Chapter 15

Ranger is back by the time I exit the bathroom. He and Laken are sitting on opposite beds, refusing to make eye contact with one another.

"We'll be leaving in less than an hour," he says, swiping his curly brown hair back from his eyes as he stands. "You will be coming with me to my home in Virginia. I suggest you quit pouting and look in the duffel bag. It has basic necessities." He gestures to the bag in question that's tossed near her feet. "I need to coordinate with the others."

"Do you plan to put on clothing?" Laken asks in a sassy tone that makes me do a double take. "Or are you so desperate to escape my presence that you're planning to stay in your pajamas all day?"

Ranger goes rigid, and his head tilts animalistically.

He finally spins to face me. "Every time you exit the room, fall asleep, or take a shower, she attempts to contact people from her old life. I've tried to convey how dangerous that is for anyone she truly cares about, but the woman clearly doesn't hear a word I say." He strides over, grabs his bag, and disappears into the bathroom. "Don't take your eyes off her. The next successful phone call she makes will cost you three days in my basement." He sticks his head back out, giving Laken a cutting smile. "If you're fond of Tanner, I can't imagine you'll want to see him punished for your sins. Consider this a lesson to the both of you in how I do business."

"I'm probably going to end up stabbing him," she says as the bathroom door closes.

My eyes widen.

Holy shit.

What the hell did I sign up for when I left Vegas?

"Listen," I growl, stomping over to Ranger's side as he stands, talking to his sister. "I don't know what your problem is, but she's not a prisoner. If she wants to talk to her friends and family to let them know she's alive, that's her right."

Annika snorts, glancing between me and Ranger. "He has no tact. None. Occasionally, you'll see a glimmer and think maybe he's not as awful as you've made him out to be, but you'd be wrong."

"Not a single person reported her missing," Ranger says. "That tells me all I need to know. Jobs and apartments are replaceable. Do you know what's not, Tanner?"

I stare at the psycho, blinking in pure bewilderment.

"No one reported her missing?" I look over my shoulder at the omega in question.

She's in the back seat of one of the SUVs, glaring murderously at Ranger.

Shit.

I hope that look isn't directed at me too.

"Her life cannot be replaced once snuffed out," Ranger says in his cold tone. "And yes, not one person filed a missing person's report for Laken."

"She's still fragile from being kidnapped," I say, trying to talk some sense into him. "If you make her feel like she escaped one set of captors only to end up with another, she's going to hate all of us. It'll only be a matter of time before she tries to run."

"God, don't tell him that," Annika says, laughing. "I'm pretty sure that's how I ended up married to Cas. You never know who he'll try to pawn her off on."

I take a step back.

These people are fucking insane.

"She's nearing her heat. We need to get somewhere safe and fortified while we wait to see where Adair and Kurran ran to." Ranger clasps his hands in front of his waist. "Maverick and Gunner will be returning to Virginia with us to help keep watch, in case the Barretts make a move. You're either on my team or you're not. Which is it, Tanner?"

"Does talking to him always feel like one of those code puzzles that no one bothered giving you the answer key to?" I ask Annika.

She laughs, slapping me on the shoulder. "You're finally starting to get the hang of it."

Ranger grips his sister's wrist, removing her hand from my back. "Don't touch Tanner. It appears the little omega has claimed him as her own. We're currently in a stalemate, but she hasn't made any additional phone calls since I threatened his life."

Annika laughs. "Yeah, she doesn't seem ready to be friends with me just yet. Not that I don't get why, but I can't wait to see how she reacts to you bringing her home with you to find that another omega lives in your house."

"Why would she care about Kate?" Ranger growls, spinning in a circle. "I feel even less like I understand humanity than I did yesterday, and it's beginning to infuriate me!"

"Oh, you poor, clueless boy," Annika says, laughing. "This is going to be fun to watch."

I ignore them as my heart races, and I move to look at Laken once more.

I grin, giving her a wave.

She jolts, glancing away, like she can't believe she got caught creeping on me.

Huh.

I don't hate the idea of being claimed by her.

Not one little bit.

The drive takes all damn day. It's already dark by the time we get into Virginia, and there are still several hours left to make it to Ranger's home. We started out as a convoy of five or six SUVs, but that has naturally been weaned down to just two vehicles sticking together for stops. Maverick and Gunner with their dogs in one, and Ranger, Laken, me, and the two guys up front in the other.

Ranger and Laken have done an excellent job of pretending the other doesn't exist...

All damn day.

She also refuses to sit in the second row next to him. So, she and I have been trapped in the back together for the entire drive.

Not that I mind, but I did kinda run away from her this morning.

It's hard not to facepalm when I think about it.

My teeth were aching with the urge to bite her, and my dick was a sticky, leaking mess, trying to convince me she was ready to be bred.

There's something next-level about being around a scent match.

I've never experienced anything like it.

Things might be a little tense between us, since neither knows where we stand with the other, but it's not uncomfortable.

Continually throughout the drive, I've found her scooting closer to me.

It's an incredible feeling because when she stretches to the other side of her seat, I find myself extending a hand to link our fingers together.

I've never interacted this closely with an omega. I guess it could be a result of her approaching heat.

Alpha and omega biology is wild, but I have the innate urge to constantly be touching her. If we're not, I get itchy and anxious until I give in and seek her out all over again.

Laken is dead asleep, wrapped up with a blanket and pillow that Ranger procured for the trip, but the longer we travel, the warmer she seems. She's not as hot as she was this morning, but it's a little concerning that her fevers will get worse the closer she gets to starting her heat.

I'll do whatever I can to help her through, but it's common knowledge that omegas need packs.

Back when single-couple pairings were more common, omegas often suffered because one partner wasn't enough to meet their sexual needs.

Ranger might be an option for an extra body.

There's some serious sexual chemistry going on there, but they're both stubborn, and they clearly got their wires crossed somewhere.

I mean, he ran away from her this morning, too, while telling me to take care of her, like he's not an alpha fully capable of doing the same.

Laken grunts in her sleep, nuzzling her face closer to my pec. She's slept on and off throughout the drive, but this time, she's all up on me while she does it. I've got the air vents blowing directly on us, but I'm still burning up with how warm she is.

I tighten my arm around her shoulder, running my fingers down her inner wrist to see if she's hotter than the last time I checked.

She groans, jolting awake. Her head tilts until she's staring at my face, and her face morphs from terrified to a look of relief. "Hey, sorry. I forgot where I was for a minute."

I sigh, shaking my head.

I hope she wasn't dreaming she was trapped in that fucking trunk.

"How are you feeling?" I ask, keeping my voice low.

She doesn't answer. Instead, she twists until she can throw her left leg over both of mine. I scoot a little closer to the middle, so her knee won't be squished, and my hands land on her hips.

Ranger procured a decent wardrobe for her, but it was all freshly purchased, and she mentioned the dress she's in felt itchy. It seems soft as I run my hands over her backside.

Laken pushes up on her knees and grabs the blanket, wrapping it around her back before burying her face in my throat.

I tilt my head down. "You doing okay down there, firecracker?"

"Yeah." Her fingers dig into my clavicle as she snuggles deeper.

It makes me feel like a king.

It's got to be that alpha pride thing people always talk about, but it's true. Having her close to me, looking to me for safety, it hits every button I didn't know I had.

It all goes back to the dynamics between alphas and omegas. They look to us for security and comfort, and we're more than happy to provide it. In return, they calm our aggressive tendencies.

A burning feeling slams into the side of my head. It's obviously Ranger glaring like he can wish my brain to melt inside my skull.

I roll my eyes and look his way.

My face conveys that he told me to take care of her, but more than that. If he doesn't like it, that's too fucking bad. I'm not trying to care for her out of obligation.

Sure, Laken and I don't know each other well yet, but I'm attracted to her. She went through some shit, but she's still strong.

If she needs a shoulder to cry on, then I've got two.

"I'm sorry for getting you in trouble with Ranger," she whispers close to my ear. "I also want to be honest with you about something. Before I was kidnapped, I had a date scheduled with a guy that I kinda like."

My gut twists at her words.

I don't like the idea that I was just a convenient alpha around to make her come when she was going through a wave of heat.

Despite what everyone thinks, I'm not stupid. I get that our close proximity was part of it, but I thought we had some kind of connection.

"And I like you too. A lot, in fact." Her lips ghost over my throat, then her tongue darts out, flicking over my skin. "I didn't love it when you ran away from me earlier. It brought back some bad memories. My last boyfriend cheated on me…" She huffs. "Probably more than once. And I always felt like I was more into him than he was me. I don't want to do that again."

"Seriously?" I scoff. "That guy was a dumbass." That might have been a cop out. If I don't tell her where my head is, she's going to feel even more isolated. "I haven't spent a whole lot of time around omegas, and it threw me for a loop when my impulses were screaming to bite you. There were some other things they were trying to convince me to do, but I want to take the time to get to know you."

"Yeah?" she whispers and moves to suck on my earlobe.

"Absolutely." I run my hand down her back. "Everything is kinda rushed because of your heat, but I want to go at our own pace if we can."

"I'd like that too. You have good energy, Tanner. Not to mention, you make me feel really safe." Her arms slide around my back, and she hugs me.

There's something seriously wrong with me when it feels more intimate to hold her while she snuggles to my chest than it did to make her come on my hand.

"So, this other guy… Should I be worried? Is he a threat to steal you away from me?"

"Locke?" She chuckles. "No, we haven't even been on a date, but we are friends. He works as personal security for the ex I told you about. He didn't really interact with me much until Will and I broke up. Then he turned up to save me from a couple sketchy situations. I guess I just trust him, you know?"

I nod.

That doesn't sound terrible.

If anything, we probably have a lot in common. Running full-time security can take over your life if you let it. It's hard to make connections and find time to meet people when your job is live-in style. You basically go where your client goes, and that's that.

I twist my head to speak directly against her ear and still whisper, "He's who you called?"

She nods. "Yeah. I just needed someone to know I'm alive."

Ranger sits facing the front of the moving SUV, and I glare at the back of his head. I barely know him, but I do know he's stubborn. He should sit and actually talk to her instead of barking orders.

She hasn't freaked out and tried to call the cops to be rid of us. She also hasn't tried to run. Letting someone know she's alive feels like the bare minimum he can offer her, considering how screwed up this entire situation has been.

If he doesn't learn how to communicate, it's going to be a wild ride.