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IZZY
She looked from one face to the next. No one was looking at her. All eyes were on Wyatt.
He didn’t move a muscle. Izzy didn’t know what to think. Would they be dragged back to the Hell’s Wolves’ house? Or would it be worse than that? Would the pack exile Wyatt for trying to help her? If so, they would be apart forever. She saw now that she’d never be able to run away from them, and certainly not without his help. No matter how many times she ran, they would track her down.
Gunner stepped forward slowly. The smile never left his face, but it didn’t reach his eyes, and there was something horrifying about it. “Have a nice night?” he asked quietly.
“Gunner,” Robert said. “There’s no need for that.”
“He has a lot to answer for.”
“Yes, he does. And he will. We don’t need to make a show of it.” He turned to Wyatt and Izzy. “Come here, please.”
It was respectfully phrased, but it was still a command, and Wyatt immediately began to walk forward. He released Izzy’s hand, and she recognized that he was giving her a choice—she wasn’t subject to Robert’s commands, he wasn’t her alpha—
Or was he? She tried to hang back but felt herself compelled to move. It was a feeling like nothing she’d ever experienced before, almost as if the physics of the world had changed and some gravity-like force was acting on her. I’m subject to his orders now, she realized, and fear of the implications filled her. She had lived in his presence for so long that he had gained power over her without her realizing it.
Robert regarded Wyatt. “I want you to tell me why you did this,” he said.
“I don’t think I need to,” Wyatt said. “I think you know why already.”
“Tell us why you did this.” Now it was an order.
Wyatt took a breath. “I did it for every reason,” he said. “I did it because the Omega Games were cruel and unfair. She’s a person. She isn’t yours to give away.”
“The Omega Games are a tradition,” Robert said.
“Yeah, a messed-up tradition. We’re better than that. We can be better than that, Robert. We can treat our omegas like human beings, not just breeding machines.”
Robert sighed. “You’ve read the same books I have, Wyatt. I know you have. You understand as well as I do how rare omegas are, and how important it is that they’re managed appropriately.”
“Books?” Izzy was confused. “What books are you talking about?”
“There’s a collection in the library, a history of pack dynamics over the past two centuries,” Wyatt said. He looked at Robert. “But how did you know I had read it?”
“Lena saw you.” He glanced over his shoulder at his wife. “Everyone notices where I am and what I’m doing. It’s much easier for her to move around the house without drawing any attention. But she pays attention. She sees everything.”
Did she? Izzy wondered. Was it possible Lena knew about her illicit affair with Wyatt? If she did, she clearly hadn’t told. Suddenly Izzy wondered if she had an ally in that house after all.
“What’s in the books?” she asked Wyatt. “What do they say?”
It was Robert who answered. “A hundred years ago, there was a big shifter population,” he said. “This country was full of shifters. But we’ve been dying out. Some of us were killed by humans, and others died in inter-pack wars and rivalries, and now we’re dying out. Our only hope is to breed quickly, to be prolific, and omegas are our best way of doing that.” He took a step forward and rested a hand on Izzy’s shoulder. “I understand that it isn’t fair to you,” he said quietly. “I know that. And I wish it could be different. But I have to think about what’s best for the pack, and I have to think about what’s best for us as a species.”
Izzy was quiet, thinking this over. She had to admit that Robert had a point. The survival of the pack, not to mention the survival of the shifter population, was important. That was something she wanted too. And it made sense for shifters to breed omegas as much as possible, because an omega could carry and give birth to a litter in the time it would take any other woman in the pack to have one child. It wasn’t the life she would have chosen herself, but if it was the way she could best serve her own kind, then maybe there was some good in it. Some nobility. Maybe it was right for her to be given as someone’s mate.
Wyatt didn’t seem to be thinking along the same lines. “She doesn’t owe that to us,” he said truculently. “It’s still her life. She was kidnapped.”
“I know,” Robert said, his voice heavy. Heavy with the weight of the things he’d done, Izzy suddenly realized. He was hurt by the choices he’d had to make. He didn’t relish the things he’d done to her. In fact, he was deeply troubled by them.
Izzy felt like she was seeing clearly for the first time. The way the pack had formed into a family, the way they all protected each other and provided for each other. Her escape had disrupted that order. It had felt like blasphemy to them.
“Wyatt,” she said.
Chest heaving, he glanced over his shoulder at her. His eyes were black with anger.
“It’s all right,” she said.
“Like hell. I’m not letting them take you back.”
“You’re outnumbered,” Gunner sneered. “You can’t stop us.”
“Gunner,” Robert snapped. “Be quiet.”
Gunner obeyed—he had to, of course—but the expression on his face was twisted and violent and almost enough to make Izzy think better of what she was about to say.
Almost.
She turned to Robert. “I’ll come back with you,” she said.
Robert regarded her. “I would much rather have you come willingly,” he said slowly.
“I know you would. That’s what I’m offering.”
“Why would you do that?” Robert asked. “I know what we’ve put you though. Believe me, I know. Wyatt is right. We kidnapped you. We took you away from your life. And you were given away in the Omega Games. I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted nothing to do with us.”
“You did more than that,” Izzy said.
Robert cocked his head.
“You gave me food,” she said. “Full, nutritious meals, so I was never hungry. You gave me a place to sleep—eventually you even gave me a bed. And nobody ever raised a hand to me. In all the time I’ve been with your pack, I’ve never been hurt.”
“Stockholm Syndrome,” Wyatt muttered.
Izzy ignored him. “You know a thing or two about pack dynamics and the way shifters put omegas to use, so you can probably imagine the kind of treatment I was raised to expect. To fear.”
Robert nodded.
“The life I made for myself...it wasn’t much,” she said. “I was hiding. I was trying to keep from being found, because I didn’t want to be hurt like that. And when your pack found me, that’s what I thought was going to happen. When you had me up in that room, I was sure it was only a matter of time before the men started coming up one by one to have their way with me.”
A murmur went around the group at that. Glancing around, Izzy could see that several members of the pack were frowning, even shaking their heads at the idea. Some of them were the same people who had catcalled her over the weeks leading up to the Omega Games. They never would have done that to me, she thought. They probably thought it was funny. They probably had no idea they were scaring me.
Gunner hadn’t responded at all. He just stood there, his eyes fixed on her, assessing.
“You’re saying you want to come back because you think we’re offering you a better life than you’ll find anywhere else as an omega?” Robert asked.
Izzy nodded.
“But you ran,” he continued. “Why did you run, if you felt that way about it?” He hesitated. “Or did Wyatt force you?”
“No,” she said quickly. “No, of course he didn’t. He’d never do that. I wanted to go.”
“What changed, then?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes,” Robert said. “It matters. It matters because if you’re coming back willingly—if you’re going to be a part of our pack willingly—then it changes everything. It changes the way we have to treat you. It changes how much trust we can invest in you. We want you treat you as an equal, Izzy. We want you to be one of us.”
“I want that too,” she said, and for the first time in his presence she permitted herself a genuine smile. “Obviously.”
“So, what changed your mind? You were ready to leave us for good last night. Why are you willing to come back now?”
“Because of what you said,” she admitted. “What you said about those books, with the history of shifters. I never thought of it that way before. I never thought of us as a... a species. As a people. I stayed away from other shifters all my life because I knew they would be dangerous to me. But now, after knowing your pack, I understand better what it means to be one of us. And I don’t want our kind to die out either.”
Robert regarded her quietly for several minutes. She didn’t dare glance back at Wyatt. She couldn’t begin to imagine how he was responding to this. Please don’t let him be angry, she thought desperately as she waited for Robert to speak. Wyatt would have been within his rights to be mad at her now, she thought. She wasn’t the only one who’d taken a risk by running away. She wasn’t the only one who cared about the welfare of the babies she was carrying.
Finally, Robert spoke—but not to her. He turned and looked over his shoulder at Gunner. “What do you say?”
What does he say? Why does it matter what he says?
“I’m allowed to talk now, then?” Gunner asked. He sounded bitter.
Robert didn’t respond, merely waited.
“I’ll take her back,” he said. “But only her. The old man stays here.”
“Wait, what?” Izzy protested. “No, that isn’t the deal. That’s not what I’m offering. I’ll come back willingly, but I’ll only come back with Wyatt. If you leave him here, I’m not coming with you.”
“Little girl, you don’t have a choice in the matter,” Gunner snarled.
“Shut up, Gunner,” Robert said. “Izzy, you won’t come with us willingly unless we bring Wyatt with us?”
She shook her head.
“Why not?”
“I’m in love with him.” That was all he needed to know for now. God only knew what they’d do if they found out about her pregnancy. She couldn’t take any chances.
“And you?” Robert asked Wyatt.
He nodded. “I’m in love with her, too.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Would it have mattered if I had?” Wyatt shook his head. “You were so set on the Games as the only fair way of deciding who should get her. Honestly, I’m not sure you even would have believed me if I’d told you, Robert. I think you would have thought I was making it up to persuade you that I should have her.”
“Why would I think that?”
“I’m old. She’s young. Everyone wanted her.” He gestured to Gunner. “I bet he’d tell you he was in love with her.”
“You know now, though,” Izzy butted in. “Okay, he didn’t tell you before—we didn’t tell you—and we should have. We’re sorry. But now you know the truth. I’m happy to breed, and to do my part for the pack. But let me do it with the man I love. Then I’ll be one of you willingly. Eagerly. That’s what I can offer.” She glanced at Gunner. “But you can’t ask me to go to him of my own free will.”
Robert rubbed his thumb and his index finger together. “What you’re telling me is that you’re willing to be a member of the pack, but you’re not willing to be Gunner’s mate.”
“Yes.”
“Omegas don’t set terms.” Lionel had stepped forward from the pack of observers gathered behind Robert and Gunner. “For an omega to question an alpha like this...it disrupts the pack order.”
“Oh, what are you worried about?” another voice asked. Turning, Izzy was surprised to see that it was Heather. Although the animosity between the two women had certainly abated, she wouldn’t have expected Heather to stick up for her. But Heather had stepped out of line as well, and she was looking at Lionel with exasperation. “None of us are going to lose our faith in Robert,” she said. “None of us are going to start questioning his leadership if he changes his mind about one thing.” She turned to Robert. “Izzy likes Wyatt, so let them be together. What’s the problem? We’re still all getting what we wanted.”
Wyatt spoke now, and he sounded, for the first time, defeated. “The problem is that the Omega Games are a binding ritual.”
“A what?” Izzy asked, turning to face him.
“Just as we’re all bound to obey the alpha’s commands, the alpha is bound to follow through on his promises to the pack in significant instances. The Omega Games, for example. Robert promised us all that the winner would have his blessing to mate with the omega. He can’t take that back now.”
Izzy’s hopes sank into a dark quagmire. She had felt so sure that her plea would work. It was so logical. She could give Robert everything he wanted from her, and he could give her everything she wanted too. This should be easy. But it wouldn’t be, because of the damned Omega Games. Because Gunner had won, and she had been promised to him.
Unless...
“Can he give me up?” she asked, turning to Robert. “Gunner? If he decided he didn’t want me, then would I be free to be with Wyatt?”
“Yes,” Robert said. “That wouldn’t constitute breaking my promise. So, it’s possible.” The look on his face told her he didn’t believe it was very probable.
Izzy summoned all her courage. “Gunner. Come over here, please.”
A snarl ripped out of Wyatt’s throat.
Gunner made his way over, swaggering as he came. “What’s up, little girl?” His face was relaxed now, all the anger he’d worn earlier melted away. She could see that he felt confident about his chances of keeping her now. It made sense. She probably would have felt the same way in his position. But he didn’t have the full information yet.
She pulled her hair back with one hand and tilted her head to the side, exposing her neck to him.
At first, he didn’t see it. He grinned, perhaps thinking she was giving herself to him, and reached out for her. Then his hand halted in midair, and she knew he’d seen.
“He claimed her,” he said sounding merely bewildered at first. Then the anger came crashing down and he whirled on Wyatt. “You claimed her! You son of a bitch!”
Wyatt didn’t speak a word. He stood there, chest heaving, limbs trembling.
“He isn’t one of us,” Gunner said to Robert. “He’s not one of our pack. This is treason.”
“You don’t want me now,” Izzy said. “You don’t want me like this. Not with someone else’s mark on me, staring you in the face every time you see me. You’ll think of him every time we’re together and you’ll always know. You’ll know that my heart belongs to him, and that all of me belongs to him, in every way possible. I’ll never be yours.”
She saw in his eyes that he knew it.
“You don’t want me,” she said again, and she could see from his expression that that was also true.
“Tell him,” she said.
But Gunner shook his head slowly. “You’re wrong about that, girl. I do want you. I want the pups you’re capable of breeding. Did you think I wanted your love? I’ve never cared about that, and you’re a stupid girl to think I would. What does it matter to me if you’re coming to me dirty? You’ll breed just as well, I think.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him, closing the distance between them.
Izzy cried out in fear.
From behind her came a growl, and before she could process what was happening, Van and James had shifted. They ran at her—no, they were running past her—and she turned her head to see that Wyatt had also shifted. Van and James were each driving a shoulder into him, holding him back as he snapped and snarled and strained to reach the place where Izzy and Gunner were standing.
Terrified, Izzy looked up at Robert. There had to be something he could do. He was a kind man—she was almost sure of it. He had heard the way Gunner had just spoken to her, how little he cared about her suffering. He would help them. He had to.
Robert’s eyes were closed. He looked a hundred years old. “Stand down, Wyatt,” he said quietly.
Wyatt’s whole body shivered, but his attack ceased.
“I don’t think there’s anything I can do now,” he said. “I’m sorry, Izzy. Wyatt. I wish things could be different, but it’s out of my hands. The rules are what they are, and I’m bound by them. Gunner won the Omega Games fair and square, and he has a right to claim the promised prize.”
