Chapter 22 Rise
Rise
Aurora
My horrible father lies sprawled out on the carpet like a starfish, and, unfortunately, he’s awake.
I walk over to him and look down. His pupils are large. His face is paler than usual.
“Little Bear.”
“You passed out.”
“Overdose?”
I sigh.
“Not this time.”
I have perfected my casual tone. I step away from him to give him room.
“Hm. How much did I miss?”
I pop the cork on a bottle of sparkling wine.
“Not much. Locke is gone, like you wanted. I can’t believe he found his omega.
” I pour myself some in a coupe glass. My father has some gaudy glassware in this room.
This glass is tinted gold. It reminds me of Mads’s eyes and Locke’s favorite color.
I take another sip of the bitter, sparkling liquid.
“I’m going to bed. Do you need anything? ”
I am taking a tremendous gamble in pretending Locke didn’t bite me. He’s been taking a lot of drugs all night and suffered a head injury, so there is a strong possibility that I can pull this off.
“Just send in Sauvignon. She’ll take care of me. My head feels like someone…” He lifts up off the ground, and his hair sticks to the carpet. When he pulls it away, he turns to see the blood. “Goddamn.”
I look at it with him.
I suppress my elation that he didn’t remember making Locke bond me. If he did, he’d already be yelling.
“You hit your head on something,” I remark with a neutral tone. Neither knowing nor not knowing what happened.
“It appears so.” He climbs up onto his tall limbs. The back of his shirt is soaked in blood. His ear and cheek, and neck, too. Ribbons of dark red blood. It’s not currently bleeding.
He starts searching his pockets for more coke.
“I’ll go get someone for you.” I leave the bottle of wine I’d been holding by the neck and the coupe glass on a bar cart and turn to leave. I’m almost to the door when my dad calls out.
“Little Bear…” I turn around. “No goodnight kiss?”
I force a smile and walk back to him. I pull down his arm, and he bends down so I can kiss him on the cheek. Just as I’m about to let go, he grabs my hand and holds it tight against his arm.
“Why are you lying to me?”
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
I took a bad gamble. I pushed him too hard this time.
Lie! I tell myself.
“It’s late. Can we talk about this tomorrow?”
“That fucking beta attacked me. I remember his face. Then what? You sucked his cock, and they left you?”
Okay, what the fuck does he know? Is that it? That Mads hit him? Does he remember the bond? Fucking hell, I don’t want to play this game right now.
I choose silence.
“Why are you protecting him?”
I open my mouth ready to lie, but realize I need to tell some truths if I’m going to get out of this.
“I think he’s my scent match.”
Pure glee takes over my father. It’s a mocking look, and he shows off his shiny veneers.
“A scent match? You really are stupid, aren’t you?”
“It’s not impossible.”
“A beta? That’s like saying Maximus is your soulmate. You realize how fucking mental that is to say about a beta.”
He lets me go and dabs the wound on his head with his finger, pulling back to see that the blood is dried and flaky.
I stay near him. If I pull away, he’ll only chase after me.
“Why do you think I let him go?”
He raises his eyebrow at me.
In order to get him to believe me, I just have to say something he can relate to. “It was like smoke choking me out. I could barely breathe. Everything was about him while he was nearby…it was…”
“Foul,” he finishes.
“I was going to say insufferable, but that works, too.”
His shoulders relax, and he turns away from me. I did it. I convinced him.
“You’re a good girl, Little Bear. You are just like me.
I chose your mother because her scent didn’t make me nauseous.
But after we bonded…” he makes a gagging sound.
“You know, that beta knocked down Kyle. Maybe he really is your scent match with poor decision-making skills like that. He would be a problem if we kept him around. Kyle is the top bidder right now for your heat…”
“What?” My stomach seizes.
He shows off his veneers again with a sly smile. He drops down onto one of the leather chairs and spreads out his legs. A tiny pink baggie of coke emerges from his pocket and sits forward to open it up.
“Three spots are all open for bidding right up until you go into heat…”
“Dad, what if I want to choose who I have my heat with?”
My body is filled with fear and adrenaline. I don’t want to talk about my first heat. I don’t want to believe this is really happening.
“I already know that you’d choose those beta whores. Don’t worry, Little Bear. I’ll let you have them.” He winks at me.
I stand absolutely still, as if a predator is stalking me. And that’s how I feel—like a rabbit in an open field.
He knows about them and me.
I thought…I thought I was sneakier. I thought he hadn’t noticed. I thought…I had privacy.
“You’ll have your beta girls, and I’ll use that time to drive up the bids. It’ll be a great opening act.”
My father rips open the tiny pink baggie and licks the powdery residue on the inside of the plastic. “Honey, right? And Carmen, of course. Whoever you want. Just tell me, and I will make it happen.”
My hands are cold and tingly. My throat is dry. He’s really going to make my heat into a spectacle like he does everything else.
What the fuck am I going to do?
Last time I ran away, he killed my rabbit, threatened the betas, and locked me out of my nest. I haven’t had a nest in over a month. He found me so fast, too. Can I really not stop this? I’ve never felt more powerless in my life than in this moment.
“Where’s Locke?” he asks, as if it dawned on him to care. “Last I remember…” His eyes blow wide with realization. “Aurora. You’re lying to me. How long have you been playing me? How fucking stupid do you think I am!”
I rip the lever to the side on the pepper spray Mads handed me, and push down the plunger, having the wherewithal to face it at my father.
The room instantly fills with the heinous spray. He screams, and I gasp.
Then I run.
It’s not a choice, I just run. The omega in me wants to run to Mads and Locke, but I don’t want to lead him to them. The next best thing is my nest, but my father locked me out of it. So, I have no plan when I wrench the door open to the pitch black hallway.
I sense absolute danger.
A low rumble eats into the animal parts of my brain, telling me a more dangerous predator stands in the darkness.
I slowly back away to the corner of the room, keeping my breath tight. My father stands up and strains his eyes to see into the dark. He can feel it, too.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!?” he growls. He clacks his teeth, annoyed. Spots and snarls, blowing his nose and screeching like a dying animal.
A low rumble that speaks to the primal part of me ekes out of the darkened doorway, making my entire body tremble.
What the fuck is happening?
While facing the unseen danger, I move my finger against the chair rail until I feel the mechanism that opens the false door.
Slowly, the enormous head of a tiger makes its way into the lamplight of the room. His bright green eyes are fixed on my father. He doesn’t have a collar. There’s no handler. There’s nothing between the beast and the humans in the room.
“Maximus, you dumb, fucking beast. How did you get loose? Get! Get outta here!” He shouts, and then quieter, and to himself, he says, “Where the fuck is my gun…”
My father continues to raise his voice as he fumbles around his holster, then finally, he pulls out his revolver.
I close my eyes.
Until the gun goes off.
I jump. But Maximus lifted his body and slammed it down on my father, his large paws pressing him into the rug, and his nails pierce his chest. The bullet shot off through a covered window. Fear pumps through all of my veins.
Maximus tears into his master.
Just as my father screams for his life, I press the lever and the door opens. I step to the side, slide open the door, and slip inside. When I shut the door, all I can hear is my fast breaths.
I can’t breathe. My knees are weak, but just before I fall. Someone catches me.
Mads
Ro’s body goes limp in my arms. I pull her close to me and slowly bring us both to the ground.
Locke left about five minutes ago to get the tiger. Based on how fucking scared the little omega is, I’m guessing the plan worked.
I brush her hair away from her face and gather it behind her. She’s completely passed out.
I spend the next ten minutes holding her in my lap and listening to any stray sound from the other side of the wall. It’s pretty quiet. Eventually, Locke appears.
“Mads,” he whispers.
“What happened?”
“I left Maximus in the smoking lounge. I had to go back around. You have Ro?”
“I didn’t have to get her, she came to me.”
Our whispering rouses the girl. Her hand comes up to my bite mark on my arm, and she grips me right there.
“Did I pass out?”
“You sure did, sugar.”
She makes a little annoyed sound.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” Locke helps both of us up.
Ro is quiet as we head down the passageway, gliding our hands on the right wall. We eventually come to a door that leads to the street. It’s still dark out when we open it up, and it lets in the cool night air.
Locke and I exit, but Ro stays back.
“Come on, let’s go. Let’s get out of here.”
I turn to see her face.
No.
Fuck.
Her mouth is a hard line.
“We aren’t doing this again, Ro. Let’s go. We aren’t leaving you here.”
“I have to stay. I need to make sure my friends are ok. If I leave, he’ll hurt them. I have to get the tiger isolated.”
“Your father is probably dead, Ro,” Locke says plainly.
“Then I will need to stay to find out. I can’t just leave. And what, go to Cash City with you? To your pack that already has an omega! No. Don’t do that to me. You leave. You go.”
“Come with us. I promise it’ll be the best decision. I promise. You’ll be mine. I’ll protect you,” I beg.
She shakes her head.
“No.”
I huff like a fucking dragon.
“I’ll give you my number. Call me sometime.”
What the fuck. I pull out my phone, and it’s dead. Locke’s phone is still on, and he takes her number.
“I’ll be fine. I will figure my shit out. You have an omega.”
She doesn’t think we can take her because we have Cadi. I can’t help my anger.
“This is so fucked! Who says a pack can’t have two goddamned omegas! Who fucking says! Who made that up? All of this is made up! Every single fucking thing, so why can’t we just make up new rules?”
Ro reaches out and grabs my arm where her bite mark is and gives it a tight squeeze.
“I have to stay. I have to find my mom, Mads. My dad said he’s seen her. He’s keeping her somewhere. I have to find out. If he’s dead, all the easier.”
I can’t say anything about that.
She doesn’t let Locke touch her. She shuts the door, leaving us out here alone. Locke tries for the door, but it doesn’t open.
“Fuck!”