2. Caleb
2
Caleb
I stare at the body on the floor, Hubert’s blood pooling around him, soaking into the expensive-looking carpet.
The hatred coursing through my body is still strong, still running high.
That man has been hunting us for years. Ever since I saw him trying to manhandle Vera into a car to go to their ‘wedding’.
The moment I caught sight of them, that I caught a whiff of her pheromones, I acted on impulse.
I rushed over, pushed him aside, grabbed her out of the car and ran off. Her big white dress billowing around us as I rushed to my car and drove as far away as I could.
She was still in my lap when I finally stopped driving an hour later.
She was so thin, barely more than a skeleton. Starved. Covered in bruises.
But the fire in her eyes betrayed a fighter’s spirit.
And she was mine.
She was all mine , and I was all hers from the moment we met. It didn’t matter that she was much younger than me, that I was a dirty mechanic and she came from a well-off family. It only mattered that we were fated to be, a perfect scent match, and we found each other.
I should have killed Hubert that day, it would have made our lives so much easier. But that no longer matters.
He’s dead. He’s finally dead.
Mathew ‘The Cleaner’ Page, a pretty infamous ‘mover for hire’, turns his back to Hubert’s body like it’s just another piece of furniture and comes over to us, his eyes calculating.
I wrap Vera against me tighter. If he’s going to try to kill her, he’ll have to go through me first.
“No closer.” My words are little more than a growl, but he stops, holding up his empty hands.
Like that’s supposed to calm me down. I saw how he slid the knife from his jacket in a flash. He can take it out and put it away in the blink of an eye.
That he’s not holding one right now doesn’t mean shit.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” He circles us, leaning against the desk instead, his lean muscles moving under his skin as he puts his hands on his desk at his sides. “How am I going to get my money back if I hurt you?”
His money ?
“What do you want from us?” Vera moves in my arms, glaring at him.
That’s my girl, that’s my sweet Omega, always ready to kick ass. A proud rumble starts in my chest as I nuzzle her hair. She’s not afraid of anything.
“Well…” Mr Page moves some papers around on his desk, holding a few of them up. “I still need to get paid. We went through all of this trouble to get you here, but I don’t think Mr Russell can pay for it now.”
“A million quid? You want us to pay you a million quid?” Vera stares at him, disbelieving, but also angry.
“Do you know how hard you two are to track down?” When we don’t answer, he keeps talking. “Not to mention, the hospital bills, covering the pay for the guys who won’t be able to work because of you, the two trucks we lost?—”
“Three,” I can’t help but offer.
“No, the third one was Mr Russell’s, not ours. And I don’t think he really cares about losing it now.” Mr Page smirks, glancing at the lifeless body.
His men are still standing near the wall, ignoring the body, like it’s the most normal thing in the world. Which, if I’m to believe even half the stories about Mr Page, is probably not far from the truth.
“Of course, I’ll have to add disposing of the body and redoing the carpet to the bill too.”
“That’s not fair! We didn’t do any of this. We didn’t ask for any of this.” Vera’s voice wobbles slightly and it seems the emotions and exhaustion of the last couple of hours have finally caught up with her.
Her pheromones are all over the place, making me automatically try to surround her with calming pheromones. I hate seeing her upset, it makes me growly and prone to not thinking situations through as much as I should.
“Life isn’t fair. Do you think that Mr Russell wanted you to get kidnapped on your wedding day? Don’t you think you should take some responsibility in all of this?” His tone is patronising. “I fear that these costs are only a fraction of all the money he’s spent to get you back.”
This grinning fucker has no idea what he’s talking about, he has no idea what Hubert was like.
Mr Page has no idea what state Vera was in when I rescued her. Or if she’d even still be alive if I hadn’t…
If I hadn’t been there that day, would she still be alive? Would she have survived her wedding day? The first week of marriage? The first month?
With how relentlessly Hubert has been hunting us, has been sending all sorts of people after us, how would he have acted if my precious Vera showed him that stubbornness that I adore so much?
How long would she have been able to survive?—
“Caleb.” Vera puts her delicate hand on my cheek, turning my face in her direction, her voice soft, her eyes sweet. She kisses my cheek and then nuzzles my neck. “He’s gone. He can’t hurt us anymore. He’s gone.”
It’s only then that I notice the angry growl in my chest, the tightness of my muscles, the way I’m ready to jump anyone who poses a threat to her, and I force myself to calm down. If I do anything reckless right now, we might still end up dead, and it would be my fault for not staying in control.
Mr Page smirks, amusement in his eyes as he watches us, observes us. He licks his lips, his tongue piercing flashing in the light before disappearing.
“What do you want?” I ask him the same question as Vera asked him, my arm around her tense as I nuzzle her hair, soothing myself with her sweet honey scent.
“I believe you have two options. The first one, pay off the debts. But you will have to pay it back within twenty years and don’t think I won’t charge interest.”
“And the second one?” I glare at him.
How the fuck does he expect us to pay him back? We’ve got nothing. His men made sure of that when they took us.
“Become mine.” He smiles as he says it, like he’s requesting us to attend a party, not sign away our lives to him.
“ No. ” I won’t give Vera up to some asshole. She’s mine . I’m not giving her up.
“Okay.” He turns around, giving me a great view of his ass in those perfectly tailored suit pants, and moves the papers until he finds a pen and a notepad. He holds the pen over the pad. “I’ll have someone draw up a contract for a payment plan. What do you believe is a reasonable monthly amount to pay off the million quid, with interest?”
“Wait.” Vera breaks from my grip, standing between us in just her thin night shorts, her eyes hard. “Don’t I get a say?”
“Of course you do.” Mr Page smirks and I notice the way his eyes linger on her, not in a lecherous way but like she intrigues him. “You just have to open your mouth. I’m not going to hold your hand if you’re not willing to do some of the work yourself.”
Vera eyes me, her gaze soft, before she looks back at him. “What would we have to do if we became ‘yours’?”
An angry rumble starts in my chest again. No.
No, we’re not doing that. I’m not handing our lives over to some guy who clearly doesn’t value keeping people alive.
Mr Page puts the pen and pad down, folding his arms over his chest, his arm muscles flexing, pulling my attention and making my body very conflicted about the situation.
“You’ll have to help out around the house.” He pushes away from the desk, sauntering over to her, softly touching her shoulder, sliding her hair back, and my growl deepens as she starts to perfume lightly.
He eyes me, an amused dare in his gaze. “Help out with the company.”
He comes over to me, his fingers trailing down my stomach, nearly touching the top of my shorts, and it makes my pheromones flare. “And anything else that I can come up with.” His voice has turned husky.
Fuck. What’s this guy doing? He knows he’s playing with fire, touching and playing with a bonded Alpha-Omega pair like that, but he doesn’t seem to care.
“Would that include sexual favours?” Vera’s voice is cool, glaring at him, and a new scent reaches me. A clean floral scent, spiking my pheromones once again and I lean forward, trying to get more of it.
“Potentially.” Mr Page steps away from me and a waft of the floral scent flows over me again.
My hand shoots out, grazing Mr Page’s jacket sleeve, but he’s just out of reach.
Within moments, his men are restraining me, holding me back, a knife to my throat and my stomach.
Fucking hell. What’s with these fuckers? Why are they so fucking on edge?
“Let him go.” Mr Page’s voice sounds calm, but when he meets my eyes, I sense the danger in them. This guy is not to be fucked with. One step out of line and we’re out, for good.
But what choice do we have?
They burned down our house when they took us, burned everything we own. We don’t have anything to go back to, nothing to start a new life with.
Nothing to pay him with.
Vera comes over to me, taking my hand, kissing my fingers.
It’s not like we’ve got a choice…
I’ll do anything, as long as I get to keep her at my side. As long as I won’t be separated from my love, my mate.
“We’ll do it.” Her voice is quiet.
“What will you do?” Mr Page looks at her, smirking.
“We’ll be yours . Under one condition.”
“I don’t think you have much bargaining power, little Omega.” He comes over, staring down at her, his gaze intense.
“A request, then. Don’t split us up. And you don’t get to whore either of us out.”
“That’s two conditions.” He leans closer to her and sniffs her again, taking in her scent, and I fight everything within myself not to punch him in the face.
She’s mine .
He knows it pisses me off, and he still keeps doing it. Pushing my buttons, trying to get me to step out of line.
Is he trying to get me killed so he can have her all to himself?
Then he leans back, looking at us both, like he’s considering what she said. “But I’ll grant them. I won’t split you up. And I won’t whore you out as you so elegantly put it.” He laughs, the first time he’s done it, and I don’t know if I find this or his smirk creepier.
“Right. Now that’s taken care of. If you two could follow me?” He turns around and starts walking to the door. There, he waits for us, his gaze cool. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I don’t like to repeat myself.”
Right.
I start hobbling after him, my arm over Vera’s shoulders to try to keep the pressure from my injured foot.
I make sure to keep myself between her and the dead body. I don’t need her to look at that any more than she really needs to.
“Good. You seem to know how to follow orders.” Mr Page smirks again as we reach him. “Let’s keep going.”
We follow him up the stairs and down a hallway, until we reach a set of doors. He opens one of them and motions for us to go inside.
We step inside a luxurious bedroom. With a massive bed to one side, a huge window overlooking a balcony on the far end and various pieces of furniture strewn around the place.
Is he planning to cash in those sexual favours already? Is that why he’s keeping us around?
What the fuck did we just agree to?