Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Cooper
V ivian has lost the ability to speak, but only because Abbott stole Cassidy’s scissors and cut out her tongue. She’s now also bald, a look that only looks good on her daughter.
Cassidy is currently sawing off Vivian's breasts because she said that she doesn’t deserve them.
“Women should stand in solidarity instead of trying to beat them down,” she complains as she uses her knife. Whimpers are all that Vivian can give as Cassidy steadfastly works.
“You’re doing all womankind a favor,” Abbott says, nodding wide-eyed. I think Cassidy is fun, but apparently she’s scaring her alpha a little.
Oh well, we have that in common too. I scare everyone.
Vivian’s tits drop with a plop into the puddles by her feet, and she looks like she may have passed out. Oh, that’s not going to work for me.
There’s a place right behind her right ear where she’s very sensitive. I used to kiss her there while we were married, but now I reach over and pinch the skin hard. Her squeal of pain makes me shrug as I give the floor back to Cassidy.
“You’re just doing the Lord’s work today, aren’t you?” she mutters.
“Something like that,” I agree. “Want to stuff her asshole with fireworks and light them with me?”
“That counts as flirting for Cassidy,” Abbott grumbles as I snort.
“I think she knows I’m not flirting,” I grunt.
“I do,” she says. “I will take that as officially being best friends now, though.”
Shrugging because why not, I rip down Vivian’s panties and get to work.
Together, Cassidy and I stuff my ex-wife’s asshole full of fireworks while the other packs grin evilly.
If she doesn’t completely combust from this, I’ll happily set her on fire as well.
Fuck it, I may do it for the sheer pleasure of knowing she’s ash before we destroy the rest of this house.
Just call us controlled chaos. Ignoring the way Vivian tries to get away from us, Cassidy just uses the blood from cutting out her tongue to lube up the fireworks. I guess that’ll work.
Stepping back once there’s four inserted in her asshole, we step back to enjoy our handiwork.
“This is the best execution I’ve ever been to,” Easton says with a smirk.
“Easton,” Lyle groans. “We need to have a discussion later about giving your lawyer plausible deniability.”
“It’s harder for you to defend me if you don’t know all the shit I get up to,” he retorts. “Here’s a lighter, Cooper.”
Easton hands me the lighter, and I raise my brow at Cassidy. She shrugs and shakes her head, stepping away to strip her gloves off. I suppose that’s pretty handy. The fact that these alphas have no problem doing this says something about the packs in Savannah.
I’m going to enjoy living here again. It’ll be very different from the first time.
Flicking the lighter, I smirk as I light the fireworks.
As we all give Vivian’s body a wide berth, I watch as she hangs from the chains, exhausted and mute.
Her eyes tell me she knows this is the end, and she just gives in.
Everyone cheers as the fireworks explode, blowing apart the lower part of her body. It kills her as it destroys her back, intestines, and lower body, and she barely manages to stay in one mangled piece.
“Let’s light her up, friends,” Abbott says, dragging an old couch over to use as kindling.
“It’s best to call the fire department once the fire spreads to the top floor so it doesn’t spread to the other houses,” Grant says. He’s a policeman funny enough, which means he’d know best about this shit.
I’m proud of myself. I’ve learned new people’s names today. Bonding at its finest.
Leaving them to it, I wash my arms and hands thoroughly before drying off and going upstairs to collect my pack.
“It’s over?” Ethan asks, looking up from where he was starting to doze off. We jumped into the car right after Nina left and flew on a commercial flight back to Savannah.
We are all due for good sleep since we were all too worried to sleep on the plane ride.
“Yes,” I say, moving toward the stairs. “They’re lighting the fire now, which means it’s time to go.”
Ethan and Riley jump up to follow me, and the three of us jog upstairs to Nina’s room. Stepping inside, I find the doors have all been removed just like Nina told me, and I feel myself get angry again.
Her window is open as well, but she’s nowhere to be seen. Where the fuck could she have gone?
“Carter? Nina?” Riley calls out. It’s true that cooler heads prevail, but it’s been much too long since I’ve seen her.
“Outside,” Carter calls out, and I immediately walk to the small balcony where Nina’s asleep against him.
“Why are you out here?” I ask, looking back inside. There’s a single light on in the room, but I can feel the heat coming off of it from here.
That’s a terrible lightbulb for her to have. There’s no fucking way any of those are allowed in our house.
“Vivian fucked with her stuff,” Carter explains. “All of her things are moved, she threw out her comfortable clothing. Just trust me. Go and touch the comforter on her bed to see how vile it is.”
The beta shudders at the memory, which makes me curious enough to go touch it.
“Is that…microfiber?” I ask. “It feels really awful. Nina wouldn’t be able to even sit on this shit.”
“That’s why I ransacked another room for pillows and a blanket,” Carter sighs. “It’s not the same, but it helped her get comfortable. Wait…Do I smell smoke?”
“You do,” Ethan says. “Ding, dong, the wicked bitch is dead.”
“Sweet,” Carter says, shifting before freezing to look at me. “Are you going to kill me if I carry her back inside?”
“No, but I’d rather you pass her to me,” I admit.
Carter lifts her into his arms and passes her to me before glancing out at the backyard.
“I’m going to leave the way I came up so I can see if anyone else can smell the smoke or if it’s just me,” he says. “Though, come to think of it, the open window is probably why I could tell there was a fire.”
Riley nods, closing the window as he waves at Carter. The beta scales down the house without a second thought and runs off the property to scout, leaving us to walk out of the room.
“Cooper!” Abbott calls out, and we move faster to run down the stairs. The drapes of the bottom floor are already ablaze. All of this is going to burn quickly. Fuck. “Let’s go.”
The lights at the front of the house are off as we sneak out and down the stairs. Abbott made sure to take one of the house keys to lock everything back up, and we begin strolling along the sidewalk toward the cars waiting on the street.
“I’ll make sure the fire department is called,” Abbott says, opening the driver door to his SUV. “I want to go back to seeing Nina three times a week at our running club.”
“Consider this us accepting our standing invite,” Ethan says with a grin, fist bumping the alpha.
That’s my kid, making friends with everyone apparently. He’s come a long way from the antisocial kid who hated everyone.
Our car is parked ahead of Abbott’s and we get in as I cuddle Nina against my body.
“She’s so fucking loved,” I murmur, pulling her wig off and tossing it to the side.
Her hair is growing in, it’s just slow to do so. I wonder if her hair is skittish after being shaved so often. If she wants to grow it out faster, I can see if I can find anything that’ll naturally help.
Riley starts the car and glides us out of the parking spot. I have to say that he’s a much better driver than my son. Sighing, I let my head drop back as I slowly begin to relax in the back seat.
Fuck, I can’t believe she’s ours.
“Everything is in order,” Riley says, feeling my relief through our pack bond. “The Healthy Pack Organization should have us accepted by now.”
“I’ll check the website,” Ethan grunts, pulling his phone from his pants.
A few quick touches on the screen has him nodding.
“All good on that end. I also have an email from the real estate agent that we can swing by now to sign the paperwork for the house. Should I tell her yes and then have an alibi for tonight if we need it?”
Riley has his shirt on again since it had dried during the time I was finishing up downstairs, and none of us are wearing any blood on us. We’ll pass.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” I grunt. “Let her know we have a very tired omega who has been traveling so our realtor doesn’t get too chatty.”
“Will do, Dad,” Ethan murmurs. “She’s nice, but she does tend to talk a lot.”
“The house is perfect,” Riley adds. “All I had to do was make one call and she got working once I sent her all the paperwork to ensure that we had the money in order.”
“Money talks and bullshit walks,” I mutter. “Trinity works quickly. I’m a little shocked the place is move in ready. Didn’t she say we’d be able to have the house by tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” Riley says with a nod. “The owner passed away and his kids want to sell quickly. It seems they need the money. They also don’t live here.”
“That makes sense I suppose,” I say. “After seeing Nina’s room, I’m ready to give her everything she needs or wants. Starting with new clothes since we just burned everything up.”
“From what I understand, none of that shit is anything she’d want to keep,” Ethan says. “We still have her bag of clothing and things from the Colorado house in the trunk. Anything else we can buy for her.”
“Only one of our signatures needs to be on the bill of sale for the house since we bought it outright,” Riley says. “Do you want to do it as the head of the pack, Cooper?”
“I don’t want to wake her if I don’t have to,” I say honestly. “One of you can sign, and then we can go home for the last time. We’re mostly packed up already.”
We’ve been living out of boxes for weeks.
As soon as things started unfolding, the three of us began to pack so we could move as soon as possible.
The place we’re at is a rental and came furnished.
I figure I’ll rent out the townhouse in Minneapolis to a teacher or students at the university and we’ll just buy everything new for the house.