Vivian's eyes fluttered open, wet from her tears and stared at Ronan. When she spoke, her voice was strained. "Retribution by Estwood Coven. Their leader's daughter was bitten."
Witches never survived shifter bites. Shifter magic and Wickan magic were incompatible since the dawn of the first wolves and witches, hence why Vivian's body was desperately battling the magic inscribed on her body.
"You bit the coven leader's daughter?" Ronan's brow arched questioningly, seeking the reason behind the she-wolf's crime.
Vivian might as well have slit Alexa's throat; the outcome would have been the same, if less painful and drawn out.
Why bite the coven leader's daughter?
Vivian's dull emerald eyes regarded Ronan wearing. Her gaze was almost unfeeling, as if she'd been succumbing to numbness from her emotional pain and suffering.
"It wasn't you," Ronan concluded, understanding the answer in the she-wolf's eyes.
Vivian's pained voice still answered, "My brother. But he's an Alpha and the coven leader is a coward. He wanted revenge but didn't want a full-scale war. So, who better than the weak, barren omega daughter who everyone had already trodden on."
Her words were bitter and full of silent anger.
Vivian's body tensed from exerting herself, her body contorting from the pain.
"Hush, now. Save your strength," Ronan advised her, his voice taking on a softer tone as he lay his hand across her head, feeling the heat radiating from the mark on her forehead.
He'd start there.
This time, when Vivian awakened after Ronan completed the changing process, it wasn't from the pain of the marks engraved on her body, but the familiar sensation of her heat.
Her heat always arrived like clockwork every two months, as it had done since she'd turned eighteen.
At first, she welcomed the heat and its significance in the life of an omega. She was finally emerging as an adult, prepared to receive the responsibilities that came with marital union with a mate and begin a family of her own.
However, after a wearisome year of being mated to Dane, and Alpha chosen by her father, the return of her heat became an unwelcome curse, a sign of her continued failure and defective nature.
She despised it even more under her father's 'arrangement', with each new Alpha she was forced to share her bed with.
Vivian had never for a moment forgotten the days of her father's disappointed outbursts and the mockery she was made out of in front of the entire pack each time she failed to procure a child for an Alpha.
Footsteps signalled the Lycan's return, and Vivian lay as still as she could.
The Alpha Lycan would sense her heat before he even stepped into the room.
It was futile to think she'd be able to fight him off. With the Lycan's strength, he could pin Vivian down with one hand and watch her writhe for freedom.
As the door opened, Vivian decided it would be best if she made the situation easier on herself by accommodating the Lycan.
Her fearful eyes met the Lycan's intense amber gaze, noticing the undisguised lust in them.
Although barren, her heat scent had that effect. She was renowned in the pack amongst other omegas for her heat scent's sweet potency that could either drive an Alpha insane with desire or turn them feral.
Rolling over onto her stomach, Vivian shut her eyes tightly and waited. The floorboards creaked as the Lycan stepped into the room and walked around the bed.
There was the clink of a cup being set down on the nightstand, and then the bed dipped when the Lycan sat next to her.
Ronan's nostrils flared as her delicious scent wafted over him. His Lycan instincts roared to life now that her pheromones enveloped him invitingly, tempting him to savour the addictive taste of an omega.
His omega. His mate.
Vivian waited with bated breath. Any second now, any moment, and the Lycan's hands would seize her body and ravish it for himself.
She would have no choice but to grit her teeth and accept her fate.
Her heart hammered painfully in her chest.
"You're awake," Ronan rumbled, his voice slightly husky. His posture was stiff and tense, clearly drawn to her heat scent.
Vivian turned onto her side. She peered up at the Lycan's handsome face for a moment before dropping her gaze low.
Should she offer herself to the Lycan Alpha?
Perhaps he'd show her a merciful mating if she proved to be willing and submissive to his desires.
Or would the Lycan Alpha regard that as an insult that would make things worse?
"You're in heat," Ronan stated.
Vivian shuddered at his intense tone but didn't answer. Her scent spoke for her. Another flush of her heat embraced her, her body betraying her better judgement and beginning to crave what her mind feared.
"Sit up," the Lycan demanded.
Vivian did as told, struggling to get her hands under herself and push her body up into a sitting position.
Ronan picked up the cup in one hand and caught Vivian's chin with the other.
"Drink," he said, holding the cup to her lips.
Vivian swallowed a mouthful, coughing and grimacing at the awful taste. Whatever it was, it was cold and bitter on her tongue.
She slightly turned her head away, wanting to spit out the concoction.
"All of it," Ronan insisted, his hand tightening on Vivian's chin as he turned her face back to him. She forced it down, wondering what it was.
Was the Lycan not going to touch her and take her right there in the middle of the furs without restraint?
Or did he find her distasteful and ugly instead and held no real desire to bed her other than his instincts?
Once she drained the cup, the Lycan helped her lie back down on the bed, smoothing a hand across her unkempt and wild silver ash hair.
"The tea will stop your heat. You're too weak for it," Ronan spoke gently, his thumb brushing over her heated cheek. "Sleep now. I'll return later."