Omegas In Love (2 page)

His beast rose closer to the surface and clouded his thoughts. She belonged to him and this male thought to block his way. The only solution was to tear this asshole limb from limb. “Get out of my way.” He spoke each word separately and clearly to get his point across.

“This is none of your concern.” The stranger spoke with a thick accent like Katrina’s.

“You’re on Vasi territory. Anything that happens here is my concern. And she belongs to me.” Tyler pointed to Katrina, then back to himself.

“Chinatown is not Vasi territory. Never has been and never will be. And this female mated me before she ran away.” Crossing his arms, the stranger planted himself in front of Tyler. “She still belongs to me and has never been yours to take.”

Tyler’s jaw hung as if on broken hinges. He shot her a questioning look, but she stared at the ground, not meeting his gaze. Katrina hated to speak about her past. Now, he knew why.

She wiped her face, huddled on the ground, and didn’t deny a thing.

Every bit of joy in his life lay with Katrina, but truth’s claws dug into his heart. He didn’t know which hurt more, the lies or the way she hunched on the ground, submitting to this stranger like an omega all over again.

One of the surrounding males took her by the arms and assisted her to her feet.

She took a step toward Tyler, reached out her hand, and spoke his name in a tone laced with regret. Tear-filled eyes pleaded with him.

Fuck shifter laws. Fuck this stranger. And fuck any territory he stepped on. No one would make him give her up. “I’ll ask politely one last time, buddy.” Tyler’s glare challenged the stranger. “Let her go.”

The Asian trailed a look down his thin body and back. “Or what? You will sell me insurance?”

Tyler relaxed his hold on his beast.

It burst from his body in a spray of clothes and blood. Bipedal, he towered over the unknown shifters.

Cries from the humans crowding the street filled the air. Not everyday a lanky redhead exploded into three hundred pounds of teeth and claws. Werewolves scaring the locals only caused the pack trouble, but this was an emergency. His alpha would just have to take it out of his hide.

With a full back-handed swing, Tyler knocked the stranger out of his path to Katrina.

The man who had helped her to stand snatched her away into the panicked crowd.

As if waking from a nightmare, she shook her head, then kicked and screamed until they were swallowed from his view.

Leaping after her, Tyler was intercepted midair. He hit the pavement with a bone-crunching impact. Air rushed out of his lungs while stars whirled around his head, yet he still managed to roll from the attack. He might not train like Eric, his alpha, or Robert, his beta, but Katrina had forced him to learn the basics of keeping his hide intact.

He jumped to his feet and faced his opponent. The dark, cold eyes of the unknown Asian male stared back from the face of the beast who’d attacked him. His companions had shifted, too.

Impending death confronted Tyler. Three shifters against one were terrible odds, especially for a shifter who worked as a real estate agent.

The streets had emptied quickly and the faint sound of sirens reached them.

Stalking away, the stranger didn’t even give Tyler a backward glance, although the other two prowled closer.

In the distance, he heard Katrina scream his name. Tears sprung to his eyes at the cry. He was supposed to protect her. A vise squeezed his chest. Breathing became difficult around his breaking heart. Red became the only color he could see.

His opponents coordinated their attacks and jumped him together.

* * * *

Katrina attempted to transform into her wolf-beast form as Chen’s guard dragged her through the panicked human crowd. Her beast didn’t respond. Sharp claws of fear tore into her heart. What was wrong?

Her beast used to cower like this in the past when faced with Chen, but they’d grown so much since escaping to America. It only took one moment in her old alpha’s presence and they’d lost all they had gained. No, please no, she needed to connect with her beast and fight.

She looked at her true mate a last time as he stood in his red tinged magnificent form against Chen and his pack mates. Their gazes met and she reached for him, hoping one day he might forgive her secrets.

If only the past would have remained buried. No one knew of her life in China–she wanted the depravity forgotten. Her best friend, Sugar, had once told her to build a wall around the haunting memories, and she had. Now, Chen, her worst nightmare, showed up here, halfway around the world.

What did an alpha of a large shifter clan want with the lowest of daughters of her birth pack? She’d been nothing but garbage to him. There must be other females with the same pure shifter blood as her. Chen could mate and torture one of them. What made her so special?

She struggled in the guard’s arms, twisting and turning until she sank her flat, human teeth into his neck.

With a cry, he pulled her off by yanking on her long hair, then slapped her across the face hard enough to rattle her thoughts. Such hits had been common in her youth but it had been years since anyone had laid an unkind hand on her. Limp, she wasn’t difficult for him to carry and take away from Chinatown. The place where she’d met a misfit pack of omega shifters. The place she’d felt most at home. The place where Tyler had kissed her for the first time.

She cried out his name one last time as loud as she could. Maybe, just maybe, there was a chance he’d come for her.

Chapter 2

The floor rocked under Tyler while he tried to sleep. Cracking his eyelid open, pain roared as the light speared through his pupil. A miniature marching band paraded inside his head, going round and round. Every inch of his body ached as if Daedalus, his vampire trainer, had used him like a punching bag.

Damn, it was Eric’s bachelor party all over again. Maybe he was recovering from his own party?

No.

He’d never asked Katrina to marry him. Why not? His stomach somersaulted when he made a sharp turn. Rolling onto his side, his lunch came up in a heaving never-ending wave. It didn’t taste any good the second time around. He coughed and cleared his burning throat. “Gross.” Someone patted his back, but he didn’t recognize the voice. “Let it all out, man.” The stranger gagged. “Open the windows, Aaron, before I die back here.”

Wiping his chin, Tyler looked around. White metallic walls that had seen better days surrounded him. A worn burgundy carpet covered the floor with a brand new puke stain next to him. “Where am I?” Blinking, he tried to clear his vision.

“It’s okay. We’re taking you home. You should heal by tomorrow.” A double-headed man knelt by him.

Heal? So, not a hangover after all. Had he been hit by a car? He sure felt like road kill. “Who are you?” He tried to sit up, but his back protested. With a groan, he slumped back down. Rubbing his forehead, he found a lump the size of a baseball.

The man hovered over his face, appearing younger than he sounded. “I’m Tony. Aaron and I saw the whole thing. Dude, that was un-freaking-believable.”

Apparently, he’d done something impressive.

“We came to help with the fight, but they ran off. Did they ever lay into you.”

Help? He sniffed and recognized Vasi shifter in Tony. “I was in a fight?” As soon as he asked, he remembered. “Kat!” He sat bolt upright and fought the vertigo. “We need to go back. They took my mate.”

Tony slipped an arm under his shoulder as he wavered. “She’s gone. We chased them to a truck, which took off.”

Gone. The pain cleared Tyler’s head. “You let them go?”

“We couldn’t leave you bleeding on the street with the cops on the way.” Tony frowned. “And we’re not exactly built to take on trucks.” He gestured to his thin Asian body.

Tyler glanced at the driver, Aaron, and identified him as one of the Vasi omegas who followed Robert, his roommate, around. His close friend had started a support program for them.

Tony was new to him, though.

The van accelerated around a corner. A high pitched squeal accompanied them. Tyler slapped his hands over his ears so his drums wouldn’t burst. It drilled into his sore brain.

The Asian shifter shrugged and offered an apologetic smile. “The fan belt needs to be changed.”

“Where are you taking me?” Tyler leaned on Tony. The world had stopped spinning, but Aaron’s driving didn’t help the nausea or pain.

“Home, I said.” His packmate stroked his back as shifters did for comfort. “The alpha will find her.”

Their alpha, Eric, would help him tear apart the city to find Katrina. They were more than pack. He and Eric were part of small family, living together in the brownstone. However, where did they start searching for his mate?

The truck carrying Katrina could be anywhere. His heart shriveled and the hollow space in his chest echoed with her loss. Nothing but her return would ever fill it.

“Hey.” Tony shook him. “Don’t give up, dude. I’ve seen those assholes before.”

Tyler winced and grabbed his wrist. “Where?”

“They came to Chinatown last night and took the back room at the restaurant where I bus tables, but I never got close enough to get shifter vibes. Wish I had, now.”

“You didn’t know.” Tyler groaned as he got to his knees and glanced out the windshield between the two front seats. They were close to home. “I need some clothes.” He’d exploded out of his suit when he shifted into beast form. Ah, shit. Squeezing his eyes shut, he punched the back of the passenger seat gently. The ring had been in his pocket.

It didn’t matter, not with Katrina missing. He’d buy her another. First, he needed to get her back. The sound of a zipper drew his attention.

Tony pulled clothes out of a sports bag. “They’re my workout clothes.” He held out the wrinkled pile. “Better than nothing.”

Glancing at his pale skin and lean body, Tyler resisted the urge to cross his legs and arms over his nudity. Better to wear second-hand, stinking garments than walk from the van naked. The last thing he needed was to be arrested by the police for indecent exposure.

Unlike humans, the shifter community couldn’t depend on law enforcement. Even if he called in Katrina’s abduction, they’d make all the right noises and fill out all the right forms, however, he’d probably never see her again. The case would get chalked up as shifter politics, a don’t-get-involved zone.

Tyler yanked on the outfit, embracing the pain. Without it, grief would drown him.

The van stopped with a jerk, flinging him to the floor. Moaning, he untangled his arms and legs from Tony’s.

“Oh my God.” Fear filled Aaron’s words and sent a shiver down Tyler’s back.

He rose to his feet and squeezed between the front seats to get a better view.

An ambulance was parked in front of the brownstone. The front door hung askew as if kicked in.

Tyler stepped out of the van, clinging to the passenger door to stay on his feet. His stomach dropped as if on a bungee cord. Someone had attacked their home. Clutching his side, he shuffled along the sidewalk, past the human neighbors who whispered at the sight of him. He couldn’t give a shit.

Police tape blocked his way while paramedics carried out someone. He wanted to throw up again. A small figure lay flat, strapped to the stretcher, a stiff collar around her neck, and a tube coming from her mouth. The medical professional compressed a bag to help her breathe. Blond curls sprung at odd angles off the victim’s head.

Dearest Virgin Mary, he didn’t seem capable of speech. He wanted to wake from this nightmare. If not for Tony’s support, he would have fallen.

The paramedics hurried to the ambulance, shouting out medical terms to each other.

Sam, another of his roommates, dashed out the front door. “I’m going with her,” he shouted at the paramedics, then spotted Tyler at the edge of the crowd. “What happened?” He paused in front of Tyler, eyeing him head to toe.

“I’m okay. Take care of Sugar.” He tried to keep breathing. Sugar was their token human. She owned the brownstone. She wouldn’t have stood a chance in a shifter fight.

Sam glanced at the ambulance, then back at him. He nodded and climbed into the passenger seat of the vehicle.

“Are you sure that was Sugar?” Aaron’s young voice shook.

“Yeah, Spice is our alpha. You would have sensed her presence. Her twin is only human.” The remaining Vasi, who lived in the brownstone, were escorted out wearing very little, which meant they had shifted rapidly through their clothes. Most bore scratches and bites. Daedalus, their vampire trainer and Sugar’s fiance, wasn’t among them, since the daylight confined him. Tyler hoped the locks Daedalus placed on the inside of his coffin had kept him safe during the attack. The pack had enough tragedy for one day.

Cringing, Tyler didn’t want to be around when they told the ancient vampire what had happened to Sugar. She was the center of his universe and he’d been trying to convince her for the past year to cross over. She wouldn’t be so injured if she’d taken his offer. This would only cement Daedalus’s resolve.

Tyler understood Sugar’s desire to stay human. He’d never been given a choice. Some mongrel had made it for him years ago, just after he’d graduated from high school. Since then he’d been struggling to find
normal,
and almost had it until this afternoon.

“Wait in the van,” he told the boys. “We may still need your help.” Before bending under the blockade, he braced his ribs. Who knew what would happen next. Best to keep as many Vasi around as possible.

An officer intercepted him.

Tyler raised his hands, then pointed to the house. “I live here.” He was dead on his feet. All these strangers streaming in and out of his home meant he probably wouldn’t get to sit down.

“He lives here.” Robert’s declaration carried over the low din of noise and confirmed what he’d just said. His packmate, champion of Vasi omegas, waved him over.

The young officer removed a notepad from his pocket and wrote down Tyler’s name. He instructed him to stay out of the house and remain with the others until they made their statements.