8
Scarlett
I t’s a twenty minute walk to Raven, which will give me enough time to really think about my plan and change my mind accordingly.
I don’t even know if it’ll be open since it’s only three in the afternoon on a Monday.
I’m kind of running off of instinct at this point.
My omega brain knows that the club is where I’ll find my mates. Everything else is irrelevant.
Kate had offered to give me a ride just before I left, but I’d needed the fresh air. I haven’t been out of the apartment in nine days. It’ll do me some good to stretch my legs.
I’m exactly five minutes into my walk when I run into trouble of the alpha variety that I’m definitely not interested in.
“I knew I should’ve taken a damn suppressant before I left.
” I mutter to myself just as I come up on a crosswalk with two hefty looking alphas waiting for the signal to turn white.
A breeze at my back ruffles my hair, predictably carrying my scent on the breeze right towards them.
Their backs are to me, but the moment they catch my scent and turn, like I’m a beacon calling out, I instantly know I should’ve stayed the hell home. The taller of the two locks gazes with me and takes a step forward.
I freeze on the spot, tempted to turn and bolt back in the other direction, but that’ll only make things worse. An omega running from an alpha is a recipe for disaster. It’ll no doubt activate their natural instincts to give chase.
I’d rather slit my own throat than allow another alpha to put their hands on me again without my permission.
“Omega.” They both rumble in unison, and my eyes dart around, looking for a way out. Across the street, heading in the direction I’d just come, a couple is walking their dog. If I scream, maybe they’ll take pity on me and at least call the cops to report my untimely kidnapping.
Because I have no doubt that’s what these alphas plan to do.
I can see it in the way they’re watching me, their nostrils flaring with each gust of wind that carries my scent to them. I can’t smell them yet, and maybe that’s a good thing. I don’t want to know what they smell like. It’ll only make my panic worse.
Finally, I take a single step back, and that’s when all hell breaks loose.
The taller alpha dives for me and I stumble back, the other not far behind.
I start to scream, but the fucker’s fast. His shoulder slams into my sternum with enough force to knock the air from my lungs as we go sailing backwards.
Stars burst across my vision when my head cracks against the sidewalk.
Fuck, don’t pass out. Don’t fucking pass out.
I gasp for breath as the alpha presses his disgusting body against mine, where he has me pinned against the concrete.
I gag when he grinds his erection against my clenched thighs, while his friend hovers over us.
I catch sight of his manic grin through my semi-blurry vision. My head throbs in time with my rapid pulse, threatening to pull me under from my new head injury, but there’s no goddamn way I’ll let that happen.
Years of torment, self preservation, and more than a few self defense classes kick in, and I jump into action. I bring my knee up into the alpha’s groin hard, making him gasp out a choked cry of pain, before he predictably rolls off of me to cup his broken balls.
I fight through my swimming vision and pounding head to roll away from him, only to come into contact with the other one’s legs. “You fucking bitch! Show your alpha some goddamn respect!”
I let out a choked cry when his hand fists in my hair, yanking me up until I’m pressed against his body. My limbs flail wildly in every possible direction before his free hand circles my throat, the tightening of his fingers cutting off any other sound I might’ve made.
My hands automatically go for his eyes, just like I’d trained. My thumbs find purchase in his eye sockets, and I enjoy the sound of his screams of agony when I dig them in hard enough that some blood spritzes me in the face, before he tosses me away from him reflexively.
I hit the ground for the second time, this time landing on my side.
My shoulder cracks against the pavement, and I cry out in agony.
I’m definitely going to be feeling that for a few days.
Vaguely, through the pain, I hear the sound of tires screeching, just before the alpha that had his balls lodged up into his body looms over me again.
I bare my teeth at him as he wraps both hands around my throat, bringing his body back down on me, but making it so I can’t use my legs or my hands. I buck and thrash beneath him, but he grins down at me like he’s already won.
My vision wavers while I struggle to get oxygen in my lungs. His fingers flex around my throat, taking obvious glee in making me suffer. I don’t give up, even when my heart skips a few beats and my lungs constrict from lack of air.
And just when I think I’m about to die, a fiery angel of fury saves me from the brink of oblivion.
A terrifying, unnatural roar pierces the air, followed by a scream of terror, then the alpha is being ripped off of me.
Sweet oxygen floods my lungs the moment his hands disappear, and I suck in air greedily, coughing and spluttering as I slowly get my bearings back enough to take stock of the situation unfolding around me.
It takes another minute before my vision clears enough to see the mayhem happening around me.
The alpha from Raven with the fiery red hair and honed to kill body is tearing into the two alphas right there in front of me.
The one who I’d nearly gouged the eyes out of is already laying in a crumpled heap a few feet away.
His face is twisted towards me where he lays belly down on the sidewalk, but his arm is sticking out at an unnatural angle, and his jaw is definitely unhinged.
There are even several bloody teeth laying on the concrete right by his dripping mouth.
But the one thing that freaks me out the most are his wide, bloody and lifeless eyes staring back at me.
I jerk my gaze away from the corpse and over to the incredibly enraged alpha beating the life out of the other one another dozen or so feet away.
This one’s face is barely recognizable while fist after fist slams into him, blood and teeth flying with every powerful strike.
Even from here, I can hear the meaty sounds of flesh hitting flesh, but it’s not nearly as nauseating as the sound of bones shattering with the impact of his fury.
He doesn’t stop. Not until the man falls limp and his eyes are just as unseeing as the other. The alpha lets out a ferocious snarl, sending a shudder racing down my spine, before he literally picks the man up and tosses him a good six feet away.
Blood drips from his knuckles and coats his chest and thighs as he straightens, lip curling back when he looks over at the crumpled corpses of the alphas that had dared attack me.
When his eyes finally turn towards me, they’re nearly black with a bottomless rage that makes my core clench in a way that’s entirely inappropriate for the moment.
He’s just killed two men in front of me. I should not be turned on. The fuck is wrong with me?
He takes a few steps towards me, and this time, I don’t retreat like I had in Raven . Even though he’s still practically vibrating with barely restrained fury and blood lust, an innate part of me knows that he’d never raise those fists to me.
It’s weird. And incredibly terrifying.
A rumble starts up in his chest when he steadily approaches where I’m frozen on my ass on the sidewalk. It isn’t until he crouches down, just a few inches away from me, that I register the sound. Awe spears through me like a golden beam of sunshine. He’s purring. For me .
An alpha only ever purrs for their omega.
He reaches out a hand, and just as I subconsciously lean in so he can touch me, he stops before he touches me. His hand is coated in blood, and he opens his palm, eyeing it with an expression I can’t read, but I understand the hesitation.
I lean in to his touch before he can pull his hand away, and I preen when he sucks in a sharp breath, blinking at me as awe morphs his expression into something both deadly and beautiful. “Are you alright?” His words come out in a rasp of sound, as if his throat is raw from too much screaming.
It takes me another thirty seconds to clear my head enough to respond. “I think so. Just sore.” I’m pretty sure I have a concussion, and maybe a fractured shoulder or something, but I don’t say that. He’s already on edge. I don’t need to voice any possible injuries to set him off. Not right now.
“Can I hold you? I’d like to get you to safety.” I blink at his request, peering around him towards the corpses laying a few feet away. “Eyes on me, mo chroí . Tell me I can touch you.” It’s just shy of a demand, but he leaves the statement open for me to refuse.
The problem is, I don’t want to.
“I was heading to Raven to speak with Mr. Madden. W-will you take me to him?” I know it’s a bad idea in my current state, but my inner omega wants nothing more than to be comforted by her alphas. I need it, too, if I’m willing to be honest with myself.
He wastes no time scooping me up into his arms. I grit my teeth against the aches and pains of my body while he marches us over to the curb, where a shiny silver Mercedes is idling, half up on the sidewalk with black skid marks stretched out behind the back tires.
He sets me gently into the passenger seat, buckling me in before he rounds the hood and slips into the driver’s seat, backing the car off the curb with a slight bump to get it off the sidewalk.
Then we’re speeding down the street. I want to ask about the bodies he’s leaving behind, but I can’t even comprehend that at the moment.
“I’m sorry.” I murmur after a long, tense few seconds of silence. Out of the corner of my eye, I see his hands tighten on the steering wheel.
“Don’t.” He growls, and I finally chance a peek over at him.
His eyes meet mine for the briefest of seconds, before he returns his attention back to the road.
He’s clearly still very much on the edge.
He’ll probably be that way for a long while yet.
“You don’t need to apologize for being attacked, mo chroí. ”
I shake my head and grit my teeth. “I’m not apologizing for that. I usually wear suppressants before I leave the house. If I’d taken one before I left, none of this would’ve happened.”
“Alphas are capable of controlling themselves around unbonded omegas. This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. They should have known better. That’s what’s wrong with this damn world.
Alphas think they’re entitled to anything and everything they want, consequences be damned. I promise you, we are not like that.”
It isn’t the conviction in his tone that surprises me so much as the words themselves. I’ve never heard an alpha speak like this. Omegas are rare, and typically most alphas treat their omega like property.
I would know. I have first fucking hand experience with the behavior of sadistic, egotistical, entitled alphas.
“I never said you were.” I say softly, needing him to understand. I don’t know what they’ve been thinking the last nine days since I’d disappeared from them. It’s obvious they don’t think I’ve rejected them. If they had, this one wouldn’t be so damn considerate.
I fucking hate how complicated my life is.
I just want to be a normal omega, dammit.
Instead of commenting, he says in a soft tone, “My name is Caito, by the way. In case you didn’t know that.” There’s a slight accent to his words that draws me in like a moth to a flame. I want to know where he came from. I want to know everything about him.
“Scarlett.” I offer, though I’m sure he already knows that, since I’d used that name on the application for Raven .
“Scarlett is a beautiful name.” He offers as he turns the car down the Parkway. I think he’s heading to Raven , but then he passes right by the parking lot, and keeps going for another mile. Eventually, he turns, the car inching down a ramp to a garage door.
He presses a button on the visor, and the door lifts, before he drives forward into the darkness. I realize a second later, when he parks between half a dozen other fancy vehicles, that it’s some sort of underground parking garage.
He puts the car in park before he twists to face me in the seat.
This close to him, I finally allow myself to succumb to his scent swirling in the enclosed space around us.
My body reacts to it instantly, until I find myself leaning towards him, my lips parting for my tongue to dart out and lick my too-chapped lips.
He smells so damn good. Like a thin mint cookie.
It makes my mouth water thinking about whether or not he’ll taste as good as he smells.
My scent spikes, rising with his to mingle, making a unique combination. His pupils dilate and his nostrils flare. He lets out a ragged groan that shoots straight to my clit. Fuck, I want him to kiss me, but I’m terrified.
Thankfully—or not, depending on how you look at it—he leans back away from me, hand reaching for the door handle to push it open. I try not to get offended when he practically spills out to get away from me.
My disappointment is short-lived. He’s quick to round the car to open my door for me and help me out. My head pulses when he pulls me up, and I let out a soft cry, unaware I’d let him pull me by the arm of my injured shoulder.
He growls, and my world dims as his arms encircle me. The last thing I remember, before my world plunges into darkness, is the sound of my name ripping from his throat, raw and filled with terror.