42. Colby
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
COLBY
I thought Blakely had stepped on glass or something. When he couldn’t keep up with us from the back of the house, I gave Talya to Ronan and went back for him. Our pack slowed down after that, realizing we couldn’t move that quickly.
Blakely felt feverish, and his tight grip was weak. Maybe he’d been too close to where the flames were. I was thankful when we reached the ambulance and the EMTs immediately placed an oxygen mask on his face.
He closed his eyes, and all I could do was study the rise and fall of his chest. When he looked at me again, I could see that he felt much better.
Beside him, Kasen received some oxygen too.
Relieved that they were okay, I turned to look at the rest of my pack. They seemed to be faring better than our two injured—even Ainsley who’d been coughing on the ground.
When everyone converged around the back of the ambulance, I took a step back so I could take a deeper breath. With each carefully drawn breath, my eyes followed the dancing of the flames eating the house. One of the front columns came down, and I took another step back.
We’d just been inside there. We could have burned to death.
Leaning over, I placed my hands on my knees and tried to concentrate on the fact that we’d made it out. All of us. While Blakely was injured and Kasen was having some difficulty breathing, we were relatively unscathed.
We were very fortunate.
I took several deep breaths, feeling the heat from the house against my skin and the cool air of the night fighting against it. My shirt whipped by in a sudden gust, and something caught my attention.
Standing up, I looked around.
There were a lot of people here. None I recognized, which didn’t surprise me since I hadn’t spent much time in town or with those who worked on the farm. I didn’t know what had made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, but something was making my skin crawl.
Turning to look at my pack, I saw Lohtus talking to an officer and another guy. Ronan still had Talya. Blakely and Kasen were sitting in the back of the ambulance. Ainsley and Emerald were at the back too, sticking close.
Shaking my head, I turned back to the house.
Then something came over my face right before I was stabbed into my neck. I was dosed with something that ran through my body like needles.
“This way, alpha,” someone said.
My head spun, fucking up my equilibrium. I tried to get the fabric off my head, but my hands wouldn’t work. My arms wouldn’t move. I swayed. Even though I couldn’t see outside of the fabric, spots colored my vision.
I stumbled but didn’t fall. Hands gripped me, holding me upright and pulling me along. “Let’s go, alpha,” the same voice said.
My muscles weren’t responding. My tongue felt too heavy. A sick feeling started twisting in my gut.
This was familiar.
Chills raced over my body, then everything went black.
The world remained dark and absent for a long time. I floated in nothing. There was no heat, no cool breeze. No voices. Just the gentle rumble of an engine.
I opened my eyes, seeing nothing but darkness. A light shone above my head, and I shifted so I could look. I was in the back of a van that moved almost silently down the road. The quiet purr of an engine. The tires on the pavement. The headlights illuminating an otherwise desolate road. We weren’t moving very fast. The drivers probably didn’t want to call attention to themselves.
Keeping quiet, I felt around me, searching for Talya. I touched one end of the van, then the other. The backs of the seats. The doors in the back.
I was alone.
Taking a deep breath, I decided that was for the best. She was safe with our pack.
Closing my eyes for a minute, I concentrated on our bond. I searched inside me, reaching for all the places where Talya usually dwelled, but…
She wasn’t there.
My breath caught as I realized I couldn’t feel her at all. Panic rose in me. Had they taken Talya too? I searched for the bond, grasping blindly and wildly, but she was nowhere. I couldn’t feel her.
My omega was gone.
My desperation turned to fury as I got to my hands and knees and slammed my hands into the backs of their seats. “WHERE IS MY FUCKING OMEGA?”
The van swerved. The driver overcorrected, which sent me flying to the side. My shoulder slammed into the wall.
“WHERE IS SHE?” I demanded.
When I found my balance, I hit the seats again, over and over, screaming, until they were forced to pull over.
The door was locked, but I slammed my shoulder against it and barked, “Open this fucking door!”
I was only momentarily surprised when the door opened. Thankfully, I wasn’t leaning against it anymore, but I burst out a second later.
However, as I grabbed for the closest asshole, a needle slammed into my back. Once more, needles traveled through my veins, pricking and burning, scratching as the poison pulsed through my body.
“Let him go,” the beta behind me demanded.
I was surprised when my body obeyed the command. The beta smiled, while all I could do was look at my hands in shock. I hauled back and punched the smile off his fucking face. He sprawled across the ground at my feet, and I spun around to face the second.
“Don’t touch me!” he ordered.
My movements halted as the urge to listen to him surged through me. My heart raced, confusion clouding my brain.
Unfortunately for them, my anger burned hotter. I narrowed my eyes as I reached for him, my hands set to wrap around his neck. “Where is my omega?”
“We don’t want your omega,” the beta said, taking several steps backward. “Get back in the van.”
I paused again, confused about why my instincts were to do as he fucking said. What sorcery was this? I turned toward the van, but my fear for Talya broke through the urge to listen. I spun around to face him again.
“We need to get out of here,” the beta that I’d punched said. “If it’s not working, use the other one. He doesn’t need to be conscious.”
The beta in front of me held up a gun. It was obviously a dart gun, not something that shot bullets to kill me. Just a projectile to disable me or whatever.
Okay then. I grabbed the beta on the ground behind me, bending just as the one in front shot his gun. I felt it whizz over my head. Gripping the man on the ground by his hair, I hauled him up and used him as a shield.
“Put the gun down,” I barked.
The beta in front of me dropped it to the ground immediately. Just then, headlights appeared in the distance. Okay, cool.
“You’re not going back,” the beta that had the gun said derisively. “They’re not going to let you go a second time.”
A glimmer of Talya lit up my chest—her terror. Her pain. Her despair.
“You’re going to die,” I said as casually as I could manage. “I’ll spend the rest of my life hunting you. You’ve messed with the wrong alpha.”
I was talking out of my ass. My strengths, if I could call them that, were clerical at best. But with the anger in my words, the way I gripped the beta’s throat until he was struggling to breathe, I thought that I could definitely change my profession.
If it meant remaining alive and keeping our pack safe, keeping my omega safe, I could do it. I would.
The headlights caught up, and the tension in the air became palpable. I kept my hand around the man’s neck as the car pulled up behind the van. It was difficult to see the shapes in the headlights—not that I’d recognize them anyway. Why would I?
Unfortunately, I made the wrong decision in thinking that these newcomers were friendly. A blunt object hit me from behind, and the world went black again.
Voices drifted in and out. My body felt limp, and I couldn’t make my muscles work at all. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed while I drifted in and out of consciousness. A few times, I felt like I was still in a moving vehicle, but sometimes, my surroundings looked like a room.
Conversations came and went, none of which made much sense to me. Sometimes demands were placed on me, and the weird urge inside me to do as I was told fought with my dead muscles. My anger always cut through the command, though. Fuck these assholes if they thought I was going to listen to a bunch of useless betas.
A fight broke out. Something loud was happening. Shouts and growls and thuds shook the walls. The world swayed as I drifted. A steady thumping against my head made me think that I was feeling my heartbeat. It pulsed angrily but steadily.
The world shifted. Darkened and lightened and swayed.
“Easy, Colby,” a deep voice said from the darkness. “You’re alright.”
Was I?
“Talya’s alright too. Stay with me.”
Oh good. My omega was alright.
Oh. OH! There she was. I could feel her again, feel her terror and her hurt and her tears. She was barely holding it together against the hysteria that wanted her to shake and cry. I could even hear her cries in my head.
“It’s going to be okay. Don’t make any noise for a minute, all right?”
His voice was familiar. I trusted this voice. That was a comfort. Okay. It was going to be okay.
Minutes passed. Hours or days or maybe even lifetimes. Then my eyes snapped open as the sky began to lighten. I was staring up at it, my body moving with a steady step, step, step.
Blinking, I picked my head up. The world struggled to right itself. In the distance, I could see the remnants of our house. The fire was out, and it was now just a charred shell. The ambulance was still out front, along with the firetruck and police cars. Lots of other cars. My body tensed with so many strangers around.
It took me a minute longer to realize I wasn’t actually floating through the air. I was being carried.
My attention snapped, and I came face to face with Ronan. He was looking… a little rough. His face was streaked with blood and grime, but he still smiled when his dark eyes met mine. “Morning.”
Snorting, I laid my heavy head against his shoulder. “I’m not sure what to ask first.”
“Save your questions. It’s about to get very, very loud.”
“I appreciate your warning.”
He smirked.
Ainsley saw us first. He pointed, and the entire group turned. Talya screamed and fought to get out of Emerald’s hold, and the moment she succeeded, she came streaking toward us.
Ronan was definitely a one-of-a-kind alpha. Somehow, he bent and scooped her into his arms too, which I must say was quite impressive since he was holding me bridal style. Now she laid in my lap, sobbing as she clung to me, while Ronan carried on his steady pace as if he hadn’t just lifted another hundred pounds.
As soon as we got close, questions came from all directions, though our pack was silent. There was so much on their faces. Relief. Fear. Horror. I could only imagine what we looked like.
Ronan didn’t answer anything. He sat me on the stretcher with Talya in my arms. When the paramedics tried to remove her, a whole chorus of loud, angry growls joined mine.
“Don’t fucking touch her,” Ronan barked.
The paramedic stepped back as if he’d just touched the house fire. As soon as Ronan was satisfied that Talya wasn’t going to be moved while they tended to me, Ronan spun on the people mingled in with the police department. He shoved a vial at one of the men, slamming it into his chest.
“You shouldn’t have left,” another man said.
The police had taken several steps away, clearly putting distance between themselves and the government agents. I was guessing these half a dozen men were part of the protection program.
“That’s not your job.”
I could feel Ronan’s fury as if he were a volcano ready to burst. “If you’d have done your fucking job, then this wouldn’t have happened. But since you clearly can’t do your fucking job, I did.”
“Ronan—”
“Every last fucking one of you is still right fucking here. Right here. Not a single one of you went looking for Colby,” Ronan hissed. “I’m done with this bullshit. I will not lose anyone else I love because of your incompetence. Am I fucking clear? If you can’t keep us safe, I will. I don’t need your permission. This isn’t even a fucking courtesy. I’m telling you right now—this is my fucking pack, and I will make sure their safety is a priority. You’ve broken my trust, not once but twice in the last two fucking weeks. No more.”
Silence followed his words.
In the growing light of the new day, the blood drenching Ronan became more and more vivid. He hadn’t just gotten me out; he’d very clearly incapacitated those who were holding me.
The agents didn’t speak. The paramedics worked silently. Even Talya’s cries had turned silent as Ronan spoke.
A couple of the agents shifted, and Ronan planted himself between them and us. He crossed his arms over his chest. None of them must have seen the big, bloodied knife sticking out of his belt.
I closed my eyes and held Talya tightly.