Chapter Twenty

Claire sat in her car. She’d taken Joshua’s car to her house, then picked up her own car. They’d probably placed a tracker on theirs after she’d stolen Kaidan’s.

Twice.

She doubted they’d have messed with hers, though.

Still, making herself leave it, forcing herself to step out of it gave her pause. A deep breath and the memory of Tiffany’s voice in her ear got Claire to move.

No message had come from any of them, which told her the men hadn’t reached home yet. A part of her was sorry for that. She didn’t want things to be over.

The note said what it needed to, but it wasn’t enough. If she wasn’t so sure one of them would figure out a way to track her phone, she’d have called them. She wanted to say so much more. She wanted to tell them how sorry she was. She wanted to hear their voices. She wanted to hear Joshua called her sweetheart, to hear Kaidan called her love. Hell, she even wanted to hear Bryce just growl out omega at her.

But that wasn’t going to happen. There wasn’t time and, hell, she might lose her nerve if heard their voices. If she had to listen to them, she might decide she couldn’t lose that. Maybe the guilt of leaving them behind would give her second thoughts.

No, better to do this the easy way, the clean way. They could move on, find someone else, someone less broken.

The air struck her face as she left the car, as she headed toward the empty office building. The perfect place for what he had planned. No one around. Dark. Deserted.

Still, she pushed on. The code to the door was dark, and the door opened with a creak. Inside, a sickening scent bombarded her.

Fear. Heat. Alpha. That pheromone from Jackie’s place, the one she knew now to be lab grown, soaked into the walls of the place. Tiffany was there, and a whine from inside pulled Claire forward.

Claire rushed through the hallway, following the scent, the sound, terrified she was too late.

As she passed a corner, rushing, she never saw the punch coming.

Everything went black.

* * * *

She’d left the house. While it unnerved Bryce, while he hated the idea of her outside alone, he figured it was a good sign.

She’d decided to go somewhere. She had taken Kaidan’s car after she had received a call. He might have thought she’d run for good if it wasn’t for the note she’d scribbled and left on the island, though the resolution of the inside cameras lacked the ability to read the writing.

He’d thought she’d go to her shop, but she hadn’t shown. She could have gone to her house, since they hadn’t set anything up there. She hadn’t spent time there, so it wouldn’t have helped.

Maybe she’d decided to meet one of those omegas who sent her messages?

“It’s a good thing,” Kaidan offered from beside him as they walked up the steps of the house. “Maybe it means she’s got some of her spark back.”

“Maybe.” Bryce found it hard to believe anything, to bank on anything good. He’d seen it all turn to shit too many times. He’d watched people who deserved the world get torn down, and he’d seen people who should have been gutted live long, happy lives.

“Maybe it means she’s getting poison to kill us all,” Kaidan said.

“Well, at least we’d get a nice meal out of it. I’ve seen her cook. It’s pretty good.” Joshua smiled, always hopeful, as they walked into the house. How he could keep up his positivity, Bryce would never understand. The man could be drowning, and he’d just talk about how a nice swim was perfect.

Still, his optimism sparked some in Bryce. Maybe they were right, and maybe things were healing.

He’d been waiting for that, for some sign that she’d move forward. It wasn’t that he expected her to forget, to not care. He just wanted the chance to make it up to her, to fix something. The way she’d curled into his heat, the way he’d wrapped his arms around her. He’d offered to leave, to let her be with the other two.

He’d do anything to just see a smile on her face, even if it meant leaving her alone. The idea killed him, but hell, so did seeing her as she was. Anything was better than that.

They went into the house, Bryce hanging his coat on the hook inside the door, Joshua heading for the note.

“Let’s see where our little omega has gone off to,” Joshua said. Paper rustled, then a hard curse shattered the peace.

It had Bryce and Kaidan reaching the table in a rush.

Joshua handed the paper to Bryce. The note was written in careful letters that looked as though they’d been done slowly and with thought.

I’m sorry. I should have forgiven you, and now I don’t think there’s time. I wish I could hear you growl at me again. I wish I could go back and do this right. I wish I hadn’t screwed it all up. You’re going to be mad at me, but I deserve it.

The killer has my friend. He called, and he has Tiffany. I can’t let her die like Jackie did, can’t leave her to that. I wish I could tell you, that I could have you all by my side, but I can’t. He said if you show, he’ll kill her and you. I can’t risk you, can’t put you in danger like that.

I just want to say thank you. No matter what happens, you gave me something. Before you, I was afraid of everything, but you showed me I didn’t have to be afraid. You gave me a home, and I never had that before. You gave me a family, and that was worth everything.

Love, Claire.

Joshua was already at his laptop, bringing up all the security feeds he could. “She had to leave a trail. Everyone leaves a trail.”

“Calling Kieran. He can earn his keep and see if he can trace her phone.” Kaidan had his phone out and to his ear a moment later.

Bryce held the note in his hand. He’d chased a lot of things in his life, fought so many things, but she was the first he cared about.

The first, and he was terrified they’d lose her.

* * * *

Claire’s head throbbed as she came to. She rolled to the side, fingers pressed to her temples. She couldn’t remember anything at first, couldn’t figure out why her head was pounding, why she was lying on the filthy ground. What had happened?

Then a man crouched beside her and it came back.

Randy. The alpha who had come into the bookshop weeks before. He was the killer.

“Why, hello,” he said, voice darker than it had been before. How had he hidden that from her? How had she missed it?

“Where’s Tiffany?”

He nodded toward the corner, toward the writhing girl with her wrist cuffed to a post of the bed she was on. “She’s alive, like I promised. Pheromones have hit her hard, so she’s mid-heat, but she’s alive.”

Claire pulled in a harsh breath. There was that, at least. Tiffany was alive. Her men were alive. The rest would work itself out.

She sat up, squinting through the light from a lamp in the corner.

“Can you feel it?” He nodded toward a discarded rag on the floor. “You inhaled enough of that. You should feel it pretty soon.”

He’d used the pheromones on her? No unease crawled through her, no sweat poured from her brow, no tightening in her skin like the last time.

“Well, if you don’t yet, you will. Maybe it’ll take longer since it drove you into a heat before.” He frowned at her. “I expected something else.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” She rubbed her palms against her eyes. “Never mind. I’m not that sorry.”

“Between what Jackie said, what Tiffany said, I thought you were some strong omega. I mean, they sang your praises, talked about how you helped them, how you saved so many. Didn’t use your name, of course. It took me a while to figure out who you were. I put it together when I saw your request from Kieran. See, I saw a book in Jackie’s room from your shop. Tiffany had one, too. Then you show up at Kieran’s? One look around your shop, one good whiff of you, and I was sure.” He dragged a finger down her cheek. “Even so, I expected someone stronger. I mean, you saved omegas. You were some legend according to them. I expected to walk into that shop and find you bigger than life, the best prey I’d ever taken down. What I found was some broken toy, like an omega who got thrown back when she couldn’t cut it. No wonder the omegas you helped were such easy targets. Look at you.”

“Let Tiffany go. I did what you asked.”

He laughed, then shook his head. “I won’t kill her. No reason to, really. Thanks to you, police already know who I am, so even if she identifies me, it doesn’t matter. Still, I figure I won’t let her go just yet. I’ll keep her here, let her see what I do to her legend. Wonder if she’ll still look up to you when she realizes you’re just like any other omega cunt around. As soon as those pheromones get into your system, you’ll be begging for my cock, and she’ll get to see it all. Those assholes, Bryce, Kaidan, Joshua—they like to think they’re alphas, but they aren’t. They’re impotent, just dickless men who forgot what it means to be an alpha. It’s what’s wrong with you, too. You’ve all forgotten what biology means. They let omegas run wild and we all end up with bitches like you who don’t know their place.”

“So that’s why you only attack omegas who are hiding. A public service?”

“Good omegas who accept their place aren’t my problem. Think of me like a law keeper, dealing with those who can’t follow the rules, because no one else will. Besides, there are more than enough of you to keep me plenty busy. Tiffany here can listen to you scream and beg, and she can realize that her precious role model isn’t anything at all. Hell, she’s young enough, she can fall in line afterward. She can submit to nature and you’ll have actually taught her something useful.”

Claire turned her face away from where he touched her cheek. Tiffany had her eyes squeezed shut, thankfully too far gone to notice anything in the room.

It this it? Is this where I die? The end? She thought about how Kaidan would stroke his fingers through her hair and whisper into her ear. She could almost hear his voice, telling her it would be okay. Telling her to be strong.

Joshua would smile at her. Would she really never see that smile again? She should have appreciated it more, appreciated his jokes and his charm. He could make her feel like the only person in the entire world when he looked at her, when he didn’t notice a single other person.

And Bryce? Oh, he wouldn’t be reassuring her. His growl would fill the space, his angry, demanding voice. “Get up. Fight. Don’t you dare give up.”

She laughed at that, at the way he’d have believed she could fight, that she could win, and that she’d damn well do it when he told her to. How could she have thought he didn’t respect her? If anything, he was the one who believed her strong, believed her capable.

“What’s so funny?”

“That you think you frighten me.”

“You saw what I did to your friend. I saw you jumping in your shop the second I walked in there. I know I frighten you.”

Claire lifted her head to face him, wanting him to see her eyes when she spoke. “You don’t know anything. You tear down omegas because you know they’re more than you’ll ever be. You’re just a coward who attacks women you think are easy targets, but that doesn’t make you strong. It doesn’t make you tough.”

He wrapped his fingers around her throat but didn’t squeeze. He wanted her afraid, wanted to see that fear, needed it. It was written across his face. “And what? You think those alphas you fuck are strong? They can’t even keep you in line.”

That was when it really hit her, when the truth spilled from her lips the moment she realized it. “They’re strong enough they don’t need to keep me in line. You destroy omegas because you can’t control them, because you’re afraid of everything. They’re more of an alpha than you’ll ever be.”

His eyes darkened, fury radiating off him in waves. The anger of an alpha had always driven her to begging before, made her want to cower and hide. Now?

It spurred her on.

She finally saw him, saw Tracy’s mate, saw James for what they were. She’d assumed they were powerful, strong, invincible. In the groundless hatred of his gaze, she saw what sat below. Fear. Cowardice. He wasn’t anything and certainly not the beast she’d assumed.

She could hurt him. She could still make it out of this. She could see her men again, could make it right with them, could have the life she’d been too afraid to try for before. She had something worth fighting for.

“I’ll show you just how strong I am, omega.”

Claire bared her teeth on a snarl. “I’ll do the same.”