Page 189 of Lonely Alpha

“For fuck’s sake, get in!” he shouted. “You’re not safe out here.”

I paused, eyebrows drawing together in confusion. Why should he care about me being safe? The cramps picked that moment to cripple me and I doubled over with a moan. Cordian used my distraction to push me into the SUV, slamming the door.

I was alone in the SUV. Cordian hadn’t tried to get in himself. I couldn’t see him anymore when I sat up, but I wasn’t surprised. Not much was visible. My headache was turning into a migraine, the noise far too abrasive when I was already falling apart. People were blobs.

One blob yanked open the driver’s door and got in with a slew of curses. His scent tickled me, arousing me, but not enough for me to forget my faculties. He was a beta, thankfully.

A beta who was too focused on the space in front of the car to realize that he wasn’t alone in here. He watched people run in front of the SUV, gunshots firing rapidly. I scanned him, seeing two guns at his hip—no… one. My vision was doubled.

I reached out slowly, hand shaking.

I had one chance to pick the right gun, and not the fake one.

Not thinking too hard, I grabbed for the weapon. My fingers touched cool metal and I pulled the gun out. The beta cursed, reaching for me, and I fumbled it. There was a safety… somewhere. I had to flip it off so I could shoot.

If Nyla were here, I could have stabbed him. She wasn’t, her holster empty at my waist.

I fiddled with the gun as he tried to get it back, the pads of my fingers finally finding something on the top of it. The safety. I hoped it was the safety. It took me another second to find the trigger, breath catching in my chest.

My body jerked at the kickback.

In the enclosed space of the SUV, the gun going off made my ears ring and head spin. More pain twisted me from the inside out, but I stayed upright, barely. The beta man shouted and brought his hands to his stomach. Blood was gushing from the wound, wetting the leather seats.

I kept the gun shakily trained on him, pushing myself to the side and grabbing the SUV door. It opened and I almost fell out. My feet hit the ground and I swayed, too disoriented to be out here.

There was active shooting happening. I had a gun in my hand, the safety disengaged. I needed to get… somewhere, but I didn’t know where. If I ran for the golf course this time, Soren wouldn’t find me. My pack wouldn’t either. And Leighton… she would still be here. She was downstairs right now.

Someone grabbed my arm and I spun, gun at the ready. My finger had almost pressed the trigger when my vision cleared enough to realize who it was, and I paused. Maybe I shouldn’t have had any hesitation, but shooting Cordian felt wrong.

He’d been manipulated like I was.

It didn’t make what he’d done right, but he didn’t deserve to die.

If I could trust myself to shoot him in the arm or leg, I would have done it. Unfortunately, I was too hazy for anything to be guaranteed. He was doubling in my vision, not as bad as the gun had, but there was a copy of him beside where he stood.

“Let go of me.” I slurred the words, but my meaning came through clear.

He dropped me, warily eying the gun.

I took a few steps away from the SUV. The beta man had gone quiet. I didn’t know if it was because he was unconscious, dead, or biding his time to shoot me in return, but I wasn’t going to find out.

“They’re here for you,” Cordian said, nodding toward the end of the driveway.

I couldn’t see what he was nodding at. There were only blobs of colour.

“And Leighton,” I whispered, more to myself than him. They were here for her, too.

Cordian’s scent drew me forward, my body yearning for relief and a knot, but then a different scent took over. Smoke. It could have been from an actual fire, but I couldn’t entertain that possibility. It had to be him. I slumped, peering over my shoulder at the end of the drive.

One figure was coming toward me, faster than the rest of the blobs.

Hot iron and smoke.

I sighed in relief when I caught the other notes of Ambrose’s scent. My arm went limp, the gun hanging by my side. Anyone could have come up to me, gotten to me before he did, but I was done. Every piece of me was broken, the pain too much to handle, and I trusted him.

He’d catch me.

“Kiara,” he said my name desperately, close enough I could distinguish his features.

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