Page 32 of Running on Empty

“What about this?” I asked, holding out a picture frame.

We both looked down at the photo within. It was taken Christmas Day back when Stevie had just finished school. I remembered it like it just happened yesterday, because Ash and I had been psyching ourselves up the whole time. Mum said we couldn’t do anything, not even allow a whisper of interest, not until Stevie was eighteen and done with school and we’d thought today was the day we’d tell her…

“What’re you doing?” she asked me, the Stevie here, now, all those years later. She pulled the frame from my grasp and dumped it in the bag. “Why do I feel like I’m being visited by the ghosts of alphas past…?” She straightened up then. “Except you won’t stay in the past.”

She went to her wardrobe and grabbed a handful of jeans, all neatly folded in a pile.

“I don’t need you to find the relics of the past.” She looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. “Maybe it’d be a good thing if these psychos burned it all down. I’d get a big insurance pay out and could move away from here…”

A high pitched sound rang in my ears, an old, old fear rising. I’d kept my cool as psychotic arseholes discussed what they would do to us to take us down and steal my omega from me, but not at this. But when I swallowed hard, my ears popped, just in time to hear her.

“You want to be helpful? Grab a bunch of underwear…” She gestured to the top drawer of her tallboy, then stopped. “Actually take all of it. I don’t want any of those fucking creepers jerking off into my granny panties that have gone grey from being washed too much.”

I shook my head at that mental image, moving to do as she asked, but as soon as I opened the drawer fully, I wished what she said was true. I felt like exactly the kind of creeper she described as I sat there, gazing down at the colourful tumble of underwear, but more than that. I pushed some aside to reveal the candy coloured sinuous forms of her sex toys.

“And these too?”

I tried to keep my voice calm, my tone neutral, but as her brows jerked down I was pretty sure I’d fucked that right up. But she recovered fast. Stevie always did. She snatched her toys from my grip and shoved them into the bag as well.

“I’ll definitely need them,” she assured me in a smug tone. “If I’m to be locked up in a damn bunker until shit blows over, I’ll want something to take the edge off.”

“Well, if that’s what you need, then I can help.”

She whirled around then, eyes flashing, ready to put me in my place, but I just smiled.

“The Fun Factory stuff is criminally underpowered. Looks like you enjoy a bit of G-spot stimulation and something powerful on your clit. Europe produces the best and most powerful toys I’ve found. Food grade silicone, no nasty additives and powerful.” I nodded to her. “I put together quite the selection over the years in preparation for the moment when we could finally start wooing you. When I was up at night, going out of my fucking head with need for you, especially when you were in heat, I’d trawl sites and reviews, looking for the best.” I moved closer then, not touching her, seeing the tension thrumming in her body. “Always the best for you, omega.”

When her lips parted and her eyes shone, I treasured the moment, too busy drinking her in to give a flying fuck what anyone else had planned.

Which, of course, was why Ash had to ruin it.

“You ready?” he shouted from the living room. “And why the fuck didn’t you lock the front door? Anyone could wander in.”

“I’ll show you what I’ve got when we get to the bunker,” I told her, moving over to the nearest bag and zipping it shut. “Whatever’s mine is yours, Stevie, always.”

Ash yelled something else out, jerking my mate out of her daze. She wrinkled her nose, looking around the room and then shook her head before grabbing the other bag and walking out the door.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” she told Ash, “but take me to your lair, big guy.” Her focus shifted to Ronan, who grinned wickedly in response, which just made me itch to direct her attention back to me. “Getting revenge and taking down the Spencer pack are on the top of my things to do list and I want those suckers ticked off sooner rather than later.”

Chapter20

“OK, so this shit is cool.”

I walked around the expansive space of the guys’ lair and blinked. Not only had I found out the boys were my fated mates, but apparently they were Bond villains too. This underground complex had been built in a pretty shitty looking field outside of town, full of scrub, dumped car bodies and old rubbish. But below? Property was insanely priced in my city, but apparently the guys had solved that issue by building underground.

“Lights bright enough to imitate daylight,” Ronan said, flicking a switch to reveal more of the bunker, and the space seemed to go on and on. It was prime dude bro aesthetic in this part of it, with a massive, many seater grey couch and a huge flatscreen on the white wall. A kitchen fit to cater for hundreds sat off to the left. “Living area. My room is through here.”

And with that he plucked my bags from my shoulders, hauling them and me towards the doorway.

“Ronan, we need to talk—” Ash started to say, his Grumpy Arsehole face (TM) getting even grumpier as he stepped forward.

“I’d say the time for talking was long past and that Stevie is thinking action walks and bullshit talks right about now.” Ronan looked down at me. “Am I right, omega?”

I fought the urge to smile at him, his grin making my lips twitch, so I just nodded slowly.

“Action like we saw this morning? Hell yeah to more of that.” I stifled back a yawn. “After I’ve had a nanna nap. Who knew murderous rampages were so exhausting?”

“Then right through—”

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