Page 14 of Bait Wolf
He tried to speak, swallowed, and tried again.
“Ember,” he managed to say.
That was it? No last name, and no information about who he was. He didn’t trust me yet, but it didn’t matter.
I would do everything I could to win Ember over. I couldn’t imagine what a bait wolf went through. A dark feeling settled over me at the thought. I had walked through those dungeons so many times. I’d known that the bait omegas were kept down there, and I’d chosen to selfishly ignore it. All the while, my own fated mate might have been down there, kept in one of the cells… I pushed the thought away and it wasn’t hard with those remarkable eyes there to fall into.
“Ember,” I breathed, a smile touching my lips. “I will do everything in the world to win your trust and make you happy.”
Ember’s eyes widened. He shook his head faintly.
“I—that’s not—you don’t need to. I don’t need anything… I don’twantanything.”
His meaning was clear the moment he said it. He didn’t want to mate with me. Come to think of it, he didn’t seem to want anything to do with me.
Very slowly and carefully, I pushed myself up. To my surprise, Ember helped me and even kept a steadying hand on my shoulder while I breathed through the spins. When I finally felt steady enough to face Ember, the omega was biting his lip, worry written all over him.
“Look… they said we have to stay in here until the sedatives wear off. The league president said he would call about my… purchase.”
His voice faltered at the word.
My entire whole world was shifting. It was like I was now seeing things from an angle I hadn’t even known existed. Deep, visceral empathy filled me for things I’d never thought about before. How could one possibly explain the hurt of being sold, especially when no one had paid to begin with? To the wolves of Lunar City, omegas like Ember—usually kidnapped from low-income neighborhoods—had a worth only to those that stole them. People acted like the omegas themselves held no value to their own lives. Like they were inanimate commodities…
I swallowed, my heart squeezing and bile rising in my throat. Over and over, I’d fought and I’d never even spared a thought for the omega bait wolves that were brought in to antagonize me.
We were so close, only inches between us. I could have leaned in and kissed Ember like I so wanted to. I could have laid him down and given him so much pleasure that he forgot everything else, like how unfair the world was. Instead, I reached out and carefully wrapped my arms around his thin frame, holding him gently, offering him comfort of a different nature, because this moment wasn't about whatIwanted.
Ember stiffened. He was standing over me but after a moment, he sagged the slightest bit, and I took that as a victory.
I knew that a protective alpha’s scent could make an omega relax, so I kept Ember close and stroked his back, my own gaze drooping in bliss from being so near him. He just smelled sogood.
I turned my face, pressing into Ember’s neck, which happened to be at just the right level, a happy accident.
A soft moan left my lips, and Ember stilled but didn’t pull away.
This, I was sure, was a miracle. From being a man content in my loneliness, someone often called cold and aggressive, tothis. I was somehow one of the lucky few. I was with my mate.
“How did this happen?” I breathed.
I could feel Ember’s heart racing in the pulse point on his neck, just under his scent gland, exactly where I could so easily sink my teeth into the flesh and claim Ember for good. Make it official so that everyone knew. I was filled with a possessiveness I had never felt before. A desire to hold Ember in my arms and fight anyone who even looked at him. Even the thought of other alphas seeing Ember, let alonetouchinghim made my pheromones pump, exuding my dominance. A bite, aknot, would fix that because then no one could argue that Ember belonged with me. They would smell me on him. That thought was breathtaking.
“They shot you with a sedative,” Ember was saying, voice tinged with worry, a hint of fear slipping from his scent gland. Why? From the memory?
“You said that,” I said, frowning. “Who did? Why?”
Suddenly, the extent of my fogginess became clear. My head felt like it was held under water, and my brain was sluggish.
“The league security did because you went… well,feral…”
He didn’t seem to want to say it. The scent of his fear intensified and finally, I realized that fear was directed toward me.
“I wouldneverhurt you!” I snarled.
Ember flinched, his entire body stiffening. The fact that I had said it so passionately probably wasn’t wise with an omega already seemingly terrified of me for whatever reason. The smell of his fear, now swamping the room, was making me feel sick, but suddenly, I couldn’t dwell on it because other things were coming to mind.
The league tranquilized me. They only tranquilized alphas who lost control. I never did, not entirely… Except, I couldn’t remember what had happened.
A flash of images returned to me; my first moment seeing Ember, Lambert cowering back, lights flashing,blood, Ember trying to get away from me and the fierce protective fear that someone else might get him,no one could touch him, he was mine, mine, mine!
