2. Blaze
Blaze
He tugs against the arms holding him but more like he’s testing their conviction. I feel sorry for them because this is not going to go well. The man looks like my beloved.
Except right now…I can see all the differences in stark contrast. His hair is thinner and a shade or two lighter than Sage’s natural deep red colour. Their eyes are almost identical, but his father’s eyes are flatter, duller, and show his fear and greed too easily.
He roars at Sage, ignoring King holding him, his tendons bulge, and his face turns purple. King’s grip holds the alpha in place, preventing him from moving even an inch.
Sage has had enough.
I’ve been waiting for years for him to get to the stage where patricide was finally the only option he had. It’s inevitable.
It’s going to be glorious.
I’ve had this property forever. Keeping it specifically for this purpose.
No one will hear him scream. It’s been weeks, and Sage kept my mind from breaking, letting me hunt and kill until my bloodlust was sated, then held me when exhaustion gripped me.
But the bonds flow both ways, and we’re both too close to the edge. Our omegas are gone.
What fucking sanity?
And this…his plan. How could I say no?
Beside Dwight is a woman. An omega who has quickly become one of my most least liked people on the planet. She looks nothing at all like her son. Her hair is a dull brown and her eyes are muddy. She’s thin and tall and has pointed features. I just don’t see Rose in her at all.
She hurt my alphas.
Now, she’s got to pay the price, and the price of that pain is steep.
I don’t interfere, though. It’s not my place. This is all Sage. Rolly and King stand witness, looming in the dark, dripping with violence.
“You can let go now, King. Thank you.”
King grumbles but lets go of them, sneering in disgust as he backs to where Rolly is waiting.
“How dare you bring us here,” Dwight growls.
He’s so pathetic. The fact that he brutally turned Sage into the nightmare he is, thinking to use him as a weapon, is hilarious, especially with the situation he’s currently found himself in.
Karma is a cunt some days.
I lean on the wall, folding my arms over my chest, watching Sage, who has been ignoring them thus far, turn.
He’s in his bloody element, the killer rising to the surface.
The one that’s been trained to extort maximum pain, to be so meticulous he can take days to extract a life, who can’t be bought or bribed, who can’t be blackmailed or threatened.
He’s an artist, and his paintbrush is death.
He’s smart, educated, and some might say he lacks a heart. He’s got one. Sage just cares about a handful of people, and these two are definitely not on the list.
Sage’s voice is filled with a deadly menace as he purrs out an order for them to shut the fuck up.
Sage’s father shouts and screams even louder.
Cassiopeia, Rose’s embarrassingly shallow mother, screams louder still, the words that come out of her mouth would shock a death row inmate.
She threatens only the most violent future on my alpha.
It’s almost insulting. Except they will be dead soon, so the irony is there.
They sneer at him from where they sit, still trying to brazen it out.
They are both dressed in cocktail attire. Sage didn’t give them an opportunity to go anywhere. He took them straight from whatever social event they were attending, citing that they needed an emergency meeting. I seriously doubt anyone will miss them, they are truly horrible people.
“You ruined the business. We gave you the perfect opportunity to take over from Vale,” Dwight howls. “You threw it in our faces. Now, you’re here begging-”
I bark a laugh. Begging. That’s cute.
“Vale? I don’t care about Vale,” Sage says. He shakes his head as if there’s an echo of something inside. “Your business can burn. I don’t give a shit.”
“How dare you! We gave you everything. We trained you. You are a dog to do as we command.”
Sage looks up, blinking. I don’t like that distraction in him, that hesitance. He needs our omegas. He needs Aaron. As much as it frustrates me to admit it, Aaron Roseland is part of the alpha set that keeps us all balanced. He would know how to bring the gleam of life back to Sage’s eyes.
“A dog?”
“You bite where we tell you to bite, you growl when we say growl, you piss where I point. You had the chance to take your cousin’s spot, but you couldn’t even do that right!”
He hits Sage. I stand up, my attention focusing on the alpha as he stands over his son, shouting meaningless words. I don’t care what he says, I care that Sage is bleeding.
Get up, Sage, or I’m going to fix this problem for you.
His eyes slide to me as if he heard me speak. I shake my head, my lips pressed together in distaste at his silent command for me to stay.
Sage is dragged to his knees, and his father backhands him, ripping open his lip. My snarl echoes around the room, and Cassiopeia reaches into her handbag and pulls out a gun, which she lifts and points straight at my face. How predictable.
Oh, she’s got some crazy lady balls. Ones that are going to get ripped off and shoved down her throat to choke her.
“Perhaps we should get rid of your pack, then we can see about getting you back on track,” she says sweetly. Her smile is one of victory and smugness.
Kill me? Ha. She’s too busy gloating at Sage to realise that she’s not watching the danger in the room.
In fact, of the four of us, they seem to have completely forgotten the other two alphas entirely. It is never a good thing to forget a serial killer. Let alone two, and Rolly and King are moving slowly, silently across the space.
“Kota wouldn’t like it if you tried. He’s got a fondness for me,” I say conversationally, and though I smile, it’s full of deadly intent.
“I’m not like your son, who can so easily disappear.
People will notice that I’m gone. The wrong people, and then you will find yourself explaining to them what happened. ”
“It was an accident. The gun went off.” She pretends to cry, and I will give it to her; she’s good. Brilliant, even.
“Will Aaron corroborate your story?”
Her face turns to granite.
“I didn’t think so,” I say quietly, not even looking at the gun as it shifts up to point straight between my eyes.
“Shut your face, you arrogant little shit,” she hisses out.
I’m not quite sure why this couple thinks they are untouchable, but maybe it’s because they have spent too much time rubbing shoulders with those who have power, or they just think their names will protect them.
That was all before.
Before Merle.
Before Roseland.
Before Daega.
“Where is Aaron? I’m going to make sure he arrests all of you for this. Perhaps a few nights in the cells will have you learning some manners?” Cassiopeia snarls.
“Where is Aaron?” Sage asks, repeating her question, but he sounds so confused.
I glance at him sharply. No, don’t fall apart, Sage. No. Hold on, hold on to me. He looks at me.
“Where is my Rose?”
“He’s with Pix and Kestrel,” I murmur.
Sage shudders and closes his eyes. He inhales deeply, sharply, and when his eyes open, they are cold and crystalline. The rage is back, the purpose, and this version has no mercy for anyone.
“Yes, where is my son? I’m going to put him down like a dog, too.” Cassiopeia snarls. “If he doesn’t do as I say, I’ll end him here, too. I brought him into this world, I can take him out.”
Sage freezes.
“Oh, boy,” Rolly whispers and takes a half a step behind me.
“You’re going to kill Aaron, too?” Sage whispers. “I thought it was just me. That I was the problem.”
The pair of them laugh, they haven’t noticed the unraveling of my alpha or the pain that has saturated and seeped into the air.
“He’s been fired. He’s a killer. We can’t have blood like that tainting the family name-”
Sage slams his fist into his father’s mouth and somehow grabs hold of his tongue. He yanks it back and cuts it off before anyone can move.
Holy. Shit. That was hot and so very impressive. Just the strength and skill that he needed to do that blows my mind.
His father blinks and then screams, blood pours out of his mouth. Sage steps towards him and puts the tongue in the breast pocket of his father’s tux. I start laughing.
This is glorious.
“Wow!” King whispers.
“Hell, I’m impressed. I didn’t know he could do that,” Rolly whines in excitement.
“No one touches Aaron,” Sage says in the coldest, most deadly voice I’ve ever heard.
The gun is pointed in his direction, but it wavers, and when it looks like she might shoot him, I move, and she points it back at me as if she thinks I’m the bigger danger.
Sage isn’t sane anymore, but then, none of us are.
Where are our omegas?
“Dad, I’m afraid this is going to have to be a parting of ways. I just think that we’ve gone too far in different directions.”
His dad stumbles and drops to his knees, hands together in a pleading, begging gesture that Sage completely ignores. He grabs the gun in a direct move that ends up breaking the delicate bones in Cassiopeia's fingers. She screams and turns, trying to run.
Sage picks up a piece of wood and throws it hard at the back of her knee. His aim is perfect. She goes down hard, landing in the dusty room with a crash.
“You said you were going to kill my Rose.”
Sage is stuck on that.
“You raised a gun on my alpha.”
They look at me in terror.
“I think it’s time I took out the trash,” Sage says in an eerily flat voice.
He murders his father and stepmother with meticulous and cruel efficiency. They suffer. Alot. But two days later, they are very, very dead.
In the end…he is exactly what they made him.
A rabid dog they couldn’t control.
“Baby?” I say, moving confidently towards him. “Shall we resume our hunt?”
Sage flicks some brain matter off his top. “Yes, I think we should.”
We have a clue. Just one.
Apparently, their private investigator saw a man matching Roseland’s description in a small town. He’s been there ever since, watching them, we have an agreement to meet. Little does he know, our meeting will be the last he ever attends.
First, we’ll go and get rid of that man, then we’ll stake out the town, if there’s even the slightest chance it’s them, we’ll find them.
Rolly and King make sure the whole place burns so fiercely no one will find any trace, and then we resume our hunt for the omegas we’ve lost.
And when we find them…God help anyone who tries to hurt them again.