17. Aspyn
Chapter seventeen
Aspyn
A spyn- Aged 17
My mother flies into the room and starts packing our belongings.
“What’s wrong?” I hop after her, hissing as my leg tightens painfully. “Mum?”
“Get ready. We’re leaving. We need to hurry.”
I frown but start shoving my belongings into the bag. My eyes are still swollen and sore from crying over the alpha I met six months ago. How has the time passed so quickly?
Kelly.
I dreamed about him last night. That he came to me and rescued me. That he took care of me. He didn’t laugh or mock me, his eyes were filled with concern.
Dreams are cruel.
In just a few minutes, Mum is ushering me out of the hotel. I dig in my heels when I see the older alpha. The cruel one. What is he doing here? How does Mum know him? I angle myself behind her, unwilling to stand before him.
“Mum?”
She ignores me and approaches him with deference. “Alpha Raines.”
He stares at me for another long moment before he turns to my mother with a smile.
“Here you go. As promised.”
My mother takes an envelope from him and shoves it into her bag. “Is the car here?”
“Yes, and here are the tickets. Remember your deal, don’t come back.”
The cold, dreary day plummets as fear makes my stomach hollow out. What does that mean? Why is she taking money from him?
“Don’t come back? Where are we going?”
The alpha simply smiles widely. “My name is Typhor Raines.”
I don’t even care about him. I refocus on Mum, who looks anywhere but at me. The guilt, the shame, wafts off her.
“Mum?”
“Get in the car. We have to go. This is our chance.”
Kelly is here, though. If I go, I will never see him again. Why would I leave him? Why would she make me? He’ll come around eventually. I know he will, right? At least I’ll get to see him, even if it’s from a distance. I can’t leave him. The very thought makes me want to throw up.
“Our chance? Mum, what’s going on?”
I don’t get to say anything else. She grabs my wrist and shoves me towards the car. My leg buckles, and I end up sprawled on my back in the car park, staring up at my mother in shock. The pain is nothing compared to the betrayal.
“Get in the car, right now, Aspyn, or I will leave you here.”
She means it, I think with terror. I can’t survive alone. Part of our new existence is resentment. I depend on her for everything, and I hate it. I’ve trapped her in a life she had no plans for, and she hates it.
There’s no choice.
I get up and get in the car. Leaving my heart shattered and broken in the car park for a second time in six months, longing for a man who will never want me. I can’t leave him, but I’ve got no choice.
He rejected me.
He could never love me.
Maybe this is a second chance.
P resent Day
Being in this place is bringing back old memories. I stand with the Daane behind me and Nat beside me and watch the waves curl and race towards the shore. Not going to lie, every time one of those huge monsters comes in, my heart explodes into action and the urge to run beats at my mind.
My mouth is dry, and I’m shaking a little bit when Kelly paddles in. He stabs his board into the sand and peels off the top of his wetsuit.
I’m mesmerised by all the skin, but then I notice Ezy just behind him. Ezy is slimmer than Kelly but no less stunning, and Gael is gorgeous.
“You’re drooling.”
I slap a hand to my mouth and glare at Nat. “I am not.”
“I mean, you are, but it’s okay to drool, they belong to you.”
I shake my head, a wordless protest.
“It’s okay, those giant slabs of man flesh are staring at you.”
I lift my eyes and find she’s right; they are looking at me, but now so are half the people on the beach. My skin crawls with the attention, and Pack Daane move in close.
Kelly moves in my direction, but Ezy reaches out, capturing his arm, and whispers to him. Abruptly, the three of them turn, changing direction, and disappear into the crowd.
The sting of rejection burns a little more intensely than I would have expected it to. Nat huffs, and even from here I can feel her anger building.
“Shale, you’re going to teach them manners, right?”
I roll my eyes. Nat loves to edge the Daane on and provoke their protective instincts. Like they need it.
“Of course, we are.”
“That deliberate snubbing was uncalled for.” Nat is incensed. She fluffs her red hair and narrows her eyes in rage at the Raines Pack.
“Agreed!” Keagan growls.
“It’s all right. I didn’t want to be stared at by everyone, anyway.”
Nat raises an eyebrow and glares at the side of my face while I resolve to ignore her at all costs.
“So, you’re okay with them walking towards you and just suddenly turning away? That’s okay? You’re perfectly fine with it?”
I seethe and turn to look at her really quickly, but it’s what she’s been waiting for. A smile spreads across her face, and she lunges forward, smacks a kiss to my cheek, and races off.
“I’ll be back when I’m done!”
“Nat! Leave it alone!”
“Can’t do that. I’m bored.”
I mutter a curse and turn to the alphas behind me. “Are you going to stop her?”
“I can’t. I hurt my leg,” Keagan says with the widest grin. “Can’t run.”
I narrow my eyes and turn a look on Beau.
“Sorry, Cher, but I think siccing Nat on them is my favourite idea in the history of ideas.”
Shale shrugs. “I don’t control Nat.”
And that’s all the help I’m going to get. I turn away from the gathered crowd and limp back towards the hotel, but I don’t want to go there yet. I feel restless and wild.
Beau bounces around me, telling outrageous stories that have me giggling. Keagan keeps everyone away, and Shale is a comforting presence at my back.
But there’s an idea that’s been pushing at me ever since Nat suggested it. I can’t shake it. The words that have been pressing at me are on the tip of my tongue.
I want your bonds.
What would it feel like to have them? What would it feel like to belong to them? They couldn’t throw me away if I had them, could they?
“What are you thinking?”
I answer without thinking it through.
“About getting bonds.”
The impact on my alphas is instantaneous. The three of them stop for a split second and then move in close to surround me.
“Our bonds?” Keagan whispers.
“Who else’s?” I murmur, my heart crashes like a drum. “I’m just thinking about it!” I say in a shrill voice as their hunger and intensity starts pushing my body into a familiar heated reaction.
I clench my fingers to stop from reaching out because I want the contact, skin against skin, our bodies writhing against each other.
Shale lets out what sounds like a purr, and I have to squeeze my thighs together when I suddenly get very, very wet.
I inhale, trying to ground myself, but all it does is fill me with their scents. Shale’s green apple scent which is so deceptive. Keagan’s blood orange that seeps into me and mixes me up inside, and the spice of Beau’s ginger.
I realise I’m panting and clinging to Keagan, who has pulled me up against his body.
“Do you really want them?”
My treacherous mouth opens and spits the words before I can think.
“I do want them. I want to be yours forever.”
Keagan doesn’t close his eyes or look away as he lifts me up so my feet aren’t touching the ground anymore. He turns and walks us up onto a trail.
“Where are we going?” I’m not scared, but I’m nervous. Is this the right decision? What happens if it’s not?
“Right here,” Keagan murmurs and turns me around so I can see the sun sinking low. “Watch that beautiful view.”
“I don’t want to look at the view. I want to see you,” I admit.
Keagan lets out a fierce growl and turns me carefully around. “You say the most perfect things, Omega.”
I whimper, but it’s swallowed in his kiss as he invades all my senses, wrapping me securely in his arms.
“I love you, Aspyn.”
He kisses down my neck, and I tilt my head, giving him more room. I want this. I do. He sucks, and my toes curl as I grip his shirt and pull him even closer to me.
“Please!” I murmur. “Bond me, Alpha.”
“What the fuck are you doing?”
The enraged roar rips through the veil of seduction and pleasure, leaving me feeling strangely guilty.
Kelly stalks up and grips my wrist, but just as soon is pulled off me by a very pissed off Shale.
Beau throws a punch at Ezy, and that’s when the police arrive. I watch in shock and disbelief as Shale, Keagan, and Beau are handcuffed. There are too many cops, they had to have organised this beforehand.
I watch in horror at the smugness on Gael’s face, at the regret on Shale’s.
No! No! This can’t be happening!
“What are you doing?” I hiss at Kelly. “Let them go. Let me go.”
“Not a chance,” Kelly says. “This isn’t your island,” he says loud enough for Shale to hear.
Shale’s eyes find me, and there is so much regret and pain filling in them. “We’re so sorry, Aspyn.”
“What’s the charge?” I shriek. “What could they possibly have done?”
“Forced bonding!”
I blink, horrified. Kelly smiles smugly.
I can’t think properly. I can’t breathe. Someone grips my wrist and tugs at me but too fast, and I go down. When I hit the ground, that’s when the sobs start.
Keagan’s shouts and Beau’s curses mix with the sound of my fear and pain.
Forced bonding is a serious accusation. It carries a very long sentence if they are found guilty.
I was right.
Everyone I love suffers and goes away.
I choke on the tears and sobs that tear through me.
Ezy picks me up. I only know it’s him because of his red grapefruit scent. It’s as familiar to me as my Daane. He’s a traitor. I hate him.
“Please let them go. We’ll go away. We’ll leave you alone. Please, Ezekial, please don’t take them away from me?” My cries have everyone around going still.
The shame that comes from the cops is deeper than from the Raines Pack.
Ezy stiffens and shakes his head. “I can’t do that. Bad people need to be punished. This is for you. You’ll be free of their toxic influence now. Trust me, life is about to get so much better.”
The sobs come out harder and louder. I don’t even try to quiet them.
I hear the crack of flesh meeting flesh and look up through my tears. Nat has belted Gael across the face. She looks mutinous. Nat turns to Kelly and punches him.
“Didn’t see that!” The cop in charge says, and everyone averts their eyes.
Even they disapprove.
“How dare you call yourselves alphas? How dare you!”
“We’re doing the right thing,” Gael insists.
“You’re being selfish, and you know it. Nothing you have done has been for your omega. Nothing. You don’t deserve her.”
“This is in her best interests. She can return to her island and live a peaceful life.”
“Without any of her alphas? THAT’S YOUR PLAN?” Nat throws herself at him, screaming and hitting him.
I sob harder.
“Enough!” Kelly booms.
I turn my face away from him. My alphas have betrayed me. I don’t care that they forced the bonds. They did it for me. It’s not their fault, it’s mine. I’m the one who should be in jail.
“You are the biggest piece of shit that ever walked this miserable planet, Kelly Raines. You are a disgrace of an alpha. A fucking rotten, pitiful soul hiding inside a candy coating. You don’t deserve her.”
Nat stomps over to Ezy. “Put my friend down or I’m going to the press, and I’m going to tell them everything.”
Ezy hesitates before reluctantly setting me on the ground.
I willingly fall into Nat’s arms, sobbing inconsolably.
“Kelly, what did you do?”
I lift my face and see a smaller woman with dark hair and dark eyes staring at Kelly in horror. Beside her is a group of people with one particular older alpha who is a version of Kelly in twenty years.
Kelly stills, all of his attention focusing on the newcomers.
“My son. My oldest, most beautiful son. I have obeyed your wishes and not come all these years, but I needed to see for myself. I needed to know. And this is who you decided to become? This is why you left home? What. Did. You. Do. To. Your. Omega?”
I stand up, sucking in the sobs and turning my glare on Kelly.
“If you don’t give me back the Daane, I will make sure you never have a moment of peace, Pack Raines. I will never forgive you. I never will sleep until you are ruined. You destroyed me when I was a child. You took my dreams away. Then you came back, and you’re stealing my future all so you can dump me back quietly out of the way because I’M NOT WHAT YOU SIGNED UP FOR?” The scream comes out raw and with more pain than I thought I could ever let out. “I know I’m broken. You don’t have to have me. They were going to bond me. I was going to be theirs. Just give them back.”
I’m begging, pleading. I’ve never wanted anything more than I want this.
Please, oh, please.
Kelly stares at me with an expression I can’t determine. He shakes his head just the tiniest bit.
My hope crashes violently, shattering like a piece of glass.
That’s when the cameras start flashing.