I’d tried to change people’s minds, but no one had really listened. All they could think of was the money. Money I still didn’t believe existed.  

I looked out the dirty window to see where we were, but there were so many cars and motorbikes blocking my view that I couldn’t really see the houses behind them. It was too dark to see anything, anyway.

But seeing our entire convoy made me feel even worse. We were so going to end up in the news, and everyone would know it was us. We already had to face enough abuse as it was… No one wanted us looters around. And all that talk about stealing this territory from the mafia…?

I had the feeling we were forced to move out of this city after this…

I sighed. I really liked this city…

“Almost there!” Kent informed us with a mad laugh. “This is going to be so awesome! We’ll be rich!”

Rich…? Stealing some TVs?

“There it is!” shouted our driver, Henry, pointing into the distance.

I saw a large, arching gateway up ahead, and even though I couldn’t read the name on it, I knew it had to say Clover Hill. My heart dropped more, if it was even possible.

I should’ve stayed at home…

We had to stop long before we reached the gate. I let out a quiet, humorless chuckle when I realized our awesome plan already had failed a little. We couldn’t just get in and out like Grant said we would because only one car could fit through the gates at a time, and we had maybe forty or fifty vehicles with us. The residents closest to the gates had plenty of time to call the cops before we all were in, and they were definitely calling the cops already.

“Fuck! Come on! Move!” Henry shouted, and the idiot started honking at the car ahead of him in his frustration.

“Stop it, you idiot!” Kent shouted at him and pulled his hand away from the horn, but it was too late.

Our entire convoy decided to do the same.

“Shit! Leave the car! We continue on foot!” Kent shouted over the noise and hurried out.

I rolled my eyes as I waited for Yvon to get out of my way, then hurried after my alpha.

“Kent! They’re already calling the cops! We need to leave!” I shouted at him, but he rushed to me, grabbed my hand, and started pulling me with him to the gates.

“If we leave the cars here, they will block the cops and give us more time! We can’t just leave now!” he told me, then turned to yell at the others to leave their cars.

I sighed, but followed him, wondering what they had for breakfast in jail in the morning. I’d heard they served good food, so I had my hopes up.

Some of the cars did get past the gates and drove down deeper into the neighborhood. The rest of us hurried after them by foot, and once everyone was finally in, Kent’s mood came back up.

“Spread out!” he shouted and earned a lot of excited shouting and growling.

Kent himself kept walking down the street while the others spread out and started breaking down doors and windows. I felt horrible following him. Soon, I could hear panicked screams and shouting… and gunshots.

My omega woke up inside me. It was scared of the loud noises and the dangerous atmosphere. I tried to soothe it. I tried to tell it everything was all right, but it could feel my own distress. It begged me to leave this place… Even our alpha’s presence didn’t calm it this time.

“Keep going. Our target is just down this street,” Kent told me.

“Our target?” I repeated, and he pointed at a small, yellow house in the distance. “What’s so special about that house?”

“You’ll see,” he told me with a grin. “Grant, Shawn and Cecil have their own targets.”

The other clan leaders…?

I suddenly didn’t like this at all… The red flags were growing bigger, and my omega kept begging me to leave. Even that bundle of ancient instincts knew what we were doing was wrong.

I also noticed I didn’t know most of the people we were with. I’d seen some of them around, yes, but since they were from other clans, I didn’t really interact with any of them. I didn’t trust the other clans. We were all looters, yes, but looters only cared about their own clans.

I didn’t like this at all…

We reached the yellow house, and the others immediately started throwing rocks at the windows, trying to break them. More people joined our small group, and one of them had a baseball bat.

“Do you see anyone?” Kent asked as he tried to see through the windows into the dark house.

“No, I don’t think… Wait! There’s someone!”

I indeed saw movement in the house, and suddenly, a young man appeared next to the kitchen windows. He grabbed something from the table. When he looked at us, I saw fear on his face.

And a small baby in his arms. 

My omega felt worse. It was in our instincts to protect children, after all, but this time, we were the bad guys.

“Kent…” I muttered, grabbing him by his arm. “There’s a baby in that house.”

“You saw it?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure,” I said, but at that moment, the guy with a baseball bat broke the window, and people started climbing in, shouting victoriously.

“Come!” Kent told me with a grin, and pulled me to the windows.

“We should leave,” I said, trying to stop him. “I don’t like this at all.”

“Come on! Don’t be a coward! There’s money in this house!” Kent said, and let go of me so he could climb through the window.

I heard the baby crying somewhere in the house. I suddenly felt sick… I glanced around and saw the destruction our clans were leaving behind. I heard people crying as the residents were pulled out of their houses. I heard gunshots and screams…

I felt really sick…

We were looters, yes, but we’d never done anything like this before…

“Joni! Come! Help me carry this stuff out!” Kent shouted at me.

I heard more windows breaking inside the house. I couldn’t hear the baby anymore. It worried my omega. Maybe we should go make sure they were all right? We could make sure no one would hurt the child.

So I climbed in, even though I should’ve left.

I stopped to look around in the small house. There were guys on my right making a lot of noise in a stairwell. It sounded like they were trying to break through a door in the basement. I heard the baby again… It was somewhere down there…

“Stop!” I shouted, and grabbed the closest guy. “You’re scaring the baby!”

But he pushed me hard on my chest, sending me on my ass on the floor.

“Mind your goddamn business, omega,” he hissed at me, and went to help his friends to break down the door.

I quickly got up and went to find Kent. He was in the living room, going through drawers and cabinets in his search for loot.

“Grab everything you can,” Kent told me.

“You have to tell them to leave that family alone!” I told him.

“Why?” he asked me. “Start grabbing things! The cops will be here any minute!”

“Why? They’re scaring the baby!” I shouted.

But a loud roar coming from the basement silenced us all for a brief second. My omega retreated a little in fear at that angry sound.

An alpha… The child’s sire was with them… Good.

And the child’s sire had a gun. I heard one single gunshot coming from downstairs, and our group came rushing out of the stairwell. I smiled at their panic. Served them right for trying to scare that baby…

“Come back, you pussies! That baby is worth thousands!” someone who had stayed in the stairwell shouted up at us.

“We’re not taking their baby! Just leave them alone!” I shouted at them.

“Hell no! That baby is worth twenty thousand dollars!” one of them replied to me.

“We are not stealing their baby!” I yelled in anger, then turned to Kent. “Tell him!”

Kent glanced at me, then at his new friends. “Grab everything you can, Joni.”

I stopped to stare at him. It all suddenly clicked. All those red flags…

The sire shot at our group again, but I didn’t even flinch. I was too numb and shocked to even register it.

“That baby is our target,” I whispered.

“Look. Grant knows people who will pay up to twenty grand per baby. We know there’s at least four or five babies in this neighborhood. That’s a shit ton of money!” Kent said.

My world shattered at that moment. My alpha could do such a thing…?

“You’d steal someone’s baby and sell it?” I asked in disbelief.

The basement door below us opened at that very moment, and the sire shot at our group again. The sound of his gun was so much louder I finally understood to get scared. I could feel the sire’s anger to where I stood.

“We need guns,” said Charlie, an alpha from our clan, and he hurried out of the house with the rest of our group right behind him.

“We need to leave,” I said to Kent, but he went back to going through the drawers. “Did you hear me?”

He snapped and marched to me with anger written all over his face. He grabbed my hand, pulled me to the cabinets and shoved me against them.

“Grab everything you can, for fuck’s sake!” he hissed at me.

“No! We need to–”

He slapped me across my face so hard I saw stars. I placed my hand on my throbbing cheek and turned back to him.

“Get to work, bitch!” he shouted at me.

I was suddenly scared of him. His eyes were completely mad as he glared at me. His anger was so strong my omega froze inside me. This was supposed to be our alpha… How could he hit us…?

“Move!” Kent hissed at me, and pushed me against the cabinets again.

I obeyed him out of fear. I opened the first two doors, but in my panic, I couldn’t actually focus on going through them. Kent was so angry I could feel it in my soul… The pain on my face was spreading, and I could taste blood in my mouth. And my side hurt too because he’d thrown me so hard against the furniture…

“Quickly! Quickly!” Kent growled at me.

But he’d forgotten we weren’t alone in the house…

“Stop right there!” someone angry growled behind us.

The sire! He’d come out of the basement!

We both sprung around to face the young alpha man, who kept his gun aimed at us. He was without a shirt, and had bandages over his stomach… And his anger was greater than Kent’s.

“Drop everything you have!” the baby’s sire demanded angrily.

“No! This shit is ours now!” Kent yelled back at him.

“That’s not how things work,” the sire said, stepping closer to us, pointing his gun at Kent’s head. “Drop it, or I will shoot you.”

Still… After what Kent just did to me… I couldn’t let him die… And the anger in this sire’s face told me he really was going to shoot him…  

“No! Don’t hurt him!” I shouted and jumped between them.

How foolish of me… The sire took the safety off his gun without hesitation. His eyes were cold when he pointed the gun now at me. He didn’t care about me or my life. He had a family to protect, after all.

And Kent… I heard him drop everything he was holding…

And he escaped through the window, leaving me to face death alone.

 *****

Hello and welcome to the third book in my Shaded Allies stories! 

This is a standalone book, so you don't have to worry about reading the previous 2, but some things may make a little more sense if you have or will read the previous books!

As always, you guys get to read the story in Joni's perspective here for free, and possible bonus content, such as additional pov's will be published exclusively for my Ream subscribers (more info and link in my bio!) I warmly suggest you to either follow me on Ream, or save that link somewhere in case something happens to my profile or stories so you won't lose us!

Happy Reading <3

-Shade