Chapter Two

Kieran wanted to pace. He wanted to move around the waiting room and snarl at anyone who passed too close.

Tiffany sat in a hospital room, and the walls separating them made him want to tear them down. Fuck. Where did that come from?

Instead, he sat in one of the chairs far too small for his size, his laptop perched on his thighs. He reviewed the bid for a job in Texas sent by the manager there. It was busy work to keep him occupied and not thinking about Tiffany, about what had happened, about how she’d looked stretched out in that hospital bed unconscious.

The way her lips had wrapped around his fingers, the way she’d swallowed down his cum—he couldn’t shake it. Her eyes, full of trust, were the worst.

She was too fucking young. After what had happened with Randy, she shouldn’t trust anyone, especially not him. Kieran was at fault for what had happened. He’d failed to see Randy for what he’d been, hadn’t recognized the monster in his employee and it had led to the deaths of too many omegas. It had led to what Tiffany had suffered.

After getting her settled, he’d checked on Claire in her hospital room. The other woman had given him some information on the girl, but she’d been tight-lipped. Smitten as she was with Bryce, Joshua and Kaidan, it seemed he wasn’t offered that same trust.

Tiffany was only nineteen. A barista at a local coffee shop, from what he understood. That didn’t shock him, though. Her sweet nature, and the way she’d pleaded so nicely?

That was the sort of voice he wanted to hear begging. He wanted to see her strip down and drop to her knees, to have her turn those blues eyes up to him and—

“You sure this is the place for that?” Sam’s voice cut into his thoughts.

A look down at his groin had Kieran groaning and adjusting the laptop to cover his erection. “What do you want?”

Sam only grinned before lowering into the seat beside him. How the detective managed to deal with all he did and still have that cheerful mood, Kieran would never know. “Wanted to check in on everyone. Besides, I brought Tracy and Karen to see Claire.”

A soft snort was Kieran’s only answer. Sam was the sort of alpha to settle down, so it didn’t shock him to hear he’d put some claim on the broken omega and her daughter. Sam was a family man, the sort who would fit well into the father role.

“How are you?”

“I don’t need a heart-to-heart, Sam.”

“You sure about that? Because you look even more glum than usual, and you’re usually pretty depressing.”

Kieran released a low, threatening growl.

Sam only laughed. “That won’t scare me off.”

He shut the laptop, giving up on the fake distraction. Sam was a hell of a pain in the ass when he wanted to be, and it seemed he wanted to be.

“I’m fine.”

“What happened?”

“She was in heat. What the hell do you think happened?”

“You didn’t knot her. You wouldn’t be this wound up if you had.”

Kieran’s knuckles popped when he drew them into fists, then released them. “Fine, I didn’t. Can you blame me? She was drugged out of her mind, and it was her first heat. Nothing in that says she should have had sex with anyone, let alone me.”

“Let alone you?”

Kieran pressed his lips tight at the telling statement. “I mean that I’m not looking for anything long term, and that girl should be. So, no, I didn’t knot her. I helped her the best I could until she could be sedated, and now? Now I’m waiting here to make sure she’ll be fine. Then she can go on her way, meet a nice young alpha and have a handful of kids. Are we done?”

Sam’s chuckle only drove Kieran’s temper higher. The draw to knot the female had nearly overwhelmed him, and denying the instinct had left tension. “Oh, this should be fun to watch.”

Kieran shook his head, wanting to open the laptop and let the detective fuck off for all he cared. Being rude wasn’t something he’d worried much about in his life.

“There’s something else,” Sam said.

“What?”

“Well, when they brought Tiffany in, they fingerprinted her, ran her history.”

“She’s nineteen. How much history could she have?”

“More than you’d think.” Sam reached into the bag slung over his shoulder to pull out a folder. “She’s been in trouble a few times. She was pegged as an omega at fifteen because of a reaction to some medication. At that point, she rebelled a bit. Most of it was small stuff. Went joyriding in a few cars, a bit of graffiti, some breaking and entering.”

“Most of this looks harmless enough.” Kieran read through the reports.

Hard to think of Tiffany being such a troublemaker. Even the things listed weren’t outright destructive. She’d graffitied omega slogans on the wall of a newspaper that tended toward pro-alpha stories. The breaking and entering seemed to be revenge for an alpha who had groped her friend. The joyriding was pure fun.

“Most of it was. Then this happened.” Sam leaned across and flipped the page. “She got into it with this alpha. Broke his nose, gave him a concussion.”

“That little spit of a girl did all this to an alpha?”

“That little girl had a big bat and a lot of attitude.”

Kieran read over the details, his lips tipping down. “Says here she claims the alpha attacked her.”

“Yeah, and, judging from what I’ve found, he probably did. However, the alpha’s father is a congressman, and the last thing he wanted was this story in the paper about his son, so he made sure it fell on Tiffany’s shoulders. They put out a warrant to have her registered as a delinquent omega.”

“Fuck.” Kieran slammed the folder closed. “Tell me there’s something you can do about this?”

“The alpha’s father has a lot of pull, and he’s well connected. I’d guess he hasn’t let it go, because I ran her prints as soon as she came in, and I got a call within fifteen minutes about her.”

“You can’t let them register her for that. She’ll be given to whatever alpha has been sucking the dick of the council. She’ll be nothing but property.”

Sam slid the folder back into his bag. “I know, but I don’t have unlimited power here. Lucky for you, I have enough strings for one plan, but it’s all we’ve got.”

“And what plan is that?”

Sam’s smile, wide and full of amusement, didn’t bode well. “How do you feel about coming out of retirement to train one last unruly omega?”

* * * *

Kane sighed as the man struggled against his binds. Why did they always struggle? It wasn’t like the man thought he’d get out of the rope that bound his wrists, yet there he went, yanking and rolling.

Even calves gave up when hog-tied. Seemed cows were smarter than the fucker Kane had caught.

“Let me go! I’ll give you anything.”

“Don’t want shit from you.” Kane opened the desk drawer and rummaged through the items there. Snacks, a magazine, a billion paper clips.

What the fuck? No one used paper clips anymore, yet every desk he looked through had them in spades.

“Besides, you’d lie anyway.”

“I won’t lie. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, okay?”

“See, that won’t fix this. Someone hired me to find you and to get some important files. You being alive or dead at the end of it? Well, that’s a fun surprise for us all. I’m partial to dead, but not sold either way.”

That had the man struggling again, hard enough he rolled to his side and got stuck. Not the most dignified position.

The ringing of Kane’s phone had him sighing. Why did he give out his number? He hated when people called him when they wanted stupid shit. He should hire a secretary, someone to deal with the frustration for him.

He pulled out the phone, and the name forced a smile he tried to hide the moment it appeared. He gave a warning jab in the man’s direction then a shush before he answered it. “Hey, Tiff. Been a while.”

A soft background beeping came before she answered. “Hey, Kane. Sorry, I’ve been busy.”

He stilled, something on the edges of his awareness raising suspicion. “You okay, doll? You don’t sound great.”

“I’m fine.” The lie, even through the phone, could have been spotted by a blind idiot. “Well, I mean, I will be. There was an accident, and I got hurt, but I’m okay now.”

“Accident? You lying to me now?”

The hesitation from her was new. Hell, it almost sounded like she had to psych herself up to answer. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”

His hand tightened around his phone until a crack warned him to ease off. “Fine. Sure. We’ll not talk about the fact I know you’re in a fucking hospital. You think that beeping ain’t distinctive? But, yeah, whatever you want. Why’d you call? So we could not talk about you being hurt?” The sharpness of his tone would have shut up most people, but Tiffany had never been most people.

A year since they’d started talking, since she’d hired him to do a simple delivery job, and he’d never been able to stop thinking about her. They hadn’t met, of course. Too tempting, too dangerous. She sounded like a fucking perfect omega, and him? He was scarred and tatted up and far too dangerous for her. Hell, the girl had no idea he was even an alpha.

Instead, their talks had turned from jobs to actual conversations. They’d laugh, they’d talk and he’d pretend there was something there. Her voice had gotten him through some dark nights, nights when that soft laughter of hers was the only light he knew of.

Her sigh came out soft and tired.

Don’t be an asshole.

She’d clearly had a hell of a day, so the last thing she needed was Kane acting like a bastard to her.

“Sorry, doll. What’s up?”

At that, the man on the floor shouted, “Help me! He’s going to—” A kick to the man’s stomach, then a hand over his mouth shut him up.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. TV was on too loud. What’s up?”

Suspicion colored the silence, telling him she was too smart to believe his shit. Still, she didn’t call him on it. “I wanted to know if you’ve made any progress. I don’t know how long I’ll be under this name, and in case I have to go, I wanted to make sure you send anything new you’ve found.”

“You planning on running?”

“Might not have a choice.”

The hell she wouldn’t. Kane wanted to ask her what the problem was, wanted to tear it apart. He wasn’t any good for her, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fuck up anything that endangered her. That was what they had—all they could have. Tiffany got the good life, the happy life, and Kane got to watch over her. It had to be enough. “Tell me the truth, Tiff. Tell me what’s going on. I can help you.”

“You’ve done a lot for me, Kane, but even you can’t fix everything.”

“Wanna bet?”

Her laugh eased his chest, the resilience there. Stubborn, feisty little omega that she was, nothing much kept her down for long. “Yeah, well, I don’t think I’m going to have much to say about this. Text me that address when you find it, please.”

He nodded before remembering she couldn’t see him. “Sure thing. You keep my number, though, because if you drop off the face of the Earth and don’t bother to let me know you’re okay, I’ll track your ass down.”

“Promise?”

His answering growl came out feral against the teasing she always did.

How many times had she asked to meet? How many times had she’d begged him to stay at their drop-off location? Hell, he still recalled the time he’d scouted it out first, only to see the same car sitting there. A call and her laugh had said, yeah, she’d tried to outwit him.

Fuck, turning her down was hard. Didn’t matter, though. Sometimes people did what was right even when it was hard, and he hadn’t done much right in his life.

“Don’t push me,” he said.

Nothing but affection came through her words, as if his growls and threats meant nothing. “I’ll do what I can, okay? And, just in case, if things don’t work out and I can’t talk to you again, I want you to know—”

“None of that. You shut the fuck up with goodbye bullshit, you hear me?”

“There’s that charm of yours I love. Okay, fine, no goodbyes. I’ll talk to you later.”

“You better.”

The line went dead, leaving Kane still holding the man beneath him down, his hand over the guy’s mouth. Sure, the guy was a two-bit asshole who deserved the shit that was happening, but, even so, it all painted a picture, didn’t it?

No matter what Tiffany thought, the girl didn’t know shit, and they had no future. The best thing he could do for her was to stay the hell out of her life.

If only he was strong enough to do it.

* * * *

Tiffany shifted her arm, the sparks of pain causing her to grit her teeth but try again. It moved, but pain still spread through the joint.

The pills had taken the edge off the ache. Food had settled her stomach, and she could breathe easily again.

Kane’s voice brought a smile, though. That growl he let out and his subtle annoyance with her warmed her. If she had to run—and it seemed she’d need to—she’d miss him.

She couldn’t contact him after she cut ties. Claire had taught her enough to know better than to try it. The quickest way to get caught would be contacting anyone from her old life.

She’d miss him. How many people could she count as friends? He’d never been interested in anything, had refused to meet her. Because she’d gotten his number through a forger, she had to assume he knew she was an omega.

Was that the problem? Most betas didn’t want omegas. They considered them too much trouble, too prone to running off with an alpha. It meant few settled down together.

Did he not want to risk his heart if she decided she’d rather end up with an alpha? Like omegas were driven by nothing but the need for a knot? She bristled at the idea.

As soon as it happened, the anger melted away. The reason didn’t matter. She’d miss him.

There wasn’t a choice, though. She’d seen her legal name on the file. If they had that, they’d have seen the warrant and the orders to register her.

And she couldn’t let that happen. She wasn’t going to be given away like a prize to some alpha she’d never met. The alphas willing to take on delinquent omegas tended to be shitty people. What sort of man was fine with taking an unwilling omega as a mate?

She grasped the needle of the IV. How much time did she have? How long before the police showed up? Before someone came to tell her what happened next?

Before the thoughts could drag her under, before she risked pulling out the IV, a soft knock on the door caught her attention.

“Yeah?” Her voice cracked from the nerves.

The door opened, and a man she didn’t recognize came in. One sniff told her. Alpha.

Before she could worry, Kieran came in on his heels. He met her gaze, eyes hard, looking so much like he had in that room.

He was tall and impossibly large. Silver hair at his temples showed he was more than a couple of years older than her, but that didn’t scare her off. In fact, all the signs of his age, the knowledge in his dark eyes, the lines between his eyebrows that implied he frowned a lot—she liked it all. His hands caught her attention, and they brought back all the ways he’d used them on her the night before.

It forced her gaze down to hide her reaction.

“Hello, Tiffany. My name is Detective Sam Franklin. How are you feeling?” The new man spoke with a kind voice, the sort that made her want to let down her guard.

“Tired of that question.”

Snark was always a risk. She never knew how an alpha would react. Would he find her smart-ass comments adorable? Would he see them as a challenge?

Sam responded by letting out a hard bark of laughter. “I’ll take that as you feeling pretty well, then. You look better, and the doctor says you’ll be fine.”

“So why are you here?”

Kieran said nothing as he leaned against the wall beside the door. He stuck his hands into his pockets, his gaze moving between Sam and Tiffany, but remained silent.

Sam, however, seemed more than willing to do the talking. “Well, as I’m sure you guessed, we’ve run your name. It seems you’ve had some issues with the law in Ohio.”

She swallowed before trying to play dumb. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Must be a paperwork error.”

Sam reached into his bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Her picture showed on the front, her name above it. “This isn’t a mistake. You are Tiffany Hansen, and they are looking for you.”

“Please, don’t turn me over. Walk out of the room, go get some coffee. I’ll take the IV out and be gone before you get back. Say I snuck off again. Say anything you want, but let me go.” Her words started to ramble, to spin faster and faster.

Kieran spoke, voice hard and so familiar despite the short time they’d known each other. “Easy there, girl. Listen to your options before you pass out.”

She pulled in a shaky breath, not realizing how shallow her breathing had turned. “I have options? That’s new.”

“To be fair, it’s only one.” Sam came over and rested his hip against the bed. “I’ve got an option for you, Tiffany. It’s not great, but it’s better than being registered.”

“What’s the option?”

“Go through a training program with a registered alpha. I’ve gotten a judge to sign off on it. Complete this program, and your history is wiped clean. You’ll be free to start over, to live any life you want.”

“I’ve never heard of that before.”

“It’s not done much anymore. Basically, if there’s an omega they feel could do fine on her own after a little training, they’ll place her with an approved alpha. He’ll teach her, get her set up, and she gets a second chance after completing the program.”

“How long?”

“Program takes a year. You’d have to give up that time to it.”

Her jaw ached from the way she pressed her teeth together. “So, you’re telling me that the cost of my freedom is to give up my freedom to some strange alpha for a full year?”

“It’s not perfect, I know, but it’s all I’ve got. And, besides, it’s a year versus your whole future, so it’s the lesser of two evils.”

The idea of agreeing chafed. Still, what had she wanted since she’d run a year ago? She’d wanted her life. She wanted to go home and see her parents. She wanted to be able to use her real name, to buy property, to go to school. An entire year beneath the thumb of some registered, approved alpha wasn’t ideal, but it was only a year. She’d been on the run for longer than that.

She could sacrifice a year if it meant her freedom. “Okay.”

“Don’t you even want to know who the alpha would be?”

“Doesn’t matter. I can get my life back this way, so whoever it is? I can handle them.”

Sam chuckled, then stood. “Glad that’s how you feel right now. Not sure you’ll feel that way when you find out who it is.”

Her eyebrows inched toward one another. “Why not? Who is it?”

Kieran spoke from his spot against the wall, so still she’d nearly forgotten about him. “You just agreed to be mine for the next year, girl.”

Well, shit.