Page 39 of Knot Our Omega

We’d failed her.

But we wouldn’t do it again.

I refused.

We were going to get her back. We were going to make her officially our omega. We were going to mark her and let the entire world know that she was fucking ours. And that anyone who even looked at her wrong would pay the ultimate price.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Rumor

I’d been moving into heat when they took me, but somehow it was slowing down now that I was here. All the warmth and aching, the sweat and irritability that I’d been suffering was abating. Maybe because it was the least of my problems. Or because I was away from my alphas.

My sister and her pack kept coming in and checking on me, waiting for me to go into heat, and I just shrugged their inquiries off. Heat? What heat?

As far as they were concerned, I had no symptoms whatsoever. Never had and never would. If I could hold out long enough, maybe they’d believe I was as infertile as Reyna. But then what would they do?

I found that out soon enough.

“I would have sworn she was close to going into heat,” I heard Reyna say to one of her pack. “But I see no signs of it now.”

That’s right. No signs at all.

“Then you might as well let me go,” I said. “Because I’m no use to you.”

“It’s not that easy, Sister,” Reyna said. “Eavesdropping? I thought you were asleep.”

“How can I sleep with you gossiping right outside the door.” I sat up straight, bound hand and foot, wrists and ankles ragged from trying to escape. “I guess we’re both infertile, and you’ll have to get your heir somewhere else.”

“We still have steps to take.” She tapped her foot on the dirt floor. “I was even going to let you mate with my mates, which should be a real treat after the dregs you’ve been with. But we can’t do that yet.”

I pushed my anger down. It felt far too much like heat, and I didn’t dare display any symptoms or things they could pretend were symptoms. “I’d rather die than let one of your sloppy seconds manhandle me. No point, anyway, since I’m not in heat.”

“You will be, as soon as the heat accelerator Mother ordered arrives. She says it’s how she got pregnant with us. Seems we have some kind of a genetic flaw. Who’d have guessed it?”

Considering how I was treated when I presented as an omega, I certainly never would have expected any kind of tolerance at a genetic or any other kind of flaw in our family. Mother dear would have a lot to answer for if I ever planned to speak to her again. Which, of course, I would not.

But a heat accelerator? One more thing about the birds and bees I knew nothing about. This one chilled me to my bones. If it worked, I’d be pregnant by one of my sister’s pack and probably kept around for multiple pregnancies, a fate far worse than death. How could she do this? Was her drive to succeed stronger than any kind of feelings toward me? Not that I expected kindness, but subjecting me to a lifetime of rape and bearing children who would be ripped from my arms and placed in her cold, unfeeling ones? That was far beyond what I’d expected from her. “And if I’m a good girl, maybe you’ll let me nanny to ‘your’ children?”

Her eyes grew wide. “I never thought of that. What a good idea. Of course, you could never tell them the truth, and once they were old enough to understand you’d, never be allowed to see them again. But it’s certainly handier than having to buy formula or hire a wet nurse.”

My Goddess, she was taking me seriously. She’d lost the last bit of her soul in her ambition. “So, Mother knows you can’t have children? She knows I’m out here tied up to be sacrificed for your career goals?”

She waved a hand in dismissal. “No she doesn’t. I told her the accelerator was for me because I was ready to be a mom and my heat was slow in coming. What kind of a mother do you think she is?”

“A lot like you would be, if you were to have any children.”

She actually preened. Took it as a compliment. I struggled harder, the ropes carving deep wounds into my flesh. If couldn’t get out of here, I would have to find another way to escape her plans. My wolf howled inside me, but I shushed her, promising I had no idea of ending my life. Why should Reyna get to live on if I didn’t? The only way I was dying in this scenario was if they killed me.

Did my mates know where I was? Surely, after all the questions from my sister about heat and such, they wouldn’t have a hard time figuring it out. And Reyna’s pack would be expecting them to try, wouldn’t they?

Fat tears coursed down my cheeks at the thought of anything happening to them.

“And don’t be expecting those bastards of yours to come and rescue you. We’re ready for them, if they do. Not that you’re worth their trouble, but just in case.” I’d have said she read my mind, but we’d never been that kind of twins.

Rage supplanted fear and grief. “If you harm my mates, I will never rest until you’re dead in pieces at my feet.” An image my wolf enjoyed way too much.

Was that the solution? Shifting? Why hadn’t I thought of it before? The act should be sufficient to free me from the ropes. Maybe. I closed my eyes and summoned my wolf, but while I could feel her there, she was not coming forth. I struggled harder, as did she, before she lapsed back down deep. Why?

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