8. Maverick
Maverick
The phone rings as we race to Pack Caruso’s home, loaded up with every firearm we could fit on ourselves.
We’re two minutes out, ready to rescue the little omega that has my employee in a chokehold.
“Ethan?” Brennan frowns as he hits the answer button, putting Ethan’s voice through the car speakers.
“You need to hurry,” his voice is more panicked than I’ve ever heard. “They just fucking drugged her.”
“With what?” I snap, my foot pressing down harder on the accelerator. Let the police try to get me for speeding. They can chase me all the way to the house of Pack Caruso and then maybe they’ll get caught in the act.
“They…they’re trying to induce her heat,” he rasps.
“They injected it straight into her arm. It could have been synthetic pheromones, it could have been a chemical compound. We have no way of knowing.” Teddy curses up a storm behind me.
I told Brennan it wasn’t a good idea to bring him.
“She’s in the kitchen, and—fuck—they have her cornered. ”
“Not for long,” Brennan growls, his expression going dark.
“Ted, grab the FMS shot from my duffel. Have it ready.” I hope to fuck they’ve injected her with some sort of chemical compound, because if its straight hormones, the shot won’t work.
It’s designed to filter through the blood, neutralizing foreign substances in the system.
It has a technical name I can’t remember, but we just call it FMS—Full Maid Service.
We’ve used the compound for years, and they’re especially helpful in situations regarding trafficking.
More often than not, the victims will be drugged to keep them compliant.
The only thing is, it knocks them out for at least twenty-four hours while their kidneys work overtime to filter out the remaining substances.
Finally, the house comes into view, and I skid to a stop, nearly hitting their car in the process. Too much work has gone into keeping her safe for me to throw it all away now.
“The chef is gone, so just burst in and get her the fuck out of there—Shit! She just stabbed one of them!” Ethan gasps, and despite the undercurrent of fear in my veins, I can’t help but feel some pride. “I’m disengaging the deadbolt on the front door.”
First, she’s resourceful enough to get her location to us, and now she’s protecting herself no matter the cost.
I can see why Teddy is so enamored.
Focus, Mav, I chastise myself. I’ve made it thirty-two years and twenty-two rescue missions without being sucked in by an omega’s charms, I’m not going to start now.
Everything I’ve done up until this point is what I would do for anyone. Not just her.
We exit the vehicle, a practiced unit, our weapons drawn and ready.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to extract her without having to kill anyone, but I’m willing to take that final step if that’s what it takes to get her out. It’s not like I haven’t done it before.
Brennan lifts his foot, kicking the door in with the force of a damn wrecking ball.
My vision nearly goes red at the sight before me.
Victor fucking Caruso, disheveled with blood on him, holding the slip of an omega by her throat. Her face is red, her feet kicking, and she looks like she hasn’t eaten in days.
More than that though—her scent. Cinnamon, crisp apple, and something warm like a spice swirls in the air, terrified and raw.
Mine. There’s an undercurrent of something unnatural. Medicinal—no doubt a result of whatever they drugged her with. But there’s no mistaking it.
This little omega is my true scent match.
I was enraged before. But now, with the knowledge that this is my omega? I don’t lose control—I give into it willingly.
“Drop the omega,” I bark, my dominance pouring out of me. Normally, I keep it tightly contained, letting a little bit out at a time if I need it. Now though, it’s like the damn spigot has been ripped off, and it gushes out with the force of a fucking firehose.
He has no choice but to comply, and Wren—my mate—crumples to the ground.
Brennan chokes on a breath, his eyes going wide, and it doesn’t take a damn genius to see that what I just figured out—it’s true for him too.
Which is why I don’t feel a single ounce of possessiveness when I bark, “Brennan. Grab her. I’ll take care of this sack of shit.”
I’m not soft. I’m jagged. Gruff. Not what she needs right now.
Brennan scoops her up with more gentleness than I’d be able to muster. “Mine…” the sweetest voice in the world whispers, and I look over just in time to see her eyes flit open, landing on Brennan, before they close again.
Looks like I was right.
“You can’t—” the asswipe in front of me starts to say before my fist flies forward, hitting him square in the nose. He falls to the ground, blood gushing from his face as he wails, and I stand over the prick that thought it was acceptable to handle my omega like a piece of meat.
Who thought it was okay to purchase her.
Drug her.
Try to rape her.
“You,” my hand grabs the collar of his shirt, “piece,” my fist meets his jaw, “of,” again, “shit!” his cheek.
“Get out,” a shaky voice calls out, and I look up from where my fist is raised, ready to pummel into Victor’s face again. “Or I’ll call the police. You…you kidnapped my omega.”
Kellan. Pack lead. He doesn’t look injured, so the one Wren stabbed must’ve been Jasper.
Good. They’re all sick, sadistic bastards, but Jasper is the worst of them all.
A humorless laugh leaves me as I drop Victor, and he hits the ground with a thud, unconscious.
“The police?” I ask, tilting my head as I approach.
I’m not quite as tall as him, and I may not have the ripped body most of my team seems to have, but I’m still muscular.
A little soft, but strong. I could rip this beanpole limb from limb.
“I wonder what they’ll think about you buying her.
That’s illegal, you know.” He backs up as I get closer, and then I’m fixing my hand at his throat.
I don’t squeeze. Yet. But, I could, and his trachea would be crushed.
He gulps as if that very thought just entered his mind. “You don’t…you don’t have any proof.”
“I have the omega you just drugged,” I snarl, leaning in close, my fingers flexing slightly.
“I have video footage of you injecting her, as well as the recording of your buddy over there holding her by her neck, a little bit like this—” I squeeze as hard as I can for about three seconds before letting go.
“You know, if you’re going to put cameras all over the inside of your house, it’s really important to make sure you have good enough security to keep out prying eyes.
” A malicious grin takes over my face, and Kellan’s eyes widen in terror.
“Now, tell me, do you really want to call the police?”
Eyes bulging, he shakes his head slowly, and I release him.
Really, I debate the merit of killing him on the spot, but covering up a murder is a lot more difficult than just threatening him into silence.
Brennan comes back into the house and into the kitchen—presumably to make sure Jasper Caruso isn’t dead and the omega isn’t guilty of murder.
“Now,” I grind out, glancing at the unconscious body of Victor on the ground.
“I’m going to walk out of here. I’m going to take the omega, and you are not going to look for her.
You are going to keep to yourselves, and you will never buy another omega again.
If you do, every recording, every little crumb of evidence is going straight to the police. ”
“I could just delete it all,” he blurts out as I take a step back.
“You could.” I shrug. “But it wouldn’t do you any good. My guy, the one watching us right now, has already cloned every single minute of footage you’ve collected since you set the cameras up.”
Ethan had started copying everything over as soon as we left his apartment.
Kellan’s eyes flash with defeat, and I turn around. But, the asshole has to get one last word in.
“Fine. I didn’t want her anymore anyway. The little bitch was more trouble than she was—ugh!” He groans as my fist meets his gut.
How dare he talk about her like that. This time, my vision really does go red as I let my fist drive into his face, again, and again, and again.
My knuckles are coated in red by the time Brennan comes back, shaking my shoulder. “We gotta go. An ambulance is coming.”
Just like that, my rage is replaced by worry, and I nod, letting Kellan fall to the ground. “What’s the story?”
“Ethan cloned their voices, putting in a nine-one-one call that they had a pack dispute that turned violent—but that everything is resolved for the time being—they just need some medical care. As soon as we leave the building, he’s going to wipe every recording off their drive so we have the only copies.
Jasper is stable for now, I did some quick first aid that should hold until the paramedics get here. ”
“Hear that, you piece of shit?” I crouch down, tilting the fucker’s face up by gripping his hair and pulling. He groans as he looks up at me through a swollen eye socket. “You better make sure they know this was all you, got it?”
He only groans again, and I grunt, standing and wiping the blood from my knuckles on my shirt.
“How’s the omega?” I ask as we walk to the front door, Brennan “accidentally” stepping on Victor’s fingers on the way past.
“We got the FMS in her system, and now she’s knocked out. But, Mav…”
“What?” The tone of his voice has my footsteps coming to a halt, and I look over at Brennan, who runs his hand through his hair.
“Teddy…she’s his match too.”