Good Girl by Sam Hall
Chapter 39
A sharp pinch, and then my eyelids fluttered open.
Well, fuck.
I didn’t know if this was the same room, but it was close enough to send a bolt of fear through me.
“No…” I croaked out, and I had an echo, Ari saying the same thing. She was being held down, her wrists bound together as she sprawled at the other alpha’s feet. I, however, hung in Benson’s grip.
“I’ve done my part, Ratcliffe,” the man said. “Now I’ll take the girl and return her when I’m finished with her.”
“Not yet.” Benson Ratcliffe strolled toward the only light in the room, coming from a desk lamp, falling over his face. “My daughter has uses beyond what you intend for her.”
“Daughter?” The man recoiled.
“It’s of no consequence. I got her on a little academy omega, set her up in a cottage, and let her mature. She’s green, untried.” That didn’t seem to deter the man at all, his tongue flicking out to lick his bottom lip. “But she’s also insurance.”
“For what? If you think you can blackmail me, I’ll—”
“Not you, Juniper. The omega. My son’s omega.”
I heard the sound of Ari’s whine as a small leather case was pulled from Benson’s pocket and slapped down on the desk, the zipper then opened. A long hypodermic needle, just as Ari had described, was slotted inside, along with several ampoules. Her cries got louder, the other alpha, Juniper, grabbing her by the hair and shaking her to be silent. That said a lot, as he could’ve gotten the same result with just a word.
“We’re just going to have a little talk, and then you can be on your way, all of you.”
His was the smile of a politician, who’d mastered the lie right up until their eyes, but the lizard that dwelled behind them still shone through. It measured me, Ari, Juniper, and found us wanting, but that was just the way he wanted it.
“You must be wondering why I went to the trouble of bringing you here.”
“Because you’re a psychopathic rapist with daddy issues?” I snarled back. He jerked as if slapped, frowning, his fingers tightening around the needle, but he took a deep breath and relaxed his grip.
“Projecting a little, aren’t we? The daughter of an absent father overcompensating for the lack of male role models in her life by tying herself to not one but four alphas? Normally, the bad taste of the lower classes is beyond my notice, but you… No matter, you were never going to be kept around for long. You slipped out of my clutches once, but not this time. I worked harder, put more fail-safes in place. Ask me why your mates aren’t hammering down the door to get you. Everyone saw you running down here. It’s no secret.”
“Why aren’t my mates hammering down the door?”
“Because a coordinated attack is the best kind, I find. Why bother with complex manoeuvres when you can sweep the board of all the pieces at once?” He picked up a remote, clicking on the screen, what looked like CCTV playing on it. Shot after shot of the ball, of people looking light-headed as they staggered across the floor, the cameras narrowing in on several men. Bren stumbling, then falling to his knees. Orion sitting down heavily. Rhys colliding with another man, looking at him in confusion. And Marcus. Benson turned back to me with a malicious smile, ready to gloat, so he missed the moment Marcus put a hand to the wall to prop himself up, then winked at the camera.
“My men are on their way to your mother’s safe house right now.” He pressed another button on the remote, and the view switched to men in dark clothes, barely visible in the scratchy video, approaching what looked like a normal suburban house. Not my house, some other bland place they thought they could squirrel my mother away in, out of sight. Bile rose in my throat as I saw them slink up to the door, dropping down to work on the backdoor lock, then popping it open, waving the other men in.
“The little omega that got away and the heir to the business I needed crushed.” He smiled. “It was all too neat. I used my son to bring you to me, to introduce you to Ariadne so I could use her as bait. I tainted every bottle in this place with a new drug we’ve developed that both lowers the inhibitions and enhances the sex drive.” He switched the view back to the ballroom, where pretty people made out with each other very messily. “I got Orion’s compliance by saying you were a strategic match, knowing he wanted a little omega to add to his collection, but that was never the plan. You were always mine, omega.”
What he’d given me was some kind of antidote to the drug, but it was only partially effective. I certainly wasn’t feeling the sexual side effects, just physical ones. A low moan escaped my lips as he approached, my feet moving too slow, my body like lead, my head still swimming. When he got close, I went for my bow, but that was wrenched away and thrown across the room. I reached for an arrow in my quiver, but that was knocked away too, until finally, there was just him. Alpha, almost a black silhouette, what little I could see of his face distorted into a snarl.
“Rhodes women have been quite the thorn in my side. You, with your protective little beta chaperone.” I felt the spray of his spit across my face as he bit the words out. “One of the pleasures I look forward to the most is the breaking in of new omegas. The squeals they make as I force my knot into them, their little ineffectual attempts to fight back are almost as delicious as their tears. I use that, the memories of each little interlude, to get my cock to rise when my wife requires it.
“I’m an alpha, the alpha of alphas. Politicians, judges, celebrities, none bar their door to me, and certainly not impudent little omegas. But colour me surprised when my board informs me of a brand-new company proposing to revolutionise the energy industry. My energy industry.
“Ratcliffe Industries has been a blue-chip company in this country since the first electrical light was turned on over a hundred years ago. I looked further, identified who this upstart was, assuming it would just be someone’s son trying to make a name for him, that all my usual points of pressure could be applied, but no…” He shook his head slowly, and the hypnotic power of his gaze had me doing the same. “No, the beta” —that word was spat out— “single mother of the one who got away. She was the one who was trying to usurp me? It was then, I put the plan into place. My son needed to leave behind those bloody alphas he’d tied himself to and find himself a suitable mate.”
His lips peeled back from his fangs.
“It just won’t be you. The drug I’m about to give you will induce your heat. The initial tests have been quite promising, but it’s time for a little field research. I’m going to rape you over and over as you fucking scream, and then, with my seed running down your leg, I’m going to shove you into the throng of the ball, where you’re going to make a public spectacle of yourself. You’ll take all comers, alphas will fight each other with a rabid fury to get to you, and unfortunately, that will result in some fatalities. The specially placed men there will ensure it. Some of the alphas who’ve crossed me will be collateral damage, of course. Only targeting your alphas would look too suspicious. Then you’ll be packed up into an institution to moulder, an omega who’d lost her mind during a heat and dragged alphas, mated alphas, into her arms in her hunger for attention and dick. Your mother will commit ‘suicide’ from the shame, and all of her holdings will transfer to her remaining mate’s possession.”
Identify the areas of weakness and plan your response, Kai said in my mind. Strong stance, controlled movements.
Everything I’d trained for fell apart right in this moment. I wavered on my feet, my body and mind screaming at me to do something as Benson pulled away to get the syringe, but the connection between them was faulty. My hands felt too big and imprecise as I reached for another arrow, Juniper too focussed on ripping Ari’s gown to get to her to see me. And Benson? That was always the problem with the born to rule set. They’d never really faced the constant stream of shit the rest of us had. They lived neat, orderly, protected lives.
Something I wanted to end now.
I finally grasped an arrow and moved forward, but everything was wrong. My stance wavered, my centre of balance was constantly shifting, so as I fisted the shaft and when I struck out, I managed only to piss Benson off. The sharp point sliced through the thousand-dollar suit, and when I saw the rush of blood, I was initially elated, just standing there in shock.
But not for long.
“You little fucking bitch!” he roared, then backhanded me across the face, sending me flying. My already dazed head was now a hazy mass of pain and fear, but I forced myself to grip another arrow, dragging it out of the quiver as he came back for more, slamming my fist down and driving it into his leather loafer.
His screams were music to my ears, as was the sight of him dropping down to remove it. Stupid alpha, so cocky. He could’ve just commanded me to do exactly as he asked and…
That was when I realised it—he knew he couldn’t. He wasn’t strong enough, didn’t have the will to overrule me. I grabbed at that fleeting thought frantically, praying to whomever looked after omegas that I could grab another arrow and drive it into the back of Benson’s neck.
My fingers found another shaft, and I made sure my grip was tight. I raised the weapon above my head, knowing I’d need all the momentum I could get to stab it into his spine, when the door was jerked open.
“I’m sorry, Cyn, but it can’t be you.”
Marcus appeared in the doorway, his outline limned with light, but not for long. He stepped inside just as Benson looked up, pulled out a gun, and then shot Orion’s dad in the head.
Just. Like. That.
Dying by headshot is such an unreal, truncated thing. One minute, he was snarling his disdain, and the next, he jerked, a small hole in his forehead, and then he fell to the floor. I just stared, seeing that small trickle of blood over and over, for many nights after this. It was over, almost.
Another shot fired, this time into Juniper’s knee, his screams of pain twinned with Ari’s as she fought her way free, running from the room, sobbing.
And then the gun was put down on the desk, Marcus raising his hands in the air as the clatter of feet heralded the appearance of the beta guards.
“Hands up!” One burst in, gun out and ready to shoot, and I caught the moment of confusion on his face when he saw Marcus had already done so. “Keep them there!” he shouted as another beta entered, gun pointed down as he peered at me, Juniper, Benson, and then Marcus.
“Oh shit…” he muttered. “I’m calling this in.”
“The password is ‘always,’ Cyn,” Marcus said as his wrists were tugged behind his back, zip ties pulled tight around them. “Remember that, Cyn. Always.”
“Ma’am, are you OK?” another beta asked, appearing by my side, but he was fading, it was all fading. “Ma’am? Fuck, we need an ambulance here stat.”
“A fleet of them,” another voice said. “There’s half the social elite in there fucked up and falling down. Something’s happened, and I don’t want to be the one who’s seen to be responsible for it.”
“Cyn!”
My eyes jerked open to find that I was being wheeled out into the carpark on a gurney, moving towards a fleet of waiting ambulances. There were hundreds of people being helped over to them, field hospitals set up to triage who needed to be transported first. But not them. My mates came running across the asphalt, stopping the EMT from moving me farther.
“Cyn! Thank fuck,” Orion said, peering down at me. “What the hell happened?”
“Ari?” I asked, not really able to get much more out. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my head, crushing all thoughts.
“She’s fine. Well, she’s talking to police anyway. That fuck, Juniper…”
“Cyn.” Rhys swooped in, searching my face for damage, while Bren kept scanning the area, gun held down against his leg. But I couldn’t answer them, not when I looked past them to see Marcus being led towards a police car, the swirl of the blue lights blinding.
“No,” I squeaked out, provoking a spate of coughing. “No!”
“What, sweetheart? What the fuck happened?”
I didn’t get a chance to respond to Orion as my eyes rolled back, darkness claiming me again.