36. One
One
Brea
For the four days of Taryn’s heat, we did our best to forget about the threat beyond these walls.
Clear heads weren’t generally known for prevailing through heats and ruts, but Brooks made sure to stay alert when the rest of us sank below the tide.
Kept the phone charged, scanned the feeds, checked the alerts.
Ensured a steady supply of food and water no more than arm’s reach away.
All while still managing to spend plenty of his own quality time with our heat-addled omega.
And to send every one of us into a giggle fit when he described one particularly daring group setup as the sexiest game of extreme Twister known to man.
I kind of loved that beta.
A storm had moved in earlier in the afternoon, the sound of the rain growing from a handful of staccato raps on the roof to a constant deluge by nightfall.
By midnight, the unending rain was like white noise in the background as everyone caught a few minutes of stolen sleep.
The occasional long rumble of thunder broke up the monotony, but most of the time we were too far out of it to care.
Her heat would be over soon. One, maybe two more good knots and orgasms, and the fever should clear.
Her scent was her tell. It always was sweetest at the end of her heat.
After the last one, when I told her so, she’d theorized it was the hormones making one last, mighty push to intoxicate the alpha, ensure a pregnancy.
In my mind, it was simpler. Or, well, more complicated, depending on your mindset.
Maybe it wasn’t her smell that was sweeter.
Could just be that after so many frenzied days, as my own mind started to clear from the haze as well as hers, that I was so high on her beauty, her nearness, her bond, her love that it manifested in the heightened aroma she put off.
Hot, sticky toffee with rich cream, sweet and full and home.
The rest were asleep now, all of us twined together on the too-small-for-us-all bed. Me, the pack we’d both come to love, and Taryn, right in the center.
Center of the nest. Center of my world.
It was a wonder I didn’t slumber away with them.
Taryn’s heat was longer than normal, more than four full days with hardly any breaks in between.
Alphas in a rut were known for endurance, yeah, but even with three of us and a beta to boot, we were all exhausted.
The men had lost count of how many times they knotted her.
I’d lost count of how many times she came around my fist or all over my face, the last time barely an hour ago.
Fire flashed through my belly at the memory of how she’d felt, and smelled, and sounded.
Taryn hummed quietly, hand reaching toward me without opening her eyes. I almost chuckled—I woke up my mate via psychic horniness. How many could claim that?
Her hand grazed my stomach, trailing up until she cupped my breast. Only then did her eyes finally flutter open. A whine built in her throat as she shifted closer, nails scraping my skin. “Alpha…”
The heat may’ve been winding down, but it sure as hell wasn’t over yet.
“Shhh, baby,” I whispered. “I’m here, love.”
“Need you…”
“I’m here, baby, I’ve got you.”
I kissed her then, my hand raising to tangle in her chocolate brown hair, our bodies pressed flush against each other.
Taryn gasped as I dragged my nails down the length of her spine.
It was enough to rouse Brooks at the end of the bed, who turned over and gave us both a sleepy grin.
His hand started a slow glide up her calf as he rose to his knees.
Within minutes, I’d buried three fingers in her cunt while Brooks filled her ass. Caine kneaded her breasts, bringing his full lips from my mouth to hers and back every few heartbeats. Lin had settled in behind me, fingers dipping into my own drenched pussy to lubricate his cock for entry.
A single sharp ring jolted through me like a sword through the ribcage. I sat up straight, eyes locked on the low glow of Lin’s phone screen on the bedside table. The men did as well, none of us breathing. Taryn writhed between Brooks and me, whimpering, begging our stilled bodies to move again.
Then there was a distant thud. Another. Then a metallic crash.
The gate being rammed. Had to be.
I couldn’t even hear my own growl over the three men’s as they sprang from the mattress as one. They pulled on just their boxers before grabbing the few weapons we’d managed to get ahold of—some knives, a bat, a sledgehammer.
Caine rushed over to me, hands on my shoulders. “You remember the directions?”
I nodded, fear like lightning in my veins. “Yes.”
He swallowed, gripping my face and leaving a fierce kiss on my forehead before he whispered, “Until my last drop.”
I nod. “My last breath.”
He planted a quick kiss on my lips before pulling away.
With that, he left behind the others, slamming the door behind him.
Taryn mewled as I leapt off the bed, pushing the frame until it barricaded the door.
The standing bureau was next, and I grunted as I pulled it forward to crash against the scuffed wood floor; it filled the space between the end of the bed and the wall nearly completely, effectively using the wall itself as a lock against the door.
It wouldn’t stop them, but it would buy us time.
Roaring engines approached the front of the house. My skin crawled as I dragged my now-sobbing omega from her nest.
“I need you to listen, baby.”
There was no time to fear. There was barely time to breathe. I sprang toward the corner of the room, digging through the discarded pile of clothes and grabbing what we’d need.
My heart pounded, mimicking the noises now emanating from the formerly quiet downstairs. I pushed them from my mind, focusing on my omega.
Must keep my omega safe.
I dragged Lin’s too-large t-shirt over Taryn’s head.
The hem fell nearly to her knees. I pulled Caine’s shirt over my own head in a flash and grabbed the last remaining knife—brought from the men’s kitchen.
I caught Taryn’s hands as they scrabbled to relieve herself of the fabric that irritated her ultra-sensitive skin.
“Alpha…Alpha, please…”
“I need you to focus, Teacup,” I whispered to her. My hands framed her face, and I pushed every bit of courage and love down the bond toward her, begging her to fight her way past the haze I knew clouded her mind.
Tears flooded her eyes. “Hurts, Alpha.”
“I know.”
A rough booming from downstairs. I couldn’t help my flinch, and the momentary flash of fear sent my omega clinging to me. Her nails dug into my shoulders.
I swallowed down every emotion that wasn’t stoic determination.
“We have to go, Teacup,” I whispered again, pulling her to the small doorway Caine had showed me.
In the corner, half hidden by the thick drapes.
Pulled her through after me. Down the narrow staircase and out through the small backyard shed and past abandoned trash bins.
I eased the door open. The rain was so much louder down here, so thick it felt like looking through cataracts as I scanned our surroundings as best I could.
My heart raced as I eyed the thicket of woods.
Fifty, maybe seventy yards away. And nothing between the house and that shelter of trees.
There was nothing for it. I stole a deep breath and pulled my omega into the maelstrom.
Our bond vibrated with the agony of her unsatisfied heat, with the confusion and terror of an omega who was only half aware of what was happening around her. But my girl—the bravest, toughest of them all—grasped my hands and kept her feet as I tugged her along after me.
We were drenched in seconds, but the downpour was a godsend. It would help dampen our scents, keep them from following us. Shield any noise or movement someone could catch from the cabin.
Taryn slowed behind me. Sobbing, her tears invisible in the rain. “Can’t, Alpha. S-sorry, I—I can’t—”
I shushed her, planting a quick kiss at her temple before I lifted her onto my back and locked her arms around my shoulders. “Hold on tight, Teacup, okay?” She nodded against my shoulder. Her body was dead weight on top of me as I took off again.
Almost there…almost there…
Two strides short of the tree line, a sharp shot rang out behind us. Reverberated through my bones, my mind. Then another one.
None of us had brought a gun.
Somehow, my feet kept moving. Slid between the towering trees. Followed the route Caine had made me memorize. For hours, for miles, through dark and water and wind and branches. Through stumbles, through teeth chattering, through scratches and scrapes.
Found the gap in the rocks he’d described. Slid us inside.
I turned and faced the rain, shivering with my omega on my back. Stymied the fear. Ignored the ache of it. I couldn’t afford it now.
They’d promised their lives to my omega— our omega. And they would be mourned. But not until the omega we all loved was safe.
Until then, my fight face was on. War had begun.