Page 6 of A Mate for the King
The shifter’s eyes darted up to Zehr’s, but a warning growl had them darting away again. “P-please. Mercy.”
“Did she ask for mercy?” Zehr shook him. Holding onto his rage was difficult. He felt as if he could snap the shifter’s neck with the barest twitch of his hand, and only the fear of further stressing the omega held him in check. When the shifter didn’t respond Zehr shook him harder.
“DID SHE ASK FOR MERCY?”
“Yes.” The alpha gasped in pain but didn’t move a finger to stop the treatment.
“And yet you ask for what you would not grant.” Zehr sneered at the alpha in his hands. “What makes you think I won’t kill you?”
The alpha then dared to lift his eyes to Zehr’s. “The coronation.”
Zehr felt a white-hot blinding anger he hadn’t experienced since his father’s murder. “You think you’re safe because of some antiquated law? There are no witnesses here. The All-Mother knows what you did and she alone will judge me. My hands will be plenty clean for the coronation, even with spilling your blood.”
The alpha jerked back as if he had been slapped and his eyes widened in fear. Zehr smiled thinly at the sight of the now trembling alpha. He tightened his fingers on the alpha’s neck, and might have gone further if not for the soft voice of the omega.
“Don’t kill him,” she called from behind Zehr. Zehr swallowed hard and flexed his fingers on the alpha’s neck before he spoke.
“Is that your wish?” he asked, tilting his head to the side as he considered the shifter who barely qualified as an alpha.
The shifter smelled like another wolf, perhaps from the Moonwater clan, a sorry lot of cold-hearted backstabbers and the prime suspects in his father's murder. There would be little love lost in the death of one such wolf and he expected nothing better of one of their alphas than trying to force-bond an omega.
“Yes,” the omega said, voice quiet but firm. “I want him banished. You can do that. I know you’re the Fireheart alpha, and everyone knows how you treat omegas.”
Zehr’s lips tilted up in a smile but he said nothing. So the little omega knew who he was. The shifter in his hands squirmed.
“Banishment?! You don’t have that kind of power! She’s a half-breed! I am—”
Zehr’s eyes snapped back to the alpha in front of him. “I don’t give a damn who you are! And you think I don’t have that kind of power?” He jerked the alpha close to him, a snarl on his face as he stared down at him.
“You forget the blood that flows through my veins. I can do exactly what she’s asked and more. As of this hour, you are banished from shifter gatherings. You are not welcome here for breaking a sacred law. You are unknown to the clans.” Zehr flung the shifter away from him with enough force that the alpha bounced and rolled head over heels into the tall grass of the glen.
“You should run,” he said, glaring at the prostrate alpha, “before I change my mind and send you back to the All-Mother, though you’d make a piss-poor offering.”
“You’ll pay for this, witch.” The alpha’s eyes moved past Zehr to where the omega was standing.
A stifled gasp from her had Zehr moving with a speed that surprised even him, and a well-placed front kick delivered squarely to the shifter’s abdomen sent the alpha once more flying backward in a cloud of dust and curses.
“The next time you speak to her I will kill you,” Zehr said, walking along in a mockery of a stroll, his posture relaxed but his eyes murderous.
All it took was one glance for the other alpha to understand the seriousness of Zehr’s promise. Thankfully, the idiot turned and without a second look sprinted from the clearing. It was a mercy to Zehr as he didn’t have it in him to kill in front of an omega, especially one who was frightened and wounded. He wrinkled his nose at the coppery smell of her blood mingling with her sugary sweetness. The effect wasn’t...unpleasant, with the saltiness of her blood adding an extra layer to the overwhelming sweetness of her heat scent.
And then there was the matter of her magic mingling with it all and making it all the more heady, like a strong glass of wine. Zehr had to give himself a shake. He should not be feeling this taken by an omega he didn’t know, and he certainly had no business doing it with one capable of wielding magic.
Shifters had no affinity or love for magic. Their world was very clearly separated into two halves: those with magic and those without. Shifters were the latter and trusted none that were of the former.How was she even possible?
“What are you?” Zehr stared at the omega in wonder. There was far too much magic around her for her to be purely shifter.
The metallic tang of arcane magic wafted to the alpha on the air, mingling with her enticing sweetness. Shimmering blue light from the charge she had let loose only minutes before still clung to her tan skin, like small streaks of lightning, and Zehr wondered if they would burn him should he touch her.
All-Mother, he wanted to touch her.
But the magic held him back. It screamed danger to him, despite his need to come closer.
The omega's brown eyes darted up to meet his before sliding away again. “I-I’m Moonwater Clan.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He took a step toward her, his eyes moving along her lush curves. She was achingly beautiful in that soft way omegas had about them. Pink pillow lips, flawless tan skin, and haunting doe eyes. He’d never known anything of beauty to come from the cold shifters of Moonwater.
She and her attacker were from the same clan.
