Chapter 40 - Nathan #2
“You’ll be leaving with me one way or the other,” Domenic said calmly. “Marco, should we just take care of the distractions?”
But Marco didn’t respond. He was watching his father with unmistakable grief. The gun was drifting down, pointing at my waist rather than my chest.
“He doesn’t care about you,” Bridget whispered, looking at Marco, too. “He never has, and he never—”
Gabriel tackled Marco from behind.
I knew Gabriel had worked in security, and that he had, very recently, shot several men.
But his sudden violence was like a wolf emerging from a disguise.
After slamming Marco’s head into the frame on the back of the couch, Gabriel wrestled him into submission so his face was pressed flat to the ground.
He forced Marco’s arm holding the gun backwards until his grip failed and it clattered to the floor.
I didn’t hesitate.
The rage I’d been keeping suppressed welled up inside me. I lunged for Domenic and pushed him backwards into the wall before wrapping both hands around his throat. He choked under my grip and tried to rip my hands free.
My mind flashed back to that night I’d first used my bark.
I let the righteous anger fill me from somewhere deep in my chest. There was a pool of…
something I’d never let myself touch, but now I pulled from it like a well.
It replaced my fear with a fierce kind of joy, and the certainty that this Alpha would take his last breath under my palms.
But no, that was not right. I couldn’t kill him. But why?
My inner Alpha did not want to wait for an answer. My hands ached to tighten further. His face was turning a lovely shade of purple.
A whisper of scent broke through my haze. Honey and sun-warmed flowers. For a moment, instead of Domenic’s gasping maw, I saw soft blue eyes and a delicate mouth.
Bridget.
I did not release Domenic, but I eased my pressure and heard the rattle of his inhale. He would not die tonight after all. I stared into those flat black eyes, full of hate.
“Down,” I barked. He fought it. “Now!”
His knees buckled, and he hit the floor with a sickening smack. His gasps for air were pathetic. I pushed him all the way to the floor and used my foot to turn his face so I could look in his eyes again. “Stay.”
And even though he fought it, he stayed put. “Good boy,” I spat.
Maggie and Soren arrived with the cavalry faster than I thought was possible for the FPD. Domenic’s bark had worn off so Andrew could let them into the apartment.
The police wrestled Domenic into a muzzle before snapping handcuffs on him. No one asked about the bruising around his throat. Soren had the honor of leading him out.
Marco went willingly, his shoulders slumped forward and his hands hanging loose at his sides. He looked younger than ever, and I nearly felt sorry for him.
“Are you okay?” Maggie asked Bridget once the uniformed officers were gone, and a paramedic had checked us all out. My stitches, which had not liked me trying to strangle someone, had been pronounced “sufficient and healing well” and Gabriel’s smug smile lightened the mood considerably.
Maggie looked like she wanted to give Bridget a hug, but Andrew had his arms locked so firmly around her I thought he might never let her go. Now that I didn’t have to worry about keeping Domenic under control, I ached to hold her, too.
“I’m fine. Can you check on my mother, though? I’m worried he might have hurt her,” Bridget said and the anxiety in her voice went straight to my heart.
“A squad car is already on the way, but I’ll meet them there, too. We’ll make sure she’s alright,” Maggie assured her.
“Thank you,” I said. The adrenaline was slowly leaking out of me.
“You all owe me an explanation. Off the books,” Maggie said, raising her hands to stop Bridget from arguing with a fierce glint in her eye. “I’m not fucking around. I’ll leave you alone for now, but you better call me when your heat breaks.”
“Fine,” Bridget agreed.
“I love you,” Maggie said in exasperation.
“Yeah, love you too, Mags. And thank you.”
Gabriel escorted her out, and when the door closed behind her, the silence felt deafening.
“Come here,” I said to Bridget and Andrew released her. She barreled into me.
My arms shook with latent fear. Everything could have gone so wrong. And she would never have known how I felt.
I pulled away so I could slide my hands to cradle her jaw. Her eyes swam with unshed tears. “Do you remember that night in the lab, when we first confirmed your findings? When you were so excited to prove me wrong?”
Her tears fell, even as she smiled. “Yes. I loved rubbing your face in it. Was I so obvious?”
Her smile was infectious. “That was when I first fell in love with you. But it just got stronger every time we spoke. Not only were you brilliant, you were kind. Empathetic. Strong-willed. And now… you can’t possibly imagine how much I love you. You’re all I think about.”
She laughed, or sobbed, I couldn’t tell. “The whole time?”
“You didn’t know?” I murmured, still smiling at her. I might never stop.
“No. But I love you, too. Maybe not for as long, but I don’t appreciate your insinuation that your love is somehow stronger than mine. I think I love you more.”
“You think or you know?” I said before I kissed her.
It was brief but fierce, and I growled low in my throat as her tongue stroked against mine. I was conscious of Gabriel and Andrew, and the conversation that had been hanging over us. It was time.
I led her to the couch. Gabriel settled next to her and wrapped her in an embrace. He whispered in her ear as she rested on his chest. Andrew sat on her other side, his hand massaging the curve of her hip. I perched on the edge of the coffee table so I could stay close.
“After your heat, what do you want?” I asked.
“I don’t… I have no idea,” she said after a few moments.
“Don’t lie, princess,” I murmured.
Andrew nudged my shin with his foot and gave me a warning look. “Let me help. If you could wake up tomorrow and have whatever you wanted, what would it be?”
Bridget stared at me as she thought.
“I’d like to go back to work, find a study that doesn’t involve any kind of human trafficking. Or maybe start applying for Ph.D. programs.”
“You should,” I said. “Any program would be lucky to have you.”
“But… if I do that, I might have to go somewhere else. There aren’t many Ph.D. programs in Fairview,” she said.
“Do not worry about that,” Gabriel said dismissively, squeezing her shoulder.
She flushed. “But I am worried. Because I don’t want to leave you guys.”
I reached for her hand. “You won’t have to leave me.”
Andrew rolled his eyes. “Obviously, we’re coming, too.”
“But I couldn’t ask all of you to just… give up your lives here,” Bridget said.
“You don’t have to ask, baby. That’s one of the many perks of being the Omega in the pack. Pretty much anything you want, you get,” Andrew said with a slow smile. “And I do mean anything. Plus I’m pretty sure I can do a podcast from anywhere.”
We’d become a pack. It had been happening so slowly, I wasn’t sure when I had missed the tipping point. But now, it seemed like a foregone conclusion.
“But I’m not even a proper Omega,” Bridget protested.
“Even if that were true, I don’t care. I fell in love with you before I knew you were an Omega,” I said.
Andrew huffed. “Alright, stop bragging.”
“Your designation does not matter to me,” Gabriel said as he brushed her hair from her cheek. “It is your soul that I love, mi fiore.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Well, unlike these two, I love that you’re an Omega.
I want to spoil you and protect you. I want to show you exactly how an Alpha can care for you,” Andrew added, his voice pitched low.
His hand tightened on her hip. “I want to fuck you until you’re begging for my knot, then claim you as mine, and let you feel just how deeply our bond can run. ”
It was a window to our future: each of us loving Bridget in a different way, giving her something she needed. In my daydreams, it had always just been Bridget and me, but this could be better than I imagined. I was ready to find out.
“Are you sure?” Bridget asked, her voice breaking.
“Absolutely,” I said, and Andrew and Gabriel echoed me.
Bridget broke down in sobs on Gabriel’s chest. “Oh god, I promise I’m happy,” she said. “It’s just these stupid hormones.”
“Let’s get you into the nest,” Andrew said.
We helped Bridget crawl into the nest and Andrew disappeared for a minute. He came back with a box of string lights. “They were delivered after all.”
He limped around the makeshift canopy, refusing help as he hung the lights in the fabric. When he switched them on, they bathed the nest in a soft glow.
Bridget was crying again.
“Aw, baby,” Andrew said as he finally joined us. He brushed a tear from her cheek.
“I love them,” she whispered through her tears. “I just… I had some back at the Center, too. They were the first thing I bought with my own money to decorate my room. Sorry, these stupid hormones…”
We settled in together, with Bridget at our center. I curled around her back as she tucked herself into Gabriel’s arms, and Andrew wrapped around him. I purred for her, soothing the cramps that had started to intensify again until her breathing settled and she finally fell asleep.
“Are you awake?” I whispered into the darkness.
“Yes,” Andrew whispered back.
Why was this just as nerve-wracking as telling Bridget I loved her? “If I had to be in a pack, I’m glad it’s with you.”
Andrew’s hand found my forearm where it rested on Bridget’s hip, and squeezed. “It’s good to have you, man.”
As much as I was ready to build a life with Bridget, I was also eager to grow this connection with him and Gabriel. To be a family, even if it was not the family I expected.