Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
RAFFERTY
T he small tracker dots on my phone follow the location of my pack. I can see where they stop, and where they unexpectedly zig-zagged across the screen.
I can see it all.
Which is why, when the central locking on our pack’s BMW XM clicks and the locks disengage, I feel sick to my stomach. No one but my pack has keys to our SUV.
I shoot off a text to Keegan, letting him know what is going on, before dropping my phone and swapping it for a knife.
Although Tynan has trained my butt off to ensure I’ll always be able to defend myself, I’m not as proficient as the others. It’s a struggle, since my very nature makes me a lover, not a fighter.
Being assertive and violent isn’t easy for an Omega, but my twin has been nothing but determined to find a way to turn those issues into something we can work with.
And we’ve certainly gotten to the point where my body is a weapon.
We’ve yet to find the key to unlocking the part of my brain needed to make it happen instinctively, but Ty is stubborn and hasn’t stopped searching.
Behind me, the rear passenger door opens. I twist around to see who dares attack, but before I can see their face, they spray shit into my eyes. Instantly, my vision is impeded. I’m unable to see anything but a blur, and I can’t stop the woeful whine escaping.
The door next to me opens pretty much at the same time. As I start to scramble over to the driver’s side to escape, a hand clasps around my foot, and I’m literally dragged out kicking and screaming.
I must hit every fucking surface on the BMW possible on my exit. My elbow twists, and the way it pops makes me instantly nauseated. The pain is deafening, and I know I have to put it behind me and do something to stay alive until my pack returns.
Grasping on to the weird but solid metaphysical connection Ty and I share, I yank everything I can from it. Physically, my movements remain jerky, but instead of fighting alone, it’s like he’s here with me, yelling what to do next in my ear.
It helps, too, knowing I’m not alone.
I try to block as many punches as possible, but it’s hard because there are obviously more than two people attacking, plus, I can’t see for shit.
I wish I could be more aware, instead of struggling to stay alive.
Because I can’t even pick up a scent, and Ronin’s going to be pissed if I can’t identify them.
I get a vicious kick to the hip, making me bounce off the side of the car and straight into another kick. The other attacker acts at the same time, rushing me off my feet. I go down, and go down hard.
Always stay upright. But if you’re on the ground, cover your head with your arms and tuck into a tight ball. Ty is yelling instructions into my ears, and I follow what he says to the letter.
As soon as I’m on the ground, they come at me harder than ever.
And they don’t fucking miss a trick. Each kick and punch rattles my teeth and rips the air from my lungs.
There’s seriously a moment when I start to think I don’t want to go out like this.
It’s not fair, our pack has so much living to do, but these arseholes are relentless, and they want me dead.
I must detach or something because it gets to the point where I don’t feel the pain, just the movement of their hits and kicks.
Perhaps I pass out for a bit, but in the next breath, my awareness starts to return. I’m alive. Fucking hurting all over but alive. And the more I realize I’m not dead, my thoughts begin to clear.
I seriously considered I was dead dead for a bit, because I swear I could taste the sweetest, juiciest canned peaches.
Warm, too, like they’d been sitting in the summer sun, making the scent that much more intense.
Honestly, I think that’s what pulled me from being unconscious, the movement of my mouth.
Very cool dream for an Omega, being face-first in a world made of peaches.
Twisting my head, I have to blink my eyes a few times until what I see registers because I’m aware-ish, but a big part of me is still chomping down on peaches. Another blink and clarity returns. My most favorite girl in the entire world is here with me.
And then something inside me snaps.
The crack is more obvious than the kick some dick just landed on my leg.
Without being dramatic, the trickle of rage that leaks from the fracture inside me is a little scary.
But now it’s started, there’s no stopping the icy cold fury spilling out and icing all those natural born instincts of my Omega side.
Tally is here.
Tally. Is. Here.
Not only is she here, she’s bleeding, and the guy standing over her is undoing his fucking pants.
The ice inside me changes to a heated rage of volcanic proportions. Molten fury erupts, decimating what was holding me back before.
I’m on my feet, and this cunt’s head is in my hands before I can blink my eyes.
Twist , Tynan yells.
My body moves instinctively, without feeling.
But one death doesn’t sate my rage. I’m ready to kill whoever hurt her before moving on to their family and killing them slowly too.
Because they’re guilty by association, and no one will hurt her.
No one will take that delectable, that insanely perfect peach-smelling girl from me.
She’s the girl I jerked off for, and by God, that moment we shared was to die for.
Rafferty! I hear my brother in my thoughts again, and I guess I might have forgotten about him for a second. I was dealing with some life-changing shit, though, like the fact I might be a homicidal maniac who just found his girl. And she’s an Omega.
I hear him calling my name. Properly. Like with my ears, I hear him. He’s here, dragging me from the edge of berserker rage that was building and growing, like a snowball rolling down a mountain, gathering in size and speed.
“Raff.”
I barely face him, and he’s there, holding me tight. Keeping me from erupting again. His arms are like bands around me, holding me together, like it has been since the second we were born.
“Tally,” I roar into his ear. My emotions explode out, the stress of everything making it hard to breathe or think. I go to shove him off so I can get to her, but he stops me, squeezing his arms so I can’t escape.
“Keegan’s got her. Ro found where she put Daisy. They’re good, Rafferty. You hear me? They will both be okay. You come back to me now.”
Tynan holds me still; his forehead pushed against mine and I lean into him, taking everything he offers. His eyes are full of a thousand emotions. My brother is a closed book. And how talkative he is right now, how fucking bonkers I am too, let’s me know how close we came to death tonight.
“Shit, Raff, your eyes and scent are freaking me out. You’re still snarling and hissing. We need to get Tally to a doctor, and you probably need one, too, but she’s not great. I need you to help me by calming down, or I can’t let you come with us like this.”
Hearing him say that about me eats arse. But it also makes sense, because looking back at how I felt, I’m kind of scared of myself too.
“She was hurt, and I saw red.”
“I think it was more than red.” He smiles, his eyes not leaving mine for a moment. And in them, he shows me exactly how he feels. He hides nothing. “Guess we found what flips my favorite brother into beast mode.”
“Only brother.” I flame red like a tomato under his praise. Stupid, because I know how much Tynan loves me. Making him proud is kind of next-level amazing too.
I close my eyes, letting his barely there lemon verbena scent wash over and settle me like it has always.
There’s still a battle of wills going on inside me, because now I let the cat out of the bag, my beast side doesn’t want to relinquish his rage, just in case, but he knows he needs to because Tynan said Tally’s hurt.
I count up to ten really fucking quickly before shutting the monster inside me down. Shaking my head and twisting out of Tynan’s hold, I swing my arm around his shoulder.
“She saved me. We wouldn’t be doing this if she hadn’t shown up and jumped in to help.”
Tynan’s jaw snaps shut.
I do one of those full body twitches that shakes the both of us. And we are back to who we are.
I pull him closer, resting my head on his shoulder and breathing in his subtle scent in.
His lack of words tells me how fucking furious he is.
He helps me to the car, our hands moving over each other, not in a sexual way, but it’s a twin thing where the touch is as necessary as the air we share.
The drive passes in the blink of an eye.
I can’t remember if we spoke, or who sat where, each of us consumed by everything that happened.
Lost in the reality that our night could have turned out very differently.
It’s like a broken film or like reading chapters in a book out of order, because while I remember key parts of it, all the details were lost.
I definitely remember getting in Ronin’s face and shoving him back to Keegan when someone suggested he should hold Tally. The look on their faces—a mix of horror and respect—is etched in my mind forever. As is the perfume my Alphas leaked.
Then there’s a rather large gap in my memories.
Clearly, we stopped at Maeve’s, or she came to ours, because Daisy was tucked under my arm one minute, and then she wasn’t.
And since no one was going on another rampage, and the scent of relief hung in the air as much as the scent of my pack, our niece must be okay.
We made it home, though it’s another thing I don’t remember. Although I’m not sure I will ever forget the arsehole doctor playing me. He came in all coy and shit, then my arm was hurting like a bee sting and I was blinking to stay awake.
“Why?” I ask Ronin. My mouth starts to move slower, the fog in my head weighing me down.