Chapter Twenty-Eight
He froze, petrified under the man’s gaze. The Alpha stepped forward, his smooth voice flowing over Danny though he didn’t make out a word of what was said. A hand found his, shaking it, and words were exchanged between Zara and the Alpha. Danny needed to do something, to scream, to run, anything, but he was shocked to silent stillness, a primal fear etched through every bone in his body.
“Come, Danny. I have a flight scheduled for this afternoon. It’s such a pain when we miss our flight window.”
The Alpha had an arm around him, leading him to the door. Desperately, he looked back toward Zara, his eyes pleading. But she’d already turned away, her high-heels clicking loudly on the polished marble floor.
The wolf, Vincent, propelled him out a door and into the garden, his hands tightening around Danny.
“There now, we’re almost to the car my beautiful Omega. I thought I’d lost you, after the thrill of the chase, but here you are again, mine for the taking.”
As they reached the car, Danny tried to struggle, to break free, but Vincent’s hand closed on the back of his neck, twisting viciously before a hand clamped across his mouth, muffling his cry of agony. A shove sent him into the car, his hands going to the back of his neck as Vincent climbed in after him.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll sit down and be quiet,” the Alpha growled as soon as the door shut.
Danny’s hands were shaking, his whole body trembling as he tried to figure out what to do. He dived for the door, pulling on the handle, but it didn’t budge.
“Child locked, just in case you were going to act younger than your age,” Vincent said, as his hands wrapped around Danny’s upper arms and pulled him back onto the seat. One hand let go, brushing across the back of his neck again and he flinched. “That’s right, you don’t want me to hurt you. You’re going to be a good boy for me, aren’t you?”
Mutely, Danny nodded, feeling the first tear slide down his face. Vincent was still holding him, facing away so he couldn’t see the Alpha’s eyes or what he was doing.
“Your scent is so much nicer now. You’re all grown up. I’m only sorry I missed it, the caterpillar maturing into the beautiful butterfly. But soon enough, I’ll have you on your hands and knees and you’ll know just what it is to be an Omega.”
Danny shuddered and let out a sob, remembering what Chris had said. That when he was in heat, any Alpha in proximity would do. If that was true then…
They reached the gate, the car slowing as they waited for the guards to open. There was another car stopped outside and they had to inch past so as not to hit it. Danny reached for the door again, fists banging on the window.
“Help me, let me out!”
Vincent’s arm tightened, yanking him backward with a brutal jerk that had him crying out as pain radiated from his shoulder.
“You’ll pay dearly for that you little—”
The door beside Danny was yanked open with a growl, a familiar face coming into view and he pushed forward desperately.
“Chris!”
The Alpha reached for him as the car started to accelerate. Chris moved with a speed and strength Danny had never seen, dragging him free from the moving car and throwing them both to the pavement as it sped away. The guards from the gate moved toward them but Chris was quicker, lifting Danny up into his arms and putting him into the front passenger seat of the idling car next to them. He vaulted over the bonnet and climbed in the driver’s side, putting the car into gear and reversing away.
“Shit, where did they go?” he said, as they drove. Danny looked too but couldn’t see the car he’d been pulled from.
“Danny, are you hurt?” Chris asked.
“No.” Then, giving it some actual thought. “Just my shoulder. And my neck. He hurt them when I tried to get away.”
“That Alpha, do you know who he was?”
“It was him, the one who…”
“I know, Danny, I recognized the scent. How the hell did you end up in a car with him? Do you know his name?”
“Vincent Hart. They gave me to him. Said I needed an Alpha, and he’d spirit me away somewhere the police couldn’t find me.”
Chris glanced over at him. “You have to be fucking kidding me.”
Danny had no good response to that. It had happened, he’d been there.
“Who? Who handed you over?”
“Mitch made the deal and Zara brought me to him. I… I tried to speak, to say something, but I couldn’t.”
“Christ, Danny. You shouldn’t have needed to. I’m certain your heart rate alone would have given it away if they’d been paying any attention.”
Danny shuddered again, drawing his knees up to his chest. It had been close, too close. His worst nightmare and it had been right there. He’d been right there, put hands on him, hurt him. He whimpered.
“Shh, we’re almost there, Danny. Just hold on, okay?”
Chris’ hand pressed against his knee, there and gone in a moment.
The car slowed and turned, then they were going down, darkness around them as they descended into the parking lot. The car came to a stop and Chris got out, circling around to where Danny sat curled up in the passenger seat.
“Come on, out you come. My place is just upstairs.”
He eased himself out of the seat, watchful and wary, jumping when Chris shut the car door. The Alpha led him up three flights of stairs before opening a door and ushering him inside.
“Here, sit down.” Chris led him to a couch, pushing him down onto it. “I’ll get you a blanket.”
He returned with the promised blanket seconds later, shaking it out and laying it across Danny’s shoulders.
“Where does it hurt?” Chris asked again.
“My shoulder. And my neck. He… he did something.”
“What kind of something?” Chris’ tone was soft and entreating, pulling the words from Danny’s lips.
“He grabbed the skin and twisted. It hurt so much. It still hurts.”
Chris nodded slowly. “Can I take a look? I promise I’ll be gentle.”
Danny nodded, letting go of the blanket with shaking hands. He turned to the side as Chris sat behind him. With one hand, he urged Danny’s head forward, two fingers lightly brushing the back of his neck. Even that slight contact hurt and he winced.
“I’m sorry, Danny. I’m going to check your shoulder now, okay?”
“Okay.”
Chris slipped a hand under Danny’s sweater, feeling his shoulder joint carefully. “It’s not dislocated, just sprained.”
With that he got up, disappearing into the kitchen. He returned with two items wrapped in dishcloths. “One ice pack and one makeshift ice pack, namely, a bag of peas. One for each hurt.”
He helped Danny lie down on the couch, placing one ice pack under his throbbing shoulder and the other against the back of his neck, using a cushion to hold it in place. The cold quickly numbed him, matching how he felt, like there was ice inside, as well as outside, his skin.
Chris paced back and forth beside him, silent except for the tread of his feet on the carpet. To Danny, the sound was oddly soothing, and he drifted off to sleep.
“I get it, Mitch. But there were better ways to do that. Ways that didn’t involve giving a young Omega to the wolf that stalked them and murdered their family. I understand that you didn’t know but look at this from an outside view. A new wolf, recently shifted, and you hand them over to an Alpha they’ve never met. No discussion, no setting up a meeting to see how they get on. A vague ‘just mates on paper’ and you hand them over. You didn’t do your due diligence, Mitch. And you almost got Danny killed.”
Danny sat up, listening intently to the quiet but angry words coming from the kitchen. There was a long sigh before Chris spoke again, his tone resigned.
“I understand, Mitch. And I agree. He needs an Alpha now, there’s no getting around it.”
The next words were lost in a haze of fear and panic. They were going to do it again, give him to another Alpha. No, no, no. He couldn’t. What if they gave him back to Vincent? What if Vincent came for him? He wanted the chase, he wanted—
This time fear didn’t paralyze him, it pushed him into action. Scrambling to his feet, he ran for the door. He was pulled short at the first hurdle, trying to undo the locks and bolt that held the door closed, but it yielded and he ran for the stairs. The footsteps behind him seemed distant as he started down but as his feet hit the first landing, arms wrapped around him.
“Danny? Danny, stop.”
“Let me go! I won’t go back. I won’t. I don’t want to be mated to some stranger. I don’t want to be raped by someone I don’t want because my body won’t say no. I don’t—”
Chris’ hand clamped over his mouth, silencing him. “Shh, Danny. Please. Please, you have to be quiet. It’s dangerous. If the humans hear, if they know you’re here, it would be bad for both of us.”
He quieted, breathing heavily.
Chris lifted his hand and Danny pleaded softly with him. “Please, Chris. Please let me go.”
“Where, Danny? Where would you go that you’d be safe? If you run now, the police will pick you up, you’ll go back to Dale County and somehow or other, you’ll wind up dead. They won’t wait for a trial.”
Defeated, Danny sank to his knees on the floor, feeling the hard stone under him. Chris sighed and picked him up, a hand under Danny’s back and another beneath his knees.
“Are you bringing me back to Mitch, to find me another Alpha?”
“No. I’m bringing you back upstairs.”
Chris was as good as his word, setting Danny down on the couch before retrieving the phone and sitting next to him. He made another call.
“No, Mitch. It’s fine. Danny overheard our conversation and made a bid for freedom before you arranged his next mating. He’s petrified.”
Chris' hand settled on his knee, squeezing gently.
“As I was saying, I understand your reasoning but if Danny needs an Alpha, at least in name, then it won’t be some stranger. Let me talk to him and work something out. I’ll call you back.”
He put down the phone.
“Well, now. Let’s go back a bit. I had a visit from Will last week. He and Jake were worried about you. I was on my way to Eden this morning to see you. Colin called just as I got there and told me where you’d been taken. He’s got good instinct and he was worried. I tried to call Mitch but couldn’t get a hold of him. I thought the whole thing was just a bit strange, so I decided to pay a visit and see what was going on. I’m very glad I did.”
Danny tugged at a loose string on the blanket, pulling it free.
“You were coming to see me?”
“I knew you were having a hard time, and I was worried.”
“Why do I need a mate?”
Everything Jake had told him, the whole premise the Omega Haven was built on, what that Omega could be independent.
“It gives you added protection from what people can try to do legally. It’s very hard to get a warrant for a mated Omega. It’s partly because the laws governing shifters are derived from old Pack law where women and Omega were considered the property of an Alpha. And that became somewhat incorporated into human laws, enough that it would shield you, at least temporarily, from some of what Dale County are planning.”
“I don’t want to mate someone I’ve never met. What if they give me to Vincent? What if—”
“Hey.” Chris’ arms wrapped around him. “Easy. No one is giving you to Vincent, not now. I can help, Danny. If you need someone to stand up and say they’re your mate, then I will. It’s close to the truth.”
“You don’t want to be my mate,” Danny replied, not lifting his head. “We mated and you walked away.”
“Yeah,” Chris said into his ear. “Biggest mistake of my life. I’m hoping, one day, you’ll forgive me for that.”
Danny felt tears well up in his eyes. Hearing Chris say that had his heart breaking all over again.
“Why would you want to say you’re my mate if us having sex was such a terrible mistake? Why not just leave me to my fate? You’re not responsible for me, you don’t have to keep looking out for me.”
“Walking away, Danny. Walking away from you was the biggest mistake of my life. Mating with you the way I did, I still feel guilty for that, but as Will was at pains to point out, there was something between us even before that.”
“I knew,” Danny said, another sob tearing from his throat. “I knew you were different, I knew I wanted you. But then you walked away, and I thought it was me, that I disgusted you, because of what I am. The freak, the medical experiment, the—
Chris silence him with a finger to his lips. “Never, never. I told you, Danny. That was all me. It was nothing to do with who you are or where you came from. I felt I’d done you wrong, and I didn’t know how to fix it.”
“So where did you go? What have you been doing all this time? Jake never mentions you.”
“I’ve been at Oak Hospital, with Doctor Hollis, trying to cure the other shifters.”
“You were—you were helping the others?”
“Trying to, at least.”
“Is it working?”
“We just had our first breakthrough, our first successful shift. We’re hopeful now that we’ll be able to save some of the rest.”
“Why? Why would you do that?”
Chris cupped his cheek, urging Danny’s head up. “Because no one deserves to live and die like that for want of another shifter’s touch.”
Danny’s face broke out into a smile before another sob wracked him.
“Oh, Danny. I am so sorry.” Chris wrapped arms around him, holding him close. “I’m here, I’ve got you and I’m not letting go. No matter what.”