Page 2 of Claimed Omega

“Listen here, Omega bitch,” Axel droned in my ear, and having him touch me sickened me. “Let me simplify this for you. Stay with those pricks and you’ll die with them. Get on your knees for me, and I’ll spare your life. Then I’ll show you what a true Alpha can give you.”

He ground his cock against my ass, and I hated how harshly he held me, his fingers digging into my neck. This wasn’t about lust. It was about him dominating me, making my Alphas suffer. I couldn’t take the abuse any longer, or the ache in my chest of seeing Shadow slowly bleed out. I would never be with another Alpha than my three and never Axel.

“How does that sound?” he growled in my ear, his other hand squeezing my breast.

Fury blinded me, and I slammed my heel into his foot, then threw my bent elbow into his gut. Ripping from his grasp, I lunged away from him, whipping back around to face him.

“Don’t ever fucking touch me again,” I threatened, not recognizing myself. I grew up with hardship, with threats, but I’d never fought back. Now I wanted to rip the smug grin off his face. “I hate you.”

“Good. I love women who have their claws out.”

I recoiled toward Shadow just as Viper tore away from the groaning guard he’d left in a pool of blood and came my way. He was a warrior in that moment, blood streaked across his face.

Regardless of the unresolved issues between us, I was completely relieved to have him on my side. The empathy on his face when he looked at me and the ache in his eyes when he found Shadow were sincere. When we first met, he was standoffish and an asshole. He still had those traits and had a lot to make up for, but at that moment, I could see the true love he had for his pack, how much they meant to him… how much I did.

Viper turned his full fury onto Axel. “I’m going to rip your hands off for touching her and shove your balls down your throat.”

The two stared at one another like primal animals, hatred reddening.

But when Axel raised his gun to Viper, my heart died.

Then it all happened too quickly.

A blur shot across the room—Aspen slamming into Viper just as the gunshot banged. Something fast rushed right past my arm, and I flinched back just as the bullet skimmed past my bare arm with heat, but by some miracle not hitting me. A scream rushed past my throat. My men were on the floor, and I was scrambling toward Shadow just as the front doors slammed open. My head was spinning, and my heart was in my throat.

Everything was going too quickly, and one of us was going to get shot again if we didn’t stop that lunatic, Axel.

“What the fuck is going on here?” A man built like a bull charged into the room, followed by a dozen guards. His dark eyes were huge as he scanned the chaos in the study, pausing on Shadow’s state and me, his meaty shoulders rising as though he was going to lose his shit.

“Axel,” he bellowed in a reprimanding tone. “What the fuck happened?” Then, noticing Don on the floor, his eyes bulged out of his head, and he darted over to the dead man, kneeling at his side, taking his pulse.

“Help, Shadow needs help. Call an ambulance, please, something,” I cried out frantically, but the man was more concerned at seeing Don on the ground, unmoving. Of course, he wouldn’t care. He was one of them… a Matteis.

“Don, fuck!” his voice quaked, his breaths deep and heavy. He cared for the old man.

Guards infiltrated the room, and I froze next to Shadow, pressing my shirt against his wound, too scared to move. We were trapped as the air thickened with tension.

My heart was going at a million miles a minute, and I had no clue what to expect. Viper and Aspen had gotten to their feet, looking ready to lunge into war, hands fisted, chests heaving for breath. We were outnumbered, and it would be suicide to think we could take them all on.

I’d heard it said that it didn’t take long for your life to be turned upside down. A moment in time. A fleeting heartbeat.

“They killed Don,” Axel announced at the newcomer, twisting toward him with aggression in his movement, his gun still gripped in his hand. I half expected him to shoot the guy for daring to question him.

Ice filled my veins, and I stiffened at his blame on us. Sucking in hard breaths, I watched everything play out, feeling a sense of déjà vu as though I was back at my father’s mansion when he killed that man for breaking into this home.

“Fuck off.” Viper was growling. “You took our weapons, fucker. Maybe check the knife and you’ll see that it belongs to Axel. He killed his own family.”

“Shut the fuck up, idiot. The guilty don’t get to speak.” Axel barked a laugh, shaking his head. “I was about to kill the lot of them to pay for their treason.” He glanced over to the two groaning guards in the corner, pushing themselves onto their feet and looking like they’d been run over by a semi-truck.

“Rusty,” Shadow groaned, but his voice was barely audible, and my mind buzzed, remembering that Shadow had met with Rusty in the bar. He was his contact in the Matteis family.

“We didn’t kill him. Axel did,” Aspen spoke, holding himself stiff.

“They’re lying,” one of the beat-up guards groaned, wiping the blood from his busted-up nose. “We were in the room and saw the whole thing. Shadow threw himself at Axel, grabbed his blade, and stabbed Don in the back. We barely stopped him from taking down Axel.”

I sneered at them. They were framing us. Panic flared in my mind, and I barely had room to think about anything else. There was nothing stopping Axel from just shooting all of us right that moment, especially with the way he kept glaring in our direction.

“That’s a lie,” I blurted. “He and the guards attacked us after he killed Don.”

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