Hated By My Alphas(An Omegaverse)

Chapter 2

Canon

Six Months Later

“Gurrzly!” Daisy screamed. “Want Gurrzly!”

Behind me, Knox muttered something under his breath. We all loved Daisy, but the toddler phase was challenging, to say the least. When we reached the clearing, Nico had immediately trotted off to find wood for a fire, leaving Knox and me with Daisy.

“I know, Daisy, but we couldn’t find Gurrzly,” I said again, striving to find some patience. “But we got you a friend for Gurrzly when we do find him.”

The stupid brown teddy bear was never far from her, but it had disappeared right before we took this trip. Three alphas, experts in tracking, hadn’t been able to find it, and now we had a two-year-old who would spend most of our annual camping trip screaming about her teddy bear even though we’d gotten her a new pink one.

“Bears not pink!” she shouted, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at me.

Fuck me.

Knox let out a strangled groan, and I clenched my teeth. This was our first attempt to take Daisy on a trip away from the hotel, and frankly, I was rethinking that decision.

These first few hours were not going well.

“I know bears in the wild aren’t pink, but your bear can be pink.” I looked her over and frowned. “Daisy, where is your backpack?”

“Gurrzly has it.”

I’d seen her backpack. It was yellow with pink flowers all over it. She’d cried for days when she first saw it on the computer and screamed with delight when I finally bought it for her. She wore it every day, and I’d packed some of her essentials into it last night: a juice bottle, her toy phone, a notebook, and, most importantly, a GPS tracker.

“Daisy, it can’t be with Gurrzly. I saw it this morning.”

She blinked innocent eyes at me. “Gurrzly took it.”

So she’d given her backpack to her stuffed bear and managed to hide both so well that we couldn’t find them. This meant that she’d known where her stuffed animal was all along, and it also meant that she no longer had a GPS tracker.

I turned to Knox. “This was a mistake. We’re going back now.”

“No, we aren’t. The therapist said Daisy needs to start spending time in the woods,” Knox reminded me.

Fucking therapist, only she wasn’t just a f*****g therapist she was a godsend. Daisy was an orphan and the only beta in our pack, and we had no idea what we were doing trying to raise her.

“We have plenty of woods around the hotel.”

“Which I pointed out before you planned this excursion,” he muttered. “You were the one who said we had to leave the territory. You did extensive research into this park. It’s neutral territory. We’re safe. We’re alone. And it’s okay that she doesn’t have her backpack. We’ll keep an eye on her. We’re not going to lose her.”

“We can’t even find a teddy bear that a two-year-old hid,” I snarled.

“It’s in your closet,” Daisy informed me.

I glared at Knox, and his lips quirked in a smile. Damn it, was he enjoying this? “I’m going to kill you.”

“Daisy.” Knox bent down and swooped her up. “It sounds like Gurrzly went camping with your backpack, and this pink bear is all alone. She doesn’t even have a name.”

After a moment, Daisy reached out for the bear, and I handed it to her. I held my breath as she studied it.

“Candy,” she announced. “This is Candy. She camp with us.”

Great. One crisis averted. I looked at Knox. “You did pack her suitcase, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. Would you relax? We’ll have to put up some tents unless you just want to be wolves the whole time. Daisy might like that.”

We were trying to encourage a way to bring her wolf out, but it might be years before we saw it. The therapist was right—most shifter children spent as much time outdoors as possible, even as infants. It helped them understand that the outside world was their home, so when their wolf did come out, they were comfortable running freely.

Pups in the house were disastrous, but some pups were too afraid to go outside.

“Let’s stick to the plan. Daisy, can you and Candy help us set up our tents?”

A scream pierced the air, and my wolf surged to the surface. Knox swept Daisy up in his arms, and we turned.

“I’m on it,” Nico said through the bond. A few minutes later, his fury came through. “Dead woman. Killer shifter. He’s on the run. I’m on it.”

“Catch him. We’ll get the woman.” Already, I was running through protocol in my head. We weren’t on anyone’s territory, which meant there was no alpha in charge to deal with the killer, and we’d need to inform the woman’s alpha of her death. It was hard to identify the alpha of a dead woman, so our best bet was to catch the killer and get the king involved.

The king’s involvement was a source of irritation for me. I did my best to avoid him, which had been easy for the past couple of years, he’d been giving me a wide berth.

Following Nico’s scent, we moved carefully, keeping an eye out for any wolves who might be lingering, until we found a woman’s prone body bleeding in the leaves. I kneeled by the body and pressed my fingers to her neck.

“She’s alive,” I muttered. Blood poured out of her stomach. She’d been stabbed.

I inhaled sharply when a different scent hit me. Panic and surprise flooded our bond, and I hissed. “She’s an omega.”

Fuck. What the hell was an omega—an injured one—doing all the way out here? My instincts to race forward and protect her warred with my disgust. I wouldn’t let my alphas get involved with another omega. I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t get involved with an omega.

Knox dropped down to his knees next to me. Daisy was still in his arms. “No,” I growled. “Get back.”

“She’s...” Knox whispered. His alpha genes were starting to take over. She was an omega—he was programmed to help and protect her.

An omega, like Sarah. My whole body tensed and heated. Just thinking of that name catapulted me back into the past. The fury on her face. The bodies at her feet. The gunshot.

I shook myself back to the present.

“You’re holding Daisy,” I said to Knox. That seemed to break through, and he took several steps back.

“We can’t let her die,” he said tightly.

No. No matter how I felt about omegas, I couldn’t just kneel by her body and let her bleed out.

“We need to make a tourniquet,” I muttered.

“She’s been stabbed in the stomach,” Knox said through gritted teeth. “You can’t make a tourniquet for that.”

“Then we’ll pack the wound and see if we can get her to the car.”

“Do you think she can shift? She could heal.”

Against my better judgment, I probed for her wolf. It was there, deep down. I was about to call it forward when I inhaled deeply. My wolf jerked away, and the tug on my body was so strong that I nearly lay down beside the woman and pressed my body against hers.

No. No f*****g way. With shaking hands, I reached forward and brushed the woman’s greasy, stringy blonde hair out of her face. She moaned faintly, and her eyes fluttered open.

Help me.

With a snarl, I jerked back and nearly fell into the leaves. Knox hissed and prepped for danger. “Alpha?” he asked in a low voice.

“What is it?” Nico demanded.

I stared at the body. It didn’t even seem possible that she could be here, five hundred miles from where I’d last seen her.

Help me.

She’d haunted my dreams. Ever since I’d first laid eyes on her and felt the pull of our mating bond, I’d been haunted by her and the words she’d whispered to me. She’d begged for help, and I’d turned my back on her. I’d f*****g left her there because what the f**k else was I supposed to do? She was an omega.

It was a cruel fate, maybe everything I f*****g deserved and more. Omegas were rarely mated, yet one would be fated for me after everything I’d done, and hadn’t done. I’d failed to keep my pack safe. I hadn’t protected my wolves. They were dead, and this was how I was being punished, with a mate I’d never be able to trust.

So I’d turned from her and left her to whatever darkness had led her to the underground auctions. Drugs, most likely. Omegas were pampered by nature, spoiled brats taken straight from the omega schools and crowned princess of whatever pack had shelled out the thousands of dollars to buy them. That kind of life had consequences. She wasn’t the first omega I’d heard of who’d turned to drugs.

Her blood had been with her. I sensed the beta standing next to her and the connection they shared. He’d been there to help her, and she’d tried to run. It was nothing I’d been willing to get involved with. I’d been there for one reason, and one reason only, and it had nothing to do with a mate.

Fate had a twisted sense of humor, here she was, right in front of me.

Dying.

We weren’t bonded. If she died today, she wouldn’t take me with her. That fact didn’t comfort my wolf at all. Inside, he clawed at me. This was our fault. We’d left her alone, and now we were going to lose her.

Her gaze connected to mine, and despite the life fading from her, I saw the flicker of recognition. f**k it all, I couldn’t turn my back on her again.

We had to save her.