“Mark,” I said in return, resolutely staring straight ahead.
Ox and Joe sighed in unison, the insufferable Alphas that they were.
“Good day?”
“Fine. Yours?”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
“Great.”
“Idiots,” Joe muttered.
Before I could e
ven begin to acknowledge that, an Omega burst through the tree line.
It was a woman, and she looked as if she’d seen better days. Her clothes were in tatters, her feet bare and caked with dirt. Her hair was wild around her face, and she hesitated at the sight before her, the rest of the pack spreading out behind us at the ready. We’d been back in Green Creek for just over a year and in that time had become a finely oiled machine. We knew our strengths. We were aware of our weaknesses. But there’d never been a pack quite like this one, and we had clawed our way into who we were now.
The Alphas stood side by side.
I popped my neck.
Carter, Joe’s second—his enforcer—growled.
Ox’s second, Mark, came to stand behind him and to the left.
Kelly stood with his brother.
The humans were next.
Elizabeth and Robbie brought up the rear.
There were twelve of us. The Bennett pack.
And one Omega.
Which is why I was surprised when her eyes flashed violet and she charged at us, half-shifted and snarling.
No one behind us made a sound.
I pressed two fingers against an earth rune on my arm, digging my fingernails in deep enough to draw blood.
The ground rolled beneath the Omega’s feet, causing her to stumble forward, her hands shifting into paws as they hit the dirt. Dirty gray hair sprouted along her arms as she struggled to maintain her balance. It was a battle she lost, and she went down hard on her shoulder, fangs bared, eyes alight as they fell on me. Her growl was a feral thing as she snapped her jaws in my direction.
Mark stepped forward, the muscles in his back shifting as he tried to step in front of me, like he was protecting me. His hand came back behind him, as if he was getting ready to shove me away. This motherfucker thought he could—
She was up and moving, hurtling toward us.
Mark tensed.
But it was over before it really began.
Ox moved quicker than a man his size should have been able. One moment he stood with Joe, and the next his hand was around the Omega’s neck, stopping her forward momentum. She made a painful choking sound, her legs and arms jerking forward. He lifted her off the ground, her feet kicking out as she tried to impale him with her claws. She didn’t get the chance before he slammed her back down into the ground with a bone-jarring crunch, crouched over her, his face in hers, eyes ablaze.
And then he roared.