Own To Obtain Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  Own To Obtain

  Southern Isles Map

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EPILOGUE

  Author Note

  Acknowledgements

  About Zoey Ellis

  Copyright © 2019 by Zoey Ellis

  All rights reserved. Sale of any edition of this book is wholly unauthorized. Except for use in review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part, by any means, is forbidden without written permission from the author/publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  First Edition: July 2019

  Own To Obtain

  He will obtain what he owns - at all costs

  Kardos

  Burning with disbelief at his Omega’s actions, Kardos’ fury sets the entire known Lands alight.

  He swears to reclaim what belongs to him, but discovers the true cost of trying to cage the beauty he loves to see fly.

  Shaya

  Shaya seeks the life she had, but is no longer the Omega she once was.

  Battling her heartache, she soon learns that to find her strength, she must stake a claim of her own.

  Own To Obtain is the ninth installment of the Myth of Omega serial, a dark, steamy, Omegaverse romance. This book concludes Kardos and Shaya’s story. If barbarian Alpha anti-heroes, sweet but savvy Omega heroines, epic fantasy worlds, and captive romances are your thing, start with the beginning of their story, Own To Obey (Book 7). Discover a magical kind of dark…

  Own To Obtain includes romance and situations of a dark nature. Some aspects of this story may be sensitive for some readers. For ages 18 and over.

  See the color version

  CHAPTER ONE

  KARDOS

  “You cannot leave the Southern Lands to collect your Omega. I forbid it.”

  A low growl rumbled in Kardos’ throat at his father’s audacity, but he ignored him, turning to grab the arrows on the wall and drop them into his quiver.

  “I am not jesting, Kardos,” the high chief said sharply. “You cannot go. The blizzards will arrive shortly. You’re needed here. The announcement of your ascension to high chief must be made and you have to prepare the people.”

  “I will not have Shaya roaming the Lands for however long it takes until these blizzards subside!” Kardos’ anger flared even further at the very idea. “She belongs here, with her people and with me. When the blizzards hit, the people need her here.”

  The high chief stood in the doorway of Kardos’ armory, his face like thunder, but Kardos barely registered it. This was the second time within a number of months the high chief had visited Nyek Island. Kardos would have been surprised had his entire focus and energy not been so deeply targeted on the task he was about to embark on.

  “They need you here more,” the high chief snapped. “This is your opportunity to show you are truly worthy, Kardos.”

  “I have repeatedly shown that!” A snarl formed on Kardos’ face as he spun around to his father. “If they cannot accept that by now then they never will.” He lifted his sword and slid it into its scabbard. “This isn’t about their opinions anymore, my chief,” he said, his voice low. “This is about me and Shaya. I may be needed here, but I need her.”

  “This isn’t about only about opinions, your decision will have consequences for our people.”

  “And what of the consequences for Shaya?” he threw back. “My concern for her isn’t an exaggeration. The people of the other Lands are dangerous. She is too mild-mannered, too friendly, too… fucking gorgeous to roam the Lands unattended. It’s an unacceptable risk.”

  “But she grew up in one of them,” he pointed out. “And she’s not on her own, I assume?”

  Kardos gritted his teeth as a flare of rage erupted in his chest. His father would never understand. He’d never been bonded to an Omega. Kardos stalked across the armory to the small blade section, grabbing a potion bottle as he laid out the throwing daggers.

  “Why did she feel it necessary to leave at this delicate time?” the high chief continued, his question almost a demand. “And if you need her so much, how could you let her?”

  Kardos could barely hold onto his temper as he applied droplets of a paralyzing potion along the blades of the tiny daggers, but he forced himself to focus—he had to be careful with the powerful liquid. The memory of Shaya stepping through that portal before he had a chance to get to her sliced hot blades of rage through every nerve in his body. He may not have managed to get to her in time, but there was no fucking way he would not bring her back.

  When the high chief finally realized Kardos was not intending to answer, he swept into the room to stand beside him. “You don’t know, do you? You have no idea why she left.”

  Kardos glanced at him. “It doesn’t matter why. She will be returning with me.”

  The high chief was quiet for a moment as Kardos slid the daggers into their sheaths and hooked them onto his armor. “And what if there is nothing to come back to? By the time you get to one of the other Lands, even with the ship at full speed, the blizzards will have been raging here for at least a month.”

  Kardos slowed. “How long until the blizzards arrive?”

  “At the very minimum, based on the most recent casts, a week and a half. If we are lucky, two and a half. But not much longer than that.”

  Kardos resumed his preparations. “Then I will be back before then.”

  The high chief opened his mouth to speak but closed it again, his eyes narrowing. “You intend to use the portals.”

  “What are they there for if not to use in these circumstances? They will ensure I can get her back before the blizzards hit. Are you intending to forbid me using them too?”

  His father was quiet for a moment. “You cannot take an army through—they are not powerful enough.”

  “Then I will take a select group of warriors.”

  “You also cannot take any of the Talent-crafters while we have to prepare for a blizzard, Kardos. We don’t have many, but they do help.

  “I won’t be gone that long.” He stalked to the other side of the armory but his father followed.

  “You don’t know where she is. And you don’t know why she left. What if she doesn’t want to return? What if you cannot find her for days or weeks? What if—”

  “I will find her!” Kardos turned to the high chief, battling with his annoyance. “And I will bring her back! All you need to do is prepare the Isles for the blizzards. Let me worry about Shaya.”

  “If you had been truly worried about her, she may not have left in the first place.” The high chief’s expression hardened. “I told you you had been careless by putting her in the—”

  “You have no idea why she left!” Kardos bellowed. “She could have been coerced by her sister or suffering aftereffects from the discovery journey.”

  The high chief maintained his hard stance. “Any aftereffects she is suffering is because you put her in there.”

  “I did what I had to.” Kardos forced himself to hold still as his anger twisted into a rage he could barely control. “When I brought her to you to bless us and our bond, you instead chose to put us at the mercy of the people. Your decision inspired a discontent toward her that she didn’t deser
ve. You could have helped then, but you chose not to. I think I understand that decision now, but you cannot blame me for rectifying the situation.”

  “You didn’t need to rectify it in that way! You are the first Southern Lands’ Alpha and Omega couple in over a century. The people would have seen how special you were eventually—they were already beginning to.”

  “There was no time to wait for that revelation,” Kardos argued. “The Discovery Mountains helped to prove it swiftly without any doubt.”

  “No. That was about the seat, Kardos, not you as a couple. Don’t deny it.”

  “I don’t. But it also enabled Shaya to show everyone just how special she is.”

  “They already loved her by then, Kardos! Many Islanders love you both. Do you know how many letters I received asking me to reconsider my decision? An enormous amount. Especially after you took her to meet the tribe.”

  “And yet some dared to attack her,” Kardos said through gritted teeth. “That kind of action does not occur without some dissonance somewhere in the Isles, you know that.”

  “I assume you have silenced that.”

  “Not completely. Anata, from my own tribe, was working with someone from another.”

  The high chief’s brow twitched. “Which one?”

  “I don’t know. Zoltan interrogated her thoroughly but she herself was never made aware of which tribe she was working for or even the names of the men who carried out the attack with her.”

  The high chief growled. “Then why didn’t you keep her alive so she could identify them?”

  “Because I wanted her dead immediately,” Kardos said, his tone fierce. “Every breath she took after assaulting my Shaya was an insult to us both. I will find her accomplices; they won’t escape either. I promised Shaya I would kill whoever did this, and I will.”

  The high chief exhaled heavily. “This kind of organized attack cannot be made to stand, Kardos. It’s not just an inter-tribe dispute. An attack on the only Omega in the Southern Lands is an attack on everything—on our way of life and our future.”

  “Agreed. But this can be discussed when I return,” he said briskly. “My presence is not necessary to make the announcement. I will bring Shaya back here and address the people, and destroy these traitors upon my return. Then everything will be as it should.”

  The high chief was silent for a long moment. “If she is unhappy, she’ll never survive here,” he said quietly as his dark eyes bore into Kardos. “She will never accept her place, and she will never give herself fully to the people.”

  Kardos didn’t respond. He already knew that and he didn’t need to discuss it. Shaya would do as expected—it was her calling. This Land was hers as much as it was his; he knew it. He saw it in her eyes when she met her tribe and in her delight whenever she traveled across Nyek. She was a Southern Islander at heart. And she was his chieftess.

  The high chief sighed, all tension draining from his body. “I know you will go after her no matter what I say,” he said, his voice quiet but firm, “but you are confirmed to be the next high chief now. You cannot pick and choose when you focus on the seat, Kardos. You forced this change upon the Lands. You have forced the announcement of your ascension and it entails an immediate requirement that must be met. You have no right to ignore that now.”

  Kardos growled viciously at his father’s words but he couldn’t deny they were true. If he had won the Year of Selection, he wouldn’t have been required to take over from his father as high chief until the right time arose—a time they both agreed was suitable. However, Shaya’s successful discovery journey meant that the current high chief had to immediately rescind the seat for the Alpha and Omega couple so they could promptly work to restore the Isles to what it previously was. Nothing of that importance could be delayed until after the blizzards or until after he collected Shaya. All the formal procedures had to be done now, and with the blizzards looming, it was understandable why his father was being adamant.

  “If you don’t prepare them,” the high chief continued, “many of our people will not have the will to survive it. Not only is it expected from the high chief, but you know the difference in mortality rates is greater when spirits are low. We are expecting multiple blizzards, Kardos, not just one. They will need your encouragement, especially now that the Omega they were all praying for to survive the Discovery Mountains is missing.”

  Kardos exhaled his frustration. His father was right and yet he could not bear the thought of spending even one moment not pursuing Shaya and returning her to his arms.

  “You know you will find her,” his father said, somewhat encouragingly. “You will certainly have the support of King Malloron, and he is allied with Emperor Drocco. There isn’t going to be anywhere she will go in the known Lands where you will not be able to find her, Kardos.” He stepped forward, his eyes searching Kardos’ face. “I know you are tired of having to prove yourself to the Isles, and I don’t blame you. But this time, they do truly need you. Your Omega will live. They may not.”

  Kardos growled long and hard. For the first time, the responsibilities he had dreamed of attaining for so long weighed so heavily on him he could not bear it. Nothing his father had said was wrong or unreasonable. A few words of encouragement to the Southern Islanders would indeed help them during the oncoming blizzards, and there was a time when he would have taken so much pride and pleasure in empowering them in such a way, but he was desperate for his Omega. As an Alpha, he couldn’t see anything more important than having her back with him immediately, but as high chief, he had to minimize the deaths of his people. And his father was right; there wasn’t anywhere Shaya would go that he could not find her. His growl lowered to a reluctant rumble in his chest. “How long will this take?” he asked, even though he already knew the answer.

  “It will take three days to travel to all the Isles,” his father said. “And depending on what precautions you want to put in place, that may take another one or two.”

  Kardos growled again in annoyance.

  “You can leave immediately after.”

  “It makes no sense for me to do this beforehand,” Kardos argued. “I can go and bring her back within the four or five days it will take for me to do this.”

  “The blizzards could arrive any time after that, before you’ve prepared the people,” his father pointed out. “The casts are only a prediction. They could even come early.”

  “Even so—”

  “Kardos.” The high chief’s firm gaze didn’t soften as he spoke again. “You have been very forceful about getting this seat and now it’s in your lap, you are behaving as though everything you have been arguing that you are capable of can wait. It cannot. You will be announced as the next high chief over the next three days and the least you can do is provide inspiration and guidance for your people before the blizzards arrive. If you must go after Shaya after that time, then you can, and I know you will both return safely. If you are the Alpha you’ve always said you are, prove it now.”

  ***

  “Rozalia!”

  Kardos stormed into his study, thoughts swirling around his mind. His father was right, he couldn’t let his people down, but that didn’t mean he still couldn’t be working on finding ways to track and find Shaya. If there was limited time to collect her, he needed to ensure he was prepared so that it went as smoothly as possible. After all, he would have to deal with King Malloron, who was a cunning man of magic, and possibly Emperor Drocco, who Kardos had heard was a warrior at heart. His skill and ability, Kardos had no knowledge of, but it was doubtful he was as skilled as a Nyek warrior.

  “Rozalia!” he called again as he pulled down the parchments he needed from the bookshelf.

  “Yes, my shinno,” Rozalia’s voice was weak behind him.

  “I need you to make a potion to subdue Shaya,” he instructed briskly. “I need it in different formats and strengths so I can administer it without having to put into her mouth. How quickly can you have it ready?”
r />   There was a slight pause. “I cannot do that, Kardos.”

  Kardos turned to her and suddenly noticed that she looked ashen. Her eyes were red and her mouth trembled in a tight straight line. “What did you say?” he growled.

  Rozalia shook her head, tears filling her eyes. “You would drug her again to bring her back here? Even now? Even after she has clearly chosen to leave us.”

  Kardos threw down the parchment, his face contorted. “She has not left us! And it would only be as a last resort. I need her back here before the blizzards strike, and I cannot risk anything happening that would prevent me from—”

  “You have learned nothing of her leaving.” Rosalia accused.

  Kardos stilled. “What you mean by that?”

  Tears swelled in Rozalia’s eyes she shook her head. “Your mother used to say that your stubbornness and determination were your greatest strengths. She said they would help you to persevere regardless of the adversity you would obviously face. She said it would help you to become high chief.”

  Kardos frowned in surprise. His mother had thought he would be high chief?

  Rozalia nodded as though she could hear his thoughts. “She knew you were destined for greatness, even at that young age, and I agreed with her. But I didn’t expect her to be absent during your most formative years. The years when you would learn about give and take, and sacrifice, and how to treat those you care about.” She shook her head as the tears trickled down her cheeks. “I know it was difficult to lose both parents at six years old, Kardos,” she said, her words gentle. “I know you had no one, and that I wasn’t much of a mother to you—I tried to be, but I couldn’t. Not when we had no real tribe leader for so long.”

  “I did not need a mother,” Kardos said. “You were a friend when I needed it, and I appreciate that.”