Page 97 of Knot Your Possession

“As I said, she’s an experiment. The same as Maia and Sam. We tested mixing our genetics with different women and manipulating proteins within the body. We wanted to see if we could produce stronger alphas and omegas. Angel was our only success outside of using our omega. She’s quite remarkable, but we haven’t been able to replicate the results.

“Why do you need me?” I asked next, when he didn’t appear interested in talking more about Angel. I kept my eyes downcast and my voice soft, as I put my glass down on the coffee table and folded my hands primly in my lap.

“Oh come now, Ava. Surely Wolf told you about us before he claimed you? I don’t enjoy being played, especially by an omega.” The way he sneered as he said the word omega clearly portrayed how he felt about us, if his treatment so far hadn’t already clued us in.

I swallowed hard, and his eyes glinted at my perceived fear. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice the bite marks on you? Or the way you reek of that delightful male omega. What was his name again, William?”

“Cary,” William said from beside the fireplace, and he had the nerve to lick his lips creepily with a tongue stained dark red from too much wine. It was the first emotion he’d shown. Blind rage seethed within me and I battled to keep it off my face.

“They’re taunting you, Ava. Phillip wants you to fight the claim. Pain gives him pleasure. We’re almost there.”Wolf’s reassurance washed over me, but he sounded strained and his words were ground out. I latched onto my mates through the bond as I sank into the comfort the others were sending the both of us.

Phillip’s eyes darkened and the veneer of civility he’d cultivated slid away. “We took care to keep you pure and gave you a comfortable life, Ava. Yet the moment our eyes turned away, you let not one, but multiple men sully and bite you.”

I couldn’t look away as a dark growl broke free and some of his dominance whipped around the room. He briefly pinned me in place, just to prove he could, before he released me. “But no matter, I don’t intend for anyone else to see you or those marks ever again. You can keep pretending you’re a princess in the tower we’ll lock you in. We can still claim you and use you to control Wolf, then we’ll kill your other mates.”

Wolf’s roar in the bond vibrated through me. I could feel his wild energy taking over and my protective instincts flared brightly. I would not let these spineless, wretched alphas hurt any of my mates. The growing sound of a chopper in the distance meant my pack was close.

Phillip’s chilling smile was pure evil. Increasing his power was the only thing he cared about. He had no remorse for the destruction they had wrought on the world. He didn’t even acknowledge it while lounging here in his luxurious manor. I was done with my submissive act. It did me no good here.

“So hundreds of years of power and influence have brought you what, exactly?” I asked him, as I dropped my facade and let him see the real me. “Four egotistical men hiding behind walls and technology, breaking their toys because they can’t get their own way? You’re pathetic. You’re barely a man. Each of my mates is worth a thousand of you.”

“Ava, no,”Wolf growled in the bond. He was suddenly frantic.

Phillip’s icy smile grew, as if he’d won a prize. “There you are, sweetheart,” he crooned. “We’re going to have so much fun.”

“Can you hear that?” Wolf’s dad asked from where he was still standing by the window. “It’s a helicopter.”

Phillip didn’t even register him. He focused solely on me. His prey.

“Where is Damon’s abhorrent father?” I asked, as I tried to gather more intel on the people inside the manor for Wolf. “Isn’t he an ally of yours?”

“Unfortunately, he won’t be joining us. He has lost his privileges. I don’t tolerate people not performing the simple tasks I give them, and we no longer need him, anyway. He’s outside leading the unruly pack of misfits we hired, trying to get back into our good books. At the very least, he should distract Damon if he gets too close.”

“I want Damon dead,” William growled. “He killed Ronan, my only son, and is protecting Sirena, that traitorous daughter of mine.”

“Yes, yes, all in good time,” Phillip said, waving him off.

“Did you get that?”I asked Wolf, and he gave me an affirmative growl.

I shrugged at Phillip, as if Damon’s father was of no consequence to me. “Damon’s dad will get what’s coming to him. So, what was the point of the government manipulation, the abuse of omegas, and messing with fertility rates?” I had to know, because I didn’t expect these men were going to survive the night. Plus, I was still stalling. I was just using a fresh line of questions to distract him.

Phillip’s smile turned indulgent. “It’s all part of the same equation, Ava. It’s simple science, really. The strength of alphas was weakening. We didn’t kill off prime alphas. They were an evolutionary quirk that died out because we didn’t need them anymore. The world was too safe. We actually wanted them back. We just didn’t want too many, too quickly. The first step to getting them back was to create some instability and force a new evolutionary cycle. Once primes started presenting again a decade ago, we started working towards the second step. A balancing event that would reduce the numbers of betas and create an environment where the strongest, the alpha species, would thrive. If we made a few more billion dollars saving what was left of the world with my tech, that would be a bonus.”

There were so many things wrong with that statement I didn’t even know where to start. Yet, his eyes were the burning of a devout zealot who believed his own propaganda.

“But it didn’t go according to plan, did it?” I argued, as I clenched my fists. “Your balancing event turned into an apocalypse, and the world went to hell. People are dying.”

He shrugged, with a studied air of casual disdain, completely unconcerned. “I’ll admit. It happened sooner than we were prepared for. We don’t have the stockpiled technology we were planning. A few more people will die than projected, but people always die. It’s no big deal. We have power and a secure base. We’ll survive, and that’s what matters. Other people will figure out a way to fix it and we’ll manipulate that process, too. Power loves a vacuum.”

Arthur yelling in the background as the sound of the chopper intensified distracted him, and he sighed. As if it was beneath him to deal with us all. “Arty, calm yourself. What is the problem?”

“They’re here. A helicopter is landing on the front lawn.”

“Yes, I can hear that,” he growled. “We needed Wolf to follow her, and he has.”

“But he wasn’t supposed to get here so fast. We haven’t claimed her yet,” Richard argued as he moved to the window too.

“Which is why we have over a hundred alphas outside. They will capture them and bring Wolf to us. They can’t fit more than fifteen alphas, maybe a few more if they don’t have packs, in a Black Hawk helicopter. Our team will overpower them easily.”

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