After my shower, I changed into sweats, knowing I’d be back here in a few hours for our Summit-opening game. When I grabbed my phone, I blinked at the twenty-five missed calls and as many messages. Swiping my screen, I pulled up Kellan’s message thread.
Kel: Fuck! Someone attacked and tried to kidnap our omega. Get home, bro.
There was a twinge in my chest, and a red tinge descended over my vision.Our omega.I might not want her, and I might not like her, but to my bear, no one fucking touched what should be ours.
I didn’t even bother with the rest of the messages, dialing Kellan’s number as I stormed to my car. He answered on thesecond ring. “What the fuck happened?” I growled, my bear rumbling just below the surface and almost forcing the change.
“She’s okay,” Kellan said in a rush, and I slowed, taking a few deep breaths. If she was okay, then there was no need to get riled up. The normal day-to-day life of that chick was none of my business, even if I did still peel out of the parking lot too fast for my truck.
“I’ll tell you everything when you get home, but just know that she’s alive and unharmed. Hunter has her because his wolf was going psycho. I don’t know what would have happened if she’d been badly hurt.”
“What did she do to cause this? She tried to run, didn’t she?” We both knew she’d fucked up somehow. It was her modus operandi after all.
Kellan fell silent and it was clear I’d gone too far during his crisis of almost losing her. “I’m on my way,” I added in the heavy air. “See you soon.”
He hung up without a word, and I had to reel my animosity in if I didn’t want to lose my pack over this fucking omega. When I reached the family compound, the gate was a tangled mess off to the side of the guardhouse. Which was empty.
My speed picked up as I raced down the street, only to slam on the brakes when Kenzo hauled ass from his house and waved me down. I opened my window to my brother’s concerned expression. “Is she okay?”
Apparently, I was the last to know about this attack, but at least I had the answers to that particular question. “Yeah, Kellan said she’s fine. I don’t know any details about the attack, I was just heading to the house for an update.”
Kenzo rubbed a hand over his face and through his dark hair. “We all heard the crash and fighting, but by the time anyone made it into the street, Hunter was racing her into the house. For a second, I thought the worst…”
He cared about how this would affect me, but there was no need. As if losing an omega, I didn’t even have, would break me more than I already was. “I’m assuming the council and enforcer squads will be here soon.” It was standard procedure during an attack.
“Pretty sure they’re already at your house. A bunch of cars raced past before, and I wasn’t sure if I should get my girls somewhere safe or not. Why the fuck didn’t you answer your phone?”
I hadn’t even looked to see who else I’d missed calls from. “I was on the ice. I didn’t know any of this until I checked my phone after, and I came right here.”
He sucked in a deep breath, and then another, until his calmer spirit returned. “Okay, well, get to your house and find out what happened. You can update me later at the game.”
I slapped a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Thanks for caring.”
Kenzo shook his head like I was an idiot. “Brother, you’re family. If you break, I break. And I’m not ready for that, so I need to make sure you remain whole.”
My smile was brief and forced. “Pretty sure that ship has already sailed, but I admire your positivity.”
He bestowed one of his all-knowing grins on me. “You’ll see the truth one day. You might have been broken in the past, but you’re kintsugi.Repaired with gold. You know that. You just have to accept the truth of who you are now, my friend.”
The Japanese art of repairing their items with gold and proclaiming them better than the original had long fascinated me. Probably because in those brief moments when Kenzo called me kintsugi, I almost believed him. Or at least I wanted to believe him.
My brother returned to his house and mates, leaving me to head for home. Half a dozen cars were already parked out thefront of our house, and I pulled into my normal spot in the garage, before striding up to the first floor with my gym bag slung over my shoulder.
Everyone was out back by the pool, standing in a large, noisy group of shifters.Fuck.It’d take us months to get their scents out of here.
My pack stood a little apart, with Kellan and Hunter on either side of the omega, who was pale and all but expressionless, staring into space, while a dozen or more men argued around her.
Slade was there as well, to the left of Hunter, with five members of his flight squad at his back. None of them touched him because they valued their lives, but clearly this was being taken quite seriously.
Ditching my bag, I strolled over to stand beside Kellan, my appearance interrupting the argument. A lot of the council members were here, including Warrick, Soren, Butler, Gerlason, and even Sissily Buttern.
She was the most dominant female in Golden Claw, and a giant pain in the ass.
For too many years she’d been trying to get her claws into Hunter, in the misguided belief that as the strongest alpha female she needed to command the strongest alpha males. She wanted our pack right or wrong, despite already having two alphas bonded to her.
If I’d had to place money on who was responsible for the attack on the omega, it’d be squarely on Sissily. Emmeline was the final piece to our quintet, and if we bonded, the power she’d command would be a direct challenge to Sissily’s perceived spot as the top dog.
“Now that Fin has arrived, we’ll go over everything again.” Hunter’s voice was a snap of command that shut everyone up.
