Chapter 6
Emmett
I’ve wrangled a lot of omegas, more than I probably want to admit since being a part of the Carlisle recovery squad, but I’ve never wrestled with an omega quite like Auryn.
For as little as she is, she is wiry as fuck.
“You need to purr!”
Olly snaps at me as Auryn kicks out at him, hissing at him. Though to Olly’s detriment, he doesn’t seem to notice—or care—that the omega wants to practically rip off his head, too.
I’m fairly certain his brain is too full of clinical knowledge to actually assess people properly like Gage, myself, or even Diego.
If it were up to me, I’d say we don’t even need the asshole. The three of us can handle this shit on our own. But Gage insists his talents are more valuable than not, so he stays.
And annoys the ever living fuck out of all of us.
Well, aside from Gage, that is.
“An omega in distress—”
That’s the moment I feel Auryn’s fucking teeth clamp down on my hand.
“Fuck!”
I hold onto her tighter, despite the overwhelming feeling that I should drop my hand. Thunder roars overhead, and I can smell the oncoming rain. We need to get out of here, and quickly. Storms are nothing to fuck with out here at this time of the year. Shit can turn deadly real fast.
“Fucking purr, Emmett!”
Olly bites. Something about that very notion ignites my alpha.
The purr that emanates from my chest comes from deep inside me. It’s a voice, an entity all its own, beyond my control.
Auryn still struggles, but she removes her teeth from my hand and whines. Her nails dig into my skin, and she fights me as much as she fights…herself?
The second purr comes easier as I hold her against me, tightly. I purr directly in her ear, my fingers grasping her wrist, and I push my thumb against her throbbing vein, seeking the pressure point there.
“Good,”
Olly says, his voice strangely raspy and hoarse.
“Let’s move,”
Gage says as a crack of lightning lights up the sky.
Auryn still pushes against me, but she’s not clawing at me, which I take as a win. I don't think twice about picking her up. She whimpers as the rain hits us. Despite her force, her fight, she’s practically light as a feather.
And judging from the rise and fall of her chest, her shivering body, she’s weak.
She puts up a good fight, but she doesn’t have the stamina we alphas do. Before I can take a step forward, Olly is in my face.
Or rather, her face.
I growl at him, my alpha instincts taking over.
“Move, Olly.”
He doesn’t seem to hear me, instead, he’s looking at Auryn like…
“Cinnamon,”
he murmurs. “Peppercorn.”
Auryn looks right at him, and she wrinkles her nose. There’s the strangest tension as he looks at her with more interest than I’ve ever seen him give to a living being.
I wouldn’t say it’s equal to mine or Gage’s, and knowing Olly it may have to do with all the questions floating around his gigantic brain, but still.
Auryn’s entire body stills as he looks at her.
Fuck, that shouldn’t be possible. For starters, Olly’s a beta.
And second…he’s…
Fucking Olly. Smart as a whip in the lab but dumber than a brick with women.
“It’s okay,”
he says, his voice oddly calm, but with a tinge of hoarseness. “Auryn.”
He doesn’t touch her, but the way he looks at her…
For the briefest moment there is a shimmer in his gaze that tells me maybe Olly’s not as defective as I thought, after all. Maybe…
“You are safe.”
He says the words clearly, but I hear the depth in them. Most of the time when Olly talks, it’s fast, crisp. To the point.
I’ve never heard him talk to anyone like this.
I glance at Gage and Diego who look just as confused, if not unsettled by the sight. Auryn whines in my arms.
“Olly,”
Gage’s voice cuts through the weird tension, breaking the spell, and Olly turns to look at him. Without his sights set on her, Auryn is right back to her wiggling. “We need to move.”
Olly blinks as the rain starts to fall. “Right; safety is of the utmost importance.”
Gage brushes past me as I tighten my grip on Auryn. “This is going to be a lot easier on all of us, princess, if you just fucking relax, okay?”
I tell her, and she snarls at me.
Olly follows behind Gage, turning to look at us, and she stills. My blood boils.
What the fuck? I growl in frustration as Olly nods at her. “It’s okay. You’ll be okay. Emmett is…”
He looks me up and down judgingly, and if it weren’t for the omega in my arms, I would push him against the nearest tree and remind him who the fucking boss is here. “Strong,”
he finishes, and I don’t know how to feel about such an admission, because from Olly’s mouth, it sounds like a bloody insult. But insult or not, it seems to have an effect on Auryn, so right now, I don’t argue with him.
Auryn doesn’t speak, just shivers, and then I watch Olly do the craziest thing.
He takes off his fucking coat, in the Goddamned rain, and covers her. The motion puts him far too close to Auryn for my liking, and this time I growl so loud it echoes in the canyon. His hand on the coat shakes, and he swallows hard, stepping back.
“There, all better,”
he says, and then he takes off like a fucking bat out of hell. Auryn pulls the coat tight around her and doesn’t say a word as we trudge through the forest to the car.
I hold her close, wrapped up in Olly’s coat. Our clothes practically stick to us like a second skin, and I know he’s got to be freezing because I am, but our needs aren’t important right now. I look down at Auryn, at her dark eyes, at her flushed cheeks. Gage gets in the driver’s seat, Diego next to him, and Olly piles in next to us. I growl at him, warning him to keep his distance.
I don’t like him so close to her. My alpha feels threatened. By a fucking beta.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
“Don’t worry, Emmett, I won’t hurt her,”
he says as he fastens his seatbelt.
“Stay the fuck over there, Olly,”
I bite out.
He nods but says nothing in return. The ride back to the compound seems like it takes forever. Auryn passes out in my arms, likely from exhaustion.
When we hit the compound, Gage looks behind his seat directly at me.
“I’ll take her from here,”
he says, and the growl that escapes me rattles the car.
“The fuck you will,”
I say, feeling emboldened. I would never defy an order from Gage, but something about this omega is fucking with me.
With her in my arms, I’m another person altogether.
“You need to be assessed,”
Olly says, his voice back to that clinical, calculating tone. “You are in no condition to—”
“I need to soothe her,”
Gage growls back at Olly. Diego grabs his arm, pulling him back.
“You took quite a hit to the cajones, Gage. Maybe Olly should check you out before you go for Round Two with her.”
“You can’t soothe her if you’re, um…”
Olly clears his throat, his voice sounding uncharacteristically nervous. “You need to take care of yourself, first. You can’t help her if your body is, um…responding to her heat. You won’t have a clear mind.”
Something about Olly’s words make me feel vulnerable and exposed.
Like I understand them, but…
My alpha bites at my consciousness. It’s probably best Gage doesn’t take her to hold. He might try to mate with her.
Not that the thoughts in my mind aren’t straying there myself, but…
I can keep myself in check. A job is a job. I can compartmentalize.
At least that’s what I tell myself as Diego and Gage get out of the car.
“Olly’s right, Gage. We need to breathe for a moment. Collect our bearings.”
Diego glances at me. “Emmett and Olly will make sure she is safe.”
I snarl at the mention of the beta, and that’s when Auryn wakes up.
Recharged.
I tighten my grip as she moves to leap out of my arms.
“Ah-ah, not so fast, princess,”
I tell her, and she moves to bite me again.
“Put me down!”
she yells, kicking me in the stomach from her movement.
Gage and Diego move toward us, but it’s Olly who charges me.
“Safe,”
he says, and she whines. “Auryn, you’re safe, I promise. Em won’t hurt you.”
He glares at me. “Will you, Em?”
“Fuck no,”
I say as I tighten my grip on her.
“Olly,”
she murmurs, and the stupid smile on his face makes me want to throw up.
“Yeah, that’s right,”
he says, swallowing nervously. I catch the worried glare of the others.
Fuck, why does she like Olly? What does he have that I don’t?
Or Gage for that matter?
“I’m Olly. This is Emmett.”
He touches my arm softly. I watch as he nods towards Diego and Gage. “You know Gage already, and,”
he sucks in a breath, “that’s Diego. He’s not so bad, either.”
“Hola, princesa.”
“All alphas are bad,”
Auryn says, her voice pained.
“Olly’s not an alpha,”
Diego nips.
I watch his expression falter at the words. “He’s right, I’m not.”
Auryn blinks, sniffing the air. “Beta?”
I watch Olly’s stance. He flinches but brushes it off. “That’s right.”
She glances up at him, twisting her lips as she holds his gaze. “Tell him to put me down,”
she says. “Big fucking brute.”
A smile tugs at the corner of his lips.
“Can you walk?”
he asks softly. “I mean, can I trust you to walk?”
He licks his lips. “Trust you won’t run away?” He cocks his head to the side, sizing her up.
I don’t miss the way his pupils dilate, and I scoff, getting a heavy whiff of lemongrass and sunshine when I inhale.
Fuck, is she perfuming for this asshole? I growl in response. What a fucking waste. Even if Olly had a sex drive—which we all know he doesn’t—I doubt he’d know what to do. Sure he might know the mechanics, but he’s a beta.
He could never give an omega what they crave. He’ll never have a knot, like me.
She nods.
If my hands weren’t full, I’d wipe that fucking smirk clean off his stupid face.
“You heard her. Put her down, you big brute,”
he says with more bravado than I’ve ever heard.
Diego snickers as Gage sighs. He curses as he pulls the handcuffs off of his belt.
“Precaution,”
he says as he approaches Auryn, and she starts to wriggle.
“Is that really necessary, Gage?”
Olly asks, concerned.
“Yes, Olly. It is.”
Gage says harshly as he grabs her wrists. Auryn moves, kicking at me as she tries to escape Gage’s hands, but it’s no use. With my tight grip and his, she doesn’t stand a chance. “We can’t take any chances.”
I feel Diego and Olly’s heated gazes.
She spits at Gage.
Her gaze catches Olly’s for a moment, and she looks away.
“Come on, Gage,”
Diego says. “Let’s get you to the lab while they get her settled.”
Standing on the floor, hands cuffed in front of her, I can see how small she actually is. She’s tiny. Barely five foot three soaking wet, and petite.
I tower over her. Even Olly–all five foot ten of him—towers over her.
I lead her to holding, Olly rounding up the back.
“You lied,”
she says, her voice low and harsh as we move through the shadowed tunnels to the holding station. The room itself is huge to accommodate the holding cell, the two-way mirror, and a closed off kitchenette for long interrogations.
“No, we didn’t. You are safe.”
“Safety is not a fucking cage,”
she bites as I lead her to the cell. I open it, and she slinks towards Olly, who is oblivious.
I clear my throat, which seems to bring him back from whatever space his mind wandered off to.
“Oh,”
he says, almost as if he is suddenly remembering the omega in our presence. She whines as she tries to shake off his coat. “Oh no, you can keep it.”
I open the cell door and watch for a moment, because it’s clear both of them don’t see anything else.
He looks down at her curiously. She relaxes in his presence. It’s…odd.
With us she was practically lunging for our throats, but with Olly…
She’s like a fucking kitten.
“I have plenty,”
he says softly, licking his lips. He looks up, catching my gaze.
“Come on, princess; your castle awaits,” I drawl.
Olly clears his throat as he sets his hand on the small of her back and gently guides her to the open door.
She lets him lead her. She fucking lets him lead her.
I’m not entirely sure if it’s because she hates alphas or if she genuinely just likes Olly. Maybe a little of column A and column B.
Still, he walks her into the cell, and the second she’s in, I hipcheck him. He cries out as his body slams into the wall, and I lock the cell quickly. Auryn rushes the door, but the electric shock sends her backward, and she whimpers as she falls on her ass, her wet dress sliding up her thighs to expose her sweet-smelling cunt.
Fuck. Somehow her underwear got torn in the tussle to bring her in.
My alpha gets one whiff, and my entire body tenses. Olly curses as he sits up.
“Fuck, Emmett, was that necessary?”
he bites out, rubbing his shoulder.
I turn to him with a snarl, and his eyes widen.
Auryn rushes the door again.
“Yes,”
I say bitterly. He rubs his arm. “Now get the fuck out of here, Olivander. Go do what you’re supposed to do,”
I snap. “What your job is. Leave the omega to an alpha.”
Auryn growls, rushing the door again, getting jolted backward.
Olly’s eyebrows furrow, and for a moment he looks hurt, but then that look is replaced by the expressionless, stoic face I know.
“Of course. I need to check on Gage, make sure he’s all right.”
He stands, shoulders hunched as he looks from me to Auryn. She stops in her tracks, caught like a deer in the headlights. Her pained expression is not lost on me.
“Don’t worry,”
he says softly. “I’ll be back. I will need to assess you, once you’ve calmed down.”
And then he turns around and just…
Walks out. Leaving Auryn and me alone.
It seems like forever until one of us speaks, and it’s me.
I can’t stand the silence.
She stares at me from the back end of the cage, near the large queen size bed. She looks at it with disgust before glaring back at me.
“There’s a bathroom in the en suite. If you, uh…”
“Why should I trust you?”
she asks, fidgeting with her dress. In the light of the cell, she looks awful. Drenched, dirty, hair a mess.
She looks…feral.
“Why shouldn’t you?”
I ask because fuck, aren’t omegas, like, supposed to be drawn to us?
She grits her teeth, and I can tell she’s in pain, but she fights it. Another thick, heady scent of perfume hits, and I have to stifle the groan and my twitching cock, because now is certainly not the time, and she’s not…mine.
She’s a target, a mark. It doesn’t matter how good she smells or looks, or how she’s driving my alpha crazy.
She is not mine.
She’s Orion’s. The directive was clear. Dead or alive, but preferably alive and untouched.
Okay, maybe the last part wasn’t spoken out loud, but it was pretty damn clear.
The purr that escapes my throat is involuntary.
She looks up at me for the briefest moment, eyes glistening before she turns away.
“Because not all alphas are assholes,”
I say honestly. It’s clear she has something against my kind, though what and why, I can’t be sure.
“That's exactly what asshole alphas say,”
she bites.
“How about this?”
I say as I step to the door and punch in the code to unlock it. The door swings open. I stand there, holding her gaze.
“Cuffs stay on, but I’ll gladly take you to the bathroom if you want to get cleaned up—”
I hold up my hand as she snarls at me, her thick, heady scent hitting me like a fog.
I grunt out a frustrated sound, but keep my gaze trailed on her. “I’ll wait outside, I promise.”
She looks at me and the open door, then away. She huffs out an annoyed sound.
“No.”
No? What the fuck is this omega’s problem?
“No to the bath or—”
“No. I’m not going anywhere with you. You’re an alpha. I can’t trust you.”
I growl in frustration and slam the cell, the door squawking on its hinges as it bounces closed then open. I don’t shut the door.
“Fine.”
I cross my arms. “But the only person you have to blame for your discomfort is yourself.”
“Myself?”
she bites, lunging forward. Within a flash, my back is slammed up against the cell wall, which startles the ever living fuck out of me.
She should not be able to move that fast, or–
I look down at her, her hand settled in the center of my chest. She’s pressed me against the fucking wall, and her grip, her touch is…
Strong.
Stronger than a five foot three omega should be.
My lips part and my eyes widen as her lips pull back, and she growls.
It’s not a pretty growl either, it’s low. Dark. Deep.
Threatening as all hell.
“You think you know me, alpha?”
“Emmett,”
I snap. “The name’s Emmett. But you can call me Em for short.”
Her free hand finds my throat, and her gaze burns into mine. I could break her hold easily, if I wanted to, but…
I don’t want to, I realize. My cock strains against my tactical pants, and the heady whiff of lemongrass rolling off of her has my fucking mouth watering. I can already feel the beginnings of a knot forming. Fuck me…
“Emmett.”
She growls my name in disdain. “You think you know anything about me? About discomfort?”
Her nostrils flare, and she snaps her teeth at me. “You don’t know the first thing about what true discomfort is.” Her fingers around my throat tighten, and my cock weeps with precum.
Fuck.
Am I…
Does this…
Yes, apparently getting choked by an angry little omega does turn me on. Who knew?
A low growl escapes my throat as I lean my neck forward. Her grip loosens only slightly.
“And what are you going to do, princess? Show me?”
I chuckle. “I’d like to see you try, baby.”
I lick my lips, realizing all at once that her mouth is close enough to kiss. She presses her lithe, delicate frame against me, and I can feel the heat emanating off of her. She whines. Fucking whines, and I groan, involuntarily thrusting myself against her. Her dark gaze flashes from my lips to my eyes.
And just as she opens her mouth–
“Ahem…”
the faint sound of Olly’s voice cuts through the strange tension.
We both turn to see Olly standing at the entrance with a needle. “Gage would like a word, Emmett,”
he says carefully. Auryn drops me like a hot potato, stepping back, her entire demeanor shifting.
It’s wild to watch that sort of transformation before my eyes, and had I not just been pinned by the feral little kitten, I wouldn’t believe she was capable of such things.
Because the way she looks at Olly…
Fuck. It pisses me off.
I growl as Olly holds up his other hand.
“It’s just a heat suppressant. I’m not–”
he looks at her, his gaze softening. “I’m here to help.”
I push off the wall, noticing that Auryn’s backed herself into the corner, and I have no choice but to leave. Whatever happened between us…
It’ll need to be addressed, and I should tell Gage. Her strength isn’t normal. Isn’t natural for an omega, let alone an omega of her size.
But Olly doesn’t need to know that. I doubt she’d attack him, anyway. For some reason she likes him.
I exit the cage, but I don't shut the door. I know she won’t move. Not now that he’s here.
I stop when I get to the entrance where he stands and take a look at him. His hair is a bit messy and he’s dressed in clean clothes—a tight-fitting black shirt, grey sweatpants—and his hair still looks wet.
I’ve never actually seen the guy in anything except his scrubs, so it’s kind of odd to see him so…casual.
But I guess he hasn’t really had time to head back to his quarters, so it’s likely borrowed clothes from the infirmary.
Still, something about the sight both intrigues me and pisses me off, and I’m not sure how to feel about that.
“Careful, Olly.”
I growl. “She’s not ours.”
He looks at me with a blank expression.
“I know that,”
he says plainly. “I’m the only objective person in this bloody compound right now.”
His gaze roves over me as I adjust my cock. He twists his lips. “I have many questions for you, Emmett,” he says pointedly, breaking my gaze. “But those will have to wait until tomorrow.”
And with that he leaves me in his dust as he heads towards the omega in the cage.