overwhelmed him. He was slaughtered before her eyes.

All while she was still in heat.

I remember all too vividly how uncomfortable and all-consuming it was, and that was in the lap of luxury with my alpha at my side. The chaos and terror of our situation keeps most of the stronger effects at bay, but she’s sweaty, grieving, and in pain. There’s only so much we can do.

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