Pack Darling, Part One by Lola Rock

Thirty-Eight

ATLAS

“Fly faster,”I snarl through my headset at Hunter. The chopper’s engine cranks like we’re hauling an elephant, but it’s not as loud as the growl tearing up my throat.

“It won’t go any faster!” Hunter hammers the throttle.

Trees blur underneath us. The engine whines.

It’s not fucking fast enough.

“Backup team’s dead,” Jett reports. “No more reinforcements in range.”

“How the fuck did this happen!” I dig my hands into my thighs like they’re claws. Like I’m going to rip every fucking Redfang in the country into pieces.

Because I am. Slowly.

But icy fear keeps my rage from bleeding.

Orion’s been taken.

Lilah’s been taken.

Everything I have, taken.

“The fuck,” Finn mumbles into the headset we jammed on his asshole skull. Waking up from his bender, he reeks of booze and bad fucking decisions. “We skydiving?”

“You’re about to get booted without a parachute,” Hunter snarls, knuckles white around the controls.

“What happened?” Finn rubs his head. He’s lucky we’re belted in, because my fingers twitch, begging me to choke him out for taking us away from home.

I should’ve insisted one of us stayed.

It’s my mistake, as usual.

“Redfangs hit the estate,” Jett says, his voice clipped, even for him. “They took the omegas.”

“The fuck did you say?” Finn straightens, his darkness burning off the tequila.

“Our guys on the perimeter are dead,” I repeat the facts because they’re all I can handle. “Last report, Redfangs had Lilah in a car and were dragging Orion across the lawn.”

What happened next, we don’t know, but bile churns up my throat, imagining the worst fucking possibility.

As long as they’re alive, I’ll get them back.

Fuck.

My fingers dig into my legs.

“Redfangs need to die.” Finn pulls his Glock and sits deadly still.

Thank fuck.

This is the version of him we need tonight.

“Look.” Hunter tilts the chopper so its light beams pool over the sedan run into a ditch on the side of the road.

The humped shape of a body lies face-down in the dirt.

My chest seizes, but then I catch the size of the shoulders.

Too big to be one of our omegas.

A few more seconds of flight and we fly over a second crashed car. More bodies splayed across the ground.

“Not them,” Jett mutters, his voice crackling over the line.

What the fuck happened out there?

My heart thumps in time with the rotors as Hunter takes us over the lawn, heading toward the house. We pass more shapes humped on the grass. Our guys, their guys.

Fucking bloodbath.

How could two omegas survive?

“They’re in the house,” Jett yells, clutching his phone.

“Who?”

“Orion and—her. They’re in the house.”

“Anyone else?” I brace myself for another bloodbath as Hunter takes us down on the grass.

“No one. I think… I think everyone else is dead.”

“Our omegas are fucking ninja assassins,” Hunter crows.

Finn grunts, maybe as disappointed as I am that we won’t taste blood. But as long as they’re safe.

As soon as we touch ground, I rip off my harness and book for the door.

One step onto the porch, a scent hits me like a fist in the balls.

Vanilla.

Sweet.

And… Caramel?

Caramel apples?

Orion’s heat.

Fuck.

“Orion!”His name tears from my lungs while I tear up the steps, chasing the sweet scent that has my balls tightening and my heart chugging in my throat.

The pack moves at my back. One unit. Laser-focused on finding our omega.

I’ve never smelled his scent so sharp. It’s a fistful of knives, a promise that he’s already in pain, needing us. There’s a strange sweetness I don’t remember tasting before, but it’s been so goddamned long since his last heat.

I hit the top step and rush into the nest.

Orion lies curled on the padded floor, hugging a cushion. The room’s drenched in apple so thick I can’t hold back a grunt as I drop to my knees beside him.

The others thump down around us. I run my hands over his flushed skin, checking for injuries.

“Orion.” I cradle his head, and the glazed look in his eye is the last thing stopping me from tearing off his pants.

“Atlas,” he sighs, sinking into my touch. His eyes move slowly, landing on each member of the pack.

“Did they hurt you?” I rub the smudge of dirt on his cheek, vibrating with rage and lust and the burning need to do anything to right this wrong.

“Drugged.” He closes his eyes, leaning into me. “My heat. We need…”

“What do you need?” The word fires up my instincts. I’ll get him anything he wants, do anything he needs, anything to mellow out his scent and see his smile.

“Lilah…” he breathes. His voice sounds clearer, more determined by the second, but he’s hot to the touch and his pants are tented.

He needs to be knotted.

My cock’s already swelling, eager to ease his pain.

“Is she okay?” Hunter asks, rubbing Orion’s arm.

“Safe. Saved me. She—” A cramp wracks him before he can say anything else. With a whimper that has me growling, he squeezes the pillow so hard his wrist joints crack.

Fuck.

My cock strains against my zipper, and a low rumble rocks my chest. I have minutes, maybe seconds, before my rut rises. I find Jett, the only one who isn’t already stroking Orion. “Perimeter?”

“Clean up crew just arrived and teams surrounding the house. We’re safe.” Satisfied, he tosses his phone to a corner, crawling close enough to touch Orion’s ankle.

With the four of us all over him, Orion spasms against the pillow. “I need… I need…”

“I know what you need,” I rumble, kissing his forehead. “We’ll take care of you.”

“Lilah…” he spasms again, and my rumble’s more of a roar.

“Later. Let’s get you through this heat.” All I know is the girl is safe, probably huddling in her basement. Orion’s sweet, mind-numbing scent overrides everything else. It’s sweeter than I remember, with notes of caramel that have me iron fucking hard.

“Clothes,”I bark at my pack mates.

I tug the pillow away from Orion and we strip him down. I growl at the red marks on his hips. If the ones who did this weren’t already dead, fuck.

When Finn tugs off Orion’s pants, his cock pops free, and suddenly I couldn’t give a shit about the men I didn’t get to kill.

His swollen tip leaks pearlescent pre-cum, and the scent of his slick hits my bloodstream like Red Bull and cocaine.

I strip off my pants before my cock can punch through the fabric.

Have to have him.

Mate.

I pull Orion against my chest, nesting my thick cock in the split of his ass.

He moans and wiggles.

Wrapping his ribs, tilting his neck back, I suck at the silver scar of my mate mark.

My cock jumps.

“Heat,” Orion murmurs, lust drunk and losing himself. “We need to… I need—”

“I got this.” Finn crawls between Orion’s legs, splaying our omega’s thighs and taking his cock between his lips.

“Fuck. Yes.” Orion arches into me me, his hot skin searing me to the bone.

I tease his neck with my teeth while I pinch his pebbled nipples.

Soon, I’ll be inside him.

Soon, this heat will bring our pack back together.

I promise, when the haze clears, we’ll be stronger. More unified.

Then, revenge.

Later.

Now all I can think about is apple cider.

Orion’s sweet ass.

My knot inside.

The ache. The need for him.

The rut takes over.

Mate. Bite. Fuck.

Orion.

Mate.

Bite.

Fuck.