Chapter 2
Serena
The hood of my car dented with a sickening thud, sending a flurry of dark hair and yellow fabric tumbling toward the road.
“Oh my God, was that a person?” Skye gasped, already undoing his seatbelt.
But I wasn’t going to let my pregnant omega out, not when the air was heavy with iron and something I couldn’t place.
“Stay in the car, Skye,” I said, voice low. “Please.”
He froze, one hand still on the buckle. “Serena—”
“Just for a minute, you're carrying our pack’s baby.”
I was already out the door, my boots hitting the pavement as I rushed to the front of the car.
Lying in the middle of the road was a crumpled doll. One arm twisted under her, her legs drawn to her chest, knees scraped raw, causing blood to drool to the pavement.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when she pushed herself up to look around. Round glasses with spiderwebbed lenses hung from one ear, and her dark eyes narrowed as she looked around.
I knelt in front of her, keeping my movements slow as I adjusted the frames to sit right on her nose. She blinked up at me twice.
Short, silky hair clung to her damp cheeks in wild strands, framing a face that looked too soft to belong on the side of a road, scraped and shaking.
This girl looked like she’d fallen directly out of a storybook.
Pale skin, all scraped up and flushed from effort. A yellow sundress torn at the hem and covered in mud. She smelled herbal, and like fear and something else.
I took a deep breath to try to place it and practically salivated at the scent of vanilla and brown sugar.
My jaw locked as I stared at her.
That scent and the pull that came with it were completely impossible to mistake.
This girl wasn’t only an omega.
She was mine.
A scent match.
And she was in heat.
I felt it in my bloodstream, like gravity had suddenly doubled. My muscles tensed with instinct, ready to strip her naked and tear her apart right in the middle of the road. But I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe again.
Because her eyes were still wide with panic, and her body coiled like she expected to be grabbed.
Her hands flew to her neck.
Her lips parted in a silent gasp as her head jerked side to side. She stopped only to press her hand flat to her chest before fisting the fabric of her white cardigan. Her lip quivered, and my heart ached because I couldn’t protect her from whatever this was.
Then, the car door opened behind me.
My eyes closed as I heaved out a breath, barely restraining the urge to tell Skye to get back in the fucking car. His soft steps hit the pavement, followed by the rustle and snap of branches.
“Are you looking for this?”
His voice came closer, soft as ever, and I opened my eyes just in time to see him kneel in front of her.
He held out the necklace gently, the silver chain glinting in the sun, the cracked pendant swinging between them. A scrap of white cloth clung to the crystal, salt and herbs spilled out onto the road.
The strange omega’s eyes locked onto it.
Her chest rose and fell a little slower as her fists loosened around her cardigan. One trembling hand lifted, fingers curling toward the chain–
“VIOLET!” A snarl, deep, male, and angry broke the air.
She flinched like she’d been struck, her breath catching in her throat. Her hand snapped back, and her whole body went rigid.
Her eyes darted past us, toward the trees behind the road.
“That you?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Violet, get your worthless ass back here! NOW!” The voice came again, this time it was closer, but not by much.
Skye’s eyes drifted toward the forest, and he said the most obvious thing in the world.
“So… We’re not going to let him get her, right?”
“Not a fucking chance,” I answered, already stepping in front of her.
Violet hadn’t moved from her spot on the ground, but she now vibrated with panic.
“Skye,” I said without turning. “Get the back door open. Now.”
Skye jogged around the car before fumbling with the door to the back seat. The second that it opened, I scooped her up, partially expecting a fight. Instead, she melted into me, and I was once again hit with the intoxicating scent of her heat.
My stomach flipped.
Not right now.
“You’re safe,” I promised. “We’re getting you in the car, and I’ll take you somewhere that no one can get to you, okay?”
Violet didn’t answer, and right now I wasn’t even sure she could, seeing as she didn’t scream when I hit her with my car.
But she didn’t have to, because the second I bent down to slip her into the back seat, she held me close and buried her face in the crook of my neck.
She breathed me in, and my hands fisted in her dress as she pressed her lips to my neck.
My knees turned to jelly, and I nearly dropped her, fully ready to stay like this forever, but, this sweet little omega was being hunted, and it was my job to keep her safe.
It’d only been a month or so since we all moved into Vinny’s home, a large Spanish-style construction nestled between trees. Our pack was growing, and he had the room. Still, that didn’t mean he was necessarily fond of me bringing Violet here.
“You brought a mated omega into my house?” He spoke through gritted teeth.
I crossed my arms and cocked my hip. “We don’t know if she’s mated.”
I’d checked her neck and wrists, and she had no marks. And now, I had Skye and our beta, Benji, helping her take a bath and checking for wounds.
“Why the fuck would someone be hunting her if she’s not their mate?”
I huffed out a breath. “I really don’t like the way you’re talking to me right now.”
“You don’t like how I’m talking to you because I’m right.” A strand of inky black hair fell into his face as he lowered himself onto my level, brown eyes boring into mine.
A throat cleared behind us, causing us to part. I cast a lazy glance over my shoulder to see Benji standing in the doorway.
“You’re supposed to be helping the omega,” Vinny growled.
“Her name is Violet,” I reminded him.
Benji looked between us as if we were quarreling parents on the cusp of divorce before raising his hands.
“She’s weird, didn’t want me near her. I gave her a once-over. I didn’t see any marks, but I also wasn’t going to be the root of her panic attack,” Benji drawled.
“She spoke?” I asked, feeling a pang of jealousy that I missed it.
Benji shook his head before raking a hand through his sun-kissed hair. “She just kept pushing me away and whimpering; she seemed okay with Skye, though.”
Probably because he was an omega, nonthreatening.
“What if the person chasing her cut out her tongue?” I gasped, scrambling to find another cause.
“They didn’t cut out her tongue,” Vinny groaned. “She’s just a basket case you picked up off the road. For all we know, she escaped a mental hospital.”
“Actually,” Benji said softly before stepping between us. “I think she came from the heat clinic.”
My stomach flipped. There was no way.
“You just said it didn’t fucking talk, how would you know that?” Vinny snarled.
“Skye was asking her a bunch of yes or no questions, and then he got his phone out so she could type.” Benji lifted a shoulder. “He asked what she was doing before she started running, and she typed clinic, and she’s obviously in heat.”
Vinny’s eyes narrowed before turning on me. His jaw worked like he wanted to bite my head off. “You brought an omega in heat, who’s being hunted, into my house.”
“Well, we can soothe her heat–you have a knot.” If I had a dick, it would have already been done.
But noooo, I had to be born with an innie and a lock.
“Yeah,” Vinny said flatly, “let me just fuck the Omega who’s pumped full of whatever First Heat gave her–there’s no way anything can go wrong.” He let out a long, exhausted breath. “I’m not knocking up someone else’s omega.”
My mouth parted with a half-baked argument, but before I could put it out into the open, Benji interjected.
“She’s not here for breeding right now,” Benji said slowly. “She’s terrified. She ran from a heat clinic. She’s seriously messed up, physically and emotionally, and we need to stabilize her before we even consider anything else.”
“And to do that, we need to soothe her heat.” I finished, feeling somewhat proud of my argument. “If she’s my scent match, she’s your scent match, that’s how packs like ours work. The last thing we need is to go into rut–plus, we’ll make her take a Plan B in the morning. It’ll be fine.”
Vinny stared at me unblinkingly. “Fine? Serena, listen to yourself.”
“I am listening,” I snapped, my fists clenching. “I’m listening to the sound of a terrified omega who ran barefoot through the woods to get away from some asshole who thought she was his property. Now she’s in our house because she trusted us.”
Benji stayed quiet; he knew better than to intervene.
“You think I want this?” I asked. “You think I wanted to scoop her off the road and go, ‘Hey, maybe we’ll all fall in love and live happily ever after’? No. But she’s here. And she’s ours now, Vinny. At least until we figure out something else.”
Vinny’s nostrils flared. He knew I had a bit of a soft spot for unclaimed or mistreated Omegas, but he also knew I wouldn’t grab one off the street just because I could.
“I’ll do it,” he muttered finally.
I blinked. “You’ll…?”
“If she lets me,” he clarified. “If she wants it. I’m not going to force a knot on her just because it makes our lives easier. If she needs me to help her through her heat, I’ll do it. But not unless she’s okay with it.”
A slow smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. Not because he’d said yes, but because he’d said it right. Well, that, and because I knew by the end of the night we’d have another omega.