The Alpha's Omega Slave

The collar around my neck was cold. Kane’s collar. I lay on the stone floor of his bedroom, chained like a dog, and stared at the moonlight bleeding through the window bars. My 18th birthday gift: a mate who hated me and a silver chain that burned every time I moved. “He’ll kill me,” I whispered to the empty room. “Alpha Kane will actually kill me.” The door creaked. I scrambled back until the chain yanked my neck raw. But it wasn’t Kane. It was him — Beta Marcus. Kane’s second-in-command. The only wolf in the Red Moon Pack who’d never spit at my feet. “Seven hells, Aria.” He dropped to his knees beside me, his green eyes wild. “What did he do to you?” I flinched when his fingers brushed the bloody welts on my neck. “Don’t. If he catches you—” “Kane’s at the border patrol.” Marcus’s voice was rough, angry. “He won’t be back until dawn.” He pulled a key from his pocket. A key. My heart stopped. “You… you’re going to unchain me?” “Not just unchain you.” His jaw clenched. “I’m getting you out of here.” Escape. The word tasted like hope and terror mixed together. “He’ll hunt me. He’ll kill us both. I’m his mate, Marcus. The mate bond—” “The mate bond he rejected in front of the whole pack?” Marcus snarled, and his Beta aura made my wolf whimper. “He doesn’t deserve you, Aria. No one does.” His fingers fumbled with the lock on my collar. The silver seared his skin but he didn’t let go. “Why?” I choked out. “Why are you risking your life for a slave? For me?” Marcus froze. In the moonlight, I saw it — the way his hands shook. The way he wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Because I remember,” he whispered. “I remember when we were pups. Before your parents died. Before Kane’s father made you a slave.” My breath hitched. No one talked about before. “You used to heal the birds that fell from the trees,” he continued, voice breaking. “You cried when I scraped my knee. You… you were the Luna’s daughter, Aria. You were supposed to be—” “Stop.” Tears burned my eyes. “I’m nothing now. I’m a 660-word joke to this pack.” “You’re everything,” Marcus growled. The collar clicked open and fell to the floor with a clang that sounded like freedom. He hauled me to my feet. His hands were warm, steady. Safe. For the first time in ten years, I felt safe. “We leave now,” he said. “I have a car hidden two miles past the south gate. We drive until dawn, then—” The bedroom door SLAMMED open. Ice flooded my veins. Alpha Kane stood in the doorway, his eyes black with rage, his fists clenched so tight I heard bone crack. “Get. Your. Hands. Off. My. Mate.” Marcus shoved me behind him, shifting halfway — claws out, fangs bared. “She’s not your mate! You rejected her! You chained her!” Kane’s laugh was pure death. “Is that what she told you, Beta? That I rejected her?” He stepped into the moonlight, and I saw it — the mating mark on his neck. Still bleeding. Still fresh. “I didn’t reject her,” Kane said softly. Dangerously. “I marked her. Last night. After the ceremony. While she was unconscious from the pain.” The world tilted. Marked? He… he marked me? Without my consent? While I was— “I felt you,” Kane continued, his eyes locked on mine over Marcus’s shoulder. “I felt your pain when the silver touched you. I felt your fear when he unlocked your collar.” His smile was cruel. “And I feel your betrayal right now, mate.” Marcus went rigid. “That’s impossible. The pack saw you reject her—” “The pack saw what I wanted them to see.” Kane’s gaze dropped to my neck — to the bare skin where his collar had been. “No one touches what’s mine. No one unchains what’s mine.” He moved faster than my eyes could track. One second he was at the door, the next his hand was around Marcus’s throat, slamming him into the wall hard enough to crack stone. “Alpha, stop!” I screamed, lunging forward. Kane didn’t even look at me. “You have three seconds to explain why I shouldn’t rip your Beta’s heart out, Aria. Three… two…” The mate bond roared to life — hot, possessive, angry. I felt his rage like it was my own. I felt his need to punish. To claim. And Goddess help me… I felt his want. “Because I asked him to!” The lie tore from my throat. “I begged him, Kane! I can’t do this! I can’t be your mate! Please, just let him go!” Kane’s head snapped toward me. For a second, just a second, I saw something break in his eyes. Hurt. Then it was gone, replaced by ice. “Let him go?” He whispered. He dropped Marcus, who collapsed gasping to the floor. “Oh, I’ll let him go, mate.” Kane stalked toward me. I backed up until my spine hit the wall. The mate bond pulsed between us — his anger, his lust, his obsession. “You want to run from me?” His hand fisted in my hair, yanking my head back. His lips brushed my ear. “Then run, Aria. Run right now.” He let go so fast I stumbled. “But when I catch you…” His smile was all wolf. All Alpha. All mine. “I won’t chain you to the floor again.” “I’ll chain you to my bed.”