Chapter 5 The Oracle's Voice

Ryder's POV

"What did you just hear, Rosa?" I demand, my voice dropping into a low, dangerous rasp that vibrates through the mattress.

My hands stay pinned to the dark blankets on both sides of her head. I do not move an inch. I watch her face as her fingers tremble against her mouth, her dark eyes wide with pure terror.

The fever heat off her skin washes over my bare chest, thick with the sweet smell of her heat, but my mind is focused entirely on the way her body went stiff beneath me.

She swallows hard, her chest heaving as she fights for breath. "You... you said you would tear Garrett apart," she whispers, her voice breaking. "In your head. I heard your voice inside my head."

A cold shock runs straight down my spine. My wolf stands up inside my chest, his ears pinning back, a low growl rumbling in my throat.

She did not guess. She did not read my face. She heard my exact words, spoken behind my own Alpha mental shield.

"How long have you been hearing voices, Rosa?" I ask, leaning down until my mouth is inches from her ear.

"Four years," she gasps, tears glistening in her eyes as another cramp of heat makes her hips arch up against mine. "Every time Garrett gave me the medicine, my head would throb. I thought I was losing my mind. I thought I was broken."

Her wet, feverish core grinds directly against the front of my jeans. The friction sends a jolt of pure lightning straight to my gut. My wolf roars, snapping his restraint, and before my brain can stop my body, I press down hard into her. My hips roll forward, grinding my heavy length into her heat, and a low, guttural groan tears out of my throat.

Rosa gasps into my neck, her fingers tangling in my dark hair, her legs involuntarily opening wider to wrap around my thighs. She arches into the pressure, desperate for the friction, her body begging for the relief only my Alpha mark can give her.

My teeth ache. My fangs extend, hovering right over the soft skin of her throat. I want to rip her wet clothes off. I want to drive myself inside her until she screams my name and the whole mountain knows she is mine.

Then I look down at her face.

Her eyes are glossy with fever. Her skin is burning hot, her chest heaving as the Moonveil withdrawal pulls her in and out of full consciousness.

She is not in control of her own mind right now. She is trapped in a drug-induced shock, fighting a fever that Garrett forced into her blood for four long years.

And I am no saint.

My body is hard enough to burst against her, every muscle in my back locked tight with need.

But taking an Omega who is drugged out of her mind is something I will never do.

I am her mate, not her captor.

I clamp my jaw shut, my chest heaving as I force my hips to freeze. I grip her wrists, gently pulling her hands from my hair, and pin her arms beside her head on the pillow.

"Stay still, Rosa," I growl against her temple, my voice thick with the brutal effort it takes to hold back. "Look at me."

She blinks up at me through her tears, her body shaking with unsatisfied need. "Ryder... please..."

"I am not taking you like this," I tell her, my dark eyes locked onto hers as I breathe through my nose to fight down my wolf. "You are not in your right mind, and you have been drugged for four years. When I claim you, you are going to know every single thing I am doing to you, and you are going to ask for it with a clear head."

Her breath catches in her throat. The wild panic in her eyes softens into something deeper, something vulnerable that cuts straight through my armor.

"You are not broken," I tell her, my voice dropping into a rough growl. "You are an Oracle wolf. Your bloodline can project thoughts and read minds. Garrett was poisoning your brain so you would never realize what you are, and he can breed you for himself."

Rosa stares up at me in shock, her fingers twitching beneath my palms. "An... Oracle?"

"The Sun-Fang line," I say, my thumb tracing her hot cheek. "The family slaughtered twenty years ago alongside mine... the only bloodline recognized for the kind of unique abilities you have."

Before she can process my words, the dark radio sitting on the nightstand beside the bed buzzes loudly. The red light on top flashes three times, cutting through the dim light of the room.

I reach out without taking my weight off her, grabbing the heavy radio and pressing the talk button on the side.

"Report, Gideon," I say.

"Ryder, we have a major problem," Gideon's voice comes through the speaker, sharp and loud over the static. "Garrett called an emergency session of the regional Pack Council. He told the elders you crossed territory lines, hit his sit-down, and stole an unmated Steel Venom female."

My eyes narrow. "Let him talk to the council."

"It gets worse," Gideon rasps over the static. "The elders issued an official summons. They are demanding you bring the girl to the neutral council hall in Valen Ridge by tomorrow night for questioning. If you do not show up with her, they declare Iron Phantom a rogue pack and open season on our territory."

A cold, dangerous calm settles over my blood. Garrett knows he cannot beat my pack in a straight fight, so he is hiding behind council laws to force my hand.

"She is my fated mate, Gideon," I say into the radio, keeping my tone dead flat. "And Reyes had her on Moonveil for four years."

The radio goes completely silent for three seconds. I can hear the rain pouring through the open line on Gideon's end before he speaks again.

"Moonveil?" Gideon asks, his voice dropping into a tense whisper. "The same poison used twenty years back?"

"The exact same stuff," I say. "Her wolf is breaking through the poison, but her body is in full heat shock. I need the blood-cleaning solution from the compound delivered to the ridge house right now."

"I am moving with the medical team," Gideon says. "But Ryder... Garrett put a fifty-thousand-dollar bounty on her head across every biker board on the coast. Every rogue wolf and bounty hunter from here to the border is looking for her."

"Let them look," I say cold. "Set the perimeter scent scrubbers to maximum around the ridge house. Nobody gets past the gate."

"Understood," Gideon says, and the radio line cuts out.

I toss the radio back onto the nightstand and turn my full attention back to Rosa.

Her skin feels like fire under my hands, her body shaking as another wave of heat hits her lower belly. She buries her face into my bare chest, her breath hot against my collarbone as she tries to hold herself together.

"He is not touching you again," I growl, sliding my arms under her waist and pulling her body tight against mine. "Nobody takes what is mine."

Her small fingers wrap around my wrist, her eyes wide as she looks up at me in the dark. "Ryder... do not leave me."

I lean over the bed, my face inches from hers. "I am right here, Rosa. I will tear anyone apart who tries to put a hand on you again."

She looks up at me, her eyes glowing pure gold in the dark as her inner wolf takes full control of her mind.

Suddenly, her thoughts slam directly into my brain, so loud and clear that it feels like she is screaming inside my head.

Bite me, Alpha! her wolf's voice roars inside my mind, raw, desperate, and shameless. Mark our neck before they take us back! Claim us!

My control completely shatters. My gold eyes flare wide, my fangs extending down past my lower lip, sharp and heavy with the biological need to mate.

I grab her hips, pinning her body flat against the mattress, and bury my face in the crook of her neck. My nose drags over her scent gland, inhaling the sweet, pure fire of her skin.

"Do you yield to me, Rosa?" I growl against her vein, my fangs hovering a millimeter above her skin. "Will you be my Luna?"

"Yes!" she cries out, her hands tangling in my hair, pulling my mouth hard against her neck. "I yield! Mark me!"

I open my jaw, aligning my fangs directly over her pulsing vein, ready to sink them deep into her flesh and close the bond forever.

Suddenly, the red security light on the bedroom wall flashes bright, and the loud screech of the mountain gate security alarm fills the house.

Gideon's panicked voice comes through the radio on the nightstand.

"Ryder! The gate was breached! Bounty hunters just blew the outer wall!"