Page 8 of Frenzy
We stepped through a shattered glass door, and a black van appeared in front of us. Dominic slid open the door, and I climbed in voluntarily. Courtland maneuvered the other baby out of my arms.
“Seatbelt.”
I quirked an eyebrow at him, but did as I was told. Part of it was the Omega wanting to please an Alpha, and part of it was just Courtland’s natural authority. When I was safely anchored in the car, he handed me both babies and climbed in after me. He didn’t put his own seatbelt on though.
The van skidded away from the facility that had been my prison for more than half of my life.
Panic began to set in, no matter what my brain was saying. I didn’t know how to live in a regular society. I didn’t know how to cook, or have any identification.
Dominic growled low from the driver’s seat, and Courtland reached out a huge hand and wrapped it around my thigh. “It will be okay, Omega. I’ll make sure of it.”
There was Alpha power in his voice and I believed him with every fiber of my body.
Baby One made a rattling noise in her chest again, and Courtland’s eyes flew to her. “Why is it making that noise?”
I pushed down the anguish that welled in my chest. “They’re dying.”
Something scary flashed across Courtland’s face, but he inclined his head once. “Why?”
I shrugged, because I didn’t know. Not really. “They never survive past three months. Whatever the scientists do during the conception stage, it never works.”
I could see he wanted to press, wanted to ask questions, and I felt myself shut down. I couldn’t handle those questions or the memories that accompanied them.
But Courtland didn’t voice his curiosity, he just met Dominic’s eyes in the mirror. “Call ahead. We leave tonight. We’ll go to Maxton.”
Dominic nodded, grabbing his phone from his pocket and putting it to his ear. “Hey kid, get your siblings ready. We are coming in hot and shooting through straight away.” He paused. “It means we’re leaving as soon as I pull into the courtyard, so get your bags together and get the hell in the car.” Whoever was on the other end must have been mouthing off more, because he threw the phone onto the passenger seat. “You sure we have to bring her?”
Courtland nodded.
“Bring who?”
This time, a small smile curled his lips. “Rosa.”
5
radic
Bonnie was sleeping on my chest, and it was the most relaxed I’d seen her in a week. I stroked her pretty honey-colored hair back from her cheek and watched as she pursed her lips at the slight tickle.
Damn. I fucking loved her. I’d loved her for so many years; it was hard to remember a time that she didn’t own my heart completely. I hated seeing her so damn stressed, though I wouldn’t dream of suggesting she hand off some of the responsibility to anyone else. Bonnie was a beautiful soul, but she was fucking fierce when it came to the Sanctum.
I’d secretly been squirreling away resources for the Sanctum, but I knew eventually the people from Stores would realize. I wasn’t overly worried. Finlo Grey’s parents had always been a bit soft, and also a little anti-Legion—well, as anti-Legion as you could be while still being a cog in the proverbial machine. If they caught me, I didn’t think they’d turn me into the Alpha General. Though I’d been wrong before.
I shifted slowly from beneath Bonnie’s sleeping body, doing my best not to wake her. I kissed her full lips softly because I couldn’t help myself, and then dragged on my sweats. I needed to head back to my apartment to get changed for work. I tried not to wake up here too often when she was working at the Sanctum; there were a lot of teenagers hanging around, and I wanted them to learn about respecting women. Sneaking out of a woman’s bedroom before sunrise was hardly the best example to set.
But she’d needed me more these last few days, even if she wouldn’t admit it. I was helpless to resist her, especially when she would never come out and ask for help. She was too fiercely independent. She saw needing help as failure, even though that was ridiculous. The strongest people needed help sometimes.
It was just a result of our childhood; I knew that. Bonnie had been unlike any other Manix kid. We were supernaturals, usually tall and lean like the warrior race we once were. Not Bonnie though. Bonnie had been shorter, rounder. She’d been a shy, small, chubby kid, and I’d gotten in more fights than any other Beta sticking up for my beautiful friend.
Even to this day, I couldn’t understand how they didn’t see the absolute beauty that shone from her. Were they all fucking blind? She’d grown into a woman who stole my fucking breath away, and I was so glad she was mine. But I would have done anything for her to escape the small poisoned barbs that had shaped her into a woman who found it hard to trust, who underestimated her worth to me and to a potential Pack.
I was Beta, through and through. My Beast craved a Pack. But not nearly as much as it craved Bonnie. The Manix and the man would happily sacrifice everything for her happiness.
“Is it that time already?” Her sleepy voice was low and scratchy, and it made me hard as a rock. She was naked beneath the sheets, and it outlined the curves of her hips, the mounds of her breasts. Dammit. I bit my lip and grabbed my cock, giving it a tight squeeze to warn it to behave. I wanted to crawl back in there and have her wrap her gloriously thick thighs around my head until she either came or I passed out.
But the boss had an eight a.m. meeting, so there was no time. I wondered if I could call in sick?
Manix rarely got sick though. Fuck. I leaned forward and kissed her cheeks, and then her lips. She tasted like heaven.
