Page 36 of Chasing Dawn

“You fucking tried to murder me, and you killed our pup, and now I’ll never have another. You destroyed everything for nothing, you and that fucking piece of shit Alpha who probably would have sold your baby anyway. You are a fucking useless piece of shit, and I hate you, Stephen. I hate you.” I was crying and raging, and I launched myself at the man who was meant to love and protect me but had been a failure. He’d had a chance to help me but had stood by as I was beaten every single day. When I was beaten mostly to death, he’d finished the fucking job. I scratched at his face, throwing punch after punch at every part of him I could reach.

“I’m sorry, Omega,” he grumbled, and I almost believed him. I just didn’t care.

I screamed it at him. “I don’t care if you’re sorry. I don’t fucking care.”

A forearm came around his throat, and a gun pressed against his head. “Nor do I. Your death was written in the stars for her pain.”

Talbot’s face was a deadly mask of fury. “This is the man who was supposed to be your husband?” he asked me, but he knew the answer.

“Yes,” I whimpered as the fury leaked out of me.

Stephen didn’t struggle, and I saw the resignation leak into his limbs. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. Every night, when I close my eyes, I see your terror and⁠—”

“Shut your fucking mouth,” Talbot growled. “She isn’t here to assuage your guilt. You can live with that fucking pain until your last breath.” He looked at me. “Walk toward the pack houses. The guys are on their way up the hill. They’ll find you.”

I looked down at Stephen who was now on his knees. “I don’t forgive you,” I told him, and then I turned and walked away.

Like Talbot had promised, Vance was running toward me, and when I was in his arms, I let out the sob that I’d been holding back.

The gunshot behind us made me jerk in his arms, but he murmured soft, reassuring things against my hair to appease the Omega, but she felt nothing. She had been brutalized too, and this was just the closing of a curtain on my former life.

Franklin was right behind Vance, and he wrapped his arms around us both but didn’t say anything.

“Let’s go, baby.” Vance carried me to the village where I’d been born. Every shadow, every face, held a bad memory, but there’d been good times too—people I’d loved and who had loved me.

I couldn’t see the Alpha anywhere, and I hoped he was dead. I tapped Vance’s chest so he would put me down.

Walking into the group of women, I felt like a ghost of the person I’d been. There were soft gasps and cries of relief as they hugged me, thanking the goddess for saving me. I couldn’t see my aunt though. “Where is Aunt Nita?”

The women were all beaten to shit. It was obvious without a focal point for his rage, Alpha Derrick had decided that all women were open season for his anger.

Aunt Vonn shook her head. “It was too much after the pups were… taken, and you were, we thought you were—” She choked on the words, tears rolling down her cheeks. “She walked into the forest and never came back out. It took us days to find her.” She swallowed hard, her eyes glistening. “We buried her next to your mama.”

My mom died when I was three. Aunt Nita had raised me. Grief hit me like a wave, making my knees buckle until Vance caught me and lifted me again. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”

I licked my dry lips, turning my face into his chest until I could get my tears under control. His energy wrapped around me like a suit of armor, and I breathed in his strength. Finally, I tapped him to put me down again, and his arms flexed around me. He didn’t want to let me go, but eventually, he put me down, keeping a reassuring hand on my spine.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to come back. I’m sorry I couldn’t⁠—”

Aunt Vonn shook her head. “We thought you were dead, girl, and even if you weren’t, none of us would have resented you leaving this all behind. None of us wanted you to come back to this.” She pointed to her black eye. “You owe this pack nothing.”

There was a soft murmur of agreement, and I felt crushing grief.

Buenaventura appeared beside me, stooping low and bowing at the waist. “Little Omega, we’re going to execute the Alpha now. Is there anyone you think would seek retribution for his death, or anyone who has committed crimes as significant?”

I looked back at the women who’d always been pressed into the ground, the boots of the pack hierarchy on their throats. There’d been some good ones, but most of the wolves the Alpha had surrounded himself with were as rotten as he was, happy to profit off the suffering of the rest of us.

“I’ll come,” I told him.

Vente nodded his head, casting a strange look at Aunt Vonn. “Ma’am. We’ll get this over with, and then we’ll talk about options for the pack.”

Aunt Vonn nodded curtly, her eyes haunted and her face gaunt.

I followed Vance and Buenaventura to the area behind the sheds, and I saw eight of my former pack kneeling in the dirt. Alpha Derrick was there, his face beaten, but not enough that he didn’t sneer when he saw me. There were several of his close buddies, ones whose backhands I’d received multiple times in my life.

It didn’t look like Vance’s mercenary friends had been particularly gentle with them. There was only one guy I didn’t recognize.

“They were trying to do an exchange. We stepped in when they hauled a kid out of the back like a grocery delivery,” Vance murmured.