Epilogue
TWO YEARS LATER
Harvey
Athena, Atlas, and my sisters’ Omega, Luke, laugh loudly amongst themselves in the living room as the rest of us clean up the mess from dinner.
Ten people make a lot of dirty dishes.
“I’m glad you guys made it out here,” I say to Henrietta, bumping her shoulder as she scrubs a plate in the sink. “It’s been too long.”
“And whose fault is that?” she asks, holding a soapy finger out at me.
“Yeah, yeah, we’ve had a lot going on.” I scoop up some bubbles and rub them onto her nose. “Not like you haven’t.”
Luke had a difficult pregnancy with their son Ewen, and they couldn’t travel during it. He also wasn’t keen on outsiders being in his home as he nested and got ready for delivery, so we didn’t go out there.
It’s the first time our packs have met that isn’t over a video call.
My other sister, Kelly, and their Beta partner, Melody, come in from outside, Melody bouncing Ewen in her arms.
“Thank God, they got him to sleep,” Henrietta sighs, leaning against the counter. “He hates to nap, and it’s driving us all insane.”
I wondered, when I learned Luke was pregnant, if I would be jealous of them having kids.
I quickly realized that worry was unfounded.
We’re all happy being uncles and an aunt to the kids of the family.
Athena’s laugh rings out above all the noise, and Luke shushes her by covering her mouth. “Ewen’s asleep!” he hisses. My sister-in-law waves his concern away before ducking out of the room toward the guest bedroom.
Eventually, Melody gets the baby transferred into a portable crib, and we all pile up in the living room. Wyatt pulls Athena into his lap before he sits on the couch, and Sebass shoves himself between Atlas and the other side of it.
Having my pack and two of my sisters in one place is a dream come true. I love these people so much, and I’d do anything for them.
“Okay, so, I have to know. What was Harvey like as a teenager?” Athena asks, jarring me out of my mushy thoughts.
“Don’t you dare,” I snarl at my sisters.
Kelly ignores me. “He was awkward. A praying mantis, basically, all long skinny limbs, not that he’s much different now. And he had acne and braces.”
“Wow, he sounds like the nerdy protagonist of an eighties film,” Atlas says, giving me a sarcastic, bratty grin.
“You’re not far off, honestly,” Henrietta says, yelping as I playfully toss a pillow at her.
“They’re leaving out that both of them also had braces and acne. Genetics are a bitch, huh?”
Athena snorts into her beer. “Don’t we fucking know it.”
We can joke now about the things that happened to her and Atlas in that warehouse, but there are still dark moments.
Therapy has helped a ton, and both of them still regularly have sessions, but we’ve had a couple of backslides.
We can never predict when something will remind them of being back there. There’s no real rhyme or reason to it.
Sometimes, it’s triggered by a particular smell or random sensation.
When we adopted our dog, Wilson, neither of them could go into the shelter because the cages the dogs were in triggered panic attacks.
We almost didn’t go through with the adoption, but once they calmed down, they were insistent that we needed to save at least one from that life.
Wilson snores at the back door, his big body stretched out. He’s an annoying asshole, like most of the guys, sometimes, but we love him.
Atlas catches my eye from the other side of the room, his face warm from the several beers he had, and his eyes soft.
He’s grown more affectionate over the past few years, not afraid to ask for hugs or cuddles when he needs them.
He’s come a long way since we pulled him out of that warehouse, swearing up and down that he was not an Omega and was no different from what he was before.
I can’t help myself. I wink and purse my lips in a kiss at him, and he rolls his eyes, giving me the finger over his shoulder as he turns back to respond to something Luke said.
As the evening wears on, Athena makes her way to my lap, cuddling up with me.
She strokes her hand down my scarred cheek, and I place my hand over the one she has on her chest. The two of us carry traumatic moments from our pasts on our bodies, but I’m proud to say we haven’t added to them since we met.
Wyatt
The door to the Omega rehabilitation center, where my brother Will works, closes silently behind me. He meets me in the lobby, pulling me into a hug.
“Finally. I was wondering if you were gonna make it.”
“Like I’d miss this?” I say, wrapping my arm around his shoulder. “It’s not every day my brother gets a wing in a building named after him.”
He scoffs and tries to wave me off, but I don’t let him. This is a big deal.
Will has worked tirelessly for over half a decade with the center, helping Omegas from abusive and dangerous backgrounds reconnect with their instincts and get ready to reacclimate to society.
He’s become the person he needed when he was rescued from the Conglomerate, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.
“The others here?” I ask as I follow him down the hallway.
“Yeah, they were on time.”
“Hey, traffic was terrible. I texted you!”
He mocks me quietly, but stops once we get to the hallway that leads to the Lupine Media Hall. I’ve already given him enough lip about how it’s also named after me that I don’t add to it today. I will be a benevolent big brother and let all the attention be on him.
The event is strictly ceremonial, with him cutting the ribbon that connects the hall to the main building, signifying that the hall is open.
It’s only my pack here celebrating with him today.
I know that is bittersweet for him, because he’s been actively searching for a pack of his own since shortly after I bonded Atlas and Athena.
I’m not sure if any Alpha could ever be good enough for my brother, but I want him to be happy, and this is something that’s hurting him every day.
“Did you get it?” I whisper to Athena, wrapping my arms around her from behind. “Also, hey, Omega.”
She wiggles happily in my arms. “Yeah, I did. We can give it to him at lunch.”
The seven of us end up at a pizzeria, and after a spirited debate between Will and Atlas on whether pineapple deserves to be on pizza, I clear my throat.
“We got you something to celebrate,” I tell Will as Athena pulls an envelope out of her purse. “I hope it’s okay. Athena’s brother helped us out with it.”
He cautiously takes the envelope from my hand and turns it over, not opening it. “Is this going to piss me off?”
“Maybe a little,” Atlas answers. “But I think you’ll be more excited than anything.”
When he pulls the certificate out and looks at it, his eyebrows drop low, and the expression falls off his face. My stomach drops.
I was trying to do something nice for my brother, trying to make sure he could live the life he wants to live, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe this wasn’t the right call.
Athena grabs my knee under the table and squeezes, calming me down so I can focus on Will.
He’s crying.
Fuck, fuck, he’s crying.
“Really?” His throat sounds tight.
“I’m sorry,” I rush to say. “I thought you’d appreciate it. I didn’t mean to upset you. I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings.”
He shakes his head, holding his hand up to get me to stop talking. “You didn’t hurt my feelings. But is this for real? You’re paying for Scent Seekers for me?”
Scent Seekers is a company that uses research from the Design Clinic to help Alphas and Omegas find their scent matches.
It’s the first global initiative backed by science, and I don’t quite understand how it works, but Icarus is on the board of directors and helped develop the process used to narrow down the pool of potential matches.
“You’ll have to go in and do an interview, and they’ll take a blood sample so they can do their fancy genome mapping thing,” I remind him, emboldened by the look of excitement that has taken over his face. “I’m not quite sure how it works, honestly.”
“There are certain identifiers that are present in the blood of scent matches that they’re looking for.
They can typically narrow it down to less than fifty people, and then you’ll get pheromone samples to see if anyone smells like home.
If your match isn’t in the database yet, they’ll run your blood alongside all new applicants.
” Athena beams at him, reaching across the table and taking his hand.
“They’ve already matched up hundreds of scent matches around the world. ”
He wipes tears from his eyes and looks at Atlas. “You told them?”
“I didn’t want to betray your trust, but I couldn’t keep it in when I knew we had a way of helping you get your dream. Let us do this for you.”
Will doesn’t take much convincing, and after lunch, he calls and immediately sets up his intake appointment.
That evening, we’re piled into the nest, Sebass and Athena buddy reading an epic fantasy series.
At the same time, Charles and Harvey argue over the next non-investigative business we should invest in.
Atlas pulls me aside and wraps me in a tight hug.
“You’re a good brother, Wyatt,” he says, resting his head against mine. “He’ll find his pack, I’m sure of it. I mean, hell, if you can find happiness with a fake Omega, I’m sure there is a pack out there that will be thrilled to have a real one.”
I grip him tightly around the waist and pull him close to me, growling in his ear. “You are not a fake Omega, Atlas.”
He shoves against my chest. “I know, I know. I’m just trying to rile you up.”
Athena pokes her head up over the edge of her book, eyes drifting up and down our bodies. “Oh, look, my show is on,” she says, tossing the book to the side and adjusting herself to lie against Sebastian comfortably. “Turn the volume up for me.”
Atlas tries to keep a straight face at her joke, but he doesn’t manage it, cracking up and using me to support his shaking body.