Page 83 of Running on Empty

“Why is anyone getting their hands dirty?” an alpha in a business suit asked, leaning down to look into the webcam. “What the fuck has happened to Scar?”

Chapter49

It appeared there were plenty of people who were willing to jump in and join our mission. Scarlett was business partners with the Lockwood pack and the alpha in the business suit was Tobias Lockwood, billionaire and darling of the business world. His brother, Max, was the alpha who we’d met first once Fen patched him into the call. Apparently he was some kind of tech wunderkind, his eyes gleaming silver when we discussed the evidence we’d found.

“I’ve got a crack team of white hat hackers who just need to know where to direct their efforts,” Max told us. “We’ve been trying to find out the source of Rush on the different dark web message boards and meeting rooms, but not getting real far.” He nodded at the screen. “The Spencers have been playing their cards close to their chests.”

“Spencers senior might,” Ash growled. “But not the younger. Those boys are bloody idiots. Careless.”

“Spoiled little rich boys.” An alpha named Lock Murphy said with a smirk. He and his brothers were ex-military apparently. “The dads are the masterminds, but the boys have grown up in luxury, expecting the world to be handed to them. We’ve seen it plenty of times before. They feel entitled to their father’s success.” He flexed his fists then. “That’s OK. We’ve had plenty of experience knocking some sense into people who don’t seem to have any.”

So I’d sat there, cradled in Ash’s lap as they plotted out the exact steps to take to bring Jack Spencer down, but when it was done? All my murderous impulses left me, willing to wait until tomorrow to be unleashed, because when the video call ended, all that was left was me and my pack.

Would I ever get over this feeling of look, don’t touch? I turned slightly in Ash’s grip, staring at him until he noticed it, and then looked down at me. A thick silence filled the room as it felt like every person in it held their breath, right as I reached out.

“Am I ever going to feel like it’s OK to just touch you?” I asked Ash in a small voice.

“Am I ever going to stop wishing with every breath that you would?” came his answer.

That note of vulnerability, of need, had my eyes flicking up and when they met his? I sucked in a breath at the sight of him. They were bright emerald green right now, his muscles almost trembling with the effort of holding back.Don’t,I wanted to tell him, but it was then I remembered who I was. Not the girl that kept her head down and her nose clean, their little sister.

I was their mate.

It was that which had me frowning as I grabbed his jaw, and then used it to drag him closer.

“You better fucking kiss me, Ash K—”

Any demand I might have to make was immediately cut off as his mouth slammed down on mine. It was a kiss for sure, but so much more. With every brush of his mouth against mine, with every flick of his tongue, he was admitting finally that I was his and he was mine, his hand going up when I tried to move into a more comfortable position, pinning me to the spot.

“Don’t you pull away,” he growled. “Don’t you fucking dare.” He reached behind me, shoving the keyboard and all of his paperwork off his desk before plonking me onto the bench and stepping straight into the gap between my legs. “I don’t know about you, but I’m fucking done pretending.”

“Yes—”

I had more to say, but we weren’t going to be able to communicate with words, only this. He kissed me fucking senseless, everything that had gone on shoved to one side, just like his work. There was no more room for anything else but the bond that pulsed between us.

“You gonna share, brother?”

I broke away to see Jax appear over Ash’s shoulder. His smile was full of all the boyish charm of before, coloured now with something darker. The wolf and I liked it very much. Because Jax didn’t wait on permission now.

He pushed his brother to one side to claim my mouth as his, then tipped my jaw sideways when he was done and I was still in a daze, offering me back to Ash.

“She wants this. You have to be able to feel that. She wants us.”

Ash reached out slowly, tracing his finger along my jaw.

“Is he right?” His voice was gruff now, as if his wolf was speaking as much as the man. “Is this what you’ve wanted all along?” His eyes dropped down as my thighs began to rub together. “Every fucking time you walked out that door with some other bloke, it was us you really wanted, wasn’t it?”

Ronan shifted closer, deadly serious now, until I was surrounded by a wall of well muscled alpha bodies, their skin stippled with blood they’d shed for me.

“Always,” I replied, my chin lifting. “The best part of it was walking past you, feeling the three of you watch me go. I dreamed desperately that it was hurting you as much as it hurt me to go out with other guys. I wanted you to eat your fucking hearts out every time.”

“Mission accomplished, beautiful,” Ronan said with a slight wince. “It was only my brother’s… persuasion that stopped me from tearing the throats out of each one of those fucks.”

“They weren’t fit to lay a finger on you,” Jax growled.

“And you are?” I surveyed each one of them. “You’re gonna prove that to me every day until I believe you, aren’t you?”

I was met by a chorus of growls, each one of them surging forward in that moment, but it was Ash that picked me up like a doll, my legs wrapping around his waist as he carried me out of the command room and down the hall.

---