Chapter Twelve
Odette
Six men stood in the shattered doorway, dark-clothed and masked, but my gaze immediately locked onto the largest alpha, the one standing confidently at their center. Recognition hit me like ice water, freezing me solid in place.
“Hello again, pet,” he drawled, his voice oily and darkly amused.
My stomach turned violently. “That’s…that’s one of them,” I whispered, my voice trembling, barely audible even to myself.
Fallon shot off the couch, throwing her hands in the air, her eyes blazing. “Oh, come ON! How do you assholes keep getting into this supposedly secure fucking house? Are our security systems purely decorative now?”
Violet was already up and crouched beside the couch, pulling something from beneath it. She emerged holding a heavy metal baseball bat, the polished silver engraved with delicate swirling flowers, so bizarrely Violet that under any other circumstances, I would have laughed.
“Vi—why do you even have a bat under Fallon’s couch?” I asked, incredulous.
“For exactly these occasions,” Violet replied casually, lifting it threateningly. “Which, unfortunately, seems to happen weekly now.”
The alpha who’d haunted my nightmares stepped forward slowly, smug and confident. “Ladies, I suggest you cooperate. I’m not here to play games.”
Fallon didn’t hesitate. With a frustrated roar, she flung herself directly at him. Her tiny body collided into his chest, knocking him off balance. “I am so fucking done with this!” she screamed, clawing viciously at his face.
Chaos exploded around us. The other men surged forward, scrambling to subdue us, but Violet swung her bat wildly, metal cracking against bones with brutal precision. The sickening crunch filled the air.
“Yeah, you like that, asshole?” she shouted, sounding terrifyingly pleased as another attacker staggered back, clutching his shattered elbow. “I’ve got more where that came from!”
Adrenaline finally shattered my paralysis, and I grabbed the nearest object, a heavy ceramic vase, and flung it with all the strength I possessed. It shattered spectacularly against one man’s head, knocking him sideways into the coffee table.
“Fuck, nice aim!” Fallon crowed, ducking beneath another attacker’s swinging fist. “Remind me never to piss you off!”
Another attacker lunged, grabbing my arm roughly, his grip bruising.
Pure instinct took over. Panic transformed into rage, and suddenly I was fighting with a viciousness I didn’t know I possessed, scratching, kicking anything within reach.
I don’t care what anyone says yanking someones hair hurts like a fucking bitch.
“Get your fucking hands OFF ME!” I snarled, elbowing him sharply in the throat. He wheezed, stumbling back, momentarily stunned.
“Hell yes, O!” Fallon yelled proudly, still grappling with the enormous alpha. “Channel that fury! Show them why you never mess with our girl gang!”
“Seriously, what is the obsession with kidnapping omegas?!” Violet growled, swinging her bat again with brutal force, the weapon connecting directly with another attacker’s skull. The sickening crack echoed sharply, and he crumpled instantly to the floor, body limp and unmoving.
The entire room froze momentarily, all eyes locked onto Violet, whose bat now dripped blood ominously onto Fallon’s expensive rug.
“Holy shit, Vi!” Fallon shouted, eyes wide with shock. “Did you just kill him?”
Violet stared at the fallen man, blinked slowly, then shrugged with frightening casualness. “Oops.”
Fallon cackles like a maniac, and I can’t help but cheer loudly.
The distraction was enough for the man I’d struck to recover and rush me again. His fist flew forward, a blur of movement I couldn’t avoid. Pain exploded through my jaw, sharp and overwhelming, my vision tunneling down to a pinpoint before darkness swallowed me whole.
The last things I heard before unconsciousness claimed me were Fallon screaming furiously, Violet’s bat connecting with another heavy thud, and the chaotic sounds of a fight that we should never have had to face.
But even in that terrible, terrifying moment, one thing burned fiercely within me:
When I woke up, every last one of these bastards would pay.
Ravik
October 20th
8:24 P.M
The night air was hot, dry enough to make you wheeze, but I welcomed the discomfort.
It kept me alert, focused, and my senses honed to a razor’s edge.
I shifted silently in the cramped interior of our SUV, my gaze never wavering from the elegant, high-rise hotel across the street.
Micha sat calmly beside me, his posture relaxed, but his eyes just as sharp as my own.
Salem monitored the equipment from the backseat, eyes fixed to the screens in front of him.
Haze fidgeted beside him, flipping his knife quietly between his fingers, restless as ever, but somehow managing to maintain the silence.
We’d been parked for hours, hidden by the shadows between flickering streetlights. Waiting. Watching. Patience was something I’d cultivated carefully over the years, but tonight every passing second felt like an eternity.
“Movement in the lobby,” Salem murmured, his voice low and calm. “Our target is on the move. Looks like he’s meeting someone.”
My eyes snapped instantly to the entrance of the hotel.
Our target, a prominent senator known to rub shoulders with Chicago’s elite, emerged confidently from the building, flanked by two of his guards.
His tailored suit gleamed beneath the harsh lights, a perfectly calculated facade that hid the monster beneath.
Micha leaned forward slightly, eyes narrowing as he watched.
“Who’s our new friend?” Micha murmured, watching as another figure approached. The newcomer was tall and heavyset, with the casual confidence of someone accustomed to being in power.
Salem cursed quietly behind us. “Recognize him? That’s one of Kingston’s targets from the auction ring. It looks like our intel was right; they’re connected to the omega fights.”
“Fucking bastards,” Haze growled softly, his knife spinning quicker, agitation building in the quiet rasp of metal. “Give me five minutes alone with either one of them.”
“Five?” Micha snorted quietly, humorless. “You’d need one.”
My jaw clenched tightly, fists tightening on my knees as I watched the men converse casually, laughter drifting through the cool night air.
Rage bubbled low in my gut, a familiar, comforting presence I embraced.
These men were the kind of monsters we’d spent our lives taking down.
If it were my call, they’d already be dead.
“Stay sharp,” Micha warned softly, sensing my anger. “We need the intel more than we need their blood tonight. Wait for my signal.”
I nodded curtly, silently swallowing back the impulse to cross the street and break every bone in their worthless bodies.
Suddenly, a quiet vibration interrupted the tense silence in the SUV.
Salem glanced down at his phone, frowned slightly, and quickly answered.
A flicker of unease rippled down my spine as I caught the faint sound of panicked shouting through the line.
I turned to Salem instantly, the atmosphere shifting sharply, my instincts screaming something was wrong.
Salem’s eyes snapped up to mine, his expression darkening instantly, all traces of calm erased. “That was Kingston. The girls were attacked at the Rosetti house. Fallon, Violet, and Odette are gone.”
For a moment, the world simply stopped. Cold dread punched through my chest, sharp and brutal. The thought of Odette being taken was unbearable. My heart pounded violently, rage hot and thick flooding my veins. My control, carefully honed over years of disciplined training, frayed dangerously.
“They were supposed to be safe there,” Micha growled, raw fury coloring his usually steady voice. His calm veneer cracked, revealing the deadly predator beneath. “How the fuck did anyone get through Rosetti’s security again?”
Haze cursed violently, gripping his blade tightly enough to draw blood from his palm, eyes wild. “I’ll tear them apart, piece by fucking piece.”
“No,” I said quietly, the word slicing through the car like steel. All three sets of eyes snapped to me, surprised at my calm tone despite the storm raging beneath my skin. My voice lowered to a deadly growl. “We’ll tear them apart. Slowly.”
Micha nodded grimly, his eyes burning darkly with promise. “No more surveillance. We go to Kingston now. We’ll tear the city apart if we have to. We get them back.”
I reached out, starting the engine with shaking hands, a single-minded purpose surging through my veins.
They had made a fatal mistake. They had taken what was ours—taken Odette. And now they would learn exactly what we were capable of. As the SUV roared to life and we sped toward the Rosetti pack house, I made a silent vow in the darkness.
I’ll bring you home, little omega.
And heaven help anyone who stood in our way.
Salem
October 20th
9:40 P.M
The Rosetti pack house looked like a warzone, usually a testament to elegance and careful luxury.
Broken furniture littered the marble floor, glass shards glinting dangerously beneath the soft overhead lights.
The once-soft rugs were stained dark red in spots, and the air was heavy with the sharp tang of blood and lingering panic.
All three packs, Rosetti, Frost, and our own, stood silently, shoulders tense, jaws clenched. My gaze moved slowly across the destruction, finally settling on the unmoving body sprawled awkwardly in the center of the chaos. He lay face down, blood pooling beneath his crushed skull, starkly still.
Nearby, a girly-looking baseball bat engraved with delicate floral patterns rested innocently on the rug, smeared crimson. I stared at it, disbelief warring with a strange pride that twisted in my chest.
Voss paced like a caged animal, muttering under his breath, wild-eyed. “I can’t—I can’t fucking do this again. How the fuck did this happen again?”