Chapter 14
Gabriel’s Bedroom, Devil Estate
Gabriel leads the way into his bedroom on the first floor of the log cabin, before firmly closing the door behind me.
He’s pale, and his mouth is set in a thin line.
He’s been quiet ever since I told him what I discovered in the file.
But then, I would be too, if I knew that the FBI had unmasked me and the President himself wanted me dead.
“Finally,” he mutters, “we get some time to ourselves.”
He doesn’t wrap his arms around me like I’m expecting.
Instead he clasps his hands behind his back and begins to pace agitatedly from one side of the small room to the other, deep in thought.
His lavender eyes are as beautiful and bright as they ever were.
He’s still gorgeous.
But there’s worry lines furrowed between his brows that weren’t there before, along with a haunted look in his expression that makes my heart ache.
We’re not kids any longer.
We’ve grown up and survived.
Despite everything, I love the way that this room is warm, smelling of cinnamon coffee. Neither the guest room nor balcony had borne Gabriel’s scent, which makes sense if he’s been away for weeks and rarely spends time here anyway.
But I can tell that this is his room.
And that’s depressing.
Dismayed, I stare around at the near empty bedroom.
A single window looks out over the forest. Light streams through, lighting my face, but it’s the only cheery thing in the room.
Otherwise, the room is bare. There’s a single bed in the center that has plain olive cotton bedding and no extra pillows.
It could be a military barracks.
Is this how Gabriel likes it?
It definitely looks like a soldier’s room, someone who’s used to moving from place to place at short notice and so doesn’t collect many belongings.
Gabriel was like that as a kid.
There are no personal items, pictures, or trinkets.
There’s only a single photograph, which is tacked next to the bed.
Curious, I wander to look at it more closely.
Then I smile.
The photograph’s of Antonio and Kai.
Antonio’s laid out in a forest glade with his head pillowed in Kai’s lap. He’s squinting at the camera in what appears to be the summer sun and laughing. He looks like a self-satisfied cat.
I flush, when I see that Kai is stripped to only his trousers. His chest is muscled, defined, and fucking magnificent.
His hand is resting possessively on Antonio’s head.
Gabriel must have taken the picture.
The two men look happy together. I love that Gabriel has that.
But then, why is he banished to this lonely bedroom by himself?
Why does it only smell of him and not his other pack mates?
Underneath the photograph on the bedside table is a single item: a jeweled dragon.
The dragon is beautiful and made out of rubies for its scales and aquamarine gems for its fierce eyes.
I stroke my finger over its head.
It sort of looks like me.
How much is this worth?
I glance over my shoulder at Gabriel. “Still believe in dragons, Gabe?”
Finally, Gabriel stops pacing. “Something like that.”
He tilts his head like he’s analyzing how to move me as a piece in a chess game. “Were you trying to help me? Did you rebel and end up suffering the agony of the broken bond because of what you found in that file?”
I freeze.
What do I say?
I can see the guilt already worming into Gabriel’s mind.
I shake my head. “I’d been working up to the decision for a long time; I just hadn’t fully known it until that moment. I couldn’t continue to be matched to the man who ran the Institute. I rebelled to fight for all Omegas. I needed to fly free myself as well because Fletcher thought that he was protecting me by keeping me inside his house but he wasn’t. I couldn’t live like that. It was breaking me by a thousand tiny cracks, one more every day. Seeing you in that file was just…”
“Just what?” Gabriel’s voice is tight. “Why the Sheriff decided to do the most barbaric thing that he could to you? He hoped to hide you, so that no one would find out about his monumental security breach and incompetence. He had various options. Firstly, he could watch and see if you slipped into a coma or lost your memory as a side effect. If you didn’t, then the type of pack who he sold you to would never listen to anything that you told them, even if they gave you permission to speak. He made certain of that. This man has been hunting me for long enough. I know how he thinks.”
“And I was bonded to him,” I reply. “So do I.”
“He’s a bloody coward.” Gabriel’s eyes darken.
Except, he doesn’t know that Fletcher cried.
Fletcher is many things but he thought that he was saving my life.
Gabriel needs to understand.
“He could have handed me over to the authorities.” I rub my finger over the dragon’s smooth head to soothe myself. “I would have been executed.”
Gabriel draws in a sharp breath. “They don’t do that to Omegas.”
I rush to Gabriel because I need him to hear me on this.
I grip his chin like I would when we were younger. Now, he’s so much taller than me, I need to stand on tiptoes.
“You weren’t in the Institute. I was. And you didn’t see the fear on Fletcher’s face. The more that Omegas stand up and demand to have their voices heard, the more that the authorities toughen their stance to silence us.”
“Then we make sure that Omegas are heard.”
I let go of Gabriel’s chin, brushing my thumb across his lips because I knew that he’d listen.
I knew.
Relief rushes through me.
Gabriel drops his forehead to rest against mine. “You are still heard.”
A thrill rushes through me at the words from the Omega Society.
They’re taboo amongst Traditionalists.
My heart beats faster, as I repeat back the mantra like I’ve wanted to so many times but have never had the courage to before, “You are still heard.”
Gabriel’s look is serious but proud. “We’re doing it, Mer. Together in this fight, finally.”
The feel of him, pressed this close to me, with his breath mingling hot with mine, while he whispers my deepest desires, is almost too much to handle.
“Why did you abandon your pack and risk deserting? Why did you secretly join the side of Omega rights?” I ask.
Gabriel’s eyes fill with grief. “Because I couldn’t protect you, Mer. How could I fight for a country that’d allow you to be bonded to Fletcher? I thought that I could at least dedicate the rest of my life to every other Omega. Even if I died doing that.”
The words sound wrung from him, as painful as a long unhealed wound.
I can’t bear it any longer.
I nuzzle against his neck, wrapping my arms around him and pulling him toward the bed.
He allows me to drag him, as he would when he’d arrive, neglected and in unwashed clothes to stay with Thomas and me as a kid, to lie on the bed and just accept the kind touch that he never received in the rest of his life.
I shuffle us both into the center of the bed, until we’re lying next to each other on our sides.
To start with, Gabriel is stiff and uncertain, but I don’t give up.
I keep nuzzling, until he nuzzles back.
Finally, he relaxes.
He was always a neglected Alpha. I won’t ever allow him to feel that way now that we’re together.
“Fuck, Mer.” He licks and nibbles up my neck, and I shiver. “I’ve fucking missed you so much.”
“You and me both.”
Gabriel strokes his hand through my hair, and I begin to purr.
He hesitates for a moment, and I’m confused, before I feel his dick beginning to thicken in his pants against my hip.
I allow myself a smug smile.
An omega likes their purr to be admired.
And to be able to get an Alpha hard.
“The nights that I’ve lain here, imagining you in my arms.” Gabriel tightens his hand in my hair, and I love the tingling sensation. “I never believed that one day it’d come true.”
“So, you stopped believing in fairy tales…?” I tease.
Gabriel’s voice is grim. “A long time ago.”
He still doesn’t let go of my hair.
I shift around on the uncomfortable mattress. “Why are you sleeping alone in this room? Is your Chief Alpha isolating you? Punishing you for something? Did you screw up a mission?”
I let out a surprised gasp, as Gabriel rolls me onto my back and pins me down.
“I know that this is going to take a while to believe.” His expression is serious. “It took me months to, and sometimes, I have to still pinch myself. But this pack isn’t like the ones that we were raised in. Kai isn’t going to punish you, unless it’s in a consensual way that you’re both going to enjoy. Trust me on that. We’re both safe here, unless you count the fact that we’re being hunted by your psycho ex and dad and I have a kill order on my head. But that’s just another Sunday around here.”
“It is hard to believe,” I whisper. “I want to.”
“There’s no rush.” Gabriel’s hard voice softens. “We will prove it to you. My bond mates will, I promise.”
My gaze settles on the photograph of Antonio and Kai.
I’ve never seen a Beta and Alpha look like this, as if the Beta is being indulged and petted by his Alpha.
From the photograph alone, you wouldn’t be able to tell the men’s dynamics.
I want to tell Gabriel that his lovers have already proved themselves to me but I’m not quite there yet.
“We have a main bedroom that we all share,” Gabriel explains. “This room is little more than a barracks that I use when I want to be alone to plan missions or when I’ve come back unexpectedly or late from one. Kai is a grumpy bear, if his sleep is interrupted. He suffers from migraines, which are hereditary in his family. I offered to use this room in order not to impact his sleep patterns and make those worse.”
The thoughtfulness of that makes warmth unfurl through me because it’s just the sort of logical but kind thing that the Alpha who was my first love would have done.
Gabriel may have become more serious and cold to have survived through his military career but he’s still the same person underneath.
“I’ll watch out for his migraines to see if there’s anything I can do to help,” I offer.
Gabriel huffs. “How about entertaining Toni? He’s normally the one who causes everybody’s headaches.”
I chuckle. “Bet you love him really.”
“I do.” Gabriel’s gaze softens. “He’s a brat but he’s my brat. I’d fight to my last breath for him, just like I would for you, Mer. Pack is everything to me. Now that I’ve found you again, I couldn’t live without you.”
The emotion is so powerful and raw, I avoid his gaze. “Who’s your dragon friend? It looks like the only thing that you own in here. Plus, it must be worth millions.”
“It is,” Gabriel says matter-of-factly. “She was my first courting gift from Kai, when I was stationed in Scotland. The American ambassador is always guarded by SEAL level trained operatives because Scotland is viewed as an enemy country in a cold war way. It truly opened my eyes. It’s up to Kai what he shares about his life. But I may have…definitely did…spend long winter nights talking over a shared whiskey bottle with him about my red haired, aquamarine eyed lost Omega.”
I gape at him. “So, this dragon is me…?”
“Meet Mercy Dragon.” Gabriel’s lips quirk.
“I don’t know if it’s a compliment.”
“It is,” Gabriel murmurs.
He rolls to sit up and then pulls me onto his lap, slipping his arm around my middle.
He strokes his hand up the hollow of my back in a way that makes me shiver. “Do you know why?”
I shake my head.
“Kai told me to worship her in a ritual every day. He didn’t know if he could be with an American Alpha. As I said, enemies and different cultures. But he helped to show me his view of Omegas, and I helped him to see that he was worthy. The ritual was to touch her head every morning, while thinking of him. Then to touch myself.”
My eyes widen.
When Gabriel’s fingers splay out lower, his touch is electric. Sitting in his warm lap feels perfect.
Like I fit here.
I swallow, snuggling closer against his chest.
Gabriel jerked off to thoughts of both Kai and me every morning…?
I clear my throat. “But why would Kai think that he’s unworthy? He’s clearly from an elite pack, a smart journalist, and seriously hot.”
“Alphas don’t have the same power in Scotland as they do here.” Gabriel looks like he’s working out how to explain. “It’s hard to understand, until you’re experiencing it for yourself. I thought that I’d adore it there but I didn’t. Their treatment of Omegas is everything that I always wanted for my own Omega, but on the other hand, there’s just as prescribed a role for Alphas. They must be warriors in the service of the Omegas. Kai’s strong but he’s introverted in social situations, a scholar. That’s not respected in an Alpha. On top of that, he’s softly dominant. He can out dom me and not many can. In Scotland that made him a lonely outcast.”
Shocked, I blink.
That isn’t equality.
So, would things be just as bad if Omegas ran things, as Alphas being in charge?
Equality is what we need, balance.
The three dynamics should to live in harmony. I’ve learned in our history that once we managed it.
Can we again?
“I’m glad that he found you,” I say, quietly.
“I’m lucky that I found him,” Gabriel replies. “We both found each other at our lowest and discovered a common purpose together. Kai’s father is a tyrant. His family were trying to force him into a bond, and it triggered me because of what’d happened to you, Mer. It was the last thing that I needed to push me over the edge and desert. I agreed to help Kai flee the country. My love and duty to Kai was higher than my one to a military that I’d been forced into against my will at sixteen simply because I’d been born into a family who always served in it. Together, Kai and I formed the Devils.”
“Is Devil really Kai’s pack name?”
Gabriel quirks his brow. “I wish that it was but sadly not. I had to come up with a story like you were always so good at, when Kai and I came to America. I may have picked up some shady skills in my time in the SEALs. The Devils were a good front. Do you like it?”
“I love being a little devil.”
“I bet you do, although I remember that being Tom.” Gabriel’s expression is unreadable. “How is he?”
My chest is tight. “I don’t know. He’s still living and working with Dad. He put up with a lot, so that he’d have permission to visit me at Fletcher’s. Tom’s a good man. You’d be proud.”
“I’m certain that I would. I wish that he was here.”
My eyes burn with tears. “Me too. Do you think that we could find a way to contact him?”
“Not yet. But we will.” Gabriel’s voice becomes firmer. “Now, tell me about this Omega of yours.”
“Lark is you know — mine.” I bite my lip. “He saved my life in that cell. He nursed me through Broken Bond Syndrome. He gave me his food, even though he was starving. And he got me walking again, despite being devastated. We made a pact that we’d always belong together.”
I hold my breath.
I need Gabriel to understand and accept Lark.
I have no idea what I’ll do, if my Alpha can’t accept a second Omega.
Lark and I belong together as firmly as any Alpha and Omega pairing.
I’m as certain of that as I am as the sun or the rain.
As the breath in my fucking lungs.
“Then Lark is my pack too,” Gabriel says without a flicker of doubt in his voice. “And I already love him for saving the most precious thing in the world to me. Now, why was he devastated?”
“Fletcher took his daughter away from him. He sent her to be a Companion.”
Gabriel reddens with fury. “The fucking bastard. Well, first order of business will be to extract her. I assure you, Mer, Lark’s daughter is pack as well, and I protect my pack. I’ll start working later today on a new strategy.”
“Strategy? Then you need me in that meeting because you know that I could out strategize you at any game we played.”
“Like you ever let me forget.” Gabriel can’t hide the amusement in his voice. “What would you say, if I told you that I’ve been working on not only saving one or two Omegas from the Institute but closing down the entire business?”
If it wasn’t for his hold on my hair, I’d have bounced off the bed in excitement. “I’d say where do I sign up?”
“Two Omega employees in one day…I’m on a roll. Perhaps, you can take my Beta’s job, while I demote him?” Gabriel sighs. For the first time, he looks as tired as he must feel. “Toni really fucked up. He saved you, so I have to hold to him being forgiven. But it means that my time frames on this plan need to be put forward. I’ve been working on this for over a year. But now, Fletcher and the authorities will be on high alert. It is what it is but sometimes, with how much I’ve needed to be absent, I forget that Toni needs a firm hand.”
I snort. “I have a feeling that Lark will help with that.”
“Good because Kai is won over as soon as Toni shoots him the puppy dog eyes. He pets Toni like he wasn’t known in the trade as the Silver Haired Assassin.”
“Really?”
“Did he tell you how his asshole family offered their considerable criminal support behind the omega resistance for a price, of course? As a bonus, they thought that it’d please Kai to throw their son in.” He clenches his jaw. “We couldn’t send Toni back. We knew what would be waiting for him. Just sometimes, we should remember that he’s…”
“Volatile?” I offer.
“Undisciplined. But we love him.”
I smile. “So do Lark and I.”
“Lucky that we all love each other.” Gabriel grasps the hem of my shirt and edges it up over my hips and ass.
Then he quests beneath it.
He holds my gaze, and I nod my permission.
I’d probably spank his ass, if he dared stop right now.
I’m shivering with the need for his touch.
I have been from the moment that I saw him stepping back into my life.
My breath catches, when Gabriel strokes between my thighs. He can’t stop his own hitch of breath, as he discovers that I’m not wearing panties.
“Commando?” Gabriel tuts. “Daring move around here. Or did my pack mates not offer you any panties? Because I’ll have words with them about that rudeness. Toni owns at least one pretty pair that matches his eyes. I know because I bought them for him, for when he needs putting in his place, something which he loves.”
Perhaps, Gabriel’s not exactly the boy who I remember.
But I’m excited to discover the new sides to him.
“And does that normally involve duct tape?” I challenge.
Gabriel’s hand curls around my thigh. “Would you like it to?”
“I’d prefer silk rope.”
His pupils dilate.
He likes that.
“Silk rope can be arranged. Anything you want or need, just ask.” Gabriel brushes one cool finger across my clit, and I arch into his touch. I’m panting, already on the edge. “I do have one more special thing in this room.”
What does he mean?
Gently, Gabriel lifts me off his lap, and I sit with my back against the headboard.
He leans over the bed and pulls something out from underneath it.
“Peacock!” I gasp. “Fuck, it’s your original guitar. How did you get her to survive all this time?”
“I was careful.” Gabriel moves back to me, hugging the guitar to his chest. “Along with Mercy Dragon, Peacock is the only possession that I own, which I care about losing. That’s because Tom and you gave her to me. And because I taught you to play on her.”
The acoustic guitar is old and battered but beautiful with iridescent blue and green swirls on its body, which is why Gabriel named her Peacock.
Tom and I saved up for six months in order to be able to buy Peacock for Gabriel’s thirteenth birthday.
Gabriel’s dad had forgotten his last two birthdays, and he had no other friends to buy him anything. He was always quietly accepting of being overlooked and forgotten.
He loved music, however, and always chatted about wishing he could play his favorite rock songs.
Gabriel’s face, when his dad did forget his birthday, but then, he found our large, guitar shaped present with a bright blue bow on it, is one of my best memories.
I’ll always treasure it.
Gabriel settles himself back against the headboard, pulling me onto his lap again. He places the guitar between us. Then he holds my fingers over the frets, as he begins to strum the chords.
I can feel his cheek against mine, and his strong fingers guiding me.
It’s so familiar from when we’d sit like this in my bedroom, and he’d teach me a new song.
He’s talented.
He can hear a song once and then know how to play it.
In another life, he should have been a musician and not a solider.
But that’s not what life is like.
Others try to mold us, or families trap us within the boundaries of their expectations.
Sometimes, you need to break free.
Then I realize what Gabriel’s playing, and my heart bursts with joy.
I feel like I’m flying.
It’s X Ambassador’s “Renegades”.
Over the music that joins us together, in the past and present, Gabriel asks with agonizing hopefulness, “Do you remember?”
“Do you think that I’ve forgotten anything? I hold onto every memory of you as precious as a gem against each lonely night and sad moment spent on my knees, caged in Ace Hall. I choose the Devil pack. But more than that, I will always choose you, Gabe.”
Gabriel breaks off playing, tossing the guitar to the side.
He tumbles me onto my back.
The look in his cold eyes is hungry.
He kisses me then, hard and desperate.
It’s passionate, but speaks of all the years that we’ve been forced apart.
Yet it’s a claiming.
We’re never letting each other go again.
Dominantly, Gabriel rests his hand on my throat, holding me down as he gentles his kiss, until its sweet enough to make me whine in pleasure. Then he’s kissing my jaw, across my cheeks, and the bridge of my nose.
He’s kissing me like he’s never going to stop.
“Will you bond with me, when my heat comes?” I ask.
Please…
Gabriel brushes his hand across my forehead, tenderly. Then he presses a kiss there too.
“Fuck, Mer.” Gabriel looks as undone as I feel. “I want to spend every heat with you for the rest of your life. I’d be honored to bond with you. It’s all I can remember wanting. You’re a Devil now. We’ll build you the nest that you’ve always dreamed of for that heat. And together, there’s nothing that we can’t do. We’re going to open the cage of the Institute to free the other Omegas.”