Chapter 9
Devil Estate
Iclutch onto Lark as the SUV lurches on the mountain road. Lark grits his teeth and hugs me closer.
We’re lying in the dark side by side on the black leather seat underneath the softest blanket that I’ve ever felt. It’s deliciously warm and smells of eucalyptus, added with a second scent: heather.
I keep rubbing my cheek against the blanket, and Lark is doing the same, although he’s trying to hide it.
A couple of miles away from the Institute, Antonio dumped the van, helped us to stagger down back alleys away from the sight of CCTV, before jumping into this second vehicle, a silver Rolls-Royce Cullinan.
Antonio wasn’t making empty boasts about his pack being wealthy.
Well, unless he stole the car.
I bet he stole it.
Then he told us to keep hidden underneath the blanket, while he drove us out of the city and up into the Blue Ridge mountains.
Bored, Lark shifts on the seat. “Are we nearly there yet? Wherever there is?”
“Almost,” Antonio’s cheery voice calls back. “Are you thirsty? Do you need a juice box as well, little Omega? But I don’t want you asking us to pull over again because you can’t hold it, until we get home.”
I try not to laugh.
“If you weren’t driving, then I’d show you who was little,” Lark growls.
“Looking forward to it.”
I blush at the image that conjures.
So does Lark.
“You know, you could have chosen a less conspicuous car for our rescue,” Lark grumbles.
“Take that back.” Antonio lowers his voice, and I’m certain that he’s talking to the car. “The mean but adorable Omega didn’t mean it, baby.”
Lark rolls his eyes. “I did.”
“Look, my baby is flashy but like me, she both looks good and has hidden depths. She’s armored with bulletproof glass and can withstand grenades. All the best mob bosses have them. Also, I didn’t wake up this morning and know that I was rescuing you. Snatching you was one of those impulsive, opportunistic things like betting my Alpha brother that I could beat him at MMA, hacking into the FBI database, skinny dipping, or cock warming both my Alphas at once. You know what it’s like.”
“Both your Alphas?” I gasp.
Also, is he trying to make me wet?
“Did you beat your brother?” Lark asks, focusing with an insane level of willpower on the MMA and not the cock warming.
Antonio chuckles. “My brother wiped the floor with me, but in the mafia, you need to show that you have balls. Betas are normally bottom of the pack, you know? But after that, I was allowed to train properly. There was respect that a thirteen year old had done that.”
Thirteen…?
“Can we get back to the two Alphas?” I say.
“You’ll love them both,” Antonio says with sunny optimism. I don’t share it. “Don’t worry about it, mia amata. Plus, they’re going to love the hell out of you.”
“More importantly, where are you taking us?” Lark pushes the blanket off his head and mine.
Then we struggle to sit up, peering out of the passenger window.
“Hey,” Antonio protests, “the Omegas are revolting.”
“Rude,” I say.
I stare in amazement at the thick forest around me.
We’re driving along a narrow, winding road up into a private estate.
Antonio stopped at least half an hour ago to open a large security gate to let us in. I know because I was startled when the engine turned off, but Antonio explained that we’d reached his estate and were safe.
Relatively.
Then I heard the buzz of high tech security, as well as a metallic clanging.
How large is this place?
It’s later than I’m expecting, beginning to turn to dusk.
I can only see the crowding trees and how high up we’re winding, as well as tall towers that poke between the trees like sentinels. Security cameras gleam like eyes in their foreheads.
I shiver.
Why does Antonio’s pack need this level of security?
What kind of outlaws are they?
Suddenly, an owl swoops past the window, and I startle. Then I turn to Lark, and his eyes are wide and wet. He’s staring at the forest like he’s been granted a second life.
I get it.
He pretended that he was fine, when we were locked up, but he truly thought that he’d never be free again.
But are we now?
I entwine his fingers with mine, and we share a smile.
“So, did you steal this land too?” Lark teases.
Antonio doesn’t sound affronted. “Sadly not. This estate belongs to my Chief Alpha.”
Lark shrugs like this is nothing. But then, he comes from a billionaire pack, and I don’t.
I’m going to be a fish out of water here.
I stare out of the window. “Omega, you’re officially not in Kansas anymore.”
“I’ll have you chopping wood and swimming with me in the creek by the end of the week,” Antonio says, brightly.
“Don’t bet on it.” Lark shudders.
Okay, I was wrong.
Lark’s more of a fish out of water than I am.
Lark tucks the soft blanket more tightly around me. “Cub, you realize that this isolated mountain setting with high security makes you look like a villain kidnapper of innocent Omegas? It has serial killer vibes.”
“Or like your Alpha’s a hermit horror writer,” I helpfully suggest.
“Please let me tell him that.” Antonio tightens his hands on the wheel. “Now, hold on, this road is a bit…rocky and uneven…just this last tricky bit, then we’re there.”
I yelp as I’m thrown from side to side, only stopped from being knocked to the floor by Lark’s arm around me.
A bit rocky and uneven…?
I don’t think that this is even a track.
At long last the jolting and juddering ends, as the car pulls to a stop.
I let out a breath of relief.
For a moment, I forget to worry about the dangers of this unknown pack, until I glimpse Lark’s face and see how pale he is.
“Whatever happens, we stick together,” Lark whispers, urgently. “I’ll protect you. If there’s any punishment, then I’ll draw it onto myself.”
Before I can disagree, the passenger door swings open.
Antonio is smiling down at me and bouncing on his toes with excitement.
He’s grinning widely. “Home, sweet home!”
He steps to the side, and I poke my head further out of the blanket to look up at the largest log cabin that I’ve ever seen.
It’s a fucking log mansion.
It’s surrounded by high trees on two sides and a roaring creek on the other. It’s five levels high with staircases zig-zagging down its exterior sides in a dizzying feat of architecture. Balconies run along each level. A wide porch sprawls along the front.
Lanterns hang from its corners, casting a golden light, as if this is a magical home in the middle of a wood in a fairy tale.
By the way that Antonio is smiling at us warmly, I almost let myself believe that this is a fairy tale.
Until a giant, rather than Prince Charming, appears in the doorway with a furious growl.
Instantly, Lark drags me further into the car, half-closing the door again.
We both peer through the crack.
My pulse is roaring in my ears, and my adrenaline is spiking.
“What about Toni?” I whisper.
“Our Beta knows what he’s doing,” Lark says like he’s convincing himself. “And if he doesn’t, then us lying low will give him a couple more moments to explain himself to his Alpha and hopefully, calm him down.”
That makes more sense.
“Antonio,” a deep rumbling voice says with a Scottish lilt.
The Alpha rushes down the steps of the porch toward Antonio.
He’s the largest Alpha who I’ve ever seen, a giant of a man with muscles and smoldering good looks.
I didn’t even know that they made Alphas like him anymore.
He looks like an Alpha out of Outlander.
He has rugged features with pale skin and brilliant Nordic blue eyes. His brunette hair tumbles over his eyes.
He’s in his thirties and is dressed in a brown designer suit.
He’s staring at Antonio with a quiet intensity. He towers over him. Yet all he does when he reaches Antonio is grab him by the shoulders and turn him urgently from side to side, as if assessing for injuries.
Wait, exactly like that.
I know because Thomas did that to me the first few times he visited, after I was matched to Fletcher.
Lark looks as confused as me.
“You’re back early, lad.” The Chief Alpha presses his hand to Antonio’s cheek in a gesture that feels too intimate to witness. “We’re not meant to be having physical contact. You shouldn’t be visiting the estate, while you’re on the mission. Did you forget? Or did something happen?”
Antonio shifts uncomfortably. “Now, remember when we saw that Brok having his bond being broken in the clip, which went viral on social media? It was so dramatic in a hotel lobby. We had to do something to both help and stop the fucking Institute, where he was being held, right?”
The Chief Alpha takes a step toward the car, sniffing suspiciously.
Shit, he can smell us.
He wrinkles his nose.
Then he ducks down, before swinging the door wider.
He taps his foot.
Startled, Lark and I are caught still wrapped in our blanket with only our eyes peeking out, along with tufts of hair.
I meet the Chief Alpha’s eye, and he looks like he wants to scream and laugh at the same time, before he can compose his face.
He’s studying me closely.
His dominant look makes me swallow.
He smells of heather ale, floral and musky like summer on a warm Scottish mountainside.
It makes me blush that it’s the scent I smelled on the blanket, which I’m now wrapped in and have been so happily sniffing.
“Now, that’s a strange sight.” The Chief Alpha arches his brow regally, as Lark and I meet his eye. “Antonio, why are there two adorable Omegas huddled in the back of your car?”
“Because you wouldn’t approve, if I’d put them in the trunk?”
Lark snorts with laughter.
The Chief Alpha looks surprised, then he straightens. “I’m Kai. I’m guessing that you’re the two Broks. My question is why you’re here.”
What are we meant to say? Because your Beta stole us?
Saved us?
Because we’re fucking screwed?
“Huh, funny story.” Antonio drags at Kai’s sleeve to encourage him to turn around to face him. He could never force him to. Kai is all muscle inside that suit. “That asshole Fletcher decided to keep the auction a secret. They were about to be sold, and I couldn’t let that happen. Come on, you’ve seen them. You understand, right? You’re lucky that I didn’t bring them home on my first day in that hellhole. I almost did, when I saw how cutely feral they were.”
Kai’s heavy gaze sweeps back to Lark and me.
We try to look as sweet as possible.
I’m not sure that it works.
Kai crosses his arms. “You’re lucky that I’m running this mission and not your other Alpha. He’d put you over his knee for every rule that you’ve broken. You’re even luckier that he’s been out on his own mission for the last month and isn’t here to see this mess. You were meant to be undercover to observe only. That’s what we agreed. You had no back up. Anything could have gone wrong, lad. Don’t do something so impulsive again or…”
Cold floods me.
I know that tone.
Lark and I both growl at the same time, protectively
Kai twists to blink down at us in surprise.
“Aren’t they perfect?” Antonio says, dreamily.
“Aye,” Kai adjusts his onyx stag cuff links, “like the injured fox that you smuggled into the house at Christmas and tried to convince me was an American breed of dog that we didn’t have in Scotland. Would you have us adopt such fierce Omegas?”
“We’re not animals,” the words are flying from me, before I even know that I intend to say them.
I slam my hand over my mouth.
Fuck, what am I saying?
I should be averting my eyes and kneeling.
I have no idea what the household rules are in an outlaw pack, but no Alpha is going to take that type of backtalk, right?
My breathing speeds up. My chest is tight. I’m struggling to pull oxygen into my lungs.
I’m tottering on the precipice of panic attack.
Not now…
Kai’s gaze is serious. His eyes are breathtakingly beautiful.
To my shock, he doesn’t drag me out of the car and throw me to my knees, as Fletcher would have done.
Instead, he gently lowers himself to his knees.
Lark hisses out a shocked breath, frozen next to me.
When has an Alpha knelt for an Omega? It’s dynamically inappropriate. He could be sent to the Alpha Center for it.
Except, he doesn’t look less dominant like this.
If anything, he looks more dominant.
I realize that he’s deliberately making himself appear less threatening, rather than looming over us from his great height, having noticed my mounting panic.
He’s assured enough in his strength that supporting me like this doesn’t make him feel threatened.
He’s seen me. He’s noticed my body language.
Then he’s cared enough to reduce my fear.
He’s not like any Traditional Alpha that I know.
Lark edges his arm around my shoulders, and my breathing steadies.
“Aye, you’re Omegas,” Kia replies, “ones who my Beta has spoken to me about in encrypted messages from the moment that he met you. He’s fallen hard for you, in case you missed his courting. I see why now. Neither of you need to fear anything from me now that you’re in my territory. And you are. I can’t promise that you’re safe because none of us are. But I never dared dream that I’d have the honor of caring for even one Omega. So, I swear, the worst that I’ll do is offer you a hot bath, a warm meal, and a good night’s sleep because you look like you need it. Then tomorrow, we can talk.”