Chapter 12 #2
He motioned her to come to him since he couldn’t get any words out, and his feet were rooted to the spot—the only direction they were willing to take him was the two paces needed to reach the safety of the door.
She approached him with slow, hesitant steps that gradually gained speed.
He didn’t recognize the ground vehicle as a threat at first—the parking garage was full of them, after all—but something in the way it drove, the acceleration when it should have been decelerating…
His perception warped, sound flattening and edges blurring, as if the world itself was tipping under his feet.
He started to walk toward her but soon broke into a run.
The big, blacked-out vehicle screeched to a halt. She froze, head swinging toward it. It wasn’t Lucian’s, but perhaps she thought it was.
“Run!” His throat finally cooperated with his needs. Her eyes flashed to him. He was closer now, and he saw her eyes widen in shock as all four doors opened and alphas spilled out.
One, two, three, four.
He was still too far away.
Dropping the backpack, she ran to him.
Too late.
One man caught her around the waist. She screamed, and it churned his stomach. Where the fuck was the backup? How the fuck long did it take them to get their asses here?
Fuck!
He had nothing, no weapons—nothing. He wasn’t even wearing shoes. He tackled the nearest alpha as they tossed Madelyn into the back of the SUV. He had no real plan beyond trying to delay their leaving. They both crashed on the ground. He didn’t see the bat coming for his head until it connected.
The world swam, his ears rang, and the rest of the blows landed against the backdrop of her high, terror-steeped scream.
He tried to fight, to roll away, but there were too many, and his world faded to black.
Tears trickle down my cheeks. His emotions pummeled the bond. Impotence. Rage. Self-loathing.
The woman was Lucian’s mate. She was taken.
Rhett was beaten trying to save her. How can he not see how impossibly brave that was?
And she was safe now, with Lucian, again.
The terrible experience in her past. Maybe she blamed Rhett?
But no, his mind offered no recriminating words from the young omega, nor from his brother.
This guilt and blame are all on his side.
He goes to pull away, but I grab his wrist, and I won’t let go. A sick, panicky weight settles over me. I hate his attempt at distance.
“Don’t touch me. How can you bear to touch me? I’m not fucking worthy.”
Righteous strength surges through me. I stand and drag him to sit where I was on the couch, then I crawl over him and wrap my arms and legs around him as best I can.
He trembles.
God, my heart is breaking, but I’m determined to have his eyes and cup his face until I get them. “It’s not your fault, Rhett.”
“I’m a fuck-up.”
His eyes glisten. There is so much hurt burning in their depths.
“It’s not your fault.”
“A fucking loser.”
“It’s not your fault. Don’t say that.”
He hasn’t put the barrier up in his mind, and I’m whisked back through time.
A dark, dingy room with a glowing light coming from racks of computer screens, takeout boxes, and cans littering the floor….
Back…
Waking in a sterile room, beeping monitors, a younger, harried version of Lucian, wearing military fatigues stands beside the bed where Rhett lies.
Back…
Darkness, beeping, distant voices….
Back…
More darkness.
Back…
A dark, gritty, litter strewn, alleyway, the sound of sirens, gunshots, and screams. Dangerous. Desolate. I don’t know the place, but it has an edge-of-chaos vibe.
Forward…
People screaming, running between semi-derelict buildings. Automatic weapons fire both near and distant. A noxious cloud looms on the skyline. Choking.
Forward…
People huddled in corners of empty rooms, rocking, shaking, sweating.
A viral awakening, done on mass?
“Where was that place?” I ask quietly.
“Lyus.”
A shudder. I heard about Lyus and what the government did there only later. The Uncorrupted had taken advantage of the distraction to capture the ship taking me from Chimera to Tolis.
Ten years ago, both our lives were irrevocably changed.
He has been damaged… like me, and yet in a different way.
“You weren’t always agoraphobic.”
He shakes his head stiffly. “The government needed more alphas. An entire planet, previously untouched? Yeah, that yielded a few.”
It left him in a coma. For a long time, from what I can tell.
Certainly long enough for Lucian to be trained and deployed as a soldier in the war.
My heart is breaking for him. And Lucian?
My knowledge of him is limited, but he took care of Rhett.
So many images bombard me. Their lives were not always like this, but the unwavering love and loyalty between the two men is both pervasive and enduring.
“What they did was terrible. Inhuman.”
“We were losing the war. We still are,” he says coldly.
“The virus changes everyone. But it can only make more of what’s already there.
I mean, I’m an alpha. Only I’m not quite an alpha, am I?
The virus switches traits, enhances them, and switches others off.
” He pauses, searching for the words. “I was always good with technology, even back on Lyus as a kid. But after I came out of the coma, it was as if I could see the patterns, feel them, and sense their shape… I’m guessing you’ve pieced enough together enough to understand that my brother runs a criminal empire.
He owns this building and a significant number of other businesses in downtown Chimera.
A fight club. Restaurants… An interstellar shipping company.
The list goes on. The seed funds, the intelligence that builds it, that keeps it going—I provide that. ”
“You’re a hacker,” I say slowly.
“I am. One without a moral compass. After Lyus and what happened with the virus, I suspect my lack of giving a fuck runs in my blood. I do whatever I need to make sure no one gets in our way. Bribery. Blackmail. I’m not a good man, Larissa.
You deserve a good man.” He swallows. “I shouldn’t have put my mark on you.
I should have been stronger, but I wasn’t.
Too late to change your mind. You’re mine and nobody’s going to take you away from me—not Black, not the fucking government, and not the Uncorrupted. ”
The bond blazes between us.
“If something’s happening, I’ll know about it.
If something’s going down, I’ll see. I have ears and eyes everywhere…
Ethan’s going to return at some point. He wants to use you as leverage against the government.
He’ll have reasons for going this route, and I need to find them out if I’m to keep you safe. ”
A fire is back in his eyes. He’s not a conventional alpha. Oh, he’s big and strong. But he’s not a warrior—not the way Ethan is. Nor does he harbor the gritty edge I sense in Lucian.
He’s something different.
Dangerous in his own way.
Do I care that he’s a criminal? Do I care that he’s agoraphobic?
I cup his cheek and look him in the eyes, hearing his thoughts: You don’t want me, I’m broken.
“Do you think any of this makes me see you as less?” You are not broken, you’re just different—unconventional.
His throat works. “You say that now, but—”
“I don’t know if I can go outside, either, if I’m honest. As for you being a hacker, a criminal, I’ve spent ten years with the Uncorrupted.
” Bile rises in my throat, but I swallow it down.
“I helped them as they tortured our captive soldiers, men like your brother, reading their minds and giving up their secrets. I’m responsible for the deaths, for the torture, the humiliation, pain, and suffering of thousands.
My existence spawned their viral program.
I have been their unwilling helper. I betrayed everything I once stood for.
” Fresh tears trickle down my cheeks. “I betrayed my own kind!”
His arms wrap around me, crushing me to him, his purr loud and slightly off beat. “I hate to do the ‘back at ya’ thing, but also, that is not your fault.”
“I could have said no. I could have been stronger. But I don’t like pain, Rhett. Not good with it.”
“Baby, you shouldn’t have had to be,” he says softly. “I’ve seen the scars on your body. Everybody breaks under torture. Everybody, Larissa. Breaking when bad people do shit to you, that doesn’t make you bad, it makes you human. And now you have lumbered yourself with me.”
“God, this is a rollercoaster of a conversation. Now you’re making me mad! I have lived in a cage my whole adult life; I think I have the right to choose.”
“I’m the first alpha you’ve met. It’s hardly a balanced sample.”
“Incorrect. I have met thousands, and I’ve seen into the minds of every one of them. You’re the first alpha that I’ve ever trusted.”