Then I hear the doorknob rattle and the sound of a key turning in the lock.
I tense, ready to jump.
But when the door swings open, it’s a man who steps inside.
It isn’t the man who was here, the pack alpha. This man is younger, and bigger too. He’s cladded in nothing but jeans. Unlike Emily, he’s not bearing a food tray, and he doesn’t look at me with kindness. I shrink back into the corner.
“What were you doing there?” he asks.
“N-nothing,” I say. “Just standing here.”
“Strange place to stand.” He eyes me suspiciously.
“There’s no better place,” I point out, though my voice is still shaking. “This room is the same everywhere.”
The man shrugs. “Whatever makes you happy, I suppose.”
Happy feels miles and miles away. “Where’s Clay?” I ask, summoning my courage.
The man laughs. “He’s downstairs with your other friends. You’ll all be part of our pack soon enough.”
“They’d never join your pack,” I say
“Oh, I think they will.” The man reaches out, grabs my wrist, and pulls me to him. “But they might need some persuading. In the meantime, let’s you and me have a little fun.”
I try to pull away, but his grip is too tight. Sudden terror rushes through me in waves, spotting my vision and accelerating my heart. “Don’t,” I say, my voice horribly weak. “Let me go.”
He laughs. “Come on. You’re an omega.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Everyone knows omegas are always up for it. You don’t even care who you’re with, as long as you’re getting some.” My horror must show on my face, because he continues. “No need to be embarrassed about it, sweetheart. It’s who you are. It’s what you are. And it’s a good thing. Everyone wants an omega, you must know that.” He cups my cheek. His hand is gentle, but the fact that he’s touching me at all is so repulsive that it feels like a slap. “Why do you think your pack came all this way and risked their necks to save you?”
“They came because they care about me,” I say. “I’m one of the pack.”
“Is that what they tell you?” he asks. “That you’re one of them? That they care for your happiness?” He shakes his head. “I have to admit, it’s a decent idea. A good way to stop an omega from trying to run away. Make her believe she’s among friends. I’ll bet you can’t wait to get back to them, can you? You were serving them in exactly the same way as you’ll be serving us, but they’ve got you believing it’s what you want.”
“That’s not true,” I say. “I wasn’t serving them at all.”
“Oh, you weren’t?” He cocks his head in mock confusion. “You weren’t mating with one of them? You weren’t going to bear a new generation of cubs for them and help the pack stay strong? That’s what omegas are for, girl. You were doing exactly that for your old pack. Just admit it.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I protest weakly. It wasn’t like that, was it?
“It’ll be exactly the same here,” the man says. “It won’t make any difference to you in the long run, I can promise you that. Omegas are born to breed, and you’ll be breeding. There’s no greater satisfaction in the world for someone like you.”
He’s wrong. I know that’s wrong. I like sex, but I’ve had plenty of it with people I’m not mated to. I know enough to know that without that bond, the bond I share with Clay and with Mike and with Bruno, it’s never quite as good. There is, thank God, no imprint binding me to the man standing in front of me, and so I know that even if I went to his bed willingly, which I would never do, it would never be quite as good.
It doesn’t look like he’s planning on giving me a choice, though. He’s still gripping my wrist too tightly for me to escape, and his other hand has moved from my face to my lower back. He’s holding me against him, preventing me from moving at all. I wonder if he can feel how much I’m shaking, how the fear of what’s to come is wracking my body.
I’m already pregnant, I remind myself. I’m not going to have this horrible man’s children. It’s small consolation, given the severity of the situation I’m in, but at least it’s something. He’s doing this because he wants cubs and he won’t get any. At the very least, he won’t have that satisfaction.
For a moment, I entertain the thought of telling him I’m pregnant. There’s a chance, however slim, that if he knew that he might choose to leave me alone for now. But in the end, I can’t take the risk. If he knew I was pregnant, he would certainly tell his alpha, and I would probably be forced to terminate. These are Bruno’s children, and Clay’s, and Mike’s. I won’t let any harm come to them, no matter what anyone does to me.
I won’t let this man have his way with me, either. I pull out of his embrace, and though he doesn’t release my wrist, I’m able to put a few feet between us. “You can’t touch me,” I say desperately. “You can’t do anything to me. Not yet. I already spoke with the alpha and he was adamant that he should be first. He wants the first litter to be all his so he can be sure of having an alpha among the new generation.”
The man shrugs. “He hasn’t given any orders to that effect. He hasn’t said anything that would stop me from doing whatever I want with you.”
“But he’ll be angry,” I say. “He wants me to himself first. He doesn’t seem the type to forgive easily. He’ll punish you if you go against his wishes and take me right now.”
“There isn’t any way I could have known,” the man says. “And besides, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
“Then I’ll tell him,” I say. “I’ll tell him everything that happens here, and you won’t be able to deny it if he compels you to tell the truth. He’ll know you were warned away from me. And he’ll know you chose to ignore that warning.”
The man leans close. All the easygoing pretense at charm is gone from his face. He’s glaring, foul and evil looking. “Tell him,” he says through gritted teeth, “and I’ll never rest until I find the thing you love most and destroy it.”
My babies. At some point, it’s going to become obvious that I’m pregnant. When that day comes, I’m going to need to have allies here. I can’t afford to let people develop vendettas against me. Keeping them safe is more important than anything. Even if it means I sacrifice myself to this man.
“All right,” I say quietly. “I won’t tell.”
And now I’m out of options. I know it, and I can see that he knows it. A smile spreads across his face as he tugs me close again. This time, I don’t resist. There’s no more fight in me. I just want this over with.
A loud crash interrupts us.
Shocked, the man releases me. I skitter backward away from him and wedge myself into a corner. He looks around, trying to identify the source of the noise. “What the hell?” he murmurs.
There’s a knock at the door to my room.
The man looks terrified. He’s in imminent danger of being caught where he shouldn’t be, I realize, and his only chance is if I make the newcomer go away. But is that the right thing to do? If I give away that he’s here, I might be saved. But someday he’d come for me and take his revenge.
“Answer,” he hisses at me.
Trying to keep my voice steady, I call out. “Hello?”
A pause, during which the tension ratchets up even higher.
Then a familiar voice comes through the door. “Lane? Is that you?”
Oh my God. “Greg?”
Chapter Twenty-Five
BRUNO
As soon as the pack’s footsteps fade away out in the hall, I run to the window and tug at it. “Damn! This is locked too!”
Mike strides over, hands fisted. “Move.”
I realized what he’s about to do at the same instant as Clay reaches out to restrain him. “Hang on. You can’t just punch through the glass,” he says.
“I’m not about to stay in this room and let them hurt Lane!”
“Hey.” I move so I’m right in fr
ont of him, so we’re face to face. I catch his gaze and hold it. “I don’t like it either,” I say. “But if you punch through that glass, your hand is going to be full of glass. You’ll be bleeding all over the place.”
“I don’t care,” Mike says mulishly.
“You don’t? You’ll care when you pass out on the floor and you can’t do anything to help her.”
“I’m not going to pass out.”
“Okay. Say you don’t. Then you’ll leave a trail of blood, and they’ll be able to follow us. Not to mention the fact that the crash you make breaking the window will bring Harlan running back before we’re able to get away. It’s not going to gain us anything.”
For a moment I’m afraid he’s not going to listen. Clay is stronger than Mike, but if Mike shifts, he’s going to break free of Clay’s hold easily, and Clay might even get hurt in the process. Mike’s breathing is fast. Too fast. I need him to calm down. I hold his gaze and breathe slowly, hoping he’ll mirror me.
He does. Gradually, his breathing returns to normal. His shoulders slump.
“What the hell are we going to do?” he whispers.
I don’t know. I’m the alpha and I’m supposed to have answers, but I have no idea what we’re going to do now. I feel helpless and terrified. I can’t even think about what Lane must be going through. This whole plan was my idea. It’s my fault we’re trapped in this room, with no way to get to her. Whatever happens to her now, it’s on me.
“He was looking for us, wasn’t he?” Clay says. “When he came up north. When he found Lane. He must have been tracking us. There was no other reason for him to come up that way.”
I know Clay’s right. And that means that Lane’s kidnapping is entirely my fault. It wouldn’t have happened if Harlan—my father —hadn’t been pursuing me. It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t run away from the pack in the first place. I got her into this, and I can’t get her out of it.
“He took his time finding us,” Mike says.
“Silver lining.” Clay grumbles.
“He was probably searching the whole time,” I tell them. “Remember, we were in human form when we ran. I’m sure we were hard to track. But he was closing in. And then he found something more enticing. Something that made him forget about us entirely.”
“Do you think he was telling the truth?” Mike asks. “I mean, is he really your father?”
I shrug. “He has no reason to lie about that.” Except for the fact that, apparently, he’s been lying about it all my life. I was never close to Harlan. I never agreed with the way he ran the pack, though I at least respected his authority before the incident with the prostitute. But now, knowing that I’ve been his son and heir all these years and he’s never been honest with me about it, I’m filled with disgust for him. How could he have thought that was a good idea? Even if he didn’t care about me — and clearly, he didn’t — surely, he must have recognized how unwise it would be to allow an alpha to grow up in his midst without any awareness of his identity. It only makes sense that I would develop more independence as I matured. There was bound to be a time when he and I butted heads. It’s in our nature. Had I known I was an alpha, I would have understood what was happening, and though I don’t think anything would have made me accept our pack engaging in prostitution, Harlan would have at least had a better chance at persuading me to cooperate.
So, I’m his son. I’m an alpha by birthright. That just makes me more determined than ever to protect my pack, the family I built for myself. I can’t stay here and play second fiddle to Harlan, only to inherit his weak-willed second-rate pack when he dies. These are not my people. My family is Mike and Clay, and Greg, Robbie, and Zoe.
And Lane.
I have to get to Lane.
I turn to Clay. “Can you kick the door down?”
He stares at me. “They’ll definitely notice that.”
“So, they’ll come running. And then we fight.”
“We can’t take them on,” Clay says. “There are too many. We’re too few.”
“We have to try,” I tell him. I’ll die trying to get to Lane. I’ll fight for her until I can’t stand up, or until we’re together again and free.
Clay gives me a long, measured look. “I think I can do it,” he says finally.
I nod. “Do it.”
“Is it an order?”
I hesitate. He clearly doesn’t want to do this. Is it the best idea?
It’s the only idea we have.
“Yes,” I say. “It’s an order. Do it.”
Clay strides over to the door.
There’s a sudden tap on the window.
I turn around. A face is outside, peering in at us. It takes me a moment to recognize her in the darkness. “Zoe? Oh my God. Zoe!” I run over to the window and, in my excitement, forget that it’s locked and try to tug it open again.
Zoe fiddles with something and then pulls the window open. “They locked the windows from the outside? That’s intense. Hi guys.” She looks past me. “What’s he doing?”
I turn back. Clay is standing frozen in place, shaking like a leaf.
“Oh!” I remember. “Sorry, Clay. Don’t kick down the door.”
As soon as I countermand the order, he relaxes. He and Mike come over to the window and crowd around. “Zoe, what are you doing here?” I demand. “I told you to stay behind.”
“We didn’t listen,” Zoe says simply. “We shifted and came after you.”
“How did you get here so fast?” I ask. “We were speeding as fast as we could.”
“Well, we ran hard,” Zoe says. “I mean, we couldn’t keep up with you for anything. But you had to stick to the roads, and we went through the woods, and that was a little shorter. But you still beat us here, obviously. Sorry we couldn’t be here sooner.”
“You weren’t supposed to come at all!” If something happens to them, it’ll be all my fault.
“Hang on,” Mike interrupts. “Bruno, this is a good thing.”
“How is this a good thing?”
“I mean, for one thing, she let us out. We should get out, by the way. We can talk outside.”
“Right.” I step back so Mike and Clay can lower themselves out the window to the ground first. I follow behind them and find them squatting in the bushes to one side of the window.
Zoe is laying out her plan. “Dad’s upstairs finding Lane,” she says. “He’s going to get her out of there, and we’ll meet up out here. My job was to find you and get you out.”
“He’ll never get Lane out,” I say. “They’re watching her.”
“We did try that much ourselves,” Clay says. “That’s how we were captured.”
“Right,” Zoe says. “That’s part two. Come on, we need to get back in there.”
“What?” I ask. “We just got out.”
But Mike nods. “Lead the way.”
“Does someone want to explain this?” I ask as Zoe, crouching low, makes her way around to the front of the house.
“It’s pretty straightforward,” Mike says. “With Zoe and Greg here — and Robbie? Is he inside?”
“Shh,” Zoe hisses. “Yes.”
“Right.” Mike lowers his voice slightly. “We’ve got six fighters now. We outnumber Harlan. We can get to Lane and fight our way free, and we’ll actually stand a chance.”
The front door is unlocked. It seems anticlimactic after having been locked in the den that Harlan’s pack wouldn’t protect themselves from this direction. But then, I suppose it makes sense. They’re not expecting us to come this way, and I doubt they’re afraid of anyone else.
Zoe pauses to sniff the air. Looking over her shoulder, she presses a finger to her lips and beckons us onward, toward the stairs. By the time we reach the first landing I can smell it too fear, almost tangible, choking the atmosphere of the house. And peppered in with it, that scent that belongs to Lane alone. I’d recognize it anywhere. Immediately I feel a tug in my gut propelling toward her, and I almost break into a ru
n. But I restrain myself. I won’t help her by rushing. It would only give us away.
When we reach the top of the stairs, Zoe peers around the corner. I feel itchy and uncomfortable, knowing that as alpha I should be leading this attack, but I have to accept that my plan failed and got my packmates locked up. We’re running on Zoe’s plan now, and perhaps it’s for the best. Mike is right that we’re stronger now that we have numbers. I left Zoe and her family behind in the interest of protecting them and allowing us to get here more quickly, but I’m glad now that they didn’t listen to me. I’m glad I didn’t issue an order and left them with the freedom to make up their own minds. If they hadn’t followed us, we’d be nowhere.
Zoe turns back to us. “There are two men guarding a door,” she says. “I don’t know where my father is. He was supposed to be here. Do you think they caught him?”
I can only suppose they did, if he was lurking outside Lane’s door. “That’s how they caught Clay,” I say. “He was trying to free Lane.” Zoe looks alarmed. “Don’t worry,” I say quickly. “They won’t have hurt him. They’ll be trying to find out who he is and whether he’s acting alone. We’ll get Lane out of there, and then we’ll go find him.”
“This is getting more complicated by the minute,” Mike grumbles. “Where’s Robbie?”
Zoe shakes her head. “No idea.”
“What do you mean?” I demand. “Where was he supposed to be?”
“Looking for you. We didn’t know if they’d split you up, or if I’d be able to find you from the outside.”
“Great.” Clay rolls his eyes. “So, all three of you split up.”
“Like your plan was so much better,” she snaps.
“Hey,” I hiss. “Quiet. Focus. Two guards, four of us. Fine. Clay, you and Zoe take the nearest one. Mike and I will take the farther one. Understood?” Everyone nods. “Let’s go, then.”
We move quickly, striding out around the corner. I want this done fast, and I want it done quiet. The guards see us and start to yell, but I grab one, wrap my arm around his neck, and pull up until he goes limp in my arms. I lower him to the floor and check his pulse. He’s alive, but out for the duration. Good.
The Hidden Omega Page 15
