Chapter 45 Vale
Vale
The path is mapped out in my head, and I follow the markers, but after an hour, I pause, glancing back at Cyn, because something doesn’t feel right. There’s this uneasy sense that I have missed something important.
The rage wants me to just react, but my much more sinister nature demands that I not make a single mistake.
“Which way?”
He points northwest.
The river is between us and them. I know exactly where we can cross.
We pass the first camp where we spent a very traumatic evening with the smell of burning vomit.
I dive down that path she took us, almost running, and leap into the river.
The current is stronger than before and the water higher from all the rain we’ve had, but I get across easily and turn, grabbing Cyn’s hand and hauling him out of the current.
Rory grabs Kota and drags him up onto solid ground.
Now I stand where the body of that camper was found. It seems like an ill omen. I shove those thoughts down and reach out along the bonds. They are shut, not even a shiver of feeling from her.
“Let’s go,” I snarl, enraged.
The world turns to a blur, but my mind is razor sharp, taking in information and methodically filing it with details, like I always do.
We run in silence, making as little noise as possible. Our clothes go from wet to damp to dry, and there is still no sign of them.
“Where are they, Cyn?”
“Ahead of us,” Cyn hisses in annoyance.
Kota grunts and then leaps up on a boulder, looking ahead. “What if they are on the river?”
We should have gained on them. We should have caught them, so this makes sense and just further frustrates me. Any time we gained, we’ve lost because none of us thought of it.
And every second he has her, there’s a chance that she might be hurt, dying, or needing us.
Rory turns, looking up at Kota.
“Cyn, is it possible?” I ask. “Are they getting ahead using the river?”
“That they are using the river to get there faster? Yes. Very possible, explains how they are so far ahead of us. I should have thought of that. Shit.”
I waste no time wading out into the water. “We stay together.”
We don’t have life jackets, a raft, our packs, or any idea of what the river looks like ahead of us.
Only the sure knowledge that she’s ahead of us with a killer.
It’s enough. I get to the edge of a current, wait until they are with me, then I plunge out into it, getting snatched up and thrown into a washing machine of white water.
I get into the position she said to stay in, putting my legs out first and laying on my back.
Every piece of information Bonnie and Mitchel told us goes through my head. When the white water eases, I flip onto my stomach and freestyle until I get to the next section. We move silently through the landscape. The river simply catches us up and throws us into a headlong speedway.
We move much faster than we would on land, but I’m waterlogged and cold when Cyn calls out.
“Get out,” Cyn says after a couple of hours. I climb out of the water, pulling my mask off. There’s no chance of being accidentally spotted now, and I want him to know who is coming for him. I think when I get out, the river level drops.
Cyn drops to one knee and pulls out his phone, removing it from its waterproof sleeve.
“We’re close. They’ve left the river this way.”
“Thank God, I thought I’d have to learn how to breathe underwater,” Kota grumbles.
I take off my jacket because it weighs so much and leave it on the rock beside the river. The others do the same.
Cyn takes off, running into a part of the forest that we haven’t seen before, and we follow. I would follow him anywhere if it meant saving her.
There’s no going slow. Not with her life on the line.
Each step feels like it takes forever; each minute feels like a lifetime. Cyn leads us through an ancient forest that is eerily still. I take note of the landmarks: a huge boulder, a fallen tree. On the other side of a thick corpse of bushes is a single groove in the mud. Kota kneels, studying it.
“Looks like someone fell.”
A growl rumbles out of my chest. Did he hurt her? Is she injured?
“Which way?” I grit out.
Cyn bolts again without saying a word.
I hear a muffled sound of pain from ahead of us and speed up, stretching out into a run, desperate to get to her.
“Please, no,” I hear Kota whisper.
We burst into a clearing, and I stop dead.
Stretched out between two massive and ancient trees is a weeping Kendall. He looks at us and screams. His arms are tied, so he’s hanging there, helpless.
I can’t see her. Where is she?
“Save me. Oh, god, help me,” Kendall screams.
Bonnie walks around the tree, a smear of blood on her face, her smile wide and bright. Completely relaxed and uninjured.
“Took you long enough.” She cocks her head to the side. “You came to save me?”
Kota nods, and I can feel the relief, the emotion, pouring off him. “Yes, we thought…”
Bonnie’s smile turns soft and affectionate. “I’m fine. I had it under control.”
“Oh,” Rory says in disappointment.
I stare at her. Really, really seeing her for the first time. A strange pain slices through me, but as quick as that belief is destroyed, warmth fills it. Oh, the arrogance we had thinking that she was ours because she couldn’t live without us. How foolish we were.
“You don’t need us at all, do you?”
She looks up, her smile slipping.
“You became all this despite us, but you don’t need us. Why have you stayed?” The absolute truth of it floors me. Bonnie could have lived the rest of her life without seeing us again, and she would have been fine, no, more than fine. She would have thrived.
“No, I haven’t needed you for years now.”
I flinch slightly and feel a quiver of pain go through the bond.
“I have been trying to tell you that. I don’t need you, Alphas. I can work, and play, and live a fantastic life without you in it. I learned how. I can protect myself now and take care of any trouble that comes my way.” She shakes her head ruefully. “Even if I hurt, I know it will ease.”
I swallow hard. “Then why?”
“I don’t need you anymore,” Bonnie says with a clear and amused smile. “But I really, really want you in my life.”
And there it is, the part that I didn’t understand.
She doesn’t need us, but she wants us. It’s a distinction that crumbles a wall in me I didn’t know I had up. She chose us. She stays because she loves us.
I don’t know about my pack, but it feels like a wound that was still open just closed up.
“You honour me, Omega.”
She snorts a laugh. “Want to help me or not?” She asks with complete and utter happiness.
This omega is the most perfect omega. I will spend the rest of my life showing her how much I believe that.
“You know, if you are taken or gone or anything, we’re coming for you? We’ll destroy the world to get to you. I need you to know that.”
She blinks and reaches up, smearing more blood on her cheek. My cock twitches.
“I know. Of course, I know. Exactly the same way I would come for you.” She holds up a scalpel. “Now, are you going to help or watch?”
“What?” Kendall says in horror. “No, kill me now. Don’t give me to them.”
“I’m not serial killer Vengeance,” she purrs. “I’m an unknown because I don’t leave traces of my victims. But my mates, well, I think it’s time you guys all met. Vengeance, this is Marrow, the idiot who has been fucking you around for years.”
I stare at Kendall. “It’s a pleasure. For me.”
Kendall struggles and screams in high, hysterical shrieks.
Bonnie jabs the scalpel into the meaty part of his upper arm. “Shh. I told you about screaming. It annoys me.”
She’s the most perfect omega for us, I think in a daze. So amazingly, unbelievably perfect.
“I love you, Bonnie Sanderson.”
She looks at me in confusion. “I love you, too, but do you want to help or not? Why are you just standing there?”
I nod, suddenly wanting nothing more than to help.
“I’ve got some drugs, it will make it fun,” Rory murmurs.
“Oh, show me,” Bonnie says in excitement.
I hesitate and then pull out the mask I shoved in my pocket. “We had this made for you, a bonding gift.”
The mask is elegant and beautiful with black matte vines on the black face. It’s got a crow and a spider, and the lips are slightly smiling.
“It’s gorgeous,” Bonnie says and pulls it on.
My dick perks up, taking interest. “You look incredible.”
I walk up to stand beside her.
“Our first pack kill.” I murmur.
“It will never be forgotten.”
I huff a laugh as the drugs kick in, and Kendall screams.
Cyn whispers, stabbing long needles into his body.
It’s going to be a beautiful day.
I fuck Bonnie hard on the ground. She’s still got her mask on, but she is fairly purring with pleasure as I thrust into her. I slam my hand into the ground beside her head, leaning up so I can look down to where my cock is pounding into her.
I’ve got her claw marks all over my neck. She’s left five more bonding marks on my body, but she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and if she wants to mark me up and make me hers, then nothing short of a god will stop her.
This side of Bonnie, so willfully, aggressively passionate, has me determined to build a cabin out here so we never have to go home.
As we worked together, everything went from furious and fierce to fierce sexual arousal in a second. She’d walked up to me, grabbed my hair, yanked my head down, and kissed me so hard I'd forgotten everything but getting inside her.
“Tell me you like it,” I growl at her.
“You know I do. I’m yours. Your whore, and you are mine.”
I grip her thigh, knowing it’s going to leave bruises, but she just moans and tilts her pelvis, her pussy gripping my cock like a wet vice.
“You are mine,” I growl.
Everything is almost beyond me.
I collapse on her, using my weight and arms to hold her still as I rut into her, groaning at the feel of her slick soaking my pelvis.
“You’re a deviant,” I hiss into her ear and then bite it.
She reaches down and grips my ass cheeks, digging those damn sexy nails into my flesh. I love the pain. I love that she’s marking me up even more, but it’s the soft, stuttering whimper that breaks my self-control.
I hook her thigh on my elbow and explode into a frantic rhythm. Everything about her feels so good. Everything feels so fucking right.
Kendall screams again.
“Fuck!” I shout when she gets even wetter, flooding my balls and thighs with her slick.
Her eyes roll.
“If you don’t come, I’m going to make you wait until we get home!” I snap at her.
Her eyes open wide, and she glares at me. “If you don’t know how-”
I pull out, roll her over, slap her ass hard enough to make her shout, and plunge into her ass.
She screams, but her pussy gushes, and she tightens and shudders in my arms, whimpering and groaning.
“That’s what I thought,” I growl. I pull out and slide back in. I'm so close, but I love this feeling. She’s so tight, and her body is still fluttering around me.
I lean over her and bite her shoulder, holding her still.
“Vale!” she says my name.
It’s enough.
It will always be enough.
I lose my mind; I thrust until I’m buried deep and hold her still while I empty my balls into her.
Her arms are shaking when I pull back and pull her back so she’s sitting on my thighs, my cock still buried in her ass.
Kota turns around from where he’s flaying the back of our captive.
“Are you two going to join us for the finale? It will be dawn soon, and you did make a promise, Bonnie.”
She gets up, gasping as she pulls off my cock.
She looks like mine, smells like mine, and feels happy. The bonds are no longer closed. She is warm and delightfully, incredibly her.
Kendall dies with a moan and a whimper.
He’s got no energy left, and no one is coming to save him.
Bonnie stands there naked but covered in our marks as the dawn comes alive, and a shaft of light illuminates her.
Bonnie was made for the dawn. To stand in the light and look so beautiful while she hides the deepest shadows.
An omega forged in the pain of our rejection and made into someone that will never be broken by us.
One who has become more important to me than my life.
She is our light, our world, our omega.