The scars on his face and neck—ones he tried so hard to hide. His brown hair hanging in his face, messy and chaotic. He had a gun slung on his back, too. I never thought I’d see Ambrose with a gun. He was a gentle giant.
Then his hands were on me, and I sighed.
Mygentle giant.
He took the gun from my hand, finding the safety and shoving it in the waistband of his pants. When I slumped against him, he held me. The cool metal of Nyla’s hilt slid across my skin for a second, before he replaced my knife in her holster.
The weight was comforting, but not as much as his presence was. Nyla was how I protected myself—but I didn’t need to do that when he was here. My alpha would keep me safe.
I vaguely realized that Cordian was gone, disappearing while my attention had been elsewhere, and I didn’t care. I’d decided not to shoot him, but Ambrose might have when he found out what he’d done.
“Fuck, princess,” he murmured. “We need to take you home.”
“Leighton…” I whimpered her name.
“Dash and Mercury are getting her. She’s in the house?”
“Downstairs.”
“They’ve got her, little omega. You’re coming with me. Are you OK?”
I shook my head, sweat-drenched hair swaying back and forth. It would be a lie to say I was, but Ambrose could make it better.
Being aroused at a time like this was wildly inappropriate, but my body was begging—and I was about to start begging too. I needed his knot. It would fix everything. He would soothe the pain and tend my wounds.
“I’m going to make it better,” Ambrose promised.
He swept me up into his arms as the gunshots decreased.Because we were winning, right?
All I could focus on was the warmth of him against me.
My eyes lulled shut as he carried me away, his purr soothing my aches slightly. It was peaceful, even without Leighton by my side yet, because I trusted them.
I knew my pack would bring my alpha home.
FIFTY-NINE
DASH
Ambrose was the one to go and get our omega, but even from a distance she looked wrecked. Her shaking was so intense it was visible as Mercury and I sprinted past, headed for the back door.
We were following the professionals in.
Soren had gathered a team of elite special ops guys—except they weren’t government employed, or above board in the slightest. They were fast to get here, though, and efficient as fuck. Almost none of their shots missed against the lackeys Noah Connolly employed to keep him safe.
Some of the team stormed the front of the house, but we followed the guys to the basement.
They’d had a floor plan of the house, despite the rush we’d been in. A petite, blue-eyed omega had laid them out on the floor of the unmarked van we’d arrived in, detailing what was going to happen and when. Everything had gone according to her plans so far.
She said it was most likely they were keeping the captives in the basement, and it seemed she was right. We’d only caught Kiara outside because they were prepping for a transfer, but Leighton was nowhere to be seen.
I tried to focus on where we were headed, but so much was happening around us that I couldn’t. My attention swung to everything and everyone. A body on the concrete. A single bullet in the siding of the house. A glance back at Kiara and Ambrose, halfway to the van by now.
“Dash,” Mercury snapped when my feet faltered, and I snapped back to look at him.
He was glaring, and I could have sworn he was about to demand I go back to the van. It would be just like him. The distracted one was most likely to get shot because he wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t want to have to fight for my right to be here, but I would.
To my surprise, he tilted his head toward the stairway, the hired team pounding their way to the bottom.
