Page 3 of Running on Empty

Just like any other pet.

But, despite what my beast might think, I was no one’s tame wolf.

“Now. Today’s Friday,” Ash continued, folding his massive arms as he kept on analysing my life, “so that means you’ve got a shitty shift ahead of you at that bloody pub.”

“The bloody pub you drink at most nights,” I replied.

“The bloody pub we drink at most nights, including tonight,” Ash conceded with a nod of his head. “And because it's a Friday, you’ll have a date lined up, for afterwards.” He stroked his square chin with exaggerated emphasis. “Let’s see. That last pack you were seeing, you already went out with twice, so they’ll be off the table. Must be someone new.”

That was the thing about being an omega growing up next to a pack of alphas. Usually I’d have been born in some small country town where the whole community would support and protect me until I chose my mates. Part of me had longed for that when I was a teenager. But as I grew up, I’d found the care and attention of the whole Kelly clan intense. I wondered how the hell I would’ve coped with a whole town. I smiled slowly in response to Ash’s snark.

“Didn’t realise you paid that close attention to my love life.” I was trying to bait him, though I knew well from experience that neither he nor his brothers would rise to it. Instead, all three just stood staring steadily at me, ready to wait me out if that’s what it took to get the details. The three of them were like the big brothers I’d never had, and I knew that resistance was futile, so I pulled my phone out and showed them the Spencer pack’s profile. “Ok? It’s these guys tonight. They’re taking me to—”

“The Viper Room.” All smiles were gone. Jax stared at the phone and when his gaze shifted to me, there was a note of concern in his voice. “They’re taking you to the Viper Room.”

I looked down at the screen myself, tapping into the messages to see the pack had replied.

“How did you—?” I started to say.

“We know these guys. Call the date off, Stevie,” Ash ordered.

“What? No–”

“They aren’t good guys,” Jax tried to tell me in his best ‘be reasonable’ voice. “We know what they’ve been doing and–”

“You don’t get a say in this,” I snapped back.

“Beautiful–” Ronan started to say, trying to get his bit in, but any good mood I might have had this afternoon was now gone. He didn’t get to call me that. None of them did.

“And when did it become any of your business as to who I fuck?” I asked, suddenly furious. “When did you earn the right to comment on any of my life choices?” I glared between them, daring just one to contradict me. “You’re my neighbours, not my keepers.”

“Fuck…”

Ash clicked his fingers, the boy next door schtick gone as he stepped forward and took my phone out of my hand. He tapped into an app the three of them had installed on my phone, activating it with a passcode. “Keep that on at all times and send us a text as proof of life or we’ll come looking for you.”

My wolf just about rolled over on her back and showed them her belly at that, but I didn’t. They were bossy, high-handed and acted like they owned me, something my wolf loved. But I knew that this was all really just alpha bullshit. Their instincts were screaming at them ‘protect the omega!’ even though most of the time they didn’t need to.

Most of the time.

So I just nodded. If I’d had girlfriends I’d be texting them my whereabouts when I went out, just in case this pack was a bunch of homicidal maniacs or, worse, just garden-variety rapey guys. But I didn’t. I didn’t have much of anyone, except for three overly protective alphas with a white knight complex.

“Fine,” I ground out, “but I’ve gotta go. Keep that damn dog out of my yard.”

“He’ll keep coming if you keep giving him attention,” Ronan said, with that crooked smile of his. “That’s what dogs do. See you later tonight, Stevie.”

And that was that. No asking me whether I wanted them to lurk at my workplace, acting like a trio of unpaid bouncers, stopping anyone who thought to mess with me. No, just like Ollie, these three wolves stampeded into my life and bulldozed through any objections I might have, regardless of whether I wanted them around or not. When I got into my car and pulled out, I glanced into my rear vision mirror, and the three of them were standing on the verge, watching me drive off.

Chapter2

“Fuuuck…” the guy on the other side of the bar groaned, eyes wide, fixed on my chest as I leaned down to scoop ice into his glass. Fuck Jonesy and fuck this job. Yep, I was halfway through my Friday night shift and looking forward to whatever the Spencer pack had planned, because it had to be better than this shit. “Look at her fucking tits.”

People think Australian men are like Liam or Chris Hemsworth, when really they are more like this fuck. Ratty, greasy hair, weaselly face and looking me over like I was a meat tray and he was a starving dog. I was forced to plaster a smile on my face throughout his inspection.“Don’t look so grumpy,”Jonesy had told me more times than I could count.“You’ll scare the fucking customers away.”

Of course he didn’t acknowledge the fact I wanted to scare fucks like this away. I poured the customer’s cheap shitty rum into the glass, then finished it off with a long squirt of Coke, imagining pinning the fuck to the bar and giving him a colonic by shoving the post mix gun right up his—

“So, omega…” Beta boys tried to be like alphas, but the sight of this weedy little fuck trying to be all growly had me smiling, though not in the way Jonesy wanted. It was either that or I’d burst out laughing. “You going into heat soon?”

I shoved the prick’s drink towards him, his mates all watching the interaction with a weird fascination. The smile dropped from my face as I fixed him with a baleful eye and said, “Six bucks, thanks.”

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