Page 220 of Harley & Her Ferals

My heart is beating like a hummingbird in my chest. My hair is sweaty, damp against my neck.

From the moment that Dad broke the bond with Mom, however, despite her begging on her knees for mercy, I’ve been waiting for this moment.

I’m taking it.

I step forward again, and the packs part for me. “Ouch.Except,not ouch. Because you don’t have that power anymore. You’re knotless. I don’t only belong to the Ferals, I’ve also been nominated as the Head Omega of the Battles.”

“That position doesn’t exist. Are you playing make-believe?” Dad barks with laughter. “What the fuck do you think this is anyway, you little shit? A democracy?”

My smile is thin. “Looks like it.”

Dad glowers at the Battles, who surround my bonded pack. “Get back to Battle House or every single one of you, including your kids, will be disciplined. Do you fucking hear me? This is your last chance.Now.”

Several Omega kids begin to cry at the strength of his angry pheromones, which he is flooding into the room.

Feral growls.

To counteract Dad, Feral floods his own, much more dominant, pheromones over the packs.

It soothes and steadies the crowds.

“You’re no longer in charge.” I fix Dad with my stare.

I don’t duck my head or look away. I’ve done that too many times in his presence.

Dad doesn’t appear to know how to deal with this new, confident version of me.

He raises his gun. “But I can still shoot every last fucking one of you.”

I stiffen.This needs to work.

I hope that Laurent is right about Dad.

“I’m the one who is challenging you,” I try. “You’re just a washed up Champion who hasn’t fought anyone for years. You hold these fights to try and regain your glory days but also to hide the fact that you couldn’t fight even Allegra. Although, to be fair, she has a lot of experience of knifing people in the back.”

“You bitch.” Allegra drops her mask in her fury.

She looks ugly with her face twisted like that, and now everybody can see it.

Dad is staring at Allegra in shock, but then he refocuses on me. “I’ll show you whether I’m washed up or not…”

He tosses his gun to Vinnie, before prowling toward me.

Got him.

I march forward to meet him.

To Dad, no matter how many times he’s seen me fight, I will still be his little Omega daughter who cowers at the breakfast table, while her Alpha brother tries to protect her.

Remembering that gives me the strength to face Dad: The sound of Dad slamming Lionzio face first into the breakfast table, the clatter of the cutlery, and his cry of pain, as my brother’s weakened wrist is fractured again.

I snarl, running to close the final distance.

I take Dad by surprise with the aggression of my attack.

My mind is filled with Lionzio’s sobbing, Feral’s screams as he’s shocked, and River’s tearful nightmare.

I attack Dad in a flurry of strikes, using the brutal Burmese boxing that Romilly taught me.And that Dad never learned.

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