Page 23 of Knot a Tie
“I’m not leaving him. Do as he asked and get her to safety.”
The door slams shut, and we drive off into the bright, sunny, late afternoon, my bag clutched to me as all thoughts and feelings drain away, leaving me with nothing.
ChapterThirteen
Cameron
“Wait,” I say, as William sets off like a bat out of hell. “They’re going to follow, and we can’t leave James. Let me out.”
The good thing about William is he doesn’t talk much. So he slams on the brakes, lets me out of the car and then shoots off again without a word. Spencer didn’t even get a look in, it all happened that fast. I watch the car go for a moment, savouring the sight of the beautiful omega in the back seat. She is scared and has zoned out. It will take some doing to get her back. But that is another reason why I stepped out of the vehicle. The fewer intimidating alphas around her, the safer she will feel. I spin quickly as the car vanishes out of sight, already with one on its tail. I know William is capable of losing them, but I would like to stop as many as I can to make it easier for him.
Jogging back to the rundown house, I come up against a rough-looking alpha nearly twice my size, trying to get into his car. Whatever this loose pack wants with the omega, they are desperate to track her down.
But I won’t let that happen. I reach him, and being fairly small and unassuming next to him, he ignores me to his peril. I smash his face into the car door before he knows I’m even there and then dart off while he slumps to the ground in a daze. I chuckle to myself. I grew up with my fists swinging. You have to when you attend an all-boys boarding academy and getting into fisticuffs with the upperclassmen was a daily occurrence. If you didn’t learn quickly how to protect your nose and your nuts, you were written off as a wimp and picked on even more. Being smaller than the average alpha, with a good-looking face and rather attached to my nuts, I learned super-fast how to defend myself and even enjoyed it on occasion. But I downplay my ability to fight. It draws too much attention to me, and then people start inquiring about you and what else you are capable of if they find out you’re good at something. It’s why I act like I’m all pretty face and no brains. It lowers people's expectations when they think you’re a himbo. Not that I’m the smartest tool in the shed, but I’m not as dumb as I make out either. Even to the pack. It’s just easier to fly under the radar.
Before I’ve even made it a few yards, a fight tumbles out of the front door with four or five alphas involved, having turned on themselves when the fights started, it seems. I stand on my tiptoes to try and get a look around them to see if I can see James, but he has already disappeared into the house. I duck around the cluster of alphas, getting a sneaky jab in to another one who appears to be on his way to his car, with his keys in his hand. I get him under the ribs and shoot off before he knows who hit him. He blames the group punching the shit out of each other and joins in, the omega chase temporarily forgotten.
“James,” I hiss, when I see him at the far end of the hallway.
“Cam,” he says quietly, spotting me when he turns. “What are you doing here?”
“Not leaving you in here by yourself.”
“I’m good.”
I shrug. He will never admit to needing my help, but that’s okay. It’s who he is, so I give him the out. “Also, I wanted to get out of the car, so the omega didn’t feel so overwhelmed.”
He nods slowly. “Good thinking. Come on. The police will be here soon.” He gestures me forward.
“So who are we here for?” I didn’t get a good look, nor any inkling of who is in here that James and Spencer know.
“There,” James says, evading the question, but racing forward to an alpha on the ground, bleeding and with his face smashed in.
Another alpha is standing over him, gripping his shirt while he punches the downed alpha repeatedly in the face and another kicks him in the ribs.
His head is lolling back, and he is unconscious.
“Fuckers,” James hisses and grabs the puncher by the back of his jumper.
I take the kicker and giving him a dose of his own medicine, I stamp my foot on the back of his ankle, making him yelp and hop away. I give him a boot up the arse that sends him sprawling into a dazed alpha, wandering around with his hand to his head.
Jesus. This is an absolute cluster-fuck.
James drags the puncher away while he scrabbles to regain his footing after such an abrupt departure from the ground. Surprised at the strength of the prime alpha, he cowers but James is in no mood to suffer fools. He smashes him in the face, and he drops like a rock, out for the count.
“Help me,” James mutters, bending down as we hear the sirens in the distance. He tries to lift the unconscious alpha up from one side.
Without a word, I immediately grab the other side and haul up the shot and battered alpha, wrestling his arm over my shoulder, so we can drag him out of the yard and back into the house. He is the worse for wear. His nose is bust, his lips are split and bleeding, his eyes are swollen shut.
“What are we going to do with him?” I don’t ask the obvious question of who he is. If James wanted me to know, he’d have said already. I will wait and he can inform me when he’s ready. I assume that will be when we are back at home and he can tell William as well, so he doesn’t have to repeat himself.
“He’s badly injured. We need to get him to a hospital.”
“He’s been shot,” I point out, having heard the shot fired and seen him go down earlier. “Won’t the hospital contact the authorities?”
“Dammit,” James mutters. He gives me a frown and I shut my mouth, going back to pretty and uninformed.
I don’t need to tell him it’s an election year. He knows all of this and is processing. His first instinct to protect over sense, goes some way to letting me know who this alpha is.
