Chapter 37 #2
Omen steals Everett from Bea’s mother, earning a glare from my Alpha.
He hides his pout, but I can feel it in our bond.
The twinge of possessiveness he has over the kids.
If Kaitlin could sit still long enough, he would have her at his side instead.
Our little girl is a whirlwind of energy as she runs around the yard, playing with Foster and Bea’s mate, Ridley.
Manny chuckles in my ear, nodding to where a flushed Omen disappears into her house. Looks like someone is sneaking away to have some adult fun! “We should do that, too. Sneak around to their front patio so I can finally get a taste of your sweet pussy.”
I groan, a tinge of desire sparking to life between my thighs.
Anger thundering down Shepherd’s bond snuffs it out.
My eyes fly open, searching for him in the crowd.
He’s off to the side, phone pressed to his ear.
Manny feels me stiffen and sees the murderous look on our mate’s face.
He drags me to him, pulses racing in our ears. “What’s wrong?”
“The security company called. Our alarms were triggered. Police are on their way.” He grits out his explanation, fingers clenched tight around his phone. Someone broke into our house? Without speaking it aloud, we both know who it is. Colin. At my mother’s command.
“Let’s meet them there,” I demand. If there is damage, I want to see it. And if he happens to still be there and is arrested? Even better.
We grab Foster and ask Omen to keep the kids while we run up to the house.
She gives me a worried look, but agrees.
The crowd here is big enough that I know my children will be safe.
Every Alpha in attendance will fight to protect them, and unless Colin miraculously gathers an army, he stands no chance against them.
The three-mile drive to the house takes forever.
I can’t stop my leg from bouncing, an angry, restless energy filling my body.
There’s no holding back anymore. If I see Colin again, I’m going to snap, and then I’m going to hurt him.
For the years of suffering I endured because of him.
All the beatings from my parents when he went crying to them.
The terror of having my daughter used as a threat to keep me in line.
If the police or federal agents don’t find him first, the only thing awaiting my ex-husband is my fist flying into his stupid, ugly face.
We have to park on the side of the road because local police have the driveway full of cruisers. An officer meets us and asks for our IDs when we tell him who we are. After confirming our identities, we’re finally let inside.
Nausea churns wildly in my stomach as we step through the door. The wreckage is immense. A clear escalation from Colin’s previous threats. He’s devolving now that my father has been sentenced, likely knowing he is next.
The back door is broken from being kicked open.
Shattered glass covers the floor from the door and the picture frames he knocked from the walls.
The couch cushions lie in piles of fluff, their covers sliced into ribbons.
It looks like he went on a rampage, destroying anything he could get his hands on.
“It’s all replaceable,” Foster reminds me, gripping my hand tightly in his. He’s right. All of this is material. But our sense of safety cannot be repaired so easily.
A heartbreaking thought flutters through my mind, one I’m too afraid to voice. I meet Manny’s eyes over our Omega’s shoulders and gently nudge Foster into his waiting arms. He turns him toward the kitchen, giving me a moment to slip away.
The playroom is just as messy. Kaitlin’s dollhouse smashed in the center of the room.
I keep going. Past her bedroom, where her clothes are tossed everywhere.
Past the pristine nursery, where a brand new blue stuffed bear sits in Everett’s crib, staring at me with the silent promise that Colin will return.
My feet carry me up the stairs to the one room in the house that will break me if he dared to touch it.
An officer stands in the center of the hallway, speaking into his radio. He sees me approach. “We didn’t go into the nest, but we opened the door. There’s no sign of his scent there.”
Swallowing thickly, I step past him and into the open doorway.
I’m afraid to breathe for fear that they are wrong and Colin’s awful smell will have tarnished my Omega’s nest. I force my eyes open and nearly wilt in relief.
All that greets me are the scents of my pack.
Nothing has been moved nor is anything out of place.
Foster joins me sometime later, arms wrapping around my waist from behind. The warmth of his body mixed with the freshness of his lemon tart scent, even bitter from his stress is enough to tear a sob from my throat. “I-I t-thought-”
“Shhh, don’t cry, Angel.” He spins me, tucking my head beneath his chin. “Even if he had gone into my nest, it could be rebuilt. We could rearrange the entire house tomorrow if we wanted to. Create a new safe space for all of us.”
I cling to him, breaking into a million pieces as the weight of everything crashes down around me. The unfairness of constantly being targeted. Taunted by a man who doesn’t really care about me. Who has never cared.
Worst of all is knowing my mother is guiding his actions. Colin isn’t reckless enough to pull something this drastic. Not without her whispering lies into his ears.
This torment is my punishment for daring to disobey her.
For fleeing their ridiculous cult and living the life of my dreams. For obtaining the freedom she’s never had.
Even with my father in prison, his chains still bind her.
She’s so brainwashed by his abuse that she’ll continue to act in his name.
She won’t stop hunting me until she has what she wants—me, broken and begging for forgiveness, and my son under her control.
Will there ever come a day when I face normal problems?
Don’t I deserve that chance?
Hands grip beneath my thighs, wrapping them around Foster’s waist. He carries me into the nest and burrows us beneath the blankets.
The softest purr vibrates beneath my head as I cry.
Eventually, the tears slow, becoming cathartic.
An expulsion of all my feelings from the years I spent repressing them.
The rhythmic motion of his hand gliding up and down my back beneath my sweater calms me until exhaustion claims me. I float in a dreamless sleep, guided down a lazy river by my Omega’s purr.
I wake sometime later, startling upward. “The kids!”
Foster gives me a sleepy chuckle and scrubs his hand down his face.
“They’re fine, Angel. Shepherd and Manny went to pick them up as soon as they cleaned up the mess downstairs.
Your brothers-in-law showed up with a temporary door to swap out with the broken one on the back.
We’re safe, all under one roof. Promise. ”
Falling onto the mattress beside him, I place a hand over my heart to calm its frantic pace. “I’m sorry for breaking down earlier.”
He rolls, lips meeting mine in rapid pecks.
“Don’t apologize for your feelings. I’m happy to hold you when you need to set them free.
” He kisses me again before pulling back and darting his eyes to the door.
“As much as I’d love to keep you in here for the rest of the night, someone is getting hangry. ”
A wail carries up the stairs with perfect timing. Looks like my little man needs me. I push to my knees and start crawling toward the door. A hand on my ankle stops me. Glancing back, I see Foster’s eyes glued to my behind, a rapturous look on his face.
“You’re mine tonight, Angel.”
Kaitlin entertained us all night with details of what we missed at Auntie Omen’s house. From a swimming competition between Titan and his uncle to Bea helping her raid Nexus’s ‘secret’ candy stash. She’d returned home with a stomach full of sugar and enough energy to last the week.
She hadn’t been the only one pampered while we were away.
Aside from endless snuggles, Everett had come home in a brand new Primordial Covenant onesie, with only one sock on.
Manny had snapped a photo to share with his coworkers, deeming it the perfect recreation of a rock star in baby form.
Milk drunk, missing clothes, and repping his favorite band.
Dinner was a well-deserved delivery of pizza, and Kait puppy-eyed us into several hours of board games.
She’s slowly adjusting to not winning every round like she did when it was only the two of us playing.
I might have let her win to make up for her crappy life in Whitlan, but since we aren’t there anymore, it’s good to teach her it’s okay to lose sometimes.
After tucking her into bed and leaving her with Papa Shepherd to read fifteen bedtime stories, I slip into the nursery to check on my little man.
He’s sleeping peacefully in his gray sleep sack.
And best of all, Colin’s stupid teddy bear is nowhere in sight.
I hadn’t asked the guys what they did with it, but part of me hopes they burned it.
Imagining sending my ex an envelope full of the ashes brings a deranged smile to my lips. Fates, what am I becoming?!
“Oh, Angel,” Foster singsongs quietly, drawing my attention away from our son.
He stands in the doorway, hands gripping the top of the frame as he leans toward me.
Sweet fates, what that pose does to his body!
His toned forearms display perfectly, drawing wetness between my thighs.
Bare skin glows in the faint light from the hall, hinting at rippling abs and that delicious trail of hair leading beneath his shorts.
“My bed is calling your name, and soon, you’ll be screaming mine. ”
My body moves on instinct, eliminating the space between us.
I brush my lips against the back of his jaw before poking my tongue out to lick a stripe down his throat.
“I’ll race you.” He laughs when I duck beneath his arm and bolt for the stairs, taking them two at a time.
My feet pound down the hallway as I beeline for his nest, fingers barely brushing the door handle when he catches me and sweeps me into his arms. My back meets the door, and then he’s kissing me.
Tongue sliding into my mouth to war with mine.
I’m breathless from the short run and his kisses when he finally pushes the door open and tosses me inside.
He shoves his shorts off, letting me see his dick as it juts proudly against his stomach.
Slick leaks down his thighs, making them shimmer in the low light.
I rush to strip my clothes off, wanting to be naked when he reaches me.
He prowls across the mattress, enticing ass swaying with each shift of his body. A swell of honeyed lemons explodes out of him as he latches onto my ankle and yanks me across the mattress to rest under him. “You won, Angel. How shall I reward you?”
“Bite me,” I whisper the words, staring up into his stunning aquamarine eyes. When his lips part, scent growing stronger, I repeat my request.
“Oh, Hannah, you’ve awakened the beast now,” he growls, slamming our lips together.
This kiss is frantic, bordering on savage.
His dick glides between my folds, coating me in his slick and bumping my clit with each hurried jerk of his hips.
I cry out when he slides a hand beneath my ass and tilts my hips up so he can enter me.
The stretch is phenomenal, filling me like he was always meant to be there.
I dig my hands into his curls, forcing his lips back to mine when he dares to pull away. Every time he pulls out, I whimper, my walls trying to clamp around him and drag him back in. One leg wraps around his waist; the other digs into the mattress to give me leverage to meet his hard thrusts.
“Fuck,” he whines, dropping his head to my chest. I jolt when his tongue laps at my overly sensitive nipple. “I need you to come, Angel. Soak my cock in your sweet juices so I can sink my teeth into your pretty skin.”
A finger glides along where we are connected, gathering the wetness there before moving up to rub delirious circles around my clit.
Pleasure screams down my spine, arcing between my nerve endings like a bolt of lightning struck me.
Foster’s lips meet the hollow of my throat, pressing sucking kisses onto my skin.
I detonate, turning into stardust as I come.
He shakes above me, crying out as his release hits.
Warmth coats my insides, so copious that it leaks from between my thighs to soak the bed beneath us.
Then he’s there, hand gripping my hair to tilt my head back.
His teeth pierce the swell of my breast, and I come again.
Deep inside my chest, I watch as the dark cherry strands of my soul reach out to twine with his rich gold.
They wrap around each other, braiding together so tightly that it would be impossible to tear them apart.
And then I feel it—the burst of his emotions.
Lingering aftershocks from his orgasm. Elation at finally claiming me.
Love. So much love, I can’t feel an end to it.
Happy tears slip from my eyes as I hug him against me. “I love you so much. Thank you for being my Omega.”