15. Avery #3
I could remember when I was little and she would hug me, and how her heart would break when Linny looked up at her with his big eyes full of longing, biting his bottom lip and asking if maybe she might want to hug him too.
I was certain she would lavish him with affection now that there was no one standing in her way.
“Well, I’ve only known your mother a couple days—which we’re both pissed about, by the way—but I suspect she’s a person who gets her way.”
That was putting it mildly.
“So Graeme gave in, and Linny is in your old room, and your mother’s thrilled.”
I glanced over at Graeme, who was breathing heavily but not quite snoring. He was not waking up anytime soon.
“Do my parents know that Linny tried to save Imogen?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Do Imogen’s parents know that Linden tried to save her?”
“They do.”
“Do they blame him for her death?”
“That I don’t know, but I don’t see how they could. They know Daw’s an alpha, and they know he had a gun; he was stronger than both of them.”
“Bridget killed an alpha,” I reminded him.
“She did,” he agreed, “and she was pumped up on adrenaline. I’ve seen the video, so I know that she shifted before Trent Highmore even knew he was in danger. She had the element of surprise on her side. He looks drugged in the video too, probably hopped up on all the pheromones, right?”
“Probably, yes.”
“Totally different situation than Linny and Imogen sitting in the car like lobsters in a tank waiting to die.”
“What’s going to happen to Imogen’s family? Do you know?”
“Your mate’s brother…Stone, is that right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, so Stone went to see Imogen’s folks, and he put together some sort of financial plan that involves him taking over the selling of their home and giving them a small loan until that occurs, and then realigning assets.
The important part is that Imogen’s parents will be able to live and take care of their other daughters, though they will no longer be members of the… jarl ? Am I saying that right?”
“Yes.”
“So yeah, your fiancé, he’s like, you know, a scary black ops fixer guy. He goes around saving people and rearranging their lives like it was never bad in the first place.”
“And Bridget and the others?”
“Daw has a younger brother, so since his father has another heir, Daw’s being castrated.”
I could only stare at my partner.
“I think that might be the exact same face I made when I was informed of Mr. Abernathy’s punishment for his first-born son.”
“Holy shit.”
“I had no idea that wolves were so—I mean, it’s stunning to me that his own father could just order that done.”
“Wolves take honor and their position in the hierarchy very seriously.”
“Yeah. I would say so.”
“What else with Daw?”
“Well, after he loses his balls, he gets to go live on a piece of property his family owns in Lucerne, under guard, until he dies of natural causes, a long fuckin’ time from now.”
“Switzerland is beautiful.”
“Nowhere is beautiful if you’re a prisoner for the rest of your life.”
“It’s better than he deserves.”
“No argument.”
“And Bridget and Saoirse?”
“Bridget’s contract was given to a friend of her father’s who’s a widower, and she’s going to live with him in a small town in Wyoming. I couldn’t tell you which one.”
She’d drink herself to death in a year, I had no doubt.
“And Saoirse’s contract was purchased at half the asking price by that alpha Daw was screaming about to Bridget, Gansey Runyon. He’s moving them to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I guess he felt Saoirse had more childbearing years left in her than good ole Bridget.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“It’s horrifying to me, even with what those two women did, that they can be treated like nothing. Like a possession. Kat thinks that with this latest horror Graeme will get even more support for his push for omega rights.”
“I hope so.”
He took a breath, as though girding himself.
“What?”
“I told Graeme, but now I’m telling you; I know you’re an omega. I’m not stupid. I just don’t get why you didn’t tell me.”
I took a breath. “It’s weird. I didn’t tell you when I first should have, because people have an idea about omegas.
I mean, look at Bridget and Linden, and…
I just never wanted you to think of me as weak.
And then, by the time you knew me and I could have told you, it just seemed like you might feel betrayed that I didn’t tell you in the first place, and it was just a mess in my head. ”
He nodded. “You should always tell me everything because I know you Avery. I know the kind of man you are and I know all about your heart.”
Yes, he did.
“So don’t hide anything else.”
“No, sir.”
He grunted.
“And Lucas?”
“Lucas is the only one Mr. Mills was pleased with, and as a result, he’s being sent to work for his brother in Los Angeles, who has two sons, both omegas, who need a bodyguard.”
I shook my head. “What a mess.”
“Lucas could be brought up on charges of obstruction and tampering with evidence in a murder case, not to mention assaulting Remy Talmadge, but all of this amounts to lupine-on-lupine crime. Highmore’s family wants nothing to do with this case; they just want to grieve alone.
Graeme said his cousin won’t be charging Lucas with anything, so… we’re done.”
We certainly were.
“There is punishment for the guilty, but not how I thought. I hope that Graeme can push for that legislation for omega rights. None of this would have happened if they had a voice and options and could make their own choices.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“You said you watched the video of Bridget attacking Highmore?”
“Yeah. Lucas turned over the footage.”
“I’m sorry you had to watch that by yourself.”
“We don’t have to have all the same nightmares, buddy.”
No, we did not.
Later, leaving Graeme in the room under Kat’s watchful care, my mother and I went down the hall to Linden’s room. Slipping inside, we found him facing a mountain of food, and Corvina fluffing a pillow behind him. Wade was asleep in a recliner beside the bed.
“You think you have enough food?” I asked as my mother hugged and kissed Linden, leaning back to brush his long strawberry blond hair out of his face.
“It’s not my fault that Corvie thinks I’m thin,” he assured me, as surly as ever.
“You’re far more than just thin,” Corvina assured him as she walked around the end of the bed and cupped my cheek. “And so are you, love, but Francisca will make sure you’re fed, and you’re the only one who will eat her food without whining about it.”
Moving in close beside Linden, I waited several moments while he ate before he finally turned and looked at me.
“Yes?” he snapped in that high-handed manner he had.
I was quiet, studying the bruises on his face that, even after two days, were still healing, and realized I was in better shape than him, even being shot three times, only because of my mate. Graeme was the only reason I was alive.
I was so blessed.
“Either speak or get out.” Linny clipped the words.
I could go home at any time; him, they were still keeping for observation. For the attack to still be showing on him, it had to have been savage. I couldn’t help sucking in a breath.
“Do you want me to say thank you? Is that what you expect?”
His pride was something, but that was probably good.
Leaning in, I kissed his cheek.
He looked away from me, and I noted how he quickly brushed under each eye with the knuckle of his right index finger before slowly turning his head back to regard me. “Your mother’s having your room redone completely, so I hope you’re not sentimental about anything in there.”
I bumped him gently with my shoulder.
“Owww,” he uttered, scowling at me. “You’re such a brute.”
I glanced over at Wade and then back to him.
“Yes, I noticed him too. Hard to miss such a beautiful man, but why is he in here? Did he get lost on the way to your room?”
“My room?”
“Yes, I understand he’s your partner. That’s what he told me.”
I nodded.
“Well, collect him, for goodness’ sake. Don’t leave him in here.”
“He must be worried about you.”
He grunted.
“Did he carry you out of the house?”
“I don’t recall,” he assured me, sniffling.
He had Wade’s scent all over him, so I was guessing Wade had not only carried him but had not moved far from his bedside for long.
“Okay, then, I’ll wake him up and get him out of here,” I told Linden, moving away from his side to walk around the chair.
“You know what?” Linden began, clearing his throat softly. “Perhaps just let him sleep.”
He wasn’t fooling me one bit. He’d been brutalized, and the second Wade was out of his bindings, he’d gone to Linden’s side and been there ever since.
Wade made me feel safe when we walked down the street together, so it had to be the same for Linden, having Wade right there, like a sleeping, but vigilant lion.
It had to be the safest Linden had felt in years.
“Of course.”
Quick cough. “My, uhm, mother came by to bring me my grandmother’s jewels; she bequeathed them to me in her will.
Before my mother handed them to me, she felt the need to remind me that a spoiled, unbonded omega was perhaps not the person to inherit Daniella Van Doren’s jewels, especially not the Queen’s Lament. ”
“That’s the pearl-and-diamond necklace, right?”
“It is, yes,” he spoke quickly, his voice pitching.
“Was Wade in here?” I asked, smiling.
“Yes. Yes, he was.”
“How’d that go?”
“Well, he”—Linden took a breath and tipped his head at the intricately carved onyx-and-gold-inlay box that was sitting on a shelf next to the window—“grabbed the box and sent her on her way.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, smiling, “he can get loud.”
Linden nodded.
“Okay,” I murmured, taking hold of his hand, “I expect you at the party we’re hosting to announce my mating this coming Saturday. Don’t even think about trying to get out of it.”
“Oh no, Avery, you can’t want––”
“In fact, you’ll maybe wanna come early so I don’t end up in jeans or something.”
The horror on his face, the way his mouth dropped open, and how he was staring, wide-eyed and thoroughly scandalized, was pretty funny.
“Maybe I should iron, ya think?” I threw that one out, glancing at my mother and Corvina, both appearing equally as horrified as Linden.
It was fun to mess with my family.