Chapter 2

 

“Where have you been, Morgaine?”

“What?” Unbound hair ratted from a day thrashing in the mud, Morgaine shoved it off her sweating forehead. She darted her eyes from the dusty path to find her neighbor frowning mightily.  “I was…”

Clucking, Hanna’s gaze lingered on the muddy dress hanging open at Morgaine’s bosom. “Cover your shift, you tramp. You didn’t even do up your laces after letting one of them tumble you in the grass. You’re no different than your—”

The coming slander wasn’t to be tolerated. Instant fury overshadowed any embarrassment, and Morgaine took a step toward the woman. “I would never let those pigs touch me!”

Hands to her hips, Hanna shook her head. “So you say, shameless girl. How many did you spread for trying to buy leniency for your mother?”

Ice went down her back, and all affront dissolved into stomach-gnawing anxiety. “What about my mother?”

“Elizabeta dared lie when you could not be found.”

“What lie? She didn’t know where I was.” Impatient for real answers, Morgaine made a grab for the plump goodwife’s arm. “Did they hurt her?”

“You should have accepted my boy when he offered for you!” Glaring down at the bit of exposed breast, she snorted. “You brought their anger on yourself with your trickery and sluttish ways.”

“What did they do to her?” The desperate question was shrieked loud enough to draw the eyes of those nearby. “Tell me now!”

It was easy for her neighbor to brush off Morgaine’s weak grip. Easier still for the old dame to taunt, “The rules apply to you as they apply to us all, you horrid girl. Go see for yourself what has been done. My Cassius was lucky to be free of you.”

Unsteady on her feet, Morgaine threw a frightened glace around for a hint.

The settlement was still in a state of uproar, baskets tossed about on the street after Alphas had laid claim to whatever valuable thing had been stored inside.

The muddy walks were littered with loose feathers, chickens and ducks having been snatched from their coops and carried off. Livestock ran wild after pens had been left open, the heartiest beasts gone to the Alphas’ ships.

Weeping, there was so much weeping.

The baker’s wife was beside herself, sobbing over one of her twins. It was obvious why: his mismatching towheaded brother was missing. Beside her, her husband’s eye swelled shut as he stood there, dumbstruck.

Crops had been ripped from beds, bits of furnishings thrown about as if selected, then discarded when something better caught an Alpha’s eye.

Two male bodies swung from the gallows in the square. Morgaine knew them both, one of the corpses dressed in red cloth she had woven herself.

Sick to her stomach at the sight, Morgaine stumbled forward and clawed her way through the building throng. There was little time to sort out who else was weeping for their loved ones, what had been taken, for even from a distance, Morgaine saw a crowd had formed outside her small home.

Neighbors stood in the dusty road, several trampling the garden beds, ruining heads of lettuce almost ready for consumption.

Something was very wrong.

Fist pressed to the stitch in her side, Morgaine broke into a graceless run, rudely shoving those aside who stood in her way.

Over and over she heard settlers muttering her name with repugnance once they caught sight of her. It wasn’t the gaping, muddy dress, or the fact her long golden hair was free of a covering.

In their eyes, for some unknown reason, she’d committed a great crime.

It didn’t matter what they thought, or the slander they might toss at her back as she fought her way forward. The only thing that mattered was finding her mother.

With a great shove, she budged the last line of townsfolk apart and found... nothing.

Her cottage stood as it always did, the cheerfully painted wooden door shut.

Creeping closer, on the verge of being ill, Morgaine reached for the latch and froze.

A terrifying voice boomed behind it. “Her scent is abundant in this shack, old woman. Slick and fear, I can taste them in the air! There will be no more patience for your lies. Tell me where she is, or you will be tied up in the center of town and burned to death for the trouble you’ve caused.”

Ear to the door, breath caught in her lungs, Morgaine heard the dulcet voice of her mother’s steady, submissive reply. “I assure you again, none reside here but I, sir. I am a tailor and live a modest life. Customers come to me, to this room, to be fitted for their clothing. It must be one of them you smell.”

A dangerous growl shook the walls. “Your neighbors tell a different tale, madam. You have a daughter. Her name is Morgaine... and you have allowed her to age out of our sight to the point that she is now full-grown. The child is not your property. She belongs to the Alphas, and you shall give her up.”

“My only child died years ago. Whoever told you differently is mistaken. Take any of my goods you desire. See, prized cloth, woven and dyed to a deep red? It’s yours. How about embroidered tatted lace for your wife? Look here, this is my finest work. Beyond these wares, I have nothing else to offer you, great Alpha.”

Each hair on the back of Morgaine’s neck stood at attention, her heart in her throat upon hearing the Alpha cruelly bark, “Have her bound in the square. If she will not answer with honesty, she will be made an example of and left there to rot.”

“No!” Hand to the latch, Morgaine thrust the door inward, desperate to save her mother. “Don’t hurt her! I am here.”

In the cottage’s dim light, two huge, unwanted males dominated the small chaotic space. Amongst tossed furniture and shattered possessions they stood: pristine armor, weapons hanging at their waists and slung across their backs.

Both poured every ounce of their attention over her, each male unnaturally still and unblinking.

The door shut with a bang at her back.

Eyes welling, Morgaine stumbled forward and repeated. “I’m here.”

The nearest soldier took a step toward her. In response, she drew in a breath, ready to beg for her mother’s life. One deep inhalation, and Morgaine became stone.

It was as if she could taste the intruders in the back of her throat. Embers… it was like breathing in scorching fire that burned from the inside out.

She couldn’t speak to beg for amnesty. She couldn’t fall to her knees.

She couldn’t breathe.

Blinking madly, a wheeze caught in her chest.

Wide-eyed, she cut a panicked glance to her mother. An Alpha’s hand was wrapped around the woman’s throat, her taut body jammed against the wall. Gone was the calm-voiced merchant. Shaking from terror, she reached for her child.

Desperate to cling to her mother, unable to move, Morgaine felt warm tears slip from her eyes. She tried, she tried with everything in her being to reach back.

Instead, the floor met her knees when a viscous cramp tore up her calves and left her sprawling. The genuflection was not an act of supplication. Not when her hands had clawed into the floor as if it might save her.

Lack of air left her giddy, weak, and on the verge of unconsciousness.

Through the tangle of her hair, she saw the closest soldier’s boots approach.

Amusement colored his gibe. “Your nonexistent daughter has returned.”

Fingers splayed, Morgaine stared at the rushes under her palms, babbling out anything she thought might appease the men who tormented her mother. “I was in the woods... gathering berries.”

An unwelcome finger hooked her chin, forcing her to raise her face for inspection. The man touching her, the intruder who had wrecked her home, was larger than any male in her village. Huge. Mean. A weather-beaten face frowned down at her. “And where are these berries?”

“I couldn’t...” she could not have gathered berries earlier, just as in that moment she could not form proper words. Silent tears dripped down dirty cheeks. “I love my mother.”

“Hush, girl.” The stranger held her eyes, cupped her face in his rough palms, and offered a soft smile.

It did not lessen the hardness of him, not in the slightest.

On the verge of bawling, Morgaine begged, “Please…”

At her entreaty, the stranger began to produce the most beautiful music.

Never had air rumbled with such perfect warmth. From under the vivid armor across his chest, deep reverberations made the world new. The resonating noise held the power to loosen her locked muscles—Morgaine suddenly able to suck in greedy gulps of air.

Baffled, she gaped. The Alpha purred in the way the courting men of her settlement purred—the way her fat neighbor’s son, Cassius, had purred when he’d offered her flowers... but deeper... the sound so profound her body felt as if it were weightless in a vast body of water.

“Keep your eyes open, renegade.” Inundated with rich vibration, a voice rough around the edges grew remarkably smooth. As did his touch when his thumb wiped her cheeks clean of tears. “I wish to hear your name from your own lips.”

Anything, she would do anything to see her mother set free. Even the unspeakable thing her neighbor Hanna had accused her of moments before. Thick-tongued, she whispered, “Morgaine.”

The Alpha’s attention may have been centered on her, the soldier turning her chin left to right as he looked her over, but his words were for her mother. “You are very lucky, old woman, that this one is exceptionally beautiful.”

Desperate to reach her child, her mother fought the second soldier who still held her by the throat. “Leave her be. You can’t have her!”

The wild effort produced no change in the situation. The male batted her mother’s hands away as if swatting a fly and spoke to his comrade. “The girl is many years past the age she should have been collected. The Omega is most likely damaged.”

“No.” The back of the purring Alpha’s fingers tripped down Morgaine’s neck, tracing the line of flesh exposed above the open bodice of her filthy dress. He pulled her shift aside until the pink tip of her nipple came into his sight. And then he touched her there, circling secret flesh with the pad of his finger. “This one is perfect.”

Toes curling, a strange croak caught in Morgaine’s throat. She lost sight of her mother’s struggles in the corner. She forgot that she should have been pleading for mercy. She forgot her name.

When the Alpha groaned in approval and palmed the full weight of her breast, Morgaine felt the world slip away. “I... I’m dying.”

Those sad words moved her purring tormentor to reach out and catch her listing body before it hit the ground. In one sweep he hoisted her to his chest and purred all the louder. Voice unbelievably gentle, the stranger put his lips to her ear. “Come, Omega, I know what will make you feel better.”