It was such a fucking good sleep… But my fucking alpha woke me up.

I opened my eyes with a groan, cursing my second spirit for forcing me awake. Since I couldn’t hear or see or even smell anything unusual in the basement, I thought my alpha was just torturing me for fun.

“Fucking bitch… Let me sleep…” I muttered, pulling the heavy covers tighter around myself.

I was going to just ignore my second spirit, but… It wasn’t paying any attention to me. It didn’t care one bit if I was awake or not. I frowned and looked around again while listening carefully. And I realized, my alpha was on high alert. That was what had woken me up.

Suddenly, I was wide awake. I sat up to stare at the ceiling, listening so carefully I could almost hear my own heartbeat.

I heard a sharp thud somewhere upstairs.

Kieran…?

He was probably just… Moving stuff or something. I had no idea what time it was, anyway.

Since I couldn’t hear anything else, I assumed everything was fine. It was just daytime, and Kieran was doing his chores or something. Entertaining his baby. Whatever…

I lay back down, but… I stayed so alert I could hardly even breathe… And my alpha was even worse. It was getting really worried and agitated.

“Fuck…!” I hissed, and stood up, my heart suddenly racing. “Kieran!”

I stared at the camera, but no matter how long I waited, or how many times I yelled his name, he didn’t answer.

“Fuck!” I shouted, my alpha now in full fight mode, and looked around.

The fucking chains… There was no way I could break them! If I could get my hands free, I’d still have to get through the door.

“Fuck! Kieran?! Fucking answer me!!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

And finally, my alpha turned its attention to the door. I heard it too. The door upstairs got slammed open, and I heard his rushed, heavy footsteps coming down to our door. It had to be Kieran. My alpha knew it was Kieran. But we heard so much more than just footsteps. Something broke upstairs, maybe a window, right before Kieran barged through the door, Ares in his arms, and my gun in his hand.

“Kieran!” I shouted and tried to get to him, but the chains stopped me. “What the fuck?!”

Kieran was scared out of his mind when he slammed the door shut and locked it again. His breathing had turned into sharp gasps, and I could tell he was on the verge of tears. He only glanced at me when he turned around and hid in the corner, falling to the ground while hugging his baby tightly against his chest. Ares was crying… Kieran shushed at him, trying to soothe the child, but the baby could feel his panic, so it was useless.

At least they didn’t look injured…

Our attention was brought back to upstairs when we heard more loud sounds, cheery shouts, and mad laughter.

“What’s going on?!” I asked Kieran, but he only shivered and curled up into a smaller ball. “Kieran!!”

He was so scared… How could a fucking SOU elite break down this badly…?

Was it because of the baby…?

I growled loudly and turned my attention to the sounds coming from upstairs. Someone had broken into the house, that much was clear. Who, how many, and why were not important questions right now.

“He ran downstairs! He’s got a baby!”

“Hell yeah! We can sell it!”

The growl leaving me was so loud and angry I nearly broke my throat. And I agreed with my alpha.

Sell the baby? They weren’t going to stay alive long enough to even see the baby!

“Kieran! Let me go!” I shouted at the omega when I heard more footsteps running down the stairs. “Kieran! For fuck’s sake! Get these damn cuffs off me!!”

The omega got even more scared when something heavy hit the door, shaking it violently. It would hold for a moment, but not long if they had something to break it with.

“Kieran! Look at me,” I said angrily, but trying to keep my voice steady. “Let me go. Now.”

The invaders kept trying to break the door, shouting commands to each other, trying to find something heavy to break down the door with.

I stared at Kieran, who finally made eye contact with me.

“Let me go, or they’ll steal your baby,” I told him.

I guess I finally got through to him, since he put his baby down on the floor and hurried up to his feet, searching for the key to my chains. My alpha’s full focus was on the door, and it was ready to kill.

Once the chains fell to the floor, I grabbed Kieran by his shirt and took the gun and the keys from him.

“Stay right here,” I said as I pushed him back into his corner.

While my alpha and I focused our attention to the door, Kieran took his child in his arms and tried to keep them both quiet. He curled up again, trying to protect his baby with his body.

Another set of loud bangs shook the door again, and I responded by growing as loudly as I could. This time, I was happy to notice the intruders hesitated.

“Is that an alpha?” someone asked just loud enough so I could hear them.

“Damn right, and I have a gun!” I shouted. “You have five seconds to fuck off before I start shooting!”

Fuck… yelling alone sent waves of pain through my stomach… I doubted I could last long in a fight…

“Yeah right!” someone replied to me, so I shot through the door, aiming at their feet.

The chaos that erupted just outside warmed my heart. I could hear them scurrying to safety. They didn’t have guns, then…? I glanced at Kieran, who was finally strong enough to look up at me. His eyes were still full of fear, but he was no longer panicking.

“Come back, you pussies! That baby is worth thousands!”

I growled at the insolence. I shot at the door again and heard the last guy running up the stairs. Hopefully injured. But I had to do something. If they had explosives, we’d be doomed.

I grabbed the keys and hurriedly found the right one to unlock the door. Kieran begged me not to, but he didn’t understand. There was nowhere for us to escape if they got in, so I had to go out there and take care of them.

I yanked the door open, and thankfully, there was no one on the staircase. Someone tried to peer in when they heard the door, but I shot at them, and they retreated. I quickly threw the keys back to Kieran.

“Lock the door and don’t let anyone in, got it?” I told him, and he hurried up to his feet.

I couldn’t stay there a second longer. If they had explosives, We’d be dead if they threw them down here. So I ran up, ignoring my aching body, and carefully peered around both corners. Weirdly enough, there was no one. I heard sounds coming from the living room, though. And voices…

“Quickly… Quickly!”

I made sure there was no one behind me, then sneaked closer to the doorway. The entrance hall and the kitchen were a fucking mess. As I approached the living room, I heard a lot of noises coming outside. I took a second to look through the broken windows.

Fuck… Looters.

The whole neighborhood was in chaos. I saw people running down the street with TV’s and computers. I heard gunshots and glass breaking. I heard screams and crying. And I saw fire…

I gritted my teeth and focused on the people in Kieran’s home. There was no one in the bathroom, so I walked past it, and stopped behind the corner without entering the kitchen area. I carefully peered in, listening carefully to the hurried whispers. There were two people…

“Stop right there!” I shouted as I launched around the corner, pointing the gun at the larger of the two males in the living room, who were hastily going through the drawers. They both jolted up on their feet and turned to me with fear in their eyes.

They both looked younger than me.

“Drop everything you have!” I shouted, while my alpha listened to the sounds coming from behind us.

“No! This shit is ours now!” the bigger male, an alpha, shouted back after he’d recovered from the surprise.

“That’s not how things work,” I said, stepping closer, enjoying the fact that the guy’s bravery dropped a notch. “Drop it, or I will shoot you.”

“No! Don’t hurt him!” the smaller one, an omega, shouted and foolishly jumped in front of the gun, his hands spread.

I pulled off the safety to make myself clear. The alpha stared at me, then at the gun, and then…

He dropped whatever he was holding and escaped through a broken window behind him.

The omega peered over his shoulder, pain spreading on his face. I clicked my tongue.

“Hope that wasn’t your mate or anything,” I said, but the kid didn’t say a word. “Get the fuck out of here,” I told him, lowering my gun.

He did. He followed the alpha through the window and vanished into the shadows.

Fucking looters…

My alpha alerted me, and I sprung around just in time to dodge a large baseball bat aimed at my head. There were two more intruders, both bigger and faster than I was. The only advantage I had was the gun. When they saw it, they quickly retreated behind the corner, out of my sight.

“You better fucking leave, or I will fucking end you!” I growled, trying to get myself into a better position in case they had guns, too.

“You don’t have the guts, kid,” one of them said in a taunting manner.

I rolled my eyes. “Try me.”

“No, I think we’ll stay right here…” was his reply, and I didn’t like the confident tone in his voice.

They were now between me and Kieran, and I had nowhere to hide in case someone was outside the windows… Fuck… I shouldn’t have lost focus like that… I wasn’t anywhere near at my best, and my alpha didn’t like me enough to work with me… The only reason it was helping me now was because I was protecting the omega and the baby.

Fuck… Fuck, fuck, fuck…!