Page 14 of Cost of Courting (When it Raines Omegaverse #6)

Chapter twelve

Selene

“Dulcie, why didn’t you tell me?”

She looks down. The stench of shame fills the room. She’s a woman in her twilight years with grey hair and a thick waist. Dulcie is still beautiful, although, these days, she carries her misery and defeat like a blanket around her.

“I didn’t want to bother you.”

I reach out and cover her hand. “I might have been able to stop him.”

“And you might not. It’s done now. I’ll go see Benson tomorrow.”

I stare at her. “You can’t pay it back, Dulcie. I know you don’t have that kind of money.”

“I have to. It’s my debt. I…” she chokes off, her hand grabbing her throat like she is trying to hold herself together.

“You know what happens. You can’t go empty-handed. And it was never your debt.”

“He won’t go, and they’ve made it clear his debts are my debts, and they’ll take it from me.”

I look around her home. She doesn’t have much, what she does have is little more than trash. The mugs we are drinking our tea from are cracked. Everything is broken or mended. She does the best with what she has, but it’s clear this is existing and not living.

What happened to her children? They were older than me. Like so many people, they left and never returned.

The Dread Pack returned, a voice whispers.

I shake my head, unimpressed with the thought.

“I’ll pay for you.”

Her head jerks up. “No!”

“I’m not asking.”

“And I’m telling you, you aren’t-”

“You voted.” I cut her legs out from under her, refusing to even entertain her protests.

She falls silent, staring at me reproachfully.

“You voted me as this neighbourhood’s alpha. This is my job. I can take care of it. I have some savings. Trust me, it will be okay.”

Her mouth works, but, in the end, she slumps. “It's not right that you keep saving us. Let us drown. We deserve it.”

“You don’t deserve anything like that, Dulcie. Ray might, but I’m not saving him. I’m saving you.”

I push to my feet and frown at her. “I’m going to take care of Ray, too, this time. He can’t be allowed to continue this.”

Dulcie bursts into noisy tears. I shift so I can reach out, putting a hand on her knee, while she pulls herself together.

“Go see your friends. They worry about you, and if everyone in this neighbourhood hid because we were ashamed, we’d never leave the house. They miss you.”

She nods, and when she gets up, I grab her handbag and tow her out of the house.

Her friends mob her straight away. I don’t know if they knew what I was doing or they just expect it, but she’s drawn away, leaving me standing in the street alone.

A bike roars up the road, slowing down as it gets close to me. I turn and watch as the rider stares at me. Our eyes meet, and I stiffen, ready to attack if I need to. The Mirakill Patch is on the back of his leather vest.

I curl my lip in anger as he disappears.

My neighbourhood is sitting on a triangle of territories that three groups have had disputes over.

Mirakill MC are the lesser threat, but Despair has been pushing for this land for a while.

Unfortunately, Benson’s Cobras, an alpha-led gang who believe that alphas should be obeyed and viewed as better than anyone else, has been the most aggressive in trying to claim it.

I don’t even listen to the drivel that spews from their mouths, but I’m one person.

I can’t take down a gang. Let alone a gang and two clubs.

I can do the best I can to protect my people, though. And if that means a couple of bruises, then that’s what I’ll have to do.

I pull out my phone and dial the number I hate the most.

“We were just talking about you,” Benson purrs into the phone.

“There’s a debt. I’ll fight tonight.”

He hesitates.

“Who killed Anchor? ”

I pause, breaking out into a cold sweat. “How the fuck should I know?” I say, but my voice is thick with panic.

“Yeah, convenient, though. He beats you up and ends up gone!”

“Look, Benson, I didn’t do it. I don’t know anything. I’m ringing up about business.”

I wait, desperately hoping he lets it go.

I know he wants to force me to do other things, but, the truth is, I make him a lot of money with the fights. Apparently, I look so pretty getting beat on. Alphas can be vile.

I count the seconds, almost holding my breath, praying he doesn’t argue with me. Call me out or ask questions.

“Okay, tonight you fight. Four fights.”

I pause, the air stolen clear from my lungs. “What?”

“Four. If you can win at least three, the debt is cleared. This is because I know you know something. Anchor was a valuable asset to me. Hammer’s stepping up now, though.”

My mind blanks. Three fights against what will most probably be three alphas.

The fourth will be against Hammer. He’s an alpha about a foot taller than me and just as wide, but his eyes are cold and dead.

He can fight really well and is normally the guy Benson sends to collect on debts.

He has no empathy or mercy. He’s a killer to the core.

“Easy,” I say with a cocky bravado that I don’t feel.

“See you tonight, Selene.” His deep chuckle makes my skin crawl.

The phone call ends, and I stand there feeling sick to my stomach. There’s a fizzy, panicked feeling that tries to overtake me, but I can’t let anyone see that I’m scared. I can’t let them know that I don’t know if I can do this.

Who killed Anchor?

There’s only one place I want to be. I go home and crawl through the fence into the backyard of Dot Neilson. She finds me sitting outside with an unlit cigarette in my hand and my feet in her tiny dog pool that is still here despite her Rottweiler having been gone twelve months.

“Selene?”

I toast her with the cigarette. “Came to get my affairs in order.”

She sits down heavily on her patio chair, which is just an old school chair she found on the side of the road.

“How many?”

“Four.”

“Who for?”

“Dulcie.”

“God fucking damnit! ”

Dot is an amazingly hard woman. She worked as a nurse at the local hospital for years and years until she hurt her arm, and they let her go.

Dot was so busy with her career she never had time for a significant other or kids.

She’s got hair down to her ass and kind brown eyes.

But she’s seen everything, and it makes her hard and practical and someone who refuses to let me hide behind a mask of bravado.

“Can’t be helped. If I don’t make it back-”

“You better!”

“But if I don’t. Don’t tell Luna or the others what happened and how I’ve been clearing their debts.”

“I’m not going to lie.”

I chew my bottom lip. “You don’t have to lie, just don’t volunteer the information.”

She leans forward, snatches the smoke out of my hand, and tosses it in the pool. “Filthy habit.”

“I quit.”

“You better, or I’ll kick your ass.” She pauses, her face scrunched up. “He's really going to make you fight four?”

I nod my head. “I can’t do it. This is to put the fear of God into me and force me to quit so I take his other offer.”

“Which is?”

“Work it out with my legs spread.”

Dot spits another interesting curse. “If ever an alpha needed a bullet, it’s that one.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Pack Dread?”

“Can’t know about this. What are they going to do? Cause trouble and then leave? Stir up the Cobra’s nest and let us pick up the pieces?”

“And the other?”

I huff, considering the question for a long time before I reach into my pocket and pull out an envelope. I’ve had it written up for a while now. It’s the evidence that Anderson and Despair will be able to use to bring Benson and the Cobra’s crashing.

“While I’m with Benson, if I don’t come back…I need you to deliver this for me.”

“What is it?”

“It’s going to keep everyone safe.” I hope. “Take it to the Despair MC and ask for Andy. Tell him that I’m trusting him to fight for my people now.”

Dot’s eyes widen, but she reaches out and takes the envelope. “You need to live. You need to survive this.”

“Oh, I’m going to fight my ass off to live, but I’m going to need your skills tonight, Dot. I am sorry. ”

“I’ll come to you-”

“NO!” I stand up and start pacing. “No, fuck no. If they find out about you, you’ll disappear into their little stronghold, and I’ll never get you out. No, you wait for me here. I’ll make it.”

Dot doesn’t look convinced.

“And if you can’t make it?”

“I will call Mael,” I whisper. “I promise on my life that if something goes really wrong tonight and I can’t get home, I will call Mael and get him to bring me here.”

She stares at me. We’ve been working together for too long to bullshit each other.

“Okay. If something happens, I’ll deliver the letter and set everything up. You save Dulcie.”

She shakes her head and laughs without humour.

“Do you want a beer?”

I nod. “Yeah,” I say softly, staring into the water in the plastic pool and wondering how I’m going to survive tonight. “I really do.”

I let out a moan and clutch my side.

I did it. I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to win three fights. And then Benson, in a rage, sent Hammer to teach me a lesson.

I’m worse than I was last time, but it’s not serious, it’s just painful as fuck. Actually, I don’t know if it’s serious. I live in hope, though, and I walked out of there on my own two feet. That’s gotta count for something, right?

But I’m struggling to move, and I keep blacking out when I pause and rest.

I pull out my phone, trying four times to get to his name.

“Mael?” I whimper.

“Where are you?” His sharp voice cuts through the fog, and I cling to it.

I look around, but I don’t recognise where I am. “No idea.”

“What do you see?” Edric asks quickly.

“Factories, a service station, but it’s shut down.”

“Good, good. What else can you see?”

I cough and let out a shrill whine when it turns to lightning fire.

Waking up in the gutter in this neighbourhood is dangerous. But I’m so tired I’m not even alarmed. I push up and look for my phone. It’s cracked, and when I try the screen, it won’t work. I swallow thickly and touch the side of my head .

I wince and pull my fingers away, seeing the dark fluid. I’m lucky.

I’m not that cold, so I probably haven’t been here long. I sit up and put my forehead on my knees, breathing through the nausea.

The slamming of a door wakes me up. I startle and find Edric kneeling in front of me.

He’s really, really careful when he lifts me up.

“Have you been fighting again?”

He sounds so much like his mother that I get the giggles, but it hurts, so I stop.

“Take me to Dot’s house.”

“Dot?” Mael asks in a dark voice. “She’s in on this, too?”

“Mmm, yup. But I won. Three times.”

“You fought three times?”

“No, I fought four. It was my punishment for Anchor disappearing.”

My words are slurring, and I’m in too much pain to hold myself up, so I slouch into the warm body beside me, wincing when my bruises protest.

Someone is cursing in a long string of violent words that don’t seem to be ending.

“Tell me the name of the guy we’re killing this time.”

I blink at Kingston and reach out to stroke his cheek. “You’re so beautiful.”

“Who did this to you, my crazy love?”

I turn into Edric’s chest.

“A name, Selene.”

The alpha bark hits me hard. But I don’t have any will to protest.

“Hammer,” I murmur.

“Good girl. We’ll take care of everything now.”

I grumble something, but the truth is, I don’t care. Dot comes out and helps them bring me inside. She takes care of me.

The injection she gives me sends me into a hazy, dark world that eventually sucks me under.