Page 11 of Worth Fighting For

“How did you…?” Coleson was suspicious, yet extremely happy to see them as they killed the other Alphas and dumped the bodies overboard.

“Raman overheard a few of them talking about going after you. He knew I had a connection with Gulliver and would want to stop them, so he came to tell me what was happening.” Pink infused his cheeks at that admission, but he ignored his reaction and kept going. “Unfortunately, Oxley’s boat there had less than a half a tank of gas and we knew it wouldn’t make it, so we had to find someone willing to sell us some, which took more time than we’d hoped.” He looked sheepishly at Gulliver as if he was hoping the Omega would forgive him for not being there earlier.

“I’d say you got here right on time,” Gulliver said with a shy smile for the Alpha.

“A little too good.” Coleson wasn’t entirely certain he trusted the timing, as it was a bit too convenient.

“Oh my goodness,” Oxley rushed over to where Fennec was doing his best to hold himself up on the railing while keeping his weight off his injured leg. He just scooped the Omega up into his arms and demanded of them all, “Is there a bed or cot I can put him on? He needs a doctor based on the amount of blood seeping through his bandage.”

Coleson was about to order him to put Fennec down, but the Omega passed out as if the entire ordeal had just been too much. Considering he was pregnant and had been shot as well as having to fight off Alphas, it most likely had been. Hell, Coleson felt wrung out and he wasn’t injured or having a baby.

Before he could insist Fennec didn’t need the Alpha’s help, Renzo stepped forward and gestured for Oxley to follow him. “Come. There are a couple of cots below where I can treat him.”

Oxley glared at Renzo. “What makes you qualified to touch this precious Omega?”

Renzo’s lips quirked, as if he were trying hard not to laugh. “My medical degree from Harvard.”

Oxley didn’t look convinced, but he followed, anyway.

“Are we able to get underway?” Coleson asked Lowen, who had just finished checking out the hull of the ship to make certain there weren’t any holes that would need repair.

“I think so. I did a visual over the sides, but it would be helpful if someone could go below and check for any leaks. In the meantime, I’ll get us moving, but I need to know immediately if anything is found.” Lowen didn’t wait for a response. He had as much reason as the rest of them to get the hell out of there. He had a pregnant Omega waiting for him at home and Lowen would do whatever it took to make it back to him.

“You heard the man,” Coleson called out. “I need three volunteers to go check for any leaks. The rest of us need to work on getting this blood cleaned up. Was anyone hurt enough to need Dr. Grealy once he’s done with Fennec?”

Cedwyn, Geraud, and Nimit raised their hands, blood seeping from a couple of wounds. “Go down below and have those bandaged up. Then get everyone some water and food.”

Nimit held onto Geraud as he limped to the stairwell, while Cedwyn held a bloody shirt to his side to stem the blood as he followed them. All in all, it was a win for them, but if they were attacked again, there would most likely be casualties.

Then he turned to Westland and Raman. “As soon as Oxley is done helping Fennec, you need to leave.”

Gulliver, who had been working on pulling up buckets of river water gasped, stood up straight and glared at him. “How dare you speak for all of us? They went out of their way to help us and you’re just kicking them off the ship without asking if they want to travel with us or return home?”

“They’re Alphas,” he reminded Gulliver before pushing the point even further. “Alphas who showed up just in time to save us. Don’t you think that’s a bit of a stretch?”

Coleson did. He had tried to not hate all Alphas. He had. When Lowen had come into their lives after trying to save them from a group of Alphas who had been trying to take them for their own, he’d been the one to help convince Ford he was a good guy. But that had been before Lowen and Ford had come home with over a hundred Omegas who had been chained or put in cages that hadn’t allowed the decency to sit up straight, much less stand.

They were beaten, raped, forced to have abortions and treated like they were absolutely nothing. Not even human. Things had begun to change for him as he’d listened to many of their stories. By the time they’d started the trip even further west, he knew one thing–Alphas were evil.

Only because he’d already accepted Lowen as one of the good guys and he’d allowed him to stay. Well, okay, that wasn’t technically true. The fact was Lowen and his Omega dad had lived there first, so it wasn’t as if Coleson could have kicked him out. But he could have insisted they had nothing to do with the Alpha. Sort of.

Yeah, he knew that wouldn’t have worked either. It hadn’t for Ford when, in the beginning, he’d tried to insist the same thing. The fact was, no matter how awful some of their interactions had been with certain Alphas, they weren’t all bad. Or that’s what they kept trying to tell themselves.

Yet, other than Lowen, Coleson had a difficult time coming up with one that was decent. Even his own Alpha father and brother hadn’t thought he was worth spending money on an education when he should only be worried about attracting an Alpha and having babies.

If his own family treated him like that, how was he supposed to believe there were decent Alphas out there? Fennec came back up, still tucked in Oxley’s arms, appearing quite pleased with himself. His leg was bandaged better as Oxley set him gently on a bench before taking his own shirt off and wrapping it around the nearly naked Fennec as they basically had nothing but loin cloths when they’d fled their prison.

Then he ran back downstairs and came up with a cup of water and an apple Lowen had grown and brought for trade. Westland had only taken half of what they’d expected to get their supplies, so they had plenty of food below deck. He watched as Fennec blushed, but gratefully took the food and drink.

Did he just put his nose into the collar of the shirt and smell it? Coleson had to have been seeing things–right? Fennec was one of the last people who should have trusted an Alpha. Hell, when they’d run, it was because the Alpha guard who had gotten him pregnant had insisted he have an abortion.

It was pure luck on Fennec’s part that Renzo…

He could feel his eyes widen as he realized the truth. Renzo had wanted to abide by Fennec’s wishes and killed the guard so they could try to escape. According to some of the other Omegas the only reason Renzo had complied in the past was because when he’d attempted to refuse to do the procedure if the Omega hadn’t wanted it, the Alphas holding them would beat the Omega until he lost the baby then would finish it by beating him to death. The others claimed Renzo had been so distraught, he’d agreed because he couldn’t handle the guilt of being responsible for their deaths.

Maybe Coleson had gotten it all wrong after all. What if there really were good Alphas out there with really shitty choices? It wasn’t as if Renzo had signed up to go west and treat captive Omegas so they could be tortured some more. He’d been taken, too.

Maybe it was time to let go of his anger and resentment and treat people how he promised himself a long time ago he would. Based on their own merits. He’d harped on Ford for acting as if all Alphas were the same when they’d met Lowen, but he’d been doing it himself since he’d truly realized what could happen to an Omega at the hands of a sadistic Alpha.

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