Chapter 8
The bullet hit me!
A searing burn forced me awake, ripping a scream from my throat.
I shot upright, taking in my surroundings with a quick sweep. I was on the couch, blankets bunched at my waist, while my chest was bare. It took less than a second for me to snatch them up and cover myself.
Sinclair pinned my arm, stopping me from thrashing around. He hovered over the couch, crowding my vision. Panic seized my throat, but came to a screeching halt once I saw the tube attached to the inner side of my elbow.
“It’s almost done. Don’t fuck with it,” Sinclair ordered. My focus trailed higher to the slice in my arm, now covered with a rectangular bandage. “The stitches should be fine. It was my fourth time.”
He raised an eyebrow, much too blasé for my peace of mind.
“Lie down,” Kyan ordered gruffly, leaning forward from the chair he was sitting in, his eyebrows in a scowl.
I didn’t move, so he placed his palm on my shoulder and forced me onto my back.
I settled on the cushy couch; my body nestled in the crevice.
“The wound would have killed you if you hadn’t received treatment. ”
He was lecturing me? He kept going, but I was too busy wiggling my fingers and toes to make sure everything was still intact.
I felt good.
Better than I had in months.
Emotion surfaced, and tears pricked my eyes. I closed them and focused on my breathing, while he continued explaining what they’d done.
For a second back there, I thought I wouldn’t make it . . .
Kyan shrugged on a coat, the thick corduroy hugging his tall form.
“You’ve been sleeping for almost seventy-two hours.”
I lifted my arm and eyed the IV taped to the inside of my elbow.
“No wonder I’m so sore,” I croaked, rolling my ankle in a circle. A pulse radiated up my leg.
“You have to eat.” He jerked his chin to the round Styrofoam container. “Takeout. I selected something light with lots of iron.”
Despite Kyan’s order to stay lying down, I hugged the blanket, inching myself up with difficulty. Sinclair’s arm was suddenly there, and I was upright. Using the heels of my feet, I scooted backward until the armrest braced me.
“I’m surprised you can function,” Sinclair mused. “You were severely dehydrated. Are diets worth feeling like shit? You damn women.”
I could only stare at him.
The irony of his words.
“What?” He cocked his head.
“You own a strip club.”
“Aaaand?” His eyebrow went up.
“Never mind,” I muttered, shaking my head.
Even if I explained, it wasn’t my place to make him care that the patriarchal society forced women to fit the mold of attractiveness based on their desires.
Omegas had that especially badly. Council law said we were revered and to be taken care of, but it was all pretty phrases to mask the fact that we existed to breed more Alphas and Omegas into the world.
Hence, why I refused to depend on any Alpha.
“For the record, I was on the run for a few days,” I lied, but I wasn’t about to tell him I had been living out of my car for the last six months. Ever since I was fired, my building was condemned in the same week. All bullshit, it was connected to Bourne Pack.
I hadn’t conceptualized how evil some people could truly be. Greymont Pack were vulgar, lethal businessmen who hosted illegal gambling events and had a record of paying people off to get charges dropped.
But Bourne Pack? They were true evil. I hadn’t known there were levels above Greymont Pack, but harming animals and children . . . I couldn’t fathom it.
Yet, there was zero accountability.
It was no surprise that, after I brought the project to the Editor-in-Chief, everything fell apart. He must be in the Bourne Pack’s pocket.
" . . . gotten her something that actually tastes good, not soup.” I tuned into Sinclair speaking to Kyan, whose eyebrows had furrowed until it looked painful.
“She needs something hearty. If you don’t understand—”
“Here we go with a lecture from the great Kyan, the all-knowing . . .”
Kyan’s lips puckered, and I was surprised he hadn’t lashed out at Sinclair.
My neck was going to hurt from my head bouncing back and forth between them.
Seemingly done with the conversation, Sinclair was all up in my space, lifting the plastic spoon, he scooped some and took a bite.
“Mm, this is pretty good,” he muttered, mouth half full.
“It’s for her.” Kyan’s abrupt growl didn’t faze Sinclair.
“I was testing it. Could be poisoned.” Sinclair turned a glare on Kyan. “Why are you still hanging around? It’s my shift to watch her. Go,” Sinclair growled. Kyan’s lips thinned. “Don’t you have shite to do?”
That worked. Kyan left, the door vibrating from how hard he slammed it.
Sinclair spun around with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Open up.” He lifted the lentil soup to my lips and shoved the spoon in. If I didn’t take it, it would have ended up dripping on the blanket. Hot soup traveled down my belly. Immediately, my stomach cramped, bothered by the invasion of food. Something I had sparingly recently.
With my second swallow, another more pressing urge assaulted my bladder.
“I have to pee.” I yanked the taped needle from my arm and was on my feet within seconds. Sinclair’s eyebrows twitched, a smirk flashing across his face. Shamelessly, he kept looking at my chest. I crossed my arms over my bare breasts with a sneer.
I wonder who took my jacket off.
“Can I get something to wear?” I sniped, not hiding my irritation as I snatched the blanket up, wrapped it around my torso and under my armpits.
Once my body was blocked from his view, he smiled so wide, it pulled a blush from deep in my embarrassed soul.
I hadn’t even thought I was capable of blushing. Quickly leaving him behind, I reached the restroom, hung the blanket on the back of the door, and peed. With each step and twitch I made, the aches and twinges of my body intensified.
I turned on the shower and jumped inside, letting the warm water pelt against my skin and soothe the aches. Once I finished rubbing myself with soap and rinsing, I stepped out onto a bathmat and grabbed one of the towels resting on the shelf above the toilet.
Now dried, I tucked it under my arms again, winding it around my body.
Since I hadn’t washed my hair, it hung around my shoulders, tickling my skin.
When I padded out of the restroom, Sinclair was reclining, the chair tipped on the back legs. They thudded onto the floor as soon as he saw me.
He watched me like I was prey, and my stride slowed, pulse racing as I neared him. My Omega instinct swelled to life like a traitorous little slut, urging me to drop to my knees and take him into my mouth. Desire blazed to life. Sinclair’s hands turned into fists, and a growl vibrated his chest.
I exhaled slowly.
Take me, Alpha . . . The plea hovered on the tip of my tongue.
Elias stormed in, the door slamming behind him, effectively shattering the arousal clinging to my thoughts. Sinclair snarled, his head whipping toward the door. The violent sound should have stamped down my urges; instead, it only roused it.
I had to get away from the thick pheromones.
I had left the blanket in the bathroom. Muttering nonsense, I retreated, breathing in slowly as I stole the moment of privacy. Their voices rumbled, the deep timbre too low to make out any words.
Once I’d collected myself, I plucked the blanket off the hook and returned to find the Alphas staring each other down.
Aggression coiled through the air and mingled with their Alpha pheromones.
I won’t survive them. I sank down onto the couch, tucking the blanket around me and over the towel as if the multiple barriers could protect me from the urges of my instinctual side.
“You’re needed with security,” Elias said, voice tinged with frustration. Sinclair snapped out of whatever had taken hold of him, and he grabbed the soup again.
“Open up,” he murmured, waving the half-full spoon near my face. I didn’t argue with him about feeding me again, sensing that something else was going on, especially between them. Something left unsaid.
“Sin,” Elias snapped while I chewed.
“Elias,” he muttered, annoyed. “What?”
“A fight broke out downstairs. Same ex-boyfriend trying to take Leah.”
Sinclair stiffened, keeping the next spoonful mid-air. “The fucker who broke my favorite chair?”
At Elias’ grunt, his jaw flexed, and finally, he shrugged as if shaking off the anger and shoved the spoon in my mouth.
“Sin,” Elias bit out, tugging the sleeve of his dress shirt up.
“Fine,” he huffed, “Take over.”
“I can feed myself.” I grabbed the Styrofoam cup.
“Careful,” Elias and Sinclair shouted at the same time. I ignored them, trying to play off the pinch in my ribcage. Elias’ shrill ringtone broke through the room, cutting the tension like a knife.
Sinclair rolled his shoulders.
“Fine, fine.” He put his hands up. “I’ll go handle it.”
“I would hope,” Elias snapped, glaring. “Considering you handle security.”
Sinclair backed out of the room with his hands still up and a smirk on his lips. When I turned around, Elias was sitting in the chair before me.
“I won’t be feeding you if that’s what you’re waiting for.”
“Wasn’t expecting you to.” I scooped up some more lentils, finishing the soup quickly, the savory tang spreading on my tongue and warming my belly. All while he watched me like I was about to pull a gun out and start shooting everyone.
With our every interaction, he seemed more and more tightly-strung.
“What crawled up your ass?” I muttered, setting the empty cup on the floor.
“You.”
I pressed my lips together.
“No one as pretty as you should be this pissed off,” I grumbled, enjoying the anger rippling over his features.
The muscle in his jaw jumped crazily.
I bit back my snicker.
Getting under his skin was more entertaining than I thought possible. I rolled my neck side to side, stretching out the tension. The pinch in my bicep forced me to move it.
I stood to properly secure the towel under my arms. “When I started looking into all the bad shit you were involved with, I never expected you to be such a stickler.”
The next second, he was towering over me, my nose about grazing against his chest. I slowly inclined my head to meet his eyes.
An Alpha this close, so obviously threatening me, should have forced my instinct into cowering, but I wanted to poke the bear more.
I clenched my thighs tighter together, and it made the slick so obvious.
Hitting my heat while I was with them might not be a bad idea. They could satiate my urges . . . something I hadn’t ever had from Alphas.
“This would have been unnecessary if you didn’t keep sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.” His seductive voice fluttered the hair at my temples. A thrill traveled through my gut. I liked getting a rise out of him.
“Who is going to oust corruption if not me?” I retorted, eyeing him pointedly. “They weren’t lies. You just have the money to hide it.”
I’d written the article because of my informant.
She’d been the one who told me they were behind all sorts of shady shit.
“Plus, it was online for less than an hour, as you know, since you probably paid someone to scrub it from the internet.” I found myself bending forward while Elias leaned away. Was he trying to get away from me?
His nostrils flared.
I rolled my lips between my teeth.
He was sniffing me.
I straightened, letting the blanket fall onto the couch, and stayed wrapped in the towel. Elias took a step back quickly . . . Was he running away from me?
Just the thought made a smile curve my lips. He wasn’t as unflappable as he acted.
As if catching himself, he snarled and grabbed the back of my neck, leaning down to get in my face.
This position—how he grabbed me—caused slick to dampen the spot between my thighs, and it was only increasing.
He had a pale complexion, but somehow, he went even lighter, and he buried his nose into my neck, right where my scent excreted most potently.
“You’re no longer half-dead, you’re fine to take care of yourself.” He turned on his expensive leather loafers, practically running.
“I need a favor,” I blurted.
He stiffened, his hand on the doorknob. I took his silence as an answer.
“Find out where Alice Lane is.” Leading up to all of this, she hadn’t gotten back to me. It was going on the second month of her going no-contact. “I think she might be able to help clear my name.”
I didn’t let go of Elias’ gaze, gritting my teeth against the urge to look away—to submit.
“Anything else, princess.” The sneer that crossed his lips should have sent me into hiding, but it made me want to poke at him even more.
“No thanks,” I retorted, allowing my smile to bloom. My stomach rolled with anticipation.
He was definitely running from me.