Chapter 48
FORTY-EIGHT
This isn’t the first time I’ve killed someone.
Between the Hawks and the shit we get into behind the scenes of Lupine Investigations, I’ve had to take out a few bad actors before. I never like to do it, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. Necessary, even.
This death is hitting me harder than all the others.
That fucker pointed a gun at my Omega.
Tyler thought he could threaten my Omega and get away with it?
He knew the moment we brought him onto Hawks property that he wasn’t leaving here alive, and he thought he’d take my Omega out with him.
He thought wrong.
I was so fucking right not to let Athena come with us. I’m not going to pull an ‘I told you so’ or anything, but the validation is nice.
When I heard his gun go off, nearly simultaneously with my own, a fear unlike anything I’ve ever felt before shot through me like lightning.
If something were to happen to either of my Omegas, I’m not sure if I could go on. In such a short amount of time, they’ve grown to mean so much to me, to our pack, that it’s like we were never without them.
Eventually, proximity to one another has calmed us all down enough that we can untangle ourselves and get more comfortable on my bed. Sebastian drags his hand down his face, ridding it of the dried path tears took down his cheeks.
“It’s over,” Wyatt says softly, petting Athena’s wavy hair. “He’s gone. He didn’t even know you two had changed designations. No one else knows.”
“The doctors?” Charles asks. He’s got Atlas’s hand clutched in his, which makes me smile. Their relationship may not be romantic, but there is no denying the affection present. They will always have each other’s backs.
“Nitro and the crew are going to take care of them after they make sure no one else knows what they were doing,” I answer, purposefully keeping my words vague.
Athena sniffles a little, speaking for the first time since she ran into the parking lot. “Do I want to know what that means?”
“Nope.”
She takes my word and doesn’t push for more.
Smart girl.
She’s rubbing her chest, and I don’t know if it’s the bonds or the scar that’s bothering her, because they’re in the same place.
Our bonds now occupy the spot that was once only a physical reminder of the people who abandoned her.
If I have my way, it will overflow with so much love that eventually, the scar will become secondary.
I can’t rewrite her history, but I can make sure her future is one for the books. I never want to feel her fear the way I felt it in the aftermath of the shooting, and I’ll do whatever it takes to give her, to give both of them, the life they deserve.
The one they have earned.
“Does this mean it’s over?” Atlas asks, his voice rough. Hearing it loosens a knot that had formed in my chest the moment Tyler raised his arm. “Are we done with all of this?”
I scoot back on the bed until my back rests against the wall behind it. The Omegas move with me, as if pulled by an invisible string. They curl up together, Atlas behind Athena, and Athena rests her head on my chest.
“We’re done.” I run my hand over Athena’s soft hair. “They can’t hurt you two again.”
Athena is drawing on my chest with her finger, but she doesn’t look at me. “I wanted to look him in the eye. I wanted him to know that he didn’t break me.”
“I’m sorry I took that from you,” I whisper, dipping my head to kiss her hair. “You deserved that closure.”
“Don’t apologize for saving Atlas’s life,” she chastises. “I wanted to face him, but I want you all safe more. I heard enough to know that no matter what I said to him, he would never feel bad about the pain he caused, the lives he took.”
“You’re right, princess,” Wyatt tells her, reaching out to grab her calf. “You can’t reason with people like that. They won’t hear anything that doesn’t match their narrative, no matter how messed up it is.”
“What do we do now?” Charles asks. “The Hawks are going to report this to the police? Are we sure that’s a good idea? Do we really need eyes on us right now?”
I scrub my hand down my face. “Yeah, they’ll need to let the cops handle this, unfortunately.
Nitro was right in that we don’t want whoever worked with Tyler to think he went underground.
They need to know he’s dead. It’ll send a message, especially with the Hawks running Prism now.
Kieran Cobb and the Conglomerate are finished.
With Puck, his second in command, out of the picture, and Tyler, who we now know was over trafficking, dead, the organization is dead in the water.
” The Hawks still have their work cut out for them to get everything above board, but that isn’t our problem.
“I’ll have to go into custody for a bit until they do enough interviews to determine the shooting was in defense of my Omega. It shouldn’t take long.”
“Why would they take you into custody?” Atlas asks, sitting up a little. “It’s cut and dry what happened. There are witnesses.”
“Because I’m an ex-con,” I say stiffly. I’m not sure if I ever explicitly had the conversation with Atlas about my background like I did with Athena, but I doubt he’s unaware of it from the work he did with us.
“I’m not going to get the benefit of the doubt like others would in this kind of situation. It’ll be fine.”
And if it’s not, Nitro has plans in place, palms he can grease. I’m not concerned at all.
I kick my boots off in the house’s entryway and spit out the gum I’ve been chewing for the past hour in the trash can in the kitchen. It’s long since lost its flavor, but I’m trying hard to quit cigarettes. I don’t need to smell like smoke. Atlas has that covered.
I won’t tell Charles he was right, though. I don’t want to hear that asshole telling me he told me so, and he would.
After changing out of my grimy clothes, I make my way to the nest. There’s no way my pack is anywhere but there after the day that we had.
Before I enter, I lean in the doorway and watch them.
Athena is leaning against Wyatt’s chest, and Sebastian holds her feet on his lap while he reads a book.
Atlas is reclining into Charles’s side, and they’re arguing good-naturedly over something on the Alpha’s phone.
They’ve all shed the clothes of today’s chaos and are in casual lounge clothes or pajamas.
Athena is the first to spot me.
“Harvey!” she exclaims, trying to scurry to her feet but unable to as my packmates hold her down. She grumbles playfully and lets them pull her back down. “You’re back.”
“I told you it’d be nothing.” I wave off her concern.
They interviewed Atlas at the Hawks compound so his Alphas could surround him while they did it, but Valkyrie and I were taken into the station.
Boots was hidden away after the doctor patched him up.
There was no need for us to let them know he was present.
Dr. Icarus Knight took good care of the road captain, and I bet he doesn’t realize that, in doing so, he cemented himself as the club doctor. I wish I could see the look on his face when he realizes it.
“We were trying to figure out what we should do tonight,” Charles says, holding his phone over his head and out of Atlas’s reach.
“No, we weren’t,” Atlas says, jumping to his feet. “Chuckie was trying to force his awful movie tastes on everyone.”
“It’s an art film!” my pack mate says petulantly. “It’s a beautiful story.”
“It’s got subtitles!” Atlas spreads his arms wide, imploring me with his eyes to take his side. “Watching a movie shouldn’t require me to read.”
“I like subtitles,” Athena pipes up as she plays with Wyatt’s fingers. “Helps me focus a little better.”
“Not when the film isn’t in English,” Atlas insists. “What we need tonight after everything we’ve gone through is a comedy.”
“What about a fantasy?” Sebass asks, pulling his nose out of his book. “I could go for a battle with orcs or something.”
My pack continues to lobby ideas back and forth, and I stay in the doorway, listening to the light-hearted arguments that play out.
Everything is so different now than it was a few weeks ago.
I remember sitting in the back office of Pet Paradise dog groomers, where we meet up for our more illicit activities, with Crystal, listening to her tell her story and making a plan for how we could take down the Conglomerate.
At that time, Atlas was a friend and colleague.
He fit in perfectly with us from the first mission, and I always enjoyed having him around.
Now, he’s more. So much more.
Athena catches my eye, and I can’t stop the broad smile that spreads across my face. My girl. She never fails to light me up from the inside. To outsiders, she may not seem like she would be a good fit with a bunch of assholes like us.
But she’s exactly what we needed.
Finally, I climb into the nest, throwing myself between all of them and laying my head on Athena’s lap.
“I vote rom-com,” I say, looking up at one of my Omegas. She cups my face as she peers down at me.
“You don’t strike me as a romance guy.”
“I wasn’t before. But I think I am now.”