by Rosko, Mandy
She half expected Dennis to tell her not to worry about it, that he had everything under control and he would be doing all the thinking and worrying from now on.
He glanced at her before turning his eyes back on the road. “I need to call your brother. We can’t stop moving, at least not for long. Laurence most likely will have Wallace and Carl waiting by any other road to your brother’s house… We need to think of something good.”
Anna nodded. “Right. Okay. So we can’t just go charging in; the minute they see the truck, we’ll be stopped… can we just keep on driving? If one of them gets in the road, we can just run them over.”
Dennis looked at her with wide eyes. He clearly hadn’t expected her to say it.
And in that moment, Anna didn’t feel any guilt for letting it out either. She shrugged. “I’m done with this bullshit. I really am. I want to go home. I want to explain to my brother that you’re not a monster, and you’re my mate, and when I’ve stopped him from killing you, I want a shower.”
“And you’re all right if I kill people in order for you to get those things?”
“I’ll do the driving if you want.”
Dennis pressed his mouth into a fine line. “Killing someone takes a toll on you. I know you’re tired, you’re as sick of this shit as I am, but you don’t want that on you. Trust me on that.”
He was talking about her father. Anna forced that thought away from her. “You did that in self-defense.”
“It doesn’t matter. It still hits you.” Dennis seemed to think about that for a moment. “If it comes down to it, if I can’t get to a phone and call your brother and I need to get you back home and get Derek…I’ll do it. I’ll slam the gas pedal through the floor of the truck if I have to and won’t look back.”
Great. This was clearly one of those moments where Anna tried to be brave, tried to be tough about it, and ended up putting someone else in a tough spot. “I mean it. I’ll drive if you want me to.”
“I don’t want you to because I don’t want you to have to kill someone unless you absolutely have no other choice. Besides, there’s no telling if I can even run over one of the guys in this truck anyway. Too many things can go wrong.”
“Like what?”
“Like ducking out of the way and slashing at our tires. That would stop us pretty quick.”
Anna winced. “Wouldn’t that hurt them, too?”
“It would. But it would still stop us, and let Laurence or whoever grab you.”
“Unless I go for the eyes.”
She knew she shouldn’t be joking about this. She knew they had to keep their eyes on the prize here, but she couldn’t help herself. Anna wanted to take this burden from him in whatever way she could.
So when the corner of Dennis’ mouth quirked at the side, Anna was satisfied.
“Yeah, or go for the eyes.”
Anna couldn’t hold back her relieved smile. “Right. I can at least do that. Any idea where we’re going now?”
“Until I can get a phone for us to use at this time of night…I think we should just keep driving, keep an eye on the road in case one of those fuckers tries something else and… I don’t know. We need to be quick, though. You know your brother better than I do. Would he hurt Derek if I don’t contact him fast enough?”
The more she learned about Dennis, about his past in the pack long before Anna had ever been born, and her own brother, the less she thought she knew about her brother.
“I don’t think so.”
If he could tell she was lying, he didn’t mention it. He just kept on driving.
Then Anna got an idea. “We should stop the truck.”
11
Derek waited for literally anything to happen while he was stuck in the basement. He could tell that the other guy was nearby. Not even upstairs. He was right outside the door.
Derek knew it because he could smell Joey a mile away, and he still couldn’t figure out why the guy bothered to come around here when Derek made it clear he didn’t want him.
His stupid alpha probably didn’t want Joey anywhere near him either. He was probably worried Derek would escape and go on a rampage, which he really wanted to do after all the bullshit he’d been put through tonight.
And he was still out there.
The fuck was his problem?
Derek growled low in his throat. The wolf inside him wanted out. It wanted to run and fight.
He hadn’t felt this way since he’d been a pup and his dad had to put him on his back a couple of times. Usually, whenever Derek had been mouthing off to the older shifters in the pack.
“You do not talk back, ever. Do you understand me?”
Derek hated that rule. He could still feel his dad’s claws on the back of his neck while Derek growled at him. “Why not? You don’t respect any of them, why should I?”
“I do respect them,” his dad had said, shocking Derek.
He hadn’t even believed those words at the time.
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes.” His dad shook him. “I do. I respect that any one of these men can decide not to follow me one day. I respect that they know you are a weakness of mine, and I respect that desperate men do desperate things. They don’t like having a pup barely out of his tweens growling at them, and you’re not going to do it. You got that?”
It was the worry in his father’s voice that made Derek just a little scared. He’d nodded, finally giving in to his father, the alpha, agreeing not to puff out his chest or act up around the older men in the pack.
“If you think they’re dangerous, why do you keep them here?”
To this day, Derek still didn’t understand the look his father had given to him. It was a certain kind of helplessness, but at the same time, not really.
“Where else are they going to go? Who else is going to make sure they don’t do anything stupid?”
Derek didn’t understand that back then, and for a long time after he still hadn’t understood it.
Now, he thought he might get it. While chained up in another alpha’s basement, waiting to discover his fate while some omega sat outside the door to his prison, Derek thought he finally understood what his dad had been trying to do.
It wasn’t all just fighting with Garret, and it wasn’t all just revenge.
His father had been trying to save those ungrateful pricks.
Now Joey was outside, acting as though the only thing that stood between Derek and death was him.
Derek tried not to feel too uncomfortable about that. He could handle his own, and he didn’t need anyone. He was an adult now, not a pup. He’d been just fine for almost his entire life, and he was going to get through this.
It wasn’t as though his dad could watch out for a whole pack of nearly wild shifters and his own kid at the same time. Some lessons Derek had to learn on his own, and it was looking like he was about to learn another since it seemed to be taking a bit of a long time for his father to get here.
It felt like hours when he heard the stomping footsteps of the alpha coming back for him. First, that pounding noise right above his head, then down the stairs, and then he heard the yelling outside the door.
“Get out of my way!”
“Garret, don’t, please.”
That omega was seriously standing up to his alpha? Why?
Derek got to his feet. Whatever this was, he was going to face it like a man. He wasn’t going to cower, and he wasn’t going to give that prick the satisfaction of seeing Derek afraid.
He wasn’t afraid. He was strong. He was his father’s son, and he was going to get out of this one way or another.
Other footsteps rushed down the stairs, but the alpha clearly pushed Joey out of the way. Derek heard the crash before the door burst open. He watched Joey scrambling to his feet, frowning over that before the alpha had the chance to wrap his entire hand around Derek’s throat.
His growl was menacing. “You.”
Joey rushed into the room as clumsily as though he was slippi
ng on a bed of ice. “G-Garret! Wait!”
Garret pulled Derek off his feet. Derek had to hold tight to the man’s wrists just to keep himself from being choked out, but he looked right into the man’s red eyes. He wouldn’t allow himself to cower. If Garret wanted to see that out of him, then he was going to have to work for it.
“You got any last words, you little sack of shit?”
He had so many words he wanted to say to this asshole, but the one thing that came to mind was just too funny to pass up.
Each word he choked out was beyond worth it. “Yeah, don’t let your enemy too close to your eyes, dickhead.”
Derek two finger jabbed Garret right in the eyes, just the way his dad taught him to when he was a kid. The most basic of self-defense techniques he’d grown up with, and he couldn’t believe the alpha actually let Derek close enough to make the attack.
Garret dropped him fast, yanking his face away a fraction of a second before Derek could get his claws out and really do some damage to the asshole’s sight.
Derek managed to catch himself before he landed on his ass, though he did fall back against the wall just as the dragon and bear shifter reached out and grabbed onto their alpha.
Presumably before he could rush Derek again and snap his neck.
And then the adrenaline hit him.
Holy shit. He’d not only gotten a good attack in on the alpha of they pack, but he’d nearly blinded and embarrassed the guy for all his trouble.
The thing that caught Derek off guard the most was when Joey hobbled his way in front of him.
Derek gaped at the back of the other guy’s head, noting the man’s stance. As if he thought he would be able to do anything to stop Garret from getting through him if he really wanted to.
And why the hell would he even bother with trying?
Derek knew why.
His gut clenched.
“He’s not worth it, Garret! Cut it out, man! He’s not worth it!”
Hey! Derek took offense to that.
Joey rounded on him, pointing a finger under his nose. “Don’t you say another word. You’ll just make it worse.”
“I wasn’t gonna,” Derek sneered.
Joey wasn’t scared away by this. He just turned his attention back to his alpha, who needed another minute of being held back by his friends before he calmed down.
Derek was impressed they were able to hold him back at all, considering the veins that looked ready to explode in Garret’s neck and arms.
“I’m going to kill him.”
“We know,” the dragon said, glancing at Derek as though he wanted to wring his neck along with Garret. “But this won’t help Anna. We have to keep our heads about us.”
Derek curled his hands into fists. He didn’t want to ask the question, but it came out of his mouth anyway. “I guess Dad didn’t show up yet?”
Garret looked very much as though he wanted to charge at him again. Maybe the only thing that held him back was the two men on either side of him, trying to talk some sense into him because there was really nothing else to stop him.
Joey piped in. “Alpha, don’t hurt him. He’s not his father, and he wasn’t the one who took her.”
That clenching in his stomach started up again. “I don’t need you defending me.”
“Shut up! Yes, you do! Don’t you say another word about it either!”
Derek snapped his mouth shut at the command. He hadn’t seen that coming from an omega of all people, or his own reaction to it.
Fuck. This was getting weird.
Joey turned his attention back to the alpha. “Sir, if you try to kill him…you’ll have to go through me. I won’t… I won’t let you do it.”
“What?” Derek couldn’t believe it. “Are you out of your fucking mind? What the hell do you think you’re going to be able to do against a guy like that?”
Derek didn’t think he would last very long in a fight with him, and if he couldn’t, then there was no way in hell this omega could.
Joey ignored him.
Garret growled at him. “What makes you think I care? If I want that shit head dead, I will go through you. You got that? You want to die with him then so be it!”
Derek growled back at the alpha. “Talk like that to your pack members often? You fucking piece of shit. I don’t know why my dad ever wanted back in your shitty pack.”
The bear shifter stepped away from Garret. He pushed Joey out of the way when the omega tried to stop him, as easily as though he’d knocked back a five-year-old.
Derek didn’t move. He saw the hit coming, and when Dane punched him…
The crack in his nose, the blinding pain, God, so much worse than he thought it would be.
Derek wanted to take the hit and keep standing, to show the alphas that he wouldn’t be cowed by their threats or abuse, but he fell back against the wall as hard as though a truck had hit him.
It fucking hurt so much. Derek grabbed at his face as blood gushed from his nose and down the back of his throat.
He could taste it now. It was so gross.
“Not so tough now, are you?”
“Dane! Stop that!”
Joey rushed forward again, trying to push Dane back, but the other man had his feet planted, and he didn’t move.
Derek had wanted to be like that. To take the hit and show hardly any reaction to it. To prove to these alphas that he wasn’t theirs to toy with.
No, instead, it was the alphas who had to show Derek who was really in charge here, who was really superior in strength.
Maybe if he wasn’t in chains… but even then, Derek could now see how much of a long shot that really was.
And he hated that.
“Back off, Dane!”
Dane looked at the omega, and it was all over his face that he wanted Joey to submit, to step back and mind his own business.
Joey’s shoulders trembled, but only for a second before he inhaled a deep breath and squared them.
“Don’t touch him again.”
Dane lifted a brow, glanced at Derek, who was a mess of blood, then snorted. “Or else what?”
“Or else you might find glass in your food the next time you eat, asshole. That’s what!” Joey shoved Dane again, and his words must have shocked the man because Dane did fall back a step this time.
“Are you fucking serious?”
“I am serious! Stop that! You don’t get to touch him!”
Derek would have told the guy not to bother if he wasn’t so concerned how opening his mouth would make a whole lot more blood spill out of his throat.
Also, he was kind of impressed. He’d never seen an omega act like this.
Of course, there weren’t too many omegas who stayed in his pack in the first place. His dad usually managed to get them somewhere else to stay when they came to him, pack-less and alone.
Garret growled, stepping forward, and this time, a flicker of worry did ignite in Joey’s eyes. The man hobbled back.
That alpha was going to beat the piss out of him.
Derek stepped forward to stop him, but Dane grabbed him by his forehead and pushed him back, knocking his head against the concrete wall.
“Don’t you fucking move,” Dane warned, his voice low, his eyes as red as Garret’s.
“I’d do as he says,” said the dragon, looking to Garret and Joey. “Garret, come on. You don’t want to do anything to Joey. He’s one of ours. Even if he’s getting a little confused right now.”
Garret didn’t seem to hear his friend at all. “You want to throw your lot in with him?”
Joey said nothing. He avoided eye contact, his mouth pressing in a thin line.
Garret pointed at Derek and Dane. “You want to be where he is right now? You want to throw your loyalty to him?”
“No!” Joey looked horrified. His mouth gaped. He looked at Derek, then Garret.
Even though Derek was the one getting his head crushed in, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy.
This couldn’t be a good position to be in, but the responses he should be giving were clear. What was with the confusion here? Joey should be swearing his loyalty to Garret and apologizing right now for getting even a little confused about what he was doing.
So what was with the hesitation?
Garret continued to stare Joey down, as though trying to make him break.
Derek fucking hated that. He growled beneath Dane’s hand, trying to push him back.
The bear shifter noticed this, looked at him, and smiled. “You think you’re going to do something now, huh?”
Derek wanted to kill this guy.
“You all fucking suck. My dad was right to leave your shitty pack.”
“Wrong, you little bitch,” Garret growled. “He was kicked out for throwing his hat in with his rapist father. Your grandfather, by the way, so don’t even think about getting judgy about whose pack is better. Mine doesn’t rape or kidnap little girls.”
Derek immediately stopped fighting. He could only see with one eye through Dane’s fingers, and it didn’t look at all as though the other man was joking.
But he wouldn’t believe it. That was too much. His father had taken in any number of people. Derek even knew there were a few killers in their group, but only because no one else would have them and it was too dangerous to have them running around on their own, uncontrolled.
That was…
Derek shook his head. “No.”
Garret snorted, looking away from him and back at Joey. “That’s who you want to defend? You want to forget about my sister and stick up for this piece of shit?”
Joey still would not look at the alpha, but his next words floored Derek.
“Yes.”
Apparently, it was enough to floor Garret, too. His voice was low, dangerously so. “What did you just say?”
Joey cringed, but with some effort, he seemed to force himself to look up at Garret. “I don’t want you to hurt him. Alpha, please.”
Garret looked at him long and hard before turning his attention back to Derek. The guy looked so strangely out of place, as though he didn’t know what to do, and Derek had never seen an alpha look like that before.