Chapter 35
CHAPTER 35
Issa
N o. This could not happen. Not again. Not because of me.
And not with a club full of patrons.
“Ax!” I screamed, chasing after him only to be pulled back by Cyrus. His hand around my arm was too tight to pull free.
I was shoved toward Amir, who was now on his feet and watching Ax with a look of both concern and anger on his face. My omega was far from small and was as protective of me as our alphas were of the two of us.
But he was still a fucking omega, still at risk, still a hot commodity to assholes like Antonio.
“Get her out of here,” Cyrus barked. Amir stiffened against me under the alpha command.
“Hell no!” I yelled over the increasing noise.
It was hard to see past the throng of bodies that was now circling what I knew was a fight right there between the tables. The women from the bachelorette party had vacated their table and were huddled against the wall together, their eyes wide as they watched what was hidden from me.
“Damn it, Amir! Let me go!”
But my omega’s arms stayed banded around me until I was lifted from the ground and carried around the bar and thrust toward Aryn.
“Keep her back here,” he said, turning and rushing toward the bodies that surged and receded like a wave.
“Amir!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as pure, unadulterated panic squeezed my heart and stole my breath. I focused on the threads to my alphas and my omega, but they’d all shut them down so tightly I could barely even detect their presence, let alone their emotions.
“Let me go!” I screamed, thrashing against Aryn’s hold. She was as tall and strong as Amir.
Another security guard joined us, blocking me from stepping through the opened swing door that would lead onto the floor.
If they thought that would stop me from getting to my pack, to ensuring they were safe, alive, in one piece, then they hadn’t been paying close enough attention.
Remorse hit me the same time I lifted my foot and stomped on Aryn’s instep and wriggled from her hold when she grunted and loosened her arms as the pain rocked up her leg.
The moment I was free from her grasp, I climbed onto the bar and scrambled over top, shoving patrons who’d pressed themselves against it to get away from the growing melee.
Others had joined the fight. Beer bottles and chairs flew through the air.
What the hell would I do when I got to the center? Not like I could take on an alpha. And even if I had a weapon, I couldn’t brandish it when the club was packed nearly to capacity.
The crowd was packed tight, those who hadn’t rushed away from the violence acting as some kind of voyeurs. I shoved and pinched and even punched people, trying my damnedest to get through to no fucking avail.
And then I was lifted off my feet again, wrenching a frustrated and fear filled screech from my throat .
Frayed wires and copper filled my nostrils. Enzo. He wasn’t in the middle of all this.
How the hell did he not get pulled into the fight? Why the fuck wasn’t he in there protecting Amir?
“Amir’s in there!” I screamed over the cacophony of sound as my stomach lurched, though I wasn’t sure whether the nausea was from Enzo’s shoulder hitting my stomach with every step or the fear of losing one or more of my packmates.
Enzo practically threw me at Aryn and the other guard, jabbing a finger in their direction.
“Do not let my beta out here again!” The two were also alphas, but there was so much power behind Enzo’s words I felt my own muscles stiffen with the need to obey.
“Wait!” I screamed as the security guard wrapped an arm around my waist and kept me from following him.
Aryn stepped into my line of view, bending her knees so we were eye to eye. “Beta, I need you to chill the fuck out for a minute. Your alphas aren’t stupid. They’ll be fine.”
“Amir!” I screamed, the sound strangled and hoarse, tears blurring her face that was still only inches from mine.
“He’s a big guy. He’s not a dainty omega. He’ll be fine. Your alphas will get him out safely.”
She had no idea what caused this fight, why my beautiful Ax had decided to rush headlong into a fight with my former alpha. I wasn’t even sure Amir knew what was going on or who he was fighting, only that his alphas were in the middle of a vortex of violence.
As Enzo’s big body moved further away, I realized his shirt was ripped and blood trickled down his neck as though he’d been hit over the head. He’d been in the middle of that and had extricated himself to carry me away.
But he had to get Amir away. Not only were omegas rare but he was a fucking male omega. Any sicko would try to take him away from me, away from us. They could hurt him. Steal him. And I would never see him again.
They might as well rip open my chest and remove my heart .
Eventually, red and blue lights flashed through the windows. Someone had called the police, though I wasn’t sure whether it was a patron or an employee. And as much as I knew my alphas didn’t want attention on their club, I was more than thankful for the presence of law enforcement as people began to scramble away until there was only a small pile of bodies swinging fists and kicking someone who was on the ground.
Please don’t let that be one of my loves. Please don’t let one of my packmates be on the ground.
But then long, curly hair began to make it through the crowd, Enzo’s arm around Amir’s shoulders as he was guided toward the hallway where the offices were located.
“Let go!” I screamed at the guard.
Only when Enzo nodded did the alpha guard release his ironclad hold on me so I could rush toward Amir and Enzo. Both were bloody, both sported bruising on their faces, both had tears in their clothes.
“The office. Now. If I see either of your faces before one of us come to get you…” I had never heard my alpha’s voice so deep, so growly, so fucking deadly.
He was pissed. And I had a feeling some of that anger was for Amir and me since we’d both attempted to put ourselves in harm’s way, though I’d failed tremendously.
Wrapping my hand around Amir’s, I pulled him toward the office, punched in the security code, then dragged him inside behind me.
Those stupid tears had begun to fall over my lashes before I’d spotted my omega and one of my alphas.
But now, looking at the cut near Amir’s hairline, the split lip, and the bruising over his right cheek and left eye, they began to fall in big drops down my cheeks to drip from my chin.
It took me a few minutes of rifling around before I found the first aid kit Cyrus stashed in his office. All the offices had one as did the kitchen for any injuries the employees or patrons might need tended to while here.
Unfortunately, it was rudimentary at best. All I could do for now was clean up the blood, apply a little antibiotic cream, and some butterfly bandages. But I definitely wanted him checked for a concussion or the possible need for stitches.
“Take off your shirt,” I squeezed out through the lump in my throat.
A whimper filled the air along with a bitter tang to his usual sweet scent. I could only hold his eyes for a second at a time as anger and panic continued to hammer at my heart.
That was too damn close. I’d come too damn close to losing him. And I still had no idea whether Cyrus and Ax were okay, especially since Ax had let his alpha instincts override his logical brain and charged at Antonio as though ready to slaughter him right there at the high-top table.
The front of Amir’s shirt was ripped open, exposing an expanse of his beautifully chiseled chest. When he yanked it the rest of the way instead of taking his time to loop the remaining buttons through the holes and let the ruined fabric fall down his arms, I slapped a hand over my mouth to cover the gasp. Or maybe to hold back the sob clogging my throat.
Bruises covered his warm brown skin, several looking like the perfect outline of shoes. He had been one of the people on the ground who’d been kicked while I’d been forced to huddle behind the bar and watch.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I gritted out as I forced him to turn to the side so I could check his back, as well.
“Why were they fighting?” he asked, his voice low enough it almost sounded like an alpha.
“We’ll talk about it when we get home,” I said.
His hands were firm and not quite gentle as they wrapped around my biceps. “What the fuck is going on? Is someone trying to hurt you?”
Fresh tears welled in my eyes as I stared into his face now marred with injuries…because of me . Someone from my past had sauntered right into my alphas’ club and had caused what was nothing short of a full-on bar brawl.
His grip loosened and he lifted his hands to my face, cupping my cheeks and tilting my head so I was forced to either close my eyes or look him in his beautiful green eyes.
The bond to him was open now and I could feel his anger and concern warring and vibrating down the thread connecting his heart to mine.
Amir’s lips were soft and warm as he kissed away my tears, but I was more concerned with the injuries covering him literally from head to toe.
“Did anyone hit your head? We need to make sure a paramedic checks you out.”
“I’m fine,” he said, his hands still gently holding my face.
“No, you’re not. You look like someone used you as a punching bag.”
The door banged open so hard the knob got lodged in the plaster and kept the door open.
Ax stormed in, his eyes wild, his hair a chaotic mess, the elastic barely hanging onto the ends of his shoulder length hair.
“Do not go into rut in here,” Enzo ordered as he followed Ax in. “I want you both checked out by the medics.”
“I wasn’t hurt. I didn’t get anywhere near the fight.”
“You sure as fuck did,” Enzo said, his dark brows puckered, a growl rumbling nonstop from his chest.
“I sure as fuck didn’t . I couldn’t get through the crowd and then you carried me away like some kind of caveman,” I bit back.
His brows were still pinched together, but his face softened the slightest bit.
Ax ran his hands over my face, my head, down my arms and back before turning to Amir and doing the exact same thing. His growl was damn near bone rattling, growing in intensity with every bruise and cut he found on our omega’s body.
“Where is he?” I asked Enzo since Ax looked too close to snapping at any second.
His eyes darted to Ax then back to me before he shook his head in the smallest movement. I felt unease down the thread between us, so I opted to table that question for when everyone was calmed down and I was sure my pack was whole and hadn’t endured anything more than superficial wounds.
At least my alphas and my omega had increased healing. Had I been hurt it would have taken longer to get over any split lips or bruising. But the four men in my life would be good as new within a few days.
Enzo pulled his phone free and glanced at the screen before wrapping his hand around mine. “Outside. The medics are waiting for us.”
Ax pressed his lips to Amir’s in what could only be described as desperate and claiming before pulling free and repeating the action with me. He was reassuring himself, confirming the two of us were okay, confirming we were safe and in one piece.
He threw an arm around Amir and grabbed my free hand before filing out of the office and through the club.
The staff were currently doing their best to clean up the mess from the fight while policemen took statements. A few people were handcuffed and sitting on the sidewalk out front…
But no Antonio. Maybe I’d get lucky, and he had already been taken away by the cops or in an ambulance.