“Shit!” Rylan reached past the door, hit a light switch, and took off down the stairs after Hux. “Hux, wait!”
Chasing after my mate, I wished I could tell him there’d be no waiting. There was only one thing that could have made Hux break rank and take off like that. Somewhere in this basement was his mate, and Hux may have been one of the best men I knew, but I wasn’t about to letmy mateget between him and his Omega.
***
RYLAN
“Hux, wait!” I yelled again when I reached the bottom of the stairs. Admittedly, the basement was at least nicer than thewarehouse above it with its carpeted floor and cleanliness, but it was still a cage. A prison I’d been too happy to put behind me.
When I’d lifted the key from one of Trent’s new flunkies, I could barely believe it. I’d been terrified, but I refused to let the chance to escape pass me by. It hadn’t been as easy for the others. I’d been there long enough that I’d made Trent and his people believe I was docile. That Iwantedto be there and help the incoming Omegas learn the rules.
I knew Trent had decided to keep me for himself. It had taken months, but I’d finally convinced him that I didn’t need to be kept locked up at night. What if one of the other Omegas tried to escape? What if one of them needed something, and it was a night when there was no guard in the building?
How Trent ever truly believed I was on his side was beyond me.
In front of me, Hux ground to a halt facing the back wall. Each of the Omegas in residence had a sleeping area of their own, a mattress against the wall where we were chained up each night. Hux had stopped in front of Milo. He was the newest Omega here, and I’d never heard him utter a word.
Right now, Milo pressed his back against the wall, eyes wide and focused on the grizzly bear in front of him. Before I could take another step forward, Shep bumped into me and wrapped one of his huge bear arms around my middle, keeping me in place.
“Shep—” I started to protest, but at that moment, Hux dropped to the ground, belly flat to the floor, and scooted his way forward until his nose was pressed into the side of Milo’s mattress. Then he made such a soft rumbling noise that if I hadn’t heard it myself, I never would have believed it came out of a bear.
Shep squeezed at my waist, and I nodded my head, letting him pull me back a step. Logically, I didn’t think Hux would hurtMilo, especially if Milo was his mate, but I also knew what it was like to be chained up with nowhere to go and no choice in who invaded my space.
Milo looked up from Hux and met my eyes.
“It’s okay, Milo. All of you. We’re here to get you out.” I swallowed, looking around the room at the others. “Get dressed and put on your shoes. You don’t have to spend another minute here.”
Chapter
Seven
SHEP
It’d taken the Omegas about thirty seconds to gather their few belongings and stuff their feet into their shoes. Before we’d set off into the woods toward the warehouse, we’d driven two trucks to a rest area about an hour in the opposite direction of the bar.
I had no illusions that Trent or one of his men wouldn’t eventually figure out who’d freed his captives—but that was a problem for another night—and I certainly would not make it any easier for them.
Right now, Rylan smelled content in the passenger seat of my pickup. The others and myself had shifted back when we’d reached the trucks. All five of the Omegas were piled into the back seat of my extended cab. All of them—even Milo, who hadn’t let go of Hux since the basement—had insisted on riding with Rylan. They didn’t trust us, which was understandable.
Glancing over, I caught Rylan’s eye in the dim light from the dashboard and extended my hand across the center console. He smiled and threaded his fingers between mine. The only sounds in the cab were the low hum of a country song coming throughthe speakers and the soft sounds of five sleeping Omegas. Rylan looked as exhausted as the others despite his earlier nap.
Keeping my voice low, I said, “You can sleep if you want, sweetheart. We’ll be home in about half an hour.”
He hummed, but it wasn’t an entirely happy sound. “Home?” He looked at the others in the backseat before focusing back on me. “I can’t thank you enough for helping me get them out of there. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you and the others.” He swallowed and dropped his gaze. “But…”
I gently squeezed his fingers. “But?”
“What now?”
“Like I said, we go home. All of us. I own all the land surrounding the bar. Our house is set back in the woods.” I shot him a grin. “I can’t wait for you to see it. As for the others, if they have somewhere they want to go, we’ll get them there. If they don’t…they’re pack if they want to be. There’s plenty of room to build more houses.”
When he lifted his gaze back to mine, his eyes were shiny.
“You’d do that? Take us all in?” This came from one of the Omegas—Jamal, I thought.
Glancing at the rearview mirror, I found more than one pair of eyes looking back. “Absolutely. You’ve all got a home with us if you want it.”
We made it home a half hour later. Rylan’s hand still tucked firmly in mine. I kept sneaking glances at his face as I maneuvered the truck down the winding driveway through the woods behind the bar.
