Dax laughed, harsh and short, as he dragged himself to his feet, panting, his eyes rolling as something manic slipped into his gaze. “You want me to retrain you, little omega?”
An acrid tang stole through Lilac’s floral scent, and he whined before he shook his head, screaming as he smacked his hand into the wall. The impact seemed to jar all the way through him, and Sidian watched, torn between wanting to help him and wanting to kill Dax.
The sound of a soft, muffled cry made all three of them freeze.
Sidian’s hindbrain came to life in the way it only did when his son moved inside of him, shrieking at him to get up, to get to his daughter, to protect her from the monster in the house. He stumbled to his feet just as Lilac dove for the nursery doorway and Dax, so much faster despite the blood slicking down his skin, gripped Lilac’s hair and threw him backwards into the wall.
“She’s not your daughter,” he snapped as Lilac slid down the plaster, blinking rapidly. “Letmeget her, why don’t you? Stay here andrestsince you’re feeling so out of sorts.”
No. No, Dax couldn’t be allowed to get anywhere near Amey. He’d hurt her. He’d hurt her, and Sidian could never undo it. He could never fix it.
He dove at Dax’s legs, and the alpha landed on top of him, the weight knocking the air out of him for just a moment. He didn’tneedto breathe as he rolled them over, slashing Dax across the face, his nails digging in until bright, bloody furrows opened in one of his cheeks. Dax growled and caught him by the throat, but Sidian just dug his fingers into the open wound until Dax shrieked and let him go.
Not Amey. Anything but her. Anyone but her. She was half of his world. Daxcouldn’t touch her.
“All of this over some stupid omega brat,” Dax spat, catching Sidian by the hair and slamming his head into the wall. “Get on your kneeswhere you belong,omega.”
The command ricocheted through Sidian’s throbbing head, and he almost,almostobeyed, his wounded body dragging itself off of the floor. But the moment he had his knees under him, he scrambled back to his feet, putting himself between Dax and the nursery doorway. A cursory glance over his shoulder revealed Lilac climbing to his feet, still looking dazed.
“Protect my daughter,” he managed, and Lilac looked at him, wide-eyed and uncertain. “Please. Protect my daughter, and I swear he won’t get to you.”
Dax laughed as he sat up on the floor, his face twisted into a mask of manic glee that made Sidian’s stomach wobble. What the fuck was wrong with him? “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. I’ll make you watch while I punish him for disobeying me.”
Amethyst wailed from inside the nursery, and Sidian’s entire body bowed in response. Fighting off his urge to submit, fighting off his urge to run to his daughter… It was too much. It was more pain than Pack Kincaid had ever put him through, more anguish than he knew what to do with. If he went to Amethyst, then they’d all die. Lilac wasn’t strong enough to fight Dax, and Sidian wouldn’t ask him to. That he had taken care of Amey was enough. That he was here now to help her was enough.
Dax was Sidian’s worst nightmare given flesh and form, and it was his job to kill him. To send him right back into the depths of the hellhole he’d crawled from and to make sure he could never, ever crawl out of it again. No matter what it demanded of him.
He had to do it for Amey. And he had to do it for Roman.
“I’ve got her,” Lilac said, and Sidian glanced over his shoulder only long enough to watch the other omega race into the nursery, the door slamming shut behind him. A metallicclickechoed through the hallway, louder than Sidian’s panting breaths and Dax’s damp wheezing.
“He’ll regret it.” Dax rose to his feet, oozing blood and dominance, his self-assurance, hiscockinesssetting Sidian’s teeth on edge. “But he won’t regret it as much as you will. Taking her away from you wasn’t enough to break you. I’ll make you watch as I snap her little neck. She’s a worthless omega just like you, so what do I even need her for?”
The stairs were behind him. They were wide but wooden, all sharp edges that bent in the middle to jut out to the left. If Dax hit the railing hard enough, he might break straight through it and hit the floor below, and maybe that would slow him down. Maybe it would even kill him.
It was an option. Sidian weighed his chances, digging his heels into the floor as he stood upright. Every single muscle ached. His joints protested just in standing up.
He wasn’t built for this. Omegas were not built to be fighters, and he was so small, so fucking fragile compared to an alpha like Dax.
He thought of Amethyst, of her tiny face scrunched up and pink a moment before her eyes opened, wide and dark and almost in disbelief as they met his own. For just a moment, Sidian thought she knew him. He thought she knew she was looking up at the mother who had loved her despite everything. Despite the circumstances of her conception, despite the knowledge that her biological father was one of his rapists. He’d looked forward to meeting her every day she was inside him.
And he wanted to meet the child inside of him, too. What he was going to do was risky, toorisky,but he wasn’t a fighter and he was running out of options.
Dax took a deep breath, coughing before he cleared his throat. “Sidian,” he purred, “be a good little bitch and, for the last fucking time,get on your—”
Sidian ran at him, and the moment Dax’s feet left the floor, it almost felt like flying.
He wasn’t heavy, but Dax was injured and unsteady on his feet, whether from repeated head trauma or blood loss or both, or whatever the fuck had him twitching and screaming in the bedroom. Either way, his feet slipped out from under him, and then the two of them were airborne.
The stairs bit into Sidian’s back when he hit them, and he whined in pain.
He’d fallen down the stairs at the psych ward just once as a kid, and it had hurt then, and fuck, it hurtworsethe second time. Dax slammed into him as they rolled down the steps, and Sidian slid across the landing, watching as Dax slammed into the railing right next to his face.
The wood splintered as it gave way, the alpha disappearing over the edge with a shout.
The sickening thud of a body below echoed through the quiet house. Sidian panted where he lay on the stairs, his hands moving down to his stomach as a sharp pain ripped through him. He moaned in discomfort, fear ratcheting through his body as something soaked the gusset of his panties.
Far below him and out of sight, a mighty crash of shattering glass broke the quiet.
