Alpha Lost

Layers

Malcolm's heart swelled with love and dread. It had taken Selah a long time to understand that she was what mattered most to him. He'd be honored and blessed to raise young with her and she would make a brilliant mother, but if that didn't happen he would spend a lifetime worshipping her. He was proud that she'd absorbed how much he loved her, but he winced at the defiant tone of her voice.

Don't piss off the crazy serial killer, Selah.

The cracking of flesh on flesh followed by a cut-off cry from Selah made the world around Malcolm take on a red tinge.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Keeping a silent count of the smacks made that red vision grow darker and darker. Shaking his head as he ran, he tried to clear his vision and his rage. He knew from training and experience that if he let his emotions overtake him, he'd make a crucial mistake. He wasn't just risking his own life here. Selah needed him to be at his absolute best not crazed with anger and bloodlust. Taking the strength he needed from his violent emotions, he locked the rest away and the red haze faded from his vision.

"Rule one, Omega. Say it."

Sniffling and then, "Rule one. My Alpha is everything. I am - I am nothing."

"Well, not terrible for your first run through." Christoph's disembodied voice over the speaker held an incongruous chipper note. He sounded like a teacher congratulating a student on a job well done which was at odds with the fact that he'd been beating said student for any wrong answers. "My father wrote these rules when he first began his path to enlightenment. I have tweaked them over the last few years, but they still have such truth to them. He used to have my mother recite them every morning."

More shuffling sounded over the device's speaker and then a pause. A pause that seemed to last a lifetime.

"What's this?" Christoph questioned. "Well, well, well... that's an interesting development," the wicked delight in his dark chuckle filled the silence, gave Malcolm chills and set off his every protective instinct.

"Does your Alpha know?"

"Does - does Malcolm know what?"

"So he doesn't know, and neither do you." The chuckle turned into a full-throated laugh sending ice through Malcolm's veins. What did this crazy fucker find so funny?

"I'd heard it's supposed to take a few hours, but I thought an Alpha as perfect as your Malcolm would have sniffed it out right away."

"Wha -"

"Tobias couldn't play my games because you knew him from OSF, but in the past several months, I've been stalking you. Playing a private hunting game, if you will. Remember that day at the bakery when your bag spilled, and an Alpha helped gather your things? That was me."

"You? Why?" Selah's surprised voice told Malcolm she remembered the incident.

"Because I wanted to. I've been so close to you so many times that I could have slipped a knife between your ribs and been gone before you even hit the floor. So close that I've learned your scent. Orange blossoms." Christoph let the last sound roll off his tongue in a sibilant hiss.

"Now, there're orange blossoms and something more," a pause and Malcolm pictured Christoph leaning in and drawing in a lungful of Selah's scent, "Hmmm... something sweet yet spicy. I can still smell Malcolm's stench on your skin, but this is different. It's not on top of your scent. It's deeper. Layered."

Malcolm's breath seized in his lungs, and the concrete rose to meet him. Alpha OSF officers trained long grueling hours to make sure that certain things were instinctual. Like how to fall without getting injured. Instincts taking over, Malcolm rolled protecting his head and neck from hitting the ground as his world rocked underneath of him.

"Mal!" Telia skidded to a halt several steps past him. She reversed directions and returned to his side, "What the fuck?"

Malcolm rolled over to his back and sucked in great heaving breaths the wind knocked out of him in more ways than one. Looking up at the Alpha kneeling over him, still trying to regain his wits, he panted, "Pregnant. Sel's pregnant."

Telia's eyes widened in shock, and in his ear Selah's voice gasped incredulously, "A baby?"

"Looks like you're not completely without worth after all. Ah... this is even better than I had hoped. I'd planned to keep you for a bit to play with, but now that you're breeding? I can keep you as my little Omega bitch and have the pleasure of raising the brat to believe the truth. What do you think? He can call me 'Papa.' If it's an Omega, I'll make sure she's taught her place and given to an Alpha who will keep her there." Christoph's last words came out as a growl and Malcolm could hear the triumph in his tone, "Since the OSF ruined my Omega, I think it's a fitting payment."

"My baby," Selah's incredulous tone told Malcolm of her amazement at the new life in her and she that hadn't processed Christoph's intentions.

Malcolm's chest swelled and instead of his mind being clouded with fury and fear, every cell and muscle fiber of his being strengthened and clarity of purpose filled his entire being. His breathing evened out and renewed energy flowed throughout his body.

The nerve endings in his fingers and toes tingled as all of his senses came alive. He'd known the waterway was nearby, but now the salty tang filled his mouth along with the other scents from the docks. His vision became so acute that he could pick out the smallest details on the surrounding buildings and people.

His incisors sharpened, so he felt them prick the inside of his bottom lip. The last time he'd felt his eye-teeth lengthen to this extent had been the night he'd marked Selah as his mate. Civilization may have tempered their primal Alpha natures, but at heart, they were still predators.

During his rut, his Alpha demanded that he fuck, protect, and care for his mate. While he worked cases and entered the modern day battlefield as an OSF officer, the Alpha nature kept him sharp and focused, but since it didn't concern his mate, he could control the more feral nature of his inner self.

Since he'd learned that Christoph had Selah, he'd been trying to keep his beast at bay. If he surrendered to his base instincts, he'd no longer be able to reason with a creature who just wanted to rend limb from limb anyone who dared look sideways at his mate. Discovering that not only his mate but now his child were in the hands of that madman snapped his Alpha's leash.

At his core, his primal side demanded that he protect his mate and child. That he prepare to shed blood. No one would harm his woman and child while he drew breath.

Christoph had awakened the beast in him.

Malcolm curled his legs toward his chest and using his powerful core, he launched himself to his feet to land in a crouch. Centering his weight over his feet, he rose to his full height. His shoulders pulled up and back so that the weight of his tactical vest and gear settled into place. Clenching and releasing his fingers, he turned to face the direction they'd been heading.

"Ah... looks like Tobias is taking a break from your little red-headed friend. She's not screaming anymore, so it takes away all his fun," another scrap of metal and then Christoph's excitement. "Let's have you take her place for a bit, little Omega slut. I can already see the lashes I want to put on that pretty skin. On your feet."

Telia's choked inhalation had Malcolm looking at his friend. Telia met his gaze with hers, and he could see the Alpha female undergoing her own feral transformation. When her eyes refocused and she rose to her impressive full height, both Alphas started a ground eating pace that made their previous run look like a lazy jog.