Page 13 of Puck Your Neighbor

"Are they still here? The assholes who did this to you?" His gaze goes behind me, as if he's going to find the alphas there, waiting to go head-to-head with him.

A shiver wracks my shoulders at the thought of him, Jenson, and their pack leader taking out those men in a fight. Had I known them first, none of what happened would've ever been.

They would've been our pack for so long. We would have children.

Sadness threatens to take hold, and I feel like I'm going to be swallowed up by my emotions and the panic attack on the cusp of breaking through the surface. Leo raises his hand toward my face and then clenches it before he lowers it back to his side and leans down so his eyes meet mine. "Hey, Anya, breathe. You need to breathe."

The burning of my lungs, holding onto their air, tightens in my chest. I know he's right, but I can't move. More spots flicker into my vision, and my body buzzes as it tingles. My knees threaten to give out, and my mind swarms withimages ofall those years ago, when those alphas told me that if I became their omega, they would take care of me, even with us not being compatible. How they said I meant a lot to them, like family. And then, the roses they promised shriveled, and with them went my trust, security, and the person I was.

I'm slipping.

If I fall unconscious, would they care? If my soul finally left this plane and gave me peace, would they stop it from happening?

"Omega, breathe!"

The resonant tone of an alpha command rocks me to my core, and all at once, I gasp as the world comes back into a sharp clarity like none I have ever experienced before. My gaze shoots to the other alpha next to Leo, the leader of their pack. He stands next to him, his multi-colored eyes staring back as the oxygen returns to my brain. I sign, "Thank you," to him and he nods.

Leo clears his throat as they both tense up and look around, their chests puffing up as if they could take down a lion if it appeared. His command helped knock my body out of the freeze response, and I'm able to straighten and wipe the tears from my face. My hands fall instinctively to my neck. I want more than anything to hideit.

I've wanted no one to seeit.Why did I have to run outside? For fresh air? It's not worth it. It's not worth them knowing my secrets. Now there's a chance they might figure out who I am.I've lived in the shadows for so long that I hope most people have forgotten what I looked like, but with the tenth-year anniversary coming up, along with the execution, soon spotlights will be on my name again. If they don't know who I am now, they will soon. I'm not the omega they deserve or should want, not with the history I have behind me.

I edge back toward my sliding door that stands open, letting all the cold air into my apartment.

Leo leans onto the concrete wall. "Are you okay? Are there people in there trying to hurt you?"

I shake my head and risk uncovering my neck to sign. "No one is here. I'm sorry."

Before they can stop me or try to come in, I step inside and shut the door, locking it and shutting the blinds behind me.

My phone glows from the floor near my canvas, and I don't have the courage right now to pick it up. All my muscles weigh a thousand pounds as they shake worse than a chihuahua surrounded by a pack of wild dogs, but I manage to drag myself to my small nest at the back of the apartment and get under my myriad of covers. Covering my head, I hide away from the world and my problems.

Chapter 8

Iwatch the white blinds sway as we stand outside her patio. I fight the urge to jump the wall and crash through the door to make sure no other alphas are in her apartment, hurting her. The rage rolling through me is like none I've ever had before, and I play hockey for a living and have gotten into heated fights on the ice.

Leo growls. "We shouldn't leave her alone."

I glance over at Leo. He shifts his weight from foot to foot, his hands flexing into fists as he stares at the spot where she was. He turns his head to look at me. "Right?"

I swallow hard, my mind still trying to catch up with what just happened. My inner alpha wants to take over, and right now, I'm trying to keep him down. "We don't have the right to bother her."

His blue eyes narrow. "She's our omega, I'm certain of it! Even through the balm, I can smell her. That's never happened with an omega before. She's been in my head since I met her the other night."

Well, that confirms it. I did smell her, and it wasn't something sweet on the air. But her scent had also been tinged with the sourness of fear, and I hate that. All I want to do is scoop her up, build her a nest, and hide her away from the world so that she never has to be afraid again.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. I fish it out to find Jenson's name on the screen. I answer. "I know we're late. Something came up."

"Like what? An accident? Because the coach isn't happy, and it's only getting worse by the second. He's threatening conditioning drills before and after practice."

I snap my fingers and motion for Leo to go get his phone. I don't want to leave. It's going to take all of my willpower to do it. There's nothing we can do right now. She clearly wants to be left alone, and even if she's our omega, the sad fact is we can't force her to accept us.

We need to figure out some way to earn her trust because right now we're strangers. Judging by the angry bite marks on her neck, she's been through something.

At the very least, I can tell there are no other alphas here right now. If there were, I think I would've lost all control to my inner alpha. There would have been no stopping me from going in there and trying to kill them for hurting her.

Leo hesitates before he darts inside the building to get his phone. My legs feel planted to this spot, but I turn and stride away, back to my truck.

"We'll be there in ten minutes."

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