13. Kelly
Chapter thirteen
Kelly
K elly Aged 24
There has been something growing inside of me. Some filthy feeling like a moving eel pushing back at me. I sit in the chair, but I say nothing as the new beta signs on with Alpha Labels. That’s not the part that bothers me. No, it’s the part where his hand is stroking casually over her ass, and the fact she’s a hair this side of legal.
I keep the bored expression and make a mental note to talk to my dad. He will know what to do.
Typhor has increasingly been showing the cracks of his facade, revealing the poison underneath. I’m not strong enough to take the mantle from him yet, but someone needs to do something. This is our legacy, our name, and he’s trashing it.
The beta says something coy and takes her leave. I climb to my feet and wait for my uncle.
“Let’s go get something to eat. That dumb bitch is going to help me work it off later tonight. I’ll get what I want out of her, get my cock sucked, and then fuck her off. She’s not talented enough to make it big.”
I pause, confused. “Why sign her, then?”
“Because I love watching the moment I crush their dreams.”
I hate him.
We walk down the stairs, and I listen with half an ear as he brags about his conquests. When I was younger, they seemed much more impressive, but I’m twenty-four, and it’s like the veil that was making him appear human, decent, an actual humane leader, has been ripped away.
I’m going to talk to dad about breaking ties with him. I don’t want any part of this life. It’s just not for me.
He puts his hand on my shoulder as I open the door to the café I’ve never been to before in my life.
I look over the customers, a glancing look, and do a double take.
NO! NO!
NO! Why is the world this cruel?
My omega is sitting at a table all on her own, looking broken and miserable. Tiny, wounded, needing me.
And young. Far, far too young.
The shock and horror slams into me like storm waves slamming onto the shore.
Mine, but I can’t have her.
Her perfume erupts into the air. I don’t know the scent, but it’s sweet and intoxicating, and I suck it into my lungs and want to die in this scent.
She’s perfumed for me.
Too young!
All of a sudden, I remember the threat. All my senses go on alert, and I fix my bored expression back. Hating myself so very much for what’s going to happen.
“I think you found your omega,” Typhor says with a bark of laughter. My uncle, who is married into my family, positively preens with delight over the discovery. His brown eyes shine with predatory hunger, and his smile stretches across his face.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’d never take a less than perfect omega for a mate.”
Please forgive me. She’s all golden hair and golden eyes. Big pouty lips and this exotically angled face. Why is she so broken? What has life done to her? I have to protect her. She’s only a teenager. Only a girl. A child. Typhor will chew her up and spit her out.
Please. Please. Let me succeed, just this once.
“A cripple for a mate. What a cosmic fucking joke.” I spit the words, wishing the universe would strike me down for hurting my omega.
The rest of the exchange is a blur. I hurt her. I hurt her again and again. Typhor laughs. When she collapses to the ground, I don’t move a muscle to help her.
My mind breaks, her screams reverberate in my skull. No one helps my scent-matched omega. No one shows her mercy.
She leaves.
She’s safe.
I wait ten minutes, and then I stand up and catch the first taxi I can find and ask the driver to take me home.
I can’t stop shaking .
And, for the first time in my life, I feel just as evil as my uncle.
P resent Day
Three days on this island, and they haven’t relaxed their guard, not even once. There is no way to escape. Oh, they leave us alone for the most part, but I can see the growing disapproval they have with our actions.
I don’t know what they want. I tried talking to her, and it sent her into a panic attack. How could I ask again? Every minute of my waking hours, I replay that scene in the café and wonder how she could even want me near her.
I want to speak to her again, I need to.
The Daane have made sure we don’t have that chance.
Beau walks past and brushes his fingers along Ezy’s shoulder. He finally cracks and jumps Beau. The two of them go down in a flurry of punches. Keagan charges Ezy, but Gael gets there first, swinging like he’s finally unleashing all that rage he’s had bottled up.
I stand up as Shale walks into the room. He raises an eyebrow as if asking me if I really want to do this. I do. I really do. It’s all I can think about when I’m not thinking about her. The pack that forced us to be here, the alphas who took my will and turned me into a glorified pet.
I want to kill them.
The only person I’ve ever hated more is my uncle, but I can’t see the difference between what they are doing and what he does.
They are evil alphas, and they must be stopped. Abusive, controlling assholes who have taken advantage of a poor omega who doesn’t know better.
We collide, and I get a good kick in, but he gets a good hit to my jaw. I scramble with him, but then I’m thrown off balance. We hit the couch, and he gradually forces me onto my back and holds me until I lose the strength to fight him.
I’ve never met alphas like this. They don’t fight fair; they are unusually strong, and they have no sense of right and wrong, and I don’t think they like us at all.
But that’s okay because I don’t like them. Not even a little.
I stare up at him, ignoring the threatening tattoos and the way his strong fingers slide over my throat and squeeze.
To my surprise, a bolt of heat hits my groin, and I feel myself start to chub up.
What the fuck? No fucking way!
“Get off me!” I roar into his face, fighting again with a viciousness that makes my tequila scent get sharp.
Shale scowls and leans in close but lifts his head, his eyes going wide.
He rolls off me, but it’s too late. Aspyn stops in the doorway, taking us all in.
“Well, either you guys are a lot more friendly than I’ve been led to believe or you have decided to kill each other; either way, it’s not going to help me at all, and you promised you’d help, so get up.”
Keagan, Beau, and Shale respond instantly. It’s amazing how quick they just abandon everything with a word from her. It’s a damn trick because we all know they are running the show.
Aspyn glances at me nervously. I can tell because she licks her lips and can’t hold my gaze. She looks beautiful today in a long purple skirt and a black singlet with a shawl. So innocent, so damaged.
She walks into the room, and I pause, listening. She jingles as she walks, and I realise she’s got tiny gold bells sewn into her clothing. In fact, her clothes look like something you might see in a theater or play.
She sits down while Keagan sits opposite her.
“I want you to calm your mind, let your thoughts wander, but, really, just let your mind go where it wants to go.”
She fans out a deck of hand-painted cards. I scowl at the cards. Surely not?
“When you hear a question in your mind, grab three cards and lay them in front of you. The first card represents your past, the second your present, the third your future.”
I scoff.
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Who believes in this drivel? They’ve convinced her she’s a psychic? Obviously, my omega has been massively suckered in.
We couldn’t be more different. How can she possibly be my scent match?
Keagan turns over the cards, and they get into a discussion about the cards and their meanings.
“You’re up next,” Shale says.
I shake my head. “I don’t believe in this crap.”
Aspyn looks away. I almost feel bad. I don’t want to hurt her, it’s the last thing I want, but I don’t believe in this at all, and I’m tired. Sick of pretending, sick of fighting. I just want to leave. I want to get back to the competition.
Pandering to her misbegotten beliefs is not going to help any of us.
“Just try it. Or are you chicken?” Beau murmurs as he passes me.
“Fine.” I advance over to the table and stare at her. Her gold eyes avoid mine as she gives me the same instructions she gave Keagan.
I pull my three cards and turn over the first one.
She leans forward, frowning. “A long road home.”
I stare at the card. It means nothing, it's generic and doesn’t mean shit. This isn’t real.
I don’t let her tell me anything but flip the next card.
There’s a picture of a cage hanging in a dark room. The word on the top is ‘Trapped’.
I flip over the third card.
Daane.
She leans forward, snatching that card up. “That shouldn’t be in there.”
“It’s all rigged. I don’t know how you did it, but it’s a con, and it’s not fair to be taking advantage of hard-working people by being deceitful to them.” I try to argue with logic, to break through their brainwashing.
Shale attacks faster than I can prepare for, slamming my head into the table and holding me there. His fierce growl actually has my stomach loosening in fear.
“Shale, don’t. He’s an idiot, and I don’t care what he has to say about my job.”
“I’m sick of the way they treat you!”
“So, let them go,” Aspyn screams at him. “Why are you making them stay? What’s the point?”
Shale stands up, letting go of my head. “How did you-”
“We know each other well enough by now, don’t you think?” she says dryly and stands up.
She’s avoiding my gaze. As I watch, she swipes her hair behind her ears, then unhooks the hair on the side of her face where the scar is. It’s a brutal reminder of what she went through. And a reminder that she still thinks she needs to hide, even behind a curtain of hair.
She is so damaged and vulnerable to these alphas. I can’t leave her with them.
The little omega packs up her belongings and, with quiet dignity, leaves the house.
Shale slams me into the wall. My head cracks against it, and I see stars. Fuck! I reach up and grip his wrists, but he’s immovable. Ezy tries to pull him off, but the alpha has lost it.
“I’ve had it. Come with me!” Shale barks, and I feel the command sink into me. I can’t fight it, though I try.
He leads us next door, somehow knowing she will be gone, down the dark garden path and to the hidden cave at the bottom of the garden.
“What are we doing here?” I snarl.
Shale doesn’t answer, just walks into the cave.
I wonder if he’s going to kill us, but when I get in there, I find a bed with a few pillows. It smells earthy and there are candles around the floor.
“What the fuck is this?” I snap. I edge back away from him, uncertain.
Shale waits until we’re all in here. Then he turns and speaks.
“When we found Aspyn, she was almost dead. She’d been homeless, and I don’t even know how long it had been since she ate last.”
I stare at him, feeling sick at his words.
“Aspyn is not welcome in the town, not with the townsfolk. Partly because of her injuries and how she looks, her mother’s profession, and probably more so to do with the fact that she is a good person who has been hit by a crap tonne of bad luck.”
Yeah, right. People don’t treat people like that. They would help her. But it’s a nice story, I’m sure it makes them feel better at night.
“That doesn’t explain this.”
Shale looks at the mattress with so much sorrow that I immediately return my eyes and try to see what I’m missing. A bed, candles, pillows, a dark place.
My eyes widen, and my breath punches out of me.
“No!”
Ezy and Gael make the connection and go still.
“This omega needs all of us, and if I have to beat every one of you until your skulls break every day until you give in and help her, I will do it. But I am never letting you go. Your days of freedom are long gone. Your omega needs you.”
Shale stalks out, fury in every line of his body.
I can’t look away from the mattress. Now I can smell the remnants of the heat. It presses at me, dragging a soul deep hunger out of me.
Aspyn isn’t living an idyllic life. Not at all.
I can’t leave.
Not until I get her free.