48. Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Eight
Leah
T he heavy door slams back on its hinges and a wall of muscle and fury fills the opening. My Alphas, pour through in a rush of violence. Ronan leads them chest heaving. Jax and Gabriel flank him, fanning out into the room.
Ronan’s liquid gaze fixes on me, his sight alone carving a path to me through the chaos.
Jax and Gabriel fan out on either side as guards surge toward them.
Gabriel is a blade in motion, sweeping low to slam one guard against the wall, fist cracking bone, heel smashing knee, his scent flaring bright and furious.
Jax blocks with his elbow to the closest guard's jaw.
The guard drops and Jax uses his body weight to slam the unconscious body into the guard behind, both crashing into the wall.
All I hear, all that exists, is the gravity of Ronan’s focus. He stalks toward Wallace, whipping his gun from his holster and aiming it with both hands, not breaking stride as violence escalates around us.
"Stand back," he booms, the Alpha bark so deep and absolute it reverberates through my marrow.
I jolt on the gurney as my body bends to obey. The syringe falls from Wallace’s fingers as he fights Ronan’s compulsion, but Ronan is too strong.
"Both of you. On the ground. Now!" Ronan barks.
Hardwick sucks in a breath, eyes darting between Wallace and the muzzle of Ronan’s gun. Her composure shatters, face twisting. She grabs a syringe from the tray and lunges over me, her arm whipping toward my heart. "You’ll never have her!"
A gunshot cracks open the world. A perfect hole flowers in the center of Hardwick’s forehead. The syringe falls from her hand and clatters to the floor. Her knees buckle, weight slumping heavy over me for an endless second before she crumples.
"They killed her. Get them!" Wallace screeches.
Guards swarm Ronan, two barreling into him with blunt, animal force. He meets them with savage ferocity, driving the gun handle into one’s face, bone crunching, then seizing another by the throat and slamming him against the wall.
Wallace uses the chaos as cover, shadowing the edge of the room and slipping out of the door as a third guard charges with a baton. Ronan’s fist explodes through the arc, shattering ribs, sending the guard sprawling to the ground with a howl.
I’m paralyzed with horror. The restraints dig in as I struggle. I can’t move, can’t speak, can barely watch as Ronan comes away red, bodies shaking and crumpling around him.
Gabriel surges toward me. "Sweetheart! "
I cry out as he unlocks the restraints around my wrists and ankles. He scoops me against his heated chest and I cling to him, shaking, sobbing, clutching at his shirt, fingers locking in the material.
"I’ve got you, Sweetheart. I’m getting you out of here. You’re safe now. I promise."
Gabriel steps over Hardwick’s body as Jax fights two guards at once. One guard goes down with a sharp crack. The other tries for Jax’s throat, but Jax clamps down hard with a hand, twisting, a knee driving the breath from the guard’s chest.
His dark eyes fall on me, endless and urgent. "I’ll take lead."
Gabriel nods as Ronan throws the last guard to the ground with a roar, but Hugo has leveled his weapon at Ronan’s back. Hugo is a man with nothing to lose, a wild card who will do anything to ensure his own survival. He’ll keep firing until there’s nothing left to kill.
Gabriel’s gun sits on his upper chest. I wrap my fingers around the handle and slide it free, the weight warm and unfamiliar.
I raise it, arms shaking, and fire. The crack is deafening, reverberating through my skeleton.
My arm whips back, shoulder wrenching as the bullet finds the hollow of Hugo’s throat.
His hands fly to his neck, crimson welling between thick fingers as his gun falls from his hands. He staggers, gurgling, eyes bulging as he tries to choke back the blood and gulp air past the ruin of his windpipe. It’s no use. The wound is catastrophic, blood pouring over his shirt in dark sheets.
A ragged, wet rattling escapes his lips. He drops to his knees, clawing, gasping, staring at me. Pleading for something I will never give. I feel nothing as he falls forward hard, writhing in his own blood before going slack.
Gabriel tightens his arms around me, shielding my face, but the world keeps shaking and all I can do is hold on.
"Holy shit. You killed him, Sunshine.” Jax breathes, awe and grief warring in his voice.
"H…Hugo…that was…Hugo." My teeth chatter so violently I nearly bite my tongue.
"The bastard deserved worse," Gabriel says .
I clutch Gabriel like he’s the last real thing in the world. My body trembles, every muscle locked, unable to let go. My vision tunnels, black and cold and flickering.
More black-clad figures spill through the ruined doorway but Ronan’s snarl cuts through them. "Weapons down! The room is secured!" His rage is barely leashed, teeth bared, eyes burning, every inch of him a threat.
Dimly I recognize some of the faces. There are Mira’s and Emma’s Alphas, but it’s all too much, too fast. I can’t stop shaking, can’t stop the clatter of my teeth or the bitter taste of fear on my tongue.
"Get away from my Omega!" Ronan shouts. My Alphas close in, their bodies a barricade around me. Ronan strips off his shirt and pulls my arms through the sleeves, swaddling me in warmth that smells of forests and sweat and safety. Still I shake and the world grows floaty. I’m stuck on the blood splattered on the walls. All over the floor. So much blood.
"Leah, Sunshine, you’re in shock," Jax murmurs as he strokes my hair. "We need to get her out of here. Now."
They form a living wall around me and surge through the dark corridors away from the gore.
The night air hits cold, too bright, full of distant sirens.
I’m bundled into the backseat of a car, Gabriel holding me tight to his chest, Jax curled around my side, his arms a cage of warmth and certainty, but I can’t still the tremors running up and down my spine.
Ronan throws himself into the front seat, slamming the door as the engine roars to life.
We tear from the lot, tires screeching. The world is a blur of neon and streetlamps and screaming speed.
The city whips past in chaotic flashes. Buildings sliding by in streaks.
Sirens and horns in the distance. Every bump and swerve rattling through my bones.
Replays of the past hour storm my mind. My thoughts stall, jammed up on the image of Evelyn Hardwick, her body folding and the bullet-hole blooming dark and red in the center of her forehead. I can hardly believe that Hardwick is dead .
Ronan shot her.
Cleared the earth of her putrid presence .
We’re in our own little world in here. A capsule where time passes differently. Nothing seems real. Like a fairytale, but the happy ending is not quite happy, and my heart won’t stop racing in my chest.
Jax cups my face, lips brushing my temple, his breath warm on my skin as I shake. I grip his wrist and look up into his deep, dark eyes. Eyes that would never lie to me. "She’s gone, Sunshine. She will never hurt anyone again. You’re free of her. We all are."
Her death settles inside me, as though Jax saying the words were all I needed to hear, but then another truth rises. Huge, hulking, and so much more than I can carry. A life taken by me.
Hugo is dead. I killed him.
My teeth start chattering again as a new surge of trembling takes over. I can’t stop seeing his throat opening, blood pouring over his hands, my name rising in his final, gurgling plea.
I grip my waist, lost to my mind as the visions grow more solid and vibrant. "I killed him. I killed him. Oh Gods, I—"
"Omega!" My eyes snap open at Gabriel’s sharp tone. "You protected your mates. That was justice. Good Omega. You hear me? You’re a fucking. Good. Strong. Perfect. Omega."
His words sink to that intrinsic part of me that lives separately and together inside of me. We are two. We are one. But in this moment, we overlap because Alpha says we’re good. A good Omega.
Gabriel rests his forehead against mine, his eyes boring into me. "You protected your pack. You fought for all of us. You are so brave."
My Omega hisses, wanting to rip Hugo apart a thousand times over, not only for what he did to us, but for what he did to Mira, Emma, and to every Omega ever thrown into Haven’s Basement. For every single time he caused us pain and terror, and for every single moment he got off on it.
I grip Gabriel’s wrists so tight my nails bite his skin. “Wallace got away! He slipped out while everyone was fighting. He’s still out there, he’s—"
"Officers went after him. Ethan Wallace now has a target on his back the size of this city. You don’t need to carry that, Kitten. You hear me? You did enough. You did more than anyone could’ve asked," Ronan says.
I close my eyes and lean into Gabriel’s comforting embrace while Jax gently strokes my hair and Ronan murmurs softly beside me.
I try to steady my breath as the world shifts, with walls collapsing and cages opening, and the hope of reclaiming my own life finally within reach.
The threat that haunted every shadow and left its mark on my body is gone.
But I know there are other Omegas still out there, some whom I’ve met and some I never will, who are still searching for their own happy ending.
"There’s another Omega. Esperance. Espie, from Haven. I saw them wheeling her away after the gala. There are others, Ronan. I heard them. I heard girls crying, screaming. I know there were other Omegas taken. They can’t all be dead. Please, they can’t…it can’t just be me…"
Ronan’s gaze finds me in the rearview mirror. "Kitten, when we got to you, you were the only one in the building. There were no signs of other Omegas. We swept every room, every cell. We just found you."
"There are others." So many. Too many. Their screams in the night were my living nightmare. "You have to find her. Them. Please, don’t let them die down there. Wallace got away and he’s the one responsible for changing designations. Now he knows what’s in my blood, he’ll try to use another Omega in my place. "
Gabriel tightes his arms around me. He winds his fingers through my hair as he guides me to that sensitive place at his neck. I breathe him in like I’m running out of oxygen.
I hear numbers being dialed, then Asher’s voice on loudspeaker.
"Your team needs to do a full, deep sweep of the entire building. Leah says there might be Omegas there. Check every room, locked door, sub-level, every goddamn air duct for clues. If they’re not there, they’ve been taken, and we suspect Wallace is running whatever fucked-up science experiment this is," Ronan says.
"Will do," Asher says, then quieter. "Is Leah okay? "
I just about feel the groan of the steering wheel as Ronan tightens his grip. "We stopped Hardwick in time."
"Thank the Gods. I’ll let Emma and Mira know. They’re beside themselves with worry. Get your Omega somewhere safe and call me when it’s a good time."
I bury my face against Gabriel’s chest, sobs shaking free as grief, terror and relief claw out. Jax’s hand strokes steady circles down my spine, while Gabriel’s heart beats against my ear.
The city flies past in streaks and shadows but now there’s a thread of hope under my fear. Maybe they’ll find Espie. Maybe they’ll find the others. Maybe someone will come for them the way my Alphas came for me.
Unvarnished desire seeps through my marrow. I want their bodies around me, scenting the air thick with belonging. I want them pressed to my skin, to fill my lungs with their safety, to remember my body is mine and I am home and wanted.
I want them anchoring me to this bright and aching miracle of survival.
I close my eyes, suck their essences deep and let their presence coat every raw edge. "Nest. Please, I need my nest. I need you all."