Yeah, better to go out swinging, than go back home whimpering. I wound up with the pipe, and waited.
And when he came down the alley, barking in triumph because he’d cornered me, I brought that Pipe down on his head with all my strength, and kept bringing it down until I was sure he wasn’t going to move again.
CHAPTER FOUR
By the time I got back to Dad, my trusty length of pipe still clutched in one hand, the other two enforcers had left him alone and were, presumably, gone looking for me. Thank Medeina, goddess of wolves. I don’t think I could have taken on two of them—I still wasn’t sure how I’d managed to defeat the first one.
I threw the pipe down beside him and shook him carefully. “Dad? Dad!”
He groaned, and I started to cry with relief. “You’re alive, you’re alive!”
“Yes, I’m alive. What are you doing here? I told you to run.”
“I got away from them.”
“How?”
“Does it matter? Can you walk if I help you?”
“Jason, what did you do?”
I chewed on my lip, and decided that honesty was probably the best course. “I think I killed one of them. I haven’t seen the other two.”
Dad let out a harsh breath, but he didn’t say anything, and I hesitated to break the silence between us. I didn’t really want to know what he was thinking right now, I had enough to do to get him back to the car, and figure out where to go after. “Dad, we need to go. You can lean on me, I’ll take you to the car.” I didn’t want to leave all my stuff behind, but it looked like I was going to have to. Dad groaned when I slipped his arm over my shoulder, and basically lifted him to his feet myself, with a bit of help from my wolf. Wolves are stronger than they look, and right then, I needed that strength.
We limped back up the block and I got him into the car without incident. I heard howls a couple of times, but they weren’t close, so I ignored them and concentrated on Dad. He looked small and old there, lying in the back seat. I didn’t even have a blanket to put over him.
My blanket! No, I wasn’t going to leave without it. And I was tired of replacing everything all the time. I wanted my computer, and my clothes, and Dad’s clothes.
Fuck it, I’m going back. But just in case, I picked up my pipe as I went. Better safe than sorry.
At the end of the block, I flattened myself against the wall and peered around the corner. There was a car I didn’t recognize in front of our building and I knew every car on the block. What else did I have to do with my time but sit by the window and watch everyone but me have a life? But that meant that I knew this car wasn’t from around here, which meant it was probably the pack enforcers’ car. I snuck down the block, hiding behind cars and garbage bags and old furniture until I got to the car—it was theirs, the plates were from Montana—and then I let the air out of one of the front tires. I did the same with the back one, too, and wished I had a potato or something to plug up their exhaust with. But with those tires, they wouldn’t be chasing us down in the car anyway, so I didn’t let it bother me for long.
I crept in the front door and up the stairs—the fire escape here was more of a hazard than a fire would be. The apartment door was closed, and I drew on my wolf to listen inside.
Nothing. Just in case, I made myself wait a few more minutes. After all, no one made noise all the time. But the other side of the door was as quiet as a tomb. I shivered, because if I guessed wrong, the apartment could very well become my tomb.
No it won’t. But it could very well become a torture chamber.
Waiting in the hallway was starting to make the hair stand up on the back of my neck, and the risk of the enforcers coming back grew with each passing moment. Assuming they weren’t sitting quiet as church mice in my living room, waiting for me to deliver myself to them like so much Chinese food.
Here goes nothing. I cracked open the door—unlocked, the bastards—and pushed it open a couple of inches. No sound still, so I pushed on it again, leaving a gap wide enough for me to sneak my head through. Every light in the place was on. The cupboards had been ransacked, and the door to the bedroom stood open, where I’d left it closed. The place was empty. I stood up and slipped inside, closing the door gently behind me so it wouldn’t make any noise. Now, to find our stuff.
The enforcers had packed up everything they could find. It lay in neat piles in the middle of the living room, where a couch would normally have gone. We didn’t have one, of course, just the inflatable mattress that Dad slept on, which had also been packed up. I checked out my bedroom—they’d packed my mattress as well. How kind of them.
Now the problem was to get it all down to the car.
I took the important stuff first, calling on the wolf to help with speed and strength, even though I knew I’d pay for it later. Half-shifted was far more exhausting than staying in either other form, but I couldn’t haul the bags out with paws and teeth. So I borrowed and refused to think about the price.
The last boxes, the ones with our dishes and the two mattresses, were the only thing left when I heard the first howls close by. I dumped the dishes—we could eat off paper plates for a while—but grabbed the mattresses and bolted out of the building.
They came around the corner while I was unlocking the car, barking that they’d found their prey. Adrenaline hit me like a brick wall. My hands jerked and I fumbled the keys.
They were getting closer.
I scrabbled on the ground, afraid to take my eyes off the approaching wolves, and found the keys more by luck than by any kind of talent. My heart pounded so hard my chest hurt, but I got the key into the lock and slid inside, slamming the door shut in their faces. The first one, a big deep gray with broader than normal shoulders, slammed into the side of the car, rocking it like it had been hit by a train. It was lucky he hadn’t hit the window, but if I didn’t get out of there he probably would, and then I would have burned all my luck and more.
For once, the car started without complaining. I put it in Drive and looked up to see the other wolf standing in my way. For a moment, I was paralyzed. What do I do? The wolf and I stared at each other, while the first one clawed at the door. I heard the trim ping away onto the pavement and the metallic groan of the metal giving way before the onslaught.
A faint groan wavered up from the back seat, and I made up my mind. I don’t know when my expression changed, but I knew the exactly moment that the wolf in front of me realized what I was planning. I gunned the motor in Neutral once, twice, and his eyes, widened, then I put the car back in Drive and put my foot to the floor.
Even then, he didn’t quite believe that I, an omega, a weak, submissive wolf, would deliberately try to run him down.
But I’m no ordinary omega.
He jumped out of the way just in time, and I fishtailed out onto the street, determined to put as much distance between us and them as possible. I didn’t even know where I was going. Away was a good enough direction for now.
We’d figure the rest out later.
CHAPTER FIVE
It was spring, and we had just arrived at the pay-by-the-hour motel we’d be staying at for the next couple of days. Dad had gotten some handyman work in the past town, which took care of the rent. For my part, I’d covered up my scent by taking up smoking, and lifted a few wallets from unwary people. Dad didn’t approve of it, but for once, the way people just gravitated toward me was useful. They were so busy being charmed, they didn’t notice I was going through their pockets. And it paid for food, and gas for the car, and sometimes put a roof over our heads.
I was going to have a bath. Maybe. It would depend on how bad the bathroom was. But we’d been living rough the past couple of days, and I was ready for even the simplest of luxuries.
“You got your ID?” Dad asked. He still limped, and sometimes his headaches were so bad he couldn’t drive, and I ended up doing it all. Living hand to mouth, sleeping in the car, and always looking over our shoulders was hard on him. He’d never ent
irely recovered from the beating. It worried me, and I’d come to the conclusion that our roving days had to end. But I needed to find the right place to end them.
I knew that ‘coming in’, as the cop shows put it, would involve giving myself to an Alpha. There was no question about it. But, if I was going to do that, I wanted to pick one. At least, if I picked him, I would know that I was getting what I’d asked for. Maybe the abuse, the tight regulations, the loss of independence would be worth it.
So, I’d picked up another burner phone and called my Uncle Tony. Dad didn’t know it, but we’d been visiting territories around the middle of the country ever since Christmas, checking out packs while I tried to decide which Alpha I could trust to be the least interested in me. Because mostly I just wanted to get pregnant, then have him leave me in peace. I could do that. And every heat made the desire for children that much stronger—it would kill two birds with one stone.
I rented us a room and helped Dad carry the backpacks inside. He sat down in the chair with a whoosh and put his hand to his head.
“You can sleep if you want,” I told him. “I’ll see what I can scrounge for supper.”
“You shouldn’t be wandering around on your own.”
“I have my secret weapon,” I said, and pulled out the pack of cigarettes. I pulled on a ball cap and checked my wallet to make sure I had enough money to buy burgers on the way back. “You rest. We need to talk about where we’re going next when I get back.” By then, I’d have learned what I could about the man who ran the local pack and made my decision to stay or keep moving on.
Abel Mercy Hills was his name, a warrior’s name and his pack’s name. Before we were herded into enclaves, Mom said there were many small packs, and shifters had more last names, but not now. The Alphas of the Mercy Hills pack ran a tech company, building software for humans. Someone like him, he’d either have all the time in the world to bother me because he was just a figure-head, or he’d be hands on, and I would only see him when my heat struck. I had my fingers crossed for the second one.
Dad wasn’t the only one this was wearing on.
I’d been fighting the guilt since Dad’s beating, my constant companion. I hardly slept any more, and it was only habit that had kept us out of the hands of Orvin and the other Alphas. Too many close calls, and I was tired and ready to belly up to anyone who promised to at least let me garden when I wasn’t at their beck and call. And they had to allow my Dad to stay, and get him proper medical care. Outside of that, well, I would have to deal with it, wouldn’t I?
I wish I knew what the fuck all the fuss was about.
To prove my point that I could be careful, I dabbed some of that menthol gel humans use when they get a cold over my pulse points, where my scent would be strongest. I pushed my hair, now down to my shoulders and curling in every direction, firmly under my ball cap, and lit a cigarette, to cover any lingering sign of omega in my scent. “There, no one will smell me or recognize me now. I’m going to have a scout around, see if there’s any work to pick up.” That would be my excuse for coming back late. “Get some sleep, Dad. I won’t be long.”
“Yeah, okay.” And that worried me more than anything else—he was giving up too easily. He got to his feet and made his slow way over to the bed, kicking off his shoes and more falling onto the mattress than lying down on it.
I left the motel in a grim mood. It was a good hour’s drive out to the enclave, which only gave me time to stew, and to worry every time I saw a police car. I had no permit to be off shifter grounds—at least, none for this name. I’d lost everything except my current identity in the last close call. They’d caught my jacket and I’d skinned out of it without even thinking about the phone and the wallet with all my cards in it. They came back for me later—I don’t know if they tracked me, or just visited every motel in the city looking for our car, but they found our bolthole. The only thing that saved us was that we’d gone to do laundry before we settled in for the night, and that was when Orvin’s enforcers has broken into the motel room. When we came back, the police were there, and we quietly got back into our car and left. I’d called our usual contact for false papers as we drove down the highway, putting miles between us and our hunters, but the line was disconnected. It took me two days to find someone who would do it for us—Orvin’s work, I assumed. And in the meantime, we’d toed all the lines in the world, trying to stay under the radar.
This isn’t getting you anywhere. I punched the button on the radio and started scanning stations, settling on one that played bright, cheery, unrealistic pop music. By the time I’d arrived at the gate, my hopeful mood had returned. And then it hit me—I didn’t have any papers. Just my current ID, which was for a human. Which absolutely wouldn’t get me past those gates unless I had a work order or a government permit.
Fuck. I pounded on the steering wheel, then drove past. Didn’t matter—I’d just go over the wall. I left the car parked in a field behind some trees, and took off cross country. The open field called to me, urging me to change and run like I hadn’t had the opportunity to in ages. I shivered with the pleasure of being out of the city—I hadn’t seen green grass and open spaces, except for some poorly maintained parks, since well before Christmas.
The wall was a tall concrete thing. I couldn’t imagine what it had cost to build, but then again, we shifters were taxed half to death to cover the cost of them. That’s why there were so few enclaves, and why many of them were becoming so crowded. A few years ago, the human government had begun allowing small communities to form outside the enclaves to ease the overpopulation, but they were strictly regulated, and required to be associated with an enclave so the shifters had someplace to run on full moon. Most shifters preferred the enclaves—they were safer for us. Humans were known to band together and attack when you least expected it and there were always stories running around about families dragged out of their beds and beaten within an inch of their lives.
All the trees near the wall had been cut down, but when I got closer to it, I could see ridges and notches where the forms the humans had used to build it had been. It might be enough to get me up the side. Wolves weren’t natural climbers, but I was desperate. I reached out and stuck a couple of fingers in the first tiny depression, and began my climb.
By the time I got to the top, I’d fallen off four times, my hands were sore, and I had nearly given up twice. But then there it was, the flat top, with the silver-coated bars at the top. I hadn’t brought gloves, so I pulled my shirtsleeves down as far as they’d go and went over the bars as quickly as I could, cursing the itching and the beginning of the burn where the cloth had pulled away from my fingers. I hoped there’d be water somewhere nearby so I could wash my hands before they started to swell. I’d only had silver burns once, when I was five, and we’d gotten a special permit to leave the enclave to take me to a museum for my birthday. A couple of human kids had been watching us, making me nervous. I’d wandered away to look at the bones of a prehistoric wolf when one of them approached me and offered me a present. I thought I’d been wrong and that he was giving me a birthday present. Instead, he’d seen the tags on our clothes marking us as shifters, and was playing a trick. I ended up in hospital, and my birthday trip was ruined.
All these thoughts played in my head as I made my way carefully over the pointed ends of the bars, and then I was inside. It was a long way down, but my hands hurt, and there was a glint of water not far away.
Fuck it. And I jumped.
CHAPTER SIX
The landing knocked the breath out of me and I spent a good five minutes just lying on the ground staring up at the sky, waiting for my lungs to work again. I made a note to climb down the next time I broke into a werewolf enclave.
Once it got easier to breathe, I rolled to my feet and staggered off in the direction of the pond I’d seen. The place was packed with trees and just their presence made me happier than I’d been in a long time, but still I hurried. My hands were getting worse, the i
tching turning to burning. If I didn’t wash them soon, the reaction would be impossible to stop.
There! I caught the scent of water, off to the right, and veered in that direction. Moments later, I broke through the undergrowth and fell to my knees next to a pond that couldn’t have been more than ten feet across. I didn’t care—it was water, and I plunged my hands under the surface, rubbing feverishly at the skin until the burning started to lessen. It wouldn’t go completely; by this time, some of it had soaked through my skin, but it was only a couple of spots and I’d gotten it off the outside. My body would work through the rest.
About the time I decided I might be safe to move on, I heard the low growl of an engine in the distance, coming closer. Was it a regular patrol, or did they have sensors on the top of the wall? Fuck. I took off at full speed away from the sound of the engine. The pond seemed to be spring fed, which was a shame. If the books I’d read as a kid had been right, I could have thrown them off my scent by following whatever stream fed it.
I climbed a tree, hoping to catch my breath, and to try to figure out where the security team—that had to be who it was—were looking. I didn’t even consider that it might be an evening tryst—my luck hadn’t been that good since my first heat happened.
There. Back where I came from. I climbed down again and headed away from the wall, hoping to find civilization and blend into a crowd before I was spotted.
My stupid luck, though, got the better of me.
Not five minutes after I’d left my tree, I damn near ran into one of the local shifters. We both froze, staring at each other. I couldn’t make out much about him, except that he was huge, and that was really all I needed to see to know I didn’t want to be caught by him.
Mating the Omega (MM Gay Shifter Mpreg Romance) (Mercy Hills Pack Book 1) Page 2
