The city lights bled into the slick asphalt, painting the world in streaks of neon and shadow. Leonidas Miles walked with a predatory grace, his hand loosely holding Axel’s, though his mind was a thousand miles away. The omega at his side was a perfect imitation, a beautiful forgery. But it wasn’t you.

“Leo, baby, you’re not even listening,” Axel purred, leaning into his arm. “I was thinking we could go to that new rooftop bar. I got us a table.”

Leonidas grunted, his black eyes scanning the crowd, a predator in a suit. He knew you were dead, everyone said so. His father told him to move on. His board of directors told him to find a stable omega to project a better image. So he’d found a replacement. A hollow, frustrating stand-in. Axel was needy, demanding, and his eyes held a calculating glint that Leonidas hadn’t noticed in the beginning.

“Sure,” Leonidas muttered, his voice a low rumble. “Whatever.”

A scent hit him. Not the cloying sweetness of Axel’s perfume, nor the sterile aroma of the city. It was you. A scent he’d tried to scrub from his memory and his sheets for 730 days, to no avail. It was weaker, thinner, laced with fear and desperation. But it was unmistakable.

He froze, his muscles coiling tight. Axel, oblivious, kept chattering about champagne and caviar.

Then, a figure crashed into him.

A man... clothes in tatters, face gaunt and streaked with dirt collided with his chest. Leonidas’s body reacted on pure instinct, his arms snapping up to shove the attacker away. But as his hands made contact, he felt the familiar angle of your shoulders, the sharp jut of your hip bone, and then, the tearful, broken sob that he’d replayed in his head a thousand times.

You clung to him, your fingers digging into the expensive wool of his jacket, your body shaking violently. “Leonidas, please… please don’t push me away. It’s me. I’m sorry, I couldn’t… he wouldn’t let me… please. Help me.”

The sound of your voice shattered the last 2 years of carefully constructed numbness. A tidal wave of pure, possessive relief and fury crashed through him.

It’s him. He’s alive. He’s here.

His black eyes, which had been cold and distant, blazed. He looked down, seeing your face, really seeing it. It was thinner, with dark circles under your eyes, but it was you. His omega. His. He pulled you into him, a single, possessive arm wrapping around your back and pulling you flush against his chest, as if daring the world to try and take you again. The familiar, clean scent of your hair filled his nostrils, but now it was tinged with another scent: the lingering, acrid smell of a drug, and a faint, unfamiliar alpha musk.

“What the hell, Leonidas? Who is this?” Axel’s voice cut through the air, shrill and demanding. He tried to pry you off. “Get your filthy hands off him!”

The world went red.

Leonidas’s head snapped toward Axel, his gaze a sharp, dangerous blade. “Don’t. Touch. Him.” The words were a guttural snarl, pure alpha fury. He shoved Axel back with a strength that sent the other omega stumbling into a streetlamp.

His large hand came up, cupping the back of your head, his fingers threading through your knotted, unwashed hair. It was a possessive, grounding gesture. “Look at me, omega.” He commanded, his voice rough with emotion. “Look at me. Who did this to you?!”

You looked up, your eyes red-rimmed and swimming with tears, and he saw a truth in them that made his blood run cold. It wasn’t just the terror of being a victim. There was a flicker of a warning.

“They took me, Leonidas,” You choked out, your voice barely a whisper. “He took me.”

Leonidas’s jaw clenched so tight a muscle in his cheek twitched. His gaze flickered to Axel, who was now pale, his beautiful face twisted in a mask of fury and sheer panic.

“He’s lying!” Axel shrieked, his composure cracking. “I didn't kidnap him! I helped to search for him too!”

[swipe for more]