Chapter Twelve – Rourke
I didn’t know what to expect as I drove up to the Thompson’s cabin—though it’s more like a mansion tucked away in the mountains than an actual wooden cabin. Being on a mission like this normally would be thrilling, but not today.
Not this one, not with this omega.
I thought she’d recognize me, but she’s so shocked, so taken aback, I don’t think she does. To be frank, I’m just glad she’s all right. As I back away from the alpha that answered the door—Asher Thompson, her first and only contact—I have a good grip on her while keeping my focus on the alpha.
The one further in looks like an über, but Asher doesn’t have that privilege. His back was to me, but the moment Jessica came to me and I picked her up, he turned around to watch.
Backing up, I make it only five steps away from the Asher kid before I feel something sharp pressed against my neck, and I freeze.
She must’ve grabbed one of my knives and now holds it against my neck, expertly placed just below my ear.
If she were to push hard and deep enough, she’d hit my carotid artery and I’d bleed out fast.
I could use my dominance to tell her to stop; it’d be an easy way to end her feistiness here and now, but I’m also curious how far she’ll take it, so I don’t. Ultimately, just for fun, I decide to give her the reins of the situation.
I’m expertly trained. I can escape damn near any situation. Getting her home safely is my top priority, but at the same time… she’s obviously been safe here, which means there’s more to this story than I assumed.
What did I assume? A runaway omega and an alpha who agreed to help in a roundabout way. I didn’t expect a second alpha to be here, and I certainly didn’t expect both alphas to appear so bothered by me taking her.
She doesn’t belong to either of them. They have no claim to her. The only person who has a claim right now is her aunt, and that’s who hired out my company.
And yet… at the same time, taking her back means handing her over and never seeing her again.
She might not recognize me yet, but I feel that same pull I did at the Omega Garden, and for some strange reason, the idea of never seeing her again fills me with such dread that I don’t mind letting this assignment drag on for a while longer.
We might be on a time crunch here with her heat coming up, but we still have some time.
So, yeah, when I feel that knife pressing against the skin on my neck, I stop and don’t say a word even though I could easily diffuse the situation and force her to drop it. I wait to hear her demands, for surely she’ll find her voice and tell me off, just as she did the night we first met.
It takes her a few more moments before she says, “Set the gun down and slide it over to Asher.”
I have to resist my urge to smirk. I have more than one gun on my body, but I suppose the most important one is the one in my hand currently.
I bend down and set it on the tiled floor, then I kick it over to the alpha across from me, who, after a few seconds of fumbling, picks it up like he’s never held onto a gun before in his life.
The whole thing is hilarious. In no world would this ever work, but I really want to see where she takes it now.
“Put me down slowly,” she growls out, sounding quite tough for an omega. “And don’t make any sudden moves.”
I put her down, and when she’s safely on her own two feet, she keeps that knife firm against my neck as she begins to unload weapon after weapon on my body.
She pulls them from their holsters and their sheaths, dropping them on the ground without a care.
It’s a damn good thing the safety is on when it comes to the guns; dropping a fully loaded gun like that is asking for trouble.
As I stand there, letting her do her thing, the other alpha comes closer. I can see some resemblance to Asher Thompson, and I assume that means he’s his brother or some other familial relation.
One by one, Jessica only stops when she’s certain my body holds no more weapons. It’s actually kind of comical, the amount of assorted knives on the ground, with a few small guns mixed in. I am a walking, talking weapon of mass destruction, just as Alabaster Security trained me to be.
“Um,” she starts, glancing all around but still keeping that knife pressed against my neck. “Do you have any rope here?”
“Rope,” Asher says, aghast. “For what?”
“So we can tie him up or something.” She talks a bit awkwardly, and it’s clear she doesn’t normally do things like this. Still, even now, as strange as it might be, I don’t think she’s recognized me yet.
Can’t she smell me? She’s acting like she’s never seen me before in her life. I’m actually insulted, and more than a bit hurt somewhere I’d rather not say.
“No, we don’t have any rope,” Asher whispers, like it’s a secret or something.
The other one says, “Let’s just sit him on the couch while we figure something out.”
Jessica finally glances up at me as she says, “You heard them…” Whatever else she’s going to say must die in the back of her throat, because she doesn’t say another word. She tenses up all over, her eyes widening as her mouth falls ajar.
I smirk at her, and I voluntarily step over the small mountain of weapons on the floor as I head deeper into the house. I head straight for the large couch and sit down in the middle, and once I’m seated, I recline back and set my arms on the upper cushions with not a care in the world.
Jessica leads the way, the two alphas keeping close behind her as they approach me. Together they stand on the opposite side of the coffee table. Asher still holds my gun, but it’s obvious he’s not the kind of alpha who could ever realistically point it at someone and shoot.
And as for the omega? She clutches that knife like it’s suddenly a lifeline.
“You,” she says. “How the hell are you here?”
Asher gives her a strange look. “You know this guy?” Beside him, the other alpha frowns at me. Out of the two of them, the latter is the one with more brawn, though he still wouldn’t be a match for me if I were to actually, you know, try.
With a nod, she says, “Yeah. I mean, not really, but… I met him at the Omega Garden the last time I was there. He was looking for an omega.”
I offer up my hands from where they are, as if wordlessly asking, Is that a crime?
To me, she demands, “What are you doing here? How’d you find me?”
“Was I really that forgettable? Damn, you sure know how to wound an alpha’s ego,” I tell her with a half smirk.
“I said I work for Alabaster Security. We were contacted by a woman named Cecilia Dryers, your aunt, I believe. She said you were taken and that you’re nearing your first heat.
Not only did she contact local law enforcement, but she also privately contracted it out—smart move, by the way.
We can do a lot of things the police can’t, avoid a lot of the red tape that keeps them slow. ”
Jessica pales when I mention her aunt, and I take that to mean they’re not on great terms. I suppose it’s something I could have put together the first night we met; it was more than clear that night she wasn’t taking any of it seriously.
It’s why I didn’t write her an offer, even though it physically pained me not to.
I can’t help it, even now. I look at this omega and I only have one thought.
And that thought? It might only be one word, but it’s a dangerous one, a word that means so much more. A word that can change everything.
Mine.
“Now,” I say, “why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here, Jessica Dryers?”
“Jess,” she corrects me without thinking, attitude in her tone.
“Jess, then. My question still stands. What are you doing here with these two alphas before your heat? Is this some kind of runaway love match?” I don’t smell them on her, nor do I see any marks on her neck to indicate a claiming bond—which is good.
I might just lose my mind if I did see and detect such things.
I sure hope I don’t sound jealous or irritated at the thought of her being entangled with these two. Even though my mind might scream mine anytime I look at her, she doesn’t belong to me. Truly, she’s not mine to worry about.
The other alpha, the other über in the room, growls out the words, “It’s none of your fucking business why she’s here.” His light gaze is narrowed in my direction, his mouth perpetually caught in a frown, the very definition of a typical über.
Most of the time, us übers carry around with us an attitude that can fill an entire room on its own, you see. I like to think I’m better than your average über, if only because of my years of rigorous training.
“Actually, it is my business,” I correct him, not letting his tone get to me.
How could it? Out of the three other people in the room, I carry with me the most power, the most strength, and thereby the most dominance.
If I wanted to, I could force the other alphas to let me take her and that would be that.
But, again, where’d the fun be? I want to see how far Jess wants to take things here.
“Your aunt hired Alabaster Security, who put me on the case,” I explain once again.
“So it is one hundred percent my business. If this is a love gone wrong kind of thing, I won’t judge you, but it does make me wonder why you bothered going to the Omega Garden to begin with.
If you have a pack you want to match with—”
My words baited Jess into responding, “I’m not matching with them.”
The other über mutters, “And we’re not a pack. Asher’s my brother, that’s it.”
That’s right. I did discover Asher has a brother, but from my short amount of research on him, they didn’t seem to be too close. What was that brother’s name? Merrick? Meridian? Mason? Eh, doesn’t really matter.
“Let’s tie him up with something,” Jess says. “He looks too comfortable.”
“And here I thought we were getting along,” I deadpan, only to earn myself multiple death glares.
“You two keep watching him. I’ll go find something to tie him up with.”