Ember & Her Marshals (Pack Bonds, #2)

by Rosemary A. Johns

One day, I woke up, and Lucian was gone like all those years as best friends meant nothing. Now, I’m alone, and I’ve found a way to survive all by myself. There’s strength in quiet survival and even greater strength in a found family, which is made up of people who everybody else has cast away.

My voice should have brought me a life of joy and luxury. Losing it, lost me everything.

Words are precious because every single one is a challenge for me. My mind is a prison, and my true self is locked inside along with my words.

Once, I dreamed that the Alpha who lived next door, Lucian, would save me. Today, I’ve been an idiot to allow myself to dream that an Alpha could save me, and it’s cost me everything again. Tomorrow, I’ll be sold, and my life will be over.

“Hush, Em. Do you want them to hear you inside? Would you like that? An entire restaurant of strangers to come out here and watch the Omega being ravished?”

“She doesn’t have to talk to me if she doesn’t want to.” Except, I’ve always spoken to him. No matter what. But that was because I felt safe with him. He was my family and my home. The Alpha who I loved. This Alpha in his tan suit and hard eyes is a stranger. How dangerous is he? Because all I know so far is that once he was a boy who broke his promise to me, and now he’s a man who’s paid twenty-three million dollars to make me his Omega. He could do anything. Even destroy me.

I keep my forehead resting against his just to be certain that he gets better. “I’m trying to make you feel better. Don’t you want me to heal your hurts?” Lucian’s pretty eyes darken. “Everybody gets hurt. Even if it’s by accident. Somebody breaks you.”

If I allow myself to fall in love with this grown up version of Lucian for a second time, and he breaks his promises to me again, then it’ll destroy what’s left of my heart.

“I know that I can’t make it up to you. I seriously know. But believe me, I’ve been fighting for Omega rights every moment that we’ve been apart. I thought that if I couldn’t have you, then I could at least change things. Make things better. I haven’t been able to breathe without you. Not because my pain matters. It doesn’t. But because the thought of you somewhere — needing me — and not being able to be there for you was worse than even my guilt. I love you, Em, and if you’ll have me, I still want to bond with you. I never stopped wanting that.”

Lucian willingly turns his neck to the side to give me greater access. Seeing him like this makes my pussy clench and become wet. It’s addictive.

I claim his mouth then in a passionate kiss. There’s nothing gentle in it. It’s a claiming, which has been three years in the coming, and he meets it with as much ferocity. He growls, pushing his tongue to meet mine, deepening the kiss. It’s right. Familiar. Perfect.

I swear, you own my knot. You always have. I’m yours willingly.

Let me show you how much I worship you, and how much I’ll love anything that you do to me.”

Touching him like this isn’t submission. It’s a gentle dominance that thrills me. What he’s giving me now – showing me – is a precious gift. He’s granting me back what was stolen from me, and I won’t forget it. Fuck, I am falling for him again.

Trust means so much more than love. I’ll do anything to prove worthy of it.

“So, now we’re friends again, can I be the strawberry Beta filling in your lemon cupcake?” I shiver. Shit, how can he just say things like that?

Jonas and the ABO Studio are hunting Roman. We’re all under the protective control of the Diamond pack. Then why do I feel like the greatest danger is that our hearts will be broken to pieces?

“I have a rule that I mustn’t become romantically entangled with the packs who I protect and help. Keeping you safe is the most important thing in the world to me. I’m keeping my distance because it’s better to have a frozen heart than one, which is burning every moment of the day to take you in my arms and sink my fangs into your beautiful throat and make you mine forever.”

“Did I just explode your delusion that the law was fair? Luckily, I’m a rebel as well. I’m what you’d call morally gray.” Joseph snorts. “You’re a hero to me. Who cares if you had to bend some rules?” “Break them,”

“You’re a virgin…?” “With women,” he corrects. “I know, it’s criminal. I was a virgin with anyone, before Dante saved me.” His lips graze mine. “Yours was my first kiss with a female Omega, and light of my life, I need more. Crave you. Do you want to do something wicked now that Dante’s forbidden?”

diamonds are small, but they’re one of the hardest things in the world. So, go ahead. Fuck me hard. Make me sing.”

There’s no way that Joseph’s acting as a marshal right now. This is a Beta protecting his pack. It’s a dangerous man who was raised amongst even more dangerous men. Should I be scared?

I promise to respect, honor, and protect you. And to wreck you, before I breed and bond you.”

“Don’t think that I won’t equally wreck you this week, my adorable Alpha. But for now, we have two eager Omegas to see through their dangerous heats together and bring them the most mind-blowing pleasure of their lives.”

Dante’s eyes light up, as if he’s only just accepted that he truly is my Alpha. “My beautiful Omega.” Then he kisses me.

“Don’t move, Omega,” Dante whispers against my ear, “take what we’re giving you. You’re going to come for us and then your other sweet Alpha is going to knot and bond with you and then…” His lips curl into a smile that makes my toes curl. “I’m going to knot and breed your sweet pussy, over and over and over again.”

“So, someone ended up on Santa’s Naughty List and they don’t get to play.” Dante leans down, running his thumb over Lucian’s nipple and making him arch into the touch. “What a shame that you’re now going to have to lie with your sad, untouched, and neglected cock…” He teasingly traces his hand lower onto Lucian’s abs, before deliberately skirting around the exact part of him that’s desperately straining to be touched. “…while I touch, worship, and adore our Omegas, fucking and breeding Ember in front of you…”