Page 12 of Toxic Revenge, Part Two (Mafia Omegas #2)

Chapter

Eleven

CONRAD

I felt empty.

There was a black hole where my thoughts should be, and in the depths of that hole…

My omega’s fear. Of me.

I growled quietly, tossing and turning in the thin sheet that draped over my body. She’d been so scared and I hadn’t helped her.

I’d made that terror, nurtured it, and fed off of it. Like some demented form of a vampire. What was wrong with me? How could I make her fear go away when a base part of me wanted it to stay?

Each breath turned into more of a growl, anger at myself merging with this sick version of me—the feral side that wanted control at all costs. I needed to kill that part of me, to make it leave forever so it could never hurt Talia again.

How?

The sheets constrained my limbs, but I thrashed enough that I heard the faint sound of it tearing. I was asleep, but not. I couldn’t wake up, stuck in this waking fucking nightmare.

“Get it out,” I muttered. “Get it out of me!”

A shock of ice cold water had me gasping for air, bolting upright. My eyes blinked to dispel the water, pieces of ice sliding down my chest. I shivered from head to toe, but this was better than the dream state I’d been stuck in.

“Thank you,” I choked out. “Fuck, thank you.”

“I’ve never had a man thank me for pouring a bucket of ice water on them before,” a woman said.

My eyes focused enough to see her. A petite brunette woman in pastel workout clothes stood at the edge of my bed, empty bucket in hand. Three men stood directly behind her, all wearing matching black suits. They looked like bodyguards.

Who the hell was this girl? And where was I?

I coughed up some water, looking down at the ripped sheet that was draped over me. I was only wearing a hospital gown.

That brought some things back.

I’d been shot.

My hand came up to my neck, feeling the thick bandages—now soaked with water. It didn’t hurt as much as I would have thought, considering I’d passed out from the pain and blood loss before we got to the hospital.

“How long have I been out?” I demanded.

She snorted. “I really thought my sister was going to end up with the prim, buttoned-up type. You biker dudes are a much better fit for her, though.”

“Your sister?”

Ignoring me, she gestured to the other side of the room. “Doctor, check him over.”

I swung my head to look at the doctor in their white coat, and that sure as fuck hurt my neck. OK, not healed after all. That meant I couldn’t have been unconscious for that long.

“Follow the light with your eyes.” The doctor didn’t bother introducing himself before putting me through a series of random tests.

I wanted to complain and demand to know who he was and who else was in this room with me, but it seemed like a typical enough hospital room.

I was laying in a proper bed, but had beeping machines hooked up to me.

A stainless steel sink graced one wall, hand sanitizer and boxes of gloves right beside.

Maybe this doctor could fix what was wrong with my head and make sure it never, ever came back.

I complied with his tests, wanting them over and done with so the woman could tell me what the fuck was happening here. He collected a sample of my blood at the end, putting one droplet onto a test strip and watching as it soaked in.

“He still has the hormones in his blood,” the doctor said to the woman, “but not in high enough concentrations to be of immediate concern. All the field tests show that he’s completely in control of his faculties.”

“Thank you very much, doctor.”

Unhooking me from the machines and packing up his equipment, the doctor left the room. Only this odd woman—an omega, I’d deduced by her scent of magnolia and cherry blossoms, once I’d gotten all the water out of my lungs—and her bodyguards remained.

“Will you answer my questions now?” I asked.

“Very patient. I do see why she chose you,” she said. “You’ve been out for a long ass time, and my sister Talia is waiting for you to wake up.”

My feet swung off the bed and I stood up, only to find I wasn’t stable at all. One of the guards came over and let me lean on him as I sat back down on the bed. “You’re Talia’s sister? What’s with all the bodyguards?”

“Comes with the territory of being Alfieri daughters.”

I stared at her.

She smirked. “But I guess my sister didn’t tell you about her real family name, did she? Fuck, I wish I could have seen the looks on the other guys faces when they found out. I’m glad I was left in charge of dropping the bomb to the final alpha on her roster.”

“Talia is… an Alfieri? Like, the Alfieris?”

“Yep. And I’m Mira. One of her four sisters. The nicest one, in my opinion. You should be grateful you had me to watch over you.”

“You dumped a bucket of ice water onto my head.”

“Because you looked like you were having such a terrible nightmare. Also, your nap had gone on a bit too long. Talia is getting antsy.”

I had to get to her.

It didn’t matter if she was an Alfieri or anything else, so long as I could see her again.

My legs weren’t working at full capacity, though. Or even half capacity. I looked pleadingly at the guard who’d helped me sit, my arm still slung around his shoulders. “Help me get to her?” I asked.

He looked to Mira for the order, and she didn’t stop him from helping me.

Another bodyguard came over, helping me lift myself from the bed. I felt weak, every limb shaking with the effort of moving. I couldn’t tell how much weight I was holding up myself versus how much the bodyguards were helping me, but I doubted there was much I was doing.

We’d only gotten out the room’s door and taken one step into the hallway when it hit me.

Cranberry and roses.

She’s nearby.

“Talia?” I called out.

I heard a gasp, then running footsteps and a second later, my omega darting around the corner. She barrelled into me, and the guards’ assistance was the only thing that kept me upright.

I couldn’t care about the near fall, not even a little bit.

Not when she was in my arms, her scent wrapping around me.

“You’re awake.” She rubbed her cheek against my chest. “We didn’t know when you were going to wake up.”

“Couldn’t stay down for too long. Not when I had to make sure you were OK.”

I inhaled deeply, noticing something off about her scent this time. That hint of cucumber that it had when she was half bonded to her scent match... it was stronger now.

And with her hair tied up, I could see a bandage wrapped around her neck.

More bandages on her arms.

My stomach felt sick.

“What happened?” I demanded gruffly.

My first thought was that I did something to hurt her. I’d been out of my goddamn mind; anything could have gone wrong. She’d been in heat and I’d been feral, which was a combination ripe for disaster.

“Can we talk about it later?” She pulled back, looking up at me with pleading eyes.

“Princess, I need to know if I hurt you.”

Her eyes went wide and she shook her head immediately. “No, of course not.”

“You have a lot of bandages for me not hurting you.”

“They aren’t because of you,” Mercer said.

He and West had rushed around the corner shortly after our omega.

“We’re at the Omega Haven Residence,” Talia explained. “I was dropped off here after...”

After I attacked her?

But, no. She hadn’t had these injuries when I’d last seen her, and she wouldn’t have gotten them if the hospital staff had sent her immediately to the Residence. Something else had happened in between. Something horrible.

Something involving her scent match, and how his scent tangled more with hers than it had before.

And that bandage on her neck...

My muddy brain finally put all the pieces together, and I growled.

He’d claimed her. Completed the bond she’d started. What kind of asshole was that guy?

Knowing now that she was part of the infamous Alfieri family, I could guess he was the power-hungry kind of asshole.

I was swaying on my feet, my legs trembling with the effort of standing after so many physical traumas. It didn’t help that my anger made me vibrate with the need to act, but there was nothing to do. I didn’t even know the whole story yet.

“Can we sit down somewhere? Standing is a bit much for me.”

Mercer and West came and grabbed both of my arms, leading me back into the room I’d been staying in. A little privacy was probably for the best with the blue and white hospital gown monstrosity that I was wearing.

When I was sitting up against the headboard, Talia came and laid with her side pressed against mine, rubbing her scent all over me. She didn’t seem to care that I was still wet from my ice bath.

Mira and her bodyguards crowded out the door. “Lavinia is working with Emilia and our dads to find out everything we can about Benjamin. You can come get updates when you feel up to it. Violet’s letting us sleep on her couch, so I’ll camp out in her suite.”

Talia gave her sister a small smile, and then the door to my room closed with only the four of us inside.

The woman I wanted to make into my mate, and my two packmates who were probably massively pissed off at me.

“Tell me how you’re feeling.” Talia didn’t waste time before bossing me around.

I kissed her forehead but refused. “No. I’m fine, but I need to know what happened while I was out.”

“I’ll explain,” West said. “Talia, if you want to leave so you don’t have to hear it again?—”

“No, I’ll stay.” She cut him off. “You explain, but I don’t want to leave him.”

Neither West nor Mercer looked overly pleased about that, but they didn’t complain. Mercer laid on the bed on the other side of Talia, while West went through everything I’d missed.

My omega had been through hell and back, and I hadn’t been there to save her.

I’d been part of the reason she’d ended up in that situation to begin with.

I could never, ever forgive myself for that.