Omega Mine

“Stop.”

The word was filled with venom as it passed Grayson’s lips. It contained so much power that Samuel froze in an instant, his claws only a few centimeters away from the female’s throat. Muscles bulged beneath the Beta’s shirt as he attempted to break free of the command.

But he couldn’t.

Grayson smirked as panic began to shine in Samuel’s eyes, his fear a delicious aroma that filled Grayson’s lungs. He stepped forward, exuding more power until the Beta’s legs buckled.

The weaker male fell onto his knees with a grunt, gritting his teeth as he tried, and failed, to rise. In the end, Samuel sank lower to the ground, body contorting until his neck was tilted to the side in submission.

Three of the females were similarly affected, craning their heads and exposing their necks. His power and raw fury weren’t meant for them, but Grayson couldn’t worry about correcting the mistake now. His sole focus was on destroying the son of a bitch that had touched Josie. He’d bitten her, beaten her, and now he was going to experience pain like he’d never known before.

The thought made Grayson smile, a baring of his teeth that made a few of the females whimper in fear.

First it would be Samuel’s blood coating his claws.

Next would be Ortega’s.

No one that harmed his mate would live. No one.

Grayson took a menacing step forward, but raised voices from the restaurant gave him pause. His head whipped toward that direction just as the double doors were shoved open. Several human males carrying guns poured from the building, but it was the two Alphas that caught his attention as they prowled into the cold air, knocking guards out of their way as they beelined for him.

There was something off about them. Their fingers ended in sharp claws, their canines were extended and their bodies were massive, as if they were in the throes of a rage, like the ones he experienced when tensions were high or if he were threatened.

Their glowing red eyes were streaked with black, and wild. As if they had no thoughts other than to attack. As if they had no other cares in the world other than killing anyone in sight.

Mongrels.

They had to be. One Alpha met his gaze, the taller male with jet black hair, and a chiseled jawline, his handsome face twisted into a ferocious snarl.

Grayson stiffened, some of his own rage disappearing in an instant as grief and confusion poured into him. He felt as if he couldn’t draw in enough air, his hold on his own power flickering as the Mongrel drew closer. He couldn’t look away, locking eyes with the Mongrel as he growled in warning, the feral sound promising Grayson a brutal death.

Any other time, Grayson would have returned that blatant challenge with one of his own. But he couldn’t. He didn’t dare.

There was a familiarity in that cold stare, in that face, that nearly sent Grayson to his knees. His heart clenched painfully, the twisted and battered organ beating hard in his chest as he remembered the last time he’d seen those eyes looking back at him. When he’d lost everything and everyone.

Decades had passed, but it was as if he was seeing a version of his own father stalking through the night. Haunting him.

But his father was dead, Grayson had found the body, and had seen the carnage for himself. He could still smell the buckets of blood his mother had spilled, her limp body laying beside his father’s. It was still hard to believe she wasn’t dead–every instinct within Grayson screamed that she was. That he’d seen her glassy eyes fixed upon the ceiling the night he’d been taken.

His little brother hadn’t been anywhere in that room, but the scent of his blood had been so strong that Grayson had known he was dead too. No one so small could survive that much blood loss… Right?

“Wyatt?” Grayson breathed the name, expecting his little brother to acknowledge him. For recognition to flicker in his eyes, for something to happen. “How are you alive?”

Wyatt didn’t answer. He didn’t do anything but stalk forward, glancing at his older brother as if he were a stranger. As if they weren’t family. As if Grayson meant nothing to him. There was no flicker of awareness, no realization of their familial ties at all in that gaze. Only hatred and death.

He’s a Mongrel. A lost cause. There’s no helping him other than putting him down.

Frozen by an overwhelming sense of grief, Grayson didn’t realize that he was being surrounded by enemies, the hold on his power evaporating into nothingness as his little brother moved closer.

“Grayson!” Josie cried in panic, her voice much closer than it should have been and full of fear. It snapped him out of his momentary stupor, just as the human guards lifted their guns, aiming right at him.

He tensed as the sound of gunfire split the air. But it didn’t come from the weapons trained on him, it came from the left of his enemies.

Josie and Jameson stepped from the shadows, firing on the guards, and hitting several with the first wave of bullets. At least four to five humans bellowed in pain before collapsing on the ground.

The rest?

They scattered under a barrage of gunfire, screaming orders to one another as they turned their attention from Grayson and toward his mate. They began firing, and Josie yelped as Jameson slammed into her, the both of them taking cover behind one of the vehicles.

That was all it took for the last of his shock to wear off. Grayson’s lips peeled back into a fierce snarl as he leapt toward the two Mongrels. At the last second, he pivoted, sliding past them easily and moving to the humans firing on his mate.

So caught up in shooting the Omegas, the guards didn’t notice him until it was too late. He grabbed the closest one, snatching the weapon from his hand and bending it in half. In the next instant, he dropped the gun and snatched up the guard, slicing his throat savagely and tossing him at the approaching Mongrels.

Grayson attacked two more guards before Josie and Jameson began firing on the rest, giving him adequate cover fire as he disposed of as many guards as he could.

A disturbance in the air behind him caught his attention.

Grayson twisted around right as a claw swiped at his throat, the unknown Mongrel leaping at him. He caught the male with the grunt, lifting him high into the air and throwing him over his shoulder until only Wyatt was standing in front of him.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Grayson whispered.

Wyatt cocked his head to the side, snapping his teeth together before he gave a guttural reply. “Then…you die.”

Just then, an arm locked around his neck from behind, cutting off Grayson’s air.

“I’m going to kill him,” Josie whispered furiously to Jameson as he leaned to the left, firing his gun around the car they were using as cover. Someone wailed in pain before she heard a thud as a body hit the ground.

“I might beat you to it if I miss,” Jameson joked. “Then you won’t need to worry about murdering your own mate.”

“That is not funny,” Josie hissed. And as much as she wanted to hide from the bullets flying past them, she couldn’t leave Grayson to deal with this on his own. No matter that he’d flown off the handle like a rogue operative and jeopardized them all.

She’d yell at him later, when they were both safe and alive. And then she’d kill him for being a big idiot.

She stood up, popping over the hood of the vehicle and aiming at one of the remaining guards. She fired, the gun sending a vibration up her arm as it went off. She hit a guard with deadly accuracy, surprising both herself and the man as he gasped for air, his own gun falling from his hand as he collapsed to his knees, groping at his chest as if he could fish the bullet out of his skin.

Jameson stood as well, firing at the guards that had begun running back into the restaurant. Josie should have kept her weapon trained on them in case they doubled back to catch them off guard, but just then she spotted her mate being attacked by two large Alphas, the aura of malice surrounding the males telling her within an instant that they were Mongrels.

Her mouth dried in fear, eyes widening as terror gripped her heart. “Grayson!”

One male stood behind Grayson, an arm locked around his neck, squeezing hard while her mate struggled in his grip, reaching over his shoulder to pound the Mongrel’s face with his fist. The Mongrel’s face was completely wrecked, nearly caved in and covered in blood, but he didn’t relinquish his grip, holding Grayson in a chokehold while the other male slammed a hand into her mate’s exposed stomach and twisted.

He pulled back as Grayson grunted, blood dripping from his sharp claws and coating the ground. Each drop of crimson liquid was like a stab at her own stomach, and pain engulfed her as if she was sharing his wounds. More of that dark red spilled from Grayson’s stomach, drenching his clothing.

Josie released a horrified gasp as the scent of her mate’s blood filled the air. The Mongrel aimed for Grayson’s stomach again, claws slamming into his gut with alarming force.

“No!”

Without thinking, Josie sprinted around the vehicle, charging right at her mate. Fear gave way to a potent mixture of fury as the scent of his blood grew stronger, fueling the fire that had begun burning within her.

Her gun was clutching tightly in her hand, but she didn’t trust herself to shoot and hit the Mongrels surrounding her mate without accidentally hitting him instead–not from this distance. But if she got close enough, she could guarantee that she wouldn’t miss.

Jameson cursed, following after her as she screamed, “Hey, mother fuckers! Get away from him!”

The Mongrel with the caved-in face dropped his hold on Grayson, turning to Josie and roaring. He didn’t get a chance to do anything else because she lifted her arm, aiming the barrel right at his head. Josie squeezed the trigger, firing twice in rapid succession. The first bullet hit him in the neck, the second right in the mouth.

The Mongrel choked on the bullet and his own blood, dropping to the ground and flopping around. It wasn’t enough to kill him, Alphas healed fast and typically needed their heads removed or their hearts cut out to actually die, but he was incapacitated enough.

Please be enough.

The sound of a gun going off next to her had Josie flinching, her mouth dropping into an ‘O’ of surprise as Jameson plugged the downed Mongrel full of holes until his head was nothing more than a splatter of brain matter and tissue on the dirt.

Her stomach twisted into knots at the sight and Josie had to fight off the urge to wretch, swallowing thickly as bile climbed up her throat.

The chained women on the ground screamed as Grayson shoved hard at the dark haired Mongrel in front of him, sending the male flying back by several feet.

It was the perfect distance for her to shoot him.

She lifted her gun again, ready to take out the threat to her mate. Before she could shoot, Grayson lunged between them.

“Don’t!”