Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
Max
I felt like a raisin, wrinkled and dehydrated, but the happiest fucking raisin on the planet. The last four days had been intense, but the best four days of my life. Rio had both Polly and August in the bath, washing them down like the gifts that they were.
Pulling my phone off the charger, I looked down at the dozen calls, messages and emails I’d missed. Some were from work—there was one notable message from Lance of an irate-looking Rufio throwing a tantrum.
Lance had come and collected both Rufio and Doodles at some point after Polly’s heat had started. They needed to be cared for, and with two Omegas, I wasn’t sure any of us could have been pulled away. I’d promised to return the favor when they needed it next.
There were quite a few calls from an unknown number and one message from Toledo which merely said Call me. Frowning, I dialed the encrypted number we always talked on. It rang and rang, and I hung up, knowing he’d call me back.
Which he did, within two seconds. “Where have you been? ” His pissy tone relaxed me somehow. Toledo always sounded a little pissed at the world.
I kept my voice neutral as I replied, “Something came up here that I had to deal with.” I wasn’t going to tell Toledo that Polly had gone into heat and I’d spent the last four days balls deep in an orgy.
“There’s been a development. You should have told me someone else was working on this for you. Some little hacker on the dark web found what I was sifting for and tried to backdoor me.”
Shit, J3wel. I should have warned him. “Sorry, Toledo. My bad.”
He huffed. “Whatever. Anyway, once I convinced her that I wasn’t the mark and was working for you too, we combined resources and came up with something.” He paused. “Max, it’s bad.”
A chill went down my spine. “How bad?”
“Looks like they've been spooked by the arrest of Anthony Smalls and they’ve decided to clean house. J3wel found a few feelers in out-of-the-way places, peddling everything from slavery to illegal adoptions. They’re cashing in the people at the Homestead and disappearing.”
I ground my teeth. Fuck. “Any luck finding the place?”
The pause at the other end was heavy. “Yeah, the group of Alphas who survived know some things, but they still want to meet with your girl to see if she can shed any light on how the place is set out now. Most of their information is old. If they want to do this with the least amount of civilian casualties, they need better intel.”
I hated this. Hated that I’d have to put her in that position. But I’d seen her face when she discovered that they’d been murdering the Alpha kids. There was no way that she wouldn’t want to help where she could.
“I’ll talk to her, and to the guys. We’ll get back to you.”
Toledo let out a long breath. “We’re all in Charlotte.”
Both of my eyebrows hit my hairline. “Already?”
“When we couldn’t get hold of you, we came down here, hoping to limit the amount of downtime once we tracked you down. I can’t stress enough that we are in a life-or-death time crunch, Max.”
Well, fuck. Breathing in through my nose and holding it, I straightened my shoulders. The timing sucked, but that was life. “I’ll let you know by lunchtime, but Toledo? She’s been through enough. I won’t force her to relive that trauma if she doesn’t want to. It sounds harsh, but I don’t care who lives or dies, as long as she’s happy.”
Toledo grunted. “Love makes people fucking stupid, but okay. I’ll wait for your call.”
He hung up, and I pulled my phone from my ear and resisted the urge to throw it at the wall. I just wanted a little longer to stay in our bubble of happiness, where deranged cults and murders didn’t exist.
Grabbing a couple of sports drinks from the fridge, as well as a prepared charcuterie board, I made my way back down the hall to the Omega suite. I was surprised to find August and Polly not in the nest, but back on the freshly made bed. Llew had Polly on his lap as he leaned against the headboard, and August was squished between him and Rio on the other side, bracketed by the Alphas who wanted to make him theirs. We might have skipped a few steps, but he looked like he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
Not bonding him as well during Polly’s heat had been the hardest thing I’d ever done.
Frowning, Polly saw straight through my fake smile. “What’s wrong?” She was an intuitive little thing, probably from the trauma of growing up with psychopaths, as well as our newly minted bondmark.
The tension in the room ratcheted up to ten. “Toledo called while we were otherwise occupied. The Homestead is trying to clean house.”
Polly frowned, not getting the idiom. “The Brothers and Sisters have always cleaned.”
Llew held her tighter, and August gripped her hand. “No, it means that they think that they’ve been caught out, so they’re going to try and get rid of any liabilities and disappear.”
“Liabilities?” she asked, her voice shaky.
“Probably everyone but the Leaders,” August said softly. “They don’t want to leave anyone behind who could talk to the authorities.”
Polly shook her head, like she could shake out the terrible reality. She turned her face into Llew’s chest, and the scent of her distress washed through the room, crawling across my skin like acid.
Rio growled. “Tell them to forget it. I won’t have them stressing out Polly like this. She’s been through enough.”
August scent marked Rio gently, attempting to calm him, and the sight almost made me smile, despite this shitshow. “I know you want to protect Polly, but you can’t do that by taking away her choices, Alpha,” August said gently.
Llew looked distraught, and whatever was pouring down their bond looked like it was testing his control. I could feel it too, her wild swirl of fear and anger. I needed to get this figured out, fast.
“No one is asking her to go and confront the people from the Homestead herself. She just needs to talk to these survivors, and a single, tiny piece of information squirreled away in that beautiful head of hers could save lives. You know this, Rio. You know how information can make or break a mission. We’ll go and meet with Toledo and these people, but if we even so much as suspect that it’s causing her undue stress, we’ll pull her out of there.”
I crawled up the bed toward my Pack, hating that I had to be this voice of reason. “I don’t want her to wake up in ten years time and have regrets.” I rested my hand on Polly’s thigh, addressing her directly now. “You’re so strong and brave. I know you can do this. But if you can’t, that’s okay too. It’s up to you. We are your Pack. Your wellbeing is the only thing we care about.”
Her silent, heartbreaking crying was like a stab to the chest with every single sob. Finally, she sucked in a shuddering breath. “I’ll do it. Nim is still there, and the kids who don’t know any better. The rest… I want Leader Malakai to die a horrendous death. Does that make me a bad person?
Rio reached over and gripped her hand. “It makes you human, Beautiful. And I’ll personally make sure that happens.” I knew that if they were going to bring down the Homestead, Rio and I would be right there with them.
I squeezed her thigh, leaning across Llew’s broad chest to kiss her. “I’ll make the call. Eat something and rehydrate.” I ran my nose over her cheek. “I’m sorry this ruined the day.”
She shook her head. “It’s not your fault. And the people who are at fault need to be punished.”
Yeah, there was my little fighter.
Toledo had rounded everyone up super quick, and less than two hours later, we were in a hotel bar on the outskirts of Charlotte. In the end, the whole Pack came, including August. We were a show of support, and maybe a show of force, in case shit went sideways. Given how upset Polly had been earlier, I doubted any of us could have just stayed home while she was out here, confronting her past.
I noted Toledo in the back corner, and beside him was a girl with mermaid-blue hair. I could also see the back of two male heads. I raised an eyebrow at Toledo; that was a lot of people to subject my Omega to.
When we neared, he reached out and shook my hand. “Max, it’s good to see you.”
I’d never seen him so… not snarky. He was obviously on his best behavior, but for who?
He indicated the woman beside him. “You know Jewel.”
I raised both eyebrows at the tiny little thing with the brightly colored hair in front of me. She was the hacker that some of the tech guys at the CIA jerked off to? Well, her work, anyway. Though if they’d seen her, probably to her visage as well.
I reached out and shook her hand. “Only professionally.”
Polly appeared beside me, her eyes taking in Toledo and Jewel. And then she went inhumanly still beside me. “ Henry? ”
The man to my left was young, around Polly’s age. He had a wide smile, eyes that were a little too far apart, but not enough that he looked like Sid the Sloth. It just kind of made him look sweet.
“Hey, Paloma. When they told me…” The guy shook his head. “I hoped it would be you.”
She stepped around me and when he stood, she wrapped her arms around him and cried. “They said you’d died. They said you got a fever, that you passed in the middle of the night, and by the time Nim or I got any answers, they showed us your grave.” She was sobbing again, and I resisted the urge to pull her back into my arms.
“I designated Alpha, and they kicked me out. Is Nim… Is she okay?”
“She was when I left.” Stepping back, Polly rubbed her eyes with the back of her sleeve. “Now? I don’t know.”
Henry stepped back and introduced the other man beside him. He was older, around my age or probably a little older. “This is Pieter. He has the safehouse where we go when they rescue us.”
The man in question reached out and shook my hand, then Polly’s. “It’s lovely to meet you, Paloma.”
She shook her head. “I go by Polly now.”
Henry looked over my shoulder, and I turned to see a big Alpha appear, his dark eyes taking in our group with almost military precision. “And that’s Kross. He’s our de facto leader.”
Polly turned, the polite smile on her face dropping and the color in her cheeks draining. Her scent soured, and suddenly, her Omega distress pheromones could have suffocated a horse. She shook her head wildly. “No!”
I didn’t ask questions. I just swung.