49. Remy

REMY

It was a fucking setup.

I just knew it.

I could feel it in my bones. That hair rising on the back of the neck feeling multiplied a thousandfold, my alpha rushing, biting, tearing for a fight.

Wrong, everything was wrong. I knew the second I saw Hazel's location veering west. Away from me.

I didn't know how fast Ben and Aleks could get away from the hospital.

All I could do was speed towards that little dot on the map, pulsing with the smiling face of the love of my life. Praying she would be safe when I got there.

I answered the phone immediately when Aleks called.

"Ben wants an update," he said abruptly.

"Just crossed the river," I replied, weaving dangerously between traffic. "I don't know how they did it but they had to fucking know the protest would keep us from her."

"We've left but we're way behind you. The protest is over and the roads are back to normal, though." A pause. "Ben drives like a maniac, by the way."

"Do you want to get there or not?" I heard Ben yell in the background.

"Remind him that both of you are useless to Hazel if you're dead from a head-on collision," I told him morbidly.

"Tell him yourse—"

There was the muffled sound of the phone being grabbed.

"Remy."

My back instinctively straightened.

God, it was weird having a prime. Some primordial part of my brain lit up. I was an assault weapon, ready to be unleashed for my pack.

"You can beat the alpha fuckhead who thinks he can take our girl."

My hands gripped the steering wheel tighter. Motivation churned through my veins like gasoline.

"Remy!"

"Yeah, I got it," I snapped. I could visualise my vengeance and bloody fists so vividly. "He's fucking dead."

"Good. We'll see you there."

Then he hung up.

It was amazing how little I cared for my own wellbeing as I threw myself out of the car. There was a silver sedan parked in the driveway.

I had a flash of it flying down a city intersection and Hazel standing in the middle of the road petrified.

This is the bastard who tried to run Hazel over.

My peripheral vision vanished entirely, my alpha focused only on obliterating every obstacle that stood between him and his omega.

The path to the front door was lined with large rocks. I picked one up, hefting it to get a feel of the weight in my hands before bringing it down hard on the glass window beside the door. Once. Twice. It shattered on the third. I tossed off my jacket, wrapping it around my arm and reaching through to unlock the door.

My heart pounded, liquid and viscous in my ears as I entered. Each step brought a greater sense of dread than the last. I could hear voices arguing nearby.

Dead. They're all fucking dead.

I turned the corner to the worst thing I'd ever seen.

I finally laid eyes on the alpha who had been tormenting her. Cursing as he looked to be trying to salvage a bent syringe, failing to insert it into a vial. And then there was Hazel, in the arms of a diminutive older woman who was trying to get her under control.

Because she was completely feral.

"You," the alpha snarled, eyes bulging.

His recognition confused me for a moment. Until I realised he must've watched me with Hazel.

Suddenly, I felt like erasing every trace of us online simply because this fucker got that small piece of us.

I caught sight of a second empty vial on the floor.

"What the fuck have you done to her?" I roared.

He followed my gaze and sneered. "Fucking bitch went feral from the first shot and—"

I never did get to find out what Hazel did to prevent them from administering the second shot because I'd punched him in his smug fucking mouth.

He was much bigger than me and I did not have it in me to care.

I started to care a little bit more when he lunged at me, letting his whole bodyweight take us both to the floor. He used his size to full advantage, keeping me on the defence as we grappled. It wasn't a modern alpha contest, our dominance surging through our blows like savages.

He split my lip.

I blackened his eye in return.

I welcomed the pain of his skull tearing open my knuckles. His blood mingled with mine between my fingers, making my blows slippery.

His hand shot out and found my throat. The right pressure in the wrong place and my strength drained out of me. I choked and he squeezed tighter.

No.

Alarm bells rang uselessly in my head as his face grew blurry above me. He was relentless, no matter how hard I scratched and pulled at his grip.

Hazel needs you.

My fingers frantically tried to find a weak spot on his face, neck, anywhere to try and stop the claustrophobia creeping in, the oxygen snatched from my lungs before it was too late and—

Suddenly a foot appeared from above me, landing directly on my attacker's jaw. His neck snapped back from the force of the blow and he rolled off me with a pained groan. Air rushed back down my windpipe and the darkening spots cleared from my vision.

"Get the fuck off my packmate."

Holy shit. The sheer power behind Ben's bark was staggering, my alpha wincing at the collateral damage. I coughed, raw and violent, trying to get my breathing back to normal.

The asshole laughed. Laughed.

"She was begging for me," he taunted us. "Showed me her neck. May as well have spread those whore legs of h—"

There was a sickening crunch. The sound was so visceral, bone and gore and flesh. I glanced back to see blood pouring from the other alpha's nose. Ben inhaled quietly and the atmosphere of the entire room grew thin.

"Quiet," Ben commanded him.

Like a dog.

Still unsatisfied, Ben applied his thumbs almost clinically and with a firm push, drove the bone shards deeper into the exposed membranes of his face. The alpha let out a bloodcurdling scream.

"Do not touch what is mine," Ben seethed.

A grunted whimper escaped from the pitiful lump and I felt his will crumble.

Ben held his hand out for me and I grabbed it, letting him help me up. His gaze swept over me, growing harder as he catalogued my injuries.

"I'm fine." I brushed him off.

Ben didn't accept this. "It's important to me that you're ok too, Remy."

His arm remained around my side to keep me steady.

"You can't take her!"

Aleks was trying to get to Hazel. But her mother was screeching and kicking, truthfully doing more harm to herself than anyone else. Hazel hissed and spat, fighting against her mother's hold.

"Look at your daughter," Aleks said, his tone measured. "She needs medical attention. I'm a nurse and Ben over here is a doctor."

Hazel's mother snivelled, her gaze bouncing between them.

"We work at St. Elizabeths." A name tag was produced. "See?"

"I only wanted the best for her," she wailed.

Aleks nodded sympathetically. "Of course you did. So let us help."

She finally released Hazel, who skittered away from all of us with a low whine. Aleks crouched low as he approached her, offering her his wrist. She sniffed it suspiciously, but allowed Aleks to slowly move closer until he lifted her easily into his arms. Something in my chest constricted watching her lay her head on his shoulder.

Aleks turned to Hazel's mother. "We'll let you know when she's feeling better, ok?"

Her eyes glimmered with gratitude. "Thank you."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. But as Aleks brushed past me, a sea of emotion surged tumultuously behind his blue eyes.

"She is never coming near Hazel ever again," he promised darkly.

The four of us stumbled out of that house free and alive.

Yet it felt like our nightmare was only just beginning.