Page 127 of Unhinged
Earl.
My gut twists hard enough I wanna throw up.
Old scent memories slam into me: grass and cooking oil—memories I’ve tried to keep buried deep where they couldn't rot me from the inside out.
"What do you want?" I snap, my voice sharp as broken glass. "Why won't you just leave me the fuck alone? I'm not someyoung omega anymore. I'm grown. I want nothing to do with you, Earl."
He smirks. That same sick, slimy grin.
"You're mine, Brydgett," he says, all casual. "Picked you out special. Waited for your first heat."
My skin crawls. Not with fear. With rage.
"You're fucking sick," I hiss.
He laughs, all low and dirty. "I wanted kids. And a sexy little omega to give them to me. You already proved you can. Now it's time to come home. Both of you." He jerks his chin at one of his guys. "Take the boy. Kill the girl unless you want a turn first."
One of the men steps forward, licking his lips.
"No!" I scream, voice cracking. Omega instincts roar up in me like wildfire:protectprotectprotect.
"He's not yours!" I yell, body shaking from the force of it. "I left after you raped me and traded my body for rent! He belongs to someone else!"
Earl’s eyes gleam maliciously in the dark.
"Who?" he demands. "Give me a name."
I rack my brain, fast. Need someone he can’t touch.
"Ike," I blurt. "Ike. He found me. Took me in at the gym. Let me stay if I... if I slept with him."
Earl wrinkles his nose, like I’m the dirty one.
"The fighter washout?" he sneers.
"Yeah," I lie right to his face. "It was his weekend with his son. That’s why we were out there. That’s when you found us, ran us off the road, shot me."
He stares hard, like he’s trying to peel my skin off with his eyes. Finally, he shrugs.
"Fine. Kill them both," he says to his men. "We’ll make another." He breathes deep through his nose, nostrils flaring. "You smell just like you did that night. Your heat’s coming, omega. Gonna be real fun breaking you in again."
Bile climbs up my throat.
I choke it down.
My scent spikes—fear, sharp and sour—but I force it back, clamp it down with every shred of will I have left. I can’t let him smell it.
I square up, heart hammering so loud I can’t hear straight. Every omega instinct in me screaming to protect Judge. Protect Dillon.
"Leave them," I say. "I’ll come with you. No fight."
Earl tilts his head, grinning all slow. "And if I don't?"
I step closer, slow like I’m moving through barbed wire. Hands raised. Keeping my voice flat.
"I’ll kill a few of your men. Maybe you too. And the brothers inside?" I jerk my chin toward the clubhouse. "They’ll hear. They’ll come runnin'. You won't make it out alive."
He laughs, the sound slithering over my skin.
