My heart was on fire. My body was tingling and my hands were clenched so tightly at my sides I thought I was going to draw blood.

I was back at the motel, my eyes glued to Jeremiah’s cottage for the last twenty minutes. He had him in there – Clarence – my fated mate. He was explaining “the rules” of living at the motel with the pack, and had two of his betas in there with him. That means he hadn’t tried to take him yet. Jeremiah was an arrogant egomaniac, but he wasn’t an exhibitionist. If he was going to take Clarence, it would be after his betas left – and that’s when I would make my move.

I couldn’t let him take him. There was no way. It was bad enough I hadn’t been there to save him from the abduction back at the mill, but even then it would have been hard to step in. But here, if I could get the jump on Jeremiah, I could free Clarence and take him far, far away.

It was a cold night for September, but I was glad of the cool breeze. It was the only thing keeping me from overheating as I watched the shadows moving through the window of Jeremiah’s cottage.

“Son of a bitch,” I cursed under my breath, standing under the overhanging eave of the disgustingly named Booty Wing.

A door opened behind me, and I turned to see Peter, one of Jeremiah’s omegas, step outside. He was pregnant, for the third time since I’d known him. He was one of Jeremiah’s oldest brood omegas, and somewhat of a father figure to the rest of them.

“Peter,” I said with a nod.

“Bryce,” he replied. “You all right? You look like you’re about to tear someone’s head off.”

“You psychic, Peter?” I asked him, forcing the closest thing to a smile I could muster.

“I’m good with people,” he replied. “But even if I wasn’t, I’d be able to tell. Anybody could. What happened? Jeremiah fuck your mother? Or do you have two fathers?”

Years of enslavement had cemented a dry sense of humor in Peter that we all appreciated – all of us except Jeremiah.

“Two dads,” I muttered. “Just like you, Pete.”

“Jeremiah fuck one of your dads?” He replied, leaning back against the wall, arms beneath his swollen stomach. “Both of them?”

“He’s got a new omega in there,” I told him, biting the skin on my bottom lip.

“Yeah, what’s new?” He shrugged.

“He’s my fated mate,” I told him.

That one hung in the air a while, and Peter didn’t speak until I turned to look at him. He had a frown on his face like he almost couldn’t believe what I had just told him.

“Seriously?” He asked. I nodded. “How can you know?”

“Believe me,” I replied adamantly. “I know.”

“It’s that strong, huh?” He asked, referring to Clarence’s scent.

“It’s unbelievable,” I told him, relaxing slightly as my mind drifted back to the moment I stepped into the cafeteria and smelled him for the first time. “You hear people talk about it, ya know? But it really is one of those things you can’t really understand until it happens to you. Almost knocked me on my fucking ass.”

Peter nodded, a smile in his eyes but behind it, a sorrow that I understood. Peter never had the chance to find an alpha of his choice or really pursue his own love at all. Jeremiah had swept him up somewhere around his first heat, put a pup in his belly and that had been the end of it. All of Jeremiah’s omegas knew the consequences of trying to leave, and Peter, being the oldest of them, knew them the most.

“So what are you gonna do?” He asked me.

“I haven’t decided yet,” I told him, turning my attention back to the cottage. The betas hadn’t come out yet, and I was getting antsy.

“You haven’t decided yet?” He said, sounding aghast. “Well you’re gonna do something, right?”

“Yes, Peter!” I shouted in a whisper. “Of course I’m going to do something!”

“Well, what are you waiting for!?”

“He’s got two betas in there with him!”

“So what!?” Peter laughed. “A couple of betas worry you? You’re the strongest alpha in this pack.”

“Stronger than Jeremiah?”

Peter pondered for a moment, but nodded. “Yes.”

“That’s not confidence inspiring,” I told him. “But I don’t give a shit. I’ll tear Jeremiah’s neck out if he lays one finger on him.”

“Atta boy,” Peter said approvingly.

I let myself smile at him, and that was when the door to Jeremiah’s cottage opened. Turning, I slid back into the shadows of the eve as the two betas emerged, both looking pleased with themselves, obviously happy with their roles as Jeremiah’s bitch boys.

“If I wasn’t pregnant I’d help you,” Peter told me.

“Don’t be silly, Peter. He’d kill you.”

Peter’s silence hit me hard, and I realized I shouldn’t have said that. I turned and looked at him.

“I’m sorry, Peter,” I told him.

He shook his head sadly. “No. No, you’re right. He would.”

“Tell you what,” I told him, feeling my anger rise to a new level. I took him by the arms and forced him to look at me. They were a beautiful hazel, and although Peter looked beaten down physically, there was a fire behind his eyes that he’d never let go out. “I’m gonna go do something extremely stupid. I’m gonna get my mate out of there, and then I’m gonna take him away from here. And when that’s all settled, I’m coming back for you.”

Peter smiled sadly up at me. “I appreciate that, Bryce. But you don’t owe me anything. Take that boy and get away from here. Live a long and happy life together.”

“Peter,” I told him. “I will come back for you. For all of you.”

Without waiting for his reply, I sprang out from the shadows and let my wolf free. Shifting, I exploded out of my clothes, and baring my teeth, leapt for the first beta, my fangs aimed straight for his throat.