Sold To The Three Alphas Who Hate Me

Kieran

The king’s involvement was a source of irritation for me. I did my best to avoid him, which had been easy for the past couple of years—he’d been giving me a wide berth.

Following Conrad’s scent, we moved carefully, keeping an eye out for any wolves who might be lingering, until we found a woman’s prone body bleeding in the leaves. I kneeled by the body and pressed my fingers to her neck.

“She’s alive,” I muttered. Blood poured out of her stomach. She’d been stabbed.

I inhaled sharply when a different scent hit me. Panic and surprise flooded our bond, and I hissed. “She’s an omega.”

Fuck. What the hell was an omega—an injured one—doing all the way out here? My instincts to race forward and protect her warred with my disgust. I wouldn’t let my alphas get involved with another omega.

I wouldn’t get involved with an omega.

Lucien dropped down to his knees next to me. Betty was still in his arms. “No,” I growled. “Get back.”

“She’s...” Lucien whispered. His alpha genes were starting to take over. She was an omega—he was programmed to help and protect her.

An omega, like Lana. My whole body tensed and heated. Just thinking of that name catapulted me back into the past. The fury on her face. The bodies at her feet. The gunshot.

I shook myself back to the present.

“You’re holding Betty,” I said to Lucien. That seemed to break through, and he took several steps back.

“We can’t let her die,” he said tightly.

No. No matter how I felt about omegas, I couldn’t just kneel by her body and let her bleed out.

“We need to make a tourniquet,” I muttered.

“She’s been stabbed in the stomach,” Lucien said through gritted teeth. “You can’t make a tourniquet for that.”

“Then we’ll pack the wound and see if we can get her to the car.”

“Do you think she can shift? She could heal.”

Against my better judgment, I probed for her wolf. It was there, deep down. I was about to call it forward when I inhaled deeply. My wolf jerked away, and the tug on my body was so strong that I nearly lay down beside the woman and pressed my body against hers.

No. No fucking way. With shaking hands, I reached forward and brushed the woman’s greasy, stringy blonde hair out of her face. She moaned faintly, and her eyes fluttered open.

Help me.

With a snarl, I jerked back and nearly fell into the leaves. Lucien hissed and prepped for danger.

“Alpha?” he asked in a low voice.

“What is it?” Conrad demanded.

I stared at the body. It didn’t even seem possible that she could be here, five hundred miles from where I’d last seen her.

Help me.

She’d haunted my dreams. Ever since I’d first laid eyes on her and felt the pull of our mating bond, I’d been haunted by her and the words she’d whispered to me.

She’d begged for help, and I’d turned my back on her. I’d fucking left her there because what the fuck else was I supposed to do? She was an omega.

It was a cruel fate—maybe everything I fucking deserved and more. Omegas were rarely mated, yet one would be fated for me after everything I’d done—and hadn’t done.

I’d failed to keep my pack safe. I hadn’t protected my wolves. They were dead, and this was how I was being punished—with a mate I’d never be able to trust.

So I’d turned from her and left her to whatever darkness had led her to the underground auctions. Drugs, most likely.

Omegas were pampered by nature, spoiled brats taken straight from the omega schools and crowned princess of whatever pack had shelled out the thousands of dollars to buy them. That kind of life had consequences. She wasn’t the first omega I’d heard of who’d turned to drugs.

Her blood had been with her. I sensed the beta standing next to her and the connection they shared. He’d been there to help her, and she’d tried to run. It was nothing I’d been willing to get involved with. I’d been there for one reason, and one reason only, and it had nothing to do with a mate.

Fate had a twisted sense of humor—here she was, right in front of me.

Dying.