Chapter 36
thirty-six
Kole
Red fills my vision as I watch the two cretins attack my omega. My fists…I struggle against my restraints, but nothing happens. It occurs to me in the back of my mind that I might be damaging myself—but I do not feel anything but rage.
It’s like I’m back at Thornfield, where they were torturing her to get me to talk. Only this time…nothing I say will stop the unfair treatment. The torture. I failed her, back at Thornfield.
I will not fail her again.
Minor satisfaction flits through my mind at the sight of my omega spitting a mouth full of blood at one of the guards—or Guard One as I’ve named him in my mind so I can exact appropriate punishment when I escape.
But then a roar leaves me, and I’m on my feet as the guard, with a mixture of blood and spit on his cheek, wipes it off and points his gun at my omega.
“I’m done fucking around!” he snarls. “Stay the fuck still, or you’re getting a bullet through the eyes!”
“You can’t shoot me,” she scoffs, and then I feel Bratishka at my back.
“Easy, big guy,” he mutters behind me. “Don’t move, okay? Just hold your wrists so the chain is taut.”
West sidles up next to me. “Don’t thrash—you’ll get burned. But stay angry, otherwise they might get suspicious.” When the lick of heat hits my wrists, I understand. They have a plan. “Sam is keeping them focused on him.”
Sam lets out another roar of fury, and even though it’s for our benefit, the anger is real. “Don’t fucking touch her!”
Hayden speaks quietly. “I’m heating up the chain that links your cuffs. When West gives the word, pull as hard as you can, okay? It’ll take a few minutes.”
Gritting my teeth, I nod.
“The fuck I can’t,” Guard One spits, pulling the hammer back with his thumb. “He can take your blood from your corpse just fine.”
Jo barks a laugh. “Yeah? You aren’t exactly the brightest bulb on the tree, are ya? Did ya know that blood starts to coagulate in the body mere minutes after death? You better hope he gets what he needs after the first blood draw, because I’ll be useless after that.”
My wrists tense as he looks at the scientist. “Is she right?”
The scientist has the nerve to look surprised. My Lisichka may not think she is book smart, but she is the most intelligent person I’ve ever met.
“She is,” the sniveling rat admits, looking between the two of them. “If you kill her…well, she’s not wrong about any of it.”
Guard One curses, sticking his gun back in his holster. “Well, then, maybe we just need to knock you out.”
“Bratishka…” I mutter, my fingers curling.
“Just one more minute…” He’s tense behind me, focusing on the flame so he isn’t distracted by Jo.
“Hey!” West calls, rattling the bars with his cuffed hands. The guards and the scientist look at him with surprise. “I know how to get her to behave.”
“West!” Jo chokes, looking betrayed. “They can’t! If they get anythin’ from my blood—”
“I can’t stand to see you hurt, Siren, please.” His voice is pleading.
Guard Two shrugs, coming over to our side as Guard One one turns back to Jo, taunting her.
“What?” Guard Two sneers, looking at us with disdain.
West moves so that he’s blocking the guards’ view of me. “Hurt one of us.”
“That’s the cue,” Hayden mutters, and as soon as the words leave his mouth, I’m pulling my wrists apart as hard as I can.
“Why would you offer yourself up like that?” Guard Two asks suspiciously.
“Like I said, I can’t stand to see her hurt. And we’re cuffed. It’s not like we can do any damage. Please. I’ll go willingly. I just…she’s my heart.”
“No, West!” Jo screeches, and I grit my teeth continuing to pull at the cuffs. The metal bites into my wrists, and pain lances up my forearms, but I keep at it, ignoring the pain until finally, one of the chain links snaps.
Hayden exhales a small laugh. “Fuck yes.”
Guard One chuckles, falling for the trap. “Let’s do it. Fucking idiot.”
“Alright, bud, but it’s your funeral.” Guard Two reaches for his keys, and right when he opens the door, Jo screeches, latching her mouth onto the arm of Guard One.
“Fuck!” Guard One roars, his fist rearing back and connecting with Jo’s head. My vision tinges red as an enraged roar rattles my chest.
She releases him, screaming in rage as blood coats her mouth. “You won’t fuckin’ touch him! He’s mine!”
Our cell door opens right when Guard One’s fist makes contact with her face.
I’m behind West in an instant, and when he steps to the side, the terror in Guard Two’s eyes as I snap his neck barely satisfies the bloodlust in me.
He falls to a heap on the floor, and then I’m stalking across the hall, barging into the opposite cell where Jo is being held.
Idiots left the doors wide open.
Guard One has his fist pulled back, completely unaware that I’ve escaped, until I grab him by his neck and hurl him against the wall. Trays and instruments clatter to the ground, but all I can focus on is the man who laid his hands on my Lisichka.
My omega.
My mate.
Red. All I see is red as I exact justice on this piece of shit.
With one bloody hand, I lift him by the neck of his shirt, and use my other fist to break his nose. The bastard tries to reach for the gun at his side, and I barely register Hayden grabbing it from him.
My fist meets his face again.
Broken jaw.
Again.
Shattered cheekbone.
Again.
Blood everywhere.
It’s not enough.
“Uhhh, do we need anything from him before you kill him?” Hayden’s voice snaps me out of my haze of bloodlust, and I stall my arm, reared back for another hit.
I glance at Jo, her eye already starting to swell where he hit her. She’s in West’s arms, holding his face in her hands. The keys from the dead guard are in Hayden’s hands, the handcuffs gone from my pack brother’s wrists.
“What do you wish of me, lyubov' moya? His fate is yours.”
With her hands still on the beta’s face, she gives me a shaky nod.
She turns her head, spitting out a mouthful of blood. “Send him to hell.” Her four words are confident but shaky. My alpha fills with primal satisfaction at the fact that she is allowing me to be the one to end his life when I know she is perfectly capable of doing it herself.
I will avenge my mate.
With a roar, I pummel into him, until there is more of his blood coating my fist than my own. His face is unrecognizable by the time I drop him to the ground. When I turn, my omega rushes to me, climbing up my body like a tree, I hold her to me, pressing a kiss to the hollow of her throat.
“Kole,” she cries, wrapping her arms around my neck and holding me close. “I—”
“I have never been in love before” I cut her off, putting my hand on her throat to have her look at me. She needs to know the truth of my heart. How there is no life without her. Her eyes are wide as she takes me in. “But…But I know with my entire being that I am in love with you, Jo Harding.”
Her lips claim mine, and she groans into my mouth when I open up to her kiss. Our tongues tangle, our passion fed by the adrenaline that comes with a kill.
We only part when Hayden clears his throat. “Uh, guys…”
I press one last kiss to her lips. “I love you too,” she whispers before turning her head towards my pack brother.
“What are we gonna do with this guy? Also…my dad is still upstairs.”
“Shit.” Sam hisses. “What are we going to do about the Senator?”
“Kill him,” Jo and I say at the same time.
“Awww,” she grins, booping me on the nose before shimmying down. “Jinx, you owe me a soda.” I let her go, albeit reluctantly, and she walks to Hayden, gently taking the gun from his grasp.
His shoulders relax slightly when she does, and I know he’s relieved to be free of the burden of possibly killing someone.
“We can’t just kill a State Senator,” West runs his hands over his face like he can’t believe he has to say this.
“This isn’t like killing Banesworth, where nobody will miss him, or the guys that attacked the safe house.
This is an actual political figure who, believe it or not, millions of people love. ”
Jo sighs, keeping the gun pointed at the scientist. “Tell us what you know, Sinclair, and maybe we’ll just knock you out instead of killin’ you.”
The scientist looks up in fear, his eyes wide. “P…p…please don’t kill me.”
“Weren’t you listenin’?” Jo rolls her eyes. “I’m gonna ask you some questions, and if you answer, I won’t kill ya.”
“W...What do you want to know?”
“Is there another way outta here besides the front door?” She taps her foot impatiently.
“The back door? But it’s also in the house.”
“Obviously. I mean is there another way out down here, dipshit,” she huffs. “Really, they expect us to believe these guys went to college when they can’t even answer a simple question?”
“Not…not down here, no.” The scientist shakes his head.
“Welp,” Jo sighs, pulling on a latex glove and grabbing a syringe from the ground that fell when I was beating Guard One into hamburger meat. “Looks like we might have to kill your daddy.” She jams the syringe into the scientist's neck, and straightens as he slumps, unconscious.
“What was in that?” Sam asks, tilting his head as he looks at the scientist.
“No idea.” Jo shrugs. “Let’s get the fuck outta here.”