Page 33 of Cost of Courting (When it Raines Omegaverse #6)

Chapter thirty-one

Mael

What the fuck is happening to this neighbourhood. This is the alpha, the one she told us about, Benson. Him and his Cobras. They could have killed one or more people with that crap yesterday. The leap from beating people up to shooting up the neighbourhood is extreme.

He’s dangerous.

Is he who I’m after?

No, they said he wasn’t the one. But…I don’t know anymore. I can’t lose them, not any of them. I have to protect my pack.

I unfold the piece of paper I found in her letter box and read the words for the hundredth time.

I know who is hiding in your house.

I pace around the hallway, trying to calm my panic and the rage that has risen like a floodwater in me. I’ve put up all my metal shields and barriers to block the bond and mute my distress.

I can’t turn the panic off. I don’t know that I want to. Panic means prepared.

I inhale deeply and catch that warm blueberry scent on the air. It's sweeter, richer, and warmer. Instead of feeling comforted, my agitation gets worse.

Selene and Bailey are here. No, I need to grab control and not let go. I can’t lose it.

I pause outside Luna’s room. I haven’t invaded her privacy, but now I do.

With a glance over my shoulder to make sure no one’s looking, I creep into her room, sliding the door shut behind me.

Her room is simple, very feminine. She doesn’t have much, but there is a white dresser with a taped up leg that has pink butterflies painted on it.

I bet anything Selene did this for her.

There’s not much to see, but there is a photo hanging on the mirror.

I pull it off and peer closely at it. Luna is hugging a guy that looks familiar but doesn’t.

He’s wearing aviator glasses, a leather jacket, and has a mask over the lower part of his face.

It could be him, but it could be a million different people.

I can smell him, feel him behind every door, every corner. This monster that has haunted me. He’s the shadow I can’t rid my world of, and the happier I get and the more I have, the more conscious I am that he could take it all away.

Why can’t I just be happy?

Why can’t I just move on?

And then, this…bullets, threats in letters, danger on every corner.

I can’t think clearly. I can’t calm down.

I must not go back to feral. If I slip into that place, I might never come back. But in all the years since I recovered, it’s never been so close as it has now. Like it’s just beneath the surface. Pressing outwards. My control is snapping.

We didn’t find any sign of him through any grapevine. No one with a tiger tattoo. No person matching this sick son of a bitch’s MO.

But I know that letter was about me. He knows I’m here. But how?

I pause outside the door, listening to the hum of their conversation. Some of the tension eases just by knowing they are safe and well. I lean against the wall, just listening, until, gradually, the words start to make sense.

“Well, I guess it all started with just a small thing, really. Luna brought home a date.”

“A date?”

“Yeah, a guy she’d been seeing. He was all charm and smiles. He’d help out and wear button up shirts. For a month, he pushed himself into our lives. Luna was happy. I didn’t trust him, but I was too busy with my own grief. So I didn’t pay much attention.”

I lift off the wall, stepping closer to the door, curious.

“I don’t know what changed, but I offered him sandwiches for dinner. He snapped, shouting and yelling at me, calling me a whore and a bitch. Luna got up and intervened, and it was clear she knew how to deal with him like that, but that was when he hit her.”

Selene sighs, and I can hear the pain in her voice from here.

“I chased him off. Or I thought I did. I had the whole neighbourhood backing me. Luna hated me for it, but I wasn’t about to let her end up like our mum. She might not remember, but I do. He went. A week later…”

“He came back?”

“He came back. With his gang, the Cobras. He beat the crap out of several people, including me. Called us all names, waved his big shot aggression cultist gang at us and demanded reparations. Luna tried to go to him, but he said she was, and I could never understand this, ‘a good way to get in and wait for his favourite bitch to come out of hiding’.”

I clench my hands so hard they shake.

Favourite bitch. Favourite bitch? I’ve heard that, so many times, I’ve heard that. That’s me. But, no, we cleared Benson. It’s not him.

Edric and Kingston press in close, listening hard but containing me so I can’t explode. When did they get here? The letter is pulled out of my hands. I hear one of them curse and grab my face, forcing me to stare into Kingston’s eyes.

“He said that since the coward didn’t come back, he was going to make us bleed for it until he did.” Selene laughs. “I wish I’d known who he was waiting for. I would have saved us the trouble and handed his ass over.”

There’s a silence while I absorb that blow.

“What does Benson look like?”

“Uh, he’s just taller than me, bald, tatts on his face, brown eyes, he sneers a lot, and he’s got a strange red and black striped tattoo of what looks like a snake that wraps around his neck.”

I can’t breathe.

Kingston lets out a small sound and yanks me back away from the door. I’m pushed into a wall while Kingston’s face swims in front of me.

“I did that,” I whisper. My voice alone betrays the raw agony crashing through me. “I did that.”

“You did not!” Edric hisses. “Hold it together, Mael. We checked Benson, we looked into him, there is no sign he’s the same person, but Bailey and Selene need us.”

“I called for her. I led him to her. Everything she’s suffered is because of me. This whole community has been tortured because I called for her and then didn’t come back. You heard her, he waited for me, and I didn’t come back.”

Edric looks over his shoulder and then drags me through the house, pushing me outside.

The sun is too bright. Everything is going to slip away. I’m going to lose them all.

There’s only one thing I can do.

“I have to kill him.”

I sound calm and cool, but, inside, I’m anything but, and I can feel the whole pack starting to notice .

So I do what I learned to do under the torture, I pull all the pain into myself, and I imagine a wall between me and the bonds. It shuts them off as completely as if they weren’t ever there.

“Did he rape her?” I ask the question to whoever is standing near me.

“No, according to Selene, Benson doesn’t like second-rate pussy, and he’s always believed she’s a beta.”

I close my eyes in relief.

The simmering rage gets darker and more intense.

Bailey slips into our circle and stares up at me. “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head.

“Well, you better spit it out because Selene is starting to smell like she’s going to go into her heat soon.”

I stiffen, almost seeing white. “We need to take care of this now. That asshole is going to take her, hurt her.”

Bailey’s scent flares, and he presses himself up against my chest. His eyes are dark and the pupils huge. He looks strange, but I can’t figure out why. “We do. We need to protect our omega.”

Edric gapes at us, looking between us with panic. I glower at him and stroke Bailey’s back.

“We need to keep her safe. That monster will come for her.”

“You’re not thinking clearly, Mael,” Edric snaps. “Just stop for five seconds, and calm down.”

“No, he’s here, and he’s been hurting them. I’m done waiting. Tonight, he dies.”

Kingston jogs back over to us. “I’ve got an address.”

I don’t feel right, but I don’t care either. All that matters is finding the monster who almost killed me and removing him from this planet before he hurts her.

Bailey bounces on his feet, his eyes glitter with icy rage.

“Let's do this.”