When he took a threatening step toward me, and away from the women, the fist seizing my heart relaxed just the smallest bit.
Kane seemed to catch onto my misdirection faster than I would have liked, though. “Sheisspecial to you, and I can smell why.”
I noticed Cat and Anna exchange terrified and confused expressions at the biker’s mysterious words.
“You know what that means, don’t you, Ace?” A dark smile crept across Kane’s lips. “She’s an omega… And I want her.”
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized it sooner. God damn it, Kane was right! Cat was a sleeper omega. This meant that she hadn’t officially “activated” but that she surely would once she spent some time in the presence of her own kind. That’s why I hadn’t picked up on her humanness in the bar: she wasn’t human at all. She was a dormant ware. But she was, without a doubt, mymate. Every nerve and instinct in my body was screaming that fact loud and clear. MINE.
An omega is the most prized mate an alpha can hope to pair with. They’re rare and considered the most desirable of all women to our kind. Their scent drives us crazy, and shifters are known to fight to the death over the chance to be with one. As a sleeper omega, Cat had never been through a change. Hell, she probably didn’t even know she was one of us. She was a latent, a late bloomer, so to speak. Latents were rare, but they did crop up from time to time, though I’d never met one personally before. A ware that developed later in life was most always raised by humans. It had something to do with the lack of proximity to our pheromones. Once she was exposed to them though, she’d be primed and ready to pop. I was willing to bet if Cat wasn’t adopted, that somewhere in her family tree there was a horny, irresponsible ware who’d graced the bed of one of her ancestors.
The ins and outs of Cat’s lineage, as fascinating as they might be, didn’t matter right now. Getting these women to safety did. I’d deal with the rest later. What was paramount was protecting the omega from Kane, a very dangerous ware who couldn’t be trusted with a pet snake, let alone such an important female shifter.
However, getting the women away from the members of Los Lobos was going to be easier said than done. Kane’s brothers were already swarming us. Scenting blood in the water, they were all breathing hard and edging closer by the second. I couldn’t let that happen. Not with Cat’s very life on the line.
Concentrating hard, I tuned-in my pack, sending the mental signal that there was trouble. I could read that Mad Dog was already inside, doubtlessly trying to pick up Kierston. It was plain as day the man had the biggest hard-on for the littlewitch, though he wasn’t ready to admit it yet. If I was lucky, my tough-as-nails brother had come with backup. Either way, three against nine was significantly better odds than two.
Wares didn’t have the typical kind of telepathy you see on TV. At least, not when they weren’t in wolf form. That was when our bond was strongest and clearest. However, when we were in our human bodies, we could still communicate with one another. Though not with exact words, we could express a wide range of emotions: anger, fear, or, when necessary, a call to arms.
Immediately, I felt my brothers light up my circuits with their answering battle cries. They were on their way. Whether that meant minutes or hours, I couldn’t tell. Lucky for me, Mad Dog busted out the back door right then, his meaty fists clenched meaningfully at his sides.
“What the fuck do we have here?” My intimidating brother shouted, his teeth bared openly to our aggressors.
Kane’s gang closed ranks, and the arrogant man smirked with satisfaction. “Three against nine. I like those odds.”
“A piece of shit coward like you would,” Mad Dog fired back.
Kierston poked her head out the back door then. “You boys need some help?”
Her arrival made the men think twice about pouncing. Though a ware could easily overpower a witch, they were, in general, incredibly leery of them. It was their unknown abilities and spell casting prowess they feared. The members of Los Lobos were no exception to that rule. The men began to shuffle nervously in place, waiting for their leader to give them their next instruction.
“Go inside, Kierston,” Mad Dog bellowed over his shoulder. “This has nothing to do with you!”
Kierston huffed dramatically at his overprotective reprimand. “This is my bar, Nathaniel!” she said, using Mad Dog’s given name instead of his road name, as she always did. “Have you forgotten that small fact? A fight on my property haseverythingto do with me.”
“See these two get safely into their vehicles. Pronto!” I commanded, leaving the women in Kierston’s capable hands.
Kierston tightly bobbed her chin. “Will do, Ace.”
Cat gave me one last wide-eyed glance before Kierston led them back into the safety of the bar. I could tell my girl wanted to say more, but she was savvy enough to realize how dangerous the current situation was and so kept her mouth shut.
Once the women were gone, we focused our attention fully on Kane and his crew. I’d find my mate as soon as I’d painted the pavement with the fresh blood of these bastards.
“You’re not supposed to be on Night Stalker territory, Kane,” I growled, as I watched Mad Dog and Domino begin to bow up, getting ready for a fight.
“Oh yeah?” Kane did a quick visual sweep of his men, scattered in a horseshoe around us. “What are you going to do about it, Ace?”
I heard them before I saw them. In the distance, the sound of one, then two, then several more howls rent the night. They must have been only a few miles away when they’d gotten my “message”. Over the horizon, I saw their headlights like torches in the dark leading the way. My pack had arrived.
I grinned at my enemy then. “It’s not whatI’mgoing to do you, Kane. It’s what mypackis going to do to your pack. And it’s been a long time coming.”
CHAPTER 4
Cat
“This way,” Kierston ordered, ushering us toward the front door that had been locked as soon as the last customer had been kicked out.
With a series of quick movements, the no-nonsense bartender unfastened the varied safeguards and led us out to the front lot where Anna’s beaten down Honda was parked.
