Pierce laughs internally. Wrenwould becourteous of someone asleep even if he didn’t trust them.
“She might not even know why she was sent here. She could be an innocent in this.” Pierce examines the omega’s bare arms.She doesn’t appear to be injuredfrom the wreck. However, he notes the scars that trace up her forearms, the one just below her left eye, another at the front of her neck. He quickly clocked them when they settled into the truck, but he didn’t want to focus on them with her awake. Now he takes his time examining each one. The severity, the scarring. Most appear older, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more hidden from sight.
Pierce knows that this omega is avictim.And it leaves him with a pure molten rage that he can’t do anything with.
I would go to prison again for her.
He shuts the thought down, suturing his emotions and calming himself as best he can. Focusing instead on her warmth, on the way it affects him.
She’s mated.
“She’s mated,” Wren breathes out, echoing his thoughts but for an entirely different reason. “She’s mated to aRossi.”
“Vinny isunmated. We know that much about him.” Pierce had done his due diligence learning all he could on the Rossis. On their motivation for coming after Charles. Pierce leans over as carefully as he can, confirming what he already knows. “I can’t scent her. Just…” He trails off.
“Scent-blockers. They’re common for omegas to use. Do you think Luther will come in the house now that it’s snowing?”
Luther.
Even gone, his scent wraps around them, almost as if it is coming from the omega on his lap.
Pierce’s attention goes out the vehicle. They’re approaching the house, and way behind it, there is the barn to the right of which is a smaller building that is all lit up.
Luther had put the secondary house there for Charles to live in. Giving him freedom while keeping him under their roof for as long as they could.
Except now with Charles gone, Luther had taken up residence there.
“I miss them both.” Wren puts the truck in park, eyeing the omega warily. “There’s something off about her. She doesn’tfeellike a Rossi. Too pure.”
Pierce chuckles softly, his hand going through her hair. “Her aura is peaceful in an offbeat and chaotic sort of way. Will you get the empty room made up for her?”
“The one with—”
“Yes.”
Pierce expects an argument but instead Wren inclines his head, offering one last jaded look at the omega before exiting the truck. Softly closing the door behind him.
Pierce stares down at the woman. His fingers leaving her hair to find the mark on her neck.
It is old, aged, andscarred. Whoever put it on her hadn’t done it correctly, and he imagined it must have been painful for her.
Are there more marks hidden under her clothes? Is it just the one alpha who claimed her?
His fury simmers up and up as he thinks about all this young woman has gone through. Of the life she must have led. Of how the Rossis treat her.
The snow continues to pour down outside, but he pays it no mind—his entire focus on the omega. Entranced by her.
He doesn’t realize he’s purring until her eyes slowly open. “You’re not hurt, are you?” He needs her to confirm it, that she is okay.
“No, just tired.” A soft yawn escapes her full lips as she attempts to sit up and gain her bearings, but there isn’t space in the truck, and instead, her head hits the bottom of his chin.
“Come on, I’ll take you to a place to get warm and give you a change of clothes.” Pierce ignores his instincts screaming tocover her in his scent. Barking to take her to his room and wrap her in his blankets, burrow her in his bed.
She’s too young. She’s mated. She needs safety not another despicable alpha.
Stomping the intrusive thoughts down, he readjusts, tugging her to his chest as he wraps his arms around her.
“You will be safe with us,I promise. And if you don’t want to go back to the Rossis, you don’t have to.”
