19. Kelly
Chapter nineteen
Kelly
K elly Aged 25
“So you want to leave?” Typhor sits back, crossing his fingers over his stomach. “You think it will be that easy?”
I shrug, not at all impressed with him. “It is that easy.”
“Well, yes, and no. For me, it is.” He starts laughing and sits forward, pouring himself a drink. After he does that, he reaches into his desk and pulls out a folder and flings it at me.
I hate him. He’s lazy and vile, and the last few months have only increased my ire.
I take it and flip it open, my stomach dropping wildly.
“Her name is Aspyn Montauk. The little freak’s sister and father died in a flood where she was also injured. Her mother, Kathryn, a fine fuck by the way, is her carer. She’s seventeen years old and not legal yet, and I know you want her.”
It’s the only thing he’s right about. I do want her. I want to protect her. From him.
“I’m warning you, Uncle, you don’t want to do this.”
“I’m warning you!” Typhor snarls and slaps his hand down on the desk. “I’ve paid them and hidden them. This is my insurance.”
I stare at him, unable to move a muscle. He’s got my omega.
“I want you gone, Kelly Raines. I want you to leave. Not one word to your dad, your mother. Not to Sol or Wayne, your cousins, your pain in the ass brother, or that bitch you call a sister. No one knows anything. You disappear or I will make sure she disappears forever.”
I stare at him, feeling my whole world turn sideways.
“You can’t do this.”
“I can, and it’s your choice. You lose everything, and your omega stays alive, safe in my benevolent care, or you stay here, continue to undermine my business, and I cut the bitch’s throat and dump her in a gutter where she belongs.”
My entire life is disintegrating.
“What is it going to be?” Typhor thunders.
There’s one choice. Of course, there’s only one choice.
“I’ll go.”
I rush through the crowd, pushing my way through and grabbing the woman by the upper arm.
“Kathryn?”
She blinks up at me, recognizing me instantly. Fear fills her eyes.
“Get away from me!”
I drag her away from people, looking around for anyone watching us.
“Listen, I don’t have time. I’ve only got thirty minutes left to get on a flight. You need to disappear.”
“I am.”
I shake my head and pull out one of the envelopes in my bag. I’ve only got two, but I’ll survive. I’ll find a way. She needs it more than I do. I press it into her hands.
“Close your eyes and pick somewhere else. Somewhere he can’t find her. I beg you. His reach is further than I imagined, and I can’t beat him. So you have to take her and hide. Anywhere, just don’t tell him where you are going.”
She stares up at me. “Is he going to kill her?”
I hesitate and dip my head. “Probably.”
“I don’t trust you.”
I take a breath, hating what’s about to come out of my mouth, hating what he’s forced me to do.
“I know you don’t. Which is why I’m saying don’t tell me either.”
“But…she’s your omega,” she says in confusion.
“I want her to be safe. She’s not safe around me. So you need to disappear out of our world. Both of you.”
Kathryn hums and looks around. “Anywhere?”
“There is a lot of money in that envelope. It should find you somewhere, anywhere, to hide.”
I step back.
She pauses. “Kelly?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
I stay and watch her get on a flight. But I don’t look at the name. I don’t dare let myself look at the name. As soon as they’re gone, I turn and buy a ticket to the first plane leaving.
P resent Day
I stare at my father. We have the same eyes, the same hair. We could be clones twenty years apart. He doesn’t understand, but I have never seen him this angry. Even the thunder thinks so as it cracks around us.
Charles Raines is relaxed and easygoing until he pulls back the curtain, and then you see the force of nature he really is.
“You don’t want us in your life. That’s fine. You want to hurt us? That’s fine, too. I can take it. But this…what you’ve done to that omega is shameful.”
“It’s got nothing to do with her. What about us?” I don’t even mean what I say. I have no idea why I say it. Habit, maybe?
My father hits me. It’s the first time he’s ever done so. I growl, but he growls back, and, with a shock that has me trembling, I realise I’m still not strong enough. He might never use his bark, but my father is still the head of this family, despite Typhor being in charge.
I resist the urge to cup my cheek and motion for Gael and Ezy not to move.
“You selfish brat. You know what our lives have been like. Kelly, I know you saw how Locke, Lia, and Ryn have been treated. How Raider has been treated. You hung her out to dry today, Kelly. You handed her to those reporters and your fans to attack.”
I blanch. “They wouldn’t hurt her-”
My mother passes her phone to me, and I stare at picture after picture of my omega writhing in agony on the ground while headlines like Broken Omega Scandal and Dud Omega Dupes Golden Surfer and Kelly Raines Wins The Day, But Does He Take The Prize flash across the screen.
I feel sick.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen. We’ll look after her until we can get her home-”
“No!” Wayne interrupts. “I’ve seen trauma, and that omega is messed up. Why did she leave the island?”
I flinch. “She…there were people.” I stop, unable to answer the question because, in all honesty, I had forgotten how the people treated her. I was so focused on the Daane being the issue that I just forgot about all the others.
I remember vividly watching the omega Gwen kick her cane and stand beside me smirking. Her filthy hand on my arm had made me want to yank it off.
“Oh, Kelly. I have never been more disappointed in you.” My mother turns away from me, and that hurts. It’s easy after all these years to pretend I don’t care what they have to say, but I love my parents, and I miss them. I do care what they think.
“The Daane forced bonds on us!” Ezy says.
“Did you or did you not refuse that omega when you first met her?” The booming question comes from the most unlikely of places.
I blink at Sol’s hostile question. “I did refuse her.”
“Did you at least go and make sure she was okay or protect her?” Wayne asks.
My parental pack is a united front of four. Wayne’s blue eyes glare sapphire accusations at me. Sol and his normal peace-filled aura are almost rigid with his rage. Charles and August Raines are united in their disappointment and fury. These people are my home. No, they were.
I shut my mouth because I don’t want to drag them into what happened with Typhor.
“So, you don’t want her now. You just want to put her back where she came from, but you’ve now taken away her support network?”
“She will be happier-”
“She will not, and you stop lying to yourself, Ezekiel Boothe. Your grandfather was a friend of mine, and he would be ashamed. As for you, Gael, I know your mother, too, and I’ve already spoken with her. You’ll be hearing from her soon.”
“My mother hasn’t cared about me since the day I was born. I doubt she will be contacting me anytime soon. Thank you, Alpha Raines,” Gael says with a bite of ice.
My mother shifts and sits on a chair. “Maybe you’ve spent too long out here. Too long being irresponsible. I know you’ve helped the family, but did you look at anyone else? Or did you three just run away from home, take up surfing, and just live the life of sporting kings?”
I stare at her because we kinda did do that.
“What would you have me do?” I sound like a little boy again, sullen and scolded.
“Release the Daane and give her back to them. And walk away from her.” My mother says bitterly. “You clearly don’t deserve an omega. You can’t even look after her for a day.”
The insult hurts more than my father’s hand.
I can hear the rain, and it completely feels like my mood at the moment.
Oh, god. No.
My father intercepts my lunge, catching me and holding me back.
“LET ME GO!”
He holds me tighter. “No, you will not-”
I pull on the bonds inside me. “LET ME GO!”
My father lets go immediately, stumbling back in shock.
I jump towards the room, forcing the door open, but the bed is empty, and the window is open. She didn’t even take her cane.
“What?” My mother cries, brushing back her dark hair and rushing past me into the room.
“She’s afraid of water,” I whisper through numb lips. How will we find her? “She’s terrified of water!”
“And you didn’t think to mention that?” my mother shouts. “That’s something you would have dealt with first! Charles, call security, get everyone awake.”
Sol grabs my shoulders, but I shake him off and turn to Ezy and Gael.
“We’ll find her,” Gael says.
I hate this. I hate it. It’s not fair. They took something from us, and they made us weak and a joke. They violated us. I’ve never been treated like that, and I hate it. I hate it more than I can breathe.
But…
“Ezy, we can’t do it. We won’t find her.”
“What?”
“You have to get them out. Whatever it takes. Lean on everything. Gael and I will search, but they are the ones who will be able to find her.”
I race out of the small house my family rented and follow the road to the beach.
The rain is falling thick and fast, and I’m soaked in minutes. More thunder cracks.
I point at a group of people. “You ask them. I’ll go this way.” I race over and ask the group of people standing in a café. “Have you seen the woman we’re with? She might be walking with a limp and looking scared?”
They shake their heads. An hour passes, and no one has seen her. I’ve asked everyone. I’ve knocked on every business and home. I’ve begged and pleaded until my fingers are shrivelled from the rain and my legs ache.
No one has seen anything.
I feel them before I see them. A massive show of alpha strength that slams into the air and charges it. Three behemoths of rage.
The world stops and slows. In the rain, they look deadly. Capable. Stronger than I could ever be. Bigger than I ever dreamed.
I hate feeling less. I’ve always been first, the strongest, the best, but I’m not even in their league. The Daane are something else. I don’t know anyone that is in their league.
Shale barely looks at me as they run past, straight into the jungle. I follow on their heels.
“Why would she come here?” I shout at them.
“Do you see the ocean here?” Beau asks bitterly.
“No.”
“There’s your answer, hotshot,” Beau spits at me.
Ezy and Gael spread out, and we search in the bushes and forest as we follow the Daane.
“What’s that scent?” Gael asks.
Shale grits his teeth and turns his head. “You don’t touch her. Not one finger. Do you understand me? If you want to live, you don’t touch her.”
He means it.
Heat. Oh, fuck. She’s going into heat?
In the jungle?
“Keagan, where is it?”
“Should be just up ahead.”
“What is it?” Gael asks.
“A cave,” Keagan hisses. “When my beautiful omega gets scared and her heats come on, she goes to caves, you dumb fuck. You always find the location of caves because she will go to them like a magnet.”
We ignore the insult. They have a right to be angry. I would be furious.
She’s going to a cave? I thought they were the problem, have I been wrong? Have I been blind? Is she that traumatised?
The cliff appears suddenly in front of us, stretching up into the sky, and there is a huge split right in the middle.
On the ground, I spot a handprint in the mud, and as much as I’m relieved, I can’t believe we fucked up like this.
“All right, how are we going in?” Beau asks.
I pay attention to the odd question.
Shale inhales, and I follow, catching the burnt scent of terror in the air.
“Arrogant and calm.”
“You got it, Alpha,” Keagan purrs and struts into the cave. “Princess, oh, my lovely princess, come out and play.”
The concern is gone, and now the Daane are confident, calm, and playful. The transformation is wild.
I follow Pack Daane into the cave. I can’t see anything, but I can feel the cold and smell the dampness. It’s creepy, and the temperature drop is alarming.
“Cher, we’re done playing hide and seek. Come and kiss me hello.”
I edge past them, and that’s when I notice the tiniest flash of colour in the dark.
I close my eyes, praying for forgiveness. “Come out, Omega. Your alphas are waiting.”
Shale puts his hand on the back of my neck and squeezes. I stay still, and when he passes close, I do something I have never, ever willingly done for another alpha.
I lower my head.
His grip loosens, and he lets go in a slow caress as he moves past me.
She explodes up, and when I think she will run, she doesn’t. She throws herself at Shale.
He catches her and draws her into him. Keagan and Beau surround them, touching everywhere, murmuring, whispering.
I stare at it, feeling raw and broken.
They aren’t the monsters I’ve been making them out to be. Worse still, I completely set her aside in my head so I could focus on my rivalry with them. They have never seen us as rivals. All they have ever done is care for her.
We don’t deserve her.
But I want what I’m seeing in front of me. I never knew I wanted it so bad.
She’s sobbing now, the harsh sounds drowning out their words. It’s ripping me to pieces.
What have we done?
Shale lifts his head and stares at us in the dark. I can feel it and just make out his outline.
“You have a chance to change it. You can fix this. It’s not over, Raines. Step up and be the alpha I know you can be. I told you, you just need to stop fighting, and you can find home.”
Mercy has come from a corner, I never expected to see it. I’m not fit to be the alpha of the pack. I’m not fit for anything.
I sense Gael’s horror and grief through the bonds. The shame and regret from Ezy. We are united in our mutual destruction. We cling on the edge of what was. Teeter. Let it all go.
“I love you,” the whispered sound. The tortured admission sends the three of us careening into a chasm that rips us apart.
My entire world rocks and shakes and finally falls and is rebuilt with one reason for existing. Shame drives me to my knees, Ezy and Gael following suit. The three of us finally accepting our place. Our reason.
We are Pack Daane, and that is our omega.