32. Mako
Chapter thirty-two
Mako
I have no one to blame but myself- Mathew ‘Mako’ Fate
My hand is still cramping from all the autographs I’ve just signed. Despite how well the show went, that kernel of anxiety refuses to leave me.
I just want to get back to her. Throngs of people get out of our path as I lead the way. I can feel the rest of the pack behind me, as anxious as I am. I don’t know if my feelings are fueling theirs or theirs feeding mine, but the last two hours have stretched on for an eternity.
I push open the door to our room and look around. My eyes skip over Tony, but even when I search the room a second time, she still fails to appear.
“Where is she?” Tyr growls.
Envy clutches his head and groans. “I told you this was a bad idea.”
Tony folds his arms over his chest.
“What the fuck were you four thinking?" I’ve never heard him use a tone like that to us before. It shocks me for a moment. “You knew what kind of trouble that omega was in! How could you do that to her?”
My gaze sharpens on him, reading a thousand inflections I know from years of experience.
“What did you do, Tony?” I ask flatly. I don’t know if I’ll be able to forgive him for this.
The deep, savage growl comes from the most unlikely of places; Digs .
“I made sure she got away safely,” Tony says and doesn’t even flinch when a glass hits the wall behind his head.
Digs is rigid, panting, his face turning red and splotchy. All I can see is rage, all I can feel from him is a panic so deep and so complete I don’t know if he will survive it.
“Why would you do that?”
Tony scoffs. “You screwed her. This is all on you. That song was a thousand times better than the one you put out tonight. Why would you do it?”
“What right do you have to question me?” Tyr roars. “You helped her leave. She’s not safe out there.”
“She’s not safe here now, thanks to you four idiots.” Tony stands up. “Well, what’s done is done. She’s gone, and you have a tour to finish.”
Tyr throws him up against the wall, an arm across his throat. “Fuck the fucking tour. Where is my omega?”
I still can’t move or speak. There is a roaring in my ears. I whirl and run, forgetting everything. I round a corner and cameras start flashing.
I hesitate as fans start screaming.
The area is blocked by so many people there’s no way I can get through. I can see the exit on the other side of the mob. I can’t see anything but Ryn slipping away from me.
Security grabs me, and I’m pulled away.
I scream and fight the hands that hold me, but within minutes, I’m dragged back out of sight.
As soon as I stop fighting, they let me go.
“Sorry, Mako,” Nial murmurs. He puts a hand on my shoulder and just sits with me.
I squeeze my eyes closed and hold out my hand. “Give me a phone, please. Someone give me a phone.”
A phone is handed to me by a woman with a headpiece on. I dial Ryn’s number.
It doesn’t even ring. The phone is switched off. I try again and then a third time. I curse, I swear.
It’s just like last time. She’s going to turn into a ghost and leave the shattered remains of us searching for her.
I run my fingers through my hair and pull. The panic is growing again, rising in a wave. She left. I won’t see her, won’t touch her. She will be gone. No, no. Please no.
I hear a giggle.
My emotions switch, narrowing to a razor sharp and deadly rage. I glance at the figure leaning against the wall, playing on her phone.
I’m going to kill her. I stand up, pulling free of Nial .
Tony intercepts me half a dozen steps into my charge. I shove at him, but he shoves back.
“Move!”
“No! You listen to me, Mathew. You listen good. That girl is running from more trouble than the four of you have ever seen. She has suffered and plotted her escape. If you search for her loudly, the only thing you’re going to do is set the wolves on her trail. So you shut the fuck up. You stay quiet. You do the tours, and you leave her alone. Because Raines is watching you, and if you lead him to her, you’ll lose her forever.”
I stare at his old eyes. Familiar eyes.
“Haven’t we already? Isn’t that what you said?” I spit at him, hating him for the first time in my life.
“I don’t know. You might have, but I can guarantee you if Raines gets her, you’ll have no hope,” Tony says in a harsh murmur. “Listen, I’ve been looking at your finances, and we need to check, but you might have enough to break the contract with him and cop the fine. Do you want me to find out? Break free from this label?”
“Give up Fate’s Choice so we can find her?”
Tony looks up at me silently. Nial squeezes my forearm, and I see Cadee watching from close by with tears running down her face. Our people. Not just the four of us, but all of us.
“Yes,” I admit. “I want that. I don’t want this if I can’t have it without her.”
I look away from him to Tara. The bitch looks up, and her deranged smile stretches wide. She’s won, she knows she has. But she doesn’t have Ryn.
She won the battle but not the war.
I turn away. “Yes, check. Let’s go talk to the others. We need a plan. And we need to explain because we had a good reason.”
Tony follows me back to the dressing room and closes the door.
He takes in our devastated faces and locks the door.
“I might have been a bit hasty. Tell me exactly what went wrong tonight.”
Getting on the bus Tyr hired to finish the tour and leaving was one of the most painful things I’ve ever done.
Knowing she was alone, not safe. With people who might hurt her.
It killed me to remain silent, to not speak up as we rolled out .
“Where is Ryn?” Tara asks. She’s sitting back in her chair, her hands pressed to her stomach, smiling smugly. Her eyes, those evil eyes, focused on Tyr.
“She had to go back to the office. She said she’d catch up with us at the next show.”
Tara snorts and lets out a smug little laugh.
I whip my head around and observe her carefully. It would be so easy to kill her right now. Digs grips my wrist, and I turn my head to look at him.
He shakes his head and mouths at me to calm down.
“Her daddy sure was happy to hear he had an omega.”
I freeze. Say fucking what?
“That sickening scent of sugar and cinnamon was driving me crazy. I’m glad not to smell it anymore.” Tara titters, but I see red. I see a bloody haze of war.
My whole body clenches. Oh, god, what has she done? I whip my head around and stare at Envy. His rigid shoulders, the horror in his eyes.
Tyr stands up and walks to the front of the bus and leans over the driver’s shoulder. He whispers something, and Immanuel nods his head. The bus pulls to the side of the road and stops.
“Why are we stopping?”
How can she not feel the tension on the bus? The rage?
I’m tense watching her now, like she’s prey. All my body is poised to attack this threat.
Envy spins in his seat so he’s sitting with his legs in the aisle and stares at her with a malevolent mask.
“Ryn’s scent is cinnamon and sugar?” he asks evenly.
“Yes-”
“No.” He lets out a brittle laugh. “You stupid bitch. No, you’re wrong, so wrong. My scent is cinnamon and sugar.”
And then Envy does whatever it is that he does and lets the omega to the surface, and the bus is drowned in sugar and cinnamon. Only his pack can taste the bitter notes.
The bus doors open.
No one on board is surprised, but then we’ve been keeping this secret for years. Our team is hand selected and every single person was hired because they lived in a little village called Carmine.
They’ve always known what Envy was.
Cadee stands up, glaring coldly at Tara, flanked by José. Nial cracks his fingers.
“You might want to give Daddy Raines a call and tell him you fucked up. Ryn isn’t an omega, she’s a beta. Just a boring, nondescript beta. And you promised. We had a deal. Which you just broke. ”
Envy sounds like an alpha, but then we’ve taught him everything he knows. His voice, his mannerisms, the way he smells normally. It’s all been an elaborate ploy to protect his designation.
But now he’s some kind of hybrid between the two. An omega who acts and thinks like an alpha. An alpha with the appeal and scent of an omega.
He is glorious. He is ours. As much as she is.
And he’s also hers. Completely.
Tara whimpers. I don’t know what she sees in Envy’s face, but whatever it is, it’s scaring the shit out of her.
A surge of pride rushes through me.
Our omega stands up and strolls to the front of the bus. Reaching out and squeezing Quint’s, our hair stylists’, shoulder and then clasping hands with Harris, our chef.
“Get that whore off my bus or I’m not going another step,” he says with casual menace.
“But the song, you can’t. Your contract. You can’t be an omega.” Tara stands up and goes to follow, but Nial snarls and steps in between them, defending the omega he’s sworn to protect.
I snort. “Get off the bus, Tara. My omega doesn’t want you here, and what my omega wants, my omega gets.”
Envy glances back down the bus at me and smiles. It’s so good to see him be himself. I stand up and jump over the seats, stalking towards him. He meets me halfway. Gliding towards me.
Fuck, it’s been too long.
“I missed you,” I say softly. He slides his hands up my chest and over my shoulder. I’m captivated, as I always am. Envy is the miracle we never thought we deserved.
Well, until we met Ryn.
I kiss him with all the hunger I’m forced to hide.
Tara whimpers. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“Not my problem,” Digs growls. “My omegas scent disgusts you? Good, fuck off. Tony, get us another songwriter.”
Tony lifts his head and smiles from where he’s been sitting at the front of the bus, quietly listening with a huge smile. “Already on it.”
Tyr steps into her space, forcing her back. “You want to blackmail our pack? That’s going to cost you. So you want to hurt Ryn Raines? Then I hope you’re ready to have us,” he gestures to the bus, “as your enemies. You find my omega’s scent disgusting? Make your own way to the next city. You’re not welcome on my bus.”
“It’s not your bus-its company-”
Tara is beginning to realise just how much trouble she’s in, and I am here for it .
“My bus. I paid for it, not the company,” Tyr growls. “You think I didn’t see the writing on the wall? Raines is trying to destroy Fate’s Choice, and he sent you and your shitty songs to do it. We’ve been quietly buying ourselves out of this crappy label for weeks now.”
“Raines is going to be furious. You’re hiding an omega!” Tara shouts, her face turning as red as a tomato. “I’ll tell him. I’ll tell him right now!” she shouts.
“Good! Do it!” Digs snaps and meets my eyes, daring me to argue. I shrug my shoulders.
Envy nods his head. I look at him, his eyes are still locked on mine. “I’m sick of hiding,” he whispers. “I want my life back.”
“Are you sure?” I ask, squeezing his shoulders.
He nods. “It's time.”
I smile and touch my lips to his. I hate that this long-awaited moment is tinged with sorrow. But if we can help her, we have to.
“What my omega wants, my omega gets,” I say to him gently. I lift my eyes, searching for Tyr. “So, this is our exit strategy?”
Tony stands up. “I mean, it’s as good a time as ever. I’ve worked it out, along with the bus, your homes, and the fine you’ll accrue. You should still have enough to survive for a year or so before you need to start looking for work.”
Tyr looks stunned. “We did it? But I thought-”
“Your figures were off, Tyr. You had more money than you thought. I had an accountant check just to be safe.”
Tyr exhales sharply. “Ring Raines now.” He drops the command on Tara, not giving her a choice.
Tara jolts, shaking, but Tony walks in between us with the phone in his hand.
“Is the band on the road, Tony? I’m busy?” Typhor growls.
“Alpha Raines, sir. We have something we need to confess,” Tony says with glee.
There is a sudden and violent silence. “What do you have to confess?” Typhor Raines growls in all his glory; fuck, I’ll be so glad to see the back of him.
“Tara Shillings, the songwriter you sent out, just informed us she told you Ryn is an omega.”
“Yes.”
“That information is incorrect.”
“How so?” Oh, the icy rage in his voice.
I take the phone. “We know Ryn isn’t an omega because the sugar and cinnamon scent is from a different omega.”
There’s another horrible silence.
“Of course, she couldn’t even do that much right. ”
It takes everything in me not to bite.
“Who?”
I bristle. I really hate this prick.
“Envy is our omega. We’ve been bonded since we were all sixteen.”
There’s a low growl.
“So you’re admitting to being in breach of your contract?”
“We are.”
“This is potentially a career-ending move.”
“We are aware.”
“Excluding the fact you’ve all been fucking my daughter, this is how you want to go out?”
I tense and exchange a look with Tyr.
“I don’t-”
“Don’t deny it. I have the photos. Ryn will be returning home, regardless. She will not be serving herself up for a pack like you.”
“And what does that mean?” Tyr growls, matching his menace for menace.
“Ambitionless, wasteful musicians. My daughter serves a higher purpose. She will help secure the Raines line, as is her duty.”
I shake my head, glancing at Tyr, whose face is turning a dark shade or red. His lips thin, and his hand shakes.
“He doesn’t know she’s gone yet!” I mouth silently.
“Ryn is ours,” Tyr snaps back.
I close my eyes, wishing Tyr would swallow his tongue.
“Your contract with Alpha Records will be terminated from today. I’ll cancel the rest of the tour. My lawyer will contact yours to discuss penalties and ownership of the music. I’m going to ruin you.”
I glance at Tony, knowing the music is safe. Only a handful of songs don’t belong to us and none of those are our hits.
“But let me make this clear. If you even attempt to go near my daughter, I will destroy you.”
I smile widely. “Good luck, Raines.”
He snarls, and the line goes dead.
I turn to Tyr, Envy’s hand in mine. “We’re free.”
Tara whimpers, and I see her reading her phone. “I have to go back. He’s going to kill me.”
“Possibly. You just cost him a lot of money.” I shrug. “It’s a long walk. Good luck.”
She starts to cry .
Tony sighs and points at a car that’s pulled up. “That car will take you where you need to go.”
“I thought you were going to leave me here?”
“Despite the horrible things you’ve done to us, we’re not like you. We will never be like you. I’m not going to become bitter and hateful. Nor will I sell out my family. I won’t hurt people just to step further in life,” I snap.
Tara blinks. “Then you’re a fool.”
She turns and, gripping her big carry bag, stomps off the bus and gets into the car.
“And there she goes. I feel like we should mark the event.”
“We can.”
I turn to the others. “Let's find Ryn before he does.”
Tyr steps towards us, his eyebrows raising. “Can we do it?”
“We know her. If anyone in the world can find Auryn Raines, it’s us,” I say with a grin.
Envy smiles. “She’s ours.” Envy pauses and looks up with huge, guilt-filled eyes. “I need to confess something.”
I pause, confused. “What?”
“We almost had sex.”
I stare at him, trying to make sense of what he’s talking about. “What?”
“Ryn and I, a year ago. That’s what made her ghost us.”
I draw in a deep breath. In truth, I’d suspected something like this for a while.
“We walked Lia and Locke to the taxi, and we just started kissing, and things went too far, and I managed to stop before I could-” Envy cuts off.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Tyr growls.
“Because it was my fault you were all holding back in the first place. To know that it was my weakness that almost undid all of that, I didn’t know what to say!”
Tyr pulls Envy into a hug. “You stopped. Nothing would have changed with us knowing.”
I think about it and think, yes, it would have. We wouldn’t have agreed to go and get her. We might never have seen her again. Fate really is an interesting mistress.
“It worked out. We will find her again. She is our fate,” I say confidently.
Tony sighs. “You’re going to leave me to clean up a colossal mess, aren’t you?”
“Well, yes, but as soon as it does, we can all go home, have a big, long break.”
Tony nods quietly. “I can train up a replacement.”
I snort a laugh. “Sure, you can do that.”
“So, we’re going?” Digs asks.
I nod. “Yeah, we are.”
“Where do we start? ”
Envy laughs, it’s sudden and startling. His eyes glitter when he looks at me. “Three hundred islands.”