Page 93 of Running on Empty

My every step felt like it reverberated throughout my whole body, waking up every cell, so when a guy appeared out of the darkness, daring to raise his gun at my Stevie, I was there, up and under his guard and stabbing into his side, holding him for long enough to hear his strangled groan before I shoved him off my blade.

“What’s going on?” came a crackly voice through the man’s walkie-talkie. I picked it up as the soldier boys all stood to attention, guns raised, each one scouring the area around us, looking for anyone else who might to seek to attack us. But as I picked up the comms device, I knew who it had to be. “What the fuck is happening out there?!”

It was the weaselly tone, the sound of a man completely deserted by his wolf, reduced now to being a scared little monkey.

“Don’t,” Ash said, the man fighting for control over the wolf, his breaths coming in low slow pants as my thumb pressed down on the button to speak. “Ronan, don’t—”

But what else he had to say was cut off by the sight of Stevie wolf standing before me, her jaws widening as she panted.

“We’re here,” we said down the line, knowing it was the wrong thing to do, alerting our prey to our approach, but I wasn’t running the show right now,hewas.

We grinned as we heard the frantic breaths down the line of the walkie-talkie, able to imagine that fucking little cunt’s bladder threatening to leak all over him as he considered what was happening. That all his money and privilege meant fucking nothing when a bunch of people with a very special set of skills was prepared to step forward and right a wrong.

“Ready or not.” Our voice was a sinister sing-song imitation of the child’s call. “Here we come.”

I tossed the walkie-talkie aside, nodding to Stevie and she turned with a flick of her tail, trotting up to the side door of this vast estate, past a very nice pool. More guards streamed out, but those soldier boys and my brothers took some of them out, my knife flying out of my hand, embedding itself into one man’s shoulder before I ran up to dispatch him, and then throw another I jerked out of my belt.

And all the time? Stevie trotted forward like she was ten foot tall and bulletproof, and maybe she was. The gods might turn their face against glorying in wholesale murder like this, but the moon was a thin sickle above. A dark goddess stared down at us, smiling her slight smile at everything that went down.

I moved to shove the door open for wolf Stevie, but Jax was there first, shooting me a smug smile as she trotted inside. But all our eyes jerked up as we heard a scuffle of sound from the floor above us. Probably because bodyguards came spilling down the stairs, our guns and the soldier boys raised the minute they appeared. But hands were thrown up in surrender, the men’s faces going white.

“We were told you were coming,” one man stammered out. “He’s upstairs. You want to move and fast. He’s legging it for the safe room.”

No need to clarify which he meant. Some of the other alphas stayed behind, keeping their guns trained on the men here, while we went up.

It was all so damn fancy up here, all gleaming marble and panoramic glass windows cut through with brushed stainless steel. But not for long.

“Fuck…” Just one little squeaked curse had us all turning to see Jack running on his little bunny legs away from us. Stevie wolf snarled, a vicious sound that lightened my black heart. It made sense she was in fur, the most primal part of herself running the show, because the woman might falter at this. Her haunches coiled right before she launched herself forward, her paws eating up the space between Jack and us. He looked over his shoulder, some instinct letting him know we were on his trail, the lot of us surging forward.

Guards appeared, a last line of defence, but the others took care of them, blood blooming like flowers in their chests, sprouting like poppies planted in memorium for the stupidity of thinking they could stop my omega. Jack ran with the frantic, messy gait of a true coward, throwing himself at the open door of the safe room.

Which would’ve been a great plan, if he got there in time.

Stevie launched herself at him as he tried to drag the door shut, but before he could seal himself away, she sailed through the air, her paws slamming into his chest, shoving him down to the ground.

My girl was always beautiful. It’s why I always called her that. Not only was she the twin to my dark heart, but there was nothing better than seeing her plant her paws on that fuck’s shoulders, a low growl stopping him from crawling away, then a snap of her jaws in the space between them, to remind him of the threat she posed.

He’d seen Stevie and made an assumption that many did. That she was too beat down and broken by the bullshit around her to be any kind of threat. That he could do what he liked with her without consequences. Well, karma's a bitch and so was mate, as he was just finding out.

“I’ll give you—” Another snap, shutting the fuck up for just a second. “I have—” The next snap was a whole lot closer, so Jackie boy smelled the blood on her breath, felt its heat. “I can—”

“Shut the fuck up,” I finished for him, squatting down beside him and then driving my knife into his shoulder to emphasise his point. Stevie wolf growled at that, not wanting to be denied her kill, but I could never take anything away from her. I twisted my knife to emphasise that Jack was meat and needed to behave as such, that there was no point bargaining or begging my mate, because that point was long past.

And that’s when Stevie the woman appeared again, gloriously naked, her eyes flashing like a vengeful goddess’.

“I end this,” she said. “Not you, not Ash, not Jax.”

“Wouldn’t want it any other way, love,” I said, then nodded to my brother. “Got my bag, Jax?”

The duffel bag was dropped down between us and she watched it closely, Jack’s whines of pain the only soundtrack as I undid the zipper. But even that stopped when I pulled out a length of rope and all of his weapons of choice, the knife roll unfurling like a black flag.

“No.”

Jacky boy was finally getting it, saying that word over and over, but I knew that my Stevie had said that to him and his stinking pack, so I paid the same degree of attention. Once I had his wrists bound together I got to my feet, dragging him across that pretty polished floor until I walked over to an entrance way. I punched my hand through the drywall and then looped the other end of the rope through the hole, using it to haul Jack upright like a side of beef. Jax stepped in, delivering a couple of brutal gut shots to the man, driving out any residual need to resist out of him, until Jack was gasping, his guts heaving as I tied him in place.

We looked at our mate like a cat that had just caught a rat, proudly displaying our efforts for our mistress’ approval. And Stevie? She slunk closer, completely at home in her own skin, her fingers running along my shirt collar, before she tugged me down for a kiss.

I kissed her,hekissed her, the two of us of the same mind for once, something that happened more and more when she was around, I realised, and when she went to pull away? Our mouth followed her lips, wanting more, until she smiled.

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