14. Chapter 14
fourteen
It took all of Cyrus’s will to not drag Gabe and Liliana out of there as quickly as possible on the off chance that Jasmine decided she’d rather keep them hostage.
Cyrus knew that doing so might draw more attention to the council of the situation than normal, but he wasn’t so sure that Jasmine would have cared.
Nevertheless, once they were outside, Cyrus was all but fuming.
“Fuck!” he cursed and banged his hand along the top of his car. Just hard enough to leave a soft dent in the top that slowly started to push up and fix itself but not completely.
He turned to look at Gabe.
“How could you just stand there?” Gabe asked.
Cyrus looked at him bewildered.
“What?!” he asked.
“How could you just stand there when they grabbed me like that?” Gabe asked as they were all standing there, tense and the air around them making their cheeks red.
Cyrus growled. “If I had done anything, we’d be in a mess right now!” he insisted, “You want me to shoot first ask questions later, or you want me to let you lead?”
“I want you to protect me!” Gabe insisted. “I would—”
“You would’ve what?” Cyrus asked. “Done something dumb as all fuck, and we’d all be bleeding.”
Gabe swallowed hard; Cyrus could feel his own eyes burning and see a glittering in Gabe’s.
“Do you think I liked watching that?” Cyrus asked.
Lily stepped partially in between them.
“Guys…” she said softly, “let’s just get in the car.”
Gabe and Cyrus were both silent and looked at each other for a moment.
Lily sighed, pulled both of them closer to each other, and wrapped both of her arms around them. She was nuzzling her face against them.
“It’s okay,” she mumbled.
Cyrus swallowed and looked down before reaching a hand out, petting the top of Lily’s head, and taking a slow breath.
“Let’s just get going,” Cyrus said with a sigh. He tugged away from the other two and dug around in his pocket for the keys. They jangled around in his hand as he headed for the passenger side door.
“You think you’ll heal fine?” Cyrus asked Gabe as he was opening the driver’s side door.
Gabe cringed as he removed his hand, and though there was some blood on it, it didn’t look too bad.
“Yeah…should be gone in a couple of hours; it wasn’t that deep,” he insisted.
Cyrus nodded and got into the car. He waited for the other two to get in, this time Gabe in the front seat, and Cyrus didn’t object to it. Lily stretched out in the back seat, seeming lost in her head.
Cyrus couldn’t blame her. Frankly, he wanted to forget what had happened, but they couldn’t. At least not forever. They were going to have to get back to the pack house and tell other people. However, until they got there, they could be as distant and as removed from the situation as possible.
The anxiety and exhaustion over the situation that Cyrus was feeling was the reason he didn’t object to pulling over thirty minutes to roll through the McDonald's drive-through as if it was just a normal outing.
He ate on auto pilot, shoving fries into his mouth and the burger before he even realized he was doing it.
Cyrus focused on the road and the music in the background.
No one spoke, ate quietly and watched the trees and other cars pass by.
In some ways, it was…morose. The feeling of uncertainty was heavy in the air.
When Cyrus finally pulled into the driveway, it was only the middle of the day, but it felt like it was much later.
He was out of the car last. The window open, watching Lily and Gabe walk to the front of the vehicle. Lily turned to look at him and then step over to the window.
“You alright?” she asked, eyeing him.
“Yeah, just gonna sit out here for a while,” he replied. He took his seatbelt off.
She frowned softly in response but nodded. When she looked at Gabe, he looked back at her in a silent notion before she rubbed his arm and then started for the house.
Cyrus watched her disappear inside before his gaze danced over to Gabe, who was standing several feet in front of the car, hands in his pockets. Cyrus looked at the steering wheel.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been staring at it or how long his eyes had been burning so intensely, but however long it was, he was startled slightly back into reality as his door opened, and Gabe was standing there with his hand on it.
“Cyrus?” he asked.
Cyrus didn’t reply. Tears were licking at his lashes and a lump tight in his throat.
A long moment of silence later, and Gabe was doing something unexpected. Climbing into his lap. It was slightly awkward. Gabe’s head was pushed against the roof of the car with Cyrus’s lap underneath him, but he leaned to the side, leaning his head against Cyrus’s shoulder.
Cyrus didn’t object. He kept his gaze on the steering wheel as he felt the weight of the other man in his lap. Gabe’s fingers trailed along his jaw line, and his thumb gently caressed there.
With anyone else, he may very well have shoved them away, even Lily. He wasn’t sure he could handle even her comforting him at that moment. But somehow, the idea of pushing Gabe away made him feel even worse.
He didn’t want to rid himself of the feeling of him in his lap.
“We could lose everything,” Cyrus said. Voice quiet, thick with emotion.
“I know,” Gabe replied. “It’ll be okay.”
Cyrus blinked, a few tears along his lash line slowly pushing downward.
“How?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Gabe answered honestly, “but I’m here.”
Cyrus swallowed hard.
“Why?” he asked. He kept his eyes down, afraid if he looked at Gabe, he might just fall apart entirely.
Gabe was quiet for a moment. “It feels right,” he said.
Cyrus wrapped his arms around Gabe and felt the other man nuzzle his face into his shoulder. He couldn’t help but do the same. Tilt his head down and lean his face against his shoulder. Inhaling Gabe’s scent deeply. He found it calmed him.
He took an even deeper breath and tried to focus on only the feeling of Gabe in his arms. It was strange and yet oddly comforting.
He didn’t expect it, but there it was. Them sitting in his car and holding each other.
It was what he needed more than anything, he had to admit.
After the last few weeks of stress and adjusting to a new conflict…
Cyrus sighed and squeezed Gabe tighter.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Gabe nuzzled his face into Cyrus’s neck.
“For what?” he asked.
“For this morning,” Cyrus replied. “You didn’t deserve that.”
Gabe slowly slid his hand over and brushed his fingers up into the hair at the nape of Cyrus’s neck and held onto it by the root firmly. Cyrus hummed softly.
“I forgive you,” Gabe whispered.
Something about hearing those words made Cyrus’s heart squeeze.
He rubbed his hand along Gabe’s back.
“We should get inside. We need to tell the others about what’s going on,” Cyrus mumbled.
Gabe pulled back from him with a sigh. “We have to?” Gabe asked, his brow furrowed.
Cyrus nodded. He watched as Gabe’s eyes glittered.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” Gabe admitted. “When I became Alpha, I didn’t expect…”
Cyrus looked into his eyes, understanding the fear that was there.
“You have to,” Cyrus said bluntly. “You have no other choice.”
Gabe nodded and started to slide out of his lap.
“But I’ll be there, beside you,” Cyrus told him.
Gabe looked at him once more, and Cyrus felt like he was in some other world. How was it he could go from wanting to hurl Gabe into another district a few weeks ago to suddenly feeling comfort at his gaze and presence?
Gabe leaned in and kissed him. Cyrus kissed him back softly, but only for a second before he shifted, and Gabe took his motion as one to get out of the car.
He didn’t want to, but they needed to get inside.
Lily was undoubtedly gathering anyone in the house to prepare to hear what was happening.
Not everyone knew what Tatiana, Lily, Cyrus, and Gabe knew.
Others knew of the attack, but they didn’t know of the situation intensity by any means.
Taking a deep breath of fresh air once he closed the driver-side door, Cyrus finally headed inside, following behind Gabe.
He pulled himself together. A previously soft and vulnerable face was then a severe and stoic expression.
His shoulders rolled back, and once he was in the main hallway with Gabe, there was almost no sign that he had been feeling any fear of their conflict.
It was for the best. They needed to be as calm and collected while letting others know what was happening as they could.
If he and Gabe weren’t calm, the others wouldn’t be either.
As Cyrus stepped into the room, running off from the main hall, he saw no one.
They were all likely gathered in the entertainment room as it was the biggest room next to the basement that they would be able to gather in.
He wasn’t sure how many were there at the time of all this, but there were usually around two handfuls of people in the pack house at any given time.
In the summer it could be a little different.
Still, it was nearing the coldest months of the year when a lot of them came back to the pack house to spend the winter, so he knew that there were undoubtedly going to be enough of them there that explaining the situation to them was going to be difficult to do face to face.
Lily came walking out from the hallway that extended down the right side of the house from the entertainment room and the gym.
“They’re all in the entertainment room; it’s not that many here right now. Some went out for the day, so you’re going to have to get to them later,” Lily explained.
Gabe and Cyrus both nodded.
“Thank you,” Gabe replied and started ahead. Cyrus watched him stop as they were a few feet from the doorway.
Cyrus stepped closer.
“I can do this if you need me to,” he said quietly.
Gabe shook his head. “No, I need to do it,” he insisted.