Page 61 of Defiant
“Yeah, apparently Cooper Stone thinks he’s entitled to some omega ass—”
“I thinkI’mentitled to some omega ass,” Warcraft’s friend quips.
Warcraft stops walking and glances over at me. “You’ve been inside, right?”
I nod.
“You seen her yet? This omega piece that’s got the alpha’s all riled up? Is she hot?”
What the fuck? Is he seriously going to talk about Elena like that? Black’s going to marry her! That’s his future luna! Or … is this how Black talks about her too? “I—I—Betas don’t have the same kind of…”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re eunuchs.”
“Wouldn’t it suck if she’s got a grade-A pussy but a pug face?” The other alpha laughs.
“Nah. You could just go doggie all day. Or shift and fuck as wolves.”
“Think she can take a knot all the way?”
The pair walk off and I’m left with a dread in my stomach that’s even worse than before. Is this what Elena’s future is like? No wonder she wants to run. Suddenly, all my reasons for staying seem distant. Small.
How can I leave her here with Black, knowing that she’ll only ever be seen as a thing, not a person?
Even if she doesn’t really love me, how could I leave someone to that fate, least of all … her?
I swallow hard as I walk back to that shed to drag out another piece of fence. A memory of my grandfather flickers through my head as I sweat and grunt and work.
When I was four, I’d stolen a toy police car from my brother. Then I’d lied to grandpa and said it was mine.
He hadn’t punished me. He’d sat me on his knee and told me this. “Once in a while, we can choose to do the right thing. As betas, it might never be agreatthing. Nothing major. But the right thing warms your chest on cold nights. It keeps you marching on the straight and narrow. The wrong thing will haunt your dreams. It will make you toss and turn. Regret will follow you wherever you run. You won’t be able to escape it. Today, you chose the wrong thing. Don’t let it happen again.”
I’d stolen my brother’s candy bar the following week and gotten the same lecture. Every time I did something wrong while I was at his house, grandpa drilled the message into my head.
Now I finally understand what he meant.
I send a silent thank you up to him, wherever he is.
A peace settles into my chest as I make my choice.
I’m going to do the right thing.
Tonight, two alphas are going to fight.
Blood will race.
Adrenaline will be running high.
It’ll be the perfect time to escape.
If we can get away with it.
21
Black
I rundown the steps to the basement, hurrying because the clock hasn’t been on my side all day. I had plans to fuck Elena up against the wall down here, to hold her up by her wrists, cuffing them with one of my hands and letting her marvel at my strength as my cock pummeled her. If something like that doesn’t send a she-wolf into heat, I don’t know what will. But my plans have been thrown off course because Stone landed early and wants to fight tonight.
He doesn’t want to give me any more opportunities to defile his little omega. Or impregnate her.
