It was a little scary to get back home so late, but we tried to use the popular streets kidnappers usually avoided, and in the end, we got home without getting any unwanted attention. I immediately tried to get the worst of the vomit off my shoes in a nearby ditch before we climbed up to our camp, then left them outside my tent to wait for morning so I could give them a proper scrub.

Payton wanted to sleep in my tent again, and I didn’t want to sleep alone either, so we changed our clothes, ate a little, and curled up in my bed, under the covers. But again, it was hard to fall asleep. Payton had better luck, but I couldn’t rest. My omega was still awake as well.

I was feeling a little feverish, too… I almost groaned out loud when I realized what time of the month it was. I was going into heat soon.

I hated my heats so much… I was so tired I actually wanted to cry out my misery. I didn’t even have any painkillers left. Like those ever helped… But why now? This wasn’t the right time. This was the worst possible timing for a heat!

I closed my eyes and took a few calming breaths. It was just a few days… I’d get through it, like always…

But knowing what to expect really didn’t help me to fall asleep. I stared at the canvas above me for hours, thinking so much it was literally giving me a headache. I tried to decide what to do, but my tired mind could only ask the same questions in a loop.

Why did Kent do this to us…?

I heard the rest of our group returning home at one point, and by the sound of it, they all were drunk as hell. I heard Kent speaking my name in an angry mutter, and I assumed he was trying to come to my tent, but Derek stopped him and dragged him away. Again, that incident only made it harder for me to fall asleep because I kept listening with a faster heartbeat in case Kent tried to return. But in minutes, the camp fell silent. He didn’t try to come to me.

Finally, I did fall asleep somewhere early in the morning. I couldn’t call it a good sleep, but at least I was able to get some rest.

I woke up to Payton moving next to me. I stayed still since he didn’t seem to be awake just yet, and I hoped he’d continue snoozing away, but soon, he stretched a little, and yawned. I opened my eyes to see him right next to me, his body partly resting against mine.

“Morning,” I whispered. The rest of the camp was still silent, so I hoped we could just sneak out for the day again.

“Morning,” he replied just as quietly, and smiled a little. “Did you sleep at all?”

“A little. You?”

“Yeah. Not well, but yeah.”

I nodded. “How about we spend the day at the pond again?” I asked.

“Yes, please. You can wash your shoes at the pond, too,” he said, and sat up.

“Yeah…” I mumbled, and shivered again when I thought about the drunk guy from last night. “Why do I always get the creeps…?”

Payton gave me an apologetic smile. “I don’t get it why they’re all so intimidated by you,” he said while grabbing his shirt. “If I were an alpha, I’d choose you over everyone else.”

I smiled at him. “I would choose you.”

He gave me a happy little grin, then his expression turned more serious. “You will find an alpha who will worship the ground under your feet.”

“Well, so far I’ve only found one who violated the ground under my feet, but I guess that counts as progress,” I told him with a chuckle.

“At least the ground is now involved, yes,” he said, laughing lightly.

We got dressed and packed our bags for the day. We still had some food left from yesterday, so we didn’t have to go steal anything, which cheered me up a little. I was looking forward to spending the day at the pond, since the day seemed to be turning out sunny and warm.

But, sadly, we were heard while we were getting ready to leave.

When I stepped out of my tent to put my shoes into a plastic bag, I heard footsteps heading our way. I looked up, and my mood, heart, and soul dropped when I saw Kent making his way to us with an angry expression on his face. At least Derek was running after him, so I felt a little braver.

“You fucking bitches left!” Kent shouted when he was halfway to us.

Payton quickly appeared next to me to give me his support, but I could feel his fear.

“Things were going well with the mafia, but then you had to be little whiny bitches and leave!” he kept shouting.

I stood my ground and held my chin up, but when there were maybe five steps left, Derek finally caught up with him and stopped him.

“You ruined the whole fucking night!”

“Fucking stop!” Derek yelled at him. “It’s not their fault!”

“I got vomit all over me. I wasn’t going to stay a second longer in that place,” I said sternly, trying to stay calm.

“You were supposed to help us get on their good side, but when you left, so did they!” Kent continued.

He looked like he’d actually gone mad. I assumed he was still drunk, because he almost looked worse than the creep from last night.

“I got vomit on my shoes,” I said again.

“Come on, man. You need to calm down,” Derek told him, and turned to us. “You two can go.”

“I’m not done with them! They ruined the night! We almost got them on our good side!” Kent now yelled at him. “Payton could’ve fucked the guy and we would’ve been forgiven!”

“Fuck you, Kent! We’re not whores!” I shouted at him.

“You better start acting like one if you want to keep us alive!” Kent yelled at me.

“Just fucking go,” Derek told me angrily, trying to pull Kent back.

I had so many things to say to Kent, but Payton was getting more and more afraid of him, so I turned to him, gave him a soothing smile, and took his hand in mine.

“Let’s go. Grab your bag.”

In seconds, we were ready to leave. I nodded my thanks to Derek, who gestured for us to get out of there, which we did in a hurry. I could hear Kent yelling stupidities at Derek while we hurriedly climbed down from our hiding place. I could hear him even longer than that.

“What an idiot,” I mumbled, and glanced at Payton. He still was a little distressed. “Hey. It’s all right. We’re all right. Derek is looking out for us.”

“He wanted me to sleep with Atticus?” he asked timidly.

“I don’t understand what has gotten into him,” I muttered angrily, peering over my shoulder. “It has to have something to do with Grant. That douchebag must’ve planted stupid ideas in his head.”

Payton wrapped his arms around himself as he walked next to me. He looked so miserable that I stopped him to give him a hug.

“Everything will be all right, I promise,” I told him soothingly. “We’ll figure things out.”

“You don’t think he’s going to force me to… sleep with…?” he whispered against my chest.

I pushed him back to look him in the eyes. “I will not let him. I swear. I will fight him if I have to, but I’m not letting him make you do anything you don’t want to.”

He stared at me, then relaxed a little and smiled timidly. “Right. Of course…”

“Besides, if he makes you go to Atticus, you tell him Kent forced you to see him. They’ll give Kent a swift lesson about how to treat omegas in their territory,” I added. “They don’t take that shit lightly.”

“True, true…” he said, and took a deep breath. “Let’s just go… I’m hungry.”

“Sure,” I said, and we kept walking.

I decided not to stay on the topic now that Payton seemed to be feeling a little better, but I couldn’t stop thinking about this whole situation with Kent. Things were only getting worse. Stealing babies and telling us to start sleeping with people for money and reputation? Since when did Kent start thinking it was all right? I’d been in this clan for three years, and he’d never even hinted about such things before.

Was he really going mad, too?

But one thing was for sure. I needed to talk to Derek and see if he was willing to do something about our leader.

We spent most of the day at the pond and then walked around the good part of the city for a few hours before we got too tired to stay up on our feet. We avoided talking about Kent and the situation with the clan and just tried to have a fun day. We first had to talk to Derek like we’d already planned the previous day. There was no point in making any plans before we knew if he wanted to do something about Kent. We both wished he’d be willing to split the clan or take leadership from Kent, because any other option was… not good.

So, with that decision in mind, we headed back home a little earlier than last night, hoping we could pull Derek aside and talk to him in private.

But we never got the chance.

We knew things were bad when our hiding place came to our view, and there were three rusted cars parked nearby. Both Payton and I stopped at the sight of them, our omegas on high alert. We listened carefully, but heard nothing. We were too far away to hear if people were speaking. At least everything seemed quiet.

“Should we…?” Payton whispered, getting scared.

My omega was begging me to leave that place. It could sense strange alphas very close by, and it didn’t like them at all.

“I think we should,” I said, grabbed Payton by his hand, and turned around.

It was too late. Two large alphas had stepped out of the shadows, blocking our path.