Page 148 of Cost of Courting

I pant, pushing that feral need to destroy back into its box.

“KILL HER!” Benson barks. The command rips through our group and his kneeling alphas. Several of them try to stand up but are held down, but there’s one that I don’t recognise that lunges free, ripping a knife from his boot and leaping for Selene.

Edric steps in front, staring down at her. Her eyes widen as she stares up at him.

“FREEZE!” Bailey thunders.

Everyone freezes. The only people that can disobey his thunderous bark are me, Edric, Mael, and, to my surprise, Selene.

Bailey walks up to the alpha and removes his knife from his hand. He’s slow and meticulous as he pulls the blade across his throat.

The alpha drops lifelessly to the grass.

Andy walks over to me and stares at me. “When you’ve finished with your omega’s heat, come home.”

I drop my chin in a nod. “Okay.”

“Good. We’ll clean up. You take who you want and deal with your business.”

I grab Hammer and shove him towards the SUV with blacked-out windows that parks on the grass beside us. Frankston jabs a needle into his neck, and, within minutes, the huge alpha who tormented me for weeks is unconscious.

Benson is similarly tossed into the car and injected.

Peta and Tiff approach warily. I tense, wondering what they’re going to say when they embrace Selene.

“We’ll be waiting for when you come home.”

Selene murmurs to them, exchanging words I can’t hear, and says something that has Tiff bursting into tears. Peta trembles and covers her mouth.

“No!” she protests.

Our omega runs her fingers over her hair and swallows hard, and, somehow, I know that something terrible has happened. I reach for the bonds and feel her unfettered grief.

Who have we lost?

For another couple of minutes, people talk, and then Zaden walks with them back to the group, whistling loudly.

I glance around and see Bailey with Lia. He looks at us but follows his sister away from Benson and Hammer. He’s entitled to not want to be involved, though I won’t deny it hurts.

Selene climbs into the backseat of the SUV and leans out. She glances at us and scowls. “Well, come on, then, starlights wasting.”

I raise my brows.

“What?”

“This is my bonding gift to you. Come on! Let’s get going.”

I climb into the car and shift over for Edric. Kingston climbs in the passenger seat while Franklin gets back in the driver’s seat.

I’m too stunned by everything that’s happened to talk, but I reach out and grab hold of Selene’s thigh.

She strokes my hand. With each stroke of her soft skin, I come back from that edge, the broken pieces of me soothed.

Twenty minutes later, we drive into a familiar location. It’s one of the Despair strongholds, where we go to take care of business.

I turn to Selene.

“Did you organise this?”

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