Again, his translator struggled. “Now you’re just being annoying.”
“Sorry.” Rett leaned against a portion of crumbling wall, blending back into the shadows. “What news do you bring?”
“Someone’s been raiding without permission. Have you heard anything? They brought the omegas somewhere nearby.” Rath settled into the darkness against the same wall as he waited for Rett to reply.
“Heard some rumblings. We’ve had omegas go missing in sectors three alpha and four alpha. Mostly villages get hit, but... a couple of fighters have gone missing as well.”
Rath cocked his eyebrow. Rett had been tasked with infiltrating human society as a beta. “Fighters?”
Rett breathed out a sigh, shoving a big hand through his dark hair. “These humans... they are not like we were expecting,” he admitted haltingly. “You’re not going to believe me, but they’re organized. They were fighting back against the L’crav.”
“Fighting back?” The idea was hard to swallow. Then again, he’d thought his brother was wrong about the human omegas being different than the others. However, Savannah proved that was true. She was neither submissive nor obedient.
“Someone has decided to ignore the Overseer’s decree. I’m going to have to tell him and then hunt them down to make sure they don’t do it again. I spoke to a… witness who got away from them. She doesn’t know where they are, though. She’s injured and weak.”
Rett’s lips quirked at the corner, his arms folded over his chest. He was only slightly larger than Rath, both of them easily able to pass for larger humans as long as they kept their beast forms hidden. “A witness, huh?”
Rath flashed his fangs. “My witness.”
“Fine. Sure. I’m surrounded by human females. You can keep yours. But if she’s an omega, the Lord Overseer will decorate his office with your innards and mount your head on the walls as a warning to others. Please, tell me you don’t have an omega in our safe house.”
“It’s temporary. Once she’s healed, I’ll take her to the citadel.”
“Are you xarthing insane? The decree!” Rett exclaimed.
“It’s not like I raided a village and took her by force. I saved her.” He squared his shoulders and let his voice drop to a growl. “And she’s mine.”
Rett looked at him for a long moment and then shrugged. “Your funeral. Might be mine soon anyway.”
“Do you need to get pulled out? The Lord Overseer might need the intel, but he won’t want you to die getting it for him.” Rath glanced back toward the building where Savannah was sleeping. “I’ve got no intentions of dying, brother. I just found something worth living for. Even if she is...” He rubbed a hand over his hair and grimaced. “Are they really all like that? Stubborn?”
That made Rett laugh. “Oh yeah. At least the ones that haven’t been claimed by those honorless L’crav. And as for me? Don’t worry about it. No one suspects what I am.”
Rath tilted his head. “Then explain,” he ordered. “Or I’ll have Lord Tane pull you out.”
Rett growled, straightening up. “Don’t you xarthing dare, little brother.”
Then he sighed, shoving a hand through his hair as he turned his back on Rath. “There’s a female. Okay? An omega. I’ve... she... she’s about to go into heat.”
“Then you need to get away from her. Far away.” Rath couldn’t imagine being near an omega during her heat while trying to maintain complete control. If his brother’s eyes so much as flickered to pure black or his fangs dropped… he was a dead male, and his death wouldn’t be honorable or quick.
“No.” Rett snarled. “You worry about your own omega, little brother. Leave mine to me. And you best not keep yours here much longer. As secure as that building is, it won’t withstand a prolonged assault. If any of the others realize what you’re hiding...”
“They’ll die,” Rath spat the words like an oath. “No one touches her.”
Rett nodded. “I’ll look into things more on my side. See if I can’t dig up some more info on what’s going on. I’ve had a feeling we had intruders for a while. And...” he paused, and for a moment Rath was sure he had something else to say, but then he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. You watch your back, little brother.”
And with that, he was gone.
“Watch my back? How?” Rath muttered. His brother was spending too much time among the humans. He was even starting to sound like them.
Rett was right about one thing, though. The safehouse wasn’t somewhere he could keep Savannah for long. This far from the citadel Lord Tane’s rule was still being established. The remaining L’crav were still smarting from the decision to strip control of Earth from them and transfer it to the newly formed H’thor clan.
He’d promised Savannah they’d stay for a while, though. He could keep that promise until she was properly healed and thoroughly claimed. That would make it easier for the Overseer to forgive him. If Savannah was happy with her new status, that would simplify everything. Especially when Lord Tane realized what it meant. The omegas on this world were different.
He made his way back, careful to check every shadow and crevice for threats. Nothing was going to endanger his omega. Not on his watch.
The only danger to his little shar’ai... was him.
Savannah woke up hot. Had she slept in until the sun was high enough to bake their little hut? She opened her eyes and immediately recalled where she was. No hut. No sun. She was far away from home... in an alpha’s bed. She kicked off the covers as another wave of warmth swept over her. Too hot.
A pitcher of water sat on the side table along with a glass, and she poured herself a drink, barely registering that the water was impossibly cold and chunks of ice even floated in the drink.
She must be feverish and dreaming. Had to be. It was too hot for ice to be forming in the water. She gulped it down. It was wonderfully cold but did nothing for her overheated status.
Without thinking about it, she snagged the silkiest of the blankets back into her lap, stroking it absently.
“Savannah?” She knew that voice. The deepness of it, the way it rolled through her and made her blood run even hotter in her veins. Rath. The alpha.
My alpha, a voice whispered somewhere in the back of her brain. Only that wasn’t right. Omegas didn’t claim alphas. Only the other way around. And he had...
She blushed. The things he’d gotten her to do. Willingly. To herself.
“Savannah, are you alright?” Rath prowled into view. He’d been in the kitchen, making something that smelled amazing. She should have been hungry, but she wasn’t. Or she was, but what she wanted wasn’t food. It was...
“I burn,” she whispered. “Something’s wrong with me.”
His movements changed and became more predatory as he stalked toward her. Rather than making her want to run—her brain telling her to do just that, to get away from the alpha with the black eyes—something else took over, and she snarled a warning at him.
He paused and then a deeper, entirely more dangerous growl echoed from his chest. “Savannah, are you sure of what you’re doing?”