21. Chapter Twenty One
Chapter Twenty One
I pull my precious little Omega on top of me, collapsing back into the nest. The matebond hums happily in my chest, right under where Kennedy’s head currently lays.
I was shocked when she asked me to mark her.I knew that it was going to happen one day but I didn’t realize she wanted us all this quickly. It does immediately settle something in me though.
She is now mine, for life.
There is nowhere that she will ever go that I won’t be able to find her. We are officially tied together forever
My perfect, sweet, Little Omega.
Her soft snores make me chuckle quietly as I gaze down at her in awe.
Jax settles in beside me, throwing one of his arms over our Omega and I. We both look at her like she is the most precious thing in the entire world.
Because she is .
While over the years I have come to love Jax, it's different with Kennedy and I know hefeels it too.
“She’s perfect for us isn’t she?” Theo murmurs as he comes to lie beside us. He looks at
Kennedy with the same awe that I know I do.
I nod, as I brush a strand of hair out of her face.
I can’t blame her for passing out the moment the bond solidified. It would be exhausting. I know I can already feel my own exhaustion threatening me into sleep too. It’s been a big day for her and it's barely even midday.
I have never felt as many toying emotions as I have today. Waking up to my girl crying instantly set me on edge. I immediately started looking for threats. Yet the threat was her own body. That's a kind of confusion that I just couldn’t process.
It hurts to know that Kennedy thinks she is so broken, when all I see when I look at her is strength. Fuck, she is strong. It's admirable. At the same time though, I wish she didn’t have to get to that point. She is only this strong because she has had to be. Life has been cruel to her, yet she has gotten up everyday and continued the fight.
That's not in an Omega’s nature.
But it is hers.
Theo sighs beside me, “What are we going to do about her father?”
I blow out a breath of my own, “I don’t know. All I know is, I want to kill that cunt.”
“You and me both,” Theo snorts.
“We can’t kill him,” Jax pipes up. I frown, turning towards him but he just lifts his hands in surrender .
“Ease up turbo. I mean, not just yet. We need to work out what his MO actually is and what Kennedy wants done with him first. I want to see him six-feet under as badly as you both do but this needs to be her choice.”
I huff but I know he's right, even if I don’t necessarily like it. I don’t want Kennedy to have to worry about him ever again. I want her to just live her life free from his clutches, like I believe she wants to. As far as I am concerned, he doesn't deserve the air he wastes.
He tortured our girl. Has broken and bruised her both externally and internally. The only punishment that will ever be good enough is seeing him get the same, only ten times over. I don’t care if that makes me psychopathic. It’s quite literally my job.
I’m the brawn, not the brains. That’s Theo’s job and occasionally Jax’s. He's mainly a floater. Depends on the day sometimes with him. I just know I could never do the other side like they do. I don’t look good in a suit.
Which reminds me...
“What are we going to tell Kennedy about what we do?”
“Fuck...”
Theo looks down at Kennedy wide eyed as real life comes filtering back in. I see the stress on his face. The worry about what our Little Omega is going to say.
I know for sure that we have fucked up. We shouldn’t have marked her until after we told her the truth. We should have given her the choice.
We seem to be fucking up with that. First, Jax marking her without consent and now all of us following without telling her the truth of who we really are and what we do .
It occurs to me then that she doesn’t even know our last names. The one that she will share with us now that we have bonded.
While I should be overjoyed, all I feel is dread.
What if we tell her the truth and she freaks out?
What if it's not something that she can accept and she wants to reject us?
I know it's hard to do, considering we are both scent matches and fully bonded, but I know it can be done. I’ve heard stories, all of them just as horrific as the next.
I begin to panic, unable to stop myself. I hold onto Kennedy tighter like if I wrap my arms around her that will be enough to tether her to me forever.
My panic is enough to rouse her from sleep.
“Ledger? Ledger, what's wrong?” Her voice is husky as she looks up at me. I feel terrible that she wasn’t able to get enough sleep but I can’t focus on that right now.
“Don’t leave me.”
My voice is a pained whisper, barely loud enough to be audible. Kennedy’s eyes widen as she peers down at me.
“What do you mean, Ledger? I’m not going anywhere.”
Her words are firm but I shake my head anyways.
“But you might when you know the truth.”
My strength isn’t enough to keep her close to me as she pushes off my chest. She looks down at me before looking at both Jax and Theo.
“What does he mean? What truth? What do you need to tell me?”
Her voice shakes but her face remains hard. Theo sighs as he grabs a blanket from the far end of the nest. He drapes it aroun d
Kennedy’s shoulders to hide some of her nakedness. She doesn’t seem to notice though as she remains stock still.
“I’m sorry, Kennedy. You need to know that we had every intention of telling you the truth. It just didn’t have the chance to come up. I would have liked to have told you in a much different setting,” he says, glaring down at me for a moment before returning a soft look to Kennedy, “but I guess it's now or never.”
She nods once, allowing him to continue. She is eerily still and it scares me. Terrifies me even.
“Have you ever heard of the Duran Mafia?”
She nods again but only once. Her eyes squint slightly.
“The boss’s name is Victor Duran. Victor is my father.”
The entire room is quiet for a moment. I watch Kennedy intently as I try to find any kind of reaction in her, but I can’t. She's giving nothing away.
My stomach feels like it drops completely as she slides off my lap, now that my knot isn’t swollen inside of her. I kind of wish it still was. Only so she can’t run away from me again.
She wraps her blanket around her further, completely hiding her body from us while we all sit here like a bunch of naked idiots.
I’m sure I could come up with something more appropriate to call what the three of us are but I can’t think clearly. I can feel my heartbeat in my throat. Dread clouds my senses and all I can seem to think is that we are about to lose her.
“Okay, so what does that mean then?” she says after a moment that felt like it went for hours.
“That means, in a few years, my father will be handing the reins over to me and I will become the Don of the Duran Mafia. ”
Kennedy’s eyes widen comically and if I didn’t feel like I was going to throw up, I might have laughed.
“Y...you are going to be the D...Don of the Mafia?” she stutters as she stares at him.
Theo looks sad as he nods before looking down at his hands.
“Ah, yeah.”
“Wow. Okay.”
We all stay silent as we allow for Kennedy to process the full news.
When I first found out about the darker side of Jax and Theo’s lives, I have to admit that I was a bit shocked too. It’s not everyday your best friends tell you that they are a part of the Mafia.
Yet now that I am all in with them and what this life offers, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I have found my family with these men. And now I have found my girl.
I watch as Kennedy processes the information. It's clearly a lot for her to deal with. It would be a lot to deal with for anyone. I hate that we have put so much on her shoulders in such a short amount of time. She deserves better than all of this.
After a while she sighs and nods, “Okay. Okay, this is a lot to process but okay.”
“Okay?” Theo asks.
“Okay.” She nods as though she is just resolved to her fate. I don’t know how I feel about that. I wanted more from her. Maybe some kind of yelling or crying. Even just her giving us the cold shoulder for a bit. But acceptance? It makes my skin itchy.
“Do you have any questions?”
She shrugs her shoulders, “I mean, kind of. What does this mean for us? ”
Theo relaxes his body, like her asking questions is exactly what he needs right now.
“I guess it really depends on where you want to be in regards to the organisation. If you want to stay as far away from it all as you can, we will make sure that we keep you away from it all. If you want to be involved, we can organise that. Introduce you to the life and work out where you want to be in it. I don’t want to push this life on you, Kennedy. It's not for everyone and I know that. I just hope that you can accept that this is a part of us. I can understand if it is too much.”
I watch as Theo deflates. He acts like not much fazes him. His cool guy act works well for him a lot of the time, but sometimes life is just too much. The pressures that fall on his shoulders get heavy. I know that he needs Kennedy more than his next breath of air. He needs her to accept him and his life.
I can’t blame him, I need it too.
She is fucking everything.
“I think that I would like to learn about your life. I want to give it a chance before I make a decision, if that's okay?”
Theo nods enthusiastically, “Yes, yes of course. I would love to show you my life.”
It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Like I am finally able to take a breath. Knowing that Kennedy at least wants to learn about our life is a relief in itself.
Maybe she will come to accept our lives and want to be a part of it. I also don’t necessarily mind if she doesn’t though.
This life comes with a lot of risks. Our lives are quite literally in danger every day. I don’t know if I could handle welcoming her into the Mafia life and seeing her be hurt by it. The thought sends unnecessary pulses of anger through me.
No, if Kennedy is to be a part of our life, she will be safe and I will make sure of it.