by Rosko, Mandy
It was kind of impressive. A little.
Derek wasn't about to stop, though.
He turned back around just as he slammed into a birch.
It was a thin tree, but conking his head against the wood was still enough to make him see white and go down hard.
"Fuck!"
Derek grabbed at his head; he rolled to his side as warmth spilled onto his hand. Christ, he'd better not be gushing blood.
Derek took one look at the blood on his palm. There wasn't a lot, but his head throbbed.
"Are you all right? Derek."
"Don't touch me!"
Derek yanked himself away from Joey's reaching claws. The shifter yanked his hands away, his pointed ears falling back, as though he was the one who was hurt right now. And Derek couldn't stand that. He looked back, making sure no one else was coming.
He didn't see nor hear anyone on their way, but that didn't mean he wasn't still in danger of something happening. Of Garret being only seconds behind him while Joey stood there with his tail between his legs.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Don't go."
Derek fell back a step. He stared at the shifter hard, and even as Joey melted back into his human shape, he couldn't believe what he just heard come from his mouth. "Are you fucking with me?"
Joey shook his head. "No. Don't go."
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Derek blew up on him. Joey flinched back. "They'll kill me if I stay! You seriously want me to stick around here?"
"No, Garret won't kill you. Dane and Jax won't let him. His mate won't talk to him if he does."
"Oh, well, in that case, I guess it's perfectly safe for me to stick around with a guy who keeps trying to strangle me." He kicked his foot in the dirt, the chain still attached to his ankle rattling, reminding him of why he hadn't been as fast as he could have been. "Garret will murder me when he gets me. I smashed his face in with the chain. He's going to wrap it around my neck and strangle me with it. Do you care at all about that? Actually, no, that's a dumb question for me to ask. Why would you care?"
"I care."
"No, you don't, and you shouldn't care either. I don't need you to care, and I don't want some guy I don't know caring either. It's fucking weird. Go back home, all right? I need to get out of here."
He tried walking off. Joey stepped in his way, his hands up, as though he was worried Derek would attack him. "Please, just wait around a little while longer. I'm trying to work something out with the alpha."
"I don't care how much the alpha likes you, I don't like you, and I'm not going to stick around and let my fingers be broken one at a time for you either."
Joey steeled himself. He seemed to stand a little taller in that moment. "I won't let anyone break your fingers. I won't let them touch you."
Derek grabbed at his hair and nearly made himself prematurely bald. "Are you out of your fucking mind? What the hell makes you think you can stop the alphas around here from doing anything to me? You're an omega! You don't matter to these people, and you can't physically do anything to stop them. If they want, they can throw you in a cell with me!"
"Then I'll let them do it. I talked to Garret. He's pissed off with you, but he won't kill you."
"Oh, how very generous of him. He just wants to make me wish I was dead."
"No, he doesn't. I promise. It's not as bad as all that."
Derek shook his head. He started moving again, but this time, he picked up the chain that had been dragging behind him, making sure to wrap it around his fist so he could properly run this time.
"Thanks for the help, but I'm leaving."
Joey grabbed his arm. "No, wait."
Derek stopped. He wet his lips and tried to instill some patience in himself before looking at the other guy. Then he looked down at his arm that Joey grabbed.
Joey let go, though he seemed to reluctantly do it.
"Don't ever touch me again."
Joey frowned at him. He got that angry expression back on his face. "Or what?"
Derek let a little of his own inner wolf back out. He glared at the man, stepping forward. Joey stepped back.
"I'm the bad guy, you little shit. Don't you ever forget that, or I'll break your other leg."
Joey shook his head. "No, you won't."
Derek grit his teeth. "How do you know that? You're real annoying, you know that?"
He pointed a clawed finger right in the middle of Joey's forehead. The man's eyes crossed, as though he was trying to look at it before he slapped Derek's hand away, grabbed onto his face, and pulled him close.
Derek didn't expect this move, so he didn't know what Joey planned on doing until it happened.
And he froze. His eyes popped wide, and the angry wolf inside him melted back as the situation was laid out bare.
This guy, this idiot omega, was kissing him, and Derek couldn't move.
Until he finally could.
Derek shoved his hands forward, slamming them hard against Joey's chest.
He heard, and felt, the air whooshing from Joey's mouth as the man flew back. He landed with a hard grunt on the ground, his body sliding a little.
Joey held his gut and coughed a bit, trying to intake as much air as he could, and for a fraction of a second, Derek felt guilty for having hit him like that. He stepped forward, as though there was anything he could do to take the hit back.
He’d never hit an omega before, let alone one with a busted up leg.
“I…I’m—”
The roar over the air made Derek shiver, reminding him that he’d spent way too long standing around here, messing around when he was supposed to be running for his life.
He looked back just in time to see the heavy shadow rushing him.
Derek turned, bolting as hard and as fast as he could. He didn’t make it far before he felt the heavy weight of the alpha behind him, and then he was the one who went crashing to the ground.
Garret growled in his ear, smashing his face into the dirt, his fingers gripping Derek’s hair, his claws digging into Derek’s skin.
His voice sounded monstrous. Like he was death itself and he wanted to give Derek that ending touch.
Only his ending touch would be more like sinking his claws into Derek’s belly and ripping out everything inside. “Got you now you little motherfucker.”
Garret panted for breath. Even with his nose smashed into the dirt, Derek could make out the smell of blood. His own blood as his nose gushed, but even some of Garret’s blood from when Derek smacked him in the face with the end of his chain.
More footsteps sounded. The dragon and bear. Great. That was just what Derek needed.
“Kid, you are fucking lucky we need you alive right now,” Dane said as if Derek cared about that.
Garret growled into Derek’s ear. “I’ve a mind to fuck you up good, let Dennis see your damned face before I let you go. You are so lucky, so God damn lucky I can’t do that.”
No. Derek bucked, desperate to push the alpha off him, but he couldn’t. Garret was not only strong, but he definitely weighed more than Derek did. All of it was muscle because Garret was an asshole like that.
And now he was going to get Derek’s dad.
Garret growled low in his throat again, and suddenly, he pushed himself off of Derek.
The lack of weight forcing him down was a shock, but Derek quickly rolled to his back.
The bear and dragon shifters grabbed his arms before he could make a getaway, or so much as get his claws out.
Stupid fucking silver-plated chain!
Derek roared back at Garret. “You fucking coward! Fight me like an alpha!”
Garret barely looked at him, his eyes red as he snarled, popping his knuckles.
“Listen, kid. You don’t want me to fight you like an alpha. I’ll make you cry for your mother, whoever that bitch might’ve been, long before I get tired of punching your little face in, you got that?”
“Fuck you. You just won’t do it because
you’re a pussy.”
Garret’s red eyes flashed a warning at Derek.
The dragon shifter gripped a little tighter to Derek’s arm. “Don’t do this, kid. He’s pissed enough as it is, and you don’t stand a chance.”
Derek pulled against the man’s grip, but he couldn’t get away.
“Fuck the lot of you. I don’t stand a chance because I’ve got a silver-plated chain on me! Because you’re too much of a bitch to fight me one-on-one without your groupies here to help you.”
Garret showed his teeth as he growled. “You’re the grandson of a rapist and the son of a traitor. You don’t get to make moral judgements on me, boy.”
Derek was getting sick of this sins of the father horse shit.
“I never did anything wrong!”
“You’re Dennis’ crotch seed, you’re a pain in my ass, and God only knows how many times you were involved in distracting or attacking my pack for your father.” Garret approached him. He let the claw of his index finger form as he pointed it directly between Derek’s eyes.
His heart lunged into his throat. Derek sucked back a breath that was way shakier than he meant it to be.
Garret, the pecker head, smiled at him. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You are scared. You’re a scared little nobody who came from nobodies, and the only reason you’re alive right now is because your father took my sister like the cowardly fuck he is.” He leaned in close, pressing the tip of his claw a little harder between Derek’s eyes. “Don’t you ever forget it.”
Derek pressed his lips together. He tried to stop the burning in his eyes, the way his throat closed, but he couldn’t seem to get a grip on himself.
No. No! Fuck this and fuck him. He wasn’t going to let himself cry in front of this asshole. There was no Goddamn way that was happening.
The dragon shifter decided to speak up. “Garret, maybe that’s a bit much.” He said it as though he was the one who couldn’t stand to listen to this. Derek didn’t want his help. He was the enemy.
At least Garret pulled his claw away from Derek’s forehead. “It’s not going to be enough until I have my sister back. Not even fucking close.”
“Alpha!”
Derek ducked his head. He didn’t want to see Joey as the other man hobbled over. He seemed to be having more trouble walking with the cast on his leg than he had any other time Derek saw him.
Maybe all that running aggravated his wound.
Or the punch to the chest.
“Alpha, please don’t.”
Garret’s claws came back out as he pointed a finger in Joey’s direction, but whatever he was about to say, he bit his lips on it and shook his head.
“I’ll deal with you later. We’re going on the road. Dennis is coming back, and his traitorous pack is being a pain in the ass about it.”
Derek frowned, bringing his gaze back up to the other man. “What?”
Garret rolled his eyes. “As if you don’t know you hang around with a bunch of disloyal low lives. Dane, Jax, move. I’m tired of wasting time on this.”
The bear shifter sighed, but he and Jax did turn and start back for the house Derek had run from. They walked quickly, practically dragging Derek behind them.
As though time was suddenly precious.
Joey argued with Garret the whole time about his treatment of Derek, but Derek didn’t want to hear that after he’d punched the guy in the chest.
Either way, the focus of his mind stayed on what Garret had said about his pack.
Could it be? Did Laurence finally make a power grab?
Shit. That was going to complicate a few things.
15
Of course Dennis drove over the speed limit as he went back down the highway, the exact way he’d come barely an hour before.
Anna buckled herself in, and it seemed that now the only thing she was scared of was the possibility of getting into an accident with another vehicle.
“Uh, Dennis, maybe you should slow down?”
He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Not until he knew he would be close enough that an attack from Laurence wouldn’t matter. He slowed only for turns on the highway, and even then he made the tires squeal. At one point it felt suspiciously a lot like he’d brought two of the wheels off the road.
Anna yelped when the truck righted itself, but he still didn’t slow down.
“You know I’m not bleeding to death, right? But getting in an accident with another truck or car could kill me?”
Dennis shook his head. “I’m not risking that Laurence is waiting.”
“Okay, do you think that if he tries jumping in the road to stop us again, that at this speed you can run him down? Or would he make you lose control of the truck?”
He eased his foot off the gas, just a little, at those words.
She was right. Fuck. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t take the risk.
Laurence wouldn’t be able to stop the truck if he got the suicidal idea in his head to jump into traffic when Dennis was going at this speed, but it wasn’t as though Dennis could smoothly run him over either.
Laurence would probably die, but he’d make sure to kill Dennis before taking Anna.
If she happened to live through this stupidity.
Fuck. God dammit, fuck!
Dennis smashed his hand down onto the steering wheel, putting a dent in it as he forced himself to slow up.
But only a little.
Anna reached for his shoulder. She touched him, but whereas that touch could once soften him, could release the tension and anxiety, he felt nothing but a cluster of anger and impatience.
“We’ll get him back.”
Dennis blinked. He didn’t dare take his mind off the road this time just in case Laurence jumped out at him again, but the sound of her voice…
“You think that’s all I’m worried about?”
“He’s your son. Isn’t it all you’re worried about? I’m not saying that because I’m trying to make it a competition either.”
“I know. I heard it in your voice, but honestly. Do you really think it doesn’t gut me to know I have to give you back? That even if I had Derek with me right now, there would be no way for me to keep you? That I can’t even keep you safe because the pack I was building this whole time was for nothing?”
Anna said nothing right away. “Maybe…maybe it’s not all for nothing. It’s only those three, right? I mean, there were others I was suspicious of when you were holding me hostage in that factory, don’t get me wrong, but not everyone was looking at me like I was a meal.”
Dennis clenched his teeth. He had to force himself not to rip the steering wheel right out of the truck itself.
“No one should have been looking at you like that. Not one Goddamn person.”
He’d made it clear to everyone that he didn’t want Anna harmed. He may have wanted to scare her into compliance a little, but his pack should have known better, even the newcomers Dennis wasn’t so sure of.
He’d been so stupid.
Dennis heard the way she swallowed, as though she didn’t want to admit to this any more than he did. “Right, well, it did happen, but only Laurence and, who did you say they were? Wallace and…?”
“Carl.”
“Right, that guy. They’re the only three coming after us right now, and you showed up two of them a minute ago.”
“And one of them stuck his claws in you.” Dennis wanted to break his fingers all over again for that shit. The dumb motherfucker should have known better than to touch Dennis’ woman.
“Right, but it’s not that bad.”
Dennis was losing his patience. “Anna, I appreciate the pep talk while your other hand is around your waist because you’re in pain, and we’re on the run from the people I should have been able to trust, but I just want to get you home where you will be safe, and I can see that your brother didn’t do any permanent damage to my only son.”
He almost called Garret an idiot, but he held back. Not for Anna’s sake. She kn
ew how Dennis and Garret saw each other, but considering the shit storm he’d dumped on her, Dennis figured he didn’t have much of a right to call her brother the idiot in this situation.
Anna dropped her hand from Dennis’ shoulder. She wrapped her arm around her waist with her other arm.
Dennis wanted to hold her. He wanted to comfort her and make her feel all right.
He wanted to keep her.
“I don’t want to give you up,” he admitted. “Not for one second, but I can’t do this.”
“I understand.”
“No, I don’t think you do.” He couldn’t drop this. He couldn’t let it go, and he needed her to understand. Even if he was beating a dead horse. “Derek is my only child. Christ, you and he are basically the same age. He’s a little older than you. You don’t have kids, so I don’t expect you to get it, but you’re my fucking mate. I don’t ever want to choose, but if the choice is giving you back to your brother who won’t hurt you, who will keep you safe, then I’ll do it in a heartbeat.”
“Dennis, I said I get it. I know I don’t have kids, yet, you don’t have to remind me, but even though I can’t feel what you’re feeling doesn’t mean I don’t understand. I know what parents will do for their kids. I can’t imagine how this feels for you right now, but I still get why you’re doing it, and if you’re waiting for me to judge you for this, to be angry that you’re not deciding to keep me and run off into the sunset or whatever, then you’re crazier than I thought.”
Dennis blinked widely at the darkness of the road ahead. “You think I’m crazy?”
“A little. You’ve been doing some crazy shit for as long as I can remember.”
He supposed that was true, and Dennis had no choice but to nod. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“You guess so?”
He did glance at her this time before putting his eyes back on the road. Then he laughed. “Yeah, I’m an asshole, aren’t I?”
“You are the king of assholes,” Anna laughed back. “But you’re my asshole.”
That warmed him so unbelievably much. Dennis didn’t have the words to describe how much it meant for him to hear something like that.