Page 7 of Crave

Murphy walked behind me drinking his coffee, his eyes shadowed from lack of sleep. We’d fucked all night in the Omega’s nest. I wasn’t proud of it, but I was incapable of resisting. I wanted to roll in the sweet scent of her heat, even if we couldn’t be a part of it. And it was heady.

Murphy looked exhausted and was downing caffeine like it was his only lifeline. He wasn’t much of a morning person anyway. I scowled at every person who looked in our direction, and a bunch of people crossed the street to avoid us.

Actually, most people wouldn’t even look at us.Weird.

“Does something feel off to you today?” I asked Murphy, and he scoffed, but I noticed the way his body went on alert, though his muscles remained relaxed. He was the consummate soldier.

He didn’t say anything, but people avoided his gaze. “Might be a Susannah thing,” he said softly, and that could be true. Some of the elderly members of Maxton were old school and would’ve taken issue with Susannah holing up in our Packhouse during the heat. It was almost unheard of to spend your heat with a Pack other than your own.

They could suck my dick. Let them say something.

A low growl bubbled out of my mouth, and Murphy gripped my forearm. “Let’s head to work. They can go fuck themselves if they have a problem with how things went down.”

I rolled my shoulders and nodded. Stepping back into the Legion building for the first time in a week I couldn’t help marvel at how quiet it was. Where the hell was everyone?

Gunfire sounded, making me startle, but I had my gun out in the blink of an eye as did Murphy, his coffee dropping to the floor. We found cover, looking for an assailant, but no one appeared.

Slowly we moved deeper into the building, toward where the shots had sounded. I wanted to tell myself that perhaps it was an accident—some of the Legion soldiers were pretty abysmal with firearms—but I knew it wasn’t true. The vibe in the town right now was off. Like everyone knew something big was happening, except us. This wasn’t good.

We cleared out offices as we moved, hunting out personal assistants and the odd bureaucrat hiding beneath their desk. They weren’t soldiers, despite coming from a warrior race. We sent them out the front doors and moved further into the building.

When we came up to the Alpha General’s office, I smelled the unmistakable hot tang of blood. Signaling Murphy, I moved with Manix speed into the room, my gun raised. But there was no assailant. Moving further in, I saw Radic on the floor, a pool of blood spreading around him like crimson wings.

Fuck!

Murphy swept past me into the connected office that belonged to the Alpha General, but it was empty. Holstering my gun on my hip, I raced to Radic. “Don’t be dead. Don’t be dead.”

Radic was the best the Manix had. He had heart and smarts and had kept so much of this town from going under the leadership of the former Alpha General. He was the reason the less fortunate members of town survived and weren’t chew toys for the Alphas. The half-bloods, the Betas, the orphans—they all owed their lives to Radic, even though he’d never accept the praise.

He couldn’t die.

I felt his throat, and he still had a pulse, though faint. “He’s still alive, but barely. We have to get him to Doc.”

Murphy nodded. Pulling out his gun again, he waited as I shifted the bleeding Beta into my arms. “Hang in there, man. Bonnie needs you,” I murmured softly. He was gray, and judging by the pool beneath him, most of his blood was soaking into the carpet of his office. “We need to move,” I grunted at Murphy, and he hurried out of the room, his eyes scanning for threats. We took the back streets, avoiding as many Manix as possible so we didn’t incite panic or the shooter didn’t return to find us and finish the job.

Every unsuspecting Beta we came across Murphy barked at them until they scurried away. Finally, we were outside Doc’s surgery, but there was a black SUV haphazardly parked near the door. My stomach sank. It was one of the Alpha General’s vehicles, and the scent of blood permeating from it had my skin buzzing.

This wasn’t a random attack. This was something bigger. Something far more insidious.

Murphy banged on the door, but there was no answer. “Wait here,” he growled, then moved in with his gun still raised. His hissed, “Hey, we’re cool, we’re cool,” had me on high alert. I wanted to give him backup, but I couldn’t.

“Merrick!” he called from inside the medical room. I stepped through the door and came face to face with Dominic, the Alpha General’s second-in-command and Packmate. Dominic was pointing his own weapon at Murphy, who held his hands up in front of him.

“We heard the gunshot and found him like this—I swear it, Dom,” Murphy implored. It looked bad; I could recognize that. We were both doused in Radic’s blood.

Murphy looked around Dom’s body at a bleeding Bonnie. She was a new Omega, and the Alpha General’s other Packmate. His eyes went wide. “What the fuck is going on?”

Dominic let out a snarl that raised goosebumps on my skin. “A coup. A motherfucking coup. They have Pryce. I can’t find Doc, and Courtland isn’t answering his phone. Is anyone else medically trained?”

Every cell in my body froze. Was this what we’d come to? Trying to murder Omegas in cold blood? I shook my head, trying to clear the shock. Carefully, I placed Radic down on the examination table beside Bonnie, glad the thing was huge and made for shifted Manix. “Not really. Bonnie was Doc’s backup, and even she can’t do anything more technical than field medicine. Can Loren do any kind of magic to heal it?”

Dominic’s face went blank. “Loren is dead. He took the bullet meant for me.” His face might be blank, but the pain in his voice was a gut punch.

“I’m sorry, man.” And I was. Loren was a good guy, as much as a former witch in a drug cartelcouldbe a good guy. At least he didn’t try to kill women and children, unlike the so-called good people in this town.

Dominic whipped out his phone, and I instinctively knew who he was calling. We needed help, and there was only one species, one person, that was an actual legitimate threat to the Manix in this day and age. The vampires.

I put pressure on the wound on Radic’s chest, and Murphy did the same for Bonnie as we listened to Dominic’s conversation with the Convocation Member Raine Baxter on the other end of the phone, who promised to send reinforcements. We just had to keep them alive for as long as we could.

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