"I told you the truth," Rue shook her head and resisted the urge to bite down scathing remarks on the insanity of his pack. No ordinary nut job would form a pack with solely seven Alphas. They'd have to have bigger balls than the emperors themselves. "Maybe you're just deficient. Maybe you should all see a doctor. It was normal, Omega slick."
Kieran's voice echoed then in warning. "Rue—"
Dante barked out a laugh, stepping back to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Incredible." His eyes shifted to her then, tinged with craze, burning with a sudden inferno of malice, the air pooling with petrichor and ash. "Years of Rampage, years of unguided pain for us all. And you come in here, looking all skinny, helpless and weak with everything we need and so much more." He was all electricity now, all sparking, glowing heat. And she shivered, felt the tendrils flood up her skin like wire and knew that she'd fucked up. "Maybe," he teased in a sing-song voice, "you're a spy."
"For whom?" She gaped at him, at his closeness, at the sizzle of his scent, all glorious Alpha musk and sizzling rain. "Who the fuck's out to get you?" He smiled then, a low hum dripping from his lips—soulful, deep, and warm. A moment's pause as he seemed to consider, to calibrate with too big eyes and a tilted head.
His fingers were dragging up her navel, up her abdomen, never touching, merely a flutter of wind that was enough to spark gooseflesh and call forward arousal. And it was odd that she allowed him that privilege, that she allowed him to continue like an idiot, like prey. But she did with his eyes fastened upon hers like a seducer, and her mouth open in a gasp. He paused at her heart.
And it was then when his electricity sizzled and hissed, alighting from his body in purples and blues, like lashes of a whip, like striking snakes. It collided with her so fast she didn't have the time to react, a roar whining in her ears when it travelled up her veins, pumping through her skin— a flood that should kill her, should shock her into cardiac arrest, should kill her on strike.
And she'd seen zeus do it, split a man open with the curl of his digits. And she watched, like a deer in headlights, like a stupid rabbit, as it fizzed up her skin through her veins, split to her eyes and yet it didn't fucking hurt. It scattered off, rolling in the air as if she were a damn lightning conductor.
Fuck.
"Rue!" A scream erupted from Kieran, a startled gasp and she felt his light shuffling over her skin as if begging that she wasn't hurt. A raspy, shaky exhale erupted from him, as if thankful that she stood like a stubborn beacon of humanity. "Dante! You can't!"
"Hah," Dante exhaled, teeth bright, dimples showing, voice all velvety sin. She blinked, momentarily blinded, circles in her eyes. "Even that doesn't hurt you."
Rue snapped then, pulled back with a snarl, looking at Kieran, almost begging for help "You tried to kill me."
But he held on, held on with freaky eyes, hands on her wrists like silver cuffs. And his touch was warm, tingly, electric. His thumb was on her pulse, catching the bend of her wrist. He observed. Rue knew then that she was straying to forbidden territory, that she'd push too fucking far. That the pack Alpha was all live wire, tension and rage. "You won't die," he told her softly, "Levi can always patch you up, and he will. He adores you, they all do."
She stared at Kieran then, begging him to do something, anything—
"Don't look at him. They're mine," Dante hissed. "My boys. My pack. My Alphas. Mine."
"Alright." So this was the reason for the anger, jealousy.
"You don't fuck them without my fucking consent."
"Won't happen again."
"What do you have on? Armour? New tech? Hard shell? Or is this all just you?" His eyes were sharp, so intensely sharp it was as if he were trying to pry her open, trying to peel off her skin, from muscle to bone. He stared and suddenly she was noting the swell of his pupils as if it were a delicious, ragged display of need. Dante drank, and suddenly fear was truly coursing through her veins, lighting her nerves on fire, stirring her goddamn cunt.
"I'm flesh and blood."
A moment's pause and then a breathtaking grin. The hostility was gone, fading away into a strange cheeriness that darted from him like clear skies and sunny clouds. "Come with me."
Rue's guts twisted; belly filling with butterflies. His hands were now too warm. She struggled. "I'm not going to fuck with you again. I'll leave, won't be back." God please, please don't let her die tonight.
"Come with me," Dante repeated, skin crackling with lightning, soaking his curls in sparks. And Rue hissed. She'd die here, tortured to a crisp, sent to a lab. Perhaps she should start counting her hours. Curse her fucking mouth! She noted now in the smoke of his scent, she could taste the tang of something amber, something sweet, something gold. There was an ache in her belly that came with it, and a rush of heat in her cheeks. Why she wanted him still she didn't know.
"You want to call the cops instead?"
"Darling," smoke invaded her nose, the dribble of it building into a delicious rushing mixture of the world. Then there was his coercion, his shitty little smirk as if she'd excelled in his goddamn tests. "You're exceptional. Why rot in jail? This was all merely blackmail." He waved his hand, fingers-tinged hot red, giving her the space she so desperately wanted. "My boys want you, so they'll have you. It's as simple as that. And you're a slippery little fish with massive balls and so much idiocy. They struggle in your presence." His teeth showed, and incisors flashed. "I'll do the dirty work for them, play the bad cop."
Rue gaped at him, and now the butterflies were wreaking havoc, building into almost nausea. "What the fuck?"
"Gonna have to train that filthy mouth of yours," he hissed, smile growing mischievous. "I'll enjoy that. Death, or us. It's simple, isn't it?" His tongue was out, flicked once over the seam of his lips and she hated how her eyes had to watch the twist of it like she wanted him to. "Or we can do this here." There was a nefarious look on his face now, the air clogging with tension. "Doesn't have to be sweet and pretty in a pack room, on the pack bed where I've taken every single one of my mates as mine."
"W-What do you want to do?"
"Sink my teeth into your neck." his eyes almost seemed to sparkle; a possessive tang edged in his voice. "Petty details later."