Page 20 of Wild Omegas (Wild Skies Ranch Omegaverse #1)

Josie

Brooks and I turn toward Luke sprinting out of the house with a finger pointed behind us. We spin to see a horrifying fire burning through the barn. In the flurry of everything with Damien’s package we’d missed it.

That was the source of the fire smell, the one that didn’t belong with Brooks’s natural scent—an actual fire.

I grip Brooks’s shirt tight as my body freezes again.

“Fire!” Luke calls again as he runs over to us.

He’s got his phone in hand, dialing emergency services, and puts it up to his ears.

“We’ve got hoses we can use in the meantime, and can do a headcount of the horses.

” His narrowed eyes, his clenched jaw. Luke is terrified.

Not of the fire, I don’t think, but for the horses he cares so deeply about.

Brooks nods. “I’ll get the hoses.” He squeezes my shoulder before dashing toward the barn.

I stare after him, unable to move or speak. Smelling smoke is one thing. Seeing the flames is another and I am not ready for it.

Flashes hit me all at once. The single flame that started it all, lit by a candle match near a curtain. The accelerant catching. Me, seated on the floor amongst it all. Burning the rest of my life and me along with it.

That’d been the plan. I thought there was no fixing the life that’d already metaphorically burned to the ground.

How wrong I’d been.

Luke hangs up with 911. “They won’t be here for fifteen or twenty minutes.” His words hit my ears as if through cotton. “There’s a station between here and Fairwater but still far out.”

Nodding is all I have for Luke as I stare at the flames.

He grabs my hand. “We need to go help, Josie.”

I swallow hard and close my eyes. Tears are already spilling down my cheeks. “This is my fault.”

Luke’s brow creases tight. “How is this your fault? It was probably a faulty wire or something.”

I shake my head. “It’s Damien.” He’s found me and is taunting me, and soon he’ll show up to either kill me or, maybe worse, kidnap and involve me with whatever crime he’s into.

I never found out the crime flavor. My grandparents quickly suggested Wild Skies Ranch as an escape and I was out of New York three months after the fire.

I assume he must be an omega trafficker to be tracking me down so far from the city.

A perfect revenge for him must be servitude to an awful alpha.

Now it’s my alphas who are at risk.

My alphas. Carson.

Panic sweeps through me. “Luke, where is Carson?”

Luke meets my gaze. “He wasn’t in the house, that I know. You made it out here first?”

“I did.” But I never saw Carson. Unless… “Maybe he saw the fire?”

Luke’s eyes go wide. “He’s in the barn. Shit.”

Luke takes off sprinting again. The suggestion that my alpha might be in danger is the only thing that convinces my body to move in the face of our greatest fear.

I follow Luke to the barn and while Luke takes a headcount of the horses on the way, I focus on looking for any sign of Carson.

I didn’t see him when I came out here, but then I got distracted by the package and Brooks. He could be anywhere.

We meet up with Brooks and each take a hose to attempt battling the flames as the horses stay back.

It’s hard to make an impact when the wind picks up and the roof catches fire.

We need the fire department here now. This isn’t something we can tackle alone.

Garden hoses are meant for flowers or washing cars or filling buckets, not stopping property fires.

Then something catches my eye between flames and plumes of smoke. A man cradling a hurt foal.

Carson.

I don’t think. My body just reacts. My alpha is pinned down by flames.

“There!” I shout and move my hose toward where Carson is. He’s cornered with the foal in his arms and no clear way out. “We need to make a path.”

Luke and Brooks close in and together we battle down the flames.

Carson sees the small opening, the jagged path lined by coals and ash, and runs out of the barn while coughing madly.

He collapses on his knees and sets the foal down on the ground.

Brooks runs to get the foal some fresh water while Carson grabs the hose from my hand and washes out his mouth.

“What were you doing in there?” Luke hisses.

Carson just points to the foal while coughing. “Was still inside. How did this start?”

Damien almost killed my alpha. I was frozen before with fear, but now it’s fury pinning me to the spot. “Someone who’s after me started it.”

Carson shoots a confused look to Luke who just shakes his head once. “We can talk about that after.”

I nod. We will. We have to now.

Sirens sound in the distance. Luke and Brooks focus on fighting the flames with the garden hoses while I call a vet for the foal, holding Carson’s hand all the while.

“Fires are terrifying,” I whisper while we wait. “I’m sorry you had to experience that.” Because of me. I don’t say it because I know this isn’t directly my fault. I can’t help but feel it is anyway. But I know Carson won’t let me say it much less believe it for long.

He pulls me in tight. I duck my head under his chin. “Thank you for saving us. For spotting us in the flames.” I wrap one arm around him tightly in response.

The firefighters arrive minutes later, but in that time part of the barn roof collapses along with what’s left of my resolve.

My grandparents’ legacy is literally burning to the ground. Just the barn, thankfully, but a part of it nonetheless. They gave me Wild Skies for one year and in less than a month I’ve burned this down, too.

Damien won’t stop here. I know enough about how dangerous he is. But if he made it all the way to Wild Skies why not just kidnap me and call it done? Why taunt me like this? Why take away everything I’ve rebuilt brick by brick?

I know the answer. It’s always been about revenge. I guess I just can’t believe that any person has that much capacity for hate.

Then again, I had a great capacity for self-loathing just the same.

The firefighters demolish the flames. Fairwater Volunteer Fire Service is good at their job, but this is little comfort in light of what’s been taken away.

It’s a few hours before they finish up and leave.

My alphas secure both the house—from intruders—and the horse stables but we’ll have to rebuild the barn as soon as possible.

Luke is devastated but focusing it all into rebuilding plans even when we collect in the living room and bring back the make-shift blanket-and-pillows nest from before.

We eat dinner there and grab wine and whisky to drink in front of the unlit hearth. We’ve all had enough fire for today.

And then, while nestled between all three of them safe and sound, I tell them everything.

“I had a pretty successful bakery for a few years,” I say. “Then sales dropped off and I couldn’t recover it. I had to let people go, and then it was just me, a burnt out and financially struggling twenty-something who also just lost her pack.”

“Because you weren’t scent matches, right?” Carson asks.

I nod as Luke kisses my head. “I guess that was there reason, yes. So I lose my pack, my parents’ respect from losing the pack, and then am about to lose my bakery. The thing I spent my entire adult life building up and working toward.”

Tears prick my eyes. I can still see the teal walls, the pink sign out front, the small space filled with people and pastries and tables to drink coffee or tea at.

This tiny little bakery in the middle of New York City with barely enough space for customers to move around in, and the even smaller studio apartment attached to it.

I swallow hard. Brooks wipes a tear away with his gentle fingers.

My alphas are all idly kissing or touching parts of my body as we talk, a constant stream of comfort and reassurance.

Not just for me because of what happened, but for all of us.

We all experienced that barn fire. But we’re all here, alive, and no animals were hurt. The vet gave the foal the all-clear.

“What happened?” Brooks asks quietly.

Honesty. They deserve honesty. “I set it on fire with an intent to burn with it down.”

All three of them hold their breath. Their touches continue, but none of them speak right away. Because what do you say to that?

“It was a dark time,” I say to fill in the silence.

I don’t want their pity, and they have no reason to be concerned now.

“It was a brash choice I wouldn’t make again, with or without Damien getting involved.

I just… thought there was no other path.

” I pull in a deep breath. “I know there is now. I’m not in that headspace anymore. But I am terrified of Damien.”

“The alpha who’s stalking you?” Carson asks. “The one who set this fire?”

“Yes.” I explain about Damien’s crime lord status, about his safe house above my bakery that I couldn’t have known was there, and that he’s dangerous and vengeful.

But I’m not quite sure they’re really listening to me.

Their touches become more purposeful and they draw in closer.

Maybe they don’t think I’ll notice or maybe they haven’t noticed they’re doing it.

But my alphas are folding in around me to create a cocoon of safety after my admission.

Even Carson, who definitely needs more comfort than me right now.

I wrap my arm around his shoulders. “I’m okay now, I promise. Sometimes…” I can’t say it wasn’t premeditated. There’s a lot I can’t say because it’d be a lie. “It was dark, and now there’s nothing but light. It’s not a thing we have to worry about again.”

“Good.” Luke kisses my forehead again. “And we’ll protect you from Damien.”

“He’s already been here,” I point out, not to show that they may not be capable of protecting me from Damien, but that what they do might not matter.

“We’ll keep a better watch,” Brooks says. This I believe. With his connections, I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t have this place wired up with security cameras by tomorrow afternoon.

“And we will never, ever leave you, Josie,” Carson says. “We won’t do what your first pack did.”

“You’re ours,” Luke adds.

“And you’re all mine,” I whisper and pull them all in. “Our pack is strong, I know that.”

“We are,” they all whisper back.

We are strong, but we are haunted by Damien. But that has to be tomorrow’s problem, as does rebuilding the barn and reporting my suspicions of arson to the police.

We stay in the living room nest for the rest of the evening and sleep there all night, and for the first time in a long time—even despite the barn fire and what it means—I feel safe.

Untouchable by Damien, who will not be sneaking around unseen anymore as my alphas each take watch throughout the night.

Wild Skies Pack didn’t run at the truth. They didn’t abandon me when they saw the worst parts of me. The failures, the hurt.

And I will not run from them . Honestly, I may not ever leave this nest again if I can convince them to stay too.

I love this pack so much.

It’s that feeling I finally drift to sleep on.