Both Payton and I slept in my tent that night. Well, I couldn’t really sleep, and I doubted Payton had better luck, but neither of us said anything. I was too scared to sleep, and my omega had never stopped crying out its misery, and no matter how hard I tried to soothe it, nothing really worked.

I kept thinking about the failed gig, and… Kent. I still couldn’t believe he could agree to such a gig… I’d thought so much better of him. Now… I wasn’t sure if I even knew him.  

And because of that, I was afraid of the morning. He’d been angry enough as it was when we escaped the neighborhood, and that confrontation with Grant had only made things worse. If he was serious about the guns, that Kent had to somehow get them back, we all were in trouble. It was one thing to steal nine hundred dollars, but we’d also screwed up our chances of buying those guns.

Because the only people dealing guns in this area was the mafia.

And we just raided their leader’s beloved neighborhood.

Then it was morning. I heard people waking up one by one, but I stayed under the covers, with Payton using me as his pillow. He’d fallen asleep some time ago, and I didn’t want to hurry to wake him up until I had to. I listened carefully, but I couldn’t hear Kent anywhere. He’d probably stayed in the shelter for the night…

I was growing more and more nervous as the minutes passed. I couldn’t even close my eyes and try to sleep anymore. I just waited…

And finally, I heard footsteps heading to my tent. I held my breath when they stopped right outside.

“Joni?” Derek spoke quietly. “Kent wants to see you.”

“I don’t want to see him,” I said, my voice making me sound braver than I actually was.

“You have no choice,” Derek said. “I’ll give you five minutes to get dressed.”

Payton had woken up, and he peered up at me with concern in his eyes. I tried to give him a soothing smile, but I was getting afraid again.

I should’ve run when I had the chance…

“I guess I’ll be there in five minutes,” I muttered, and sat up.

“Aight,” Derek said, and left.

“What was that?” Payton asked me quietly.

“I don’t know,” I muttered and started getting dressed.

“I’m so confused… What’s going on?” he asked and grabbed his clothes as well. “Why was he so mad at you last night? And what baby? What guns?”

“I have no answers for you,” I only muttered, because I didn’t have time to explain anything.

“Then I’m coming with you,” he said.

I wanted to tell him no, but… I didn’t want to face Kent alone…

When those five minutes were up, I left my tent with Payton following me closely. He and his omega could probably tell how scared me and my omega were, so he took my hand in his, gave me an encouraging smile, and walked right next to me all the way to the guard station.

We didn’t even have to knock when Derek already opened the door for us. He gave us both a stern stare, but let us in without a word.

And there, at the back of the building, was Kent. He sat on a broken couch and as soon as I stepped into his view, he turned to glare at me. He wasn’t alone. Several of our clan members were there, both alphas and omegas, and they all peered at me in curiosity.

But I kept my eyes on Kent.

“You wanted to see me?” I said as calmly as I could and stopped to stand in the middle of the room.

“You heard Grant last night, right?” he asked, his voice harsh and cold.

“I did, yes,” I said.

“Good,” he said. “Because you messed things up last night, so you get to come up with the guns we lost.”

“I didn’t mess up anything,” I said, choosing to be brave under his angry eyes. “I refuse to kidnap children, and so should you.”

Everyone in the room glanced at Kent, then looked away.

“You lost us twenty grand,” Kent said. “But that’s not why you’re here. I’m your leader, and if I say it’s your job now to come up with nine hundred dollars, you do as I say. And you better be quick. Grant will not wait for long.”

“I can’t steal that much alone,” I said, losing my cool. “It’s impossible!”

“I don’t care how you get it. If you can’t steal it, then you better start selling your ass, but you will get me those guns by the end of the week, got it?” he said, his eyes even colder than ever before.

I could only stare at him. This… I considered this my alpha…?

“Fine,” I said, but only to get away from him.

I yanked Payton’s hand and turned around to get the hell away from him, but before I reached the door, Yvon spoke.

“So we could have twenty grand right now?” she asked.

“Yeah, but Joni here screwed up everything,” Kent said.

I got mad at him and turned around again. “We do not steal babies and sell them as whores!” I shouted at Kent, but to my horror, I was the one getting nasty looks. “You guys can’t be serious! Kent’s brilliant plan was to kidnap four or five babies and sell them to god knows who! They would’ve ended up as prostitutes or broodmares!”

“But we could have so much money now!” Yvon yelled back. “We could’ve bought food for months!”

I just stared at her. “You’re an omega too. You know what those sick people do to those children!”

“Yeah, well, that’s just life,” she said with an uncaring shrug.

“We know you haven’t been assaulted yet,” another omega, Philipe, added. “But you get used to it. You just clean yourself up and move on, but twenty grand is a lot of money.”

“And we needed that money,” Yvon added, getting angry as well. “We’ll never get out of these fucking streets if we don’t start putting ourselves before everyone else!”

Payton yanked my hand, so I glanced at him. He shook his head and stepped toward the door, pulling me with him.

“I’m sorry,” I said, turning back to Yvon, “but I would never be able to live with myself if I let an innocent child go through that hell.”

She just shrugged at me and turned away while I followed Payton outside.

“You better go get that money for the guns!” Kent shouted before the door fell closed.

I stopped to take a deep breath. I felt sick again…

“How can they say such things…?” I muttered, with tears burning in my eyes.

“I don’t know,” Payton said, looking devastated as well. “But I think we should spend the day away from here.”

“Yes, please…” I muttered, and followed him to my tent to grab whatever we needed for the day.

I couldn’t believe this… My own clan…

I felt really sick.