Chapter 29
I saw him from the kitchen.
An intruder.
An alpha who should not be here taking a step into her nest.
My omega’s nest–my wife’s nest.
And I was the only one here to protect her.
“No.” The flip was instant as I watched the tail of his trench coat almost vanish. My aura split the air, and he took a step back, dark eyes sliding to me as I made for him.
A flash of the gun I’d left in the second drawer down flickered in my mind.
The rational choice.
It vanished as soon as it came, drowned by an old demon raising its head, finding no place for a weapon like that. Even when Mord lifted his gun, the barrel raised at me, it didn’t matter. I was almost on him, the world around me fading into fury. Not in my home.
This alpha had a foot in her nest.
A low growl rose in my throat. I was almost on him, but not for a moment did I believe a bullet would be enough. A dark beast seized me, and Mord’s aura flared as he flipped the gun in his grip in the last second, using it instead to strike at me as he tried to duck out of my way.
“Run!” I growled, my command ripping from the core of fury that drove everything I was right now, as sanity began to fade. I felt it seize Shatter as I caught the faintest glimpse of her through the door, on her feet, eyes wide beside the bed. Then pain exploded across my skull as Mord managed to smash me against the wall.
He grabbed the door and slammed it shut, trapping her inside.
No.
He grunted as my elbow caught him. Briefly, I realised he was too well trained. He could fight far better than me. I snarled, aura flaring as I flung my weight against him, wild sounds ripping from my chest as the beast became frenzied.
“Fuck—!” Mord grunted. My grip on his shoulder dug in, my whole weight thrown against him.
I heard a crack. Pain was a distant howl.
I threw my weight against him again, trying to go for anything that would stop him.
His grip loosened, and I lunged again, teeth closing around nothing before another pain, closer this time, became suddenly overwhelming. Heat trickled down my cheek.
The world was fading to red.
No…
A faint whine sounded in the air.
Mine…? I thought.
Or hers?
No…
Mord was stepping back, fading fast as the world spun. With another crash of pain, the world went black, his last words swimming through my foggy mind.
He almost sounded like he was amused.
“…More than I expected for a rich prick…”
This was too soon.
I shook from shock, replaying the fight between Ransom and Mord.
He was going to be okay, I told myself desperately.
He was alive.
I’d found the courage to open the door a crack, right as Mord had knocked him out. Before that, he’d been a raging ball of… I shivered, of something else. That hadn’t been Ransom.
Not my Ransom…
Even his command that I run had been… a flash of power. Then nothing, as if he couldn’t hold it. I shoved my tears back. Mord hadn’t hurt him too badly. He could have, but he didnt.
Mord had straightened his coat and rolled his neck. Then he turned as I watched through the crack in the door. Dark eyes met mine, cold and deadly.
When he spoke, his voice was far too calm—completely different from the taunt I’d just heard from him as Ransom had fallen. “Are you going to run?”
Shakily I pushed my nest door open, unable to bear the idea of him stepping into it again. There was a gun in his hand, and my alpha was unconscious on the floor at his feet. There wasn’t a choice, not really. Even if at my back was a laptop with the last piece of the puzzle.
A piece I knew I would now never have in time.
We reached the door to the apartment, and he nudged my pair of new boots toward me.
“Bring them.”
I picked them up shakily, mind reeling as Mord tugged a spray can from one of the pockets of his huge trench coat and doused me in a mist before I could react. A scent blocker, I realised as I blinked through it.
Then he dragged me from the apartment and into a closet on the floor before shutting us in. I was still shaking, scrambling for the right words. He was so calm, like this was a job to him—a normal day.
He peered at his phone again, and this time I saw it was a video feed on the academy parking lot. As I watched, it jumped to a different feed.
“Put your boots on. A barefoot omega will draw too much attention.”
As I struggled to get my boots on with shaky hands, he tugged something rectangular from his pocket. It was a device of some kind with a small antenna. He held it down at hip level, and I watched as Mord flipped a switch on it. I heard a small click, then nothing.
“Wh-what was that?” I asked.
“If he was tracking you, he’s not anymore,” Mord murmured, tucking the device back in his pocket. I jumped as he clamped a hand over my mouth, barely even looking at me as he waited. He was huge, and even without his aura out, frightening. The glint of his gun in his other hand was hard to ignore.
My pulse was racing out of control, and it wasn’t long before I heard the sound of thundering footsteps.
Dusk…
Tears beaded my eyes, but I didn’t dare make a sound.
Mord didn’t hesitate, pulling me out moments later. I’d had to fight my whine of desperation as I caught the scent of midnight opium lingering in the air and tangled with it was Decebal’s roses and cranberries scent.
They’d just been here…
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to conjure up the words on the webpage I had just been on. Not enough…
But this was it, whether I had my answer or not. The Lincoln pack was done waiting. And that meant I needed to keep the lie I’d let Mord believe the first time I met him.
“Where are we going?” I managed to ask as he dragged me out to the Academy parking lot.
He’d tucked away his gun now. I could fight him, make a scene to the passing students, some of whom were throwing me frowns, but even if I did, it might get me nowhere. That seemed like the natural response. Try to run. To get away. But I couldn’t.
He didn’t answer as he shoved me into the back seat of a black car.
“Don’t make me regret not tying you up,” he said as he slammed the door and locked it.
My lip trembled. “Deep breaths,” I whispered, fists balling in my skirt as he circled the car to the driver’s side. “You can do this, Shatter.”
I clenched my teeth, fighting my tears. He was taking me to the Lincoln pack, and I had to be ready.
I wasn’t, but I had to be.
“They could call the police,” I said as he shifted the gear stick and pulled out of the academy parking lot.
“They won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve looked over quite a few of their activities over the last few years. Seems they haven’t involved the authorities for anything. Not even when the wellbeing of their own pack mate is at stake. I can only imagine that the authorities pose a greater threat than anything I might.”
We drove for a while, though it was hard for me to see where we were going with the blacked-out windows, and I didn’t know the city well enough to keep track. Finally, I heard gravel below us as the vehicle slowed.
Where were we?
Then the door at my back was opened, and he tugged me out with ease. I only had a second to glance around at a massive industrial-looking building closed off with tall fences, before he was tugging me toward a huge metal door.
Inside he led me through winding corridors, all with concrete walls and peeling paint and not a sign of life in sight, and we finally stopped before another metal door.
Mord unlocked it and I saw a few rooms within that were host to not much beyond a few old seats and a dented wooden table. It almost looked like a… makeshift home. Not that this sort of building seemed like a home at all…
I shrank, unsure what to expect.
At my side, Mord crouched down to undo his shoelaces. He was so unnervingly… casual no matter what the situation. I hadn’t seen him as anything but neutral besides the moment when he’d won against Ransom.
I watched as he tugged his shoes off and placed them neatly at the door, then he stood carefully, dusting off his coat before stepping in.
I frowned, still clutching my own fingers together as I looked within, my instincts filling in the gaps for me.
He had brought me here to stay for a while? The walls might be bare, and the air damp, but I think this was a home by the ebony and mystery scent in the air.
Not wanting to upset him, I crouched down and fumbled with my own boots, removing them before entering. When I looked up, Mord was watching me with a half-cocked eyebrow as I hurried in, gaze dropping to my socks with the first mild amusement I’d seen.
Okay.
Seeing him amused just made me more scared, but I think that meant I was right…
He shrugged his coat off as he stepped into the first room through an open door, then tossed it over the back of a chair. Then he sat down, reclining back and crossing his ankles on the table. I watched as he pulled a pack of cigarettes and lighter from the draped trench coat pocket.
I clasped my fingers, looking around. “Will my mates come?” I asked, anxiously taking the other chair, watching him closely.
He nodded, lighting one of the cigarettes.
Okay…
I had to sort myself out. Had they opened the safe? Is that why he’d brought me?
To bite me…
I swallowed.
“Did… did you um… open the safe?”
Mord grimaced, taking a drag. “The… pale one… idiot with the stupid posh accent?—”
“Eric…?” I asked.
“Had a tantrum earlier. Thought he could get in faster than I could.”
“Oh…” I trailed off. “What does that mean?”
Mord blew out a plume through his nostrils. “Blew up, didn’t it? Burned everything inside.”
Right. So they didn’t know they could claim me at any moment?
Maybe I had time.
The study…
If I could just… “Can I use your phone?” I asked, hopefully.
He blinked, pausing halfway through a drag, but said nothing. The silence stretched, and I clasped my fingers, looking away.
That, I thought, was Mord speak for no.
Okay. I needed to compose myself. The bond was shut down on all ends but Dusk’s. I hadn’t explored it to feel how worried he was. I already knew. My alphas were about to burn the world down to protect me, and I had to be as strong as they were.
Because there was no one else left to protect them.