Page 5 of Worth Fighting For

Technically, Lowen had a point. But there were other factors. “He’s covered in blood.” It might not exactly make him guilty of harming the Omegas, but it also didn’t mean he was innocent, especially when there were obvious blood stains on some of them, too.

“Look, if it makes you this uncomfortable, why don’t I take the small raft and go find out what’s going on,” Lowen offered. “Gulliver has enough experience to steer the ship to shore if everything seems okay.”

He wanted to say ‘yes’ more than anything, but Ford would kill him if anything happened to Lowen and he hadn’t bothered to be there to try to protect him. “No. We’ll all go.”

“Uhm, are you serious?” Gulliver asked as he overheard them and stepped from the bridge after dropping anchor. “We don’t know those people, but I can guarantee they ran from an encampment that gets Omegas ready to go to the markets to be sold. There are probably Alphas after them as we speak.”

Coleson swore his jaw hit the ground as he listened to the man, who Ford and Lowen had risked their lives to save, suggest they do nothing to help. “Is that what Ford and Lowen should have done with you?” he demanded. “Left you to be sold?”

At least Gulliver had the grace to blush and hang his head. “Look, I get it’s pretty hypocritical of me after being rescued, but I also don’t want to be taken again either. It’s bad enough being back on this river where I was taken last time, but to do something against Alphas who would gladly come after us isn’t my idea of a good time.”

It wasn’t for Coleson either, but he also knew he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he left them behind without at least attempting to help. “Turn the ship around. If they need our assistance, we’re going to give it to them.”

He glanced at the shoreline behind their ship. “Plus, they might help us on this journey.” He pointed to them. “They have guns. Quite a few of them. If we were attacked, they might help us to fend them off.”

Even as he said that, he seriously prayed at least some of them could actually shoot, unlike him. Much as he hated to admit it, Lowen was right. He could barely hit a non-moving object. He’d be useless in a true gun battle.

He just hoped he wouldn’t regret helping.

CHAPTER 4

“We don’t have a choice,” Renzo insisted. “You all said it yourselves. There were about a dozen Alphas out of the camp to deliver some Omegas to the port along the Mississippi and are due back no later than tomorrow.”

He pointed to the ship that was slowly passing their position. “If we don’t find help from someone, we’re sitting ducks.”

Even though they had killed the remaining guards and left their prison, the fact remained they hadn’t exactly known how to get away without making it obvious what direction they were heading. Hell, until he’d been kidnapped and taken to that godforsaken place, he’d never been in the woods. Hiding their tracks hadn’t been something any of them had experience doing, and as he’d looked back at their more than noticeable trail, it wouldn’t take the returning Alphas more than a minute to figure out what direction they were headed in.

Based on their slow pace, due to at least a dozen injured Omegas, he would guess the three hours it had taken them to get to the riverbank would take the Alphas about thirty minutes. Either they found a mode of transportation that wouldn’t leave any trace, or they were going to be recaptured and beaten for their troubles.

Arwel set his jaw and glared at Renzo. “And what if they are another Alpha group who are more than willing to imprison us?”

He made a good point, but they just didn’t have any other options. He sighed in relief when he saw the ship slowly circling back. “Fine. Why don’t half of you take guns, go into the trees and surround us. That way, if they do attack, you can fight back. If we’re lucky, we’ll defeat them and get control of the boat so we can escape.”

“Why don’t we just take the ship, regardless?” Arwel asked. “Leave them behind. That way, we’re not putting ourselves at risk.”

“No,” Fennec cut into their argument. “If they offer to help, we accept it. But we’re not leaving anyone else to deal with the assholes who will be after us.”

Arwel looked as if he were about to argue, but he held his tongue. After a staring contest with Fennec that lasted for a full two minutes, Arwel nodded and gestured for some men to follow him. Within seconds, they were swallowed by the woods.

Turning to the water, Renzo watched as the ship headed their way. He seriously hoped like hell he hadn’t made a mistake by waving them down.

“Do you think they will help or attack?” Fennec asked softly so as not to freak out the others that stayed on the shoreline with them.

If only it were easy to tell. “Those are Omegas on the bow, but there’s at least one other steering and who knows if there might be more hiding inside.”

Fennec glared over at him briefly before returning his attention to the boat. “That wasn’t an answer.”

“That’s because I don’t have one,” Renzo told him honestly. If only there was a thing like being psychic, because he seriously was more than a bit terrified whoever was on that boat would either mow them down before they even dropped anchor, or a massive force would descend upon them the moment they neared the shore.

Maybe he never should have tried to flag them down, but the fact was, there was nowhere they could run where Alphas–whether it be the ones who had been holding them before, or another group with the same goals–would find them. He didn’t feel there was such a thing as safety west of the Mississippi.

Then again, some stories from the Omegas he’d treated the last year he’d been held captive said it wasn’t just those on the west side. He hadn’t exactly been blind to the inequality of how Omegas had been treated compared to Alphas, but he had no clue the disparity had been as bad as some described.

He just wished he knew how in the hell to change it. Some of his classmates had often talked about Omegas as if they were nothing more than a pet to consider taking in or not instead of an actual human being. Thankfully, his actual friends had believed, like Renzo, they were just as important to the human existence as Alphas. Possibly more so since they were the ones who actually had the babies.

Yes, admittedly, an Alpha was also needed for that to happen, but an Alpha’s job in the process was over with very quickly. An Omega needed to nurture and care for the fetus for nine months in order to bring a new life into the world. Something their depleting population was desperate to have happen.

Which was why he’d never understood the reasoning behind treating Omegas like they didn’t matter. To Renzo, they mattered more than an Alpha. Yet, based on what he’d witnessed, they were abused, raped, tortured, and sold as if they were nothing.

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