Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

Goldie

At some point after my orgasm-induced stupor, my mates carried me back to the cottage. I missed the entire walk here, but I’m wide awake now, as Kylan sinks into the warmth of the bath with me in his arms. I tilt my head in consideration, frowning when I realize he is back in his human form. Aldair and Cillian join, the latter of the two chuckling when he sees my displeasure.

“We won’t all fit if we are in our other forms, golden girl,” Cillian says, before grabbing a cloth and soaping it up. “Don’t be greedy.”

“Oh.” I guess he has a point. As it is, we barely fit now, and they’re all at least a foot shorter like this. The bubbles in the water hide their cocks from my view, something I really dislike. My fever has calmed, for now, but my heat will hit soon, and I’ll be a mindless puddle of slick, begging for my Alpha’s cocks.

I consider taking advantage of our nakedness, but Aldair narrows his eyes.

“You need a bath and some rest. You just took three very large Alpha knots for the first time.”

“Practice makes perfect. I am fairly certain we should test that theory. Plus, Omega’s like smelling like cum during their heat,” I sass. “It calms the fever and the need to nest.” I lift my brow, and Aldair’s eyes go wide.

“Oh fuck,” he grunts, and I chuckle.

“It’s okay. I’m not fully in my heat yet. I will be soon, though. The blankets from the cave nest should help with the need for your scents.” I’m working mostly off instinct here, and the little I was able to learn from my elderly neighbor, Orla, when I was younger.

“Vixen,” Cillian teases, shaking his head at my sass.

Since I won’t be convincing them to partake in sexy times, I decide to let them pamper me. Ky’s body provides the perfect seat as they wash me. Using his fingers to delve into my hair, he works suds from root to tip before carefully rinsing the suds away. Cill washes my body with careful strokes, gently cupping a hand to my core while he cleans between my legs. Aldair’s firm pressure on the arches of my feet have me melting back into the Alpha behind me before he works up my calves. By the time they finish worshiping my body with their care, I am not sure if I want to focus on the slick building in my core or take another nap.

When we get out, Aldair brushes my hair, while Kylan rubs an oil on my skin. Cillian carries me out of the bathroom after dressing me in sleep pants and a shirt.

Our bubble of happiness is burst by a loud barking at the cave door entrance. I yelp, startled by the sound. My men pause, as the barking becomes more insistent. Kylan places me carefully on my feet and then steps in front of me. He keeps one hand behind him, gently holding me to his broad back, blocking my attempts to see around his body.

That is, until Cillian opens the door, and Alma’s old hound dog, Fox, charges in. He barks three times, and lies down on the floor by the door, panting. There’s a long stretch of silence, before all three of my men gasp.

“Ma!” They shift before my eyes, returning to their monstrous forms.

“Stay here, Goldie!” Aldair uses his Alpha bark on me, adding force to it, before pressing a kiss to my head. “We’ll return as soon as we can.” I’m frozen in place, as Kylan gives me a long look and follows his brother.

“I can tell by the fire in your eyes that the second you break free of the Alpha’s command, you’re going to follow us. Please, don’t. We only want to keep you safe.” Cillian kisses my cheek and then follows his brothers on clawed feet.

“But who will keep you safe?” I whisper as a tear falls down my cheek. I reach for the bonds that connect us, but I can’t hear any of their thoughts. We must be too far apart, or our bonds are too new. I’m not sure which.

I catch movement out of the corner of my eye when Fox ambles over to me. His speckled coat has mud in spots from his mad dash from Alma’s cottage. When his wet nose nudges the tips of my fingers as he checks me over, I can barely twitch my fingers at first, but manage to soothe along his snout. I can tell that he’s full of worry about Alma and the guys, but he's too worn out to try to chase them down.

“Don’t worry, old boy… Rest up.”

Cillian was right about one thing, though. I’m not sitting here and waiting for them to return.

I shake off the lingering effects of Aldair’s bark, and head out back. Walking up to the stump by the wood shop, I grab the ax, and then head through the house to the tunnel. I know their speed will have them nearly there, so I can’t waste any time.

Bear is standing at the fence with his ears forward like he's been waiting for me. He can tell something is wrong. He saw my guys leave, and no doubt at least heard Fox barking.

“They’re headed for Alma’s,” I tell him, as I sheath the ax in the holster on the saddle meant for holding a hunting bow and arrow. Once it’s secure, I climb up. My senses are stronger, even more than they were outside the cave just a few hours ago. Taking a deep breath, I can smell the fear that laces my Alpha’s scents.

In the distance, I can hear sounds I can’t quite identify. Things I shouldn’t be able to hear.

“Let's go,” I say, as Bear and I take off into the forest.

I’ve only traveled this way once, but I follow the scents and sounds. On horseback, it doesn’t take long to make it to Alma’s, but it feels like time stretches on. Once I’m close enough, I pull Bear to a stop, jump down, and grab my ax.

“Go back to the cottage, I’ll be okay,” I whisper. We’re far enough away that I can’t be seen or heard, but I don’t want to blow my cover. Bear huffs at me, stomping his hoof. I don’t have time to argue with an animal though. “Fine, but if anyone besides me, or my Alpha’s, approaches you, you better run. Or kick them. Unless it’s a small old lady who looks like me, okay?” I lift my chin and steel my spine.

I can hear the chaos through the trees, but there are too many noises and voices for me to understand what anyone says.

As I approach the treeline, I spot several villagers. The man who cares for the hounds shouts at them, and I shift my hands on the worn handle for a better grip, then raise my ax, ready to fight. He’s got his back turned to me, and I can see another of Aunt Alma’s hounds in a stand-off against one of his hounds. He lets out a loud whistle, then shouts.

“I won’t put their lives at risk! Not for you, and not for this! This isn’t right!” He’s yelling at someone. The rancid scent in the air tells me Donald is here, even if I can’t see the small fucker yet. “Retreat! Kennels!” he yells, and as his hounds disengage and start running away, he spins around and right into me. His eyes are wide, as he spots my weapon.

“Go,” I hiss, nodding my head toward his hounds. He holds his hands up in defense.

“I’ll remember your mercy.” The Beta tips his head to me and then bolts. I watch him with narrowed eyes as he flees. Once I’m sure he won’t return, I turn back to Alma’s cottage.

There’s so much happening, and I’m frozen, unsure who to help first. Kylan has my father pinned to a tree, Aldair is fighting off three of Donald’s men, trying not to kill them, for whatever reason, while Alma punches my stepmother in the face. Cillian shouts at her, as three more men with weapons try to corner him. One of them looks between Donald and Cillian, a deep frown in his brow. For whatever reason, he doesn’t seem completely horrified by the sight of three monsters. I’ve seen the six of them around the village, but two of them aren’t usually involved with Donald…

I don’t spot Donald until it’s too late though. At the same moment that I scream Alma’s name, he grabs a fist full of her hair, and presses a knife to her throat.

“Stop! Freeze, or she dies!” Donald shouts, using his weak ass Alpha bark. It has no effect on any of us, but his words themselves do. I charged forward when I saw him lunge for her, and his eyes are glued to me now. “We all know why I’m here.”

“Release me, you fucking beast!” my father shouts, but I can’t take my eyes off Alma. Ky remains silent. Aldair and Cillian are surrounded, and I can see my stepmother getting to her feet. When she pulls back, and punches Alma, Donald chuckles.

I lunge forward, but Donald presses the knife tighter to her throat, forcing me to freeze.

“Drop the ax,” he hisses.

“Don’t do it, Goldie!” Alma cries, but Donald draws blood when he shakes her.

“Shut the fuck up, you stupid bitch,” he barks at her, and her mouth snaps shut, but she’s begging me with her eyes still. But I can’t let him hurt her. She doesn’t know I can heal faster now. That I’m stronger. Neither does Donald. Something I’m counting on.

“Goldie…” Aldair hisses, still surrounded by the villagers he was trying to fight off without killing.

“Should have ripped their heads off,” I hiss right back, and even though my men have enhanced hearing, I make sure I say it loud enough for them to hear too. Donald’s four henchmen all stare at me with wide eyes and smartly take a step away from my men. Two of them simply cross their arms over their chests and remain silent. They hadn’t gotten close to my men with their weapons… What the fuck is happening?

“Come here,” Donald snaps, and I hold his eyes as I take several steps toward him, but drop my gaze to the forest floor. I don’t want to give away my plan.

Once I’m within arm’s reach, Donald tosses Alma aside and reaches for me. With a fist in my hair, he yanks me until I’m bent backward into him. I’m five or six inches taller than him at least. Tiny fucking asshole.

His other hand still holds the knife, and he presses it to my throat now. I grip his wrist in front of me, not using all my strength. Not yet.

“There is nowhere you could have run to, to escape what awaits. You are mine, you stupid bitch,” he screams as his spit hits my face. This walking testicle is such a waste of space. I’ll be damned if I stay quiet anymore.

“No, you stupid fuck, I’m not.” I smile saccharinely while tilting my head to the side. “I’m theirs.”

I’m not afraid of this fucking micro Alpha bitch. Not anymore. Not ever again.

“Trust me,” I tell my men through our bond, “get ready,” I add. I can tell the moment he sees the healing marks upon my neck that shows he is too late. His face turns purple in outrage.

“Now Goldie!” Aldair shouts in my mind, and we move as one. Cillian rushes over to scoop up Alma, and carries her to safety, at the same time that Aldair charges Donald, knocking aside the men that had been attempting to corner him. In a swift move, I break Donald’s wrist, smiling when he screams in pain, before slamming my head back straight into his nose. He falls backward and right into my mate’s waiting claws.

My stepmother smartly tries to retreat, but Aldair’s bark has power, and she’s no match for his dominance.

“No one move!” he snarls, but Donald fights the dominance and tries to escape the deadly hold of my monstrous mate. He’s two feet taller, and three hundred pounds of pure muscle larger. Donald has no hope of fighting him off. My father, the only other Alpha here that I know of, also continues to fight. Even though he’s significantly larger than Donald, he’s no match for Kylan.

“I should have taken you when your mother failed!” Donald screams. “I knew your father was incapable of breaking you! I should have done it myself! You were of childbearing age five years ago. I should have had you then! I never should have listened to you, Patrick!”

“Fuck you, Donald,” my father snaps, shocking me. He’s a man of few words, and I’ve never heard him speak to Donald like that in the past.

I can’t see the man around the shoulders of my massive mate. My mind spins as I try to decipher the puny Alpha’s meaning. As Aldair’s Alpha bark wears off, the men Donald brought with him try to retreat, that is until two of them shift.

The two men now in monster forms similar to my Alpha’s, grab the other four men by the napes of their necks.

“Not so fucking fast,” one of them says.

The shock of this draws everyone up short.

“I fucking knew it,” Aldair hisses, glaring at the one who had been fighting him when I first arrived. “I couldn’t tell which one of you it was. Your scent is familiar.” Aldair easily holds Donald off the ground as he looks at the two new monsters.

“Well, this is interesting,” Cillian says darkly, as he sets Ma on her feet. My stepmother has used the distraction to her advantage and makes her way to my father’s side. To Kylan’s side. A flash of metal is the only warning I have as she tries to kill my mate. Kylan snarls, catching her hand before she can fucking stab him. Cillian and I move as one, but I’m closer. I snatch the knife from her restrained hand, and backhand her so hard she stumbles, before falling.

Cill reaches down and grabs a fistful of her hair, lifting her off her feet.

“I should bite your fucking head off,” he snarls in her face, and the scent of her urine fills the air.

“We’ll deal with you two in a moment,” Aldair growls at the new monsters. Now that I know everyone I love is safe, I’m frozen in place. The knife in my hands falls to the ground, as my hands shake.

“What do you mean, when my mother failed?” My voice trembles, betraying the emotions that rise inside me. I turn to face Donald. He looks so pathetic, dangling several feet off the ground.

“She was my payment! The consolation for the loss of my mate! Your aunt disappeared in the night,” Donald spits, and I turn to look at Alma, who frowns, before shaking her head.

“Not me,” she whispers. “Paisley…”

“Your father’s sister! He helped her escape, so I took your mother as revenge. I didn’t expect the Omega bitch to fight me! She did it to herself, it’s her fault she hit her head…” Donald spits.

“And you just let him take my mother?!” I scream at my father, moving around Kylan, so I can see the Alpha I spent most of my life hiding from.

“No! No, Goldie,” my father’s eyes fall closed, and when he opens them, he speaks to Aldair. “You’re her mates,” he says, but it’s not a question. “If I tell her the truth, Donald must die.”

“He’s already dead,” Cillian snarls, and Aldair simply nods. And even though Donald fights against Aldair’s hold, it’s a useless fight.

“He took your mother when I wasn’t home. I didn’t know until after she was dead. I flew into a rage, hunted Donald down, intending to kill him. I found Talia instead.” My father glances at the Beta, trembling on the forest floor. “She knew where my sister was. Threatened to tell Donald how to find Paisley if I didn’t marry her. I had already lost my mate… I would have killed them both, but she had already told someone, told me if I killed her, that person would reveal Paisley’s location to Donald.”

“That doesn’t explain why you didn’t simply kill Donald,” Kylan says calmly, but his shoulders shake with tension.

“I’m not powerful, influential, or important in our village. Murder is a crime. I’d have been hung, leaving Goldie to a worse fate. At least I was able to keep her out of the hands of the vile men of the village,” my father snaps, and I scoff.

“You beat me. You were one of those vile men!” I cry, tears stinging my eyes.

“I needed you to hate me. You needed to believe there was nothing for you in that village. You couldn’t leave behind a horse. Would you have left me behind if you believed I was anything more than this,” he lifts his arms, but I shake my head.

“You’re not the victim. You had a choice, and you chose to hurt me. To let her hurt me,” I whisper, and my father nods.

“I never claimed to be the victim. I did what I thought was best. The only thing I knew I could do. I bought you that horse. Taught you to take care of yourself. I had hoped you would have run sooner. I was going to kill him during the ceremony, hoping that you’d finally fucking run. Donald wanted to take you when you were four. Then again, at sixteen when you bled for the first time. I convinced him to wait until you were old enough for your first heat. That I could break you enough to make you submissive to him. I only hit you when Talia got suspicious of my intentions. I sacrificed you to save my sister. I’m sorry. I accepted my fate long ago. This only ends one way.” My father’s head falls back against the tree Ky has him pinned to, and I swipe at the tears on my cheeks as fury burns through me.

He helped his sister escape her fate, but he couldn’t do the same for me. Not really. All because of Talia and Donald.

“Rip her fucking throat out,” I whisper. My men know who I’m talking about. There’s only one woman here besides Alma and me.

They can feel my pain and fury through the bond.

Cillian doesn’t hesitate. She doesn’t even have time to scream, before the scent of her blood, and the sounds of her choking on it fill the air.

My father doesn’t even blink at her dead body. He just stares up at the trees.

Donald killed my mother. He tried to rape her, and when she resisted, he killed her for it. I turn to him. He’s gone pale.

He must know he’s next. He’s finally realized he’s not in control, and there’s no one left to stop us.

“Alma?” I say, staring Donald in the eyes, as the older woman steps up beside me. “He killed your sister. You knew her longer than I did.” I turn to look at her, seeing the pain I feel mirrored in her eyes. “Do you want to…” I trail off as the sob gets stuck in my throat, the pain in my chest rising.

“I can’t,” Alma whispers, and I nod, understanding. I walk over to the small man I used to be so terrified of.

“I’m going to break your spine, and then I’m going to tie you to the back of my horse, ride into the forest, and leave you there to die. Your rotted corpse will be all that's left of you, once you die slowly and in pain,” I spit in his face, and Aldair turns Donald’s back to me. With my newfound strength, I punch his spin, his body going limp after the sickening crack that rings out. As if he was waiting for me, Bear trots into view. Donald’s screams ring out, filling the forest. Aldair tosses him to the forest floor, beside Talia’s dead body.

“You're a ruthless little Omega.” Cillian grins, but pulls me into his arms, holding me in a comforting embrace.

“You can drop him,” I say to Kylan through our bond, who nods, releases my father, and steps away. The older Alpha frowns as he stumbles back against the tree.

“If I ever see you again, I’ll let my mates end you.” I meet his eyes, so he knows I mean every word. “Don’t mistake my mercy for weakness. Never come back.”

“You sure, golden girl?” Cillian asks through the bond.

“Why?” Patrick asks, and I sigh.

“You did everything wrong. You should have protected me. You never should have hurt me. But you were trying to protect me, and your sister, even if you fucked it all up.” I shake my head, more tears falling. “I don’t know what I would have done in your shoes. Maybe you did the only thing you could to keep me alive. Maybe you’re not the evil bastard I thought you were.” I shrug. “But your actions cost me, and if I was face to face with the man who abused my mate, I’d kill him, regardless of his excuses. So run, or I’ll let them kill you right here and now.”

For the first time in the last sixteen years, I see real emotion on my father's face, as he cracks, and breaks before my eyes.

“Goodbye, Goldie,” he whispers, before turning, and jogging out of sight.