"I was going to ask how you're doing," he said, sympathy softening his rugged face as he guessed what conclusion I'd jumped to. "You can go wherever you want, just give us a head's up if you want to go out of the gates and we'll make sure you're protected. I wouldn't stop you leaving the building, Luna. Just wanted to check in."
I exhaled a hard breath, wanting to drag my hand down my face but resisting the urge. I couldn't look weak, not to the people who knew what had happened to me andcertainlynot to someone like Prodigy who still thought they'd got to me in time.
"Sorry. I'm fine."
"I'll take your word for it," he replied dryly, talking to me like we'd known each other for years. Weird. Welcoming, but weird. "If you need anything, just let us know."
I scoffed. "I think bikers have better things to do than run around after a random beta."
Prodigy's laugh filled the hallway, rich and loud. "You'd be surprised. Most of us are alphas, and if there's one thing you should know about alphas, weloveto be needed. It's a basic instinct to care for the people around us, especially betas and omegas. These bastards, myself included, will do anything you ask just so they can feel useful."
Huh. I wasn't sure I believed him—my experience of alphas was limited—but therewasan alpha who rented a space in the mill where I had my studio. He ran around after his omega mate every day, fetching coffee, picking up food, driving her around amillion places. I'd thought he was an anomaly, but … maybe he was the standard.
"I'll keep that in mind," I replied after a too-long pause.
Prodigy gave me a blinding grin that would probably have been charming to someone who hadn't been abducted by alphas yesterday.
"Right well," he said, pushing off the door jamb. "Take care of yourself."
I nodded absently, turning back to the front door. Every interaction I had in the clubhouse reaffirmed that I was safe here, andwelcome, that people were on my side.
It should have been reassuring. If my head hadn't been fucked up, it probably would have been.
But it just made me even more restless. So I opened the door and stared at the tiny chapel across the compound. If God couldn't sort this mess out, no one could.
9
Priest
There were two types of church in the compound—the chapel where I led worship every Sunday, and the church where Prodigy led our meetings about club business. The latter usually took place late evening, but today Prodigy called us together first thing in the morning which meant shit was going down.
I'd been awake for hours, so I was one of the more lucid people who filed into the room opposite Prodigy's office and claimed a seat at the big, oval table. Prodigy sat at head of the table, with our VP Warning—newly prised away from his mate, Everly—on one side and sergeant-at-arms Guardian on his other side. The other officers—club members with a title and rank—sat beside them.
I took a seat somewhere around the middle, watching Prodigy expectantly as he took out a tablet to scroll through information.
"First of all, in case you don't already know, we've got four new people in the sanctuary. Give them some space while they settle in unless they come to you; most of them are in bad shape."
"As bad as Vienna?" asked Wizard, our treasurer, who handled the finances of the club.
"As bad asLynn," Prodigy replied, which made everyone wince.
Yeah, those weren't memories any of us wanted to go back to. Lynn was a sister and a friend, part of the club furniture as much as Guardian and Tybalt. Thinking about her being that messed up, both inside and out, had at least two quiet growls sounding around the table.
"Yeah," Prodigy agreed with a strained sigh. "It's fucked up. Secondly, we managed to grab five Hunters from that place and they've been more useful than the guys we found at the bank a few days ago."
Tybalt cracked his knuckles, sitting back in his seat and looking pleased with himself. As our enforcer—and the man voluntarily in charge of torturing Hunters we hauled back to the compound—he was the first to find any snippets of information. He already knew what our president was about to say.
"The place we raided was a den, and it was one of a dozen spread across the country. The Hunters have a stronghold in every major city."
"Shit," Warning, our vice president, growled, raking fingers through his greying dark hair. "Should we contact the Ravens?"
The Ravens of Mercy were a similar MC to ours, although on the other side of the law. The Ravens worked in the seedy underbelly of London, and used drug smuggling, gun imports, and fuck knew what else to finance their operations. They weren't opposed to buying omegas off the dark web just to get them away from their abusers.
"That'll sort out London, or as much as they can cover," Prodigy agreed, scrolling through his tablet. "But I don't know of any organisations like ours in the other cities."
"That's our first task then," Guardian said. "Cobra, I bet you can find them even if they've hidden their tracks."
Cobra made a contemplative expression, scratching his shaved, tattooed head. "Maybe. It's not likewehave an internet presence, though—they might not either."