Knot the Alphas’ Feral Omega

54. Oliver

54

Oliver

The trees whizzed by as we drove down the quiet, rural road far out of the city, and only the steady pulsing of the faint near-bond in my chest kept me from going completely and totally feral.

Beside me, Killian was practically vibrating with fear and rage, his hands twitching every few seconds on top of his knees. He’d spent the first hour of the drive tapping his finger incessantly against the car door every few seconds and had only stopped when I’d finally snarled at him.

In the backseat, Emmett was quiet, like he usually was. But I could feel his tension and the fear radiating from him.

We were all terrified of what we would find once we finally got to our girl.

It was a fucking miracle that Killian had thought to track her phone before it had been shut off. We’d managed to get a lock on her location and look up the road it was moving along before the signal went dark. It had taken a little bit more research before we’d figured out that an off-the-grid house had been built at the end of that road almost twenty years before.

It was where Randall was taking her. I just knew it.

And now that we were getting closer, now that the distance between us and our omega was slowly being eaten up as I pushed our car beyond what I should for the narrowness of the road...I knew that we were right.

The distance in the bond was shrinking. We were getting closer to her.

“What are we going to do once we get there?” Killian’s voice was tight, all wolf, and my hands tightened on the steering wheel. The trust my pack was placing on my shoulders was heavy, especially when I knew what Killian wanted to do.

What I wanted to do, too.

I wanted to rip Hunter Randall’s head from his shoulders. I wanted to finally, finally get vengeance for Jack and make sure that Randall could never threaten me, my pack, or my omega ever again.

Killian...if I didn’t get Killian to rein in his impulses, there was no saying what he might do, but it would be bloody. I couldn’t blame him—or his wolf—for those impulses, but right now, we needed to keep our heads cool if we were going to get Lilah out of this entire situation unscathed.

“We’re going to scope the place and then try to figure out where she is. We should know whether or not they’re alone as soon as we get there, and then we’ll be able to make a plan,” I said tightly.

“Do you think Randall will have anyone there with them?” Emmett’s voice was soft and rough, and when I glanced over my shoulder at him, he was staring at his lap, watching his hand curl into a fist and then relax over and over again.

I swallowed, then shook my head. Ahead, the road forked off, and I followed the pull in my chest and took the left.

I knew that we were going the right way. I felt it all the way down to my bones.

“Nobody that we can’t take on,” I answered.

We drove for a little while longer, the silence in the car tense, and then finally, finally, a house appeared at the end of the little rural road, hidden behind a bunch of trees.

I pulled to a stop there, still hidden behind the trees, and silently, we all climbed out and gathered in a little group.

We crept through the trees, and the house came more into focus. It was a two-story plantation-style home with hints of disrepair, though it generally seemed to be in decent shape. The bond in my chest pulsed, and I knew Lilah was inside.

And so was Hunter Randall.

“How do we want to do this?” Killian asked quietly, his voice calm and steady for once. When I looked at him, his expression was smooth, his green eyes glittering behind his glasses. His claws were popped out when I looked down at his flexed hands, and I knew without a doubt that Killian would kill first and apologize later if he thought anything was harming Lilah.

Honestly...I could relate.

I swallowed, then spoke in a low voice, though we were too far from the house for anyone to reasonably hear, shifter or not. “We don’t know where she’s being kept, just that she’s inside. I can feel it.” I tapped the center of my chest, and my packmates both nodded, understanding what I was saying without me needing to specify. “So we get close, look in, and see if we can pinpoint where they both are.”

“Randall isn’t leaving this alive,” Emmett said quietly.

I let out a low growl before I jerked my chin in a nod—on that, we were wholly agreed.

“Once we find out where she is, we go in. I don’t care about being subtle. It isn’t like the police will make their way out this far before we make it in, and there are three of us against him. I’m not saying he isn’t dangerous—he clearly is—but we could overpower him if necessary.”

I believed the words fully and was gratified when neither Killian nor Emmett argued with me.

“Let’s go,” Killian said quietly.

We moved as a unit, quickly and quietly. I was tempted to shift if only so we were all closer to the ground, but we didn’t need to delay shifting back once we got inside.

It didn’t matter. Nobody approached us as we darted across the field between the cover of the trees and the house, and no alarms blared when we pressed up against the side of the brick facade.

I pressed a finger to my lips as we approached a window, and then the three of us ducked underneath, peeking up over.

Inside was a well-put-together living space, decorated nicely and clearly lived in. A laptop was charging on the coffee table, and embers were behind the iron grate of the fireplace. It looked warm and cozy...and empty.

I shifted my ears to hear better, and everything was immediately amplified as I closed my eyes. I could hear three heartbeats in the house: one upstairs, one somewhere in the middle, and one in a basement I hadn’t known existed. The one downstairs was sluggish and steady, but the other two were normal—one a little too fast, indicating fear.

Lilah .

I swallowed hard as I heard footsteps and then shifted my ears back so they weren’t poking through my hair as I looked at the other two. “They’re coming down, I think,” I murmured.

Killian’s eyes gleamed with bloodlust. He looked over the windowsill, and we waited.

We saw them less than a minute later. Lilah’s wrist was caught firmly in the grip of an older, unassuming-looking man, who was dragging her behind him. Her eyes were wide, her lips moving, but I could only hear the soft hint of her voice through the window. I wanted to shift my ears again to hear her words, but I didn’t want to give us away.

The other two tensed at the sight of her, and I forced myself to put my hand out, keeping my eye on her.

They stopped, and the man—who I assumed to be Randall—looked at her with something close to pity in his eyes. He shook his head, then said something that made Lilah stiffen. Her eyes—already wide with panic—widened even further, and then, when they started moving again, she threw herself to the side.

“Fuck!” I swore low under my breath as I watched Lilah toss herself into an enormous, decorated vase, shattering the thing and startling Randall in the process. His grip on her arm loosened—clearly her goal—and her jaw dropped open in a pained shriek as the porcelain shredded through her arm.

Killian was moving before I could tell him not to. With a growl, he leaped through the window, shattering it as he threw himself into the living room. He lunged across the room, tackling Randall before he could do more than look towards the window.

“Mother fucker !” I swore again, and then Emmett and I followed into the chaos. I was barely aware of the cuts scored into my skin by the jagged edges of the window, focusing all my energy on Randall and Killian. They were rolling around on the ground now, exchanging punches and snarls that made my wolf pulse inside me.

“Take her!” I snapped at Emmett before I threw myself into the fray.

***

Emmett

I didn’t need Oliver’s order to focus all my attention on Lilah. Her expression was a little dazed, the scent of her blood thick in the air as I wrapped my arms around her middle and tugged her away. She looked up at me, and it took a second before her eyes focused enough that she realized who was holding her.

“Emmett?” She glanced over at the other three where they were rolling around on the ground —Killian had shifted into wolf form and had his teeth set into Randall’s arm, growling aggressively as Randall swiped at Oliver with his extended, razor-sharp claws—and then back at me. “You found me.”

I let out a broken little laugh and pulled her closer to me, adrenaline and fear making my head spin. “Of course we did, sweetheart.” I pulled her to the side and turned her so that her injured arm was facing me, brushing away the shards of porcelain that I could see. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

She shook her head, her expression paling. “He was...he said...that he was going to teach me...that I was his legacy ...”

My stomach twisted, and nausea flooded me even as I shook my head. “Never going to fucking happen,” I said fervently.

Lilah swallowed, and then nodded. “I think...he has someone in the basement. A person. He was going to ‘teach’ me,” she whispered again, lowering her voice as if she didn’t want to think about the horrible outcome of that scenario.

I just nodded. “We’ll make sure they’re safe before we leave,” I promised. I swallowed as I looked at the scratches and cuts on her arm, but they were thankfully small, and the bleeding was already sluggish. She would be okay.

Randall, on the other hand...

He was laughing maniacally, as Oliver doled out punch after punch, his alpha growls ripping through the air.

“You’ve been waiting for this for a long time, haven’t you?” he taunted, his voice gleeful. “What was his name...Jack? He screamed for your help when I killed him, you know. You could have saved him if you’d just known where we were. And now my daughter will follow in my footsteps!”

Pain lanced through me at his words, and Killian and Oliver both tossed back their heads and howled, just for a split second.

I knew what they were going to do before they struck, and I quickly put myself in front of Lilah, tucking her face into my chest.

“Don’t look, sweetheart,” I said, my voice low and intense.

Behind us, Randall let out a hoarse scream, and then there was a wet, splattering sound, and his voice cut off—forever.

Lilah seemed to know instinctively what had happened, too. She buried her face in my chest, her entire body shaking as she wrapped her arms around me. I peeked over my shoulder and nodded once when Oliver glanced my way.

Killian’s jaw was dripping with blood, clearly having ripped Hunter Randall’s throat out. He paced around a little on all four feet before he shifted back to his human form, his nudity stark as he spit on Randall’s body. “Fucker. You’ve hurt enough fucking people,” he seethed.

Oliver swallowed, his expression wrought with pain and relief, and I knew exactly what he was feeling.

This was retribution. This had been a long time coming. This was vengeance for what he’d done for Jack.

But it had been so quick. It didn’t feel like it was enough .

But it would have to be.

“I’ll call the cops,” Oliver finally said, standing up and stepping away from Randall’s body. He was still alive, his heart pumping more and more sluggishly with each second as he bled out, and he would be long dead by the time anyone made it here.

“There’s someone downstairs,” Lilah mumbled, her face staying buried in my chest.

Oliver nodded and then walked around my side. “I’ll take care of it,” he whispered, pressing a tender kiss to the top of Lilah’s head before straightening up. He looked at me meaningfully, then walked into the other room as he pulled his phone out.

I held Lilah tighter. I was never going to fucking let her go again.