Chapter 39
Thirty-Nine
DOMINIC
A young guy has Violet pinned against the only open wall, his arm pressed against the base of her throat. The blue dress hangs off her body in tatters, her breasts on full display from the ripped out neckline. Rough bruises are already darkening her skin, and her hair is falling out of her styled updo. Her eyes are glassy, her breath coming in short pants, even as her hands shake against the man’s shoulders. She looks like an extra for a horror film, not an attendee at the black tie optional fundraising event for the upper crust of LA.
The man pinning her looks over his shoulder, his lips pulling back in a snarl.
Violet’s honeysuckle scent is so strong, it’s only the rut suppressor that keeps me from leaping on her, too. She pushes against the man, but he doesn’t even flinch. There’s no sour scent caused by her unwillingness. Her heat has already reached the point of no return.
“Fuckboy Extraordinaire?” Rylan sounds dazed, like he just took a punch to the face.
The man’s hand stills on his belt. His eyes are glazed over. His scent is tangy with his rage and nearly overbearing with the hallmark feel of an Alpha in rut. Alphas like this are dangerous. Rutting means bonding.
My rage grows hotter.
“Alpha?” Violet whispers, her voice as distant as her eyes. “Oh my god. Alpha, please.” She drops her hand, holding it out toward me. No, toward?—
Rylan lurches forward, taking her hand in his and pulling her away from the asshole. The other man leaps on him and takes him to the ground. Fueled by his rage and emerging rut and mixed with Rylan being caught off guard, he manages to do decent damage despite his shit form, Rylan’s lip splitting on the second hit. Violet cries out and reaches for him before realizing her dress is fucked. She scrambles at the scraps, trying to pull them over herself, not so far gone yet that she’s lost her unwillingness to be vulnerable around me.
“ Tesoro ,” I murmur, stepping out of the room to try and get a breath that doesn’t have Violet’s siren call of a scent in it.
Dropping my hand, he says, “I’ve got her.”
The moment he has her in his arms, his body blocking her from anyone who might happen upon this, I take out my rage on the asshole who touched her. My form isn’t shit. It only takes two well-placed hits to have him off Rylan and held against me, my forearm pressing into his throat hard enough that he thrashes, his feet kicking out and trying to get enough purchase to push up and break my hold.
I press harder against his neck, enjoying the fuck out of his desperate little grunts.
“You can’t kill him,” Jasper whispers.
I look over my shoulder, and he’s staring at me, his jaw set. His arm is wrapped around Violet, and her head is buried in his arm. She rubs her face against the fabric of his suit jacket before whining.
“Alpha,” she whispers. It’s nearly inaudible over the din of the asshole still trying to get free of my hold. Rylan rolls onto his knees and grabs her hand, running a hand over her knuckles. She shudders in a breath, the distant look clearing from her eyes for a heartbeat. “I… Oh fuck, Jasper. It… it happened so fast. I thought I could get it under control by cooling down my body. But then she…”
Her voice fades away as she whines again. Her eyes flutter closed as her body trembles in Jasper’s hold. The honeysuckle of her scent grows stronger, and the man thrashes against me even harder, snarling in his rut-induced rage.
“She’s mine ,” he snarls. “I found her. She’s unbonded. It’s my right.”
I couldn’t control the growl that rips through me if I tried. And I don’t. I adjust my hold on the asshole until I’m kneeling over him, my knee in his chest. The feeling of his ribs starting to give way feeds that insidious thing inside me hardwired to protect.
“ Sbagliato, stronzo ,” I mutter. “She’s no one’s but her own.”
He was going to rape an Omega.
My Omega .
The thought races through me so fast, it momentarily stuns me. A moment later, the rut slams into me, only marginally dampened by the suppressor. She’s mine , not his. He doesn’t get to know the little noise she makes when a knot locks into her cunt. He doesn’t get to feel the way her slick drenches her thighs when her nipples are played with.
But I do. I have . And I need to fucking feel her come on my knot to prove it to the bastard.
“ Dominic ,” Jasper’s urgent voice cuts through the haze.
I blink, trying to clear it, but the scent is too fucking strong. Jasper kneels in front of me, cupping my face and running a thumb over my cheekbone.
Where the fuck is my Omega?
“Listen to me.” His voice rushes over me, softening the edges of the haze. It’s instinct to breathe deeply, but he shakes his head as my nostrils flare. “No, don’t breathe yet. You have to listen first.”
There’s weeping somewhere nearby. I twist, trying to find my Omega, but Jasper tightens his hold.
“I can’t hold you if you fight me, Dom, and you have to listen to me right now.”
I pant through the desire to punch him, trying to rationalize it’s just the smell of an Omega’s heat pushing me to be so out of control. I’m not the brother that’s known for unrestrained violence. That’s Lorenzo. He’s the fighter. I’m simply the one that goes in and cleans up messes with the precision of a goddamn surgeon.
“I’ve got you, Omega,” Rylan murmurs. Violet’s sobs grow louder. “We’ll get you to your nest soon, all right? Give us long enough to sort through getting you out of here.”
Rylan’s voice, miraculously, pushes the haze back enough that I can fucking think .
Cazzo . This is exactly what I hate about being an Alpha.
I close my eyes for a moment, counting back from ten.
When I open them again, Jasper’s blue gaze is right in front of me, his hands brushing across my face and down my neck. He takes my hand and threads his fingers through mine, forcing them off the man’s throat.
“Sienna won’t just let this be buried. Not if she thinks there’s a way to boost her own image with it,” Jasper murmurs. “We have to let the authorities handle it.”
I nod once.
“I heard yelling,” a woman says, her voice growing closer. “Someone go get Lena. And maybe Margie?”
Jasper’s hand tightens around mine. “Rylan?”
“Got her,” he says with grim determination.
More voices come from the hallway.
Jasper takes a deep breath and stretches his neck. “I need you to let him up. Before whoever is out there sees you pinning him like this. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can make sure Violet is safe.”
Violet . That sickening lurch happens in my stomach again. I twist to see her, but she’s hidden completely by Rylan. His gaze locks with mine, one eyebrow rising as he takes in my haggard appearance.
“Come on, amico ,” he mutters. “God only knows how long Jasper will be able to keep you calm enough. I can’t have you waiting for your father to bail your ass out tonight. She’s going to need us both. At least in the beginning.”
As if on cue, Violet whimpers, and the force of her scent slams into me again.
I ease off the asshole. His eyes are livid, his breath sawing out of him in short, ragged pants. There’s a bruise forming under his left eye, and he snarls at me as I brush off my trousers, though he doesn’t attempt to get up and fight me anymore.
I’m just finishing adjusting the suit jacket, Jasper’s hand still tightly laced with mine and his other flat against my chest, when the doorway darkens.
“What is going on here?” a man asks, his voice low and gruff, his short frame blocking most of the doorway.
Jasper tenses for a heartbeat, his eyes urging me to caution. I give him a subtle nod and squeeze his hand.
Violet drops into another round of crying, her whimpers morphing into sobs between one heartbeat and the next, her breathing ragged from where she’s stashed behind Rylan in the far corner. It’s dark enough that the man has no hope of seeing her in her ruined dress. Another man rushes in behind him before any of us manage to say anything. The lights from the hallway cast shadows on his face, leaving only a general impression, but it’s enough.