Chapter 24 - Elle #2
They had gone through a lot together. Betrayal and reconciliation, anger and forgiveness, danger and rescue. They’d faced down traffickers and saved lives and nearly died in the process.
And now they were facing something even more daunting: parenthood.
“We should probably tell them.” Elle thought after a moment. “Your family, my brother, the pack.”
“We will,” Silas agreed. “But not tonight. Tonight, let’s just be us. Let’s just soak this moment in before thinking about the formalities.”
Elle smiled against his neck. He was right.
If they told them now, they would start asking questions, expressing their concerns, advice and opinion.
There would also be murmurs about the Alpha having a half-human child.
Silas’s siblings would be thrilled, and Silas himself would probably get a lecture from August. He promised her when they were kids that anyone who got her pregnant would receive one from him.
Elle snorted quietly. Seems like that’d be his Alpha.
However, at present, in this silent medical room, they would enjoy it by themselves. Alone.
A knock on the door interrupted their moment. Rael poked his head in. “Sorry to interrupt, but we need a debrief. The rescued women are settled, Carter has been examined, and we need to discuss what happens next.”
Silas looked at Elle, silently asking if she was up for this.
“I’m okay,” Elle assured him. “Let’s go.”
They headed to the conference room in the facility where the other members of the team were already present.
Rael was sitting at the head of the table with his laptop on and his maps and notes already open.
Javi sat in a chair, bloody and looking very tired but contented.
August was close to the window, observing the grounds.
“Status report,” Silas said, sliding into Alpha mode easily.
Rael reported that all fifteen women were checked in and under care.
“Medical checks are underway. The majority of them have minor injuries, and some have severe traumas that will demand continuous treatment. Cristina’s team is establishing counseling sessions and planning contacts with their families. ”
“Well, we all know the head of the auction is dead,” Javi added. “We killed the majority of his inner circle. The survivors fled in different directions. We have the identities of half the buyers who were there, and I am in the process of locating the rest.”
“Carter is cooperating,” August offered. “He has provided names, places, all he knows, how his father was involved in the operation.”
Silas nodded slowly, pressing his tongue against his cheek. “So we dealt the operation a significant blow. But we didn’t take it down completely.”
“No,” Rael confirmed. “The head of the auction was a big fish, but he was not the only fish. This is not about hierarchy. There’s a whole network. Other auctions are going on in other places with other people in charge of those trafficking rings.”
Elle remained silent during the debrief, her mind going through something that had not left her mind since the fight at the warehouse.
“My magic,” she said suddenly with a tinge of shock, and they all turned and looked at her. “I think I have finally figured out how it works.”
“Your tracking ability,” Silas said, nodding for her to continue.
“It’s not just for tracking people. It is for keeping track of threats, or perhaps priorities.
When I was with Carter, I could hear a ringing in my head.
Like it was trying to tell me that he had a direct relationship to the operation.
But when those shifters first attacked us, Carter was no longer important.
The ringing shifted directions and priorities. ”
“It took you to the auction,” Rael said, understanding dawning on his features.
“Exactly. It moved from tracking Carter to a much bigger thing—the auction warehouse. I do not possess healing gifts or fighting powers. But I can find things. People, places, threats. My body is a working tracker.”
“That’s invaluable,” Javi muttered. “Assuming you can control it.”
“I can’t. Not yet.” Elle admitted. “I do not know how to make it focus on what I want it to follow or not to divert too much. But I am learning to understand the signals and what the different ringing in my head means.”
“So, if there’s a next auction, you can track it or something?”
“I think so. I can feel and trace it if I am close enough.” Elle glanced about the table to the faces of the pack members who had become her family. “I cannot say that I will always be in a position to trace what we really need. But I assure you, I will continue to work at this.”
“That’s all anyone can ask for,” Rael gave her a small smile.
They spent an hour sorting out the details—the evidence they gathered, the follow-up work, giving practical attention to the care of the rescued women, and what to do with Carter. By the time they were done, Elle’s injury throbbed painfully, leaving her drained and a bit dizzy.
It was Javi who started it.
He had mostly kept silent during the debrief, and this was unusual enough to draw the attention of Elle.
He was sitting back in his chair, with crossed legs, and every few minutes she saw him looking at her with an expression which she could not make out, something between amusement and satisfaction.
“So,” Javi started. He did not look at anybody particularly. “Will we or will we not talk about it?”
“Talk about what?” Silas asked, reaching for a bottle of water.
“About your mate.” Javi tilted his head at Elle. “Specifically what she is.”
Silas set down the bottle. “Javi.”
“What?” Javi spread his hands. “I had my suspicions. Her smell was never that of a human, or of Beta.”
Elle turned to Rael.
Rael had the decency to appear slightly diplomatic. “I noticed it too. Fairly early on.” A pause. “We were waiting for Silas to bring it up.”
All eyes turned to Silas. Silas rubbed his thumb against his jaw. “I was waiting for the right time.”
“She was in heat. We could smell it. You and Margaret weren’t that slick. She had a complete heat and you still—”
“I told her.”
“How long after?”
“None of your business.”
“Sure,” Javi snorted.
August, who had been silent at the window, chuckled low. Elle glanced in his direction..
“August,” she said slowly. “Don’t.”
“I haven’t said anything.”
“You have that face.”
“I always have this face.”
“August.”
He sighed. “You never shifted. Also never showed any typical markers. But your smell—” He shook his head. “I had a suspicion, years ago. I mentioned it to a pack elder. He said that I was imagining it.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“You had just been banished. And you were struggling hard. What could I say? Good luck out there, also you may have the rarest designation that anybody has seen in three generations?”
“He has a point,” Rael offered.
“He does not have a point.” Elle turned back to the table.
“To be fair, all we had were suspicions.”
“Very helpful, Javi.”
“I thought so.”
The pack is not aware yet.” Rael continued. “First omega in three generations. It is not common. It will mean something. But there’s no rush.”
Elle thought of the pack that treated her like she was a problem that needed to either be solved or discarded. “I will be ready. Just give me some time.”
“Of course.”
Silas grabbed her hand. “Alright, we are done for tonight. Elle needs rest.”
“I need some rest too,” Javi yawned loudly and got up, ready to walk out. “In fact, we all do.”
Silas drove Elle to a nearby cottage, which he had mentioned earlier. He placed one hand on the wheel and the other on her hand. The silence in the truck was comfortable—like the type that falls when you’re with someone who knows you better than you know yourself.
When they arrived at the cottage, he carried Elle in, even though she insisted that she could walk.
“You are wounded and pregnant. You must be delusional if you think I’m not going to hover over you.”
“I am not an invalid,” she shot back, unable to hide her smile. She loved being carried. She loved the feeling of being taken care of so well.
Silas calmly carried her to the bedroom, helped her undress, and get her into comfortable clothing. Then he got into bed with her and pulled her to his chest.
“We did well tonight,” Elle mumbled sleepily. “We saved those women.”
“We did,” Silas agreed. “And we’ll save more. We shall continue the battle against this trafficking operation until we have ruined it.”
“But the people who are actually running it still remain out there.”
“They are. But we’re getting closer. Every auction we destroy, every victim we rescue.
We tank their resources and anonymity.” Silas planted a kiss on her forehead. “We’ll find them eventually. And when we do, we will put an end to this forever.”
Elle believed him. She trusted in him, herself and what they were building. They had grown so much together, from the way they used to be—enemies to mates, broken to healing, lost to found and they still had so far to go.
But lying there in Silas’s arm, with their child growing inside of her and their bond stronger than ever, Elle experienced something she had not experienced in years—hope.
Hope for a better tomorrow that doesn’t mean just survival, but actually living.
Hope for a family filled with love and meaning.
“I am glad it is you,” Elle whispered, already drifting into sleep. “I am glad it is you I am doing this with.”
“Same. There’s no one else I’d rather have,” Silas said, his voice warm and full of love. “You, me and our baby against the world.”
“Against the world,” Elle agreed.
Then, she finally fell asleep smiling, dreaming of a future where the nightmares were finally over and the happy endings were just beginning.