Chapter 11
Timing is Everything
Anxious energy is buzzing through my veins, but you wouldn’t know it to look at me. I can’t afford to fuck this up. Haven can’t afford for me to fuck this up, so I have to stay calm.
My eyes flick up to the corner of the room where we know there’s a camera. We know where all the cameras are in this building, in the Bell home, and at the secret apartment that Frederick Bell thinks no one but Brian knows about. We’ve tracked his movements enough to be aware of every security measure he’s taken until the goddamn Compass Rose group.
Did Bell have them upgrade the security here, too?
I doubt it. Not with how easily we walked through the door. No, he only updated the security at his house to keep Haven locked away.
My pack mates aren’t being as subtle as I’d like, boldly filtering through his bookshelves and drawers, looking for any information that might help us, help Haven. But they won’t find anything. They know it, and I know it. It’s more a tactic to show Frederick Bell that we don’t give a shit.
He doesn’t scare us, and he needs to know it.
“Look at this bullshit,” Creed mutters, stopping in front of a wall of photos. All of them have Frederick Bell in them, half of them with celebrities and other political figures, the other half with Haven. In all of them, he’s playing the dutiful father to his daughter, looks so proud of her. But we all know that’s a fucking lie.
Still, every single person who walks into this office will think the same thing we did before we got to know her, before we knew the truth. That he dotes on her, loves her more than anything. No one will bother to see the haunted look in her eyes, or the way she doesn’t lean into him. She does a good job of hiding it, but now that I know her and the things that he’s done to her, I can see every instance where she’s uncomfortable, screaming inside, wishing like hell she could get away from him.
“What the fuck is taking so long?” Jude mutters under his breath. “It shouldn’t take him this long to get here.”
Timing is everything.
We’d lingered at the engagement party for as long as we could, kept an eye on Haven, watched as Brian paraded her around like a proud fucking peacock. And I was struck with something I haven’t felt much in my thirty-two years.
Jealousy.
So much jealousy. He gets to walk her around in front of all those people, in front of those cameras, and journalists, and show her off as his . And she let him. When she was with us, she hardly felt comfortable enough to leave the house, to go out with us as a pack. I don’t know if her father’s commands conditioned her to be that way, to hide away from the world to avoid embarrassing him, or if she just didn’t want to be seen with us.
If some lingering part of her believes her father’s lies, that she shouldn’t be with a pack.
It had taken every ounce of my self-control to leave her there with them. To turn my back on her and walk away. It’s for the best. We needed to finalize our plans, to make sure this goes off without a hitch because we can’t fucking fail. This is too important.
“He’ll be here,” Tic reassures Jude, perhaps a moment too late, letting me know he’s as worried as the rest of us.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, but I don’t reach for it, keeping my fingers laced together, my elbows braced on the arms of the chair I’m sitting in. Creed’s brows jump in question at the faint buzzing, and I nod at him.
A moment later, the door of the office opens and Frederick Bell enters, his smile firmly in place. It falters just slightly when he takes us in. Specifically me sitting behind his desk, in his chair, my pack splayed out on either side of me. “Lovely to see you boys again so soon.”
Jude snorts. “Wish we could say the same, Freddy, but we really fucking can’t.”
Bell’s amiable smile drops just slightly as he moves to a chair in front of his desk and drops into it, like it doesn’t eat him alive to be on that side, in an arguably weaker position. “Oh, and why might that be?”
“You have our omega,” I say easily enough, letting him feel the truth in my words. Haven is ours. Will always be ours. “We’d like her back.”
He eyes me. “So you admit you had her all this time? That you kidnapped my daughter, held her hostage?”
I scoff at his attempt to get me to say something damning. I’m sure his office is bugged to high heaven. Word on the street is he blackmails anyone who says anything even remotely damning. But that won’t be us.
Not when we’re so fucking close.
“I admit nothing of the kind,” I say, settling back in his chair and crossing a leg over my knee. “What I will admit to is spending time with Haven and growing closer with her. We care about her deeply and would like for you to return her to us.”
“Return her to you?” He parrots back to me. “Why would I do that?”
Creed jerks his chin at the wall of photos. “All those pictures of you with her. They look like you actually care about her, like you love her. Is that right? Do you love your daughter, Senator?”
We know he doesn’t.
“I do,” he says easily enough. “Very much so. She’s my entire world.” The words are ones he’s said many times, and there has always been a hint of truth to them. But this time, when he says them, they sound… mocking. As if he knows we know he feels nothing for her, but also thinks we can’t do anything about it.
He’s in for a rude awakening.
A very rude awakening.
I can’t fucking wait.
“Well, then,” Tic says, folding his arms over his chest and making his forearms bulge menacingly. “It shouldn’t be too hard to convince you, then. We make her happy. She wants to be with us. If you care about her at all, let us take care of her.”
Bell tilts his head, eyeing Tic like a bug he wants to squash. “You don’t make her happy. Brian makes her happy. She wouldn’t have agreed to marry him otherwise.” He runs a hand over his face and sighs. “We talked about this. She gets confused sometimes. Try as she might, she can’t keep her omega instincts at bay all the time. I’ve been careful to limit her interactions with alphas for just this reason. But it doesn’t always work, you know? She needs help to remember her place.”
I grit my teeth. By ‘help’ he means beating her black and blue, he means burying her under alpha commands that don’t allow her to act out. He means drugging her into a compliant little puppet. I can still see the glazed look in her eyes.
Not that we’re much better. After all, we drugged her, too. We manipulated her into giving us what we want.
But the difference between us and the man sitting on the other side of the desk it, we can learn from our mistakes. We have learned from our mistakes. And we will never make them again. We’ll spend the rest of our lives making it up to our omega, making her feel safe and cared for and secure. We’ll never bark at her or drug her. We’ll never make her do something she doesn’t want to do. Unless it’s to keep her safe, and even then, we’ll have a conversation with her first, explain to her what we need and why we need it.
None of us were lying when we said we wouldn’t bark at her. With the added caveat that I might if it to keep her safe. Like I barked at her earlier tonight to free her from Brian Coogan’s control. Maybe I should have asked first, but something tells me she didn’t really mind, even if she couldn’t show it.
“Regardless,” Tic says, since I don’t trust myself to talk. “We would appreciate the chance to help her remember her place. Surely you can see that four alphas are better than one for keeping her happy and healthy.”
He arches a brow and leans back in the chair like he’s the fucking king of the world. “Happy and healthy? The last time my daughter spent any amount of time with you, she ended up in heat on the street in the middle of the night! How is that keeping her healthy? How is that keeping her safe?”
“An omega having a heat is healthy,” Jude grits out. “It’s normal. It’s what their bodies need.”
Bell scoffs and shakes his head. “It isn’t healthy to turn into a begging mess, eager for any alpha to come along and fuck them, is it? That’s not safe. She could have ended up bonded to some lowlife scum. And it would have been your fault.”
Not one of us bothers to deny it. What happened to Haven was our fault. We did that to her. And we’ll be paying for it for the rest of our lives, doing everything in our power to make it up to her. Starting with getting her away from her father and Brian Coogan.
“What’s the part that really bothers you in that statement, Freddy?” Creed asks, voice low and dangerous, made more so by the haunting reality of what could have happened to Haven if she wasn’t smart and determined. If Florence hadn’t found her in time. “That she could have been raped? Or that she could have ended up bonded to someone not of your choosing?”
We all know the answer. The genuine answer. The one that he isn’t likely to give while the security cameras are on us.
“What really bothers me,” he says, resting his elbows on the arms of his chair and looking for all the world like nothing actually bothers him. “Is the entire situation. It never should have happened. She never should have been with any of you. I thought you respected me and my wishes enough to keep your distance.” There’s a flush to his face now, a fervor in his eyes that I recognize all too well.
“I understand the instinct. I really do, but this is what I’ve been talking about. We should be more than just mindless animals! As grown men, you should be able to keep yourselves in check when around an omega, and the omega should be able to temper her body’s instincts and needs.”
I stare at him hard. “What we feel for Haven is more than just instinct.”
“We’re able to keep ourselves in check just fine,” Tic adds, arms folded against his chest as he pins Bell with a hard glare. “We’ve been around countless omegas over the years and not once have we lost control of ourselves.”
“We’re still in fucking control,” Creed grits out behind clenched teeth. I wonder if he’s having a hard time controlling the urge to throat punch Frederick Bell and keep him from ever spilling his bullshit again. I am.
Bell sighs and shakes his head, sadly. “And yet here you are demanding I return ‘your’ omega. She’s my daughter.”
“She’s a goddamn adult and can make her own choices about how she wants to live her life,” Jude hisses.
“And she has! She’s getting married to Brian. Do you honestly think she would have gone to an engagement party with all of those guests if she wasn’t thrilled about the idea? You know how she is.”
I lick my lips and lean forward, bracing my forearms on the top of his desk. “Yes. We absolutely know how she is. And whoever that was at the party tonight wasn’t fucking Haven. We know she would never marry Coogan because she hates him. We know she prefers pants to skirts, leggings to tights, large sweaters to blouses. We know she hates champagne and wine. Given the choice, she’ll drink a tooth achingly sweet cocktail over anything else. The person at the part tonight wasn’t Haven. It was your own creation. The ideal of a perfect omega daughter.”
“Perfect beta daughter,” Creed corrects me and I nod.
“Right, the perfect beta daughter.” My knuckles turn white as I squeeze my hands into fists. “We know you’ve barked at her, know you’ve forced her to be something she’s not. Know that you’ve commanded her repeatedly to bend to your will. That stops now.” I jam one pointer finger into the top of the desk to emphasize my point. “She is ours, and you will give her back to us.”
Bell goes silent for a long, long moment. Eyes running over us, four bristling alphas, with nothing more than calculation in his eyes. He’s entirely unafraid of us. Not the least bit concerned that we’ll be able to do anything to him. He thinks he’s untouchable, and I’ll be delighted to prove him otherwise.
Then he slowly, slowly shakes his head. “I don’t believe I will.”
My three former packmates growl behind me. Jude shifts forward like he’s going to leap over the desk and beat the ever-loving shit out of the older alpha. Only Creed’s hand on his shoulder and a significant glance at the camera in the corner keep him in check. The last thing we need is for Jude to be arrested for assault.
Which he undoubtedly would be with video evidence of Bell doing nothing but sit there moments before Jude struck.
“I’ll give you one fucking chance,” I say, keeping my voice as level as I can. Which isn’t all that level, given that my alpha is fucking screaming at me, tearing at my chest to take out the threat to our omega. Bell thinks we have no control, that we’re mindless animals, but he has no fucking clue.
If we didn’t have control, he would be dead now. Slumped over in that chair with a bullet between his eyes. Or the office would look like a nightmare, with pieces of him strewn around, torn apart by our rage.
“Walk away from Haven, leave her the fuck alone for the rest of your life, and we’ll let you go.”
I feel all three of the alphas behind me perk at that. If we still had our bond, I’d send them reassurances through it to keep them from turning their ire on me. But I can’t, so instead I ignore their growls and muttered protests and keep my gaze focused on the enemy in the room.
“You can’t touch me,” he scoffs, shaking his head. “The most you can do is pull your support, but that is hardly a drop in the bucket of my campaign funds. No one will care if some nameless pack decides they don’t like my policies.”
My brows arch at the dig. We are relatively nameless. We aren’t famous. We don’t have fans like some packs. We don’t have entire corners of the internet devoted to us, like the Royal or Cordova packs. But we aren’t entirely without influence. We’ve built ourselves up with the sole intention of having enough power to take on Frederick Bell. To destroy the senator.
We don’t have to be well known to be dangerous. In fact, it’s better if we aren’t.
The senator pushes to his feet and smooths a hand down his tie. “It’s been… enlightening, gentlemen, but I think it’s time for you to go.”
Not one of us shifts to leave. I lean back in his chair, lace my fingers together over my stomach. “Just so we’re clear, you are turning down your one chance?”
The older alpha tilts his head. “Are you threatening me?”
Jude chuckles, low and dangerous. “Oh, Freddy boy. This isn’t a threat. It’s a promise. Leave Haven alone, or you’ll regret it.”
That is bordering on a threat, but there’s nothing specific. Nothing that Bell can take to the cops. The mostly alpha police force, who doesn’t agree with the bullshit he spouts off. Not even the lone packless ones.
No, most of his support comes from the betas.
Besides, a lot of our revenge are things at are untraceable, or totally legal.
The killing him part though? That’s where things could get a little dicey.
Still, if there’s no body, there’s no crime.
We’ll have to figure out a way to make it look like he ran off rather than disappeared.
Bell leans forward, placing his palms on his desk, towering over me in a move that might intimidate a lesser alpha, but just makes me want to hit him. “She’s my daughter. She is mine to do with as I see fit. I will never leave her alone. I’ll be barking at her for the next thirty fucking years to keep her in line, if that’s what it takes. Now get the fuck out of my chair and my office.”
I don’t have a bond with my pack any longer, but I can still feel their absolute rage. Their scents spike and turn bitter, flooding the space with angry alpha pheromones. Bell’s face drains of color, but he doesn’t back down.
Slowly, so fucking slowly, I push to my feet and lay my hands flat on the desk, leaning into him. Meeting his glare with one of my own. My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I don’t have to pull it out to know what the message will be.
“The next time you bark at her,” I say low enough that I know the camera won’t pick it up. “I’ll rip your tongue from your mouth with my bare fucking hands. It’ll be pretty hard to command her to do anything when you’re choking on your own blood, hmm?” I lean closer. “And that is also a fucking promise.”
Jude chuckles and surprisingly there’s a bit of humor in the sound, like the idea of that is actually delightful. A hand claps onto my shoulder and squeezes. Creed. I straighten away from the now sweating man, my lip curled in disgust. “You say you’re in control, that your alpha doesn’t drive you, but only a weak alpha would resort to barking at his own daughter. One afraid of what will happen if she’s in control of her own actions. You’re nothing, Senator, and I can’t wait for the world to see it too.”
I glance over my shoulder at the three men behind me and nod. “Let’s go.”
Jude practically runs out of the room while the rest of us exit at a more leisurely pace. I don’t blame him. My phone is burning a hole in my pocket, the need to check it itching at me like a rash.
Jude is already in the car behind the driver’s seat, hands curled around the steering wheel. As I slide into the front seat next to him, he doesn’t take his eyes off the windshield as he utters one word. “Where?”