The bathrooms nearest our location lay down a short hallway and as we approached, the sound of raised voices brought my hackles up with them. The sight that met us when we turned the corner changed concern to rage. Penn, our omega, stood pressed against the wall, his eyes wide and an expressionof fear twisting his lips. Three dingo shifters, similar in frame to him but larger, stood in front of him, their words hateful and loud.
How. Dared. They.
Ty darted between Penn and the three of them. I followed, shoving one of them aside in the process. He growled. I snarled and he shifted away. Good. “Want to tell us why you are menacing our omega?” I asked.
“Yours?” The tallest of the three, clearly an alpha, took a step toward me, but I didn’t move. “He’s an omega of our pack. Go away and let us deal with what’s ours.”
He called our omega a “what”?
“You know the laws, and you can see the marks. He’s ours. Just go about your business.” Ty was magnificent in his anger, but the dingo alpha and—I supposed—his betas sneered at us.
“Sounds like these two want to challenge us,” the alpha said. “Is that the case?”
Ty glanced at me and shrugged. “I hadn’t thought about it until now. How do you feel about it, Freid? Want to be alphas of a pack? We can take these three out and step into our rightful roles. A pack all ready for us.”
“Convenient.” I shared my best toothy smile. “All right. I’m in. Let’s do this.” I unbuttoned my shirt and tugged the hem out of my pants.
As Ty kicked off his low-heeled boots, the three bullies stumbled back. “Something wrong?”
“I-I just remembered,” the alpha muttered. “No fighting at Animals or they won’t let you back in. You go on a list.”
Now, I shrugged. “That’s all right. If we’re going to be taking over your pack, we’ll be too busy to run around at night anyway. Hey, how do you manage? We are going to need some information before we move. I presume the alpha house goes with the job?”
“That’s not funny,” he whined. “We are not going to do anything to upset the owners of Animals. They have ways of retaliating.” Turning on a heel, he dashed down the hall and disappeared, his minions behind him.
“Omega, are you all right?” I asked as Ty said, “We’ve got you.”
Chapter Sixteen
Ty
In the restroom hallway, Penn was shaking, his gaze darting all over the place as Freid and I hurried over to put our arms around him.
“I don’t want to go back to my pack. Please don’t make me.”
I hugged him to my chest. “We aren’t going to make you.”
“Not ever,” Freid said.
“But you said you were going to take over.” His eyes were round and scared.
“What?” I asked, not understanding.
“You were going to fight them and win and become alpha leaders.”
“Oh no.” Freid pressed up against him, the three of us in a close huddle. Penn’s back remained stiff and straight.
“You thought we’d make you move back to your past pack?” I asked.
“You said so.” He pouted.
“We only threatened to take over the pack to get them to leave,” I said. “We would never make you go back there. You’re our soul mate, sweetheart. We would protect you with our very lives.”
“We would never make you do anything against your will. Or ever let anyone hurt you,” Freid said.
Penn’s arms came up to embrace us both. He buried his head in my chest, trying to pretend he wasn’t silently sobbing.
It broke my heart to see that, to wonder how tortured he’d been as a kid and young man. Freid and I exchanged pained looks over Penn’s head.
