Page 19 of Cost of Courting (When it Raines Omegaverse #6)

Chapter seventeen

Selene

It took everything in me to walk away from that nest, from Bailey and those alphas. To deny myself again. But isn’t that what I’m good at? Denying myself.

Even Mael’s whispered argument trying to convince me to stay wouldn’t sway me.

They are mine to protect.

For days, I go between the two locations, making sure everything is all right, forcing myself to catnap against walls and in brief moments but driven by the urgency that if I abandon one place too long, the other will fall.

I have to dodge the questions, too. Where is Mael? Has Kingston forgotten? Will Edric be back? On and on, the anxious members of my community ask and watch me, wondering what has happened this time and if I will break like I did before.

I’m exhausted when I park the SUV in Bailey’s car park and walk inside, jogging up the stairs just to keep myself awake. It’s that random choice that saves me. That saves them.

I arrive just behind the four guys trying to jimmy the lock on Bailey’s door instead of before them.

I see them breaking into the apartment; the door swinging open.

The perfume of my alphas and Bailey hit me like a heady drug.

For one moment, it almost undoes me, but I push everything back and focus on the driving need to protect.

Everything else comes last. It always has and always will.

I attack before I think the fierceness is driven by the terror that they’ll hurt the omega who is stealing my heart. Or take my alphas from me before I have a chance to figure things out. The thought of losing any or all of them has me moving in, deadly and determined to end this threat.

I recognise a Cobra tattoo, and my rage deepens. No mercy, then .

I pull out my knife in one silent motion and stab into them, ignoring the shrieks and squeals. There is no mercy. I don’t fight clean; I don’t give them a chance. They smell like Benson. I kill them all and then I pull the door shut, sealing my alphas and their omega in.

The hallway stinks of blood. It’s everywhere. I wasn’t clean. There are splatters on the ceiling.

I bend over, putting my hands on my knees and breathing deeply. My legs tremble, and it takes me a few moments to get my head clear enough to figure out who to call.

I don’t know anyone who can handle this. Shale is too far away. I don’t know Eben's whereabouts. Could I call the Raines? And owe Mirakill a favour? I think not.

Which leaves only one person. Damn.

I pull out my phone and let out a pained groan as my bruised ribs twang.

“I’m looking for Anderson,” I say quietly into my phone and pace away from their door, but not far enough away that I can’t see anyone who comes up the lift or stairs.

It takes some arguing, but I finally get put through. I let out a sob of relief.

“My name is Selene. I’m a friend of Bailey’s. I need your help.”

His voice, calm, confident, and deep, sounds out of the phone. “Selene. I’ve heard of you. What do you need?”

The MC rock up an hour later, the club takes over the block, the roar of harley’s shake the Earth. The building is purged and armed bikies lean against walls, chatting and smoking.

My alphas and their omega are safe.

I limp after Anderson. He smiles as he instructs one of his six-foot bikers to order the disposal of the bodies. I wait, only half paying attention to him. I recognise a couple of recruits who grew up in my neighbourhood.

No one says hello to me.

“We’ve got it from here. You can head home now,” Anderson says and glances at me dismissively.

I open my mouth to argue, to insist I need to stay, but he’s right. I’m not needed here. This isn’t my heat. There are people at home who need me.

They all left me again.

It’s a stupid thought because I left them, but it sits heavily, crushing me.

They said they wouldn’t. But they have.

“Okay, thank you,” I say through gritted teeth.

He’s already dismissed me and turned away. I’m nothing to him. And this is the father of the omega I’m falling for, and he thinks I’m so trashy he can’t even look at me.

Bailey Raines the scion of the Despair MC. No wonder he hates being an omega .

I turn and palm the keys to Bailey’s SUV. When some idiot tries to stop me, I kick his legs out from under him and snarl.

I look up to several guns pointed in my direction and Andy patiently waiting. His eyebrows slowly go up when I don’t back down.

“That’s my son’s car.” Absolute authority.

I could care less.

I wait, the keys curled tightly in my hand.

“He lend it to you?”

I bare my teeth but don’t answer him.

“Let her go.”

The bikies reluctantly back off, muttering as I climb into the car and drive home.

Everything in me screams not to go. I watch the building in my rear-view mirror, but I drive away because there are people waiting who need me.

Everyone needs me.

I get home to the empty house. There’s a terse note from Luna saying she’s staying with a friend. I sit down at the kitchen table and put my head in my hands. I’m so tired, my body is trembling, and I’m still covered in blood.

That was close. Far too close.

I push to my feet and go get in the shower. When I come out, I pull on a pair of loose shorts and an oversized t-shirt.

I miss the signs because I’m too tired. Or because I’m home. But the body slams into mine, sending me into the kitchen table. I fight, I fight hard, but I’m overpowered and brought to my knees. In the dark gloom of my kitchen, Benson walks in, his smirk already in place.

I struggle harder, but Hammer just holds me down with one fist in my hair, drawing tears from my eyes.

“Selene, you look different like this. Almost fuckable.”

I snarl, but he ignores me, instead pulling out a chair and sitting down in front of me.

“It’s a good look on you.” He laughs at himself and scratches his chin with a bejeweled middle finger. “Now, we need to have a little talk because your sister was telling me some things, and she-”

“She doesn’t know shit.”

“Was telling me about a male omega.”

I don’t let anything show on my face. “A male omega? Never seen one.”

It’s not a lie.

He hits me hard. “What have I told you about interrupting me?”

I snarl, but he just sits back, smiling .

“I’ve got a job for you, Selene. If you want to save your whole neighbourhood and all the people in it, then I want you to bring me that male omega. Bonus points if you give me the names of the people who made Anchor and my team disappear.”

“What?” I’m stunned.

“I’m saying, you dumb bitch, that if you bring me the omega that your sister was telling me about, I will stop reparation, I will stop the fights, the punishment beatings, I will leave you all alone. You can live here for free.”

I stare at him, my head whirling. It’s an incredible offer but one I cannot take.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

He stands up, his smile still wide. “Oh, if you fail to bring him to me, then things will only get worse from here on out.”

Hammer throws me to the floor, and the two of them walk out of my house. I lay there, shaking, breathing hard. Scared for the first time in forever.

I roll onto my back as the back door opens. I listen for the footsteps as she creeps in and finds me lying on the floor. It’s the closest I’ve been to tears since they left. I don’t even have the energy to stand up.

Dot crouches beside me and looks me over.

“Where are you hurt?”

“Ribs, head, but it’s mostly just exhaustion.”

“All right, let’s get you to my house and get you to bed.”

“No, not risking you. Just leave me here, they said their piece, they won’t be back. But they’ve got someone watching the house. As soon as I’m better, I’ll evict the low life.”

Dot clucks her tongue and then pulls me up. She manages to get me into my bed, where I lay there and watch as she sets up an IV.

“I’ll stay until it’s done,” Dot whispers. “Go to sleep.”

I couldn’t stay awake if she paid me. My eyes close of their own volition, and I fall into a dark landscape where I walk alone.

I wake with a start. True to her word, Dot and the IV are gone.

I check my arm and find a tiny flesh-coloured bandage.

With a groan, I roll up into a sitting position and search until I find my phone, checking to see, but there are no messages.

That’s surprisingly crushing. I get up and rush to the front door, looking across the road.

There’s no movement .

I come back inside, deflated. Where are they? The heat should be over by now, shouldn’t it?

All through the day, I find my gaze drawn to their house, watching and waiting.

It’s lunchtime when I realise what’s going on with me. I’m not expecting them to come back. It’s like a repeat of what happened all those years ago.

The anxiety and old scars open up. Tear into me while I’m painfully vulnerable.

So I keep myself busy, cooking up bulk meals and cleaning in between.

When the food is cool, I package it up and take it house to house, delivering it with smiles and checking up on everyone.

By the time I’m done, I end up going to the small and run down community center where Tiffany Dodd is teaching people how to sew.

I remember her teaching me to sew. It’s not a skill I enjoy, but I’m happy to say I can mend a hem and fix a rip.

I go around and quietly talk to the couple of people that show up, and when it’s done, Tiffany pulls me into the back room and makes us both coffee.

“I haven’t seen you in forever, girl!”

That’s because, despite the fact that Tiffany comes here, she doesn’t live here. She’s part and apart of this community. Tiff doesn’t have the exhausted misery written into her expression. She’s optimistic, and her blue eyes shine brightly.

“I’m normally working, but I’ve got some time off.”

“Let’s go out and have a drink, then! Celebrate.”

I shake my head. “I can’t. Sorry, it’s just I need to talk to someone about something.”

She casts me an amused smile. “So cryptic.”

I pick up the coffee and drink so I don’t have to answer that.

“What can I do for you, then?”

“I just want to know if you…” I pause and close my eyes, “if you don’t hear from me, I want you to deliver these letters.”

I slide the four letters across to her.

“Luna, Dot, Mary, and Mael?”

I wait, not saying anything.

She looks up, my words finally sinking in. “Are you expecting something to happen to you?”

I shrug. “I’m not sure. There’s been a development. Dot has the other letter. I’ve been given an impossible task, one that would hurt someone I care about, to complete. I’d rather be safe. If anything happens to me, this will be the evidence that will put the person who did it away.”

She stares at me .

“You don’t tell anyone about this. You don’t do anything. But if you haven’t seen me in a week, you deliver those letters, and you walk away like you never knew me.”

“Selene, we can get you help-”

“Tiff, you grew up here in this neighbourhood. You know that’s not the way this works.”

Tiff’s concern brings tears to her eyes, and that’s why I chose this person. She will take this seriously. She will care enough to see it through.

I push up and pull up my hood. “I’m going to go. But keep those letters hidden, and don’t tell anyone. Remember: one week.”

Tiff impulsively hugs me.

I hug her back and then walk back home. When I get there, I look across the road. The lights are still off.

They stay off for another three days.

When I see the car and the lights on in the middle of the night, I stare long and hard. No one comes over, no one comes to say thank you or anything. Hope turns into bitterness which leaves me in a squall of despair until I can’t stand to look at that light a moment longer.

I go outside and climb up onto the roof, lying there looking at the clouds.

I can’t sleep. I haven’t been sleeping much lately. It’s their fault, and I absolutely blame them.

Why haven’t they come to find me?

When dawn comes and they still haven’t decided to come over, I get ready for my day and ignore the hurt that is flooding my system.

It’s my own fault. I’ve been telling them all this time to leave me alone. Now I’m upset that they are listening to me? How ridiculous.

I go down to Mrs Farrows and get stuck into the yard work, clearing the weeds from her garden.

She sits on the porch and talks up a storm while feeding me glass after glass of lemonade and biscuits that melt in my mouth.

Her hands are twisted into painful claws, but she’s the sweetest lady I’ve ever met.

“Need a hand?”

I look up straight into the sun. Well, the person who is kind of blocking the sun. I can’t see their face, but I know it’s Kingston.

“I’ve got it.”

He huffs, comes into the yard, and kneels down beside me and starts pulling up plants.

“We were looking for you.”

“Were you?” I say nonchalantly. “Sorry, I assumed you were busy with your omega.”

“We were, but we were still wanting to see you. ”

I nod my head, trying not to cry because what he’s saying is hurting me.

“Well, here I am, as usual, getting jobs down. What can I do for you?”

“Selene,” Kingston murmurs. He growls and looks back. “Excuse me, Mrs Farrows, I’m just going to borrow our Selene for a minute.”

He drags me up and around the back of the house and to the playground that’s been in her backyard for fifteen years. He picks me up and sets me on the weather-warped wood and walks between my legs.

“Selene.”

“What?”

“You should have stayed with us. We needed you. He kept calling for you.”

My heart trips over itself.

I shake my head. “It’s a good thing I didn’t or everyone would have been dead. I killed four people who tried to get in,” I say without thinking. My scold dies in my throat. Why did I say that?

He stills. “Fuck the garden. I’ll hire someone.”

Kingston throws me over his shoulder, mutters some apology to Mrs Farrows, and walks me quickly back down the street to his house. He goes straight into the bedroom and lays me down on the bed, looming over me.

I stare up at him, unmoving.

“You killed people to keep us safe?” Kingston murmurs.

I barely register the words. I’m too busy reading what his eyes are saying.

I don’t think I’m ever getting free of this pack.