Cade could understand that, he’d be happier if Brogan would stay home, but it wasn’t in his DNA.
“Why didn’t you call me I could have made sure you got the job?”
“I wanted to get in on my own merits.”
“Letting your fucking Alpha pride getting in the way,” Cade smirked, then looked up as the door to the office opened.
“He’s gone,” Tate announced, “oh and by the way, Simon, you’re hired. I’ll take you to HR and you can begin the paperwork because facing Brody alone the first time you meet him can be scary.”
Cade smiled when they left, he would love to be there when Simon met Brody for the first time, but he had other things on his mind right now, so he fished his phone from his pocket and scrolled until he found the name that he was searching for.
“Hello, Brogan, Jaden just left my office. We need to talk when I get home.”
Chapter 15
Before they’d left for Florida Cade’s subtle probing had almost convinced him to perhaps give this a try, maybe even keep the baby, but Jaden’s actions put everything back in focus and made him go back to rethink his original plans and abort the baby.
As he tried to strengthen his resolve to end his pregnancy, Brogan couldn’t ignore the constricting of his heart. He had Cade on his side. Even though Cade knew what happened between him and Jaden they could still work, right?
Brogan was nervous.
Cade called him and wanted to talk about Jaden and that meant that Cade - his Alpha knew what happened in Florida, but how had he found out and now the morning sickness had morphed into something a little more gut wrenching.
He’s pretty sure that even though they threatened to, Benji and the others wouldn’t tell Cade what happened before Brogan had a chance to, had Jaden been stupid enough to?
All he wanted was distance from Jaden and time to find a way to tell Cade what had really happened, but now the stupid Alpha had to go and tell Cade the truth, placing the tentative bond they had formed in jeopardy.
Sitting in the house waiting for Cade to come home was making him a nervous wreck and to make matters worse his father kept calling but he was going to have to disappoint him again. He wasn’t going to leave Cade and he wasn’t going to give up this baby.
He needed ammunition, to know how to fight Jaden. He might be an Omega now, but he’d lived almost thirty years as an Alpha and he had never heard of another Alpha taking an Omega from another. The only time something similar was done was in the event of a death in a family.
He’s spent the morning scouring the internet and according to the information he’d found online, Jaden would still be ostracized if he managed to turn Brogan, but that wouldn’t do Brogan any good because he’d belong to another Alpha and the thought of that scared him.
At the thought of belonging to Jaden weighed on Brogan’s mind, the walls seemed to close in around him as he tried to think about how to fix the mess he’d made, and he needed to get out of the house. Cade had the car so even if he wanted to, he couldn’t drive, so he decided on the next best thing, a run.
His still slightly queasy stomach told him that he wouldn’t be able to keep up his running schedule much longer, but right now it would help him clear his head. Because of the queasiness, he decided not to shift because it would make him sicker when he returned to his human form.
Dressed in his running gear Brogan was out the door and running along a familiar path towards a neighborhood park a couples of miles away. The run did exactly what Brogan wanted it to do, it gave him clarity. Especially when he noticed the Omega mothers and their offspring, he knew that he could allow himself to get attached to the life that was growing inside him and the three of them could be a family.
As he completed his run through the park Brogan ran back home with new goals in mind, to let his father know that he has changed his mind and he was staying with Cade and to come clean with Cade. He needed him to know what happened in Florida and open up to him about his fears.
Despite the how much it would hurt, he also had to let Cade know that not only had he planned to run but that he had intended to kill his child. If this was going to work between them, he had to tell him everything and not let it come back to bite him in the ass as the situation with Jaden has.
There was nothing he could do to change his status he realized that now and not embracing his pregnancy was not going to change the fact that his life was different now and the only person suffering was him.
When the back door of the house came into view, he smiled because he had completed more than one goal today, his first thought was to soften Cade up a little with a great dinner. He wasn’t the world’s best cook, but he could grill a mean steak.
In his mind he had progressed from a delicious dinner to great make up sex was on his mind when he was struck from behind.
“I see you’re back with me,” Jaden says with a smile as Brogan struggled awake.
Brogan began to sit up, but the movement was too sudden and coupled with the morning sickness that plagued him whenever he woke, the first thing he needed was the toilet. He knew that he wasn’t in one of the bedrooms, but he was confused about where he was, but he blindly reached for the trashcan that was kept by the bed and sofa for after Brogan’s naps and emptied the contents of his stomach.
Once the heaving stopped, Brogan lay back on the sofa feeling disgusted because he was sure he was covered in his own sick. The cool cloth Jaden produced to clean him up felt good and he leaned into it until he remembered that this was Jaden and not Cade cleaning him up.
“Lie still and let me do this for you,” Jaden ordered, just decimals away from using that Alpha baritone that would trigger a submissive response from him, “I don’t want to fuck you while you’re covered in regurgitated eggs.”
At the last-minute Brogan turned his head so that the cold cloth made contact with his ear instead of his face.
“Behave!” Jaden demanded as he grabbed Brogan chin and turned his face forward to wipe it clean. “This is your problem, you don’t have an Alpha who can keep you in line, but I will, and you’ll love it. No more running on your own and hanging around Omegas who don’t know their place. All you’ll do is wait on me and whelp as many pups as I want.”
“Caden is a strong Alpha,” Brogan weakly defended his mate.
“No, it’s just that you were a weak one, hell no wonder the tiny thing was able to overtake someone as big as you.”
Pursing his lips in anger, Brogan tried not to let Jaden’s words get to him, but some of them did. They reminded him of things his father would say to his mother - things he’d said to his mother, but in this situation, he had to keep his head clear because one thing Jaden said was true, this time there would be no timely rescue from Benji, Paige and Jaime.
If he didn’t pull his head out of his ass and stopped being the weak Omega, he would be in a fresh new hell that would never end, because Jaden would never give Cade the chance to get Brogan back and if he had even one child with this man, there was no way he would want to leave.
Unless he left the way, his mother left his father.
“Since you’re not so sick any more, quit trying to distract me and get undressed.”
Cutting his eyes to the ensuite bathroom and to the door leading to the kitchen, Brogan tried to decide which was the closest and which would offer him the most protection.
The bathroom door would lock, but a man Jaden’s size could easily break through the pressed wood, however, the door leading to the kitchen led to outside where his nosey neighbor would notice him running from someone and call the police.
Running outside was going to be the better choice but he would have to plan his escape carefully and make sure that his timing was perfect because he would only have one chance. Brogan knew that he had to make the escape count because he was sure that Jaden hurt him if he were caught.
Slowly, Brogan stood up and began to remove his clothing, any other time he would be happy to rid hims
elf of the sick covered material, but today he wanted to cling to the clothes and let them hide him from Jaden’s lust blown stare.
“Beautiful,” Jaden husked as Brogan’s t-shirt hit the floor, “all of that beauty, wasted on someone who doesn’t know how to appreciate it.”
He didn’t want compliments from this man, there was nothing he could say that was going to make this situation better, and he couldn’t imagine even after he was bonded to Jaden that he would be happy with him because the universe wanted him and Cade together.
They had that met across a crowded room kind of bonding, this was more like a spoiled child getting a toy that belonged to someone else. The problem was Jaden would rather destroy the toy than see someone else happy with it, and Brogan was already wearing the bruises as testament.
The loose basketball shorts he wore to run in were quickly removed and suddenly Brogan was in boxer briefs and almost naked. At that moment he was glad he hadn’t worn a pair of the panties Cade loved. He began to tremble. He told himself it was from the coolness of the room but, he knew that it was because he was scared. He thought that he had escaped Jaden, that after Florida he would never have to see the man again but here, he was trapped and about to be attacked in his own home.
“You, now,” Brogan braved as a half-baked plan formed in his mind. He wasn’t going to appear eager, but he could pull off being nervous, scared and embarrassed, so he bent his head and let his bangs fall into his eyes before saying timidly, “I don’t want to be the only one naked.”
His shy request was met with a blinding smile, “of course Brogan it’ll be better if we’re both naked I just thought that you were going to put up a bigger fight. This is just what I’ve always thought, O’s don’t care who’s fucking them as long as they’re getting a knot.”
Swallowing the bile that was threatening at Jaden’s statement Brogan watched as Jaden stripped, waiting for the right moment to run and his chance came when Jaden’s legs became tangled in his pants. The idiot hadn’t bothered to take off his shoes. As Jaden danced around trying not to fall, Brogan ran.
His mistake was trying to decide which door to take the front door where he would run onto the street in his underwear and the entire neighborhood would see him or, the back door where he could run next door to his neighbor’s back door and safety.
By the time he’d made his decision and was opening the French doors to the deck to get to his neighbors, Jaden’s hands were pulling him back.
“I fucking told you not to run!” Jaden reminded him before he punched him in his stomach. “You’re lucky I don’t knock you the fuck out, but I don’t want to have to explain your face when I announce our mating.”
The pain was horrible but when he felt Jaden push him towards the hall and back to the sofa, he fought the pain and struck out blindly only to be punched again.
Instead of giving in to the pain, he struggled to keep himself from being pushed down the hall, if Jaden was going to force this bond on him, he wouldn’t give in without a fight. There was no room to go past Jaden, so Brogan moved towards the kitchen and the front door.
As he eyed the door it was only a few feet away but between the pain and the dizziness that he was now experiencing, it might as well have been a few miles, but he wasn’t going to stop trying. Lifting feet so heavy they felt like lead, Brogan tried to make a run for the door anyway.
He knew that he wasn’t going to make it but he had to try.
This time Jaden slapped him apparently no longer caring about appearances, the pain barely registered because of the pain from the earlier blows. He was marched back through the kitchen and shoved over the counter.
Brogan coughed and held onto the kitchen island, he was blinking furiously in an attempt not to pass out. Even though he knew it was only going to cause him more pain, he had to try to fight back and he couldn’t do that if he passed out.
When Jaden touched him, he blindly reached for the first thing he touched, a toaster and swung out, he was surprised when it found purchase.
“You bitch! Jaden spat. “I’ll make you pay for that.”
With a force only meant to hurt and knocking a number of small appliances off the counter island Jaden spun Brogan back around until he was trapped between the large refrigerator that he and Lara had bought six months after they’d moved in together. It had taken her that long to convince him to get a new one. She had hated his old one and said that it didn’t fit in with the rest of the kitchen, but she had loved this one. She had said that it was solid and sturdy and was more stylish.
He’s pretty sure that this was not what she had in mind when she chose the appliance; that it be used to hold him in place while he was being raped.
Jaden had been right about one thing, this time there was no escaping what was happening to him and when his boxers were literally torn from him and he felt the cold air on his ass, Brogan stared straight ahead and prayed to any God who was listening.
He stared blankly at something shiny and he realized what it was, an earring that Lara had lost ages ago and it was stuck in the butcher block of knives. Shows you how much they used the expensive fuckers.
Knives.
There was no decision to pick up a knife but the feel of thick fingers invading his body spurred him into action; grabbing the first one he could reach Brogan turned around and began attacking, slashing a that man causing him pain and he felt satisfaction when he heard his attacker yell when the knife made contact with his body.
Brogan hadn’t been aiming for any place in particular he just wanted the man to leave him alone and was surprised when he realized that the knife had sliced through to the bone of one of Jaden’s multi-million dollar hands.
“You stupid bitch!” Jaden yelled as he grabbed his hand trying to stop the flow of blood. “What have you done? You’ve ruined me.”
“Like you tried to do to me?” Brogan asked and he still wielded the knife. Even though he had managed to hurt Jaden, he didn’t trust him not to retaliate. “I didn’t ask you to claim me, to save me from Cade. You decided that I was yours for the taking and never once asked me if it was what I wanted. It’s too bad it wasn’t your dick.”
“You need to help me stop the bleeding,” Jaden whined.
“No, I don’t,” Brogan shook his head as he kept his position near the refrigerator. The place that had once helped trap him, now offered him comfort and support. He could see Jaden and there was no way the man could get behind him. “You’d better get that taken care of, that’s your throwing hand, right?”
Brogan watched as Jaden waged an internal war as to what his next course of action should be - to continue to try to claim Brogan or get medical attention for his hand.
Thank God he chose his hand because he was bleeding profusely and growing paler by the minute, Brogan’s not sure what would happen if he’d chosen the former because a dead body would be a little hard to explain.
“I need my clothes,” he finally spoke, all the bravado gone from his voice and had been replaced with worry.
It was as though Jaden just realized the severity of is wound and the repercussions if he didn’t get it treated. One would have thought that the blood spurting from the wound and pooling at Jaden’s foot would have clued him in
“People in hell want ice water,” Brogan snapped. He couldn’t trust the man so there was no way that Brogan was going to retrieve his clothing for him or let him get them. He also didn’t want the fucker to bleed to death in his kitchen.
As he glanced down the hall his eyes landed on the set of keys and two cell phones on the counter. One of the phones was his and the other two items belonged to Jaden and he offered up a silent prayer to make this easy for him, that Jaden didn’t try to attack him again.
“Grab your keys and phone and go, and before you ask, no I don’t care that you’re almost naked, I just want you gone.”
There was a moment of hesitation on Jaden’s part, but when Brogan waived his knife, the cowardly bastard scoop
ed up his keys and phone with his good hand and was gone. He stared at the door until he saw it shut and heard the snick and only then did he allow himself to relax a little.
Despite the pain Brogan’s first course of action was to make sure that Jaden did not come back, so he scurried to the door to lock it making it difficult Jaden to come back inside. Once the lock was safe, Brogan placed his back to the door and slid down until he was sitting on the floor.
Placing his head in his hands he cried in relief that this ordeal was over, and he was still safe. When he lifted his head, he took in the mess that was the kitchen. There were small appliances, fruit and other items strewn over the kitchen floor, and there was blood. Lots of blood.
As he sat there surveying the mess that represented the fight for his life, something occurred to him - he had to get out of here. He had foolishly convinced himself that he would be okay if he stayed with Cade, but this proved that he wouldn’t. His Alpha wouldn’t always be there to protect him so he needed to place himself in a position where he wouldn’t need protection and that was with his father.
From Alpha to Omega Page 17
