Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
RYDER
I didn’t need the hysterics of the Omega Mothers to justify shoving the security guard out of the room before he could lock us safely inside.
She’s the reason.
Over the fucking symphony of screaming panic and desperation, all I can hear is the pitch of her terror as she got dragged away. Against her fucking will.
“Open the fucking door,” I command the security guard. Pointing at the door with one hand, nearly shoving his face against it with the other. I manage not too. My impatience and this hunger to help her is all consuming.
The guard eyes me carefully, sizing me up. He is bigger than me but hands down I have determination burning so fucking bright in my cells, I feel invincible. While he decides whether to leave me and run to safety like everyone else or punching my goddamn lights out, I work on dialling the rage down.
Once I’ve got a better grip on my mood and stop acting like a fucking psychopath, I turn to try again. “Please, I need to get in that room. A girl…”
“What girl?” Everything about our interaction shifts. He tempers his own emotions now that I’m a little more rational and able to explain what is going on.
“I don’t fucking know who she is, but…”
He shuffles his feet, making his stance more wall than a man. He’s fucking huge too, his determination to protect is etched on his face. “Explain yourself.”
“I don’t know her name. I’ve barely said two words to her, but I feel like I’ve known her my whole life. And yes, that is extreme and makes no sense but at the same it perfectly does. I think she’s my mate.” The words rush out with little thought but at the same time it’s the truth.
“You think? Jesus, buddy, if we’re smashing down doors, I need a little more…”
“I know she is then,” I insist. Inside everything rages—a need to get to her starts consuming, and I’m worried I’m going to lose it.
He says nothing while he stares deep into my eyes, searching for the truth maybe. What he sees has him hammering on the door.
“Open up, Security. Open the door!” His voice is loud and somehow makes it over the noise of the blaring siren.
Noise from inside travels back, and the Security Guard turns in question silently asking if I heard the same thing. I hold up my hand, stopping him from speaking asmy ears attune to a different sound—desperate pleading. Another small cry for help barely audible comes from inside the office. This time he hears it, and the both of us drop straight into a near feral rage.
“Clear back,” he barks, his leg kicking out before he finishes.
“Fuck!” I scream, worried she is behind the door, but it’s my panic making me doubt what I already know—she’s on the far side of the room.
Together we race through the broken door lock but that’s where our paths deviate.
“She attacked me,” the Alpha screams, pointing down at the trembling Omega on the floor.
I have never seen anything like it. I never want to again. My chest fractures when what I was witnessing registered. She’s on her hands and knees but right at this second, her forehead is pressed to the floor and one of her hands waving back to his direction in surrender.
And that’s the point where the world’s orbiting stops. My centre of gravity was already shifting, but now it rights itself to a new north. Her.
Awareness expands around me, my senses splitting to take in everything at once. I hear the Security Guard barking orders at the Alpha, his voice sharp and unrelenting. The silence that follows is thick with unspoken rage. Though I’m not watching, I can feel the tension in the air—shifts in movement, the guard repeatedly asserting control of the situation. A handful of seconds later, the aggressive press of the two Alphas’ aggression fades into nothing. I don’t need to look to know they’ve left. When the guard appears, he’s alone. Without a word, he rights the broken door as best he can and takes up position against it.
“You’re safe now,” I murmur quietly as I kneel in front of her. “It’s Ben Franklin, from school.”
The lie burns on my tongue while my fingers twitch, wanting to reach out in comfort. I’d like to confess to her the truth, but now is not about me, it’s about making sure she understands no harm will get past either the guard, or me.
She shakes her head slowly, almost like she’s not agreeing with me.
And it’s a relief that the guard read it the same way .
“He’s right,” he confirms. “I locked the bastard in the office next to us. I nearly shoved my fist down his throat when he tried to tell me you attacked him. But Ben and I heard him, and we saw what we saw. I’ll stand up in a court of whatever goddamn law I need to defend you too.”
“And I already know the best lawyer on earth, who will take your case.”
You can see the impact of our words. Each one hits like arrows to a target, but it still looks like they hurt. Instead of soothing, it pulls me down to her level. Her eyes are spellbinding, reminding me of a different time, a different place, but I can’t figure out where.
“Please, let me help you,” I say softly, dropping down lower.
Her head is angled slightly to my direction and as she takes a shaky exhale, like she’s gathering strength, I swallow lungful’s of her scent. Cookies and cream.
I’m literally sent spinning, caught in a vortex as the barrier that kept me from recognising her shatters. My mind had known all along, but I’d clung tightly to the idea that it was cookies, cream, and a hint of citrus. But it’s not—and never was.
“Sin,” I whisper. Thunderbolts of realisation and awe, striking deeper the longer I look at her.
And her breathing hitches in confirmation.
“Let me help you, Sin. We can work everything out, but right this second, I kind of need to hold you, if that’s okay.”
It guts me to see the hesitation in her, the pause before she lifts her head from the ground. But that’s his doing, not mine. She only moves an inch, but when her eyes open, the vortex returns—pulling me under as I see her.
Her avoidances, the way she never made eye contact, or even barely breathed in my direction, makes sense. I was thinking she was overly timid, but it wasn’t that .
She knew who I was.
She knows I’m not Ben Franklin because one look at her blazing blue-hazel eyes and I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. This sweet-smelling Omega is my runaway Cinderella, my online SinDaBella. Words tumble out of my mouth instinctively. “New Year’s Eve was so long ago, but by god you have been with me every second since.”
The blue of her eyes outsparkles the green, and they glitter in awareness, highlighting the flush of pink to her cheeks. Her response lasts barely a moment before both get swallowed up by a darker emotion that scents a lot like regret.
“I’m sorry.” No one but me would be able to hear her apology.
“What for? What are you apologising for?”
Her eyelashes flutter down before she takes an exaggerated breath and falls still.
“She fainted,” the guard says unnecessarily.
I appreciate he doesn’t take a step towards us, and I’m glad I get to keep her secrets to myself since there’s no way he’d be able to hear us talking over the sirens blaring and the commotion echoing down the hallway.
He drops into full protector mode. “Jesus, the threat’s coming this way. You need to get her into a corner or under the desk.”
He’s already dragging whatever he can reach to bolster the door. I leave her to help him. And I can only do it knowing she’s mostly okay, and we’re about to ensure nothing can get in, making her even safer. Together we shove a huge, heavy oak desk across the door before adding other pieces of furniture. He finishes securing the door by sitting up against it, effectively becoming our first line of defence.
Once he’s in position, he flicks his chin. “Be with your girl. ”
“I had an inkling, I wasn’t sure,” I admit, running a hand down my face.
“You’ll have to answer to me if you treat her wrong.” He flexes his huge meaty fists, glaring through me before he stops and shifts to become hyper vigilant.
If I hadn’t seen her moving her neck so easily, I wouldn’t lift her. But as I scoop her into my arms, a wave of guilt hits me. How could I not recognise her immediately. I know I was sick—but before I get caught up in self-recrimination, I push the thought aside. None of that matters now. I’ve found her.
And I’ll never let her go.
Settling against the farthest wall, I tuck us behind a cupboard that was too heavy to move. Softly, I begin singing to her—hoping my voice finds wherever she’s hiding and brings her peace.
My serenading only goes a few handful of seconds and she shifts, moving toward me more. Without hesitation, she curls against my chest, resting her head on my shoulder. Her warm breath fans across my face, reinforcing the truth with every inhale: she’s here, in my arms.
And she’s mine .
Her scent. Not the citrusy version I latched on to from New Year’s Eve. But her actual scent does things to me as it fills my lungs and curls its way in deeper. Forging a hold on me similar to what only two other people have managed before. I fucking cannot wait until I get the chance to introduce her to Hen and Dominic. After explaining, very sheepishly, that my memory of her scent was muddled initially.
As distracting as she is and my mind whirling with thoughts about what will happen next, there’s still a part of me uber aware of our surroundings. I know the guard is here, but I also know I would do anything to ensure she remains as peaceful as she is right this second.
I tuck her to me, tightening my grip when the person rampaging through the hallways barrels past our door. The handle rattles violently, but from the sounds of it, he’s pounding or kicking on nearly all the doors he comes across.
The minutes that follow stretch out like a scene from a horror movie—quiet, but with the sharp edge of danger still lingering in the air. The guard and I stay quiet, communicating nonverbally until the tone of the alarm changes.
“That’s all clear.”
I go to shuffle around, thinking of putting Sin down to help but I’m not sure that’s the wisest thing to do. With the alarm off and the panic subsiding, the vicious anger I feel towards the coward Alpha currently in the office next to us takes hold.
Intentionally keeping the hint of violence out of my voice, I look at the guard but he’s already a few steps ahead. “Get him away from her. He needs to be charged, but first I’d like someone to look at her. She doesn’t look beat up but based on the aggression in the room, I don’t trust that other Alpha. I want medical staff here along with the Omega Mothers I was with from Rejoice.”
I get a quick nod of acknowledgement. He knows where my thoughts are, but he also doesn’t give me shit for speaking them. “I’ve called down to my manager. He’s sending up reinforcements, so I’m going to stay with you. We’ve had training on similar situations, so even though she might not remember us actually meeting, a part of her will be less freaked out because I’m more familiar than another random Alpha.” He waits to see if I’m happy with his explanation given what I said about her being mine before.
“The Mothers from Rejoice are strangers as much as you and I are. But having them here is important.”
“And you’re going to lay claim in front of them all?”
“I’m going to come across as someone she can lean on. It will be up to her what happens with us after I’m confident she is safe and properly set up. Not before though.”
He shrugs, looking way too relaxed. His act has the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. “That’s true, it will work out or it won’t. Either way, you’ll remember my warning, right?”
And there it is. I knew it was coming. Honestly, it doesn’t piss me off that he’s threatening me. If anything, it settles something inside me—relief, even—knowing she’s surrounding herself with people who have no ties to her, all united by the same goal: making sure she’s okay.
“Between you and me, I’d also like the name of the Alpha in the other room. Once other people arrive, they might not be in the sharing mood, but I’m sure you understand why I want to know who he is. I’ll pay you in return, and I don’t want you putting your job at risk, but if anything was to happen and you found yourself without work, I’d have a spot for you on my team.”
“Doing what?”
“That’s a discussion for another day,” I say softly when she starts to stir.
And then she goes rigid before I can even begin to remind her she’s safe.