Chapter 10 – BANE
Chapter
Ten
BANE
B lood and adrenaline paint the air thick as motor oil, but underneath it all lurks something else.
Something that makes my alpha instincts sit up and take notice like a guard dog hearing footsteps in the dark.
I keep my weapon trained on the two of them while my brain tries to process what the fuck just happened.
The omega—small, delicate, wearing a pink slip that should make her look innocent—just took down Carlisle with moves that would make a Navy SEAL proud.
And the alpha, the one calling himself Jonas King, bleeds from gunshot wounds while shielding her with his body like she's the most precious thing in the world.
No mating mark on her throat. I can see that much through the suppressants pumping through this place like chemical fog. But the way they move together, the way he positions himself between her and every threat, speaks to a bond deeper than biology.
"Who are you?" I ask, keeping my voice level despite the chaos ricocheting through my skull. "And who sent you?"
The omega tilts her head, hazel eyes bright with something that might be madness or might be keen intelligence. Hard to tell with the chemical haze clouding everything. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
A laugh rumbles up from my chest before I can stop it.
The sheer audacity of this slip of a thing, surrounded by four armed alphas, still throwing attitude like she's got the upper hand.
"I would, actually. And we'll get the answers.
" I shift my weight, feeling Elias and Archer flanking me while Carlisle slumps against the wall, still fighting off whatever cocktail she dosed him with.
"I'd just rather do it the pleasant way. "
The alpha growls low in his throat. The sound vibrates through the room like a warning, and something primal in my chest answers it. This one's going to be trouble. Smart, trained, and desperate enough to take on four military operators to protect his omega.
We should put him down. Clean, professional, no loose ends.
But there's something about the omega that has my alpha sitting up and paying attention despite the suppressants.
I can see it affecting the others too—Elias's usually steady hands have the faintest tremor, Archer's breathing has gone shallow, and even Carlisle's drugged gaze keeps drifting to her like she's a magnet pulling at metal.
Need to get her out of here. Fast. Before whatever's happening in my chest gets worse.
But one look at the way she's pressed against the lithe alpha's back tells me she's not going anywhere without him. The possessive part of me that wants to rip him away from her wars with the tactical part that knows we need both of them alive for answers.
"Look," I start, lowering my weapon just enough to seem less threatening. "We're not the bad guys here. Whatever you think you know about us?—"
The alpha collapses.
One second he's standing guard over his omega, the next his knees are hitting the expensive carpet like a sack of concrete and he slumps forward onto his side. Blood pools beneath him, dark and spreading fast.
"Felix!" The omega drops to her knees beside him, and the sound that tears from her throat hits me like a sucker punch. Pure devastation. Terror so raw it makes my teeth ache.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
I've always felt compassion for the omegas we rescue. It's part of what drove me out of a far more legitimate career where I couldn't do enough to help, and the motivation that keeps me going on one suicide mission after another. But this… this is something else. Something dangerous.
Elias moves forward on instinct, medical training overriding everything else, but the omega whips around with a snarl that would make a rabid dog proud.
"Don't touch him!"
Her words come out half-feral, backed by enough venom to stop Elias dead in his tracks. Her small hands are pressed against Felix's chest, and I can see them shaking.
"I'm a doctor," Elias says carefully, his voice dropping into that calm tone he uses with trauma victims. "I can help him."
The omega's wide eyes dart between Felix's pale face and Elias, suspicion and desperation warring in her expression. "From the looks of those wounds," Elias continues, already pulling supplies from the small med kit he keeps stowed under his jacket, "he doesn't have long without treatment."
She hesitates, and I can practically see the gears turning in her head. Whatever their relationship, whatever brought them here, she loves this alpha enough to kill for him. Maybe die for him too.
"We won't harm either of you as long as you're in our custody," I tell her, and mean it more than I should. "You have my word."
Something in my tone must convince her because she nods once, sharp and reluctant, and moves back enough to let Elias work.
Elias drops beside Felix, rolling him onto his back with practiced efficiency. His hands move over the wounds, tearing fabric and cataloging damage with the kind of clinical detachment that comes from years of battlefield medicine.
"Thigh wound might have hit the femoral artery," he mutters, pulling a tourniquet from his kit. "And this arm..." He shakes his head. "We need to get him out of here. He needs a transfusion as soon as possible."
"He's an alpha," Jackal remarks in a tone as dry and bone and devoid of emotion or sympathy as he is. "Two bullets shouldn't be enough to take him out."
A range of emotions flicker across the omega's face, anxiety replaced quickly by rage, and she curls her lip back in a fierce snarl that makes Jackal cock an eyebrow.
"I'll ready the bird," Archer says, disappearing through the door.
"Bird?" The omega looks up at me, confusion cutting through the fear in her voice.
"The plane," I explain, keeping my tone gentle. Something about her distress is clawing at my insides, and I need to keep her calm. "What's your name?"
She hesitates, as if she's not willing to part with even that. "Juniper."
"Well, Juniper, you pack a mean right hook." I can't help the grin that tugs at my mouth. "It's nice to meet you."
"I tried to kill you," she points out dryly.
"All the same." I gesture to the others. "That's Doctor working on your friend there. The one who left is Viper—he's getting our ride ready. And the pretty boy in the corner is Jackal."
Her gaze flicks to Elias. "He's a doctor and his code name is Doctor ?"
Jackal barks a laugh true to his namesake. "She has a point there, Bane."
I even catch Elias' mouth twitching at one corner as he keeps his focus on his patient.
"I never claimed to be creative," I grumble.
Juniper eyes me warily. "Why are you helping me?"
"That's what we do," I tell her simply. "We help people."
She looks at Carlisle again, and something flickers in her expression. Doubt. "Even him?"
Smart girl. Most people can't sense what Carlisle really is underneath all that charm and good breeding. But she's looking at him like she can see the monster wearing a human face.
He catches her stare and grins, all teeth and predatory amusement. "The little omega is perceptive."
Felix groans, the sound weak and thready, and Juniper immediately grabs his hand. The naked terror on her face when she looks at him makes something twist in my soul. Whatever's between them, it runs deep.
My comm crackles. "Chopper's on the roof," Archer's voice comes through clear. "Ready for extraction."
"Copy that." I look at Felix's pale face, the way his breathing has gone shallow. "We're coming up."
I bend down and scoop Felix up, surprised by how light he feels.
For an alpha, he's built lean rather than bulky, all whipcord muscle and sharp edges.
But there's something else that bothers me—his scent.
Even through the blood and adrenaline, there's an artificial quality to his alpha pheromones.
Like cologne trying to mask something else.
"Should we restrain her?" Elias asks quietly, nodding toward Juniper.
I shake my head. "As long as we have him, she'll stay in line."
I don't know exactly what their connection is, whether they're brother and sister or something a lot less familial, but it's clear they're irrevocably attached. Which makes things complicated in ways I'm not ready to think about.
We move through the corridors of the Rut Room like the paramilitary operation we are, Elias leading point while Carlisle brings up the rear despite still fighting off the drugs.
Juniper stays close to Felix's unconscious form, one hand pressed against his chest like she's trying to keep his heart beating through will alone.
She's close enough to brush against me and I don't miss the spark I feel at the contact, but I can't let myself think about that now.
The service elevator takes us up through the building's guts, past floors of expensive sin and artificial paradise.
The omega doesn't speak, but I can feel the anxiety radiating off her.
She's calculating escape routes, assessing which one of us poses the biggest threat, probably planning six different ways to kill us if we give her either the reason or the opportunity.
The roof access door opens onto wind and rotor wash. Archer has the Blackhawk spun up and ready, the bird sitting on the landing pad like a mechanical predator waiting to strike. The sound of the rotors cuts through the night air, drowning out the city's ambient noise.
And that's when it hits me.
The suppressants from the club are gone, blown away by the wind and distance. The artificial chemical fog that's been clouding my senses lifts like a curtain being pulled back.
Juniper's scent hits me like a freight train.
Sweet flowers and something wild that makes every alpha instinct I possess stand up and roar like a fucking dragon.
My vision sharpens, my breathing deepens, and suddenly the possessive urges I've been fighting make perfect sense.
Suddenly, the realization I've been fighting until it was safe to process punches me right in the face.
Scent match.
I see the exact moment it hits the others too.
Elias goes rigid, his usual supernatural calm cracking around the edges.
Archer's pupils dilate even further, and he takes a step toward her before catching himself.
Even Carlisle looks shaken for the first time since I've met him, and that's saying something, considering how many times I've seen him on the brink of death—both his and other people's.
Juniper, one of the assassins sent to kill us, is our omega.