In a heartbeat, Five fluidly changed from a wolf into a massive tiger. His jaw caught her around the neck and broke it easily before tossing her aside. When he turned toward Teacher, the man shifted back, holding his hands out as if begging for mercy. Five and the rest of my brothers swarmed in, piling over Teacher as they attacked. Nobody went to stop them. In fact, every wolf who’d come to rescue them howled their appreciation.
I was about to ask Lucian if I could run down and get a bite in when he spoke in my head. "I know you want to be there, beauty. But you did your part—this is theirs. I need you to stay here while Matt and I go down. I'm sure the dickhead is dead by now, but your brothers are too frenzied for anything but an Alpha command to stop them. I hate to leave you, but with so many feral wolves, I think it's going to take every Alpha present. They are way too close to the burning building and fire is starting to spread. We need to get everyone out."
I didn't like the word feral, but looking at them, it kinda fit. Two of my brothers were playing tug-of-war with a leg, while another pair played fetch with an arm. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see any more. I swear on everything holy, if I'd seen anyone swinging his head around, I would've puked. I understood, but… eww.
"Then why are you still talking? Go get them. I'll be fine here." To make him feel better, I scooted closer to the bushes and sat down on my haunches. I would be able to watch, but I'd be protected from view.
Lucian didn't make it halfway down the hill before a rope went around my neck and jerked tight, a stick pressing my neck to the ground. Without hesitation, I screamed Lucian's name, trying to look back at the familiar-scented man who'd managed to pull off a sneak attack. "Lucian! Master is here! I don't know how he hid himself, but he has me, and I can't fight back."
"Motherfucker’s signed his death warrant, not that I wasn't already planning to kill him. Hold tight, beauty. I'm on my way back."
Thankfully, Master wasn't watching Lucian when he veered off, leaving Matt to meet the other alphas and handle things down below. I figured Lucian knew what he was doing, so I focused on staying alive long enough for him to arrive. Especially when I smelled gunpowder and didn't scent any fear. Master was obviously prepared to end this and thought he had time to get away.
"Shift back, runt. I want to talk to you." When I hesitated, wondering if changing was my best move, he must've thought the stick was holding me too hard because he loosened his grip, dropping it beside me. "There, now shift, and don't get sassy. The one with the gun is always in control. Didn't the idiot at least teach you as much before he let you escape?"
Flipping around, I snarled, prepared to attack, but he lifted the gun. Since I needed to stay alive, I decided to obey and shifted. The rope around my neck fell loose, and I realized he'd taken me down with a dogcatcher's tool. Before he could grab the stick again, I quickly removed the rope-noose from my neck and tossed it to the ground. Merely because he had a gun and I had appropriate survival instincts, I wasn’t going to revert to the submissive omega who cowered before Master. Those days were gone.
Lifting my chin, I looked him dead in the eye. "I want to talk to you too. I met my parents. Who knew we were separated by less than twenty miles for my entire life? My only question is—are you the mysterious Dr. J, or did he give me to you?"
Master smiled smugly, his lips curling in pride. "Dear boy, nobody gives away an omega. You were part of the master plan. I had one year to abduct as many of you as I could. I figured the money would leave me set for life. I'm not sure I would've risked taking one so close to home, except I never planned on keeping you. With so many hungry couples wanting to start a family, and omegas in such rare supply, I figured a black-market baby sale was the way to go. Who would’ve known I'd get five million for the first one? And that was twenty years ago. Think what I'd get now."
In books and movies when the bad guy wanted to spill his secrets in the crux moment, I always thought it was crazy, like he couldn't resist bragging. And yet, here we were. Not only was the bad guy bragging—he was helping me buy time. Playing for effect, I went with a wobbly, weak voice. "It was about a payday? I don't understand, Master. Why did you keep us, if we were worth so much money?"
"Simply put, a much larger payday. After I sold the first one, I found out how much more he would've been worth if I'd waited until he was a little older. At least potty-trained, if not school-age. So I invested my earnings into hiring staff and had my old barn remodeled to keep you all. Thanks to the formation of the hills, nobody had a clue any of this was back here. The wife knew because she started out as my nurse. We retired after we collected our fifteenth pup."
"Is that why we don't have names? Were we called the order in which we were taken?"
Frowning, Master shook his head, looking annoyed at something he was remembering. "I learned the hard way about names, and you can thank the missus. I was fine with letting you have names, only would've personalized y’all for the buyers. But as soon as I let her start calling the second one Joshua, I ended up an omega short and with another mouth to feed at home. She insisted on the limited visits, said it wasn't okay for a kid not to at least have Christmas and birthdays. So we compromised. She didn't ask for any more of my stock, and I let her visit so long as the rest of you didn't get named."
"What about Twelve? He left young while the rest of us have stayed until, well, now."
"Twelve? Oh, yeah. I did have to let another one of you go, didn't I? He got auctioned to someone in Texas, if I recall. Had a bad year and needed to recoup some profits when the crops died during a drought while the state was fighting with us over water rights. Then the oldest boy got cancer, if you can believe it. Medical bills damn near killed me, but he survived. Take what you get when you go shopping for kids, I guess. Alex started it. The missus was depressed when she couldn't conceive. So I grabbed her a baby from a mother who already had seven pups. Probably helped her and the mate out, if I’m being honest. They had enough mouths to feed. Never would've expected it to be so easy. Only have to be in the right delivery room at the right time, is all."
When the leaves rustled in a nearby bush, his voice trailed off. We waited in pregnant silence to hear another sound, but a rush of wind blew through, rustling more leaves and branches. Master looked back at me, motioning with his gun for me to move. "Speaking of Alex, you're lucky he didn't die during your great escape. Oh, he denied having any part in it, but I can see in your eyes he was lying through his teeth, the way I thought. Swore he was out for a run, decided to break the rules and see why I'd always forbidden him and his brother from visiting this part of the property. What I can't figure is where the group of dogs came from. Don't know whose they were, don't know where they went, couldn't even find a hint of scent or so much as a pawprint. The only thing we discovered, when all was said and done, was you missing."
"I don't know what you mean. I've never met your son. I wouldn't recognize him if we met on the street. I got scared by the dogs and ran off. Then I got lost, and the Alpha from the pack I was born into saved me. It's almost like fate had a hand in it. I don’t know anything else."