Page 69 of Running on Empty

“Or with other blokes.” Donk wrinkled his nose. “Fuck that. If anyone touched Lois, I’d break their fucking face.”

“Because it’s not my fucking job to take Stevie’s options away from her. I’ll be damned if I’ll be another cunt telling her what to do, making her decisions for her.”

Shit, that came out way more harshly than I intended, but it seemed to do the trick. My dads all nodded, Rusty catching my eye in the rear vision mirror.

“We know, son and that takes a strength we respect.” He snorted. “About the only thing that stopped us from kicking the three of your arses. But she’s chosen now. She might not be ready for your mating mark.”

My fangs throbbed at the mention of that. They’d done their damndest to awaken my wolf and now he paced endlessly inside me, over and over until I felt like I’d go insane.

“But she’s ready for you to step up. That’s what you’re asking, aren’t you? Why you’re in a car with a bunch of foul smelling blokes,” Rusty said, the others all having a whole lot to say about that. “Rather than with your pretty little mate.”

“Yeah.”

I glanced at each one of my fathers, feeling like a kid all over again, which sat badly with the knowledge I wasn’t. I’d kicked more arse than I’d had hot dinners. I was fit to sit beside each one of them, but yesterday? The wolf shifted inside me, fur prickling across my arms, my nails lengthening into claws before I forced them back.

“And what does your beast want?” Blue asked carefully.

The dads had said that Mum lived her life more like a beta than an omega and right then I felt it rang true of me as well. The sight of my wolf pushing through, making itself known was a surreal thing. My control had always been perfect. Too perfect, my dads had muttered at the time. So how did I cope with this?

Each time I felt him push at me, it was as if something shattered. My eyes fell closed and when I stared into the velvety darkness, I saw him. My wolf, the other side of my soul, but he was a skittish beast now. He shied away with a snarl, baring his teeth at me, making clear his disdain. I kept him stuffed down, not trusting him to know what to do, so now he didn’t trust me to do right by him.

“I’ve got some smoke in the centre console if you need to—” Rusty suggested.

“I don’t need to get stoned before a fucking hit,” I snapped back and rather than turn on me in anger, each one of my dads grinned.

“No, you don’t,” Donk said, serious for once, and turning around to look at me from the passenger seat. “You were born to be a warrior, son, so what does the wolf want?”

“Out.” My voice was more growl than anything when I spoke, because it wasn’t me talking, but him. “Tear those fuckers apart for daring to touch her.”

“That’s it, lad. What you need, what you’ve gotta do. Stevie will flag before the end of this. An omega isn’t made for hate, but an alpha?” Rusty grinned. “He’s ready to burn the world down for his mate. About time you claimed your birthright, son, and now’s the perfect time to do that.”

“Look alive,” Ash’s voice crackled through the comms unit. “We’ve found him.”

It felt like my dads’words rang in my ears as we pulled up in an alleyway. The place was dark, dank, but I didn’t need to use a torch to see my way. I swung out of the car, my feet moving without thought.

“Looks like you’re on the hunt, brother.” Ronan appeared by my side.

“Don’t get in the way,” I growled, his smile widening. “Keep the omega safe.”

“Always do,” he quipped, falling back.

People were talking, hissing instructions, but I didn’t hear them. I couldn’t. I stepped forward, seeing the four men as silhouettes deeper in the alleyway, their forms limned by the neon streetlights at the other end.

“Jax, wait—” Ash started to say, but I slapped a hand onto the comms unit, silencing it.

I had guns by my side, knives too, but I didn’t reach for any of them as I approached. Three bodyguards stood around, making a show of looking up and down the alleyway, but they didn’t actually stiffen to attention until they caught sight of me.

There he was, the piece of fucking shit. I didn’t have to ask for his name or check with Stevie, because I just knew. The dickhead had his hand slapped up against the wall while he threw up in a series of violent lurches. I caught the sound of vomit splattering as I moved like lightning, feeling the wolf’s stretch inside me, lending me his strength. I ducked under the muzzle of the nearest guy’s gun, punching my claws into his side, his bullets spraying off up the wall as I skewed his aim, feeling his muscles, his ribs part as I stabbed in and out, leaving him collapsing down onto the ground with a groan.

The other two guards shouted out warnings, then imprecations as I approached, blood dripping from my claws. The wolf was me and I was him in a way I’d never felt before. He took over when I went to fur and when I wasn’t, he was nothing, just a hidden part of myself. But not anymore, I was beginning to realise. So when they aimed their guns at me, we just grinned because before they could even squeeze their fingers down on the trigger, I was up and under their guards, slashing through muscles and raking them against bone until all three of them were neutralised. I had the presence of mind to send the guns skittering across the ground and away from the bodyguards whenheturned around.

This was the alpha that touched my Stevie? This fucking guy? I took in the Bad Boy (TM) look, with the tattoos all over his body, as if the stupid fuck had to announce to everyone that he was a badass.

Rather than be one.

“You—”

He croaked out, vomit still dribbling down his chin. I tried my damnedest to avoid that as I grabbed the front of his shirt and used it to haul him up the wall. Anything else he might have to say was choked off, and that was right.

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