Chapter 58
Chapter Fifty-Eight
KEEGAN
I n an emergency situation, everything tracks differently. And unless you’ve trained specifically for high-stress situations, the notion of impending doom is terrifying. I get that. But fear makes people stupid, and I have absolutely no tolerance for stupidity. It drives me fucking crazy.
“Kee.” Rafferty’s voice slices through the volatility hazing my thoughts.
I spin on my feet and find him in an instant.
Seeing him, hearing him, even over the distance and the fucking mayhem building around us is purifying on one hand—he always has and always will soothe the ravages inside me—but it also feeds my desperation.
Put simply, we’re wasting time waiting for the shite to come to us, when we should be out there, acting offensively.
Rafferty gets it. He’s aggravated and baying for blood, but he’s also being more diplomatically minded.
He holds his hand up, purses his lips, and guides me down to a simpler place.
A place where it’s just him and me, Ty, Ronin, and our missing wife.
That’s what’s important, and that’s where I want to be with a desperation that makes me want to hurt people.
It eats at me that Paddy’s forced us here.
“Again,” he mouths because he knows I’m nowhere near the amicable state he wants me to be.
But before he can help me settle down some more, he growls and holds his hand up, asking me to wait.
He hears or sees something I don’t and races after someone or something.
It’s near impossible to see because, all around me, there’s absolute fucking chaos.
And now two of my Omegas are not where they should be, which is by my side.
Around me, the dark world we live in keeps turning, not waiting for me to pull my head out of my arse. There are shots being fired, people screaming, and a heaviness hangs in the atmosphere like an omen of how bad shite is about to get.
I chase the disassociation that comes from going up against your enemies and hungering for their blood on your hands. Which is a damn sight easier than getting caught in the emotional fallout of not being able to see any of my pack.
It took every bit of our experience and patience getting all the O’Connor family, aside from Paddy and Jeanie, to safety.
If Ronin hadn’t asked us to help him, it might not have happened, because our pack is facing its own crisis.
Now they’re gone from sight, they’re gone from mind too.
That detachment doesn’t diminish the love I have for Ronin’s family, or the rage I feel towards Paddy, but right now, neither of them are on my agenda.
In the corner of my eye, a flash of movement stirs through the air. I pick up a brush of Rafferty’s energy and a hint of his sweet sage scent, and even without him guiding me again, I get air back into my lungs.
His face is flushed, his blue eyes wild and unsettled, but until we’re all back together, I suspect we’ll all be looking the same.
“Ronin and Paddy are screaming black and blue at each other in the foyer,” Rafferty explains, as he falls into my arms. “I think you need to step in before Ronin does something he’ll regret.”
There’s nothing wrong with Raff as such, just his designation riding his ass like always. He hates the constant need to touch his Alphas, but I can’t say I agree with him. I’m always up for feeling his skin on mine.
A gun fires, and I pull him down so hard, he grunts as I wind him.
“Shit, Raff, sorry,” I murmur, covering him with my body, not giving him much space to catch his breath.
I know firsthand how life can change in the blink of an eye, so me stealing a few seconds with Rafferty…well, the world can kiss my arse if it so chooses.
“You good?” he says softly, his voice still strained as he wheezes past my weight on him. But he doesn’t push me off; he pulls me down more.
I shake my head against his hand.
“We’ve done all we can. Let’s go get Ro and find our girl.”
“She’s here, Raff. I know she is. Ty hasn’t come back yet. Even with all the fighting going on here.”
“You better not be thinking that’s a bad sign.”
I push my forehead to his, taking as much as I can from his energy and his anchoring sage and sugar scent.
All the things I should tell him, like how he’s one of the first things on my mind when I wake up, or fall asleep, need saying, but no words ever seem enough.
I brush my lips over his, whispering as I kiss him softly. “I love you, Rafferty.”
“I know you do.” He smirks before dipping his eyes. “I love you more, I think.”
“Impossible,” I growl before checking over my shoulder, to make sure the coast is clear.
When I pull him to his feet, Rafferty moves straight back into battle mode. It’s such a fucking turn-on, watching the change wash over him. Every time I see him straddle both lines—Omega and man—it only confirms the simple fact it’s my fucking privilege to be his Alpha.
Now I just need the world to give me a fucking minute so I can go save my other Omega.
Honestly, I don’t have the emotional capacity needed right this second to delve too deep into having two Omegas to love and protect.
So instead, I take a leaf out of Rafferty’s book and become a different version of myself.
“Fuck!” Ronin’s roar bounces through the Cathedral’s high-vaulted ceilings, and Rafferty takes off in the direction, with me close on his heels.
Ronin is red in the face, sharing with the world how truly pissed off he is, using both his presence and scent to emphasize the fact. Poor Rafferty starts coughing, and I have to clench my fists not to smack some sense into Ronin, but like me, he goes to water at Raff’s distress.
“Shit, baby, sorry.” Soft words from an angry man, but we’re all aware Ronin’s anger isn’t directed our way.
Without hesitation, I move to Ronin’s back, in protection and also to let him know I’m here for him. I get a one-armed hug as he pulls me into the space where Rafferty and he are already.
“Paddy’s being a stubborn cunt. He’s insistent on walking out the doors. I’m wasting time arguing with him instead of finding Tally.”
I pull back, questioning him with a look for more.
“I’m fucking torn, Kee. What if something happens to him because he’s being so pigheaded he won’t listen to me? But worse, what happens if Tally is here, and she needs rescuing?”
“Who’s with Paddy?”
“Jeanie. And…”
The way the world works is something no one can predict. There’s nothing—no training, no person’s love, no magic on earth, no fortitude in mind or spirit—that prepares a person to face what happens next.
Two critical moments happening in complete synchronicity with devastating effects. The only way destiny knows how to work.
Somehow we witness our worst nightmare as it unfolds in slow motion.
Paddy O’Connor pulls the front doors wide open, shouting at his enemies, “ Faugh a Ballaugh .”
They do “clear the way.”
They pump his chest full of bullets.
Then they do the same to Jeanie, making her body fly backwards as she’s riddled with bullets.
I never hear the sound of a gun going off.
My ears, instead, lock on Tynan’s broken and desperate cries.
When I finally manage to tear my eyes from the bodies of Paddy and Jeanie O’Connor, I have a flash of obscurity, wondering if seeing Tynan will be worse than what I just saw.
It is.
He isn’t bleeding to death, but the look in his eyes suggests otherwise. Pain and suffering like I’ve never seen. The grief on his face cleaves my heart in two.