43. Chapter 41
CHAPTER 41
Doran
B lood pumped through my veins, carrying the burning adrenaline as we stood with dozens of packs and an assortment of law enforcement ranging from local police to the FBI.
Yep. We’d gone as far as calling in the big guns. Once we’d provided proof from dozens of packs that they’d not once made a single complaint about their omega, that their omega had been taken from them without a single explanation, not only was a full investigation opened, it was expedited and a judge issued several warrants.
None of us were allowed to accompany the officials as they entered the building, as they searched every nook and cranny of the place, as they questioned the employees as well as the omegas being held against their will.
But that didn’t mean we wouldn’t all plant our asses right here until we each had our packmate back.
Every day, every night, every fucking second away from Wren felt as though someone was using my heart for a fucking punching bag.
She was in there. Nothing separated me from my girl but some concrete, drywall, and glass.
As rocky as our start had been – because I was a jealous prick – I couldn’t fathom a life without Wren in it, without my omega right there by my side.
Even the past few weeks felt like a fucking lifetime and the five of us had been at each other’s throats nonstop, biting each other’s heads off for the slightest infraction.
Might have had a lot to do with the fact we’d slept very little in that time. Hard to sleep with a piece of each of us missing. It was like trying to breathe with only one lung, like my heart was trying to continue beating when a large chunk of it had been ripped from my chest.
Officials in various uniforms entered and exited the building, some carrying boxes of laptops and other digital equipment, while others were escorting people to waiting police vehicles.
And not one of those officials updated those of us who were waiting on news about our omegas.
I couldn’t stop pacing. None of us could. Raece had stopped a few police officers, asking for any updates and inquiring as to how long before we could retake possession of our omega.
And fuck, I hated thinking of her in those terms, but that was how it was these days. In the eyes of the law, we had paid, we had gone through with the ceremony, the alphas had marked her.
She was ours.
Though we belonged to her even more. The tiny omega in that building owned every part of all five of us.
“How long is this going to take?” Dean bit out, shoving his hands through his hair as he spun on his heel to make another path along the front of the building.
Or at least as close as the authorities would let us get. I was mildly surprised they hadn’t set up a physical barrier with how many irate and possessive alphas were currently present.
There were so many scents floating on the air, so many elevated hormones from the alphas, so many raised growls. Yet another moment I was thankful I was born a beta – as much as I wanted my girl back, I wasn’t being ruled by my instincts or my hormones.
Nope. I was simply being ruled by my heart, by the bone deep love and obsession I had for Wren.
Winter was quietly seething, occasionally pulling me close to rub the underside of his jaw against me as though to comfort me – or himself – with his scent.
Matteo…
The giant was nearly vibrating. His scent was all fucking wrong, the spring rain signature smelling more like wet mud. Or mildewy.
His muscles were tense, his nostrils flared with the deep breaths he kept taking to keep himself level, and the thread connecting to him was more like a guitar string that had been strung too tightly then plucked.
All fucking wrong.
But the alphas were keeping the bonds open, letting Wren feel them, feel all of us.
We’re here, baby , I mentally broadcast. If I could get my hands on a blowhorn, I would start calling to her.
Fuck. At this point, I would serenade her with any and every song possible until she was in my arms.
Matteo’s attention was laser focused on the front door, a muscle in his jaw jumping as he continuously clenched and unclenched his jaw.
Dean was way better at calming Matteo and Raece. But my fellow beta was as unsteady as the others. And I sure as hell wasn’t sure I was much better.
I just…Fuck. I needed to see her face. To hear her voice. To pull her sweet bananas and cream signature deep into my lungs.
And then, an omega was escorted out by a police officer, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she was escorted to one of the many ambulances standing by.
She was young. Way too fucking young to be here. And my brain immediately went to the last group of omegas the alphas had freed with one of them being only twelve.
Was that what this fucking Center did, sell omegas under the radar? While we had paid an exorbitant amount of money to bring Wren into our pack, she had still been taken away.
Sure, we’d been offered another, but that wasn’t what we wanted. And by the way the packs who’d rallied with us to free their own omegas, they didn’t want anyone else, either.
I turned to Raece, opening my mouth to ask whether he thought some of the omegas we’d helped through the years might have first come through here, but frowned and turned to follow his line of sight when his brows slammed together and a deep, bone rattling growl rumbled from his chest.
He was glaring at a guard being led out in handcuffs, the fucker screaming threats and profanities at the police officers holding onto each arm.
He was one of the cocksuckers who’d kept us from getting to Wren after we’d heard her scream. In fact, I was pretty sure he was one of the assholes who’d slammed me against the wall when I’d tried to fight my way through the throng of uniformed men.
Charging forward, I was pulled to a stop when Winter wrapped a hand around my bicep and dragged me to his chest, his arms creating a vice around me.
“I want to kill him, too,” he muttered, his lips grazing the shell of my ear as his hormones rose around me. “But we need to stay calm and be ready for our girl when she comes out. If you get arrested…”
If I got arrested, I would be locked up with those motherfuckers instead of holding Wren in my arms.
Still fuming as I watched the guard get slammed to the ground and hogtied when he continued to struggle – and yeah, I watched with an immense level of satisfaction – I reeled in my own rage.
If she was focusing on our bond, I didn’t want her focusing on our anger. I wanted her to focus on the way we cherished her, the love we each felt for her, and the impatience we all felt as we waited to see her escorted out.
Would she require an ambulance? Had they hurt her in the time she’d been here? That beta nurse said there had been plans to sedate Wren and force feed her with a feeding tube. Did that mean she would be malnourished and weak?
At least another hour passed. More and more employees were either led out for questioning or dragged out in handcuffs. More and more omegas were either carried or escorted to waiting paramedics or reunited with their packs.
“Where the fuck is she?” Dean ground out, pushing his hands through his hair once again. At this point, the strands were sticking up in all directions like a crazy person.
A flash of fiery red appeared through the window and then it felt like the fucking clouds parted and heaven itself shown its light down on the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life.
Her eyes scanned the crowd until they landed on us.
No. On me . Her eyes found mine first.
She jerked away from the officer who’d been gently holding her arm and she did this shuffle run toward me like she didn’t quite have the strength to break into a full run but didn’t have the patience to walk.
I, on the other hand, pushed my legs faster than they had ever moved in their life.
We crashed together, her arms wrapping around my neck and her legs hooking around my back the moment I lifted her from the ground.
Then we were wrapped in the soothing scents of our pack as well as the strong arms of our alphas and Dean.
She was trembling and a sob broke through her lips as she buried her face in the crook of my neck.
Tears burned my eyes, and I didn’t bother keeping them back as they poured down my cheeks to soak into her hair.
She smelled different. Still sweet, but there was a bitterness from the fear and anxiety my amazingly strong girl must have felt during her time here along with some clinical smell. A scent blocker, maybe.
I wanted her home. I wanted to wash away the fucking blockers. Then I wanted to get in bed with her and hold her for at least a week straight.
“You came,” she said, her voice choked with emotion.
When she raised her face from my neck, Matteo’s big hand smoothed her hair away from her face. “How the hell did you think we wouldn’t?”
“Fuck, are you okay, sweetheart?” Dean asked, his hand smoothing over her head, her neck, her back, anywhere he could touch as though he was checking her for wounds.
“I just want to go home,” she said, tears steadily streaming down her cheeks.
A deep rumble vibrated against us as Winter wrapped his arms around us both and purred and I swore he was intentionally pushing his hormones into the air, the sound and scents of his frosty signature calming us both enough our tears slowed.
I couldn’t believe I was crying nearly as much as she was, but it was the release of emotion I was pretty sure we’d all been carrying for the past few weeks.
The time away from Wren had been a nightmare, nothing short of pure hell.
And I refused to let her out of my sight for the rest of our lives if I had any say in it.