Chapter 2

Ezra

Shit! How the hell did we go from grabbing dinner after a raid to having a gun pointed at us from some low-life Beta?

"Fuck off, this doesn't concern you!" The Beta yells.

I watch the face of the girl he's holding and she's acting a bit off. Her eyes can't seem to focus, but the fear in them is very real.

"Come on man we don't want to hurt you." Sawyer drawls in his usual give-no-shit kind of way. "Let the girl go, and you can be on your merry way."

The guy scoffs. "You might have the numbers but I still have one over on you."

He waves his gun from side to side as if that action alone would scare us off. I glance over at my pack mates and Sawyer throws me a cocky smirk. Annoying cocky bastard...

When I turn back to look at the man I also reach into my jacket and pull a gun from its holster. I aim it at the man and so do my three friends. We outgun him now and the widening of his eyes tells me he knows it.

"How about we renegotiate things. You give us the girl, and we don't kill you." Weston says.

The sound of his voice makes the girl's eyes snap in his direction, but it's still not right.

"Alright! Alright! Take the dumb bitch." The guy says dropping his hand from her mouth and using that hand to push her forward.

She throws her hands out as if to catch herself but Weston is there to catch her. Her head moves from side to side and her eyes are doing the same. It's as if...she can't see us.

"You okay sweetheart?" Weston asks her softly and she nods quickly.

"Now scram," Sawyer says to the guy waving his gun in the direction of the trees.

The guy turns his eyes from us to the girl, and before I can react he lifts his gun and aims for her. It all happened so fast but Weston must have seen what the guy was planning to do because he turns the girl away from the shot. Even as fast as he was I still hear her cry out and her body jerks from the impact of the bullet. I turn my gun on the guy but only catch a glimpse of him as he runs into the tree line. Sawyer moves to chase after him but I grab him before he can.

"What are you doing Z?" He growls and pulls away from me. "I could have caught him!"

"We need to go!" Weston calls over to us.

We turn to see him holding up the girl's limp body.

"Is she hit?" Sawyer asks running over to them.

Weston tries to adjust her enough to see the point of impact and Archer carefully holds her head still.

"It hit her in the shoulder but she's injured here." Weston points to a bleeding wound on her forehead. "Concussion probably."

"We need to get her to a hospital," Archer says but his focus is fixed on the girl.

"We can't. Don't you smell that?" Sawyer asks and we all fall quiet.

With everything that was happening, we hadn't really gotten a clear understanding of who we just helped.

"She's an Omega, and she's just hit maturity. If we take her to a hospital it would be chaos." Sawyer reminds us.

"Shit. Okay, Sawyer calls Liddy." I say tossing him my phone.

He steps away to make the call and I move closer to get a better look at the girl.

"She looks like she's been through hell," Weston says brushing back some of her hair.

He shifts her slightly and bends down to pick her up into his arms.

"She weighs nothing. What the hell happened to her?" He says pulling the girl closer to his chest.

Her head lulls against his shoulder and he starts to head back toward the car. Archer is right beside him and I follow as soon as Sawyer ends his call.

"She'll meet us at the house." He says and I nod.

"Good. Let's get the hell out of here." I say jogging up the embankment and toward the SUV.

When I climb into the driver's seat I glance into the back to see Archer wrapping his jacket around the girl's shoulder and pulling her down to lay on his lap. Weston has her legs and feet on his lap and his arm resting on her waist. Not the safest way to transport a gunshot victim but we don't have time for anything special. This girl needs help and quick.

Sawyer jumps in and once we're all strapped in I pull away from the side of the road and make a u-turn to head back home. We stay quiet for a while, but Sawyer hates silence so he speaks up first.

"What the fuck was all that? Who is this girl?" He asks glancing back at her.

"She's so...tiny." Weston grumbles and Sawyer snorts.

"Everyone looks tiny to you big man." Weston leans forward and smacks him in the back of the head.

Sawyer cracks up laughing and I smack him as well.

"Where did she come from? There is nothing along this road for miles." Archer says and I'm wondering the same thing.

"It couldn't have been any place good. Just look at her." I glance in the rearview mirror at her, but I don't think I could ever get the sight of her frightened eyes out of my head. "There is something off with her."

"I'd say there is a lot off about her. She's tiny like she hasn't eaten in weeks, she's wearing ratty clothes if you can even call them clothes, and she's hurt. She has to have come from a trafficking ring, that's the only explanation." Sawyer says.

"I agree, but it was more than that. The way she was looking around...it's like she couldn't see us." I point out.

The others go quiet again as if to try and recall what I saw.

"You think she's...blind?" Archer asks.

His voice is low and when I glance in the mirror I see him looking down at the girl with sad eyes. Oh boy...

"Could be, but if she came from a trafficking ring they would have gotten rid of her long ago." I remind them.

A defective Omega doesn't make much money. So what is it?

"She has a head injury. Remember all those things Liddy used to say about me fighting? She said enough head hits and I could lose my vision." Weston says and I think back to those years.

Weston struggled with rage growing up, and one of our foster dads introduced him to boxing. He became obsessed and even went on to compete, but once Liddy started medical school she convinced him to quit. She played the guilt on thick, saying she didn't want to lose her brother because of his need to kick another guy's ass.

We thought she was overexaggerating but Weston had a close call and that was the last straw. He quit and never looked back.

"You think the concussion screwed up her eyes?" Sawyer asks in his less than eloquent way.

"Yeah. If she hit it hard enough." Weston replies and Sawyer curses under his breath.

"Liddy will know what to do once we get home. We can't assume anything yet." I say firmly.

I don't want to think the worst before she looks at the girl. It could be nothing...

The rest of the ride passes in silence but I find myself stealing quick glances at the girl as we go. She's still passed out and I can see the worried look on Archer's face growing deeper.

Please don't let this girl die in our car. That will be a hell of a thing to explain...