Dante
There was something wrong with Dante's head, heart and cock.
The zeus battled with himself. He fought with the bubbling need to say something vicious to the Omega. It had been so easy to lash out, to belittle her, to push her down and to spit fire at everything she did and would do. It was easier to be the asshole. And with a pack to protect, it had once felt like justified rage.
But it was now all swallowed by an odd bubble of warmth that grew in his chest—a doomed sort of heat. He knew that his anger was misplaced. That his choler and eagerness to get a rise out of her was just the fruit of a fucked-up ego. He would never admit that he was a fan of the clench of her jaw, the sizzle of fury in her eyes, the emotion-wrought pheromones that wafted so sweetly from her body like his own personal drug.
Dante was the emperor of planet 1, the most powerful being in the world. The one alien that could kill all in his path, destroy all that he touched. He'd spent years holding back his powers, dragging the massive wealth of it all back under his skin. Dante held it in for his people. He held it in for their survival. He held it in for the mates he loved.
Dante was death itself. And his pack shuddered when he let it all loose, allowing the blue to run too high in his blood, churning into their bodies and letting it spark like wildfire. His Ruts burned them. His Rampage boiled them. Too much and his mates would have tears in their eyes.
Dante always held back.
But Rue? Rue didn't give a fuck. He was nothing more than skin and bones to her, nothing more than flesh and blood. He was just a man in her presence, just another normal Alpha. It made Dante forget who he was and what he was. It made Dante forget a fuck ton of things.
She was stronger than him.
That had broken something in him, peeled the rage away into a sun-warm bloom. It had him pulling out and spilling all over her, body shuddering with a pleasure he'd never known before. Fear had sparked within him. Terror had his mind reeling over the possibilities of what Rue could do for him.
Pregnancy.
He'd left out too many details. Love was an easier overall justification, a stupid fucking excuse they gave to children and aliens that yearned for their secrets. But the truth was, the average Zeus needed their mates to hold them back. They needed their lovers to stop them from killing the Omegas.
The Zeus needed to hold onto the mating bonds, to grip upon the reigns of another Alpha's consciousness. They needed the distraction, needed to force the pleasure out of their systems so that they could remain in control. They needed their mates to take over their fucking minds when it got too damn hard.
That had made procreation so fucking impossible for Dante who was too goddamn strong. Dante, who was eternally afflicted with Rampage and Rut. Dante, who had never ever been completely satisfied. Dante, who was a chaos of agitation and petulance. Halcyon was perhaps the only Alpha who could control him, could quell his strength with his power. But it wouldn't be enough, Halcyon's hold would weaken and wane.
Dante's body should torch an Omega's insides and render the mating futile. It should destroy her body; it should melt flesh. It should shock the heart. Procreation should be impossible without a sterile lab and a group of scientists.
But not with Rue.
He'd been careless in his pain, had begged for guidance without a care for the Omega, enraptured by the sweetness of her scent. He begged to survive. Rue had proved that she was completely immune by taking on his powers, by touching his skin and pulling him into the deepest parts of her. She proved him wrong by healing him and providing everything he needed and more.
And yet he'd been so fucking careless.
What if she'd died from his orgasm?
What if he'd crushed her?
What if her resistance had failed at the very last second?
How could he have fucked her without a thought for her health?
What if he was already poisoning her?
What if he had killed her?
He was only reminded of the facts due to his mating bonds. The roar of outrage was not only twisted by the copious fumes of jealousy but also, anxiety-filled concern. His pack had been pounding their fists on the connection, screaming at him to not kill her, to stop killing her, to stop fucking her.
He ignored them all until the very end.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
The thought was enough to keep him quiet. It distracted him from the beast that still lingered in the walls, the other threat that remained in their midst. And now with his arm through its chest and with its heart utterly destroyed. The monster continued to breathe and speak as if Dante wasn't the deadliest alien in the universe.
And it was talking about Rue.
"You bastards are finally attached to a queen, and yet you did not claim her," it teased, insanity in its eyes, ink pouring from its chest. "I've waited for this blessed day."
Its voice was a hissing rattle, distorted by the violent choke of ink dribbling from its lips. It was a man like a ghost, a being he'd never seen before in the dissected skeletons of the Lonely. The remains were always of ashy rot, bile, and putrid waste. Those insects had seemed like husks of the dead. But this monster was stronger than the rest, different in all the wrong ways, and Dante knew it now with a startling jolt of fear.
Rue.
If he couldn't defeat this thing, it was going to take her away from him.
Dante squeezed, exploded what he believed to be its heart, and the bastard continued speaking like the dead remains of a zombie. It lifted its head sniffing the air, pulling her scent into its motherfucking lungs.
"And a royal queen bee," it laughed, a smile growing on its face, twisted by the strange look of surprise. "How lucky you are." Its grin only seemed to grow revealing too many teeth, almost splitting its face into two. "How lucky I am."
"What are you talking about?" Dante hissed.
The Lonely they captured didn't care for the Omegas they'd toss into the cages. Those had merely killed all in their path like monsters on a war hunt. But he found himself waiting for answers, waiting for it to speak with a hand ready to rip its head off. With startling clarity, Dante knew that this Lonely was no mere hive king. It seemed almost immortal with its strength.
Regret blossomed in his chest. He shouldn't have brought her here. He should not have brought them all here.
"We're not the ones who made things this way, Olympian." It purred, too lucid, too human. It regarded him with a knowing smile. "We merely encourage the change. It is in your heritage. A titan's curse, the Hera's tears. This is our retribution rightfully sowed."
"You've killed my army, my people," Dante snarled. "And you're telling me it's not your fucking fault?"
"What can we do if the poison you've given us changes you too, sinking its teeth into your old blood?" It purred. "A little tweak, and now you understand. You experience. You know what it is like. And soon you will feel the need, the burn." Dante's mind was spinning, compartmentalising information from a psychotic mind. "It's all your fault." It began to bite out its words, jaws snapping, creaking. "But it didn't matter for you, did it?" The smile stretched across its mutilated face; its eyes turned towards the darkness. "So pretty in my nest, so young, so fresh, so new," it crooned, and Dante tensed, a hot rage suddenly roaring through his veins. "Darling Hera, come stand in the light instead of those shadows. These drones can't care for you as well as we can. You don't need them."
Dante's eyes narrowed. Hera. What did it mean? "Your people have never found interest in our Omegas."
"Omega? She is not a mere Omega." The thing laughed, and threw back its head in his hands, voice crawling with a pulsing mantra. "Your forefathers would roll in their graves for what you have, and what you squander away by dragging so deep into my territory."
A flash and its body seized. Dante's hands snapped forward, wrists twisting. Its neck broke, spine crushed, pale face rolling upon the rock. And yet the fucking head leapt upwards, skittered with its broken bones. It cackled through twisted vocal cords.
"What blessed fruit you have! What a gorgeous virginqueen," it sang. "We'll take her home! We'll claim her as ours!"
"Rue!" Dante cried.
And he felt it again then, the swallow of his powers into her hands, the way she manipulated him like a puppet drawing it in and out of him. A breath, a shatter and the air fizzed. She was gorgeous with eyes now the blue of his electric, hair whipping in a phantom wind looking like a Goddess of death. His marvel was temporary.
The head screamed, flooded with violent cobalt, but it seemed to persist, shaking the energy off as if controlled by a phantom hand. It jumped towards Rue with a chant on its tongue, crimson blood now dripping from every crevice. Dante knew what it was doing then, immediately sensing the shift in the air, the change. The twitch of a growing portal from its bleeding tongue.
"NO!"
The walls shuddered and his mates burst forth. But it was too fucking late. Rue was swallowed into the whirlpool and dragged into the black hole. A snap and they were both gone leaving the horrified seven Alphas in its wake.
And Dante lost his fucking mind.