Chapter Twenty

Aziz

I called Hammer the second I got the message.

He and the others, minus the lion, got here in minutes flat. "What is it?" Hammer asked, coming in and pouring coffee.

"They have Jack. Goliath has Jack. And it came from the same number as the threats beforehand. I have to call them, but I wanted everyone present. I need witnesses."

"We're here. Go ahead and call. Let's nail this fucker for messing with one of our own." Hammer was right. Jack was our family now. I knew that he was my family, but now he was all of our family.

I called, and my blood ran cold with what I heard. Bryant could be heard in the background babbling it up, but the sniffles from my mate brought me to the edge of sanity and back again.

"You hear them, Aziz? They are here, waiting for you. Don't worry. We are taking good care of them. We simply wanted to get your attention. We have no desire to hurt the omega or the pup, either of them."

My brothers eyed me but I pushed forward. I would tell them in a few minutes. "Then, what do you want? I'm right here. There was no reason to bring my omega into this."

"We tried, hyena," the person spat. "We sent you a message and then proceeded to send a bigger one with your clan. You ignored us. This, we knew, you would not ignore."

"What do you want? You want me?" I barked at him, my hyena speaking through me.

"We simply want to talk. Negotiate, if you will. As we said, we only did what was required to garner your attention. Are you willing to talk?"

"If I get my family back."

"Oh, you shall. And they will be unharmed as long as you keep to the rules. I will send you the GPS coordinates for the meeting place in two hours. You may come with your ‘team,' as you call them. I'm sure Hammer is listening."

Hammer shook his head.

"Text me whatever your fucking rules are and the place to meet and we are there. And I swear to you, if I find my mate and my son have as much as a hair on their heads out of place, it will be the end of you."

"Mmm…" The asshole let out a low, menacing laugh. "Promises. Promises. Be here on time or there will be no omega to save."

He hung up and, if it weren't for the fact that the phone was my lifeline to my family, I would've thrown it through the damned window.

The room fell silent. The only sounds were the breaths of my brothers. The scent of anger built up until I could barely breathe without internalizing the murderous rage around me.

"Hammer." I looked to our leader not because I didn't know what to do, but he would certainly be more levelheaded than me in this scenario. My hyena wanted to find the fuckers and slit their throats. No negotiations. No conversations. Spill blood and then getting my family out of there. Period.

"Jeremy, you stay here at the omega house. King, you go to the warehouse and do me a favor and call in some of your lion buddies, huh? Just in case."

King nodded and got up, leaving immediately. "Aziz, Tyrus, Mav, the four of us will suit up. We wait for the GPS and, if Mav's dragon will allow it, we ride on him to the destination. I want only minutes if not seconds between when that text comes in and the moment we descend upon them."

Mav nodded. "It's fine with him."

Tyrus cleared his throat. "Aziz?" he asked. "Your omega is expecting?"

"Yes."

Pop-Tart laughed. "Again, we already knew, Aziz. His little tummy pooch is cute…" He held up his hands. "As a friend of his and yours."

"How in the hell am I supposed to wait when he's there. I don't know if they are hurt or hungry or cold…fuck!" I screamed the word and then had to backtrack as I heard the chatter from the other omegas in the house. "Sorry, everyone."

"We are going to go back to the warehouse and suit up. We will be back in less than thirty minutes. We will be ready when it's time. We'll get your omega back. We'll bring your family back, Aziz."

I nodded and marched to our room, trying not to let myself drown in the what-ifs—or my family's scents.

I put on my armor, which would probably be shed in favor of my hyena, went back into the meeting room, and paced like my life depended on it.

Like Jack's life depended on it.

Negotiate, my ass.