Page 18 of Dragon’s Revenge (Irresistible Dragons #7)

Chapter Seventeen

T ime was a funny concept, wasn’t it? An hour could pass as quickly as if it were a minute or as slowly as a whole day. Right now, as Oliver and Delton were waiting for Adar and the others to return, it was the latter.

They had long since given up on trying to make conversation. Instead, they’d all gathered in the meeting barn once again to wait with both packs and the clan—what was left of it anyway, since a lot of the dragons were involved in the mission. Not the new omegas, obviously, though Zack had joined. Not that Oliver had expected anything else. He was the dragon version of Sivney, and Oliver admired the hell out of him for it.

Oliver leaned against Delton, who had his arm wrapped around him. He’d never felt this close to the beta, so at least that had come from this, but he was worried sick about Adar. And about the others, but his main concern was Adar. Why had the alpha been so confident he’d be fine? Wasn’t that tempting the gods or whatever it was called?

“The omegas will be here in ten minutes,” Sivney announced. “I spoke to Zack, and they’ve got all of them.”

A loud cheer went up, and it took a while for the barn to quiet down again. “What about the other group?” Delton asked when he could be heard again.

Sivney sent him an apologetic look as he shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything, and Zack didn’t know either. Apparently, their earpieces stopped working shortly after arrival.”

Magic. It had to be magic at work. Why had Fallon not blocked that? He should’ve been able to, especially with help from Jermon and Erwan. He had the White Dragon with him, for heaven’s sake.

Maybe he hadn’t been able to because something had gone wrong. Something bad.

Oliver groaned as he buried his head in his hands. No matter how much he tried to tell himself he shouldn’t keep running these worst-case scenarios through his head, they kept popping up.

“Oliver,” Delton whispered, rubbing his back.

“I can’t help it. My brain keeps going there.”

Delton kissed the top of his head. “I know, baby, but let’s try to focus on the positive. If Zack said they got all the omegas out, that means the mission was a success.”

“Not if the alphas got hurt…”

In response, Delton held him tighter.

Those ten minutes seemed to take forever, but then Sivney got word from the team of guards that the omegas had arrived. “I need all former Murphy omegas, please,” he said. “Help us welcome our new friends and make them feel safe and welcome.”

Oliver immediately got up.

“You too, Delton,” Sivney said. “They’re gonna need you. Enar and Lucan are already waiting to render first aid and medical care where needed.”

Those little things made such a difference, Oliver mused as he followed Sivney and the others outside. Technically, Quico—who was a pediatrician but still a doctor—would’ve been a more logical choice than Lucan, but Quico was a big alpha, whereas Lucan was a smaller beta. He wouldn’t scare the newcomers. And Enar might technically look like an alpha, but anyone who spent more than ten seconds with him felt safe with him. Even Oliver had, and he’d been afraid of his own shadow.

The group of omegas slowly came closer, and Oliver spotted the first familiar face. “Wendell!”

He hurried over to the young omega, whose eyes lit up when he recognized Oliver. “Oliver… Gods, you look amazing.”

Oliver hugged him carefully. The teenager—he was barely sixteen—was nothing but skin and bones, his hair thin and dull and his skin pale. He looked much older than he was, like someone who had seen more in his young life than anyone should in several lifetimes.

“I can’t believe you guys came back for us,” Wendell whispered when he finally let go of Oliver. “I thought we were done for. Things have been…” His voice broke. “I thought I was gonna die, like Shane. He died, did you hear? They…”

Oliver gently squeezed his hand. “I know. He’s free now, honey. No longer in pain. But you’re here. You’ve made it.”

Wendell hung his head. “I can’t believe it. It feels like a dream.”

“I felt the same way. Took a while for it to sink in.”

“And you’re talking again. I’d forgotten what your voice sounded like…”

He hugged Oliver again, and Oliver let him, pulling him close. And when the tears came and Wendell didn’t let go, he held him tightly until his shirt was soaked with tears.

“I’m sorry,” Wendell said, but Oliver shushed him.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” He gestured at Delton, who’d been standing at a safe distance. “I want you to meet someone. This is Delton. He’s a psychologist, and he’s helped me a lot with working through my…trauma. He’s also my mate. Delton, this is Wendell.”

Wendell’s eyes widened. “You have a mate?”

“I have two mates. My other mate is an alpha, also a wolf.”

“That’s allowed?”

Oliver nodded. “It’ll take you some time to truly believe it, but we’re equals here. Omegas have the same rights as alphas and betas do.”

Wendell’s mouth had dropped open. “Seriously? I thought that was some kind of exaggeration. Like almost a joke, a way to get us here.”

“Nope, it’s all real. Anyway, Delton here is happy to talk to you anytime you need a listening ear.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Wendell.” Delton didn’t offer his hand to Wendell, and Oliver loved him for it. His mate was so good at reading body language.

“You too,” the teenager mumbled, suddenly shy again. Or maybe afraid, which would make sense too.

A commotion had Oliver turning around. People were running toward something. Enar and Lucan, with Sivney on their heels. No, not something. Someone. Maz was carrying…

“It’s Adar!” Delton said.

Oliver was already running, Delton right beside him.

Maz lowered Adar to the ground, and Oliver got a first look at him. The sight took his breath away. The alpha was almost unrecognizable, his features distorted into a bloody chaos. His lips were split and swollen, rendering them nearly twice their usual size. Both his eyes were completely shut, puffed up so much that they formed dark, angry mounds on his face. Vibrant bruises, a spectrum of purples and blues, had blossomed across his jaw and cheeks, painting a grim picture of the violence he’d endured. A gap where a tooth should have been added to the horror—and that was only the damage visible on his face.

“What the fuck happened?” Sivney asked as Enar kneeled next to Adar, immediately checking him.

“He fought Dempsey,” Jermon said, his face tight with worry. “He challenged him to a fair fight, and Dempsey took the bait. Adar won.”

“He killed him, you mean,” Nadiv corrected his brother. “He beat the absolute shit out of him and ended up killing him.”

The news that Dempsey was dead should’ve filled Oliver with relief, if not glee, but he couldn’t focus on anything but Adar. Adar might’ve won the fight, but he took a heavy beating himself, so what had happened?

“Is he okay?” Delton asked.

Maz looked up, his face showing an alarming amount of worry. “He’s severely injured. I’m pretty sure he’s got a couple of broken ribs, and his belly is distended and hard, so I’m concerned about internal bleeding.”

Internal bleeding? That sounded serious. Very serious.

Adar groaned, and Oliver and Delton dropped to their knees at the same time. Oliver’s hand trembled as he put it on Adar’s forehead, literally the only place that didn’t look like it would hurt. Delton put his hand next to Oliver’s. “We’re here, my love. We’re right here.”

And they stayed right by his side as he was carefully but quickly carried to the clinic, where he was placed on a bed. Enar cut off his pants, revealing more injuries. The alpha didn’t have a single spot on his body where he wasn’t bruised.

“Tell me what happened,” Enar said to Erwan, who had followed them into the exam room as well. “How did he get this badly beaten?”

“Dempsey cheated.” Erwan’s face showed his fury. “The rule was it had to be a man-to-man fight without magic. At first, that’s what happened. Adar got a couple of good hits in, though, and Dempsey must’ve gotten scared he’d lose. So he started using magic.”

“And you didn’t notice?” Oliver asked, unable to keep the anger out of his voice. “You’re the White Dragon, and you didn’t notice?”

“Oliver!” Delton squeezed his hand. “Let him talk.”

“No, he’s right.” Erwan looked pained. “I should’ve noticed, and it took me too long. Dempsey was smart. He was only using a little bit to lend his hits extra power. We could see he was doing better and Adar was struggling, but we didn’t realize why. It wasn’t until Adar had him pinned and was repeatedly hitting him that Dempsey had to use a flare of magic to get away, and Fallon picked up on that. That’s when all hell broke loose. Fallon blocked Dempsey’s magic, only for two of the Murphy alphas to attack him, and full chaos ensued. By the time we had sorted that out, it was at least a full minute later, and Dempsey had used magic all that time. Adar was… He was down on the ground, trying to protect himself from Dempsey’s hits, but he hadn’t given up. And when we managed to block Dempsey’s magic again, Adar did the impossible. He got up and hit Dempsey again and again and again.” Erwan’s voice broke. “He was saying your name, Oliver. ‘This is for Oliver, asshole. This is for Oliver.’ He kept repeating it as he hit him, not stopping when Dempsey fell backward onto the ground. We had to pull him off when Dempsey was unconscious, but it was too late. Dempsey died on the spot. He’d hit his head in the fall, and combined with the beating he’d taken, it must’ve been too much for his body.”

Oliver swallowed. Adar had done that for him. He’d sworn his revenge, and he’d taken it. He might not have intended to kill Dempsey, but fate had taken care of that.

Meanwhile, Enar had squirted some kind of gel on Adar’s belly and was now moving a scanner over his body. An ultrasound. Oliver couldn’t make heads or tails of the images on the screen, but judging by the little gasp Maz let out, it wasn’t good news.

“He has internal bleeding,” Enar said calmly. “His spleen was hit. We need to operate right away.”

Operate? Oh gods.

“Will he be okay?” Delton asked. “How serious are we talking?”

“Potentially life-threatening,” Maz said. “We have very little time before he bleeds out.”

Enar was already rushing to put the ultrasound equipment away while Lucan ran out of the room, probably to prep another room to do the surgery in.

“We’ll update you as soon as we have news,” Maz said. He unlocked the brakes on the bed Adar was on. “Give me a hand,” he told Erwan.

Before Oliver could say anything, Adar was rushed out of the room. Oliver’s throat was painfully tight and his eyes filled with tears as he met Delton’s eyes. Delton immediately pulled him close. “They’re taking good care of him.”

Oliver knew that, but would it be enough?

They stood like that, not saying anything else, until Erwan returned, looking pale. “I’m so sorry.”

“This is not on you,” Delton said immediately, but Oliver kept quiet.

“We should’ve known Dempsey would cheat. We were expecting it, but he outsmarted us by keeping his magic small and contained.”

That was Dempsey in a nutshell. He was mean, but he wasn’t stupid, and that made him so dangerous.

“How did the Murphys react to Dempsey’s death?” Delton asked, still holding on tightly to Oliver.

“They declared Adar the winner. They were in shock that he’d managed to win despite Dempsey’s use of magic, and strangely enough, they agreed in hindsight that Dempsey had been dishonorable in using it. They named Kerry the official leader of their new group or clan or whatever. We told them we had to leave to get Adar to a hospital and that we’d continue the discussion about the omegas later.”

“They will have discovered by now that their omegas are gone,” Delton said. “They’re not going to be happy.”

“No, but they lost their best fighter. They’re not in any position to counter-attack us. They don’t have the manpower,” Oliver said with a strange calmness. “We won.”

His knees buckled and Delton barely caught him before Oliver sagged to the floor. The tears came and couldn’t be stopped this time, not even when Delton pulled Oliver onto his lap and held him close. And among the overpowering fear and grief and sadness, that was the only light and comfort. Oliver wasn’t alone. Delton was right there with him.

And then it sank in that the man who had made his life hell, who had hurt him beyond description, was dead. He was gone forever. “We won. Adar won. He’s dead. Oh gods, he’s dead. Dempsey is dead.”

Oliver was now truly free, but at what price?