Omegas in Love
Series: The Vanguards
RE-RELEASING
We return to Chicago where the Vanguard pack makes its home.
Where Tyler and Katrina, omegas of the pack, are in love.
And Tyler finally gains the courage to pop the question…
But Katrina’s past has caught up to her.
Chen, her old alpha, has found her and steals her from Tyler’s grip.
Then claims she is his mate.
What is an omega to do against an alpha?
Run and hide?
Not this omega, not when the love of his life is at stake.
Available from:
Amazon.
Published:
Genre:
Paranormal.
Romance.
Keywords:
Shifters.
Vampires.
Wolves.
Excerpt
Stuffing his credit card and receipt into his wallet, Tyler stepped onto the main street of Chicago’s Chinatown.
An antique red archway stood at the entrance to the neighborhood, bright against the cool blue sky. Katrina had told him the writing on the arch was to keep evil spirits away and good luck in. Sticking his hand in his jacket pocket, he rubbed the small, velvet jewelry box he’d placed there earlier today. He could use all the luck the arch collected–just because Katrina was his lover, didn’t mean she’d agree to be his wife.
She’d had a hard life before joining the Vanguards. Raised in an all-wolf-shifter community in rural Mongolia, she didn’t think like American shifters. Like him. He loved her for it and over the last two years, she’d grown more confident and learned to trust him. He took a deep, shaky breath. Marriage was a foreign idea for her though.
He’d chosen this location not just for his superstitions, but for its significance. Katrina worked in the area, a place where the old Asian world met the new, as an interpreter for some of the local companies.
She waited under the arch, facing him, her delicate eyebrows furrowed. An Asian man he didn’t recognize spoke with her.
Facing the stranger’s back, Tyler could only see his short black hair and long trench coat.
A sharp stab of jealousy drove Tyler to quicken his pace. He couldn’t help it. As a shifter, possession was nine-tenths of the law, and Katrina belonged to him. And he to her.
Tyler trotted along Wentworth Avenue, the scent of roast duck and spices calling to his stomach when Katrina’s raised voice reached his ears. He didn’t understand Mandarin, but his mate never yelled. He growled low in his chest and ran.
Three other men broke from the crowd and surrounded the arguing couple.
Tyler’s heart rate took off like a locomotive on a downhill slide. He smelled shifters. Non-Vanguard shifters in their territory and they were surrounding his mate.
The Asian stranger grabbed her arm and yanked her into his embrace.
“Hey!” It took every ounce of Tyler’s control to keep his beast from busting out and changing into his werewolf form on the tourist filled streets of Chicago’s biggest attraction. He shoved the stranger from behind, knocking Katrina out of his arms.
She stumbled and landed hard on the ground. Tears stained her cheeks. The cold wind blew strands of long, black hair across her face.
“Get your hands off her.” He bent to help her up, but the stranger blocked him. Straightening, Tyler glared at Katrina’s assailant and met a cold, dark stare.
Tyler’s beast rose closer to the surface. Protect. Bite. Attack. Clouded his thoughts. This male thought to block his way to defend his mate. The only solution was to tear a pathway through this asshole. “Get. Out. Of. My. Way.” He spoke each word separately to make sure he could be understood since the beast was taking over his voice.
“This is none of your concern.” The stranger spoke with a thick accent like Katrina’s.
“You’re on Vanguard territory. Anything that happens here is my concern.” Tyler pointed to Katrina, then back to himself. “And she belongs to me.” He’d hear about that statement later for sure. He could think what he wanted, but Katrina didn’t like being claimed as an object.
“Chinatown is not Vanguard territory. Never has been and never will be. And this female is my mate. Until she ran away.” Crossing his arms, the stranger planted himself in front of Tyler. “She still belongs to me and has never been yours to take.”
Tyler’s jaw unhinged. He shot her a questioning look, but she stared at the ground, not meeting his gaze. Katrina hated to speak about her past. Now, he knew why.
She wiped her face, huddled on the ground, and didn’t deny a thing.
Every bit of joy in his life sprouted from Katrina. She was his sun and moon and stars. From the first time he’d laid eyes on her, he had known that she was the one. Truth’s claws tore into his heart. Breathing hurt. “What?” Maybe he’d heard wrong? He didn’t know which was worse, the lies she’d told him or the way she hunched on the ground, submitting to this stranger like an omega all over again.
One of the surrounding males took her by the arms and yanked her to her feet.
She took a step toward Tyler, reached out her hand, and spoke his name in a tone laced with regret. Tear-filled eyes pleaded with him.
Fuck shifter laws. Fuck this stranger. And fuck any territory he stepped on. No one was taking her. “I’ll ask politely one last time, buddy.” Tyler’s glare challenged the stranger. “Let her go.”
The Asian trailed a look down Tyler’s thin body and back. “Or what? You will sell me insurance?”
Tyler stopped fighting his shift.
Claws burst from his fingertips and fur sprouted from his skin. In a spray of clothes and blood, he finished changing shape. Bipedal, he towered over the unknown shifters.
Cries from the humans crowding the street filled the air. Not everyday a lanky redhead exploded into three hundred pounds of teeth and claws. Werewolves scaring the locals caused the pack trouble, but this was an emergency. His alpha would just have to take it out of his hide.
With a full back-handed swing, Tyler knocked the stranger out of his path to Katrina.
The man who had helped her to stand snatched her away into the panicked crowd.
As if waking from a nightmare, she shook her head, then kicked and screamed until they were swallowed from his view.
Leaping after her, Tyler was intercepted midair. He hit the pavement with a bone-crunching impact. Air rushed out of his lungs while stars whirled around his head, yet he still managed to roll from the attack. He might not train like Eric, his alpha, or Robert, his beta, but Katrina had forced him to learn the basics of fighting to keep his hide intact.
He jumped to his feet and faced his opponent. The dark, cold eyes of the unknown Asian male stared back from the face of the beast who’d attacked him. His companions had shifted, too.
Impending death confronted Tyler. Three wolf shifters against one were terrible odds, especially for a shifter who worked as a real estate agent.
The streets had emptied quickly and the faint sound of sirens reached them.
Stalking away, the stranger didn’t even give Tyler a backward glance, although the other two prowled closer.
In the distance, he heard Katrina scream his name. Tears sprung to his eyes at the cry. He was supposed to protect her. A vise squeezed his chest, breaking his heart.
He blinked as red became the only color he could see.
His opponents coordinated their attacks and jumped him together.