Page 57 of Loving My Omega (The Perfect Designation Trilogy #2)
Chapter
Fifty-Seven
T he female shifter couldn’t have been much older than us. If anything, she looked like she would fit right in with Sabrina at the club. She put her hand on her hip, looking at the three of us.
“Yup. Colton, meet Laila.”
My eyes widened. “ Laila ? As in…Peter’s mate?”
“Wait? You know Peter?” She looked at me. “Look, I don’t need a lecture on that face that I need to get back to with him or whatever. If this is some kind of intervention…”
“It’s not. Though you should, but that’s besides the point.” I snapped at her. “I need a ride and I need it to be completely secret. I need to disappear. So you can’t even pretend that you saw me, ever.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Mike or whoever, said I’d get thirty thousand now and then another twenty when I dropped you off.”
My mouth dropped open and I looked at Mike. “You’re giving someone like her, who owes multiple shark loans, more money?”
“Hey, I plan on playing off those loans with this money.” She looked down at the ground, tapping it with her toe. “I…got in too deep. I…I might be on the run too. So…if I can get some money, pay off some guys…it helps me a lot. I don’t want to get Peter involved in my issues. I know he’s sick of my shit.”
I pressed my fingers into my eyes before dragging them down my face. “Can you take me? Are you big enough to handle me on your back and my bag?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I’m an earth dragon. So I’m a little more stout than a fire or water dragon. We will need to make a drop at one of the dragon isles, but otherwise we will be good to go for the whole flight.”
This was so messed up. How did this end up so messed up so quickly? The voice in the back of my head was back though. After weeks of being with Marcus, it was finally gone. Now, it was back. Telling me that of course I couldn’t actually be happy. That all I deserved was a taste of it. That I barely deserved even that.
“Colt.” Mike shook his head. “Don’t. We will get this worked out.”
“I hate that you know me so well.” I smiled. “I’m going miss you.”
He pulled me into another hug, this one tighter. “Take care of yourself. This isn’t an excuse to slide back. I made sure everything was ready for you. You don’t need to worry about a thing.”
Nodding, I let him go and stepped back. Grabbing my bag, I nodded to the alley.
“Is it okay if we take off from the back. There is a good amount of space that you can shift and I can get on.”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” She turned back and I followed her back from where she came.
Looking back, I gave Mason a wave. Looking at Mike, he nodded and pulled Mason close to him. My eyes met the two panthers who were leaning against the car. Shaking my head, I lifted up my free hand and flipped them off.
“Fuck your sister. I hope she trips into a wood chipper. She thinks she deserves Marcus but she doesn’t even deserve a mate.”
I spit on the ground towards them before turning back and walking to Laila who was waiting for me. She was smirking and her eyebrows rose into her bangs. We walked together past the building to the back. Looking out over the water, I shook my head. The last time I was here, someone was threatening me too. My phone got broken and Mike ended up saving my ass.
“That was pretty cool. You got some balls.” My gaze turned to Laila as she undressed. “Mind if I put my dress in your bag?”
Setting my bag down, I opened it. She leaned down to shove her dress in when she spied the loaf. Taking a sniff, her eyes widened.
“That’s Candy’s 50-clove bread!”
Chuckling, I nodded, zipping the bag back up and securing all the buckles. “She made it for me yesterday. I figured I’d get hungry”
“Can’t hold it in?” She raised her eyebrow as she tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I mean, it’s not that long of a ride. I’m still fast since I’m not full size yet.”
Shaking my head, I didn’t feel like explaining. “How about we get going and I feel like, we can share some.”
She laughed. “Alright, alright.”
Running away from me, she shifted and the ground shook as her footsteps turned into huge footfalls. My eyes widened. I’d only see a fire and ice dragon. She was a completely different body type. Eva said she was also an earth dragon but that she wouldn’t show me her dragon form unless I made my weight goals.
Laila was stout. Her wings were a lot heavier duty as well. All of her seemed more build out than Marcus or Beau. I wondered if this is what she looked like this young, just how large she would get in the next hundred or so years. She seemed to trot back over to me before laying down. My eyes looked over her before I climbed up her leg and then pulled myself up from her joint before setting between two of her spikes.
They were nowhere near as sharp as Marcus. They felt more like crystals jutting out from her back. Pulling out my gloves from my pocket, I pulled them on before I tapped her deep green scales. Gabbing onto her spike, I held onto as she stood up. She trotted over to my bag and hooked it on the spike coming out from on top of her mouth. It reminded me a lot of a rhino, but she easily carried my bag.
The fact that I couldn’t communicate with her was going to be a struggle. Still, I had to do this. I held on tight as she turned around and started to gallop on the dock. Finally, with one big flap, she lifted off the ground. We rose up into the sky and the wind whipped around us.
Reaching up, I pulled my hood over my ears to help some of it. I probably wouldn’t have been able to handle this before getting marked. Somehow, my body seemed to know that it needed more heat and I warmed up considerably. Looking down, I saw Mike standing next to Sabrina’s car. He waved and I gave him a wave back. Laila didn’t loop around, instead flying out over the ocean.
Funny enough, we flew over the dock where I worked and I smiled. This could very possibly be the last time I was here. As much as I hoped that the family could figure something out, I worried they couldn’t. That they wouldn’t be able to fight against Ebony’s claim. I knew it wasn’t impossible to break a mate bond. It happened but I didn’t know the specifics of it.
Touching my mark, I could only feel pain right now. My wolf had been an absolute mess. Now, they were silent; broken. Wrapping my arms around Laila’s crystal, I allowed myself to finally break. I sobbed, holding tight to something because otherwise I would fall to pieces.
I lost. I lost the love of my life. Ebony won, despite thinking that because we mated, we were safe. We weren’t, at all. We were silly to think that. Now, I was alone again. Marcus wasn’t here and I had to make sure that he couldn’t find me. It hurt to so much and I finally let out a scream of pure pain.
Laila wasn’t expecting it and she jolted a little. I continued to cry, my wolf crying with me. She howled and I let her use my mouth to get it out. It was loud and filled with sorrow. The worst part was that I had no idea if we ever would see him again. If leaving meant I lost Marcus for good.
Putting my hand on my bump, I knew, at the very least, he would want me to protect our little girl. He couldn’t. So I had to make the choice. I could probably have handled Alpha Genesis but I couldn’t take the chance that he would allow me to keep my little girl.
“Kayla.”
We talked about it but I don’t think he realized I already had accepted his choice. She was our Kayla now. Our little dragon Alpha. She was the reason for all of this. I just had to stay focused on her. After a half and hour or so, I managed to gather myself. Chuckling, I rubbed Laila’s spike.
“Sorry. I promise, no snot. Just tears.”
She rumbled and I wondered if she could actually hear me despite the wind. Smiling, I rubbed her scales.
“You know, I could use this time to lecture you on how completely irresponsible you are and how terrible of a mate you’ve been.”
A dust cloud erupted in front of us and I closed my eyes, covering my face against it.
“Alright! As long as you know I could. I won’t.” I chuckled hollowly. “I’m not one to talk at this point I guess.”
Leaning against her spike, I closed my eyes. “You don’t have to, but if you want, you can stay with me for a little while. At least while you get your debts paid and all that. You don’t have to, but I thought I would offer.” I smiled. “We are family after all. Mating into the Alford family. What an absolute mess we all ended up being.”
She rumbled and that sounded much more like a human chuckle. Her flight was surprisingly low and every so often her foot dipped into the water. I wondered if she was used to this kind of flight. Peter said she would sometimes go to France or Spain but I wondered if she flew there. Either way, she was very comfortable flying like this.
The sun was going down and it would probably get a lot colder. There was probably a limit to how much heat I could produce. We might have to take longer at the stop just so I could stay warm. Sighing, I looked back behind us. The city was no more. The pack, Alpha Genesis, my parents, Ebony, the threats that loomed over me every single say where gone. Just by leaving it all behind. Except that the people I loved were left behind too. My new family, my best friends, and everything I cherished. Left behind with everything else.
I swallowed down the pain that started to come up. None of that would help right now. We would figure this out. All of this. This wasn’t unfixable. Not yet. I just had to have faith. I had to trust in my family. My hands tighten their hold on Laila’s spike.
I had to practice the two things that I was the worst with: trust and patience.