The world spun as my panic threatened to overwhelm me. Ben’s burnt scent was so thick it seemed to coat the back of my throat. I needed to get to my alphas, needed to destroy whatever, whoever had made Cam yell like that. It was a sound I never wanted to hear again—all terrifying outrage, anger, and pain.
I thought we were running towards the gym, but then Ben took a sharp turn towards the garage. I whimpered, tugging on his arm.
“Have to get you out,” he whispered, his grip on my arm so tight I knew it would bruise.
Tears streamed down my face. “No,” I gasped, pulling against him. I couldn’t leave Theo and Cam. We were a pack; we had to stay together.
Ben wrapped his arms around my waist and dragged me to the door leading to the garage. He leaned forward, peering through the small window in the door before throwing himself back with a curse. A gunshot pierced the air and a bullet hit the door dead center.
I covered my mouth, biting back my scream. Rage and fear coursed through me. Someone was trying to harm my pack. I wanted to fight, crush the intruders, and make them suffer. But it was all I could do to keep up with Ben as he sprinted to the French doors leading to the courtyard.
The security alarm blared to life, the shrill sound adding to my disorientation. In the back of my mind, I wondered why it hadn’t sounded earlier.
Ben dragged me out into the cold night. We skirted around the pool, our steps haunted by dark shadows stretching across the courtyard. And then I was ripped out of Ben’s grasp. I screamed, kicking at my assailant, and tried to throw myself towards Ben, but he was already being dragged away.
A wall of soldiers stepped out of the shadows, surrounding me with rifles. A brutal hand covered my mouth, cutting off my screams.
There was a loud crash, and I twisted around to see the French doors lying shattered on the ground. In the dim light, I saw the soldiers wrestle Cam and Theo outside, dragging them over the broken glass. We were separated by the length of the pool, but it could have been thousands of miles. Cam’s wild eyes found mine, and he let out another roar before fighting against the five guards trying to pin him. He sounded like a wild animal as he wrenched his body out of their grasp. The curses and cries of pain from the soldiers told me he’d broken some bones.
“Secure the alphas!” The shout came from one of the largest alphas I’d ever seen. His face was in shadow, but his every movement seemed calculated as he walked towards me.
“Take the omega bitch around the front while we handle these three,” he told the guards holding me.
I bit the fingers covering my mouth, fighting with renewed rigor. Hands dug into my arms and hips as the soldiers restrained me. My skin crawled with their touches, their scents. Their large bodies blocked my view of my alphas as they dragged me around the pool to the front of the house.
Theo shouted my name, followed by Ben.
And then gunshots pierced the air.
I heard a loud splash, then nothing. I whipped my head around, wildly searching for my alphas, but they were no longer standing by the pool. All I could make out in the darkness were shadowy forms in the water.
No.
No.
No.
My heart was splitting, breaking. It was pain unlike anything I’d felt before, so agonizing it felt like there should be blood spurting from my chest. A scream pierced the night, a sound drenched in pain and suffering.
It took me a second to realize the scream was coming from me.
One of the guards slapped me so hard my ears rang and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. I twisted in their hold, desperately trying to catch another glimpse of the men I loved more than life itself, but I couldn’t see anything through the blurry veil of my tears. They dragged me away, each additional step between my alphas and me like another knife twist in my chest where my heart had been.
They came to an abrupt stop and threw me on the ground. I barely got my hands in front of me in time to stop my face from hitting the driveway. The gravel gouged my hands and knees, but I couldn’t feel it.
I looked up, and there stood Glen, laughing.
Fucking laughing as my world fell apart.
He leaned down, gripping my chin in his hand.
“Hello, my little birdy.” His rotten fruit stench rolled off him in waves and I gagged on the putrid sweetness. I raised my hands to break his grip when he barked at me.
“Present, omega.”
There was no room to think, no space to resist. I moved automatically to the position—my head on the ground and ass up in the air.
Tears leaked down my face, dripping down my nose and chin as I lay there frozen, unable to even wipe them away.
The serum hadn’t worked. I was defenseless.
“What a good little birdy, so good for your alpha,” he said, patting my hair like I was a dog. Then he snarled and gripped my hair so hard I cried out in pain. He crouched down, tilting my head back at a painful angle so I was forced to look at him.
“All these years we spent apart have ruined my little birdy. Other men touched her, tainted her. She belongs to me!” He was screaming now, his face distorted with rage. His eyes glazed over, and I wasn’t sure he was even seeing me anymore. Was he going to kill me, too?
Suddenly, he released my hair.
“I meant to take them alive,” he said, his voice returning to its normal tone as he nodded towards the courtyard. “But this is better. Now there’s no doubt you belong to me. My little birdy with clipped wings.” He trailed his fingers down my back, lingering on my bare skin.
Ice filled my veins.
My alphas were dead.
Gone.
The guards opened the back of an SUV and shoved me into a small metal cage, slamming the trunk closed and leaving me in darkness.
I was completely and utterly alone.
