All three of the alphas stilled and raised their heads to the wind.
"Shit!" Sloan slammed an open hand against the window, sending broken glass raining down onto Emily. "Company's coming. We gotta go."
He stormed around to the driver's side as the other alphas scattered to their own trucks. He started the engine and took a moment to scowl at her, angrier than she'd ever seen him before.
"Don't think this is over, bitch. You've been more trouble than you're worth, and now you're gonna pay."
Chapter Seventeen
"He's not dead. I can hear a heartbeat."
Cade struggled to put his finger on the voice. It would be easier if he could see who was speaking, but for some reason, everything was dark. Were his eyes even open? Cade tried to blink but was rewarded with a searing blast of pain behind his eye sockets.
Still, there was something familiar about the voice. Cade felt like his mind was full of dense fog that was slowly dissipating. He was pretty sure he knew the speaker—and that whoever it was, he didn't like Cade all that much.
"Of course he's not dead." A different voice—one Cade had no trouble naming: his neighbor, Zeke. "We'd never be that lucky."
"Hey, Cade.” The first voice sharpened just as Cade managed to pry his eyelids open, the light feeling like knives stabbing his eyeballs. He found himself staring at the windshield of his truck, the image fuzzy and wavering. It was at an odd angle.
Oh—no, wait; he was at an odd angle, lying on the steering wheel, his arm on the dashboard. Weird place for a nap. "He's coming around."
The memory of the giant tree hurtling straight for them flashed into Cade’s head. Alarms blasted in his mind as he braced his hands on the dash and pushed himself back, rewarded with stabbing pains all over his torso and arms. His palms slipped on something slick.
Shit. He had to be fucked up pretty bad to have such a hard time just sitting upright. He wiped his eyes with the heels of his hands to clear them—and they came away red with blood.
Cade fought the cottony feeling in his mind. Standing outside the open driver's door of the truck were two of his alpha brothers, Zeke and—it came back to him with a flash of clarity—Aric.
"Welcome back, brother," Aric said, letting his hand briefly rest on Cade's shoulder. "We were worried we might have lost you there for a second."
"'Worried' is probably too strong a word," Zeke grumbled. "You've made a hell of a mess of your truck."
"What the hell happened?"
Cade twisted his head painfully to see Maddox—the only alpha in the settlement whose reputation for hostility exceeded Cade's—glaring at him.
Three fucking alphas. But where was—
"Emily," Cade croaked. "Where's Emily?"
The alphas looked at each other.
"She's not here, Cade," Aric said.
Fuck.
Even though it hurt like hell to move, Cade turned his head toward the passenger side. Sure enough, she wasn't there—but the passenger door was wide open.
"Sloan got her," he rasped, already struggling to get out of the truck. "He brought help. Uplanders."
"We know," Aric offered a hand to help Cade. "Our omegas told us everything."
"Don't think we won't be talking about that later," Maddox growled.
Cade looked at Aric's hand and almost ignored it. He was an alpha, goddamn it, not some old lady who needed help crossing the street—and he needed to go. He had to save Emily.
Which is why he let Aric help him. It turned out to be a good thing because the moment his feet hit the ground, Cade was hit with a wave of dizziness It took only seconds to regain his balance, though, and he shook Aric's hand off.
"We have to go after them." Cade ignored the wrenching pain in his muscles, the blood seeping through his shirt. All he could think of was Emily. "How long have I been out?"
"Only a few minutes," Aric said. "We were waiting for you at Evander's—we came the second we heard the crash."
A lot of bad shit could happen in only a few minutes. Especially when someone as vicious as Sloan was involved.
"We need to go now," Cade repeated.
He got no argument. These three alphas were all mated, so they understood how strong the connection between Cade and Emily was—and that Cade would fight until his last breath to get her back.
Three trucks were parked on the road next to the crash. Cade took a step toward the closest one, stumbling over a branch. He never would have guessed that it would be Zeke who slung his arm around him, giving him a shoulder to lean on.
"Come on, brother," he muttered, as Aric and Maddox strode to their own vehicles. "You'll ride with me."
"Why the hell are you helping me?" Cade let Zeke support him until they reached the truck, then managed the last few steps on his own. "I thought you hated me. I mean, even more than the rest of the alphas around here do."
"Hate's a strong word," Zeke said. He got in and gunned the engine, which sounded like it was in a lot better shape than Cade's. Good—it would need to be to catch up to those bastards. "Besides, there's no way I'd pass up a chance to say I told you so. You should have listened when I told you this wouldn't end pretty."
Cade tensed, instinctively ready to respond to an insult with a punch. The last thing he needed right now was to have his face rubbed in how badly he'd fucked everything up.
But then he saw the grin that Zeke was trying to hide and realized the son of a bitch was giving him shit, that was all.
Cade wasn't used to joking around with any of his brothers, least of all Zeke. His whole fucking world seemed to have been turned upside down.
"Just drive," he grumbled.
"Don't worry, brother. I never said it would end badly," Zeke said, a trace of warmth in his deep, rasping voice. "We'll get your omega back. You'll see."
Dear God, they'd better. All thoughts of his brothers left Cade's mind as he thought of Emily, unprotected and terrified, in the hands of the filthy uplanders. Cade's pain from the crash was nothing compared to the agony tearing his soul apart knowing his omega was in danger.
"Can't this thing go any faster?"
Zeke stomped on the gas, and the truck shot ahead, the speedometer spinning as the scenery flew by in a blur. Tense moments passed in silence until Zeke glanced over and took Cade's measure, zeroing in on the still-healing wound from Emily's claiming bite visible through his torn shirt.
"I see she made an honest man out of you." Zeke might as well have been commenting on the weather, even as he pushed his truck up over 100. He was one stone-cold brother, Cade thought with grudging admiration. "That's surprising."
"You think that just because you don't like me, you figure no one else should either?"
"No," Zeke said calmly as an unfamiliar truck came into view ahead of them. "I just thought it would take you a hell of a lot longer to prove yourself worthy of an omega as fine as that one."
"Stop kicking my damn truck," Sloan snarled for the third time since they'd pulled away from the accident. "Or I'll—"
"Or you'll what?" Emily spat. "Hit me? Break my neck? Toss me out on the side of the road?"
Sloan took his eyes off the road briefly to glare at her, his knuckles turning white with rage on the steering wheel. "I always said you were a nasty broken bitch."
"And you're a fucking idiot." Despite the gravity of her circumstances, it felt ridiculously good to say those words. "You don't get it, do you, Sloan? I'm not scared of you anymore."
Sloan's eyes practically bugged out of his skull. "Then you're the idiot. I'm bigger than you. Stronger. I could tear you clean in half without breaking a sweat."
Emily laughed. She couldn't help it. She'd never noticed before how ridiculous Sloan looked when he was angry. Not much to look at on a good day, rage turned his face a patchy red and made the tendons stand out on his neck so he resembled a chicken. A bit of spittle clung to his lip above his wispy gray beard.
But it was true.
Maybe it was only because
Emily had nothing left to lose, or her indifference to living after being ripped away from Cade in his final moments, but Sloan no longer terrified her.
Why had she never realized how pathetic he truly was? Yes, he could kill her, but all that would prove was that he was low enough to hurt a woman. Maybe that was considered a badge of honor among his thug friends, but she didn't give a fuck about them either.
Besides, if Sloan ended her life right now, he'd be doing her a favor by helping her meet up with Cade in the world beyond.
"Yeah, you could hurt me," she taunted him. "But that's nothing special. Any alpha could rip me to shreds. But you couldn't make me love you, could you? Hell, you couldn't even manage to be interesting enough to make me like you."
Sloan literally shook with fury. He reached for her collar and yanked hard, tearing the fabric of Cade's shirt. His eyes widened in shock at the outline of teeth marks in her still-healing bite. His roar filled the cab, a sound of devastation and rage.
"You slut!" He shoved Emily hard, and she bounced against the passenger side door, adding another bruise to the dozen she'd suffered in the crash. "You were with that fucker for two goddamn days and already gave him your bite?"
"What do you care?" Emily said, feeling the bump on her head where it struck the glass. "I was never going to give it to you."
"That's it," Sloan growled, mashing down the cigarette lighter below the dash. "You think you can get away from me? I'm going to teach you what a real alpha does when someone tries to steal what's his."
"What are you doing?" Emily demanded, icy fear finally making its way back into her heart.
Sloan laughed, a terrifying sound. "I'm gonna burn that little shit's bite right off you."
Without warning, he jerked the steering wheel hard to the right, and the truck careened over the shoulder onto the side of the road. The other trucks pulled in behind them with a screech of brakes.
Emily returned to kicking at the window, knowing it was no use. But the sharp metallic click of the red-hot lighter popping out stopped her.
Sloan had heard it too.
"Now get over here, bitch." He yanked her by the arm over to his side, and she inhaled his filthy sweat and foul breath. She couldn't tear her eyes from the glowing red coils of the lighter in his hand. "You think that puny bite is a brand of ownership—I'll show you a real one."
Emily screamed as he moved the lighter slowly closer, a cruel grin creasing his face.
Someone hit the side of his truck with a fist.
"Sloan, buddy, this ain't a good time for a pitstop," one of his friends yelled. "We got company right behind us."
Sloan turned his head to glance out the back window, and Emily saw her opening. Leveraging all her weight, she pushed off the passenger door with her feet as hard as she could, smashing into Sloan's body. The force was enough to knock the lighter from his hand.
They both dove for it, but Emily had the advantage. She closed her hand around it a fraction of a second before Sloan's fist hit the floor of the cab. Without missing a beat, she jabbed the red hot rings deep into the center of Sloan's crotch.
Screaming—so much high-pitched, almost inhuman screaming echoing all around them, through the trees and into the valley. Emily had never heard a sound so satisfying in her whole life, or a view as welcome as Sloan scrabbling pitifully at his balls.
Another squeal of brakes. Emily was already on the move, throwing open the passenger door. She saw two more unfamiliar trucks and braced herself.
But the two alphas who got out of the trucks were familiar from the bar a few days before. Emily realized that these had to be the omegas' mates who she and Cade had been on their way to meet up with.
But any sense of relief she felt at their arrival was instantly overshadowed by grief. The alphas must have heard the crash and realized what happened—but they'd arrived too late to save Cade.
On the other side of Sloan's truck, his friends sized up the alphas who were storming toward them with vengeance in their eyes. Emily saw them glance at each other, realizing that they were outmatched.
"We didn't do nothing," one said, already backing away toward his truck.
"We ain't looking for trouble," the other one hollered.
Cade's alpha brothers didn't look impressed with their excuses.
"Then you shouldn't have come to our territory," the bigger one said. "And you for damn sure should never have tried to kidnap one of our own."
"B-but your friend took Sloan's woman first," one of the uplanders whined.
"She was never his."
Emily spun around in astonishment at the voice she would never forget, not even if she lived a thousand years. It couldn't be—but Cade was slowly pulling himself out of one of the trucks.
"She is mine." Cade's voice gained volume as he took two staggering steps toward the invaders.
His body was broken and bleeding, but the ferocity of his coiled strength and the rage in his eyes made him even more intimidating than his brothers.
Emily could barely contain her joy at seeing him alive. In that moment, she knew no force in the world could stop her alpha from getting to her.
And she wasn't the only one who knew it. Sloan's friends were nervously edging away.
"I ain't gonna fight you for her," one said, holding his hands up.
But it was too late for that. They'd already started the fight—and Cade and his brothers meant to finish it.
Aric, Maddox and Zeke dispatched Sloan's friends so quickly it was almost anticlimactic, dropping them unconscious in the middle of the road with a few well-placed blows.
But then it was Cade's turn.
The closer he got to Sloan's truck, his strength and vitality seemed to return. He stood tall as he threw the driver's side door open and pulled Sloan out onto the pavement. Sloan's screams had turned to wailing, and he cowered on the ground, clutching himself.
Emily came to stand next to her alpha. Without taking his eyes off Sloan, Cade grasped her hand, his touch conveying everything she already knew. She was his, and he would protect her always, and deliver brutal justice to anyone who dared harm her.
The other alphas shook their heads at the pathetic sight of Sloan, cradling his smoking junk, tears streaming from his eyes.
"What the hell did you do to him?" Cade asked.
Emily stared dispassionately at the waste of flesh on the ground. Sloan would never hurt her again—but he still needed to pay for what he'd done.
"Not enough," she said grimly.
Cade pulled Sloan to his feet. "Stand up, damn you."
Sloan barely seemed to register the alpha in front of him, his eyes glazed with pain. But as he realized who was standing in front of him, they came into focus.
"You," he gasped.
It was the only word he got out before Cade slammed his fist in his face, knocking him down again.
"You should have stayed gone," Cade growled.
Emily watched Sloan curl into a fetal position, blood rushing from his nose and mouth. The burns between his legs made it impossible for him to defend himself or crawl away.
The four alphas surrounded him, trapping him like a wounded animal.
But that wasn't quite right. Emily had learned enough about what alpha honor really meant to know that these four would never let an innocent animal suffer needlessly.
But Sloan wasn't an innocent.
"Go on," Sloan snarled through the pain in his voice. "Kill me already, goddamn you."
Cade shook his head as his brothers stepped back. "You're not getting off that easy. You took another alpha's claimed mate. And like my brother Zeke here says, it ain't gonna be pretty."
And then Cade rolled up his tattered sleeves and got ready to even the score.
By the time he was finished, the blood splattered up and down the road would serve as an acknowledgment that justice had been served.
Chapter Eighteen
"Oh my God, have you ever seen chubbier legs in your life?" Emily pl
ayfully wiggled the toes of the baby lying on the old quilt in front of her. "And these little fingers! I just have to eat them up. Yes, I do."
She pressed her lips to the infant's tiny hand, blowing a gentle raspberry, and he kicked and burbled with delight.
"He likes you," Hope said dreamily. She was propped up on her elbow next to Emily with the baby between them, lying on a quilt covering a patch of grass in the middle of a sprawling meadow that served as the vast front yard of an omega named Gail.
Emily had been coming to Gail's house every Tuesday afternoon for a while now, joining all the local omegas to socialize while their alphas went off to help out with whatever project Gail's mate Randall had come up with for them that week.
Emily gave the baby boy one more nuzzle before sitting up. "That's because this is the sweetest little guy I've ever seen in my life," she said. "Yes, you are."
"You'll think differently in just a few months when you get to meet your own little guy," Hope said, casting a pointed look at Emily's midsection.
Emily rested her palm over her belly, even though she wasn't far along enough to show yet. Sometimes she could swear that she could already feel the little flutters of new life sparking inside her.
"Or little girl," Darcy interjected, plopping down to join them. She'd tucked a wildflower in her hair, which was purple these days instead of pink.
"Or both," an omega named Paige said with a laugh as she darted around them, trying to wrangle her own toddling twins.
Emily smiled to herself. Truly, she didn't have a preference. She was simply delighted by the embarrassment of riches in her life—a devoted alpha who loved her more than she thought possible, a baby on the way, and a community of true friends.
Three months ago, Emily would have never dreamed any of this could happen. Hell, she wouldn't have believed she'd survive this long.
But here she was, under an azure late summer sky, the first hints of autumn coloring the tips of the leaves in the copse of trees next to Gail's house, enjoying the company of friends.
Emily didn't care what anybody said—she knew this was heaven.
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