Quinn
They were endless. And she tried, slipped between their legs, escaped the lunges and the clawed hands. She was small and quick, and that made her faster. But it wasn't enough, and she soon found herself hacking away at flesh. Her blade slicing at voice boxes, at arteries and veins that sprayed clotted gushing blood.
She was surrounded by the dead.
Zombies, she thought, body bleeding and bruised. Lonely were like zombies, only their bodies did not rot and strength remained in their bones. It was difficult to think about survival, not when her lungs burned and her body ached. Her legs growing tingly and numb from hurt.
And then there was a roar, an idiotic wolf's howl. She turned back to see Rowan tearing through the crowd, teeth sinking into rot, tossing Lonely into the air one after another with paws that thumped hard into the dirt. And then Zen who'd transformed too into his own wolf of silver and gold, tearing through the Lonely, glittering like stardust in the storm.
It was a form that no one should have the privilege of seeing except for his mates. A form that he kept hidden behind walls, a form that he did not reveal to Euodia, a form that Quinn only knew of from the book. Quinn turned back to her own enemies. They were risking their own lives. But they were after her. Panic flooded her throat. No.
"Go back!" she screamed. "Leave me be!" Her blade sang, dug into flesh. Teeth tore at her shoulder. "Find another Alpha!"
"It's not safe!" Zen cried, wings on his back, rising into the sky like the moon. "Rowan's sorry!"
"You'll find another fucking girl!" she answered, panting hard. "A woman that actually wants that life!" Another took a bite out of her thigh. She decapitated the beast. "I'll be fine!"
And then Rowan's roar, pitched and higher than anything she'd ever heard from him. He was pissed, but terror was laced in each word. "You're going to die, you stupid girl! You think you can survive this? You think you can defeat what our army can't?"
"I'LL BE FINE!" She heaved, carving bone. A third nicked her, and she muffled a scream.
"STAY THERE!" Zen shrieked, his voice piercing her heart. "PLEASE!" It shook her, the way it undulated, burning with emotion, with pain. And it was excruciating to hear it ripple from his lips, wet and raw. "I'LL PROTECT YOU. I SAID I WILL!"
"YOU DIDN'T!" She shouted back, eyes growing wet again, throat burning hot. "You didn't."
And it was then when Float struggled, a moment in the blade of blue. The Lonely roared, stumbling forward, feral breath misting her cheeks. Flesh hanging from bone, grunting as it gurgled red foam and thick strings of drool. It's teeth of sharp rot. She flinched, arms raised, waiting for the sink of its teeth into her neck—
A hiss and the air crackled. The monsters were slammed back as a portal of rippling purple and blue opened before her eyes. And five Omegas stepped out in a rush, with weapons raised, bodies bathed in gold. A teleportation device. Quinn sank to the ground, eyes wide, horror bubbling in her throat.
The seven men she had wronged. They were all here.
No. No. No.
Her eyes swept over the five, Euodia's memories flooding her brain. The vampires. Icarus and Elysian. The fey. Solar and Helios. The wolves. Klaus. Her gaze darted back. Rowan. And finally Zen, the mixed-blood. The seven men Euodia had wronged.
The seven kings of the world.
They stared at her, gazes sharp, looking as handsome as ever. Just as the soldiers dealt with the monsters, sweeping out and forming a circle of protective metal. They materialised with the desperation of her thoughts, gorgeous beings, the most gorgeous of Omegas in the world.
She hated how her body shivered, hated how something in her nudged and pulled from her chest, tugging towards them as if there were a hook on her soul. And she hated how beautiful they looked, drenched in the glow of the falling sun, dripping with gold.
"Zen, Rowan" Solar said. The general's voice was a startling brightness, of clementines and honey. One that she remembered from a lifetime ago when she'd sent Helios back home. "Are you alright?" But Zen ignored him, crumbling to her feet, hands ghosting over her flesh.
"Oh God," he whispered, and she heard the tears in his eyes, thick in his throat. She turned to him, gaze widening at the wetness in brown orbs, the quiver of a pursed glossy bottom lip. The utter despair that wracked his features and thickened in his brow. "You're hurt."
"It won't turn me," she promised, eyes sweeping back to the group. Her nose already twitching from the smells—wonderful smells. It was as Helios had described, like the best dessert—a parfait of the gods, flooding her tongue and filling her mouth with need. Her shoulders sagged. She had lost, and it was time to face the consequences. "If you must kill me, then do it fast."
"Why?" Zen said, sharpness in his voice. "You know I wouldn't hurt you. I wouldn't—" He paused. And her eyes meandered to his, watched as a strange look flickered across his face. An odd ghost of distraught. Her lips quirked. Zen wouldn't hurt her, but the six other men would.
Icarus asked, stepping forward, a deep frown on oddly gaunt cheeks. His voice was raspy when it escaped him, a timbre that rumbled low and seemed almost too sexual. He moved like a cat, surveying her with bright red eyes—eyes of hunger. "Will she survive?"
"She will!" Zen snapped.
"You say her name is Quinn?" Klaus's voice echoed, like velvet, like sin.
And her gaze darted upwards to the leader, to the true king. A figure that seemed almost carved from stone by an artisan of old. He towered over her, a different kind of monster. A different kind of God. And then the dimples, a dichotomy of sweetness or a warrior's face. Dark chocolate scent, oddly too creamy, too sickly sweet.
"I'd like to propose a contract," he murmured. "One that you will find much better than dying on this hill. Unless you'd prefer to do so, in which case…" Klaus's smile seemed forced on a too gorgeous face, features feline-like and edges all sharp. "Be my guest."
"Fuck your contract," she spat, considered the leap, eyes darting to the soldiers that pushed back the horde. And Zen held her in place with a cry.
"Don't," he whispered, cheek on her shoulder, whimper in his throat.
It was the way he said it that had her freezing body sinking lower into his arms. The quiver in his limbs that had her reconsidering. He feared for her; he wanted her safe. She sighed. A word from her soulmate was enough to stop her from doing anything. "What do you want?"
"A fake Alpha," Klaus answered, dimples showing, smile bright. "One that would fool the nation. We will care for you, as you will care for us. We will feed you, cloth you, you will listen to our rules, learn our customs. You will play the role of our wife, and you will show the rest of the world that this is possible."
"Face the facts," she snapped. "I look like Euodia. You won't want me." A hitch in their breaths had them recoiling, a strained smile. "Kill me now, as you have all the women with dark hair and dark eyes." Zen shuddered at her words, but her voice was firm. "I don't want to be food, tortured slowly over fire."
"You're blunt," Icarus grunted, but his eyes were dilated, round, hungry. They roamed her wounds, starved. "And you look a little too much like that bitch, only skinnier and all broken up."
"How about you, vampire," Quinn nodded her head towards him. Fuck manners. "Suck me dry and toss my body away for those monsters. Don't prolong my suffering in your halls. It'll be too easier to do so now when I'm still weak."
"Quinn," Zen pleaded. "Please." And that had her growing quiet.
"We will feed on you," Klaus agreed, head tilted, eyes on Zen. "The fey will have their lust, the wolves their fluids, and the vampires their blood. But we will be careful to keep you healthy and well. You will not suffer in our home. And in exchange, you can have anything you want." He paused then, giving her a moment to answer.
"Freedom," Quinn answered hotly, then considered her words. "And my weight in gold." She swallowed thickly, then, carefully. "What about children?"
"Unnecessary," Icarus interrupted, a scoff in his throat. "You're a Beta, are you not? Your genetic material's basically useless. We could try to take what we can from you, I suppose." Except it had, Euodia had a child with Solar. Her panic snapped within her, wondering, questioning this world and its systems.
"No…" she answered quietly. She was sure that women here could hold children with their periods and their cycles. It was just the men that had changed, had obtained the ability to grow round with child. And that ability had changed the dynamics between the genders in the past. "Me."
"You?" Icarus snorted. "You think we can impregnate you, well that would be…" He considered then, interest kindling in his eyes. "Sacrilege..."
"A dirty suggestion," Helios spoke up now, voice just as bubbly and sweet. The fairy that had once stayed in her home did not look quite the same with darkness in his eyes and a smirk on his lips. "You do not have to worry," he hissed, teeth barred. "No one will go that far for an Alpha."
"It will be cared for," Zen assured, hand on her back, eyes meeting hers. "If there are children, I swear to you. I will love it as my own."
"One year," Klaus agreed, pulled the contract out with a flourish, already prepared, ready for blood. The portal was spinning. "One year with us as our mate," he smiled as she pressed a bloodied thumb to the line, "and you shall be freed."
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