Page 53 of Shades of Scars

“He’s definitely out there plotting. He must know who he’s dealing with now. I bet he’s pooling together all of his resources so he can rip Scarlett away from us without repercussions. He can’t have the world finding out he purchased an omega illegally and forced a bond on her.” Apollo chimes in, and Wren sighs before he nods in agreement.

“Harlan Erossi is nothing. Let him fucking come. He won’t get anywhere near our omega.” Caito says this with such confidence, it’s hard not to believe him.

Just as I open my mouth to respond, a sudden crashing sound startles me, and I whirl around to find Scarlett frozen in the mouth of the kitchen. There’s a set broken of fairy lightson the floor at her feet, but it’s the expression etched onto her beautiful face that has horror sinking deep into my bones.

Caito is already moving around the bar, Wren and Apollo behind him, but then she flinches. Fuckingflinches. All four of us freeze. She swallows hard, then shakes her head and glares down at the glass lights shattered at her feet. “I should be surprised, but I’m not. You four have this way of shoving yourselves into things that don’t concern you quite often. I foolishly thought you’d leave well enough alone. It’s obvious that I was wrong in that assumption.” She growls this under her breath, and Caito’s chest rumbles with his disapproval.

She reaches up and rubs at her chest, and I realize then that she must be feeling some echo of my pack mate’s emotions through their partial bond. “You were wrong to believe that we wouldn’t make it our business to end any threat against you,mo chroí. Nothing wrong with that, though. We told you we would prove our devotion to you. Whatever it takes.”

She slashes a hand down in front of her, her anger palpable in the air and swirling with her scent. The hints of citrus have gone nearly rotten with it. “I don’t fucking care. You had no right digging into my life like this. There is a goddamned reason I never brought that sick bastard up to any of you. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.” Her snarl makes my balls clench, which is entirely inappropriate.Stupid foolish alpha hormones. I’m just as much a slave to them as an omega.

I should not find her glare sexy as hell. It’s wrong on so many levels.

“Sweetheart, we know you’re angry-”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Of course I’m angry! You had no fucking right!” She repeats on a screech, reaching up to dig her fingers into her hair. She starts to pace, but then she curses and cries out, falling back against the wall and lifting her footjust as blood begins to drip from her heel. “Son of a bitch.” She growls.

Caito is suddenly there while she’s busy cursing out the universe, and he scoops her up into his arms before she can protest. She immediately starts to flail, but then he shifts until he’s tossing her over his shoulder while he marches out of the kitchen. We hurry after him to the sound of her snarls. “Let me go, asshole! You’ve lost your touching privileges!” She pounds at his back, but he slaps her bare ass under her sundress, unaffected by her little temper tantrum.

Her shocked gasp of outrage is cut off when he deposits her onto the couch. She tries to scramble away, but then Apollo is there, grabbing her ankle and yanking her back towards the both of them. I should put a stop to this, but I know exactly what they are doing.

I move over to the fireplace where we keep a first aid kit attached to the wall, and I grab it down before taking it over to Caito. He gives me a nod of approval as he sets the case down on the coffee table and opens it up to grab out the supplies he needs.

“Stop struggling, love. You’ve got glass in your foot.” Apollo tries to go for gentleness, but then she lashes out at him with the foot he doesn’t have secure. She strikes him in the shoulder, making him fall back against Caito’s legs.

“Give me the goddamn supplies. I can get it out myself.” She snarls, holding out her hand for the items Caito has clenched in his hands.

Because my pack brother is an asshole, he just smirks at her and holds the items firmly. “If you want us to explain ourselves,mo chroí, you’ll let me patch you up myself.”

She bares her teeth at him. “First off, stop calling me that. Second, I don’t need you to explain shit. You went against my wishes and dug into my past without my permission. There’snothing else to explain.” The smile Caito gives her is not a nice smile.

My body tenses when he opens his mouth to respond to her, but Wren finally cuts in, completely on damage control. “Give her the supplies, Caito.” He’s the sensible one. He knows that it’s not the best idea right now to push her any more than we already have. We are at risk of losing her, and we haven’t even fully had her yet. All because of one foolish little lie.

I knew it was going to be a mistake to keep things from her. I fucking knew it, and I’d went through with it anyway. I am just as much to blame for this fall out as the others.

I just hope and fucking pray there’s a way we can come back from this.

33

Scarlett

This always happens to me. Things start to look up and go the way I want, and then something always blows up in my face, reminding me that the universe never has anything good in store for me. Life has been, and will always be, one giant continuous bitch slap.

I’m glaring up at Caito, trying not to let my eyes stray to the fresh bond mark I’d left on his jawline mere hours ago. I refuse to acknowledge what a colossal mistake that’d been. Don’t want to think about how I’m partially bonded to yet another manipulative asshole that wants nothing else from me but my complete submission.

His eyes darken like he can sense my exact thoughts.Maybe he can?I know he can at least feel the echoes of my emotions. It’s literally the same thing as reading my thoughts. This pack of alphas has just brought down hell on my doorstep again by investigating my past, and now I am probably going to have to leave yet another home again in order to escape it.

I am so goddamn tired of running from demon alphas.

“Does he know?” I can’t help but to ask. Tension is thick in the air, but I grit my teeth through it. I already know the answer when they exchange looks with each other, like they’re trying to decide just how much information to give me.

“We believe he’s aware, yes.” Wren hedges, and even though I’d been ready for the response, I feel my heart plummet to the darkest depths of my body.

Holding out my hand, I demand, “Give me the damn supplies.” I glower at Caito, but he holds firm to the items still clutched in his hands.

“What are you planning,mo chroí?” He asks instead of giving me what I want. I can feel his frustration echoing with my own. I tell myself I don’t fucking care. He has no one to be frustrated with but himself. Or his damn pack mates. Whose ever bright idea it was to dig into my past and alert my goddamn skeletons of my recent dalliances.

Nosy fucking alphas.

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