Omega's Run

by A. J. Downey

  “Right, fine, what will it take for you to put up that gun?” William asked.

  I chewed my bottom lip, “We’re here for the mutual benefaction of each other’s interests. We’re not prisoners. You give me back my toys as a show of good faith, and you give me your word that you won’t hurt him or kill him. That’s the deal, then we parlay.” William and Chloe exchanged a look.

  “Damn, you must be giving her some really good dick for a Hunter to protect a wolf-kind,” the meathead muttered.

  “Craig,” Markus said and hung his head.

  “And I get to shoot him, first round in this gun is non-silver, a warning shot. What do you say?”

  “I say you aren’t shooting any of my people, silver or not, and I say yes to the rest until a time we find you’re lying.”

  “She’s not lying,” Chloe said and I frowned.

  “Not like you’d know anything about it, we were under the strictest protocols to keep you out of it. Mathias’ orders.”

  “I know that, and you know that, and these guys know that, hell everybody knows that… I’m not saying you’re not lying based on anything that happened before. I’m saying it because I know you’re telling the truth. I see it on your face and in your eyes and I know that if my father trained you, that it wouldn’t come out of your mouth if it weren’t true. You may have been trained by that monster but I was raised by him… Put down the gun, let’s go in and eat. Remus you look half starved.”

  Just like that, Chloe Young turned on her heel and headed back into the cabin, William looked after his wife, a smile on his lips that made me ache to see it before I shoved that lost little girl who had wanted things like that for herself, way back down inside.

  “Ava…” Remus said softly and I glanced in his direction, his dark eyes raw and crackling with suppressed energy in the night, “Put it down, Babycakes, you got us in the door. Time to use words instead of bullets.”

  I put up the gun, “As long as I get to use bullets in the very near future…”

  “Yeah, well, we’ll see about that,” Markus said darkly and he didn’t sound at all happy about any of the information that’d been revealed.

  That made a whole fuck of a lot of us. I put the small Ruger back in my cargo pocket and held out my hands.

  Markus hesitated but William changed his mind, “Give them to her,” the Alpha ordered, and just like that, I had my guns back and holstered where they belonged.

  Remus shot me a look that screamed we would be talking about this later and I couldn’t disagree, we really would be talking about this later and I couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t get nasty.

  Chapter 21

  Remus

  I followed William and Chloe as they walked up the river stone path to the front door and stepped inside. Ava was behind me, Markus walked next to me and Craig followed along behind Ava. Just over the threshold I heard her growl angrily and turned to see that Craig was practically stepping on her heels, so close was he following her.

  “Scooby, you really want to back the fuck up before I’m forced to shove a gun barrel up your ass and empty the clip.” Craig blinked and I snorted at the mental picture.

  “I’d back up if I were you, Pup,” Markus snapped. Craig was mid snarl, his lips curling in disgust at Ava when the sound of the Arbiter’s voice cut through his anger. He seemed to shrink in on himself for a moment before he stepped back, giving Ava some space.

  When all of us finally got inside the house I could see it hadn’t changed much from the last time I’d been there. The bottom floor was still one large room with metal tables laid out in an orderly fashion. Tools and parts of various projects were scattered about, but it always looked like even that was done with an almost obsessive precision.

  “I see you’re still as anal about your workshop as ever,” I muttered and William chuckled quietly. Chloe laughed outright and I stopped, startled for a moment, turning wide eyes to her. She must have sensed my reaction because she paused, one foot on the bottom riser leading up to the living portion of the home and turned to face me.

  “What?” she asked, confusion written clearly across her face and I gave myself a firm mental shake.

  “It’s nothing, It’s just... the last time we spent any time around each other, I don’t think I once heard you laugh, at least not really.” The realization, or the memory, of what Romulus had put her through when last we’d encountered each other bubbled to the forefront of my mind and I couldn’t help but frown. Pissed at my brother, and at myself for what had happened. This state was my home. This was where my family, for I would always consider this pack my family, lived. And it was also the place where I’d made the biggest mistakes of my life.

  Romulus and I were caught up in the spider’s web and made to dance to his tune before we were consumed by our own hubris. What had made us think that we could possibly have gotten away with our actions? Good intentions being what they were, I had more than paved my own road to hell with the bodies of my father, my brother, and even that psychotic bitch Lucinda, may she rot in Hell.

  I blinked when I suddenly felt a gentle touch on my cheek and came back to the present as my eyes focused on the air above Chloe’s head. She was such a tiny thing that I had to look down to meet her eyes and I could tell, instantly, that she had really grown from the scared, weak woman I had first met. Even then, she’d had had a core of iron inside her. That core had tempered into something stronger, wilder, and far more powerful than she had been in the beginning. And it wasn’t just her status as Alpha Bitch of the pack that’d caused the change.

  One glance and I could tell that it was her bond with William that had truly molded her into a powerful and beautiful young woman.

  “Stop it, right now Remy,” she whispered and her thumb stroked across my cheek, wiping away a tear I hadn’t even realized had fallen. “Mistakes were made, lapses in judgement. You have, and will, continue to pay for your actions, but for now, you’re coming to us as family… and you’ll be treated as such by me and everyone here, isn’t that right?” Her voice was calm and quiet until the end when she raised her voice slightly, a commanding edge to her words. Even though she didn’t look away from me, I knew she was talking to the other wolf-kind in the room. There was a smattering of murmurs from the others including a quiet, ‘yes, dear’ from William and I almost snorted, amused by his cowed tone.

  William may well be the Alpha, but he knew better than to cross his mate without a damn good reason.

  “So come on upstairs,” she said and turned from me again, a small smile on her lips. “William started cooking an hour ago when Markus called us, so food should be up soon.”

  We followed them up the stairs, Chloe leading the way with William behind her, his hands on her trim waist as he murmured something quietly into her ear.

  The stairs opened up next to a small, but ample kitchen. It looked like some modifications had been made to the living quarters from the last time I was here. The left hand wall appeared to have been knocked down, and the room behind it, a guest bathroom, appeared to have been redone to expand the kitchen and to allow for more space. A much larger table occupied the area than the one William had near the kitchen before, back when he was still single. It had a distinctly feminine touch to it too; a crystal vase sat in the center with fresh cut flowers resting in it. The scent of the flowers, roses and lavender, were all but overpowered by the intoxicating aromas coming from the oven and from several pots that simmered quietly on the stove.

  Ava sidled up beside me and reached up to hook a finger in my collar. Obligingly, I bent down to bring my ear closer to her lips and she muttered so quietly only I would have been able to hear, “Are all you wolf-kind males so homey and domesticated?”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it, thinking of the omelets I had made just a day or so before. It was a deep laugh, one that I couldn’t have stopped even if I’d wanted to, but it felt good to do it. It felt amazing, really, to find something amusing in the storm that sur
rounded us. The rest of the pack gave me a strange look, probably wondering if I was losing my mind but I just shook my head and waved them off.

  Craig, the lunk, walked toward the hall and leaned against the wall directly across from the open kitchen, his arms crossed comically across his chest. I say comically because his arms and chest were so heavily muscled that he physically couldn’t cross his arms completely, giving him an awkward look to what he must have thought was an intimidating pose.

  I couldn’t really say much, I was similarly unable to really cross my arms that way, my own muscles got in the way of it, but I had lost some weight in the last few months, not keeping up with my workouts while on the move as I would have liked. With wolf-kind strength it was difficult to really find some place to work out that didn’t have specially crafted equipment. I couldn’t walk into any public gym and hit the machines since the highest weight they could reach would barely serve as a warm-up for someone with my strength.

  While William busied himself around the kitchen, Chloe led Ava to the table and offered her a seat. My girl gave a wary look at the layout of the room and chose the chair at the end of the table, closest to the hall. Grabbing the high backed wooden chair, she turned it so the back was to the wall and sat, still eyeing each person in the room with the wariness of a cat in a room full of starved, wild dogs. Can’t say I could blame her, but her paranoia might just be perceived as insulting. Luckily William and Chloe had better sense than that and took it in stride. Markus frowned at her and Craig actually growled until Chloe shot him a sharp look and the sound died in his throat, choked off as suddenly as it had started.

  “Sorry,” he muttered and ducked his head a little.

  Ava gave Chloe an appraising look, and I could see her opinion of the small woman had just gone up a bit. Even I was shocked. Chloe really had grown considerably, and I felt a little bit of pride in that. My brother had chosen exceptionally well in going with it when his wolf had told him that Chloe should be his mate.

  “Alright, that’s enough out of all of you,” William said. “Everyone sit down and we’re going to eat and talk this out. Remus you had better have some good information to part out here or I’ll have an easy decision to make, which will make it twice as hard to carry out. You realize the position you’ve put me in by coming back here, right?”

  I nodded. At least I’d be getting a last meal.

  “I have one condition, if I may,” I said after we had all sat down and William and Markus had covered the table with dishes piled with food. Chloe and William both gave me a look and even Ava shot a glance my way. I had taken the chair on the corner, what would have been to her right if she didn’t still have her chair turned with the back to the wall. William sat at the opposite end with Chloe on his left, Markus between Chloe and I; Craig had taken the spot in the middle between Ava and William.

  “You’re in no place to be demanding any further conditions, Pup,” Markus snapped. A vein was pulsing in the old man’s forehead and I wasn’t sure what would happen for a moment before William reached out and set a calming hand on the Arbiter’s arm.

  “I can’t make any promises, Remus. You know that,” William said, slowly. “What’s the condition?”

  I sighed and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath before I opened them and met William’s gaze. “Whatever you decide to do with me, I don’t care. Follow pack law and order my execution if you need to, I accepted that possibility before we started on our way here. But whatever you decide; Ava leaves here in one piece.”

  I should have seen it coming, honestly, I really should have, and part of me probably did. Maybe I had decided I deserved it, somehow. Maybe as another piece to add to my punishment?

  There was a loud sound, an echoing noise that faded into insignificance over the ringing in my ear. I’ll give one thing to the girl, for a straight up human, she had a wicked left. The slap that Ava threw was so hard that it literally tossed me sideways out of my chair; no mean feat when you’re talking about a dude my size. I pitched to the ground, glad that I had seated myself so close to the hall so instead of landing on the hardwood flooring in the kitchen, I landed on the plush carpet of the hall.

  “...you, Remus!” she was screaming when I could hear again. “Seriously, fuck you! You don’t get to pretend to protect me, you arrogant piece of shit! Who was it that dragged your naked ass out of that fucking freak show lab? Who carted your heavy carcass out to the middle of nowhere just to save your sorry goddamn life? Get the fuck off! Let go of me!”

  It descended into a chaos of voices after that. I heard a pained grunt from Craig and Markus’ deep growl rolled together with Chloe and William both trying to calm everything down.

  “Stop!” I bellowed. Silence fell, like I’d found the mute button on the universe, and I slowly pushed myself to my feet. Craig was standing behind Ava, his arms wrapped around her and a nice shiner was already blooming on his face where she’d most likely caught him with an elbow. Markus had somehow moved around me, more likely over, and had her by the wrists, his hips turned so she couldn’t easily kick or knee him in the balls. Chloe and William were both standing but hadn’t moved from their spots at the table otherwise.

  “She’s entitled to be pissed at me, don’t hold any of that against her. Markus, Craig, please let her go.” I worked my jaw up and down for a moment, pretty sure she’d loosened a tooth with that hit but I was already healing, still slower than I’d like, but healing. My leg gave a twinge of pain and I sighed at the reminder that I still wasn’t at a hundred percent.

  Reluctantly, after a glance at William for permission, they let her go and returned to their seats. Markus even clapped a hand on my shoulder as he passed. A gesture of support? Maybe. An acknowledgement of my actions? Who knew? Who even gave a fuck anymore? I was reasonably certain I was going to end up dead after all of this, but I couldn’t worry about it at that precise moment.

  I looked to Ava and she just stood there, eyes practically blazing with rage, face flushed; chest heaving up and down with every breath. Her fingers flexed and relaxed rhythmically, as if she wanted to wrap her hands around my throat or one of her guns, and she couldn’t decide which.

  “I never would have agreed to come here if you were so certain it was a suicide mission. I didn’t go to all the fucking trouble of saving your ass just to see you throw it all the fuck away.”

  “Thanks for just clocking me and not shooting me this time.”

  I sighed, when my attempt at humor got me nothing but a raised eyebrow like I should seriously not test her right that moment. I pressed on… “And I’m not throwing anything away, Ava,” I said that last bit quietly; resigned. I felt like I was facing a wild animal, staying still and speaking in calm tones as much as possible seemed to be the way to go, and wasn’t that ironic? I’m sure she would have hated the comparison but at the moment that’s what it felt like.

  “I’m not,” I insisted when she gave me a disbelieving look. “My life doesn’t matter; it’s not worth shit in comparison to the hundreds of wolf-kind that make up this pack. In comparison to who knows how many that Mathias has already taken,” She flinched at that, but I kept going, “If this information helps save them at the cost of my life, it’ll be worth it.”

  “Nobody likes a fucking martyr, Remus,” she snapped but she didn’t say anything else and dropped back into her seat, arms crossed sullenly across her chest as she glared daggers at me. I rubbed my jaw for a moment and noticed William giving me a wry smile as I picked up my chair from where it had fallen and sat back down.

  “Without causing any more outbursts,” he started, “You have my word, Remus, that Ava will leave here unharmed, as long as she doesn’t try to shoot or otherwise harm any of us then we have no reason to harm her.” Chloe nodded and, with that settled, started dishing out the food that William had prepared. Ava looked over each person at the table, her brow crushing into a frown and her jade green eyes calculating but no less tempestuous.

  For a few m
inutes the only sounds were of cutlery scrapping on plates and of people chewing. William had created four large casseroles. A dish containing pasta sauce, ground beef, peppers, and wide noodles all covered in about a pound of shredded cheese. It was a specialty of his that he was constantly tweaking and adjusting every time he made it. It was relatively simple to make and filling so it worked for a table full of wolf-kind.

  Ava poked at hers, barely eating. I wanted to remind her that she should eat something, but under the circumstances I figured it was the last thing I should probably do, not if I didn’t want to get the shit slapped out of me again. So I left her alone and turned my attention back to my brother as I loaded a second helping onto my plate.

  “Time to talk?” I asked and he nodded, swallowing the food still in his mouth.

  “As good a time as any. Let’s start with salt-the-earth. Why should we abandon the territory all of a sudden? Mathias has obviously known where we are for some time. That was clear when he approached you and Romulus about Father.”

  I blinked. “I wasn’t aware that you knew it was Mathias that’d approached us, not the other way around.”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t, at least not really, not until right now at least. It just seemed logical. We’ve never been able to figure out how to find Mathias. I mean we knew where his house was, obviously enough,” he glanced at Chloe and she gathered his hand in hers atop the table smiling at him with such love and devotion it was sort of breathtaking... and heartbreaking at the same time. You nearly fucked that up so hard, I thought to myself, but it still didn’t cause me to miss what my little brother was saying… “But it was always considered too dangerous to do anything to him directly.”

  “Until you kidnapped Chloe,” I reminded him and he winced. Chloe’s smile grew more, not less, and she squeezed his hand in a show of support. “Probably not my best move, but at the same time, the best I’ve ever made. We’ve been wondering about that for a while now. Why hasn’t Mathias made any kind of move after losing his daughter?”