He then knelt before Julian and scooped him into his arms.
----------------
"AHHHHHHHH!!!!"
"AHHHHH...!!!"
The two alpha girls let out bloodcurdling screams at almost the same time. They clawed at the fingers tightening around their necks desperately, but their energy was quickly drained away when the alpha male tightened his grips.
"Release them right now!"
Martin Ziegler jumped to his feet and pointed a gun at Bruno Cadwick, who sneered at him in return.
"Go on and shoot," he said. "I will wring their necks and use their bodies as shields."
"Ck...!"
Martin gritted his teeth. His gaze shifted to Julian briefly, begging him without words to move away from the lunatic alpha.
"..."
Unfortunately, even if Julian wanted to run away, he could not. Alphas were generally more agile than omegas. Who knew what would happen if he moved around carelessly?
Bruno shot Julian a side look and said through gritted teeth, "You, pretty omega over there, find me some ropes."
"..."
"Don't even try to run away," he warned Julian. "The entire bookstore is locked from inside. No one can escape here."
He laughed like a mad man, sending chills down the other visitors' backs.
Some children started to whimper.
"Mommy..."
"I wanna go home..."
"MOVE IT, BEAUTY!" Bruno barked at Julian.
Martin gave Julian a horrified look when he walked past, followed by the alpha and his two hostages.
The omega moved to the beverage counter. A bookstore employee crouched low, shivering from head to toe.
"He wants some ropes," Julian stated as-a-matter-of-factly.
The employee pointed a trembling finger to the small storage room, just close by.
Inside, Julian found several ropes. Not too thick and not too thin.
"Perfect," Bruno growled. "Now tie these two bitches up."
Julian calmly approached the young alpha girls. They flailed around initially, refusing to be tied, but when Bruno exerted more force and lifted them off the ground, they quickly stopped resisting.
As Julian expertly secured their wrists and ankles, he stole a glance at Bruno. Alphas were undeniably strong, especially the male ones. And yet, Bruno hoisted the girls as if they were as light as mere chickens, not breaking a sweat in the process.
That was unnatural, was it?
After both girls were tied up, Bruno nodded toward Martin.
"You, hand me the gun."
Instead of answering, Martin shot the crazed alpha in front of him a glare.
"Drop the gun and kick it over here, or I will choke them in front of you."
"..."
Left with no choice, Martin did as he was told.
With a brutal thud, Bruno slammed the girls onto the floor. Wasting no time, he snatched the gun from the ground and leveled it at them, the cold steel glinting in the harsh light.
"Listen here, all of you," he said with a thundering voice. "The two alpha girls here, Desiree Jones and Sienna Marsh, are worse than animals, the scummiest scums walking the earth."
With their wrists and ankles bound tightly, the two girls could only curl and writhe on the ground like two helpless pups.
"The law is unjust," Bruno continued, his voice shaking with the immense grief of losing his only child. "Just because they are underage, their vicious crime was pardoned so easily!"
Bruno crouched and pressed the muzzle of the gun at Desiree's temple.
"But I do not think the same," he said, ignoring Desiree's frantic shrieks. "You deserve to die for everything that you have done to my poor, sweet, little daughter."
The two girls' pupils dilated from fear when they heard Bruno's words. At once, they were reminded of the reason they landed in the juvenile detention center in the first place.
"Y-you... You..." Sienna muttered in disbelief.
Bruno's mouth was pulled into a scary grimace.
"That's right. I am the father of Diana Cadwick. Surprise!"
"Mr. Cadwick, please be reasonable," Martin spoke up. "Even if you kill them, your daughter is not going to return..."
"Who said that I wanted her to return?" Bruno snapped at Martin.
"Why would I want her to return to this sick world? An alpha-dominated world, where anything less than an alpha is considered worthless!!! Do you all hear me!!!"
Bruno brandished the gun around the room, his manic action eliciting shrieks from the terrorized visitors. "You are all living in hell!" he bellowed, his voice echoing off the high ceilings.
The ear-splitting cry was abruptly cut short. The large window behind him imploded in a shower of glittering shards. A bulky figure launched itself through the opening and slammed Bruno to the ground with a bone-jarring thud.
Desiree and Sienna, caught in the unfolding chaos, scrambled on all fours towards another corner, their screams gradually dissolving into terrified whimpers.
More uniformed men from the bureau swung themselves into the building. Seeing their comrade slowly getting overwhelmed by Bruno's sheer force, they immediately rushed to help.
"Fuck you!!!" Bruno hollered as he was pinned to the ground by four armed officers at once. "Fuck all of you!!! How the hell did you get here so quickly??"
Maximillian, the picture of composure, calmly flicked his foot, sending Martin's gun skittering back across the floor. He then leveled his own weapon at Bruno's head.
"You can say it's our luck or your unluck. Either way, this ends here."
Bruno's gaze darted between Maximillian and the disarmed Martin. Confusion contorted his features.
"Bureau agents??? Fuck! What is a bureau agent doing at a bookstore???"
Julian, his eyes locked on Maximillian throughout the ordeal, watched the scene unfold with unblinking intensity. Only after Bruno was subdued and hauled away, his curses a fading string of obscenities, did Maximillian's steely resolve soften.
He then knelt before Julian and scooped him into his arms.
"Sorry for being late," he whispered into the omega's ear. "Don't be afraid. It's over."