Twenty-Six
If I had any lingering doubts about my pack’s dedication to me, they’re obliterated.
I knew everything was new, and that they meant it all the times they told me I was the only omega for them, but being up in my attic, which at one point of time was a safe space for me, being wrapped up by these alphas while Edric and Clement defended our pack, makes everything so much more concrete.
Everything falls to silence below us and we all freeze, hearing locked in on anything we can make out below.
It’s not like they were commentating the fight they were having out of sight, so I have no idea what I’m going to find when I go down there.
The police announce themselves and the front door crashes open right before a horde of footsteps start racing up the stairs toward my packmates, and I’m desperate to get there first, to get my eyes on my alphas in case someone tries to take them away.
Anderson’s arms try to grip me but I’m too fast, too slippery.
Heart beating a frantic staccato in my chest, I throw myself down every possible hallway I can until I’m coming to a large hole in the drywall that they must have fallen through.
I fall to the floor below and hit my knees, ankles throbbing painfully under me, but I can’t breathe until I see three dead alphas that were trying to own me and two breathing alphas that I can’t live without.
Edric lets out a cry as I fall into him, sobbing wildly as I pull him and me down to where Calloway is lying uncomfortably on the hardwood floors, breathing but damaged.
I need both of them in my arms, need to feel their breaths on me so my omega will know they’re still our alphas, that nobody took them away from us.
That’s how the cops find us; a distraught omega desperately clinging onto bloodied alphas, surrounded by bodies of men these cops don’t know.
I read their intent, wanting to try and detain the good alphas, detain my alphas, and that can’t happen.
I scramble up and hold my arms out, omega in full force as I bare my teeth, making a strange hissing noise because our mates can’t protect themselves right now, and these cops are a threat.
The rest of my pack falls through the hole moments later, calling my name and trying to stop anything from progressing further, but luckily there’s one cop among them all with a good head on her shoulders, who steps forward and puts herself between me and the rest of the cops who have guns drawn.
“Stand down. That’s an order.”
The cops are slow to respond, but eventually, acquiesce to her command.
They’re not vampires, just Trash Haven police who have probably never witnessed a scene like this in their entire careers as law enforcement, because Trash Haven isn’t the sort of town where madmen brandishing guns run to to try and abduct omegas.
It’s the kind of town that does community potlucks every month and where families raise more families and live within a few blocks of each other their entire lives.
Where kids can ride their bikes around the streets without worrying about anything untoward happening.
The Trash Haven I knew when I was young was, at least. Maybe I built it up too much in my mind, imagining what everyone was up to outside the walls I was consistently stuck behind.
“You’re okay, Omega, we’re not going to touch your mates.” She looks around and then dutifully reaches for her radio, calling for medical to enter the building. “Going to need someone to start talking though, and fast.”
Anderson, gods bless him. He’s lived here his whole life, and all of the cops relax a little when he takes point, stepping forward and putting himself firmly in front of me.
He gives a head nod to one cop in particular, but it’s clear not all off them knew about his transformation because their eyes widen in shock when they take him in.
I cling to his back, burying my face against his shirt and breathing in his fresh herbal scent to ground myself.
He’s shaking slightly, pushing back into me to comfort me the best he can while he handles the situation.
“Afternoon, officers. It seems my packmates took care of the problem for you. These three,” and he kicks the shoe of one of the dead alphas, “had an illegal contract that my omega’s sister drew up, and they were trying to enforce it.
We came to this house today, because my omega owns it.
She grew up here. We were just coming to check on it and see what we wanted to do about it, but these three were here, armed, ready to take her by any means possible.
“As you can see, things escalated, and in order to defend our omega, two of my packmates took it upon themselves to take out the threat that was actively hunting us.”
Once the cops realize none of us are armed, the tension drains from the room and all their weapons get put away.
Concerningly, but concerningly in our favor, the cops seem more at ease when they understand Anderson and I were the victims and that the alphas with no ties to Trash Haven were the ones causing problems.
I’m still hyped up on adrenaline, but when I throw myself on top of Clement, they end up bringing us both down to the ambulance so they can triage him.
Jos enters doctor mode, not letting his packmate out of his sight.
Once they make sure the wounds are as clean as they’re going to get, Jos starts tending to him and Edric, because the ambulance is really only equipped for species that don’t heal the way vampires do.
All it takes is Jos lapping at their wounds, sealing them off, and they start healing instantly.
Since there’s not much else to be done, everyone gives their statements and we’re dismissed.
Clement starts waking up halfway home, immediately reaching for me. His alpha is still on red alert, not fully convinced that the threat to me is gone, so I give him that reassurance and stay glued to him as our pack carries him into the house and delivers him to the nest, upon my insistence.
∞∞∞
The rest of the afternoon, we’re all pretty somber, spending time as a pack in the nest because doing anything else feels like too much work.
I find that being in the nest I already spent a heat with my mates in helps my omega and I feel more grounded, and as afternoon ebbs into evening, I think all of our systems finally start to hit baseline.
The wounds on Clement and Edric look like angry pink scars instead of the fresh wounds they were earlier in the day, which helps.
I’m still walking on glass around them, uncomfortable in some aspects because of what they risked to protect me and our pack, and how do you even thank someone for a gift like that?
The terror I felt when I found them both covered in blood, when Clement collapsed, isn’t something that’s going to unetch itself from my brain anytime soon.
I can’t walk more than a few steps from them without panic setting in, and it isn’t until they realize I’ve been avoiding the bathroom or food and drink that there’s a confrontation.
Edric wraps his arms around my waist and carries me to the restroom, making it clear he’ll stand right next to the door until I’m done.
I can’t close the door, I need to be able to see his toes so I know he’s safe.
As soon as I’m done washing my hands he’s got me in his arms again, carrying me to the kitchen.
“I know you’re still processing everything, but we didn’t do what we did so that you’d suffer.
We’re here, they’re not. You need to keep reminding yourself that.
We let you get away from us once, and that will never happen again.
You’re ours, for life; and not some short-changed version, either.
We’re with you until all of us are old and gray and wrinkly, and so senile that we forget to put pants on.
This is your happy ending as much as it’s our happy ending, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to make it a long one. Okay?”
I study his face and tilt my head up, making him chase me for a kiss that heals a lot more than anything else has. Every time I kiss these guys my system goes into overdrive, and I hope that never stops. “I shouldn’t have let you guys jump in like that. It was reckless.”
“What would have been reckless, is hiding while the threat got closer and closer to the treasure we just found. I don’t think you understand the gravity of our feelings for you, Fable.
I used to think there was something wrong with us, that we weren’t succeeding with Winslow because our alphas were broken.
I honestly didn’t think we’d ever be where we are today, bonded into the type of pack we thought was the stuff of fairytales.
You were worth jumping in for, and we’d do it again without hesitation because the only outcome we couldn’t abide by was one where you got hurt again on our watch.
We’re taking our role as your protectors seriously. ”
“I think I need…”
“Whatever it is, it's yours.”
“I need my pack. Not because I’m in heat and can’t think straight for lack of a cock, but because you guys mean something to me and I need to feel all of us coming together, reminding me we’re going to be okay. My nervous system needs it, and so does the rest of me.”
Immediately, he's whipping off the oversized shirt they put on me earlier, one that came from Clement’s closet because seeing him unconscious was bad for me. His scent helps though, the citrusy bergamot and soothing sage working in tandem to ground me.
I feel Clement’s presence in the bond before he even touches me, his long fingers flooding along my skin as Edric kisses me. They pull me off the counter and carry me to the living room, throwing a soft blue blanket down before spreading me out on top of it.
“You going to take all of us? Outside of a heat? Going to let some of us knot you?” Edric whisper s into my ear, pressing himself against me.