Page 51 of Running on Empty

Jax had cursed me to a life of loneliness if I didn’t get my act together, but what he didn’t realise was I was already living it. I was a wolf shifter, but that state didn’t rule me, like most of the others I’d met. I didn’t turn into some kind of demon creature.

Like the rest of my family did.

But I watched everyone grab their weapons, load into two cars, until I was forced to step forward and get into the driver’s seat of ours.

“Follow the plan.”

I ordered every single one of them to do just that, staring at Ronan and Stevie in the back seat, expecting to see the same revulsion on her face as was on my mother’s when she saw the dads like this. Mum was still sleeping in her bed with Ollie for company as a result. But my mate, the woman who was supposed to be the perfect one for me, she just grinned with a kind of infectious energy, and sure enough, my brothers did the same.

It wouldn’t matter what I did, I’d be alone no matter what, so I may as well be right doing it.

“Hold on,” I said as I turned the key in the ignition. I could hear my dads’ snarls over it, the other car full of slavering werewolves it felt like. “We’ll be at Snake’s compound in a bit over an hour, so stay sharp.”

Chapter30

Ash

We’d parked some way down the road, away from the scene of the crime, but close enough to make a quick getaway.

“Everyone knows what they’re doing,” I said in a hushed voice. My brothers and the dads all agreed. “We separate into three groups. Ronan, Jax and Stevie with me and we’ll take out the bodyguards to the rear of the property while the dads take out all of them to the front and sides.”

“Then pick off any squealers that come rushing out when you get inside,” Blue said with a grin. His green eyes rolled up to take in the tall wall around Snake’s property, grinning at the sound of a thunderous bass line, even though it was four am. “Sounds like gunfire isn’t going to be an issue.”

“Use your suppressors anyway,” I urged.

“You need any help with the main event, you just call for Daddy,” Rusty said, tapping the walkie-talkie he had strapped to his chest like the rest of us. “We’ll come running.”

“No one will come running because they’re going to stick to the fucking plan,” I said, staring at each one of them and while Jax nodded, Ronan smiled.

I wanted to know if whatever fragile bond Stevie had built between the two of them would survive tonight. Something told me it wouldn’t. But fuck, no one would be happy until we found out, so in we would go.

“Everyone knows what they’re doing, so let’s not fuck this up,” I said, then pulled my black beanie down and jerked the bandana I’d been given over my face.

The stupid fucking thing was printed with a wolf’s jaws, the signature Kelly logo. The dads wore it on their jackets, affiliating with no club, but that sign got them into most places. But as I stared at my fathers, my brothers, I saw it. With those gleaming green eyes and ferocious stares, we’d have any party goers cowed and on their knees in seconds.

Hopefully.

Jax, Ronan and Stevie did the same and then I led them around the property, slinking along the perimeter of the neighbour’s expansive backyard, away from any cameras until we reached the spot. I held out my hands, Jax shoving his boot into it and then I boosted him up the wall, watching him swing over the top before doing the same for Ronan. But my brother shook his head. He jerked down Stevie’s bandana and his, slamming his mouth down on hers to the sound of my hiss of frustration and her moan, right before he offered to give her a boost.

I’d hated Ronan most of my life, but never more than now.

So her hands slapped down on his shoulders and he was the one that threw her into the air, my eyes not able to stop staring until I saw her fingers grip the edge. Then she was up and over the top, leaving just me and just Ronan.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” he told me, like we had all the time in the world.

“We need to get over there to protect Stevie and watch Jax’s back,” I snapped, holding out my hands. “Get over that fucking wall!”

“You’re a Kelly just as much as the rest of us. You don’t want to be, but you are.”

“Can we have this little one on one when we’re not trying to carry out a covert infiltration of a fucking mansion in the big end of town?” I snapped.

“You were the one Mum leaned on the hardest, so you saw how hard she struggles with the way the dads are but…” He smiled slowly. “You never understood why she stayed.”

“They are her fated mates. She couldn’t leave them if she tried.’

“Why not? Other omegas have. Mum’s not the princess trapped in the tower you want her to be. She’s just like Stevie, if she was able to admit it. She likes getting her hands dirty, a lot.”

The muffled burst of gunfire wouldn’t be picked up by anyone who wasn’t listening closely, but we were and our heads whipped around at the sound of it.

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