Page 65 of Fight

Sighing, I prepare for the long drive ahead as we follow Cerenity back to Minneapolis.

“Getting comfortable?” Tommy asks, lips twitching even as he grinds his teeth together in annoyance. I think everything about Augustine’s driving is going to drive him up a wall as he changes lanes.

“May as well. My sister and Pack Mohan definitely set us up,” I remark, pulling out my phone to see if I have any missed texts.

Grunting, I see there’s one waiting for me.

Wren: Get your head out of your ass, Jas. Augustine just told me he found Cerenity, and you participated in kidnapping her.

Biting my lip, I shrug, deciding I may as well come clean. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Technically, I didn’t kidnap her the first time, little sister. The second time was definitely my fault.

I can practically hear her fuming as I watch her type. If I was there, she’d be yelling at me in person.

Wren: I hope she murders you in your sleep, asshole.

“Why are sisters so damn mean?” I complain. “Wren just said she hopes Tiny kills us in our sleep.”

Tommy snorts as he listens to me, knowing how loyal and fierce my little sister is. Cerenity is her friend, so I expected her to be angry with me. It’s not like I planned to kidnap an omega this week though.

“We’re not soft alphas,” he admits, pulling his blond-brown hair into a hair tie at the top of his head as we sit in traffic at an on-ramp for the interstate.

“We’re more likely to feed the intestines of your enemies to the pigs than remember to bring you flowers on your birthday. There are days where I wish I lived with my sisters to help me figure this out. My dad was more worried about the state of our businesses than family. It’s why I make sure my aunt is taken care of.”

Remembering how he dropped money on the bar for her after our meeting, I nod. “Wren would be more likely to throw me under the bus than ask me for my side,” I mutter. “She seems to think that I’m a dick.”

“You looked for her for years,” Tommy protests. “Jasper, you were at every auction possible, and tracked down every lead. There’s no way you could know the same buyer had her all those years.”

“Of course not, but she has the same view of me as she did as a kid. It’s perception…” I trail off as I think about what she kept saying about choices and how alphas and scent matches were the beginning of the end of hers.

“Fuck.”

“Spit it out, Jasper,” Tommy growls. “We’re in this shit together, so just say it.”

“We’ve only been looking at this from our point of view. We want things from her, but she’s ultimately a stranger. Cerenity is our scent match, and everyone talks about the intensity of it, almost as if it’s magical. But, the reality is that this is real life and the last thing she wants is a scent match,” I begin.

“She’s living her life with her senses dulled so she can control her life.”

“That’s really sad,” he mutters. “I rely on my senses to tell if someone is lying, because their scent sours when they do. I imagine she can still scent omegas, but having to live like that has to be exhausting. It can’t have good long term effects, either. Imagine how long she’s been using this spray.”

“Right, but stay with me, big guy,” I tease him, trying to get him to see the big picture. “There's a level of commitment there that tells me she’s not going to roll over because we want her. She gave Augustine a titty twister that I swear I felt! Cerenity seems to think she’ll lose herself if she lets the bond snap into place.”

“She could still reject us even then,” Tommy rasps, tense. Shuddering, I curse under my breath.

“Fuck, would she really?” I ask, goosebumps raising over my skin. I can’t imagine what it would be like to know that the omega destiny’s chosen for me would throw me away. If anyone had the ovaries to do it, though, it would be Cerenity.

“We can’t let her do that. Goddamn it, when I think about this, it makes me want to hide her from the world, which is exactly what she doesn’t want.”

“Why is this so difficult,” Tommy sighs, the discontented alpha’s scent of leather and sage filling the cab as he speaks. “I want to worship between her thighs and feed her. Isn’t that what women want?”

Snickering, I get a vision of Tommy holding Cerenity’s thighs in place as he forces orgasms on her. Fuck, and now my cock is rock hard.

“I’m not built for this,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m a growly ass who would be perfectly happy hiding her away from the world, but that’s not going to happen. Tiny has claws and this isn’t the thirteenth century. She has a life outside of us.”

“So what do we do?” Tommy asks, his foot heavy on the gas as he drives. “How do we figure out the girl who would rather kick and scratch for her freedom than allow us to get to know her?”

Maybe not handcuff her to your bed, I think to myself. We’re the worst alphas in the world right now.

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