Chapter 18

Lincoln

“You’re planning on going to see her again. Aren’t you?” Deacon watched me eat from the other end of the table and for several long silent seconds I didn’t answer him. I just sawed at the bloody steak on the plate in front of me.

Taking the bite on my fork I chewed softly before lifting my eyes to him. “What makes you think that?” I asked evenly.

He looked me up and down in a way that no other beta would dare. “Because it’s been three days and you’re getting more and more irate.” He went back to the business of eating his own steak. “You’re literally trembling with the need of it. Plus.” Using his fork he motioned at my clothes. “You are dressed to go back out into the city.”

“I go into the city all the time.” I pointed out. But he was right. I did  want to see her again. My body ached with it. “I have no plans on going and talking to her again though.”

It wasn’t a complete lie. If my feet took me in that direction then so be it. If I saw her for a few seconds from afar so I could make sure she was ok then that was fine. As long as I didn’t touch her or talk to her I wasn’t breaking any rules.

“But you want to.” It wasn’t a question. It was a pure statement of fact and I couldn’t deny it. I wanted to do more than make sure she was alright. I wanted to possess her in every way possible.

“I’ve always had these urges.” I pointed out. “Since I knew what being an Alpha meant. That doesn’t mean they control me.”

“I think she would control you.” Deacon said quietly and my eyes flashed angrily. He was my closest friend. He had been since we were boys. Since before I showed myself as an alpha and him as a beta. It was an unlikely friendship but it worked for us.

“No one controls me Deacon.” I warned with a growl. “Not an omega, not my urges. I have complete control and I won’t go back on my sworn vow. I will not take a companion.”

He looked at me with his soulful eyes. “I’m starting to think you should. Maybe she is exactly what you need. I’ve seen the way you look at her. The way you-“

I cut him off with a snarl. “I will not take a companion. I have no feelings for the girl. She is nothing-“ I roared. But honestly I was more angry with myself than with him because everything I was saying was a lie.

“That’s good.” He settled himself back into his chair and studied me. “I was glad you would think so because she is gone.”

My head snapped up. My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean she is gone?” I said through gritted teeth. “She has gone where?” I shook with emotions I couldn’t control and I didn’t care if he could see it.

“The bus went to pick her up today for the ceremony dress fitting.” He sliced into the red meat and took popped another piece into his mouth with agonising slowness.  “And she wasn’t there.” He shrugged

“Her guardian?” I couldn’t bring myself to say father because fathers did not do what he has attempted to do. “Where did he say she had gone?” Anger was thrill humming through me. Threatening to boil up and bleed the world. “Or wasn’t he there?”

I wouldn’t put it past him to have taken her somewhere against her will. He coveted her body like she had been made for him personally and not for someone like me.

The old man made me feel sick.

“Oh he was there alright. Bleeding out on the floor.” Deacon said quietly. Taking another bite. My own almost raw steak lay forgotten on my plate.

“Looks like someone stabbed him. And my money is on Hope.”

“You don’t have any money Deacon.” I reminded him.

In answer he laughed. “True, so I'll put your money on it. The sweet little omega you can’t stop thinking about isn’t so sweet and innocent after all is she? She stabbed her own father.”

He wasn’t her father and Hope had every reason to stab the old fuck. But I couldn’t tell Deacon that. Not yet anyway.

“Is he dead?”

“Not yet.” Deacon sounded almost bored. “Shouldn’t be long though. The house is a pit of filth and he’s been laying in it and bleeding in it for days.”

“Days?” My chair fell back as I stood up. “What do you mean days?” Rushing over to the window I stared down at the city below. At the filth and despair. It was easy to forget how bad things were in the city when I was safe warm and fed up here. But it was laid out before my eyes now.

And it was dangerous in the weak toxic sun it was deadly by night and Hope was down there. Alone , scared and maybe hurt.

“When?” My voice shook.

“I thought you didn’t care for her.” He asked and I could hear the laughter in his voice. “The only reason I am telling you now is because the other alphas will hear about it soon. Just like they have heard about your meetings with her. They will presume that you took her without payment and -“

I turned to him with a growl. Already I could feel my control slipping and it wasn’t even a full moon. Looking down I saw my nails curve out of my fingernails like wickedly sharp claws.

“How many days?” I stressed each work. Punctuating it with a growl.

“The night I saw you together,” he finally admitted.

Rapidly I did the maths. She had been alone all of that time? Defenceless in a city that came alive with creatures who would gladly eat her and men that would fuck her until she died.

Was she even alive?

Had she been running for her life when I had been fisting my cock and cumming with her name on my lips.

“Fuck.” Spinning around , I  slammed my closed fists against the glass. Which cracked with a groan. “Fuck fuck fuck.” Turning I ran towards the door and even before I hit the stairs I could feel my body begin to change.

“Where are you going? Lincoln?”

“To find her before the others get wind that she is out there and unprotected. Gather some others and start the search quietly. And secure her father as well. I want to have a quiet word with him.”

“The guards.” Deacon began to say and I growled loudly.

“No.” I knew what he was going to say , that it was the guards job to find fugitives. But I knew what those men would do to her and I wouldn’t stand for it. “Quietly. We will find her and the plan will go on as normal. Just get it done Deacon.”

My animal took over, and I fell forward. Almost falling down the stairs before I caught myself and headed downwards.

Over seventy  flights of stairs lay before me and the outside where I needed to find Hope. And I took every single one of them with one giant leap.

People, my people. Scattered out of my way as I growled warnings that echoed through the entire building.

It didn’t take me long but it felt like years until I finally crashed through the doors and into the post nuclear sunlight.

The sights and smells assaulted my senses. Which were always so much stronger when I was in my animal form.

Left and right I swung my head and to my left someone screamed. A beta running for life with a baby that wouldn’t see its second birthday clinging to her. She thought I was hunting. That I would look at her or her baby as a nice mid morning snack.

She didn’t have to worry. I had very different prey today. Prettier prey.

My nostrils flared and I bounded past her. Moving my black furred body as fast as it would go. Prey I had caught scent of the moment I had stepped out into the street.