24. Defiance
Kiran hoisted Seff over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Somewhere deep down he knew it was wrong, even unfair, to do this to the female who unlocked feelings she hadn’t felt in a century, but he was just too angry to care at the moment.
She didn’t resist. Either she was too fucked raw by that damn Moon bitch or she was smart enough to wait for an opportune moment.
Kiran ran in his human form, no sign of a chase behind him. He sent two of his lesser Alphas to wreak some havoc as a distraction so he could grab Seff from right under Selene’s nose. Who knew it would be so easy?
They crossed the threshold of the Keep through a hidden doorway straight into the harem’s far-right door that was his personal bedroom reserved for true sleep. The main door to the living room was already locked from the outside so Seff couldn’t escape through it.
He threw her off his shoulder; she yelped and stumbled back, slamming into the corner of the room where she hugged her robe close, reeling. When she finally looked up, the glare she threw at him was nothing short of scathing. Six feet between them, Kiran felt it like a slap. It stung—guilt, perhaps, just a quick tingle?
“What the fuck?” she demanded.
Kiran’s rut cycle was over, but he felt himself twitch. There was that bite of hers. But he did not like insubordination. “What the fuck to *you*,” he snarled, making her wince. “Did she fuck you so well that you forgot who owns you?”
“She *made love* to me,” Seff retorted, though she squeezed her legs tighter. Kiran sensed she was aching. “And if you want me so badly, you should learn the difference!”
As soon as the words were out of her pretty mouth, her eyes widened in horror. Yes, those words would normally make Kiran lunge at the speaker and make them bleed, but Seff was the speaker, and she was *right*, he *did* want her, more than anything. To his own surprise, he found a sudden calmness. “I can romance you,” he offered.
Seff’s eyebrows knitted and she cocked her head ever so slightly. The motion struck him. It was so like *her* that it was suddenly hard to find a single difference.
“*Romance* me?” Seff repeated with scorn. “Is that what you think will make this better?”
“Yes,” he said, flashing his teeth, leash on his anger suffering a rip. “You are a part of *my* harem, not Hilal’s. Remember, *you* chose *me*.”
“I can un-choose you. I can still choose her.”
Kiran stopped breathing. Seff straightened herself into a defiant stance, lifting her chin, green eyes chilling. Kiran didn’t feel fear; he just got harder. But he did sense she would act on those words with tooth and claw.
He smirked. “That’s not allowed, pretty wolf.”
“Yes it is. You haven’t fucked me yet—and you’ll never learn how to *make love*—so you don’t have my body until you do. And I’ll never let you have my soul.” Kiran sensed a shift in Seff’s whole being. In the few hours she was gone, she learned something that *changed* her.
Kiran did not like it. Kiran did not like that it was *Selene’s* fault.
“Because I won’t let you fuck me raw—”
“But you’ll let Selene?”
Seff froze at the snarl, jaw clenched at the truth of the call-out of hypocrisy, but she forged on, “because I won’t benefit your *contest*.”
Kiran’s smirk snapped off. True fear entered Seff’s eyes. *He* changed; he’d put on his murder-face. “How the hell do you know about that?”
“Your own Omegas told me. How cruel, to use us like we’re just *things*, not wolves, as if we have no meaning to you immortals, like we’re *nothing*. You drag along generations of Omegas,” she continued, unfreezing to take a step toward him, “without a single spark of emotion, but somehow we feel indebted to you, as if expecting you Alphas to *actually care about them*.”
Seff strode up to Kiran and jabbed a finger right where his heart was; his pupils were slits and her teeth were bared, canines thick and curved over her lower lip, fierce despite her being a full foot shorter than the Alpha. “Learn. To. *Love*.”
They stood stiller than stone. Then Kiran’s hand shot out and snatched Seff’s hard enough to make her gasp. She growled and tried to pull away, but he was too strong. But when he brought her knuckles to his lips, kissing them softly, she stilled once more. Her features Shifted back to human and her ferocity melted. “I could,” he murmured. “And maybe you’ll fall in love with me too.”
She almost looked ready to agree. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, her mind and body reacted to him. More than just an Omega reacting to an Alpha.
Kiran took her other hand as gently as he could, channeling century-old memories of this exact moment, and asked, “Do you remember me, Zinnia?”
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