FORTY-TWO
DAKOTA
By the time Kaito’s knot deflates enough to release, the voices outside the training room have grown from cautious and timid to downright impatient.
That feels pretty fucking rude to me. I mean, can’t an Omega have a mental breakdown and a couple of orgasms in peace these days?
It’s bad enough we’re in the thick of an apocalypse.
At least let me steal the sweet moments I didn’t even know I could have before these annoying Alphas barged into my carefully crafted life.
I’ve had a very big evening. I killed three men, discovered my body might be hosting a murderous science goober, bonded another Alpha on a rubber training mat, and apparently made Kaito bleed through his stitches again.
Some patience would actually be a delight right now.
Unfortunately, patience is as rare a resource as chocolate cake in an apocalypse here at Haven Ridge. Right up there with fresh fruit, privacy, and men who know when the hell to stop talking.
Kaito is still behind me when I get dressed, one hand pressed to his side like pretending he’s not guarding his injury makes it any less obvious. His bite throbs on my neck, buried in the opposite side to Ewan’s, a deep ache that feels less like pain and more life proof.
Ewan’s bond is bright in my chest. Bold, warm, and restless.
Kaito’s sits lower. Heavier and still, like someone is standing in the dark holding a knife and some very strong opinions about anyone trying to get past him.
I shouldn’t find that comforting.
I absolutely do.
Kaito watches me pull on the least bloody clothes we can salvage, his eyes tracking every movement but not like Mercer’s would. It’s not like he’s collecting evidence. He watches me like he’s always watched me, like he’s making sure I’m still choosing. Choosing him.
“You’re burning a hole in my head,” I mutter.
“Can’t help it.”
“At least pretend you’re normal.”
“That’s actually not something I promised before getting my teeth into you. No refunds, either, sorry,” the cheeky bastard smarts, handing his shirt over to me to wear, and I’ll be damned if that isn’t completely fair.
I shove it over me, instantly surrounded by him. Then I reach for the bandana next, but stop myself. It’s ruined now, covered and stiff with drying blood. So is my shirt, honestly. And several pieces of me that are annoyingly attached.
My fingers hover close to my hat instead.
Maine’s hat. With a deep breath, I put it on but not because I’m trying to hide again.
It’s because I just need something familiar sitting on my head before I walk into a room full of people who are about to decide what kind of problem I am and if they can handle it.
Kaito notices but he says nothing, something he does regularly that makes me trust him more and more.
A hard knock pounds at the door just before Valeria’s voice comes muffled through it. “Kota? Hale is here. Mercer too. They want medical first, then briefing.”
I close my eyes and sigh. The word medical makes both of my bonds snap tight. Ewan’s is instant. Hot, panicked, and furious. Kaito’s is colder, quieter. Worse. I can feel them both wanting to pull me away from the door, but neither one is acting on it.
That’s new.
Also terrifying.
Also mine.
I look at Kaito. “You feel that too?”
“Yup,” he assures.
“You’re itching to drag me somewhere else,” I point out, like he wasn’t already aware of his own feelings and emotions.
“You’re right. I do,” he confirms.
“But you won’t.”
“Nope.”
My throat works around something a little too big to swallow, and I whisper, “Good. That’s good.”
Kaito’s jaw flexes a little. “Only because you’re walking yourself. If you told me to get you far away, I’d do it.”
“Still counts.”
“Eh. Barely,” he mutters, and I almost smile.
Then I open the door.
The hallway is way worse than I thought it would be. Not blood kind of worse, because most of that has already been cleaned or covered by bodies moving too quickly with buckets and cloths and pinched mouths. It’s people kind of worse, too many eyes watching me with differing expressions.
Valeria stands closest, arms crossed and face carved into something calm enough that it could be useful. Mercer is next to her, eyes red-rimmed and face tense. Ellis waits with a med-kit, looking over at Kaito’s side like she just might drag him down the hall by the scruff of his neck.
Hale is there, too. Of course he is. Better late than never, right?
Commander Hale doesn’t look at me like Davis did. That should help, but it doesn’t, because instead he looks at me like I’m an exposed fire he hasn’t quite decided whether to warm his hands over or drown with enough water that I’ll never flicker again.
Behind him, Ewan pushes off the wall. He has one hand pressed against his ribs, his face is pale, his hair is a rumpled mess, and his eyes are locked on me and nothing else.
The moment he sees both bites on my throat, something in his face changes. Not jealousy, but pain. Relief. Something that tells me he understands exactly why it happened and hates that I needed anything after the hallway at all.
Maine is next to him, vibrating with the kind of brotherly rage that I truly believe could power a small city. Fletcher has a hand close to his shoulder, not holding him this time, but ready to intervene if he needs to.
Xeon stands a little farther back, still and quiet and dark eyes trained on me.
He doesn’t look at the bites for long, instead choosing to look at my face.
That should make me feel better, too, but something in my chest reaches out and finds nothing but empty air.
No frost and steel thread and no answering pull.
Only Xeon. Only the man who came when I called him before any bond gave him a map that would lead him straight to me.
The absence of it is so silent that it physically hurts, so I look away first.
Mercer clears his throat. “Kota, I need to examine you.”
Every Alpha in the hallway reacts. Not dramatically, of course. There’s no growling, or cinematic chest-beating, or a fucking cool and terrifying haka that would impress me more than scare me. There’s just a thick wave of tension that spreads through the hallway.
Ewan’s bond flares so hard that my breath catches.
Kaito’s turns sharp and deep.
Fletcher steps closer and Xeon’s hand shifts near the knife at his hip.
It’s Maine that speaks up. “How about you try asking like she’s a fucking person and not some thing?”
Mercer blinks.
I love my brother. I love him a lot.
Mercer looks at me and nods. “Would you be willing to let me examine you?”
I hold his gaze for a long moment before finally asking, “How will that go?”
“Vitals. Wounds. Pupils. Temp. I need to check your bites. Then blood, but only if you consent.”
Ah, yes. There it is.
Blood.
The room that isn’t even a room goes deathly still and my fingers curl under the sleeve of Kaito’s borrowed shirt. I only swallow once before muttering, “I’m not doing this shit in the hallway.”
Hale chimes in before Mercer can. “Briefing room.”
“No,” Ewan protests, voice rough. “Too many people.”
Hale looks over at him. “You’re injured.”
“That’s not relevant.”
“It is to me,” Ellis snaps. “But apparently no one here gives a shit about my professional suffering. Assholes.”
I glance at her and she glares back like the entire world is personally inconveniencing her.
Oh yeah. She’s cool.
Valeria points down the hall. “Small conference room. Eight seats. One door. No observers.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Who counts as observers?”
Hale’s gaze flicks to me. “Leadership needs answers.”
“I don’t think I remember asking what leadership needs,” I counter, and a pulse of something goes through Kaito’s bond. Approval, dark and quiet, that somehow manages to steady me.
I raise my chin a little and say, “I asked who counts as observers.”
For one second, Hale looks like he’s about to argue. But then Maine smiles a nasty smile, and Fletcher shifts closer to him. Probably because Maine’s smile looks like it’s a whole-ass crime just waiting to happen.
Valeria answers my question. “Hale, Mercer, Ellis for medical, me for security. Your pack. Your brother.”
My mouth goes dry at those words. Your pack.
No one corrects her. Not Ewan or Kaito. Not Fletcher or Xeon. Still, that empty place under my ribs notices instantly what’s missing. I don’t like it. Since when did that happen?
I nod once. “Fine.”
The small conference room smells of old coffee, metal chairs, and men making really shitty decisions under fluorescent lights. I hate it immediately.
Kaito takes the chair to my left. Ewan takes my right after Ellis shoves him down none too gently and starts checking the burn mark from the baton without once asking nicely.
Fletcher stands behind me, and Maine sits across from Hale like he’s trying to win a stupid staring contest with authority itself. Idiot.
Xeon chooses the wall close to the door. Not beside me, or behind me. Right by the exit, guarding the way out. Of course he does.
I try my best not to look at the empty chair, but I fail twice.
Mercer places a small kit on the table in the next second. His hands are clean. Too clean, especially compared to mine.
“Kota,” he starts carefully. “I’m going to say what I know, what I suspect, and what I don’t know. Okay?”
I raise an eyebrow. “That sounds alarmingly organized.”
He nods. “Unfortunately, that’s the only way I know how to be useful right now.”
Huh. That’s fair, I guess.
I sit back. “Then be useful.”
Mercer nods again before starting in on checking my temperature first. Then my pulse. Then my pupils. Ellis checks the wound on my arm and my fucked-up knee, muttering something about stitches and antiseptic, and idiots who have sex while actively bleeding.
Kaito looks at the ceiling while Ewan coughs into his hand. Maine makes a strangled noise like his soul just left his body to jump in the nearest pit of lava.
I take it back. Ellis is so not cool.
I narrow my eyes on her and coldly mutter, “Can we not?”
Ellis presses gauze to my arm. “Can you not?”
“I was balls deep in a crisis.”