Rath (The Omega Collective #2) - Mina Carter Page 0,28

Apart from that one touch, he’d been gentle enough she had been able to ignore his ministrations. In fact, the pain was gone.

“You numbed it?” she asked, glancing down at her leg.

“For now. By the time that wears off, you should be almost fully healed.” The big man shot a disgruntled look at Rath. “Don’t treat it yourself. You’re not qualified.”

“Thank you,” she said softly, offering the healer a small smile. The warning growl from Rath made her frown as she growled back. “I’ll smile at people if I bloody well like!” she hissed. “And he’s been nice to me.”

Rath bared his fangs. “Who do you belong to, shar’ai?”

“You.” She touched the mark on her neck. “And only you.”

“Better.” He rose and lifted her into his arms without warning.

She squeaked and threw her arms around his neck, grumbling. “Bossy alpha.”

“Your bossy alpha,” Rath informed her and then turned to T’kinn. “I should take her back to where she was happy?”

“As soon as possible.”

Savannah smiled at the healer again. “Thank you! I want to go back. It was nice there. Quiet. Comfy.”

“Stubborn omega. You’re safer here. With better food and more soft blankets.”

“We can bring food and blankets.” Now she was feeling more herself and the pain was gone, she just wanted to go home. And home was where she’d been with Rath, out in the wastelands.

Tane’s lips twitched into a ghost of a smile. “I believe you have your orders, A’rath. Let me know when you have returned. We have work to do.”

8

The journey back to their “home” was much less fraught with tension. Warm and comfortable against Rath’s back, the soothing rumble of the engine and the reassuring presence of her alpha ensured that Savannah could doze lightly, only waking as the noise of the bike changed when they neared their destination. She opened her eyes to find that night was beginning to fall, just before Rath pulled the bike into an underground garage. The doors were already closing behind them when she sat up, blinking sleep from her eyes.

“We’re home?”

“We are.” Rath sounded amused as he powered down the bike and dismounted. “I still think the citadel would have been safer, but this is what you need, little one, so this is where we are.”

“Thank you.” She let him help her off the bike, leaning in to hug him once her feet were on the ground. “I feel safe here. It’s just us. I was afraid those others would be waiting for us. That you’d have to fight again. They scare me.” So did Rath when he became the beast. Logically, she knew they were one and the same, but it was so hard to accept.

“They would not dare,” he rumbled, the edge of his beast in his voice, and she looked up sharply to find him watching her. But his features were the same handsome ones she was used to, his eyes normal. Curious, she reached up to push gently at his lip. His teeth were normal.

“Where do they go?”

“Go?” he asked, lips moving against her fingers. “Ah, the fangs.”

He raised his upper lip into an exaggerated snarl. “They’re there. Just smaller. They lengthen when the change hits.” He held up one hand. “Like the claws. It is part of who we are.”

“But it’s still you?” She touched one canine tooth with her fingertip and then reached out to take his hand, letting it engulf hers. “Fangs, claws, and twisted features aside, you’re still my Rath?”

He purred, a low rumble that made her stomach flutter in the most pleasant way. “Always, little one. The shape changes, but I am always your alpha.”

She took a breath, gathering her courage.

“I want to see.”

He smiled down at her. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Then run, little omega. Up those stairs. Now!” He pointed to an open door and a narrow staircase, his voice already changing, deepening into something else.

Lust filled her and she laughed, turning and running up the stairs. Not like the last time, when she ran in panic and fear. This was different. Better. She knew he’d catch her, and it didn’t scare her. Not this time.

But she ran all the same, her body feeling better and stronger than she ever had before. And she was fast, staying ahead of the alpha who chased her, his roar rebounding off the walls of the stairs as she burst through the door at the top and into the main room.

She didn’t make it halfway across the space before he was on her.

Clawed hands