Page 14 of Filthy Royal

He flattened himself against the crystal. “Didn’t mean… to scare you. I’ll do… better.” Even through the thick barrier, the rasp of his voice slid down her spine like a caress.

The guards surged toward him yet again.

This time, however, his hands went up. He spun slowly to face them, the sculpted muscles in his back bunching. “All good. Just a misunderstanding. I’ll save the rest for the ring.”

They jumped him anyway.

The Alpha let them, not even flinching as they got in a few hits before dragging him toward the security cells.

She clenched her hands into tight fists and locked her knees to keep from throwing herself at the crystal.

She didn’t want him to go.

Fear for him welled alongside the growing conviction that she was losing something precious she’d never even had the chance to have.

Until he looked over his shoulder and winked at her. Mouthed:See you soon.

Astonishment whispered through her. The absolute arrogance and outrageousness… She loved it.

She hid a smile.

It was the first one she could remember—and it felt like an extraordinary gift.

Until she looked up and saw Egan watching her from the observation deck, a calculating smirk spreading across his face.

4

DAMIEN

“Get the fuck off me.” Damien twisted in the security guard’s hold. Now that he was out of the omega’s sight and didn’t have to worry about upsetting her, he was done with going quietly.

“Shut the hells up.” The bastard he’d taken down shoved a taser into his kidney.

Hurt like a bitch.

But nothing compared to what it cost him to let security drag him away from her.

“Faster, troublemaker.” The guard struck him again before dragging him through a heavy metal door and down a long corridor lined with cells.

Damien’s lip curled as he stared over his shoulder at the security guard who was all brawn and no technique. “You think a show of power now will make up for everyone seeing me toss you aside like a youngling’s doll? News flash, it won’t.”

Another snarl. Another charge.

But if these fuckers thought a little electric surge would break him, they were in for a surprise.

He’d been hit by his mother’s Alphafriendsmore often than he cared to remember.

He’d grown up in the ice caves of Abzal, enduring frigid winds that struck with such force and brutality they made a taser’s charge seem like a lover’s caress.

He’d trained and bled and broken so many bones in his eighteen planetary rotations that pain was a constant part in his daily life.

Plus, he had three older badass Alpha brothers who did not coddle.

So, yeah, he was tough.

And these fuckers? They had no idea who they were messing with.

“In here, space trash.” They tossed him into one of the cells, his skin sizzling as he passed through the dimmed laser bars—since no one had bothered to turn the power fully off.

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