Chapter 10
ten
Pierce
Pierce watches the omega unwaveringly. He hasn’t taken his eyes off of her since he pulled her from her car. She is small, young, fragile.
“She fell asleep.” Pierce doesn’t loosen his hold on her. He is acutely aware of how close she came to dying.
Of the absolute horror he felt watching it play out. Seeing her car skirt off the road, unable to help. The single instance he thought it wasn’t going to stop. That she was going to die before his very eyes.
It only took her a minute tops with the heat turned all the way up and then she began blinking slower and slower until her eyes didn’t open again. Her soft, even breathing, another indication.
“Or she’s faking it. She’s a fucking Rossi!” Wren whispers.
Pierce laughs internally. Wren would be courteous of someone asleep even if he didn’t trust them.
“She might not even know why she was sent here. She could be an innocent in this.” Pierce examines the omega’s bare arms. She doesn’t appear to be injured from the wreck.
However, he notes the scars that trace up her forearms, the one just below her left eye, another at the front of her neck.
He quickly clocked them when they settled into the truck, but he didn’t want to focus on them with her awake.
Now he takes his time examining each one.
The severity, the scarring. Most appear older, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more hidden from sight.
Pierce knows that this omega is a victim. And it leaves him with a pure molten rage that he can’t do anything with.
I would go to prison again for her.
He shuts the thought down, suturing his emotions and calming himself as best he can. Focusing instead on her warmth, on the way it affects him.
She’s mated.
“She’s mated,” Wren breathes out, echoing his thoughts but for an entirely different reason. “She’s mated to a Rossi.”
“Vinny is unmated. We know that much about him.” Pierce had done his due diligence learning all he could on the Rossis. On their motivation for coming after Charles. Pierce leans over as carefully as he can, confirming what he already knows. “I can’t scent her. Just…” He trails off.
“Scent-blockers. They’re common for omegas to use. Do you think Luther will come in the house now that it’s snowing?”
Luther.
Even gone, his scent wraps around them, almost as if it is coming from the omega on his lap.
Pierce’s attention goes out the vehicle. They’re approaching the house, and way behind it, there is the barn to the right of which is a smaller building that is all lit up.
Luther had put the secondary house there for Charles to live in. Giving him freedom while keeping him under their roof for as long as they could.
Except now with Charles gone, Luther had taken up residence there.
“I miss them both.” Wren puts the truck in park, eyeing the omega warily. “There’s something off about her. She doesn’t feel like a Rossi. Too pure.”
Pierce chuckles softly, his hand going through her hair. “Her aura is peaceful in an offbeat and chaotic sort of way. Will you get the empty room made up for her?”
“The one with—”
“Yes.”
Pierce expects an argument but instead Wren inclines his head, offering one last jaded look at the omega before exiting the truck. Softly closing the door behind him.
Pierce stares down at the woman. His fingers leaving her hair to find the mark on her neck.
It is old, aged, and scarred. Whoever put it on her hadn’t done it correctly, and he imagined it must have been painful for her.
Are there more marks hidden under her clothes? Is it just the one alpha who claimed her?
His fury simmers up and up as he thinks about all this young woman has gone through. Of the life she must have led. Of how the Rossis treat her.
The snow continues to pour down outside, but he pays it no mind—his entire focus on the omega. Entranced by her.
He doesn’t realize he’s purring until her eyes slowly open. “You’re not hurt, are you?” He needs her to confirm it, that she is okay.
“No, just tired.” A soft yawn escapes her full lips as she attempts to sit up and gain her bearings, but there isn’t space in the truck, and instead, her head hits the bottom of his chin.
“Come on, I’ll take you to a place to get warm and give you a change of clothes.” Pierce ignores his instincts screaming to cover her in his scent. Barking to take her to his room and wrap her in his blankets, burrow her in his bed.
She’s too young. She’s mated. She needs safety not another despicable alpha.
Stomping the intrusive thoughts down, he readjusts, tugging her to his chest as he wraps his arms around her.
“You will be safe with us, I promise. And if you don’t want to go back to the Rossis, you don’t have to.”
The omega shakes in his arms. The response isn’t what he expects, but then he realizes she is crying, and his heart breaks all over again for the woman.
Carefully, he gets out of the truck with her, attempting to protect her from the full blown snowstorm outside and rushes to the side door. He doesn’t acknowledge Wren as he marches past the man. He stomps until he finds the space.
He clocks that Wren has readied it for her.
The nest they had never had a need for.
Until now.
Walking the last few feet to the cushions, he attempts to lay the omega down, but she clings onto him.
“You need to change into something dry and get some sleep. You’re safe here, I promise.” He doesn’t care that, in this moment, she is mated. His instincts are urging him to protect her. To make sure she is warm and happy and safe.
“I’m dry and don’t want to change. Can you just stay with me, please?” The beg is a bit broken as she continues to quiver in his arms. “I’m so tired, but I can’t be alone.”
He doesn’t argue with her. Slipping off his shoes, and then hers, he carefully moves them into the nest. Even when he lays her next to him, loosening his hold on her, she doesn’t roll away.
If anything, she moves closer. Wrapping herself as best she can around him.
Her face burrows in his neck and he can tell she is covering herself in his scent.
That is not normal for a mated omega, and it puts his urges into hyperdrive.
He purrs, attempting to provide ease and support to her.
She shouldn’t have been here alone. She shouldn’t have been sent to do the Rossis’ dirty work. She is precious. She should be protected.
Pierce keeps his anger at bay if only for the woman currently shaking in his arms.
He isn’t sure how much time passes, but eventually she falls back asleep. Even still, she clutches onto him desperately.
He makes his mind up then and there. He will keep this omega safe.
Even if it is from his other pack mates.