Circling around in a wide arc, we march towards the outer rim of trees that grow near the house. A sudden sound forces me to stop, and I strain my ears to better hear what’s ahead.
It’s the sound of digging. A shovel.
The breeze picks up, carrying voices to our ears.
“Another one bites the dust, huh, Willie?”
“Yep. Sneed’s just tearing through them. Soon we’re going to be more haunted than a native burial ground.”
“Too bad that one got away. What was her designation again?”
“Five-seven-six. Damn, she was a fine one. Such a tight fucking pussy, but the mouth on her! And the claws. Heh. She was a fucking fighter. I hope that the team Sneed hired gets her back. I could use another hour or two with her in the breeding cell.”
“You and me both! Makes my mouth water just thinking about all the fun we had with her.”
My heart drops into my stomach, and bile rises in my throat. Auryn …
Sneed’s been harming more omegas than just Auryn, and from the sounds of it, most have met a horrific end. If that’s a body they’re burying …
A chamber clicks next to me, and Diego growls.
“Neither one of them makes it back to the house,” I say, chambering my own weapon. “For Auryn?”
“For Auryn.”
We split up, approaching the two men from opposite sides. The shovel covers the sound of our footsteps as they dig what appears to be a shallow grave. A blanket-wrapped body lies on the ground at their feet, and it takes everything I have not to rush the two men and tear them apart with my bare hands.
They hurt Auryn. They hurt and killed the woman on the ground.
They don’t deserve the quick, clean end they’re about to meet.
Two silenced shots later, the men land in their own half-dug grave with a pair of thuds. The shovel clatters to the ground, and Diego and I come out of hiding.
While Diego covers the men’s bodies with the upturned dirt and rocks, I inspect the bundle next to them. Inside the blanket lies the nude body of a young woman, her face bruised and battered, her skin lined with the same surgical scars that mar Auryn’s pale form. This woman’s scars are more pronounced, fresher, like they hadn’t had time to heal. Whoever she was, she wasn’t here as long as Auryn. Not long enough for the scars to fade from angry red to stark white.
“Gage, what they said … Do you think they–Do you think this woman and Auryn–”
My only response is a feral growl.
I’m not well-trained enough to tell if this woman was violated in the same way the men talked about violating my mate. That’ll be up to Olly, once we get her body back to the compound. All I know is that two of Auryn’s tormentors are now dead, but it’s not enough.
We have to kill them all.
While I stand there, trembling with rage, Diego covers the dead woman back up and hefts her into his arms. “Come, boss. Let’s get her to Olly.”
A sudden thought occurs to me, and I grab the shovel.
“Boss?”
“You get her to the car. I’m digging up one of these assholes. They may have been useless sacks of shit in life, but in death he may give Olly some answers that we need.” I get their heads uncovered first, and I position the point of the shovel under one dead man's chin. “I know you’re not squeamish, Diego, but you might want to look away.”
He shakes his head. “I'm not missing this for the world.”
Diego watches me behead the two bodies without the slightest flinch.
Once I've accomplished that gruesome task, I dig up the rest of one of the pathetic alphas and dump his body on the luggage rack. The heads get stuffed under the seat.
Diego brings the woman to the car, where he carefully, reverently lays her across the back seat.
