Chapter Sixteen

Reese was going to spank Kara again just for bringing up the stupid idea. “Not a chance.”

Kara stared back at him, all fire after having had the night to rebuild her defenses against them. In fact, she seemed even more surly, as if she’d realized just how much she’d given up and how little she liked it. “It’s the best choice!”

Cullen huffed from his spot by the bar, his arms crossed. “That’s not an idea, thief. That’s what people do when they don’t have any ideas. Big difference.”

Damon remained silent, his gaze taking in the three others. He did that a lot, liked to figure things out instead of throwing himself into the middle of the fray like the rest.

Probably for the best. They didn’t need three hotheads.

Kara threw her arms up before she began to pace. “Do you know where they’re keeping the alpha? Do you know anything?”

Reese kept his lips sealed, hating the answer. Coming up with nothing annoyed him.

She grinned, as though she enjoyed the tiny win. “All we know for sure is that they want me. That makes me the best lead we have.”

“If you think we’re dangling you out there like bait, you are insane.”

She cocked up an eyebrow, as if her sanity was a foregone conclusion. “I’m not doing it alone, you idiots. We put out the word of where I’ll be. I know enough people who can make sure it’s mentioned so anyone looking for me will find it. We’ll use a safehouse I know of. You guys will be set up already and waiting. When Mr. Bad Breath shows up looking for me, we turn the tables and nab him. Easy.”

Reese thought about all the many ways it could go terribly wrong, and it suddenly didn’t seem so easy.

The strategist in him said it was a good idea. The look on Cullen’s face said it was a good idea.

Instinct said ‘fuck that, she’s not going anywhere near this piss-poor plan.’

“And what if they decide they’re not interested in taking you alive anymore? What if they’ve decided they’re willing to just kill you?” Cullen asked.

Which was a good point and made Reese’s stomach churn.

Kara waved off the concern as if it were stupid. “They’re not going to shoot first, because they’ve got questions and dead people aren’t good at answering questions.”

Which made sense.

Reese struggled to find some reason why this was stupid, some reason why they had another plan that made more sense.

“I’m doing this whether you like it or not.” Kara crossed her arms and mirrored Cullen’s stance.

Cullen only snorted and shook his head.

Arguing with Kara was pointless. The more they argued, the more she dug her heels in.

That she’d even come to them with the idea was a fucking miracle. Normally she did whatever the hell she wanted behind their backs, usually while offering a pretty smile to lull them into a false sense of security.

So that was progress, right?

Reese scrubbed his hands over his face at his justification, looking to find positives in a whole bucket of negatives. She’d probably come to them because she knew the back-up would be useful, not because she cared at all about being honest.

“I don’t like it,” Damon admitted from his spot on the sidelines. “But it’s the best plan I can see right now.”

“See, he understands.” Kara hiked a thumb at Damon.

“He’d agree with you if you said the sky was pink,” Cullen argued. “You sway him too easily.”

Damon rose from his spot on the couch. “No, she doesn’t. I’m just smart enough to look at this logically. The longer we all run around looking for something without any real direction, the better chance that Kara gets found by accident. If we control the situation here, if we have time to set up, then it’s the safest of plans. I hate to say it, but this is the best option.”

Reese hated when the youngest alpha was right. Even worse was when Reese knew damned well Damon was right, like now, but he didn’t care for the truth. Reese wanted to find another option, one that kept Kara out of the line of fire.

But that didn’t seem likely to happen, and Damon wasn’t wrong. The longer it took them to wrap this up, the more opportunities they were giving Kara’s pursuers.

“Fine,” Reese gritted out. “But one of us is going to be inside the room with you. No, don’t bother trying to argue. It’s non-negotiable.”

Kara pressed her lips together so tightly that the color blanched from them. Seemed she didn’t care for being backed into a wall.

Too fucking bad. None of us like this plan, either. Welcome to the club.

She nodded, though she didn’t look happy about it. “Okay. It’ll take a couple days, so I’ll get in contact with—”

Reese caught her arm before she could walk past him and pulled her up against him. All those warm curves took him back to the other hot places on her, but he stayed focused even when her eyes went wide and her pupils dilated. “You’re going to listen, hellion, and you’re going to follow the plan.”

Her tempting tongue wet her bottom lip. “I always follow the plan.”

He narrowed his eyes. “And if I catch you lying, I swear what we did to your ass last time will seem like a vacation.”

Her lips parted and a thin moan escaped.

And for a second, as much as he loathed her lying, he almost hoped she’d push him to follow through on the threat.

It might just be worth it.

* * * *

Damon was entirely out of his element.

He wasn’t the type to worry about his shortcomings, to fear he didn’t fit the right mold, and he had long ago accepted what his limitations were.

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he’d grown accustomed to that. Damon was happy to let Cullen and Reese do the heavy lifting when it came to life-or-death situations.

At least, he would have been, if Kara hadn’t asked him.

“Why did you want me here?” He sat in a chair in the safehouse she’d pointed out. It rested at the end of a cul-de-sac, with Cullen and Reese sitting watch in the house next door.

“You don’t bug me as much as the others.”

He cast her a side-eye, knowing damn well that wasn’t it. “Either of them would have been more help than I am. If you need a search run, if you need to get past a security system, those things are my realm. Not this.”

She didn’t respond at first, slumped down in her own seat, her feet resting on the bookshelf against the wall. Cups filled the small room with the scent of over-roasted cheap coffee, but given that they’d needed to get into place five hours before the time she’d spread around to her contacts, he understood the need.

Finally, she shifted in the seat and answered while her gaze never strayed from the window. “Cullen and Reese like to be right, and I’d rather not spend the entire time arguing. I’d rather have you along because you listen.”

He winced at the reminder that he listened. How was it that something which brought him so much happiness in the moment could drag on him?

She’d brought him because he wasn’t as strong as the others, because he wasn’t like them. Would she grow bored of him? Tired of him not being what it seemed every other alpha was?

“What’s with that look?”

Damon tried to wipe clear any expression from his face. “Nothing.”

“Was that your first lie to me? It’s sort of adorable. See, I don’t know why people are bothered by my lying, unless I don’t look nearly that cute when I do it.”

The fact she didn’t demand an answer let Damon pick up one of the coffees and take a sip, to consider her words. If she’d pushed, he’d have hardened his defenses. Instead, she just waited.

“Do you ever get tired of not being what you’re supposed to be?”

She snorted. “You’re talking to a picture-perfect example of everything an omega isn’t supposed to be, here. I got over being annoyed by it a while ago.” Even as she said it, a waver in her voice said maybe she wasn’t being entirely honest. Then again, maybe she’d said what she wanted to be true. “Besides, you seem pretty alpha to me.”

He slid his thumb against the cup between his hands, using the mindless motions to distract him so he could ask what he needed to. “We both know that isn’t true. I’m not like Reese or Cullen.”

“Thank god,” she muttered.

“I don’t act like an alpha should.”

Kara let out the loudest of sighs, one all attitude and point, as though she wanted him to know exactly how stupid she thought he was being. She twisted to look at him, and the lights from the lamp made the blue of her eyes glow. “The fact that you’re not a beating-on-your-chest arrogant asshole doesn’t make you not an alpha. Believe it or not, that behavior isn’t some badge of honor.”

“I’ve been with women who expected me to be something I’m not. I’ve seen the disappointment on their faces when I don’t live up to what they thought they were getting.”

“Well, people are idiots, in case you weren’t already aware.”

Damon set his coffee back down and risked the real fear. “Even if someone”—they both had to know he was talking about her—“accepted that I’m not like that, how long would that last? How long before they were tired of me not being a real alpha? How long before they walked away for someone who was better?”

She blinked slowly, the blue of her eyes disappearing for a split second, and he wished he could read whatever was on her face. When she answered him, her voice was soft and quiet. “You can spend your life trying to be something you’re not, but it won’t ever work. Eventually, that mask falls and people see you for what you really are. It’s not worth it to try and hide who and what you are. If someone can’t appreciate it, if they don’t think it’s good enough, fuck them.”

“And you?” So much for being subtle.

“If I had any issue with you, I wouldn’t give you a second look. You think I didn’t know the first time I saw you what things would be like between us?”

“And it doesn’t bother you?”

“Nope. I like having you at my beck and call.” The curl of her lip was obvious, and the effect it had on his cock was instantaneous. “I can find alphas who want to take and take all day long, but you? You’re rare, and anyone who doesn’t see how fucking awesome it is, well, they can fuck off.” When she finished speaking, she stilled, her smile sliding free. “I mean, this is still temporary. I might think you look amazing on your knees, but this is it. When it’s over, though, it’s over because it’ll never work, not because of any bullshit about you not being a real alpha. Trust me, I felt your knot—you’re an alpha.”

He wanted to argue more, the years of feeling like he wasn’t quite enough so thick it was hard for her words to truly breach them.

Except she interrupted him once more before he could. “Stop worrying. I don’t ever let a good insult go to waste, so if I thought there was a damned thing wrong with you, I’d say it.”

And that brought him more comfort than it should have, because she was right. While Kara might lie about nearly everything, she didn’t sugar-coat. She didn’t keep things quiet for the comfort of others.

Which meant she liked him, though he couldn’t figure out why, and he didn’t even try to hide his smile at that.

* * * *

Cullen groused at the waiting. Five hours of Kara there, and another five he’d been in place before that. He and Reese took turns, using four-hour shifts to keep their eyes from tiring out. Before long their watch would have to turn into sleeping shifts as well.

“They’re never going to show,” Cullen snapped, his focus on the street.

They’d set up in an abandoned house across the street, the realtor box hanging off the handle identifying it as an easy place to use. Cullen would have preferred to be stuck to Kara’s hip, but he also never used a plan that didn’t make sense.

They needed enough distance to see the threat coming. If he and Reese were inside the house, they’d know too late.

Instead, Damon and Kara were inside the place and he and Reese had been banished across the street to watch.

A cul-de-sac meant one way in, one way out.

“Are you sure she’s even still there?” Reese seemed in an especially bad mood, something that didn’t fit on his normally cheery friend.

Cullen risked moving his gaze to take in the other alpha. Reese stretched out on a folding chair they’d brought into the empty house, his head back and his eyes closed. His long hair hung loose behind him.

“She’s there. Damon would have told us if she wasn’t, and this is in her best interest as well.” Which was one thing Cullen had learned. Kara did whatever she felt was best for her—even though she was often wrong—which meant she wouldn’t do stupid things if she thought they’d hurt her.

Reese grunted. “Oh, like we can trust Damon’s word, either. She’s got him so wrapped around her finger.”

“She isn’t Gabby,” Cullen said softly when he turned his gaze back outside to avoid the glare he was sure Reese was shooting him.

“You’re right. She lies even more than Gabby did.”

Some wounds didn’t heal all that easily, and Reese had always seemed unwilling to let that one go. He picked at it, peeling off the scabs until it festered.

“You can’t blame every single female because of the actions of one.”

“I’m not. I’ve just dealt with one lying woman. I don’t really need to deal with another. Besides, why are you trying to defend Kara? Last I checked you were right on board with tossing her to the curb as soon as we’re done here.”

Cullen went to reject that but shut his mouth as quickly. Reese was right. Whether or not Kara was like Reese’s ex didn’t matter. They were still letting her go as soon as they had the case done. So instead of the argument Cullen wanted to give to Reese’s words, he went with something safer. “It doesn’t have anything to do with Kara.” Liar. “You’ve been looking for a reason to reject every single female we find. You’ve been judging them all against Gabby and seeing similarities even if there aren’t any.”

Reese let out a soft growl, the sort of unhappy sound that was a signal to shut up.

Cullen never listened. “Yeah, so Kara isn’t the endgame here, but it’s not because she’s like Gabby. You’ve got to stop trying to see that female in every other one you meet or you’re never going to get any peace. Fucking women without attachments only gets you so far.”

The growling gave way to a soft sigh. “You don’t get it. You’ve never had your heart ripped out. Turns out that isn’t the sort of thing that heals very well.”

“Yeah, well, you better figure out how to let it heal or you’re going to end up alone.”

“What? I thought we were going to be BFFs in our retirement homes.” Snark bled into Reese’s words and even without turning around, Cullen could see the bastard’s grin.

“If I had to be saddled with only you for our golden years, I’d let some crooked caregiver steal my stuff as long as she put me out of that misery.”

A huff of laughter behind him made him grin despite his best efforts. His friend was stubborn—always had been—but he deserved a lot better in life than he’d been given.

For a moment, it made Cullen think about the omega across the street.

She was nothing any of them wanted, but sometimes what a person wanted wasn’t what was best for them.

His smile melted into a frown. And sometimes what you think you want, like that curvy disaster of an omega, is really bad for you, like you thought, but you’re too stupid to realize it.

He shook his head, trying to dislodge the train of thought that was going nowhere fast. If he hadn’t figured out how to deal with her over the past few days, he wouldn’t figure it out then.

A car caught his gaze—the large black SUV drove slowly, no lights.

Oh, like that isn’t suspicious.

“Looks like we’ve got company,” Cullen said.

The floorboards creaked beneath Reese a moment before he came up to the window. “Finally. I hate waiting.”

The SUV pulled through the cul-de-sac so it was facing the other way. For a quick getaway?

The passenger door opened, followed by both back doors. Four men exited the car, with the fifth, the driver, remaining there with the engine running. At the front was Thompson.

“Fuck,” Reese cursed.

Cullen already had his phone out, texting a quick warning to Kara and Damon. Given that only one had attacked her at her place, they’d all expected the same to show up again.

They had not planned to have to deal with four men.

Cullen and Reese were on their feet quickly, but there was no way they’d make it across the yard and into the house before the men did.

And suddenly, he remembered why he’d hated this plan to start with.

Kara stared down at the text. Four men incoming. Get out.

The tension in Damon said he’d received the same message.

“I guess I should be flattered,” she said on a laugh. “They must think I’m either a bigger threat or more important than they did the first time.”

Damon cut her a glare that said he didn’t find it as funny as she did. To be fair, Kara didn’t find it funny exactly. More that humor had always been her go-to for stressful situations.

She closed her eyes for a moment, her hand already moving to her back to take the pistol there. “You can shoot, right?”

Damon stared at her gun as if it were a snake. “I can but I don’t like to.”

“Well, I don’t like being killed, so let’s focus on trying not to let that happen first.”

Good for him, because Damon took the gun when offered. Kara went to the large dresser in the back of the room, then reached behind it. She found the hook near the bottom and flipped the latch, releasing the dresser so it slid to the left.

Ah, she did love the sight of weaponry.

At Damon’s gaping looking of surprise, Kara only shrugged. “You have a safehouse when you need somewhere safe. Do you know what makes a place safe? Guns.” She nodded toward the other items. “Well, I mean, and mines and grenades and knives. Whatever.”

She crouched and took the pistol from the far left. While she had larger weaponry, pistols were fast, easy to use and easier to conceal.

“Reese and Cullen—”

“Are about two minutes behind the people coming. So, unless you want to just sweet-talk these guys into waiting that long, I’m going to suggest we give them a reason to think twice about coming through that door.”

Damon cut her a hard look that said he thought she was crazy—a reminder that while he might not mind her taking charge in the bedroom, he was still an alpha with all the same tendencies the rest of the time.

Sure enough, he let out an unhappy snarl and checked the clip in his gun. The click when he reseated it was far more of a turn-on than it should have been, but Kara had long known she was a bit of a freak.

A creak downstairs let her know they were trying for the quiet approach. Hoping to catch her off guard?

The door handle twisted, and Kara had her weapon up a moment later.

When the door opened, Thompson stood at the front.

“What a reunion,” Kara said when she met the man’s gaze.

Surprise covered his features before he wiped it away with an efficiency that said he was good at his job. “So, a set-up?”

Kara shrugged but didn’t let the gun move at all, keeping it trained on him. “I figured this was the best way to see why exactly you’re after me.”

He laughed softly before entering the room, hands up, with three others behind him. They all wore jackets, the sort that were too large and heavy to be for anything but concealing weapons.

She had to just rely on the guess that they wanted her alive.

“We have a few questions for you, that’s it.”

“See, I don’t really like answering questions when people break into my home, when they kill my associates, when they threaten me.”

“We needed to be cautious. We just want to understand what you’re looking for, and if you’re working for anyone.”

Which was the important question. If they thought she was on her own, they had no reason not to kill her right then. Loose ends were her best friend.

“You don’t want to meet the people who hired me. They aren’t friendly,” she lied.

A twitch in Thompson’s cheek said he didn’t care for the answer, but he also didn’t go for his weapon. “And what is it you’re looking for? Maybe we can make a deal? Come to some sort of understanding?”

His understanding was no doubt a lot of dead bodies.

Which was not on the top of her list of good outcomes.

“Looking for the prime alpha you took,” Kara offered. Give a bit of information and sometimes she could get some back.

His lips pressed together, his tell. He knew about the alpha, at least. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I think you’ve gotten some bad information.”

“Did you know you’re a really bad liar?”

He didn’t look altogether amused with Kara, though she’d become used to that reaction. It usually worked in her favor because people underestimated her.

“Come along. I didn’t hurt you last time until you struggled. I don’t want to hurt you this time, either. I’ll bring you to my boss, we will have a conversation and that’s it. They only want to know what you’re after. Once we clear this up, you’re free to go back to your life.” His gaze moved past her to Damon then back. “You haven’t returned to your apartment. You’ve been remaining out of sight. You have to be tired of hiding by now.”

For a split second, the idea had merit. She’d spent so long stuck to the side of the alphas that a part of her craved that solace again. As they’d made a mockery of the defenses around her, she’d wanted to be on her own again.

If she wasn’t one hundred percent sure that the man would kill her the moment they’d figured out what she knew, she might have considered it.

A crash downstairs pulled her attention.

The mistake was stupid. She wasn’t an amateur, yet she looked away toward the sound down the stairs. She couldn’t even see whatever it was from where she was, despite knowing damned well it was one of the other two alphas being far less stealthy than they should.

The mistake cost her.

Thompson came forward, slamming his hand against the wrist that held her pistol. Her grip loosened, and the gun sailed from her hand.

She tried to recover, but the momentum put her off balance and he took the chance to grab her and yank her against his chest.

She met the wide eyes of Damon, who held his own weapon up.

Thompson locked his arm around Kara’s throat, the muzzle of his gun pressed to her temple. “Just stay put and no one gets hurt,” he promised again.

Still not convincing.

They backed out of the room, with Thompson pulling Kara along. One wrong move and he’d fire that gun, and point-blank shots weren’t something she could dodge.

Thompson yanked her down the stairs, pulling Kara even when she lost her balance.

At the bottom of the stars, however, he turned, leaving the other three to keep their standoff with Damon.

Cullen stood, his own weapon drawn, looking far more capable with it than Damon. Where Damon could shoot, Cullen had clearly spent plenty of time with his gun, holding it with the easy familiarity of a pro.

Calculations ran in his eyes, and it didn’t take much for Kara to know what he was thinking. Thompson hadn’t done much hostage-taking, it seemed, because despite the gun at her temple, he’d left himself exposed. A well-placed shot could miss Kara and splatter the poor asshole’s head on the wall behind him.

If Kara trusted Cullen to make the shot, because it could just as easily hit her, instead.

Everything inside her screamed no. Trust wasn’t something she gave, and certainly not to these alphas.

He stared at her as though asking. She’d need to relax, to not struggle so she didn’t risk moving into the bullet’s path.

She shook her head, the smallest movement, to let him know there was no fucking way she was going to let him try that.

His lips pressed together. Annoyed? Too bad.

The man yanked again, eyes trained on Cullen as he pulled Kara out through the front door. The back door sat open, the wood around the lock splintered to tell her how Cullen had gotten in.

The chill of the night air hit her as she stumbled outside in the grasp of the man, the car far too close for comfort. If they got her in the car, she was probably dead. They would have the clear advantage, control the environment—and that made escape far more difficult.

Just as she doubted her choice not to trust Cullen, everything shifted as she was thrown to the ground.

Reese had the asshole beneath him. Fury he wasn’t used to swamped him at the sight of the man with his hands on Kara and a gun to her head.

He’d moved silently, from a direction the men hadn’t been expecting, and taken the man to the ground.

Thompson was larger than Reese and had more muscle. He was far more in Cullen’s weight-class, and after the first strike the man made to Reese’s ribs, more in Cullen’s skill-class too.

They rolled twice before the man landed another hit, this time to Reese’s jaw, which shook him enough for the man to pull away.

Thompson’s gun sat in the grass a few feet away, and he twisted to find the SUV’s driver seat empty.

The man was still alive, but a good sucker punch had put him down in the front seat.

He looked back, the odds having evened.

Kara, Cullen and Damon were all armed, with Kara having picked up his gun. Thompson still had three armed men, but they looked hesitant.

People could be easy to shake if they’d expected an easy win and things didn’t go that way.

Thompson lifted his hands. “Well, I guess we call this one a draw.”

“Why should I let you go? Seems like a stupid plan.”

“Because we leave now, no one gets seriously hurt. We start shooting? Well, you know as well as I do how bullets start changing things.”

Reese wanted to argue—probably mostly because he hated the idea of the man walking free after having laid his hands on Kara twice more—but he wasn’t wrong.

No one had a clear advantage.

Besides, Reese had an ace up his sleeve. “Fine. Don’t let us find you sniffing around again.”

“We both know this isn’t over.” Thompson backed the rest of the way up to the SUV, piling in, with one of the goons taking the driver’s spot after shoving the unconscious man into the passenger seat.

When the SUV pulled away, they all took a deep breath.

Well, except Kara, who walked up and shoved Reese. “Why did you let them go? We did all that for nothing!”

He winced when it jostled his sore side—the punch had not done good things for his ribs, it seemed. “Do you really think so little of me?”

The look on her face said yeah, she did.

Ouch. Instead, Reese only gave her a smirk. “After I took care of the driver, I tossed my phone into the back, under the seat. We’ll be able to track where they go.”

Kara paused, surprise running across her face and…was she impressed?

Suddenly his side didn’t matter anymore. It turned out he really liked impressing that omega.

He couldn’t wait to get her to give him that look again.

* * * *

“Relax,” Liam whispered as Kara fidgeted in her stupid gown. It wasn’t the paper ones that were often used, but rather a surprisingly soft fabric.

“This is nice,” she said, pulling at the hem.

“Fancy place your new friends have gotten you into.”

Kara turned her gaze up to him, finding him not smiling, which felt odd. “Is that your way of asking for information?”

“Well, you’ve shown up smelling of the same males. They seem to have gotten you to go to a specialist, which I’ve tried for years to get you to do. It makes me wonder.”

“Jealous?” Kara offered a wide, mocking grin.

His lips pressed together as he gave her a look that called her an idiot.

Ouch. Then again, she knew better than to think he was jealous.

Still, it helped distract her. The last place she wanted to be was at a hospital, yet that was exactly where she was. Leave it to the alphas to continue to leave her in places she wanted nothing to do with.

The card they’d left for her, the one with Dr. Marshall Brown’s name and number, had taunted her on the small table by the suite door each time she’d passed it. They hadn’t mentioned going again, but still, every time she left, it would mock her.

Finally, Kara hadn’t said a word to the alphas. While they’d been watching the GPS from Reese’s phone, waiting for a useful location, she’d picked up the card from the table and walked out of the hotel room.

She wasn’t going for them. The only way she’d managed the nerves to call the number and set up the appointment was by reminding herself that it was for her. She was going because she was tired of living like she was. She controlled everything else about her life, yet in this one area, she felt adrift. If the doctor could help, why not?

She refused to have much hope—in her experience hope usually ended badly—but she’d called Liam because she couldn’t bring herself to go alone. Pussy.

Before they could continue their discussion about the jealousy comment, the doctor walked in. He was younger than Kara would have expected, but that wasn’t why she disliked him.

Nope, the thing that made her instantly hate him was that he looked kind. He had the sort of ‘I really care about you’ eyes that made Kara want to bare her teeth.

Don’t hurt the doctor. The boys will be pissed.

“Kara, I’m Dr. Brown, but you can call me Marshall. I have the history the nurse took already, and we rushed your blood tests so they were ready.”

The level of competence the hospital had shown amazed Kara. Then again, she’d dealt with underground doctors the past few years, going by fake names and using the few who would treat a stab wound or bullet wound without reporting, especially because if a regular hospital realized she was an omega, even a broken one, it might complicate her life. It left her seeing either vets or doctors without licenses.

Liam reached out with a card that had Torrin’s company name on it. “All charges should be billed privately through this company. Any tests or treatments you need to do have already been pre-authorized.”

Marshall waved the card off without looking at it. “There won’t be any charges. This is a favor of a favor of a favor, I guess.” He smiled, the sort that implied there was some secret joke or friendship between them. “Cullen knows Bryce who knows me. Besides, I do some pro-bono work when I can, and this is a good case for it. And, just to make it clear, everything remains confidential. Your records will be placed under a false name with only me knowing they belong to you. I don’t want any omega under my care to worry about being turned over to the authorities.”

“Surprisingly concerned for an alpha,” Kara muttered.

Marshall laughed softly. “I have a mate, so if you were worried about me, don’t be. I have my hands quite full already.”

And that…did help. Especially with the way he spoke, a sweetness in his voice, the way she could almost see him thinking about whatever female had captured his attention.

Marshall shook his head as though waking up. “Let’s do the physical, then we can go over the options.”

The physical was less comfortable than Kara wanted to admit. In fact, when she put her feet in the stirrups, when Marshall did a pelvic exam and Liam took her hand, she let him.

If that didn’t say how unnerved she was by the hospital, by her failings being on display, nothing would. He squeezed her hand, and Kara let the strength of it wash through her.

For one stupid second, so fast before she shut it down, Kara almost wished it were her alphas there. She wished it were Damon holding her hand, that it were Cullen growling at the doctor, that it were Reese making a joke to keep her relaxed.

Liam was her friend, though, and she was damned glad she’d called him. As it turned out, she wasn’t quite as brave as she’d wanted to be.

“Done,” Marshall said, letting Kara shoot back fast, sitting up, dizzier than she’d expected to be.

“Breathe,” Liam whispered a moment before Kara tore her hand back. Fuck panic attacks.

Marshall stood, tossing his gloves into the small trash can in the corner. “Why don’t you dress and meet me in my office?”

Whether he did that because he needed to leave or because he knew she needed the moment, Kara didn’t care.

As soon as he left, Kara dropped her head into her hands.

Liam stroked his fingers through her hair the way he’d always done when she was sick.

“What if he can’t fix me?” She whispered the question she’d never dared before.

“You don’t need to be fixed.”

Ah, sweet Liam, but he was wrong.

Kara shook her head, then said to him what she’d never say to anyone else. “I hate this. I can’t do it anymore, Liam. I can’t be this anymore. I won’t.”

Liam shifted, then dropped to a crouch before her, capturing her chin to lift her gaze to his. “Don’t you dare say that,” he said with the sort of edge that came from believing he could do anything, fix anything. Liam had never doubted his own abilities.

“I shower with scalding-hot water after each fucking time, and I still can’t scrub away the scent of men I don’t fucking want.” The words poured from her, aided by her mild panic attack, by the things she wanted from the alphas and her fears that she’d never get them. “I can never get that off me, not fully.”

“I’m here. You don’t have to do that.”

“You don’t want me, Liam. You never have. Do you know how much I hate myself for what you’ve done for me? God, do you really think I want to be that at all? That I’m okay with it? Because it disgusts me that I’ve used you.”

He moved his hands to her cheeks and caught a tear that leaked down, one of the rare few ones that ever escaped. His gaze locked on it, probably realizing he might never have seen her cry. “Why didn’t you talk to me sooner? Talk to us?”

“Because it’s my problem.”

His eyes hardened a fraction, the look that said he wasn’t happy with her response. “We’re family, kid. Doesn’t matter what else happens, we are family, and if I’d realized how bad you were, how you felt, I’d have had your ass in here years ago, tossed over my shoulder if you refused.”

That let Kara laugh, causing a loosening in her chest. Liam always had the best jokes.

She dragged in a rough and unsteady breath before letting it out on a sigh. Liam nodded and rose, as though he could see she’d gathered herself.

She dressed, wanting nothing more than to curl up in a bed and sleep for a few days. Emotional outbursts were new for her, and she didn’t seem to have the stamina for them.

They sat in the doctor’s office, a large room with a well-worn couch that smelled like him.

He probably fell asleep there from time to time.

The door opened, but it wasn’t Marshall who entered. Instead, a young blonde came in, beautiful enough for Liam to lift an eyebrow and Kara to suck in a breath.

She turned her gaze to Kara and stopped. “Oh, I didn’t realize Marshall had patients in here. I’m so sorry,” she said quickly, a flush on her cheeks.

“It’s fine,” Kara assured her, the young omega looking nervous, as though she’d upset someone.

“I’m Tiffany,” she said, sticking her hand out. “I didn’t mean to just wander in, but Dr. Brown is my mate and I didn’t realize he had anyone in here.”

Kara rose and clasped hands, but the moment she did, panic struck. She inhaled, now closer, able to scent below the omega. Tiffany smelled of Marshall and two other alphas.

“I’ve got to go,” Kara blurted, making Liam rise to his feet and survey the room for danger. Then again, little panicked Kara this way. Few things could send her into a frenzied mess. “Tell Marshall I’m feeling much better, please, that everything is fine now.”

“Wait a minute,” Liam said, but Kara ignored him.

She darted around Tiffany’s shocked face to run straight into a large body that was coming in through the door as if drawn by Tiffany’s uncertainty.

The tattoos, the face, the scent. All of it was carved into Kara’s mind so deep, she’d never forget it.

Kara didn’t look up as she muttered quietly, “Sorry, I was just leaving.”

A loud inhalation by the alpha in front of her happened moments before a large hand grasped her arm, the other gripping her chin roughly to lift her face.

“Kasey?” For the first time in so many years, her brother Kane was staring down at her.

* * * *

Cullen knew something was wrong about half a second after entering the hotel suite.

He’d expected Kara to be in a nasty mood. Even if the doctor had found a perfect cure, the fact she’d had to spend time in a hospital and that it had been the alphas’ idea would have been enough to piss her off.

However, watching her flip through the pages of the room service menu as if each one had personally insulted her mother was enough for Cullen to go still. Her face was pulled into tight lines and unhappiness hung on her.

It seemed the visit hadn’t gone well.

The phone from the side table of the couch was pressed to her ear, and she hadn’t seemed to take notice of them at all. “Well, I don’t care what fucking time it is,” she snapped, then paused. “Look, buddy, I doubt you make them fresh. They’re in the freezer, so what does the time of day matter? They are fresh? Then fuck it, get me some frozen ones and throw them in a toaster! Is that really that hard of a thing to do in a fancy place like this?”

Reese passed Cullen, plucking the phone from her before she ended up getting them kicked out of the hotel. He offered a quick ‘sorry’ along with a chuckled ‘women’ statement that seemed to smooth things over.

Kara turned her glare from the menu to Reese when he hung up. “I was talking to them.”

“You were about half a second from getting us thrown out. What was that about?”

“I’m hungry.”

Reese pointed at the menu and the seemingly endless number of items. “There is a lot to choose from.”

“I wanted waffles.”

“At five in the evening?”

She opened her mouth then snapped it shut, twisting her face so she looked at the floor instead of any of them.

Damon came and sat beside her but didn’t touch her. “I take it the visit with the doctor didn’t go well?”

Kara gave him a killing glare. “Can’t a girl just want some waffles?” When Damon didn’t shift, didn’t give her an inch of space where anger or humor could wipe away her obvious upset, she let out a sigh. “I don’t know how it went because I left. Because I have the sort of luck that causes people to get struck by lightning. Twice.”

Cullen pulled over a chair from the table so he could sit himself right in front of her. “Less dramatics, more facts, thief.”

She didn’t even narrow her eyes at him, and he almost missed that annoyance. “Turns out good old Doc Brown has a mate. A mate he shares with other alphas.” She ran her fingers through her hair in a rough push that probably took at least a few strands with it. “One of them happens to be my brother.”

Oh. Suddenly her reaction made sense. He thought back to the conversation about her scars, about the brother who didn’t know she lived.

Reese winced. “If he saw you, how’d you manage to get out of there?”

“I ran after I punched him.”

“You punched him? The brother you haven’t seen in all these years?” Damon’s voice couldn’t hold enough ‘are you kidding me?’ for the question.

Kara threw her hands up before dropping her head into them. “I didn’t know what to do, okay? He was suddenly there, calling me by my old name, and I panicked. He had the same eyes as when we were kids, and all I could think about was standing above him in that hospital room, terrified he wasn’t going to make it. I thought about how much it hurt to see that, how I almost destroyed us both, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be whatever he wanted me to be, so I ran.”

All the jokes Cullen wanted to make at the idea of Kara seeing her long-lost brother and punching him vanished at the pain in her voice. Some of the time, it was so easy to think of her as that snarky, quirky omega who grinned her way through any problem. Other times, like right now, he saw beneath that. The girl had cracks that ran through her, straight to the core, and they always took his breath away. Before he could remind himself why they were doomed, a part of him wanted to take some of that from her. He couldn’t fix cracks, but he could at least shoulder some of the weight.

He reached out and set his hand on her knee, a squeeze the best thing he could think of to show her that she wasn’t alone, at least not right then.

She shuddered in a deep breath, her fingers curling in toward her scalp. “He’s not going to stop looking for me,” she whispered. “In fact, I’d bet that however you met that doctor, they’re going to come looking for you. Kane doesn’t get discouraged and he is relentless, and because of bros before hos, you’ll all probably roll out the red carpet for him.”

Cullen frowned before capturing Kara’s chin and lifting her face toward his. “If we didn’t turn you over to the police, do you really think we’d do it now?”

“You needed me then.”

I need you now. The unwelcome thought sprang up before Cullen could stop it and froze him in his tracks.

Damon picked up the line of thought as he set his own hand on her back. “I think you should talk to your brother. You both have been through a lot, and you’ll feel better to get some of that out in the open.” When she opened her mouth, Damon lifted his other hand to silence her so he could continue. “However, we won’t say a word to him. Your secrets are yours to keep. Whether or not I agree, I’m going to trust you to know what you want.”

She went tense at the word ‘trust’.

That was the root of it all, wasn’t it? She didn’t trust them, they didn’t trust her, yet they were constantly moving in a direction that needed trust. It was a fucked-up situation with no solution he could find.

Reese stood. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to smooth things over with the concierge.” He left after stroking his fingers through Kara’s tresses, the action sweet enough that she seemed to cringe.

Once the door shut, Cullen pulled softly on her chin so she met his gaze. “How did the appointment go before that?”

“It was long and uncomfortably thorough.”

He huffed a soft laugh, unable to even be jealous when she looked so unhappy about it. “Did he have ideas?”

“I left before we got to review the results. I was waiting in his office when his mate came in, Kane on her heels.” Kara fidgeted slightly. “His mate is young. A pretty blonde girl.”

Cullen wished he could read her mind, because it was so hard to judge from her face what she was thinking. Not to mention the girl was forever throwing him for a loop, her mind going to places he would have never expected.

Thankfully, Kara didn’t need his prompting before she continued. “I’m glad he’s settled down. He deserves that, deserves to have a family, to have stability.”

While she spoke, what she didn’t say came through loud and clear. She didn’t deserve those things. It was written across her features, in the cracks of her words. She was glad her brother had found them but didn’t think she ever would, didn’t think she even deserved to have them. Stranger? That longing to have them. For a woman so averse to the thought of being close to anyone, for the first time, he really saw that at least somewhere inside her she still craved it.

Cullen fought the desire to offer any of it, because he couldn’t. He couldn’t give her forever, couldn’t give her anything except right then.

He shifted his grip to the back of her neck and tugged softly until she came forward, until she crawled into his lap where he could indulge in a kiss, as though that touch could say the things he wouldn’t dare. Hell, the kiss was like a lie they both believed, that there was some chance for any of them to have what her brother had found.

Kara met the kiss as she always did—fire and strength. He broke it only to enjoy the way her soft whine played across his damp lips, the tiny show of need she liked to hide. She’d never hidden that she wanted them, but need?

Need was something the girl didn’t care for.

Before they had to address anything, the door opened. Kara twisted in Cullen’s lap to find Reese there, and the smile that crossed her lips was worth everything.

Reese held up his gift, his own grin meeting hers. “So, hellion, your choice. Waffles or sex first?”

She laughed—a real fucking laugh that melt Cullen more than he’d ever admit to. “Sex first, waffles after.”

Reese tossed the waffles into the freezer, his gaze turning predatory. “You are so my kind of girl.”

And that was exactly what Cullen was afraid of.