Wild by Sara Fields

Chapter 11

Revna

Boom. Boom. Boom.

The beat of a pair of massive drums filled the air, pulsing and pounding in tune to the hammering of my heart. I struggled to gain consciousness, falling into a pit of blackness more often than not and when I finally managed to open my eyes, I couldn’t see in the darkness all around me. My hair whipped around my face and I blinked several times, but it didn’t seem to improve my vision in the slightest. Eventually I gave up and closed them again.

I was still alive, or at least I thought I was.

My head throbbed incessantly, and when I went to move my right arm, I found that I couldn’t. I tried to force it, drowning in confusion for a few long seconds before I realized that my wrists were bound to a pole behind my back. The rope was rough against my skin and as I struggled, I could feel it scratching into my flesh.

I whimpered as a chilly breeze hurtled around me.

It was so very cold.

I managed to open my eyes once more, but the only thing surrounding me was shadow. I turned my head up, trying to make sense of where I was, and I was only slightly relieved to see the glittering stars high overhead. For several moments, I stared at them as my hazy vision began to clear. Eventually, I slid my gaze back down.

What was going on?

There was a bright orange color flickering down below. Was it a fire of some kind? In a panic, I turned my head as much as I could manage to the right, looking backwards as much as I could. The city of Rosethorne laid spread out behind me. I could see the lanterns burning in the streets, but there wasn’t a single person walking along them. The city seemed almost abandoned.

Everything was so very far beneath me.

I swallowed as my location finally dawned on me.

I was bound to a pole at the top of the outer wall, looking out into the darkness at the plains far beyond. I couldn’t see the mountains out there in the dark, but I knew they were there all the same.

I shivered hard and a quiet gasp escaped my lips.

I was naked with my arms and legs bound, presented like an offering to whatever was out there. My nipples pebbled in the wind and I pressed my thighs together, whimpering when I felt the remains of Ivar’s seed dried onto my thighs. I trembled, wondering if I was to be left out here all night.

Would I freeze to death?

There didn’t seem to be any kindling beneath me at least. At least they weren’t going to burn me alive like a witch.

The drumbeats quickened and the sound of a low horn began to drone all around me. With trepidation, I turned my head from left to right, seeing a line of white-robed priests coming toward me from both sides. They all began to hum at the same time, and it gave me an incredibly uneasy feeling immediately. The hair on the backs of my arms rose with it.

What was happening? What were they doing and why were we up here together on the top of the wall?

The priests gathered around me in a crescent circle and as soon as they found their positions, they ceased their humming. Their silence was deafeningly loud and that was petrifying.

The drums didn’t stop, however. They continued on with a constant beat that made me feel even more on edge with every thump.

I jumped as the head priest’s voice suddenly surrounded me. I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was behind me. I wanted to lash out in his direction, but I was so thoroughly bound that I couldn’t even turn to look at him. I struggled against the rope and it creaked just the slightest amount, pulling and scratching even more deeply at my skin. It hurt, but I didn’t let it show.

My head pounded something fierce. I felt so weak, and my memory felt so hazy. I don’t know how I’d gotten from the bed all the way here. In my confusion, I tried to focus on what the priest was saying, but it was so incredibly hard.

At first, his words sounded like gibberish. I took a deep breath and focused on the sound of his voice for a while. Eventually, I began to understand what he was saying.

“We are gathered here because the gods have blessed us with a sign sent from the heavens. Tonight, it is the goddess Edia offering us the chance to honor her and with it, she is presenting the city of Rosethorne with the promise of peace and tranquility.”

I stilled as the clicking of his footsteps against rock drew closer. He moved in front of me and forced his hand between my legs. I froze in shock, but he withdrew his fingers just as quickly. My skin almost felt like it had burned where he’d touched me.

He held up his hand and under the light of the stars, they practically glimmered with my wetness. He took them and dragged them across the fresh mark on my shoulder.

Ivar’s mark.

I snarled in warning, challenging him blatantly even though I knew it would do nothing. He was a beta. He wasn’t wired to respond in the way of an alpha.

“Tonight, we offer the omega tribute with violet eyes. Her slick is a sign from Edia that it is the proper time,” he continued.

There was no one up here with me on the wall aside from the beta priests.

“What do you mean the proper time?” I managed to growl, and he looked at me without even a hint of empathy.

“You are in estrous, omega. Your thighs are soaked with your slick, but that’s not all that’s between your legs. You are rank with alpha seed and you were special enough indeed to earn his mark, which will make your sacrifice that much sweeter. Do not worry. This will all end soon.”

I hated the salacious undercurrent in his words.

The bond pulsed weakly in my chest. I could feel him. All I wanted to do was return to him.

“Release me!” I screamed but someone lifted a piece of fabric over my head and forced it between my lips. I tried to close my mouth and block it, but soon enough it was tied too tightly behind my head.

“I will have your silence, omega,” the head priest spat.

I screamed into the gag anyway. As if they couldn’t even hear me, they turned aside and pressed their palms together in prayer. I watched as they bowed their heads and began to speak in an ancient language that I couldn’t even begin to understand. They were done with me now. I would learn no more from them.

A wave of lightheadedness poured over me at the same time that nausea rolled through my belly. The hammering in my head had lessened a little bit and I closed my eyes, trying to grapple with the feeling of swaying side to side as much as I could. I felt so very dizzy.

A jolt of panic tore through me just as the cadence of the foreign words the priests were muttering quickened. The drum started to beat faster and faster and I could have sworn that my heart leapt into my throat.

The sick feeling eventually faded away, only to be replaced by the all too familiar feeling of the rising of my heat once more.

Ivar.

Where was he? Had they hurt him? What had they done?

I cried out, the sound of my desperation muffled by the gag. Even though I couldn’t speak, I called out to him and the bond flared to life inside my chest. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that it was still there even through my own despair.

Fire buzzed beneath my skin and with the increasingly frantic nature of the drumming under me, it felt that much more vivid. The priests’ chanting grew louder and the pool of fear deep in my core flared to life with a frenzied panic. It felt like things were quickly spiraling out of control.

I didn’t want to know how this was going to end.

A single wretched growl that sounded partway between a scream and a shriek of exhilaration boomed in the distance and immediately, all drumming and chanting ceased. A whooping series of squeals of deranged excitement followed and the blood in my veins turned to ice.

I couldn’t even breathe. My fear held me captive.

They sounded feral, whatever they were and when they screamed once more, it sounded like they were drawing closer. The drumming began again, this time much quieter but just as fast. It was as if they were goading whatever was coming.

Like they were calling the monsters to me.

The chanting echoed once more, but this time in a whisper. Terrified, I looked to either side.

The priests were leaving me alone.

As a sacrifice.

The screams of terrifying beasts reverberated far in the distance. There was a certain insanity to them that made my insides quiver with anxiety. The worst part of it all was that I couldn’t see them, and I knew that when I finally did, it would be too late.

The rush of an arrow cutting through the air whooshed by my ear, followed very closely by a second. In a matter of seconds, two massive bonfires ignited beside me. They would shine like a beacon for whatever was coming, presenting me to them like a prize.

I wailed with alarm, but then another bout of estrous reared its ugly head once again.

My core cramped so hard that I cried out in pain. My slick rushed down my legs, dripping down my thighs and pooling on the rocks beneath me.

The excited shrieks turned to high-pitched laughter and my fright amplified along with them.

I struggled in my ropes, wanting to run. I was so tired of being held captive. I just wanted to be free like I’d been all my life. I screeched in displeasure, fighting with everything left in me, but the ropes were strong.

I didn’t want to die up here on these walls all alone. I wanted to survive. I was a fighter. I’d had to work hard for everything I’d ever had in life. I was determined to not let it end today. I roared as I pulled my wrists apart. They didn’t budge.

At least, not at first.

My heat blazed inside me and my core collapsed in on itself, twisting and turning with violent arousal and instantly, my head stopped pounding. My mind cleared and a simmering magical heat passed through my limbs. That warmth had burned the residual weakness that remained inside me away and it had left only one thing with it in its wake.

A mystical wave surged through my veins and I relaxed in my ropes. It ebbed and flowed like the tide. It didn’t fade like I expected it to. Instead, it seemed to grow stronger.

I’d felt this the night I started the fire that killed my parents so many years ago, but this was so much more intense.

I pulled my wrists apart and the rope fell away as though it was made of fraying threads. I did the same with the rope around my ankles. I grabbed the one around my waist and tore it away from my body, taking a brief moment to stare down at it.

It was really thick. I shouldn’t have been able to tear it apart, especially not with just my hands.

The unhinged laughter sounded too close now and my eyes tore around my surroundings, trying to find an out. Where had the priests gone? Was there a door or even a ladder somewhere they’d used to escape?

I didn’t see anything, but I started to run anyway.

The ground itself felt like it was breaking apart. Small quakes shook the wall and the pebbles atop its surface rattled against the stone with every reverberation. Somewhere deep inside, I feared it was because of the beasts.

The screeches continued, moving in closer and closer and with them came a scratching sound almost as if something was scraping their claws against the rock.

What the hell was coming for me?

These walls were tall, almost impossibly so.

What was Rosethorne trying to keep out?

I sprinted along the top of the wall, looking for any way out while putting as much distance between myself and the beacon fires that I could. I reached behind my head and untied the gag, tossing it aside when I could. I pressed my fingers to the side of my scalp and when I pulled them away, they were tinted with red. I had been wounded, but it appeared as though the blood was no longer fresh.

I ignored the fact that my head, mouth, and cheeks were sore. None of it would even remotely matter if I died up here on this towering wall.

The scrambling against the walls got louder. I ran harder.

The horizon began to lighten. It wasn’t the dead of night any longer, it was dawn. The fiery light of the sun was beginning to break through the darkness. I should have been relieved, but with its light, the sun brought with it a new kind of horror that made me freeze.

Exposure.

I could finally see the monsters that were coming for me.

At the moment, I felt raw fear. It rattled through me with wild abandon.

Glowing red eyes found mine, perfectly spherical and yet somehow, they carried with them a human quality that was more terrifying than I could have ever imagined. At the center of its face were two small oval holes, presumably for smell but I couldn’t be certain. It opened its mouth, revealing a glowing red center and long saber-like teeth with serrated edges that could easily tear through flesh and bone. The skin to either side of its mouth was thin and when it screeched with screaming laughter, I could see that in places it was almost transparent.

Its skin was a pale blue-gray, like the color of an iron sword left out to gather frost in the dead of winter. In places, its flesh was nearly see-through and the glowing fire beneath shone through. It stood on two thick legs. The monster’s lower half was covered in thick, coarse dark brown fur. There were two muscular bulging arms and five fingers with nails filed to such sharp edges that they could be used like claws.

Two massive ram-like horns curled out and back from the sides of its head. They were thick, coarsely ridged, and so heavily curved that the beast could reach back and touch the tips if it wanted. At least four additional horns curved out from its scalp along with it.

The beast stood at least two thirds of the height of the wall. I couldn’t even hazard a guess at how tall it was.

And there wasn’t only one of them.

There were at least a dozen. Some of them had already begun climbing the walls. Their nails dug deep enough into the stone that it shook its very foundations.

They were hunting me.

The high-pitched scratching sound hurt my ears and I rushed to cover them. My naked feet slapped against the stone and in my rush to escape, I didn’t notice that the rocky surface was uneven. My toe caught it just right and I flew forward in a heap, landing hard enough on my palms to scrape them. I cried out just as one of the horrifying creatures pulled itself up over the edge of the wall right in front of me.

It crouched low, its gangly long legs bent obscenely far in either direction just so it could place his knuckles on the ground to support its massive form.

It cocked its head to the side, studying me with those far too circular glowing red eyes. It cackled shrilly at me before it gnashed its teeth together as if I was the tastiest meal that it had ever had to fortune to find.

It was the most terrifying thing I’d ever seen in my life.

I took a step back and the wall shook behind me. An identical cackle came from behind me, and I knew I was surrounded. I didn’t even have to look.

It was like staring death right in the face.

The one in front of me lurched toward me. With petrifying speed, it took another step and another until it froze in front of me. It stopped and I cried out in horror as it pressed its flat nose against my throat and sniffed noisily.

I could practically taste the rancid meat on its breath, and I turned away, trying to swallow the gag that threatened to upend whatever happened to be inside my stomach.

I shrieked and pressed against its chest, trying to push it away and not expecting the steely cold of its flesh against mine. There was no heat and that was just as alarming as the sharp edges of its teeth prickling against my throat.

I shoved it hard, and it skidded back several feet. Its mouth opened in an oval as it looked back at me with open shock that was far too human in its candor.

For a fraction of a second, I stared at it in surprise too. I shouldn’t have been able to move such a massive creature. My core pulsed, but this time it wasn’t arousal. It felt like something deeper and far more ancient than that.

It felt like magic.

A very different kind of scream began to resonate in the distance. It was feminine and in the following moments, a chorus of women began to shriek with fear. The scent of slick was suddenly ripe on the air. I searched for them and on the perimeter of the wall was a series of poles rising from the floor. An omega was tied to each one. They were all naked.

Every single omega from the temple was up here with me.

I could see the small form of Lucina on the pole closest to me, her face frozen in an expression of pure terror.

The monsters erupted into chaos. Their cackles turned wilder, more frantic and so disturbed that it made the tiny hairs on my arms stand on end. Nails scraped at rock as more beasts climbed the walls, coming closer to the omegas with each passing second.

One of them closed in on a red-haired omega. I watched in horror as the monster tore at the ropes that held her. Her screams turned frantic as he held her up in the air, not caring that his claws were ripping through her tender flesh.

The color of her blood was stark against her pale skin. My heart hammered and when the massive beast held her over his mouth, I turned away. Her screams stopped haltingly, and I knew she wouldn’t make another sound ever again. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see her fate.

But I could hear it and it left a chilling pit in my belly.

We were nothing more than prey to these creatures. They didn’t want to just kill us. They wanted to consume us. They were here to hunt and devour us all.

I had to do something. Anything.

I turned back toward the beast staring at me like I was its next meal.

My right palm started to tingle, feeling more and more like there was a building fire within it and I held it up into the air. There was a soft purple glow beneath my skin. There was a flash of violet-colored eyes staring into mine and at once, I knew it was the goddess Edia herself. It was as if her powers were flowing through me and were begging to get out.

Whatever was happening to me, she was the one behind all of it.

The monster lurched toward me and without thinking, I threw my hand out toward him and a stream of violet flame erupted from me along with it. It stumbled backwards as if it had been burned and I sprinted forward, shoving him to the right with a strength I shouldn’t have been capable of. He flew back and staggered right up to the edge of the wall.

I moved fast, far more quickly than I ever had before and as it struggled to right itself, I swung my leg around and shoved my heel into its chest. Unable to catch a hold on the brink of the wall, it fell. I watched it hurtle toward the ground stories below. Its long limbs flew out all around it, but there was nothing to catch ahold of to stop its fall.

It crashed into the ground with a sickening crunch, landing directly on the remnants of a blazing bonfire. Red-hot ashes billowed out and up into the air, catching the breeze and flying out in a rush all around it.

The other beasts paused, but only for a second. Their hesitation made me think that they maybe had some sort of connection to each other, but when their excited cackles rose up once more, I knew that I’d been wrong.

They didn’t care about one another. They only wanted to feed.

“Revna!” a man roared and in all my fear, a sliver of hope broke through. I frantically turned and searched for that all too familiar voice. A wooden trapdoor had flown open not twenty feet in front of me.

“Ivar,” I cried out.

He rushed toward me, not caring about the rabid beasts up here on the walls with me. He didn’t hesitate to curl his arms around me, pulling me close and releasing a sigh of pure relief that tore into my heart.

“You’re alive,” he murmured shakily, and I swallowed hard and pushed against him, wanting to see his face. He wouldn’t let me.

“I just pushed a giant monster off the wall, and I can’t even move you an inch,” I blurted out in disbelief.

He chuckled and only squeezed me more tightly to his chest. The relief was short-lived, however, and the sounds of horrific creatures and terrified women filled the air once more.

“We have to do something,” I screeched.

Even more cackling echoed in the distance. More of the giants were coming. It sounded like there were far more than I could imagine.

My stomach dropped to my toes and I wailed in despair.

I wasn’t sure if we were going to survive this night.

An ear-piercing roar screeched high overhead and both of us tore our gazes to the sky.

“What now?” I whispered in fear.

“Dragons,” he answered.

Their massive wingspans were dark against the sky, shining with a silvery gray shimmer that was breathtaking to behold. I watched them soar high above. For a second, I attempted to count just how many there were, but I quickly lost track. There were at least a hundred of them circling over top of Rosethorne, if not many more.

Down below us, the city streets were beginning to awaken. Men and women ran out of their homes, looking up toward the sky and crying out with terror. The giants’ cackles floated on the breeze, moving closer and closer and then the people started to scream.

The mass of giant creatures crashed into the wall and it shook hard. It should have been solid enough to hold, but when I looked out into the plains, there were so many of them that it reminded me of ants crawling through the grass. They used their sheer mass to run straight into the wall. They yelled in pain at the impact at first. Immediately after though, they laughed wickedly with their sheer excitement at getting their hands on slick-soaked omega flesh.

The rock wall quaked a bit harder and Ivar’s arm clutched at my waist as he took in the growing chaos all around us.

“We need to get down from here,” he growled.

“We can’t leave all the omegas up here to die,” I answered through my teeth.

“I know,” he whispered, and there was a certain horrified undertone to his words. “But I don’t want to lose you to the likes of them,” he added.

“You won’t,” I vowed, even though I didn’t know if the words that left my mouth would ultimately prove to be true. “I won’t be able to live with myself if I do nothing and I know the kind of man you are. I can feel it, in here,” I added while pressing my hand over my heart. “You would regret it too.”

He stared into me with those icy blue eyes as if he could see into the depths of my soul.

“The Brotherhood sent me here to handle the Recruiter, but I’m beginning to think that fate had a hand in making you mine too. Perhaps Edia wanted me to find you. Maybe my real mission was to find you,” he whispered.

A soft warmth flowed through me and a fluttering touch glided across the back of my neck. The power inside me pulsed. It felt as though the goddess herself was reaching for me.

I pulled away from Ivar and held my palms out in front of me. There was a purple glow that crackled around my fingertips and when I faced them toward the sky, it sizzled that much brighter.

He intertwined his fingers with mine and the electricity between us snapped and popped with crazy intensity. When he pulled away, it didn’t fade.

His chest rose and fell with restraint and his gaze met mine once more. I saw the inherent possessiveness of an alpha within them, but there was so much more than that. There was fury, sadness, elation, an overwhelming sense of pride, and the kind of raw trust that I never would have believed in so very long ago.

He’d opened my eyes to the love that could exist between an alpha and omega. I knew I could count on him and I wanted him to know he could count on me.

I leapt at his chest and he lifted me off the ground. Without a second thought, I pulled the fabric of his shirt away from his shoulder and bit down hard. He grunted with pain, yet he didn’t complain, not even for a second as I tore into his flesh. I tasted his blood.

I was marking him as mine once and for all.

Once I was satisfied with my mark, I pulled away and the fiery crackle of mystical energy pulsed inside me.

“You’re coming alive right in front of me, little epsilon,” he murmured.

For a moment, I paused. I’d only heard rumors of an omega epsilon. I knew that they were faster, stronger, and more powerful, but I’d thought them only mythical tales of a time long ago, made-up stories intended to soothe a scared omega on the cusp of estrous.

But things started to make sense now.

The way I’d torn the rope.

The way I’d pushed the beast off the walls.

My mark pulsed fiercely. My heart pounded louder.

For those single moments amidst the chaos, it was just the two of us, coming together as one. I stared into his eyes as the bond flared even hotter. The connection between us was so powerful that it was as though his thoughts were my own.

At once, I knew everything about him. I understood why he was here. I understood his mission.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am no one,” he answered softly.

“I’m no one now too,” I whispered, and he drew me into a deep kiss that left me breathless and when I finally pulled away, he nodded with understanding.

Someone far down below screamed in agony.

The giants were descending into the city. With horror, I realized they were just as interested in the betas down below as they were the omegas trapped along the walls. They wanted to hunt every living, breathing human in the city.

“If you die, I’m going to teach you what the end of a switch feels like,” he growled.

“Promises, promises,” I smirked, and he reached out to smack my ass. “I’m going to kill more of them than you,” I added.

He snorted and shook his head.

“We’ll see about that,” he chuckled.

“We will, won’t we?” I grinned. With that final challenge, I rushed off to the left while he sprinted off to the right. I headed straight for Lucina without looking back. There was a giant circling her like a vulture and as soon as I reached her, I gripped the pole and used it to swing around and kick it right behind its legs. It fell forward hard enough for me to hear the bony crunch of its knees hitting stone and the great beast roared in obvious pain.

I shoved at its chest and whirled around to grasp the ropes that held Lucina captive. Her eyes were wild with fear at first, but when I pulled the harsh bonds from her skin they glistened with relief. The giant snarled behind me and I threw my hands backwards, letting go of the power surging through my veins.

Bright purple flame burst out all around me and surrounded the giant in a rush. Its clawed fingers rushed to brush the fire away, but its efforts were in vain. The flames only flickered brighter until its entire body was ablaze.

I felt faster, more powerful than I ever had in my life, and the bond pulsing between myself and my alpha only made me feel that much stronger.

I felt like a goddess.

The beast staggered back and caught the back of its heel on the edge of the wall. Its mouth opened in an oval shape and I caught a glimpse of the glowing red inside it. It laughed as it tripped and fell, hurtling down to the ground in a fierce blazing fire that refused to diminish even a little bit. It raged hot all the way down until the creature crashed into the ground. It flickered even brighter after that.

Lucina stumbled beside me, rushing to cover her naked breasts.

“Get to the trapdoor. Find somewhere safe to hide,” I shrieked. She nodded, too much in shock to say anything in response. She ran off and I sprinted along the top of the wall, rescuing anyone I could manage even as the rock floor started to rumble ominously underneath me.

A shattering boom followed, reverberating beneath my feet as the walls shook hard. I turned around as the sound deepened and I watched with horror as the top of the wall about one hundred feet away collapsed right before my eyes.

“Run, Lucina!”

I took off in the opposite direction as a massive hole blew out in the far section of the outer wall and the giants streamed into the city without pause. I couldn’t even turn to look to see if she’d made it.

It was only a matter of time before they took the entirety of the wall down. I rushed toward the next omega, but the way the wall was shuddering had my stomach tying up in knots.

I could almost feel it swaying beneath my feet. As I rushed forward, I could feel it beginning to collapse beneath my feet. I reached the next omega and ripped off her ropes. I didn’t slow for even a second as I screamed for her to run before I moved onto the next.

The walls rumbled and a deafening cacophony of roars surrounded me. I screamed with fear as the dragons dove downward and just as I reached the next omega, one of the massive beasts tore her away from the pole. I jumped at the dragon intending to stop it, but I soon realized that it hadn’t crushed her. Instead, she seemed to be cradled inside its massive claws.

I skidded to a halt and stared up at the giant beast.

“Don’t hurt her,” I shrieked. The creature ignored me and flew away. I looked on in horror.

The massive flock of dragons descended on the wall, pulling several omegas away from the poles and up into the sky. They flew off in the direction of the mountains and back toward the rest of the world. There was nothing I could have done to stop them.

A colossal burgundy dragon landed on the wall in front of me and the rock groaned under its weight. I took a step back, nervously appraising the gigantic creature. He snorted right in front of me, and a rush of smoke billowed out from his nostrils.

He was at least twenty feet long, with a spiked ridge along his back that looked sharp enough to slice through flesh. A thick long tail waved back and forth. At the end of it was a hard-scaled bell covered in pointed spikes. The burgundy scales across his body glinted in the rising dawn and when he opened his mouth, a sphere of fire glowed red deep in his throat.

I didn’t know if my new abilities would protect me from something like that.

His head cocked to the side as he appraised me, and his head snaked forward so that he could get a closer look.

“I was told there would be an omega with violet eyes.”

It was then that I realized that the dragon before me was a female.

“What are the dragons planning to do with the rest of the omegas?” I hissed.

The screams below never stopped. Some of them were full of terror, others pain, and there was a terrible mix of other sounds that I didn’t want to begin to identify. The giants were tearing the buildings apart. The outer ring of Rosethorne was going to be destroyed in the giants’ need to feed.

But then, something strange began to happen. Just when I thought the dragons were there to destroy what remained of the city, they didn’t.

Multitudes of dragons began diving toward the city, breathing fire onto the horned giants that threatened to tear apart the city. A few of them swooped down and captured some of the smaller giants within their sharp jagged claws, flying high up into the air and releasing them so that they crashed down into the ground far below.

A deeper rumbling sound echoed beneath the ground and all at once, the inner three walls exploded in a massive shower of rock and ash. As the devastation rained down, it was clear that the inner rings of the city were no longer intact and those who had been safe for centuries in the interior would no longer be protected. From the center, the people began to scream.

I swallowed anxiously, looking back and forth between the destruction in progress below and the smoking dragon standing in front of me.

“The omegas are being taken far away to a city where they will be kept safe,”she answered.

“Who sent you?”

I couldn’t hide the way my voice was shaking with terror.

“The Ghost sends his regards,”she answered, and I froze. Her yellow eyes bored into mine with cold regard and an uneasy feeling trembled through me at the way her head kept slinking back and forth.

I knew enough to know who she was speaking of, but that still didn’t settle me.

“The Alpha Brotherhood sent you. Ivar’s men sent you,” I said flatly.

“Most of us answer to the Ghost. Some of us do not.”

“Who do you answer to?” I questioned. My palms crackled.

The sides of her scaly face curved up in a fleshy grin, but there wasn’t a single comforting thing about it. Her eyes glinted with threats unsaid and I sucked in a shallow breath, waiting for what ultimately would come next.

“My loyalty is to my own flesh and blood.”

I took a step back.

Her wings spread wide and flapped hard, enveloping me in a strong wind from their sheer mass. I turned to run, but she was much too fast. Her clawed feet pounded into the rock along the wall, and it shook even more than before.

I realized too late that it was beginning to fall out from under me. I sprinted as fast as I could, but soon my heels met nothing more than the air beneath my feet. After that, I started to fall.

I didn’t fall far enough to reach the ground because the dragon behind me swooped forward and caught me in her clutches. At first, I struggled to break free, pushing against the claws that held me captive. They gave way just the slightest bit under my strength, but when she climbed higher into the sky, I soon realized that my fight was pointless. If I broke free now, I would simply fall to my death.

I had no choice other than to let her take me.

I looked back toward the city of Rosethorne as we flew away from it, praying that its people and my mate would survive what was to come.

I expected the flight to be a long one, but the dragon began her descent once she reached the cliffs of the Crescent Mountains. She circled once before she descended into the valleys below. The weight of her body made the ground rumble beneath her feet. She placed me down and I took a shaky breath as I hesitantly climbed to my feet.

“When I first took you, it was simply about making the most coin that I could. If I had known that you were so much more than just an omega, though, I would have kept you for something far greater than what Rosethorne intended,” a voice rumbled.

I knew that voice.

“Recruiter,” I growled. I lifted my gaze, taking in the sight of his mask and the familiar red robes that signified his place in the cult.

He chuckled.

“In all that time you and I spent together traversing these mountains, I would have thought you would have recognized me by now,” he growled.

I stiffened.

“What are you talking about?” I spat.

I studied him more closely. The only thing on his face I could see was the forest green of his irises and I took a step back.

No.

It couldn’t be.

“It’s been a long time, Revna. Hasn’t it?” he breathed.

He reached for his mask and it clicked as he pulled it away.

I froze.

The man behind the mask was my own father.