Chapter 33: Royce - Marked By Love

Buford’s bear snuffed, irate as Gage disappeared inside the cabin, too fast for them to have ambushed him. Royce’s wolf huffed in agreement.

He nudged Buford’s bear in the side with his head. Royce’s wolf gestured to their original route. The bear nodded in agreement before taking the lead.

The faint hum of another car sounded in the distance. But it didn’t matter, they couldn’t stop and wait to consider it. Not now that Gage Prescot was inside with the captured omegas, he was either going to kill them or pack them up and move them for sale.

A back window came into view. Fully illuminated from the inside, Royce’s wolf had no problems seeing. It was as he originally suspected, a one-room cabin: a large alpha, covered in bloody bandages laying on a sofa, three others milling around him. One of them was shirtless, a bloody bandage covering one shoulder.

Buford took the lead. The bear barreled forward, his massive body gaining momentum before he crashed through the back window. Glass shattered. The old and rotted wood flew inward, breaking into dozens of splinters as his massive body forced its way inside.

Raising his head, Buford let out a guttural roar, taking the alphas by surprise. Royce leapt over Buford’s bear. His wolf flew through the air in a great arch, and his body collided with another. His jaws found purchase on one of the trafficker’s necks. The momentum took their body down as Royce bit and pulled at the soft tissue and cartilage.

Pandemonium broke out around him as Buford’s bear brawled with two other alphas. His grizzly was fast and ferocious, taking one down and maiming the second before either had the chance to phase.

Royce lifted his head from his query’s mangled throat in time to hear feet thudding from behind a side door. He took a defensive stance in front of it as Buford took down the second alpha.

The door swung open. Before the alpha could register what was happening, Royce lunged. Teeth clamping around the alpha’s upper thigh, he flexed his jaw and shook. The alpha tried to phase. Their legs quaking and changing composition under Royce’s teeth.

Lowering his center of gravity, Royce’s body went to the floor as his legs pushed him backward, dragging the alpha in his jaw to the floor.

Their scream cut off as their body became long and covered in tan fur. A cougar writhed and twisted in Royce’s grip. He refused to release it. Long claws found Royce’s back, tearing and pulling at his skin beneath the fur.

In a quick snap, Royce adjusted his bite. His teeth moved further up the leg, finding the femoral. Blood spurted out, flooding Royce’s mouth and staining the cougar’s fur. They were fading, but not down yet.

A terrible crash and roar sounded behind him. Buford was locked in combat with a black bear. Swiping and knocking each other about, the cabin was likely to fall down around them before they made it out of there. Another alpha thundered up the stairs behind the cougar.

Royce’s hackles raised, and his vision went red. This alpha had a stench on her … the stench of his mate’s fear.

Abandoning the cougar, Royce lunged at the newcomer. His body collided with hers before she finished her last step. The momentum of the hit sent them tumbling down the stairs. Royce nipped and pulled at every part of the alpha he could reach. Her body twisted and pulled beneath him as she turned into a great gray wolf.

Entangled in claws and teeth, they fell down the flight of stairs, landing on a cold, packed-dirt floor. The stench in the room was overwhelming. Royce almost gagged from the force of it: filth, fear, and blood. All of it omega. The distress emanating from the cellar was driving him mad, how could these alphas stand it?

Rearing up, he barked and snapped at the other wolf. They collided again and again until finally she left her right side open. Royce lunged.

Teeth contacted her thick ruff, forcing their way to the flesh. The wolf yelped beneath his bite, her body going rigid then limp.

Tossing her aside, Royce stepped over her prone form. His hackles raised, and his lip curled, a growl rumbling deep in his chest.

Standing in the corner of the cellar was Gage, Theodore held in his hands, his neck craned sideways as a knife was pressed to it. Royce couldn’t see Theo’s hands, he guessed they were bound behind his back. The omega’s eyes were unfocused without his glasses, but his face was hard, his teeth gritted in a snarl.

“Don’t!” Gage shouted. “Take another step, and this pretty boy gets it.”

He pressed the knife into Theo’s neck, accentuating his threat. Royce growled. His eyes searched for an opening, any angle he could use to get at Gage without hurting Theo.

“I was hoping to have some more time alone with this one before I dumped him at a brothel, serve him right for everything he and his daddy put me through. But looks like I’ll have to amend my plans and dump him in a ditch instead.” Gage considered Royce’s wolf. “You wouldn’t happen to have a flash drive hidden in your fur, would ya?”

His slimy smile pulled as he laughed at his own joke. Royce grumbled. He still didn’t have an opening … Maybe if he acted fast enough the damage to Theo would be minimal. Then he could take him to the doctor the second Gage was down. He could do that, it might work if only he could position himself just right.

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A terrible scream filled the room. A figure that’d been lying unmoving in the corner launched herself forward. It was the second omega.

Royce had been so focused on Theodore he’d forgotten about her. Now she was wrapping her spindly and dirty body around Gage. Screaming and wailing like a wild animal, she clawed and bit at him with an unbridled fury.

Gage hollered, dropping Theo. He let himself fall to the floor, then rolled out of the way in time for Royce to lunge forward.

Royce collided with Gage as multiple things happened simultaneously. First, the second omega was tossed and slammed into a wall as Gage forced himself backward. Her valiant fight was cut short as her body fell to the dirt. Second, more voices sounded from upstairs, a torrent of alpha enforcers from Elk Cove flooded the cellar. Third, Buford’s bear stormed the cellar, his muzzle dripping in blood and foam.

Buford’s beady eyes searched frantically as the Elk Cove enforcers subdued Gage and carted him off. Royce’s wolf found Theo; he was struggling to sit up against his binds, the rancid stench of fear surrounded him.

Phasing to human, Royce’s only thought was to inspect his mate for injuries.

“Royce!” Theo threw himself at the dirty alpha before he’d shed his fur. “I knew you’d come! I knew you wouldn’t leave me to them!”

Theo started wailing jubilations as Royce pulled him into his chest. He cradled his mate as they sat on the dirt floor. Cupping the back of Theo’s head with one hand, his other searched for any major injuries. When he didn’t find any, he repositioned Theo so Royce could reach the zip ties on his wrist and break them, using his wolf claw.

“I’m so sorry.” Theo was now blubbering incoherent half-sentences. “Knew you’d. If I’d just. Find me. Mate mark me. Bite me, Royce. Put you through hell. I knew you’d come. I want you to mark me. Forgive me.”

“If you don’t stop apologizing, I’m never going to let you go again.”

“You’re not allowed to let me go!”

Bringing his lips to Theo’s, he hummed with satisfaction as the omega’s taste filled him. Theo caressed Royce’s grimy jaw, his own face dirty and tear-stained.

“The witch.” Theo blinked hard, then turned to look around the room.

“What? What witch?”

“The other omega, is she okay? Where is she?”

“Buford?”

Royce was startled to find Buford was still in his bear. His muzzle nudging and licking at the neck and face of the omega who’d attacked Gage. She was unconscious and wrapped in copper coils.

Royce stood, pushing Theo behind him. He approached Buford and the omega. Buford snarled and postured over her.

“Oh no …” Royce stepped back. “Buford, buddy, you gotta phase back. She needs help; she needs medical attention and to get that copper off her. You can’t do that while you’re a bear. You need thumbs.”

The bear snorted and snuffled, his head snapping from the omega to Royce and back. Royce could see little slivers of the man coming through the bear.

“Yeah, that’s right, buddy, thumbs are what’s going to help her now. You gotta take over and let the bear go.”

Moments later, the grizzly fell away, leaving a naked Buford behind. He gasped and shook his head. When at least he regained himself, his medical training kicked in. His experienced hands roamed over the omega, assessing for breaks while also testing the copper wires.

With a great hiss, the witch jolted upright, swinging a jagged stone across Buford’s chest. For his part, Buford smiled like a sap, catching her wrists in his giant hands as his eyes flashed gold.