Page 195 of The Demon's Pet

Furious at myself for letting alphas like him control my life for so long, when it turned out I never had to listen to them at all.

I thought back to all the times I’d been beaten and hurt, all the times I’d thought I couldn’t fully fight them.

Bran let out a choked sob but shook his head, then glared at me furiously. Raw red skin was showing where the fur had burned through, but there was still spite in his eyes. “I’ll never submit to a fucking omega.”

I bit down on his neck, and the flames there did nothing to me since I was already covered with them.

“No,” he growled, struggling weakly to get away from me. He made that sonic howl again, and I felt blood trickle from my ears but ignored it.

“Submit,” I urged, the smell of his burning flesh tickling my sensitive wolf nose. I closed my teeth harder, breaking the thick skin of his neck, tasting the char of his flesh. “Now.”

Bran let out a choked cry of pain. “This isn’t possible,” he grated out, struggling to get out of my hold even as new parts of him began to burn from contact with me. “No omega wolf can beat an alpha.”

“I’m not an omega wolf,” I growled against his skin, biting even harder, feeling blood gush into my mouth. “I’m an alpha demon.”

“You’ll have to kill me, for I will never submit,” Bran rasped, beginning to grow weak. “I’d never lose… to a girl. To an omega… to a demon.”

“Then you’ll burn to death,” I growled. But deep inside, I didn’t know if it was a threat I could make good on.

I wanted to hurt him. I wanted him to submit to me. But kill him? I didn’t even know how.

I shook him by the scruff, trying to convince him, but he went limp, having lost consciousness, either from the fire, the pain, or the bleeding. His neck was pumping blood into my mouth, but the wound was nothing he couldn’t recover from with alpha healing.

I opened my jaws, letting him fall to the ground in a heap. The fire slowly went out.

I hated that I was slightly relieved to see he was still breathing, the burnt fur on his chest rising and falling slowly.

I shifted back into my human form, covered in blood but at least dressed, and faced Gabe and Os, who were watching intently.

I stomped over the gravel and stepped over the wall to join them, leaning over to put my hands on my knees.

“I won, right? I mean, passing out has to count as submission.”

Gabe stared at me with those cold eyes, and for a moment, I thought he might refuse, but he nodded. “It does.”

“Great,” I said, brushing my hands off. “Then I want to abolish the omega program. Os, can you do that? Just go back and tell them I want different rules. Pick some fair ones, from another haven, and…”

I trailed off as I saw Os shaking his head slowly, staring at me and then looking at the ground in shame.

Gabe began walking toward me, pulling something out of a sheath on his back. A longsword, gleaming and silver, with a blue hilt. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” he said.

“What?” I took a few steps back from him, putting up my hands, which were still bloody. “But Os said—”

“After I heard about what Samael did to save you, I told Os I needed to see you fight to tell whether or not you were the Morningstar.” He frowned. “I should have suspected this sooner.”

I looked at Os. “Traitor!”

Os’s hands made fists at his sides. “You don’t understand any of this, Cleo. Sam is trying to take down our entire world. If the Morningstar rises, the world as I know it will end. Everyone I love will die horribly, by murder, and—”

“That’s a lie,” I shouted. “Why would I kill everyone?”

“You don’t understand anything,” Os said. “That’s why I kept asking Sam if you were the Morningstar. The whole reason we needed an executioner was to find you and end you before you could destroy our world. I like you, Cleo. But I can’t let everyone I love die because of you.” Pain flashed in his eyes. “I can’t let demons take over the world.”

“Who told you that would happen?” I asked. “Him?” I pointed at Gabe.

Os flushed but nodded. “Gabe has trained me almost my whole life, and I trust him implicitly. Cleo, our kind has feared your birth for many years. I swore an oath to protect my people as a celestial enforcer and have been doing so almost all my life. All I’ve done would be for nothing if you were allowed to go free and ruin everything.”

“I’m not going to ruin anything!” I shouted. “Theyruin everything.” I jabbed a finger at Gabe again. “And they use fear to keep you in line!” I shook my head. “Even the demons don’t think I’ll murder everyone. They think I’ll bring balance. Os, I don’t want to kill anyone. I’m definitely not going to commit genocide.”

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