Page 96 of In Doubt
“Did you hurt her?”
“No!” I growl, the omega struggling and screaming in my arms.
She’s like a wild thing, thrashing about, swiping at me and then Jake with her nails, and finally, with strength I didn’t know she possessed, yanking herself away from me.
She scurries away from me on her hands and knees, jumping down from the bed and fleeing from the room. We both race after her into the kitchen. There she hits the wall and, with nowhere else to go, slides down it, curling herself tightly into a ball when she reaches the floor.
From above her tightly clutched knees, her scared eyes bore into me, then Jake.
“Stay away from me! Stay the fuck away from me,” she sobs.
Jake has his hands around my throat in the next second. He squeezes hard as I gasp for air, and I scrabble at his fingers as he shouts in my face,
“What did you do, you piece of shit?! What did you do?”
“Nothing,” I gasp, “Nothing.”
“I said take it slow, gently, on her terms. You pushed her! You pushed her too far.”
Footsteps thunder down the hallway and skid into the kitchen. Levi and Dylan stand in the doorway, eyes wide with shock as they take in the scene.
“What the fuck …” Levi says, racing towards the omega and dropping down to crouch in front of her. “Omega–”
“No!” she screams, “No, stay away! Stay away!” She turns her face away from him, not even able to bring herself to look at him.
“What happened?” Levi growls, turning to Jake.
“I walked into the bedroom and found our packmate,” he spits the word, glaring at me the whole time, “fucking the omega and she was screaming, trying to get away–”
“It wasn’t like that,” I yank his arm away, pulling myself up to my full height. “You’ve got it all wrong. I wasn’t fucking her!”
“How was it then, mate?” Dylan squares up next to Jake. “Because it looks like you fucked her over pretty bad.”
I scowl at him as anger courses through my veins.
How could they think this? How could my packmates think I’d do anything to hurt an omega?
Because I don’t belong. I don’t belong anywhere.
I drag in a long breath, trying to calm the fuck down. This bullshit is stopping us from caring for the omega, from understanding what the fuck freaked her out. I know it wasn’t anything I did. Know that with every part of my heart.
But they think I did. My own packmates.
“Omega.” Levi tries again, his voice so soft I hardly hear him. “You’re OK, You’re OK. You’re safe here. I won’t let anything happen to you. Did he …” he swallows and I can’t even bring myself to look at him, “did he hurt you?”
Her arms are wrapped so tightly around her legs, I can see every taut tendon running down her forearms and into her hands.
She shakes her head. A tiny movement but there.
I breathe a deep sigh of relief, stumbling backwards a little.
Jake continues to glare at me but I pay him no heed.
“I want to go home,” the omega whispers.
“Back to the hotel?” Levi asks.
“It’s not safe–” Jake begins but Levi holds up his hand to halt him.
