Broken Dreams (Unhingedverse)
Broken Dreams: Chapter 21

CHRISTIAN

He’s here. I thought Ambrose might have been shitting me, but here Linus is dancing in a cage, his eyes covered with a mask of some sort. Yet, I’ve memorized every single dip, muscle, and dimple on his and Makaya’s bodies.

They could never hide from me in this way.

Makayla isn’t here, I’ve searched every cage for her. I know Linus would never be parted from her for long, so there must be a reason she’s not here. As I watch him dance, I can tell he’s angry.

His lips snarl as he throws himself through the movements, appearing a bit unhinged as he flips in the cage. I didn’t think there was enough space for that, and yet he’s proving there is.

Everyone’s eyes are on him, and I replace myself feeling protective. Why is he here? Is he being exploited by the manager? I’ll be damned if he escaped only to be hurt again.

I’m a hypocrite. I fucking know it. I have been part of the problem for the past ten years, and I want to show Linus and Makayla that I understand now that I was wrong. I should have done so many things, yet didn’t.

My heart has been in tatters as I’ve been searching for both of them. It feels like I have permanent heartburn from the pain, and when I’m alone I’ve noticed that I’ll rub my chest absently. It feels as if I’ve been stabbed repeatedly, but there’s no evidence of it.

At night, my dreams are filled with my time with them, and I wake up screaming their names. I’m so fucked up.

While I know the two of them didn’t say the words to reject me, we’ve never been bonded, I still feel as if they have cut themselves off from me. If they’d actually said what is necessary to disintegrate our scent match, then maybe I wouldn’t hurt so much.

I’m already moving to catch up with him before I can convince myself that it’s the wrong move. I’m certain he doesn’t want to see me, and this is selfish. I’m the one who needs this, he probably wouldn’t mind if I jumped off a cliff.

Stop being dramatic, Christian. It would be wonderful if I could take my own advice.

“Linus!” I scream, hurrying after him and the large guard.

Why is there a guard? I’m unable to process this. I’ve watched them walk the other dancers back and forth, but my experience with guards is that they’re there to keep people from leaving. What the fuck kind of sweat shop is Cerenity Quinn running?

The thoughts are moving so quickly through my mind, it’s difficult to hold onto any one for long. Forcing myself to breathe, my fingers tear through my hair before I can stop them. I’m sure I look fucking unhinged as I try to catch up to them.

Linus’ feet seem to remain planted where they currently are in the middle of the club as he begins to turn. The guard continues on, not noticing that his charge has stopped. Hurrying, I replace myself squeezing my body through to get to him.

The mass of people seems to be swallowing him up, and that can’t happen.

And then… I’m in front of the man I’ve been searching for non-stop, and my mind feels at peace. The pain of being away from him also ends abruptly, and I breathe this beautiful, sweaty man in.

“Linus,” I breathe. “Are you okay? Why are you here?”

“You found me,” he says dully, the blood running out of his face. “How?”

“I followed the breadcrumbs. It doesn’t matter, are you safe?” I ask, my eyes moving over him as if searching for wounds.

“You care about if I’m safe now?” he asks, laughing in disgust and disbelief.

“I deserve that,” I admit. “I didn’t try hard enough, and I was terrified that any attempt to get you out would get you and Makayla killed. I offered Bret everything I could, but he refused to sell you to me.”

At his dead, green-eyed gaze, I shake my head. “The only thing that man understands is money. I would never hold you as property. I’ve never seen either of you like that.”

“You’re too late,” he says, anger beginning to fill his gaze. “I have scent matches who care about me, and I don’t need you to fuck that up.”

“I don’t want to fuck that up. I want to be a part of it,” I beg. Ever since the day where I was hung up on and barred contact, I’ve had to do a lot of soul searching.

It’s normal in our society to share omegas in a pack. I’ve been a very solitary person for a long time. My parents have been dead for years, which means loneliness has made me a selfish curmudgeon, more so than I ever realized until very recently.

“It’s too goddamned late!” Linus roars, and a fist comes flying at my face.

Could I catch it? Absolutely, but I stand there and take it. Blocking or grabbing his fist mid-air could potentially hurt him. I’d never do that in a million years.

The emotional hurt he’s holding is clearly more than I knew. I deserve this, so I let him hit me so hard my face twists hard to the side. My neck will even be sore for a few days. It also seems that I need to thank someone for teaching Linus how to throw a punch.

Fuck, that hurt. I’ll be lucky if he didn’t break my nose. The blood that follows tells me that at the very least, I’ll be really bruised. Ugh, I can’t breathe out of my nose, either.

The business end of a bat is shoved into my side, forcing me to grunt as the guard returns for Linus.

“I’m really sorry, Miss Cerenity,” he says. Well, that explains who’s trying to see how many more bruises she can add to my body. “I didn’t realize he’d stopped.”

“I understand,” says a cool voice. I haven’t spoken to the owner, this is the first time I’ve come into her establishment to stalk my scent matches. “Linus, please ice your hand after a shower. I think you need to cool off.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Linus says. “I don’t think I’ve ever punched anyone in my life.”

“Then he probably deserved it. I care more about you than the blood he’s getting all over my floor,” she says. “I’m going to get him the fuck out of here, then send Augustine to check on your hand. He has punched an asshole or two in his life.”

“Thanks a lot,” a rumbly alpha mutters. “I swear I’m not a hot head.”

Linus’ lips twitch in amusement, but it’s gone so quickly I could have imagined it. And then…he turns without looking at me, leaving with the guard.

Fuck.

“Let’s go. Out of my club. You’re banned, twat muffin,” she says harshly, digging the bat deeper into my side.

“Damn,” I grunt. “I’m going.”

Turning to face her, Cerenity Quinn lifts the bat to her shoulder. I have no doubts that she’d beat the fuck out of me with it. She has electric blue hair put back in a braid, and she’s currently glaring at me. The alpha beside me cracks his fingers.

I know when I’m not going to win. My nose is also still bleeding and needs attention.

“You have no idea what you’re getting in the middle of,” I growl. Well, maybe I was wrong. I’m going to get beaten up, because my mouth won’t stay shut.

“I usually would say that you’re an alpha who doesn’t know how to keep his hands to himself, but I don’t believe you touched him at all,” the man Cerenity called Augustine says.

I recognize the voice now that I’m paying more attention.

“I didn’t,” I agree. “I didn’t think he’d react so badly to seeing me again. That was my mistake.”

“Something tells me you’ve made a lot of mistakes,” Cerenity mutters. “Out, let’s go.”

Lifting her hand to a staff member, they hurry forward to clean up the blood I’m still dripping onto the floor. Deciding our kumbaya moment has come to an end, I get my ass moving.

I even get an escort as I leave, and Cerenity never removes her bat from her shoulder as she doggedly follows me. Yes, I’m sure she would love to beat the hell out of me.

“Now that you’re outside of my club, why are you here?” she asks.

“To grovel to my omegas for being an idiot,” I reply.

“Do better,” she suggests, slamming the door in my face.

Wincing, I turn away. I know they’re in Minneapolis, that’s enough for now. There’s mafia ties to this club as well, I could tell in the clientele.

It appears it’s time to make nice with the underbelly of this city.

LINUS

“Am I fired?” I ask as Augustine checks my hand. It’s only a little sore, because Duncan taught me how to throw a punch, and we practiced it.

I didn’t think I’d actually put it into action this soon.

“Why would I do that?” he asks, humming under his breath before putting an ice pack on my hand.

I feel silly now that I’ve showered and come down from my anger and anxiety. Christian reminds me of Slick Dreams, as well as the horrors that come with that. Every feeling of abandonment also rose when I saw him, and I felt so fucking angry.

He didn’t want us enough to fight for Quinn and I, which means he doesn’t deserve us now that we’re out.

“I started a fight in your club?” I remind him. “Isn’t there a zero tolerance policy for that?”

“My employees are allowed to defend themselves. I know for a fact that you carry a knife at your ankle, Linus,” he says, his deep green eyes meeting mine. “You could have just stabbed him and called it a day.”

My body flinches at being called out. He’s absolutely right, but am I a killer? Would I be sad if Christian was no longer in the world? Ugh, I think I’m having an existential crisis.

“That’s a bit extreme,” I grunt instead.

“Want to tell me what he is to you?” he asks.

“He says that he’s my scent match, but I don’t know if that’s true,” I explain.

We’re in his office so I wouldn’t have to worry about judgmental people. Sure, the other dancers have been great so far, but you never know when people will turn on you.

“How do you not know, unless you’re on alpha pheromone blockers?” he asks.

“I’m not,” I say. “The club I was at before did a lot of fucked up shit so there was no way that I’d ever know if I was scent matched to someone.”

His brows knit together as he nods slowly. I know that Duncan and Callum told him a bit about the situation in case something happened.

“Do you know if it can be reversed?” he asks, surprising me.

“Ah, the shots he gave us controlled a lot, including my heats. I did some research the other day and found out that the body will begin to metabolize and work through medications at different rates,” I tell him. “Based on what I could replace, my body will work through this. There’s no way for me to know how long it’ll take though.”

I’ve been doing this research without telling anyone, because I wanted to know if it was possible for my body to work itself through the shit he’s been pumping into my system for the past ten years. The issue is that since it’s been so long, and I don’t know the specifics of the cocktail, I can’t look up how long it’ll stay in my body without another dose.

I’m flying blind, and I’m frustrated about it. While I want to build my relationship with the brothers without the added complications of biology, I’m jealous of the closeness Quinn has with them.

I’m a mess, which means I’m trying to fall back on intellect and logic. Before Slick Dreams, it’s what never let me down, I could always depend on it to make sense. There’s no logic that’ll change how depraved Bret was. I saw too many omegas die due to his never ending greed.

While some of the snuff episodes were by accident, Bret organized others when an alpha or pack would approach him with their fantasy. All he ever asked in return outside of cash was to watch.

“It may be a good idea to run a blood test panel,” Augustine suggests. “It’ll help you be able to see what the levels are of different types of drugs, or what you may be deficient in.”

“I will. I hadn’t thought about that,” I admit. Glancing at the time, I see that Callum and Duncan are due to come pick me up. Now that I’m reminded of my shift being over, I want to know how Quinn is.

“They’re here,” Augustine says gently. “My phone is blowing up.”

My lips curl up, because it sounds like them.

“I’m going to text them to meet us at the office so you can go out the side exit,” he says, pulling out his phone to do that. “While we kicked that guy out, and there are guards now walking around the property, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Thank you,” I say. “For everything. I’m kind of having a really weird day.”

“I could tell by how hard you danced,” he says. “No one throws themselves around a cage for two hours without having to work through some shit.”

He must see my cringe, because he shakes his head as he stands. “You misunderstand. Everyone at the club loved it. I think they all danced harder to match your energy. However, I could tell you were in a mood.”

“I’ve burned a lot of it off, but I’m still in a funk,” I sigh, standing. “Christian chose a bad time to surprise me.”

“I’m not saying violence is always the best policy, but some people have a hard time understanding they’ve fucked up until it literally hits them in the face,” Augustine mutters, leading me out to meet my alphas.

As I see them, a smile spreads across my face. A real one. As much as I agonize about my own shit, they are mine. I know that.

“You okay?” Duncan asks, his gaze bouncing over me until he sees me still holding the ice pack. “Show me.”

The growl is packed with an alpha bark, and I immediately lift my hand for him to see, pulling away the ice. I don’t even mind it, because it’s kind of hot.

His large hands cup the hand I offer him, carefully checking it over.

“It’s not any more swollen than I’d expect it to be if one of us punched someone,” Callum says, crowding Duncan.

Augustine hides a smile, saying, “Christian may have a broken nose. There was a good amount of blood. Security is tighter now so he won’t get back in. I’d suggest going out the door behind us though. I’ll see you in a couple of days, Linus.”

“Bye,” I say, dazed at all of the attention.

“So you threw one hell of a punch is what I’m hearing,” Duncan says, his calloused fingers feeling good along my skin. I don’t think he even registered that Augustine left. My cheeks heat at the compliment as I roll my lips inward.

“Good,” Callum murmurs, his hand wrapping around my throat as his thumb pushes my chin up in time to be devoured by his lips. “Let’s go home and wait for our girl, hmm?”

“Yes, please,” I rasp.

“Fucking adorable,” Duncan mutters, pushing Callum away to kiss my lips. His brother’s hand holds me captive the entire time, and I whimper as I perfume. I didn’t bother with slick wicking or descenting boxers because I knew I was going home.

As their gazes heat as they turn me and escort me out the side door, I guess it isn’t so bad to be vulnerable with my alphas.

Come home to us, Quinn.