I sent him a feral glare over my shoulder, the fire in my eyes daring him to try and stop me. The sudden fear in his gaze momentarily drew my attention away from the crowd as he whimpered and took a step back. What the fuck? Since when was Robin scared of me?
I was caught off guard for a moment and didn’t see the tomato hurtling toward me. It splattered across my chest, the cold, slimy pulp oozing down my shirt.
“Fraud!” someone in the crowd shouted. “Fake bitch, sending the alpha down to hide your bullshit. You’re nothing but a lying bitch!”
“Get back in the car, Liza.” Robin tried to instruct me again, this time from afar, but I was deaf to his pleas. I was surrounded by a sea of hatred, and overwhelmed with a burning desire for revenge.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” I snarled, stalking toward the building. “You have no right to do this.”
“Fake bitch!” another voice called.
The rage in my chest grew stronger, wilder, almost like it was taking on a life of its own. Their hateful shouts and taunts echoed around me, but their words barely registered. It was the sight of my office building, its windows smashed and graffiti covering the once-pristine walls, that turned my blood into fire. The subconscious voice in my head, the familiar one that had been growing stronger since I’d discovered the truth about my heritage, urged me to keep calm. But the rage was too powerful, too consuming, to be contained.
“You’re nothing!” someone yelled, their voice dripping with disdain. “You don’t deserve to be with an alpha. Bet you got Alpha Keller to believe you were an omega so he’d fuck you.”
The ground beneath my feet trembled, a low rumble that matched the fury coursing through my veins.
My voice, once it emerged, was more wolf than human. A guttural growl that demanded submission. “Look at what you’ve done!” I snarled, stalking closer toward the mob. “This is my business, my life! You have no right to destroy it!”
The stench of fear permeated the air, thick and heavy, like a blanket smothering the crowd. People stepped back, their expressions shifting from anger to unease as they realized they might have pushed me too far.
“Liza, Liza!” Ty’s sharp, commanding voice cut through the tension. He moved to stand between me and the crowd, his broad frame acting as a barrier against their hatred.
I couldn’t figure out how Ty had managed to arrive on the scene so quickly, but there he was, standing between me and the hateful mob. His presence both infuriated and soothed me at the same time. My wolf yearned for vengeance, but I knew deep down that this wasn’t the way.
“Please, Liza, listen to me,” Ty said firmly, his hands on my shoulders, grounding me and forcing me to focus on him. “The police are on their way. They’ll handle these people, but you need to calm down. For your own sake.”
For a moment, his presence appeared to quell the storm within me, the rage receding like waves on a shore. But I looked beyond Ty at my office building, my place of work that I’d built from the ground up, and these people weren’t happy because I hadn’t come out and performed at their command like a fucking clapping seal. They thought they had the gods-given right to the destroy my property. It felt like the calm inside me Ty had begun to restore was too far gone. The damage had already been done, and it was too late. The power within me, wild and untamed, demanded to be released.
“Please, Liza,” Ty begged, his eyes locked on mine, filled with unease. “You need to calm down. This isn’t the way.”
I heard his words, saw the concern in his gaze, knew the love in his touch. Together, it soothed me, a balm to my frayed nerves. Slowly, reluctantly, the anger began to ebb. In its place, bone-deep weariness settled like nothing I’d ever experienced. It left me hollow and cold.
“Fine.” My voice was hoarse from the strain of holding back my wolf.
Even though I was still struggling with the simmering fury just beneath the surface, when I looked at Ty’s worried face, there was a certain quality to his gaze that gave me pause. I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh, focusing on regaining control of my emotions, feeling drained and disoriented as the anger slowly dissipated.
“Ty,” I rasped. “What happened? How did you know where I was? How did you make it here so quickly?”
He shook his head. “I’ll explain later. We need to get you out of here.”
As we turned to walk away, the crowd murmured among themselves, their voices tinged with awe and fear. It seemed they had finally gotten a taste of the power they’d been so eager to condemn, and it had left them shaken to their core.
We walked toward Ty’s car as the fanatics’ shouts echoed around us, their tone shifting from anger to something more akin to reverence.
“Did you see that?” one of them exclaimed. “She made the ground shake. She truly is an omega.”
“Her power is incredible,” another person said in awe. “I’ve never seen anything like it. My placard floated right out of my hands. The stories were true.”
I gritted my teeth, a bitter mix of validation and disgust churning in my gut. They’d witnessed a glimpse of my power and, suddenly, their hatred had been forgotten and transformed back into admiration. It was sickening, but at the same time,a part of me reveled in their newfound respect and their fear. Perhaps they’d think twice before hurling more insults or damn tomatoes my way.
“Focus only on me, Liza.” Ty’s fingers tightened around mine as he led me to his car. “Don’t let them get to you.”
Easier said than done. But for now, I had no choice but to push the feelings aside, trusting that Ty would help me make sense of the chaos by filling in the gaps I couldn’t quite remember.
Once we were back at the estate, I barely had time to catch my breath before Ty turned to face me, his gray eyes a storm of concern and frustration. “What happened with the fanatics tonight was partially my fault. I’m so sorry. When I saw them lounging about outside your office on my way to the meeting with Maximus, I got pissed off and chased them away. If I’d left them alone, they wouldn’t have turned on you like that, and you wouldn’t have gotten angry.”
“This wasn’t your fault, Ty. We both knew they’d turn against me. It was only a matter of time. I wasn’t giving them what they wanted. I have to share the blame. When I saw what they’d done to my office, I demanded that Jamie stop the car. They both tried to get me to listen, but I couldn’t. I saw the destruction, and I was just so fucking angry.”
