They wanted the baby. Ares was worth maybe twenty grand on the black market. They’d try to take Kieran alive and sell him to slavers or harvesters… Hell… They’d probably try to sell him to us. To Jomica.

My alpha growled in anger, demanding me to grow a pair and just kill everyone who dared to threaten the omega and the child. I tried to get it to shut up, to let me concentrate. I needed a plan, and I needed it fucking fast. They were stalling, keeping me pinned here for a reason…

They had to have someone already trying to get to Kieran…

There was an abandoned black shirt at my feet. I got an idea… A stupid fucking idea… I picked it up and took a deep breath. This was better fucking work…

I ran to the corner, my gun ready. I slid to a stop right behind it, staying in my cover, and threw the shirt into the kitchen. And it fucking worked. At least one of the intruders had a gun, as I’d expected, and he shot at the shirt out of pure instinct. At that same exact moment, I rounded the corner and shot at him. I missed a little and hit him in his arm, but he at least dropped his gun. He and his friend tried to reach for it, but I shot again, missing their hands only by an inch, and they jumped back.

“Next one won’t miss,” I growled at them. “If you don’t fucking leave, I will fucking kill you!”

My alpha demanded for blood, and I was really fucking close to give it what it wanted, but they were looters. A whole clan of looters, by the looks of it. Killing one would only put us in a bigger danger because these people strongly believed in revenge. And they were just looters… Just a bunch of homeless kids the government had screwed over.

But neither of them moved a muscle.

“Get the fuck out of here!” I shouted in anger.

“You don’t have the guts,” the one I shot said, smirking as he straightened his posture. “It’s too late for you, anyway.”

My alpha alerted me again, and I jumped back behind the kitchen wall when someone shot at us from the living room windows. I cursed loudly as I took cover behind a small kitchen aisle while the two in the building retreated to the basement staircase and again vanished behind the wall.

Fuck! I should’ve fucking taken my opportunity! Now they were even closer to Kieran, and I was completely surrounded! I should’ve killed all of them!

Feeling pity had never done anything good for me…

And to make things worse, my strength was fading. The pain in my stomach was flaring up fast, and I feared I’d torn the stitches again. I had no time to lose.

I could hear people climbing in through the windows in the living room. I couldn’t get to the guys on the staircase without getting shot by them. I had no choice. I had to take the risk and get rid of the people in the living room first.

I crouched and sneaked to the corner. I heard at least two sets of steps. They were coming closer. I took a deep breath, aimed blindly behind the corner, and fired three times. Someone yelled in agony. Only one, though.

“Shit! Take cover!” someone yelled and riddled the wall with bullets in his panic.

At least they weren’t professionals with guns…

“You better fucking leave!” I yelled.

“Come on… It’s not worth it…” someone young whispered in fear.

“Yes, it fucking is! It’s one guy against all of us!”

“Look at his leg! He’s bleeding! It’s not worth it!”

And while they fought, I could hear the two others trying to break the door to the basement… Each loud bang riled up my alpha more and more. 

And I was getting pissed. I was a fucking jomica! I wasn’t going to lose to a bunch of fucking looters!

I jumped up on my feet and sent a few more bullets into the living room, then dashed past the doorway. I got shot at, but I only felt a light scrape on my back, so I ignored it. I had to stop them from getting to Kieran and Ares…!

In seconds, I reached the doorway leading down to the basement, and this time, without hesitation, I shot them. They both died silently and fell to the ground while I sprung around to make sure the people in the living room were staying in the living room.

“Your buddies are dead!” I yelled at them. “And you’re next if you don’t fuck off!”

“Did you hear him?! I’m out of here!” the youngest shouted in panic.

I fell silent, trying to listen carefully. Even my alpha focused on hearing them. We sensed two people. Two were still there, and the other one was injured.

“No…! Don’t leave me here…!” a man suddenly said, his voice showing his fear and pain.

So… His buddy was escaping too…?

“Come on, come on, come on!”

I heard a lot of shuffling and panicked voices in the living room, but it quieted down pretty fast. I got up on my feet, peered outside the windows, but saw no movement in the shadows. I carefully made my way back toward the kitchen, and again, stopped behind the corner. I couldn’t hear anything anymore. My alpha couldn’t sense anyone in the building.

I carefully peered around the corner, but the living room was empty. There was no one.

I let out a deep sigh, almost falling to my knees when the world suddenly spun around me. My body was so goddamn weak… I barely made it back to the staircase. There, I leaned hard against the wall, trying to clear my head, but the pain… Fuck’s sake…

I had to stay conscious… I could still hear the looters in the distance… They’d come back to avenge their fallen friends… But staying up was getting hard… Really fucking hard…

Seconds passed as I guarded the house, turning into minutes. The chaos was still going strong… I was ready if they decided to return… I was… Fuck… Did I have bullets? I tried to get the mag out of my gun, but my hands were shaking too hard.

And then… Fuck’s sake, I’d never actually felt happy to hear them… The army birds… But fuck, that sound of the approaching helicopters was beautiful at that fucking moment. So were the sirens.

I breathed out, but refused to give up just yet. Slowly, I made my way back down and climbed over the corpses to get to the door.

“Kieran? It’s me… Let me in…” I mumbled, leaning hard against the wall.

Seconds later, the door opened, and Kieran’s pale face came to my narrow view.

“Trouble…!” he breathed out, and helped me inside, then closed the door again.

“The army is here…” I muttered. “It’s over now…”

“You need to lie down,” the omega told me, but I refused to let him take me to the bed.

“You lie down. I’ll stay here,” I said, and leaned against the wall next to the door. “Lock the door, just in case.”

The looters could still try to get in to seek cover… I tried to get a grip and stay focused, but the world still kept spinning…

“You need to lie down,” Kieran told me while I slid down to the floor to catch my breath.

“No.”

“You need to rest!” the omega said, but I shook my head.

“Take the baby and try to get some rest,” I told him, pointing at my bed. “I’ll guard the door.”

The omega didn’t move, but his child was crying harder in the corner.

“Just take care of your kid. I’ll be fine,” I grunted at him.

Kieran looked like he wanted to object, but his crying child stole his attention. As I watched, he went to pick up Ares, then went to put him down on my bed.

“Everything is all right now…” he whispered to the child while making sure he was comfortable on the bed.

I listened to his whispers, trying to stay awake and ignore the pain. My entire body had broken in a cold sweat, and staying seated was getting hard. But I had to stay focused… In case someone still tried to come in…

“Trouble…?”

I’d not realized I had closed my eyes. I looked up and saw Kieran kneeling right next to me.

“I need to check your wound,” he said gently.

“Later…” I breathed out.

“Sorry, but you’re not in charge anymore,” he said, and took the gun from me. “I need you to lay down so I can see the wound.”

“What…? You’ll shoot me if I don’t?” I muttered.

“Don’t be silly,” he said, and put the gun on the ground. “Come on. Let me help you to bed.”

“But Ares…”

“Well, you two just have to share,” he said. “Now, come.”

I was just about to pass out, so what other choices did I have? I let him help me up and walk to the bed, where I tried to be careful when I lay down so I wouldn’t squish the baby. And fuck… It felt good to lay down…

“You just rest now, okay?” Kieran said gently while peeling my bandages off.

“Yeah, yeah…” I muttered, almost passing out.

“And… Trouble…?”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you,” he whispered. “Thank you for protecting us.”

“Whatever…” I mumbled right before the darkness took me.

*****

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