Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
TYNAN
S he doesn’t recognize me. And that blows.
I fucking get it’s been a few years, but try telling my brain that.
Right now, though, I have bigger problems than Tally not knowing who the hell I am. Namely that fucking bruise that’s swelling and darkening the longer I look at her beautiful face.
“Who. Did. That?” I punch my words out with the most control I can manage. Which makes me sound like a robot, and nothing like the man about to start a goddamn war with whoever is responsible.
“Not your concern,” she says, her lips flattening out stubbornly.
Up close and personal, I’m barely able to get oxygen into my lungs.
The air I do get is saturated with her peach scent, so goddamn syrupy that when I lick my lips, all I can taste is the sweetness.
And that’s even with me being a fucking Beta, with everything being dulled down.
I can’t even imagine how Kee and Ronin survived one night with her in their bed.
I would have died then and there. Happily, but.
Clear exaggeration, much like the metaphoric earthquake happening inside my soul. I’m pissed she ain’t feeling the same. Though that anger gets eaten up by the inferno raging because of that mark whenever I look at it.
Life as I know it is changing.
Life is about to change for someone else, too, because Tally Murphy is off-limits. Every fucking person with a pulse knows it. We put an alert on the streets to make every fucker aware, but it seems we didn’t get to everyone.
She dips under my arm, racing away. I want to grab her arm, pull her back, so I get the answer I need. Instead, I scrub both hands down my face and hide out there until I get a better grip on the seesawing emotions riding my arse.
Digging out my phone, I let Ronin know I’m going to be held up and won’t be able to join them. We were going to head out to check one of Paddy’s chop shops, hoping to catch who’s been fiddling with the cameras, then helping themselves to whatever they want. They’ll have to go without me now.
Tally moved quickly in the time it took me to shoot off a message, and she’s already set a punishing pace on the treadmill.
The sharp incline she’s got the running machine at would have to make her face hurt more. She watches me like a hawk looking for its next meal but refuses to take her AirPods out or slow her pace.
Knowing she’s watching me, I press the arrow on her machine, forcing the change in the incline.
If she won’t look after herself, I will.
My meddling doesn’t stop there, and I don’t give her the chance to argue, either.
Playing around with the advanced settings of the machine, I set a better program, as well as a timer.
Then I leave her to work out some of her mood.
I can see how angry she is. And it’s not just because I damn near broke her nose.
Her showing up is what pulled me here. I mean, we run a twenty-four-seven gym, so it's not unusual for people to use the gym in the middle of the night.
But I have an alert set for Tally. If she was just working out, I would have let her be.
Probably watched her for a bit on the cameras before meeting up with my pack, but then I caught how tense she was.
It only confirmed something was out of whack.
When I got that first look of her face, all my suspicions were confirmed.
Sitting behind the desk, I shuffle around so I can watch her while I work. First things first, I do a quick post, notifying our members that we’re closed for maintenance for a couple of hours, and I deactivate the door so we won’t get interrupted.
While the cameras surrounding where she works start downloading the footage of the last few hours, I get to fussing, arranging a fresh towel, and a protein gel. As soon as her treadmill slows, I’m at her side, putting the things I know she’ll need in easy reach. I’m gone again before she can argue.
But it’s also because her scent is more intense now. Her body temperature and the light sheen of perspiration that mists her skin has heated her peach scent to dangerous proportions. My dick is about to fucking explode.
Hiding behind my desk again, I do what will have it going down like a lead fucking balloon—I watch the video feeds to find out what happened. Not much, really, until she goes and takes the trash out. By her fucking self too.
From the shadows, two women emerge, like rats out the drain.
Both of them have been on the streets for a while, and neither of them are the type you’d take home to meet your pack, or your mother.
Lowlife scum who drug their marks, then rob them blind.
They work independent on the streets, but have more alliance to the Kellys, which begs the question of what fucking game is being played now.
Checking Tally hasn’t changed the program I put her on for the treadmill, I pull my eyes from her wicked body to watch her getting attacked. I was frustrated before watching it, but now I’m furious.
Sending another text—this one to Keegan, since he’s the man for the job—I let him know the Kellys are causing trouble. He’ll set up a suitable message back, no doubt involving the only language they seem to listen to, violence. I’ll be there for it. But first things first, Tally.
Where I was being all subtle before, this time I have a fire in my guts that needs an outlet. Flicking on the lights for the boxing ring, I gather up everything we’ll need before making my way to her.
Signaling for her to pull her pods out, I let her see my actions before they happen.
My fist hits the stop button, and before she can argue, I’m speaking.
“Enough running. In the ring now. You got a few sets of push-ups and sit-ups to do first, then we’re sparring so I can see what I’m working with. ”
She goes to argue.
“Firecracker, you don’t get to argue. As that cheek of yours can rightly attest. You need someone to train with, and you got me.”
She drills those pretty eyes at me but gets off the machine, even using the towel I provided. Her scent lingers in the air as I trail after her.
I guess she already knows she needs to work out tonight because she goes to the ring I’ve set up as if we discussed what was going to happen next. I mean, I’m glad we’re on the same page, but it’s still a surprise.
“Watch how I do it, then once you’ve done them properly, we can move on to somethin’ else.”
The way she doesn’t argue speaks volumes of her work ethic.
When I step through the exercise I want her to do in slow, concise movements, she mirrors me better than a lot of the other people I train, confirming she’s had proper, real training.
Not from a new flashy PT fresh out of those bullshit schools they rope kids into, but from a qualified trainer, one that has spent years honing their skill.
“Ten more.” I squat on the mat close enough to catch any weakness in her form. Aside from a few small ones, that only highlight what a picky prick I can be, she’s got the movement down pat.
Once she’s done, she rolls out her shoulder and stretches her hamstring. I want to rush over there and get her on her side and stretch her properly, but again, that’s me being a pushy prick. And since we’re focusing on discipline, I show her mine.
Invading her space with a pair of gloves and a roll of tape, I flick my head up, letting her know what I want her doing. She holds her hand up, and the action again shows me this process is nothing new. I lace up one glove, taping it on, and when I get the other in my hand, I look up at her.
“What happened?”
She shakes her head, a slight roll of her eyes as she huffs out a sigh. “I just want to train.”
I don’t let on I know she threw the fight. I don’t let on at all, because then she’d realize I saw the footage, and it’s not hard to assume she’ll get all flighty knowing she’s being watched.
After I finish lacing her up, I grab the training pad. “Left, right, left. Jab, jab, hook. Dip, shuffle, swap sides and feet, repeat. Don’t drop your form. On my say…” I lock my gaze on the huge clock on the wall to our side, waiting until it hits the minute mark. “Go.”
She’s quick on her feet. Her form is good, but if I was to put money on it, Tally’s not been keeping up with whatever form she had going on. Nothing unusual there; life gets in the way for everyone. Only those with drive and dedication turn hard times into a part of a routine.
Now that she’s in my gym, sporting fucking bruises, too, she’s mine to train.
Fuck knows how I’m going to be able to keep my fucking trap shut.
I want to ask where she’s been all these years, and if she loves her new home.
I need to know why she’s only just appeared and without any backstory.
All these questions swirl around in my thoughts, but for the time being, they’ll stay locked there. She’s been spooked enough as it is.
I remember the day we met her so vividly. The whole damn world was our oyster.
Then we all got shown what a cruel world we live in.
By far the worst event was Noinin being abducted.
I swear, we nearly lost Ronin that day, but instead of burning up, he walked out of the fire of grief, rising like a phoenix and changing our lives forever.
Not that we wouldn’t have followed him, but at the same time, he finally claimed his position as pack Alpha.
And I had to face the truth; I’d never be anything but a Beta.
Then you throw in Noinin’s weird prophecies. No shit, she liked to play around and acted like a kid should, but in her eyes, in her words, you knew you were looking at an old soul. An old soul that wasn’t long for our world.
In her short time, she set us firmly on a path. Tally is included in that. And as obscure as it is being married off by a kid Noinin’s age, none of us are about to brush off one of the last things she ever did, which was bind us to Tally.
Now all we need is to make sure Tally doesn’t disappear off the face of the earth ever a-fucking-gain.
I mean, we managed to get her to where we wanted her to be, so that is something.
Once she’s aware of that, phase two commences, which is where she gets reminding who we are, because she seems to have lost her memory when it comes to us.
Hearing Ronin and Keegan explain what happened in Genoa, and how they knew it was Tally but she didn’t recognize them, was only the start of the unpacking associated with her.
In short, I spiraled. I spent a whole lot of time after in this gym, working out.
Her not remembering them, as Alphas too, fed the usual BS my brain likes to fixate on; me being inadequate and nothing more than a waste of space.
It'd been a long time since I’ve felt so fucking disappointed in not emerging as an Alpha, but I did that day.
Pretty sure, like every other person in life who thought they were going in one direction only for it to change at the last second, you either learn to live with the hand you’ve been dealt or you creep off to die all alone.
My pack made sure I never properly considered the second option, but it didn’t mean I never thought about it.
No shit, biology has a lot to answer for.
I should have always been an Alpha, and yet here I am, a Beta currently watching the woman I’ve been bound to for the past ten years acting like we’ve never met.
As if that’s not enough, I’m also dealing with the fact that, when she does remember our vows, I’m going to be the only one never able to properly satisfy her.
A woe is me moment, but justified still.
Focusing on her is a hell of a lot easier. Tally wasn’t designated yet back then. She could have been a swamp witch, and I’d have still been over the moon. Now she’s back, and not only has she matured into a goddamn bombshell, she’s the tastiest Omega I’ve ever met.
She must realize I’m distracted, because she hammers a hit so hard into the center of my chest, it winds me.
“Take a break,” I wheeze, needing a moment more than she does.
Walking to the other side of the ring, I lean against the ropes, wondering if she’s ever going to mention us knowing each other. And dealing with the stinging disappointment she still hasn’t recognized me.