Epilogue II
Valentine D’Arlowe knew that the belief they had failed their omega would spread through the pack bond, tainting everything it touched until it brought their ruin unless he did something about it.
The house was quiet as he sat at the kitchen table, his head in his hands and his heart breaking piece by piece, chipping away until there was almost nothing left of him.
Though he had suspected Jasper’s diagnosis would be just as disappointing as he suspected it to be, he kept turning the details over in his head to find some sort of way to fix it.
An omega becoming infertile at twenty-two just didn’t seem fair to him, especially when Jasper wanted children more than he wanted anything else.
There had been stay-at-home mom jokes when they were still teenagers.
That had served as the motivation for Val to ensure he had a good job.
Good enough so that Jasper could stay home, take care of the house, and pretty it up however he pleased while they waited for one successful heat.
In the end, there hadn’t been one. His heats ranged from several hours to nearly a week; he’d had two awful heats in one month, then went six months without having another one.
Such things were common enough that Val knew what to expect, but he still hadn’t wanted it.
Jasper was the most important thing in his life. Of course, he wanted Jasper to have everything he had ever wanted. What alpha wouldn’t?
He pushed himself away from the table and walked a slow circuit of the downstairs, aware of the settling of the house, the wind in the pines, the occasional snap of a twig as small animals scurried through the undergrowth.
Winter would come soon enough, but Jasper was already freezing them out, and that was something Val had to stop as soon as possible. It would be devastating.
Bonds could rot straight through. They could fall apart.
Mending them took serious time, dedication, and effort that would be hard for someone hurting as much as Jasper was.
That meant Val needed to put a stop to the dissolution while he had the chance; Jasper needed the bond, and so did Brady.
And even if Cass was barely an echo, Val didn’t want to lose him, either.
He didn’t want to lose anyone he cared about. Such was life as a pack alpha.
A soft crunching sound caught his attention, and he frowned, one foot in the kitchen and one foot in the living room.
On another night when he was busier or already in bed, he might have missed the sound for how quiet it was, but it wasn’t silent.
There was a slow, steady rhythm to the crunches, muted but consistent. Footsteps. Was he hearing footsteps?
You don’t know what people might have moved in across the road.
Fuck. Fuck. No, it was fine. It might have been a deer, a bear, or even a wolf that had come slinking out of the woods in search of food.
Mostly, he could ignore the animals as they wouldn’t try to break into the house, but that was assuming the sound was an animal.
And he needed to verify that in case it wasn’t.
It took the emergency services far too long to drive as far out as the house.
He flicked off the kitchen light, bathing the downstairs in darkness, and the footsteps stopped.
Val remained frozen, waiting for his vision to adjust, head cocked toward the noise as he held his breath.
If someone was creeping around the house, then he would need to get the gun closest to him, and he would need to put a stop to it.
Plenty of odd things happened out in the countryside where few people were around to witness it.
And though he had never been paranoid about what might happen, he wasn’t stupid enough to ignore something so obvious.
The nearest window was the bay window in the living room, and he crept up to it, his socked feet near-silent on the glossy hardwood floor. Why someone would be near the house was beyond him, but he didn’t need to figure out the logistics of it all just yet. He needed to verify. That was all.
If there were a person walking around the front of the house, they might stare at the window searching for movement. That was a risk Val had to take.
He edged up as close to the curtain as he could, slipping a finger beneath the edge to tug it away from the wall.
Though he had wanted blinds for the house, Jasper made it very clear he wanted curtains, and Val was not in the business of denying his omega anything he wanted.
But as he eased the edge of the curtain aside so he could peer out into the night, he appreciated his mate’s decision.
It would have been much harder to sneak open the blinds.
At first, he saw nothing more than some pines next to the house and the edge of the car.
Sighing, he almost dropped the curtain when movement caught his attention, his gaze honing in on something just visible next to the car.
In the next breath, someone stepped into his line of view, though their back was to him, so he couldn’t make out their face.
Fuck. Holy fuck. Someone was outside the house.
Good enough. Val smoothed the curtain back into place and made for the slim closet next to the door, popping it open so he could lay hands on the rifle tucked inside of it.
Though plenty of people would argue it wasn’t the safest place to store a gun, he didn’t care.
Having quick and convenient access was more important out in the country, where anything might happen and wild animals could be a serious concern.
The plan had been to move all the guns into more secure storage once they bred Jasper, but that wasn’t happening.
A slight twinge in his chest made him wince.
He loaded shells into the gun as quietly as possible, then crept back toward the curtain to peer out into the darkness again.
The person was hard to make out, tucked into the shadows of the house, but Val thought it might have been a woman.
The lithe shape of the body and the long mane of curly hair seemed feminine to him, though without a proper look at their face, he couldn’t be sure.
Were they an omega? They might have been looking for a safe place to stay.
He scoffed at himself. No omega went sneaking around someone’s house if they needed help, but it was a wonderful insight into his mind. He was stupid enough to walk right into a trap if an omega was involved, but as far as he knew, that should have been the norm.
Alphas should always be willing to go out on a limb for the sake of an omega.
From his vantage point, he couldn’t tell if the person was armed or not. If they had no weapons on their person, then the gun should be adequate intimidation even without pulling the trigger. If it wasn’t, he wasn’t afraid to put the gun to use. Anything to keep his pack safe. Especially his mate.
Val frowned when he saw the figure glance around. What the hell are you doing?
And then the mane shifted as the figure leaned back.
He frowned at the sight, unable to know what to make of it, though his pulse sped up as the person kept bending backward, and backward, and backward. The dark hair gave way to the pale expanse of a forehead, the curve of a dainty nose, a mouth pressed into a thin line.
And most disturbing of all, a pair of crimson eyes that cut straight through the shadows.
The woman stood on the gravel of the driveway, arms hanging at her sides, leaning back far enough that she should have toppled over. Instead, she remained in that position, her red eyes meeting Val’s and holding his gaze while the wind stirred her curls. The arch of her back seemed alien, inhuman.
And then she twisted around, rolling her head grotesquely, so she never took her eyes off of him.
What the fuck? The shotgun didn’t seem like quite enough to handle whatever the fuck that was. Red eyes meant feral, but feral alpha or feral omega? If she were a feral alpha, then he would need to shoot her, but where had she come from? Did she live in the house across the road?
Or had she turned up there when her bloodlust died out?
Val knew how much damage a feral alpha could do, and he was not about to let her get anywhere near the house.
Instead, he stepped back out of her line of sight and took a deep breath, then headed for the door.
He might frighten her off if she wasn’t too deep in her instincts, but he couldn’t depend on that working.
He needed to be ready to do what needed to be done.
The locks clicked as he twisted them, and with one more deep breath, he swung the door open.
The feral woman stood on his doorstep, staring into his eyes.
Without thinking, Val raised the rifle.