Chapter 18: Chapter Eighteen

The incessant noise woke Kara, and for one blissful moment, she had no idea where she was.

Then the beeping wouldn’t stop, and the itching of tape on her hand and the dryness of her mouth all said something wasn’t right.

She pried her lids open, the gunk that sealed them shut telling her she’d been out for a while.

Another hospital. Just wonderful.

Except it wasn’t the hospital that hit her. It was the figure who sat in the chair by her side, his body lounging back, his feet kicked up on the foot of her bed.

Kane.

As soon as Kara shifted, Kane’s eyes popped open, as familiar to her as her own reflection. Even after so many years, she’d know those eyes anywhere.

Kane dropped his feet from the bed and rose, gaze raking over the monitors as if he understood a fucking thing on them. He reached over and hit a button on the side of her bed, and not more than ten seconds later, Marshall came in.

“She’s awake,” Kane said, voice rough and closed off.

Marshall’s lips tipped down at the tone, but he nodded and checked over the same screens Kane had. His gaze dropped to Kara. “How are you feeling?”

“Peachy.”

Marshall’s gaze lifted to Kane, then back to Kara. “Well, even if you two don’t look much alike, your attitude is the same.”

A soft growl from Kane got the doctor moving, though he didn’t look all that chastised. Then again, Marshall and Kane shared an omega, which meant the two were almost brothers.

What did that make Marshall to her?

Did it matter? She wouldn’t stick around long enough for it to make a difference what titles were used.

Marshall shone a light into Kara’s eyes, did all those doctor things that Kara hated but sat still for. She didn’t hurt as much as she should have, and she didn’t panic, which said he’d pumped her full of the good drugs. During the exam, he spoke as if he were used to keeping up conversation.

“Do you remember what happened?”

She frowned as the accident came back to her. The crunch of her head against the pavement made her stomach roll, which was funny, as injuries didn’t normally. Still, she didn’t answer.

“You were hit by a car in the intersection. You have bruised ribs, some internal bleeding and a concussion. We wanted to do a transfusion because of your low blood pressure, but you have a very rare blood type. Thankfully, as soon as I was called, I knew where we could get some.” Marshall glanced over at Kane, who had a bandage over the crook of his arm.

“You’re welcome, little sis,” he said dryly.

Guess that says this isn’t going to be a reunion to write home about. Well, I mean, if I had a home to write to.

“Where are—” Kara snapped her mouth shut before she could mutter the name of any of the alphas. Asking for them then was weak. It reeked of helplessness, of a need for connection and importance she refused to think they had.

Marshall didn’t even grin. What a professional. “I called Cullen the moment I saw it was you. He, Reese and Damon have been sitting in the waiting room for the past few hours. You can see them when you’re ready.”

“How long until I’m free?” Kara went to sit up, but pain in her side told her the answer before the doctor needed to.

“You’ll be weak for a while, and while none of your injuries are life-threatening, you’re going to need time to heal. You’ll only need to spend another day or two here if your tests look good, but don’t expect to be doing anything much for a few weeks.”

A few weeks? Unacceptable. Kara had shit to do, like find the missing fucking alpha, get the price off her head, ditch three asshole alphas and now slip away from a brother who was still just staring at her like he expected something from her.

Marshall moved his gaze from Kane to Kara a number of times before he took a step backward. “I’m going to go check on other patients and let the alphas know they can come in to visit.” He hesitated by the door. “I’ll have them wait about fifteen more minutes.”

Once Marshall left, neither Kara nor Kane said a word.

Kane looked similar and yet different. He’d grown, and she hadn’t seen him up close since the night in the hospital. He’d gotten more tattoos over the years, ones visible on his hands and even on his neck.

And yet, despite those changes, despite the truth that he was larger, more intimidating, he was still Kane. It showed through his eyes, the ones that would shine and crinkle at the edges when he’d try to read her a book before bed when they were still kids, despite him being shit at reading.

Kara sighed, the weight of all those years suddenly more than she could carry. “Sorry,” she whispered.

He spoke fast, as though he’d been waiting for her to say something, to break the silence between them. “How could you not tell me you were alive? You knew about me, so what the fuck were you thinking, Kasey?”

Her old name hurt. Maybe Kara wasn’t perfect, but she was the person she’d made, the one who had clawed her way back from almost bleeding out, the one who had refused to just lie down and die. “Kara.” At Kane’s look, she repeated herself. “My name is Kara now.”

“Course it is,” he said. “Guess you threw away everything from your old life.”

Kara tried to run her fingers through her hair, but when it tugged her scalp and she winced, she recalled that crack of her skull against the pavement. “It’s not like that. You were hurt because you were trying to protect me.”

Oh, the spark of anger in those eyes of his took her back. “You were just a kid—my kid sister. It was my job to keep you safe.” As quickly as the fury in him ramped up, it dissipated. There her brother was, quick to rage but just as quick to fizzle away. “Some job I did, huh?”

“I didn’t want to put you in that place again,” she pressed. “While you were still unconscious, I visited you in the hospital. I sat by your bed and stared down at you, and I swore I’d never make you pay that price for me again. If I’d been better, smarter, more useful, it never would have happened. If I hadn’t been some naïve little thing you had to protect, you wouldn’t have almost died.”

“You were there?” Kane frowned, his gaze dropping as though trying to remember. “If everything I’m hearing is right about you, you’ve been able to take care of yourself for a while. Why not find me then?”

“I never lost you. I always knew where you were. Hell.” Kara quirked her lips up. “I even helped you a time or two. Remember when you turned twenty-one, when you took a job finding that asshole pimp who was beating on the girls he managed?”

Kane nodded, his eyes narrowing. “I showed up expecting to have a bit of work on my hands. Instead, I found him hogtied in his apartment.”

Kara couldn’t help the soft chuckle at the memory. “Figured I owed you a gift.”

Kane held her gaze for so long, she fidgeted with fear of what he saw.

She’d been so different when he’d known her before. Not perhaps naïve in the way so many other girls were, because she’d never been all that sheltered, but she’d been innocent. She’d been what omegas were supposed to be. She wasn’t that girl anymore, and it wasn’t until that second that she realized how terrified she was of how he’d react.

Would he think less of her? Would he hate what she’d become? Would he look at her like so many others had, as if she were defective?

Kane moved so fast that if she’d been armed, she’d have shot the stupid idiot. He leaned over the bed and gathered her into a hug tight enough to steal her breath. Okay, maybe part of that was the jostling of her still-healing side.

The amount of pain didn’t matter a bit, though, not when his hand cupped the back of her head and he just held her. He smelled like family, like safety, like home.

So Kara let herself have the hug she’d avoided for so many years, no matter how much it frightened her.

Damon hated the new alpha who stood across the hallway from him. Cullen and Reese had been getting information from Marshall about how to care for Kara—though she’d adamantly refused to go home with them—when the new trio of alphas had walked in.

And they were alphas. It was written in their size, in the way they walked. The one in the center had worn an expensive suit, with hair so blond it was almost white and green eyes that stood out in his expressionless face. Kara had said he was Torrin when she’d offered a quick introduction before shuffling out most of them. Beside him had stood two bodyguards who looked so similar, they had to be twins.

One of them—Erik—Damon ignored, but the other? Liam set his teeth on edge in a way he wasn’t used to and didn’t much like.

Damon had been in the room with Kara when all three had walked in, and it was the absolute focus that one laid on Kara that had Damon itching to bare his teeth.

Which was not at all like him. Damon was clear-headed. Even though he was young, he’d never felt particularly jealous or possessive. Still, the way this alpha had looked at Kara had Damon refusing to take his eyes off him.

“What’s your problem, cub?” The alpha lifted his gaze toward Damon, his tone saying how little he thought of Damon.

“How do you know her?”

Liam’s eyebrow lifted. “Why would I tell you anything?”

Every word from Liam’s lips just drove Damon’s annoyance higher and he couldn’t even figure out why. What was it about this guy that made him feel this way?

And worse? Liam only appeared amused by it, which pissed Damon off. He was an alpha, damn it, and he deserved a little fear when people saw his temper slipping.

Sure, maybe he wasn’t the same sort of alpha as Cullen or Reese or, clearly, this guy, but that didn’t change that he could be dangerous if he wanted to be.

I really want to be.

“You can growl all you want,” Liam said and shrugged. “The fact is that you all are the problem.”

“What problem is that?”

“Before you showed up with your little buddies, Kara wasn’t getting herself put in the hospital or getting contracts on her head. Worse, because of your interference, she didn’t come to us, who could have actually helped her.”

“And what do you know about any of it?”

Liam narrowed his gaze, a hard look that had probably scared off more than a few people. “I’ve been keeping an eye on that girl since she was thirteen, watching her back since then. I have never seen her behave so foolishly before. She should have dealt with this by targeting the lab from day one to get the contract off her head. Instead, she seems to be trying to play hero with you and it has done nothing but endanger her. So why don’t you just leave before you get her killed?”

That was when it hit Damon. Why had it taken him so long to figure it out? The reason for all the aggression wasn’t random. While Damon couldn’t have ever picked the scent out himself, not consciously, he knew right then that this alpha carried Kara’s scent. They’d slept together—more than once, most likely. That, paired with Liam’s possessiveness, said it was more than a quick fling.

Which was exactly what had Damon ready to tear the man’s throat free with his teeth if he needed to.

“She isn’t yours,” Damon snapped.

“She sure as hell isn’t yours. Despite all this territorial posturing you’re doing, I can see how you all look at her, like she’s something that needs fixing. That girl doesn’t need to be changed, least of all by you lot who keep putting her in danger. The quicker she realizes that, the better.”

“Are you just hoping for your own shot?”

“I don’t need a shot, cub, since I’ve already been there more than a few times and will be long after you’re gone.”

Damon knew the alpha was pushing him, could spot it in the glint of the other’s eyes, but knowing it didn’t stop Damon from reacting. He was on Liam in a heartbeat, taking the larger alpha to the ground.

Fighting wasn’t something Damon did or knew much about. Cullen and Reese had taught him a few things, mostly because they didn’t want him to get himself into trouble and have no way out. Still, the way the other male moved showed Liam did know how to fight. As it turned out, skill against pure alpha aggression kept them fairly evenly matched. Damon landed a hard punch to Liam’s face, and what surprised him was just how much that hurt him.

Not that it stopped him. If anything, the scent of blood, the red that leaked from a split on Liam’s lip, made Damon want to go further. A hit from Liam knocked his glasses off, but it didn’t slow him. He could only think about this alpha and Kara, about Liam’s barbs and about how he had touched her. Had it been one of those times where Kara couldn’t help it? Had he taken advantage of her?

Just as he was about to lose himself to the fury inside him, something hauled him off Liam. He didn’t know who it was, his vision having narrowed to nothing beyond the alpha who was now standing but not being held back. Liam wiped his mouth with the back of his arm as if the fight hadn’t mattered. In fact, he wasn’t even breathing hard.

“Knock it off,” Cullen growled, the voice waking him up, helping him to leash the rage inside him that wasn’t nearly done with Liam.

Even as they stared at one another, it was Liam’s words that stuck with Damon, that chipped away at him. ‘So why don’t you just leave before you get her killed?’

Liam wasn’t wrong, and that was the worst part about it.

Liam’s scowl when he came into the room warmed Kara. While Torrin and Erik might have frowned, Liam looked downright pissed.

Which charmed her in some strange way that it probably shouldn’t have.

Torrin had already checked in on her, given her the polite riot-act about being more careful and ordered her to come stay with them while she recovered. He would hire a trustworthy nurse to care for her.

Not that she’d do it.

Having the three of them bothering her might be worse than Cullen, Reese and Damon.

At least she got orgasms from her alphas. Torrin and the twins would mother-hen her until she wished her injuries killed her already.

When Liam neared, the red smeared across his cheek, along with the split on his lip, caught her attention. “How could you have gotten in trouble in a hospital?”

His gaze was hard, the sort of look he got when he lost prey. “Your cub outside is a bit possessive. It seems he doesn’t care for our past.”

“Wait. Damon punched you? The one with the glasses?”

“It turns out what he lacks in training and bulk, he makes up for in enthusiasm.”

Kara chuckled at the idea of sweet and quiet Damon going up against Liam. At least the next time he got all mopey about not being a real alpha, she could point out that he also behaved like an idiot. There wasn’t anything more alpha than that. Not to mention, him doing it because of jealousy, because he didn’t like that someone else had been with her? Well, that sure did warm her.

“I don’t know what you see in them,” Liam spat toward the door.

“That’s because you haven’t seen them naked.”

His gaze narrowed, and it only made her smile wider. While Torrin would roll his eyes and Erik would ignore her jokes, Liam rose to the occasion for her.

“I’m serious, kid.” He sat on the bed beside her. “What is it about them? Because you’ve never attached yourself to anyone like this before. Please tell me you’re not doing anything insanely stupid like bonding to them.”

The idea wiped the grin from Kara’s face before she blew out a breath and shook her head. “Even if I was the type to bond, I doubt I can. It’s probably a package deal with the whole ‘creating little spawns’ thing. I need to see this through, okay? They’re my best chance for getting to the bottom of whoever wants me dead.”

“They aren’t, and you know it. Torrin can easily pay the lab off, or I could go kill whoever made the mistake of targeting you.” There were times when Kara was reminded just how scary Liam could be. Like Torrin, like Erik, he was lethal and had no issue doing whatever he had to. While Kara still retained some of those silly morals—no matter what Cullen might think—Liam had lost them long before she’d ever met him. He had a few of his own rules, but most came down to a simple fact—fuck with him or his and he’d end anyone without a second thought.

“There’s more at stake than just me. There’s a missing alpha.”

“Since when do you care about missing people?”

Which was a fair question. “Even if we kill off whoever set the contract, don’t you think they’ll keep at it? This lab has too much riding on that alpha to just let it go.”

“So what do you think your goody two-shoes are going to do that I can’t?” Jealousy seethed in his voice. Not romantic, but something else, as though he hated the idea she might not need him, that he might be replaced.

“I don’t care what they can do. I care what I can do. I can figure this out. When I find out where they keep the alpha, I’ll have everything I need to make sure they leave me alone.”

“That’s really all this is about?”

Kara tried to nod, but she just couldn’t. She sighed, then met his gaze. “Do you want kids?”

His eyebrows shot up, as though the question were altogether unexpected. As quickly as it happened, he tried to wipe it clean. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve thought about it, but I don’t exactly live a child-friendly life, so what I want doesn’t matter much. Why?”

“I never thought about kids. I don’t think I’d want any no matter what, but the reality that I can’t, that I had the choice stolen from me, bothers me.” Bothers is a hell of an understatement. “They’re using that alpha. They’re using his nature and things he can’t control and treating him like he’s nothing but a science experiment. If anyone understands what that’s like, it’s me. Not to mention the result of all that work? A drug that doesn’t have any use except to hurt omegas. If I can find the alpha, if I can stop this, maybe I can actually do something good.”

“People like us don’t do good,” Liam said softly, setting his hand on her knee, the blanket between them. “We aren’t the heroes of stories, kid.”

“Why can’t we be?”

“It just isn’t our place. Us? We’re survivors. We do what we have to, to crawl on top, and that doesn’t exactly put us in a place to be heroes. And honestly? This is exactly why I don’t like your new friends.”

“They aren’t my friends.”

He grunted, a sound that didn’t say he believed her, but he left what they were alone. “You didn’t worry about being a hero before. Why do you care now?”

Kara leaned back against the pillow, trying to let go of the tension insider her, trying to rest her side. She didn’t reply out loud, but she knew the answer.

She wanted the alphas to look at her like she was enough, and she had no other idea how to do that.

* * * *

Cullen dropped the bag of supplies to the new suite floor, having moved them all into a new hotel after the attack. They had no way of knowing exactly how much information Thompson had on Kara. Better to play it safe and move, just in case.

Inside the bag were the medications and bandages Kara would need. She had argued up and down about not going back with the alphas, even during the ride back.

Not that Cullen had planned to give her a say.

The injuries weren’t life threatening, but she’d need help for a while. Marshall had wanted to keep her longer, but he’d agreed to let her go so long as she stayed with someone else.

Worse, that she’d been found so quickly on the street worried him. It couldn’t have been a coincidence. Kara was smart enough to not do anything that would easily reveal her location, so she hadn’t called anyone she shouldn’t have, hadn’t gone to a place anyone should know her. It meant Cullen could only assume the lab had people looking for her, contacts who kept their eyes peeled and were willing to call in when she was spotted. It meant she really needed to go nowhere.

Kara lowered herself onto the couch with Damon’s help. She’d snarled at Cullen and Reese when they’d tried, as though they were far more objectionable than Damon.

Then again, she had a strange relationship with the youngest alpha, which was clear from the way she ordered him around and how he soaked up those demands. It was odd, he’d admit. Cullen much preferred to be the one giving commands than the other way around. He liked how Kara looked when he fisted her hair and forced his cock between her lips. He loved how she moaned when he fucked her hard, when he held her still beneath him. She was wild, and him holding her for even a heartbeat thrilled him.

So the way Damon melted when Kara dug her nails into him and ordered him around, the way he looked at her like a puppy—well, Cullen guessed there some things in life he’d never quite understand. It seemed good for them both, so what did it really matter? Besides, hadn’t Damon served as that glue before, as the careful energy between Cullen and Reese that kept them from getting out of hand?

Funny that it seemed he served that for Kara, as well.

“This room sucks,” Kara complained, the words coming out in a tight voice that said she hurt even if she’d never admit it.

Which was absurd, because the room was far better than the last. Bryce had sworn this hotel would keep their presence a secret. Without much else to trust, Cullen had accepted. No room service, no going out for her, nothing that could be used to trace back. Officially, the room was empty on all the hotel records. Cullen would still sleep lightly, however.

“This suite is larger and nicer than the last,” Reese pointed out as he set the boxes of takeout Chinese food on the counter. “Plus it has four rooms, not three.”

The compromise hadn’t sat well with any of them. They preferred Kara moving through their space as she often did, choosing where to spend time, where to sleep.

However, with the injury, she needed rest, and she rarely did that well when beside them. Given her tendency to seduce them, and their weakness in turning her down, it was best to give her space.

“Well, I don’t like it.”

Cullen shook his head at her petty complaints as he dropped two of the pain pills into his palm, then poured a glass of water in the kitchen. He offered them to Kara, hoping that perhaps they might not only help with the pain, but better her mood.

Cullen took a seat beside her, twisting so he could look at her. He still couldn’t spot most of her lies, but he hoped reading her might clue him in, because she was less than trustworthy with the truth, and after the hospital, he needed a few answers. “Who are those three alphas at the hospital?”

“Jealous?” Her lips tipped into the first smile she’d given since the injury.

“Yes.”

At his honesty, her smile slid away, then came back full force as if it had surprised her, then pleased the hell out of her. Kara leaned back slightly, seemingly trying to get comfortable and failing miserably. “Torrin and his cousins—the two bodyguards who are always with him—are the friends who taught me what I know.”

“So we have them to blame for how you are?”

“Oh, no, I was like this before, just not as skilled. After what happened with my brother, I broke into their place, looking for pain meds. I’d run from the hospital—slipped out when no one was looking—and I didn’t have a dime to buy anything. Well, I was pretty damn terrible at the whole thief thing, and they caught me. Instead of all the things they could have done, they took care of me.”

Her face had an air of contentedness he’d never seen there before. It eased some of his annoyance at her relationship with the other alphas. The idea of her being alone made his chest ache, so knowing she had someone in her life—no matter how ill-advised—was probably for the best.

She went on with her story. “I lived with them for a few years while they taught me everything, introduced me to the people I needed to know, looked out for me until I could look out for myself. I haven’t had much in the way of family, not since Kane, but they filled that spot for me.”

The room went quiet, but Damon posed a question that startled them all. “And what about Liam? Do you love him?”

Kara’s gaze shot to Damon so fast Cullen knew the youngest had caught something the rest of them had missed. Then again, that helped explain why Damon had come to blows with Liam, didn’t it?

Damon didn’t lift his gaze, staring at the floor as though that made it easier to ask. “I know you’ve been sleeping with him. So, do you love him? I don’t like the idea of being some secret, or you keeping that from us.”

Kara’s breath came out in a hard blow. “No, I don’t love him, not like that. He doesn’t love me either, never has, not as anything but family.”

“But you have had sex with him.”

“Yeah. More than a few times, when I needed a fix.” She spat the word like a filthy taste from her mouth. “He did it because he was worried about me, because he wanted me safe and was afraid of what could happen to me if I kept seeking out different people. It wasn’t all that good for either us.”

The tension in the room from the question went down slowly, as if they could all breathe. Maybe it was the rare moment of what Cullen had to believe was truth that allowed it, the sorrow in her voice. It was hard to be jealous when she looked so damned miserable.

“I don’t like being that person,” she whispered quietly. “The one who has to use those I care about. That’s what I’ve tried to avoid after Kane, and yet sometimes I think it’s all I am. Liam wouldn’t ever turn me down, but I know he doesn’t like it any more than I do.”

Cullen set a hand on her knee. “You don’t have to do that anymore. You’ve got us.”

Kara set her hand on top of his, a strangely gentle touch, sweeter than she was in general. “Thanks, but I don’t really want to use anyone.”

Reese chimed in, his lips having curled into a wide and mischievous grin. “Oh, hellion, you can use me any day.”

The stupid remark broke what was left of the tension from the conversation, the darkness from such topics, and caused a chuckle that grew through the room. At least, it did until Kara set her hand over her side and hissed in a breath, the laughter having aggravated her wound.

The easy moment between them had him thinking that maybe there was a chance, if they could just help change her…