21. Finley
Finley
Lifting a hand to Lane's face, his gaze instantly fell on me, giving me his full attention. "I need you to put me down." Lane's scowl told me that he was not a fan of this idea in the slightest, clutching me tighter. "Please."
"Why?"
"He needs my help. Can't you feel how lost he is?" I questioned.
As I struggled to keep from being overwhelmed by Craig's emotions as I focused in on them more. I wanted to understand so I could find a way to help him.
Lane's eyes narrowed as he looked over at the man then back down to me. "No, all I feel is anger directed at you."
"Then you're going to need to trust me. This is what omegas do, right? Heal and nurture the pack…"
A low growl rumbled in Lane's chest, but he slowly set me down, then he yanked his t-shirt off and slipped it over my head. "If he tries to hurt you, there is nothing on this Earth that will save him from our wrath."
I nodded and slowly walked up to Elias. He was still standing on Craig's chest, keeping the irate man trapped. Running my hand over Elias's back, he stopped growling. He looked up at me questioningly before turning to Colt.
"What are you doing, Finley?!" Colt demanded, stepping forward but Lane grabbed his arm, earning his attention. “I know what she wants but it doesn't mean it’s safe, her need to heal is blinding her to the danger.”
Flinching at his disapproval, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm my own emotions so that I could withstand the ones I was receiving from others. "I'm this pack's omega, and he needs my help. Let me try, Colt."
Lane whispered something to Colt, but I was too focused on the man shooting hatred at me out of his eyes.
I knelt down next to him, placing my hand on his arm, and I was promptly bombarded with his rage.
Gasping, I dropped my head, trying to not let his feelings become my own.
I might not love myself at the moment, but I certainly didn't want to die rather than live as a werewolf.
"Why so much hate?" I whispered to Craig, keeping my eyes closed to focus.
Not really understanding what I was trying to do I leaned on my instincts. Pushing past the self loathing I tried to find the root emotion fueling this hatred. There had to be a moment when he was changed that made him feel this way. Once I could find it then I would know how to fix it.
"You’re alive, and even though you don't have your company anymore, you still have so much to offer this pack. I understand having everything taken from you in the blink of an eye; my whole life was ripped away from me in seconds. Yet I’m choosing to learn and make the most of this life I know I have to live.
" Finally catching on to the root problem, I opened my eyes and met his gaze. "Who are you truly mad at?"
Tears pooled in the man's eyes as he tried to shake off my hold on him. "Get away from me, you bitch. I don't need anything from the likes of you!" With that statement, he spat in my face, and in the next moment, I was covered in blood after Elias tore out his throat.
Sitting back on my heels, I watched the life drain out of Craig. There was still one emotion left to catch. In that last moment, with his final breath, I got a fleeting emotion—relief.
"Does anyone know his story?" I asked, looking up at the others.
They were all gathered around looking at me cautiously as if I might start screaming or burst into tears. Didn’t they understand that death was something that no longer had much meaning to me other than a job well done?
"That's what you want to ask?" Mason blurted out with a bark of laughter. "God, this woman is unlike any other."
Cocking my head to the side, I frowned. "Why wouldn't I ask that?"
"Oh, I don't know, snuggles, maybe because you're covered in this dick’s blood, still kneeling next to his corpse like that’s a typical Wednesday afternoon," Mason pointed out. "Any other woman would be screaming their head off or sobbing their eyes out."
"I'm an assassin…" I stated, unsure if they’d forgotten.
Turning back to the body, I closed Craig's eyes and stood, using the bottom of the t-shirt to wipe my face clean of blood.
Catching the sound of a gasp, I whirled around to see a large group of people looking horrified to see me.
Well, this isn't how I pictured meeting the rest of the pack.
Lane pulled himself together first and stepped out in front of me as Noah grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the house.
"Everything is fine. Unfortunately, Craig crossed a line that gave us no choice but to end his life," Lane addressed.
"As one of this pack’s alphas, it is my job to keep everyone safe, and in some cases, that leads to a tragic event such as this.
The pack meal will still happen tonight, and it's even more important to attend so that situations like this don't happen again.
Trust in us and return to your duties." The crowd all murmured to themselves, but they did as was asked of them and wandered back to wherever they had come from.
Noah led me through the house and up stairs, but instead of going to the room I’d been given, he entered a different one that smelled of fresh evergreen.
Colt. While this house wasn't nearly as opulent as Zander's, it still had a feel to it that I liked.
It emanated safety and warmth, like it was made to have people bustling around in it.
Noah turned on the shower and pulled Lane's shirt off of me before ushering me in and closing the glass door after me.
"Get cleaned up while I grab you some clothes," Noah instructed as he slipped out of the bathroom.
I got the feeling that the guys didn't believe me when I said that I was fine, but that was a lesson they’d have to learn in their own time.
Death was just another part of my job, so it was hard to freak out over it.
Who would hire an assassin who broke down at the sight of a fresh kill?
I couldn’t even count the amount of people who had died under my own hand or in my arms. Those assassins who carried their victims with them didn't last long in the business. They usually ended up killing themselves, unable to deal with the weight of it all. The only kill that I remembered was my first one, but that wasn’t unusual.
At that point, most of us were only partly numb.
It wasn’t until the horror of that first death that you truly understood why you needed to disconnect your feelings from the job.
It happened the year I turned sixteen. I wasn't even supposed to be doing anything but observing a veteran assassin, but the job had gone south when the wife of our hit was home instead out like she should’ve been.
I acted without thinking, knowing that we couldn't leave any witnesses.
She didn't even know I was there when she got out of her bed to investigate the noise coming from her husband's study.
There I was, lurking in the shadows as she gasped at the sight of her husband being strangled to death.
Before she could bolt down the hall to the upstairs landline, I had slit her throat.
From that point on, I was one of the youngest trainees to be let out into the field.
The Organization had seen no point in holding me back when I'd managed my first kill clean and by the book.
Noah’s return to the bathroom pulled me out of my head and I realized I’d just been lingering under the hot water. Wringing out my hair, I stepped out, expecting Noah to hand me the towel, but instead, he proceeded to dry me himself.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Noah asked as he bent down to dry off my legs.
"Will you believe me if I tell you that I’m totally fine?" I countered.
He looked up at me seriously, contemplating his answer.
"There are moments like this one that you’re extremely hard to read.
I'm not used to dealing with something like that, having a stronger ability to gauge people's responses.
Since you've shifted, you show a lot more emotion… but still less than most. Right now, you’re a blank slate, giving me nothing to work off of to understand how you're doing. "
There was something about the fact that he was so honest with me that made me want to be honest in return.
"One of the only ways you can deal with killing as often as I have is to remove yourself from the situation.
Craig is no longer Craig— that outside is the body of a man who wanted to die and goaded Elias into doing it.
As I was showering I tried to think of how many people I'd killed since I was sixteen, and I can't tell you.
I know that it's over fifty, but that's only because after that point, you’re awarded the title of elite assassin. That’s who I am, Noah. "
His eyes widened as he absorbed what I was saying. "You've killed over fifty people, and you started when you were sixteen? How have you still hung on to such a caring heart?"
"Oh, that's all the omega's doing," I snorted.
"No, I don't think so," Noah challenged.
"Even if you’re an elf or only part elf, you wouldn't have been able to be turned by an omega if you didn't have an affinity for it. Omegas bind the pack together through caring for the pack on an emotional level. What you tried to do for Craig, for example. If he had let you, I know you would’ve tried to help him through his pain and hatred of being turned.
Unfortunately, like you said, he wanted to die.
He lost his family in the attack. His wife and two kids were slaughtered on a camping trip, a rogue werewolf attack, and we were asked to take him in.
We mostly kept him out on patrol because he didn't do well being around the pack.
We thought he would adjust with time, but clearly that wasn't the case. "
When he put it like that, it was hard to argue, but I wasn't convinced that it wasn't just the omega traits taking over my normal personality. This new venture into learning about emotional wellbeing was so forgen to me but I got a taste of how powerful it could be. Noah was right, Craig didn’t want to be healed… but what if he had? Could a person who’d never acknowledged their own emotions help another?
There was so much for me to learn and I was discovering that I might actually want to delve into emotions more.
Noah held out a pair of sweatpants that smelled like Colt, and I stepped into them, enjoying being surrounded by his scent.
The t-shirt was from Lane, and the hoodie that he bundled me up in was covered in his scent.
In a way, I didn't understand why being wrapped up in their scents calmed me and set me at ease, but I was glad to have the comfort.
My wolf mourned the loss of a pack member, knowing that we could have helped.
It was hard for her to understand the idea of someone wanting to die.
"Come on, let's head back downstairs. I'm sure the others will want to check in on you," Noah suggested as he coaxed me out of Colt's room.
We found the others in the living room in various stages of restlessness, but my attention was drawn right to Elias.
He sat in one of the large leather armchairs, but he refused to look at me.
His body was tensed as if he was ready to bolt at a moment's notice if the need arose.
I walked right up to him and curled up on his lap.
My face pressed against his neck, I fisted his black Henley in my hands.
It took him a few moments before he relaxed enough to wrap his arms around me, resting his cheek against the top of my head.
"I’m not upset you killed him; he left you no choice," I whispered. "You kept me safe."
At this, Elias took a deep breath, and it was like he deflated with the release of what must have been one of his worries.
I couldn't tell you how I knew that was what had been bothering him, other than to blame it on the new empathic abilities of being an omega.
He let his hand run up and down my back as we sat in silence like we were the only ones in the room.
"Little one," Colt ventured, causing me to crack an eye open and look up at him. "Come here, please."
I tried to pull out of Elias's hold, but he tightened his arms and let out a low rumble at my movement.
Colt narrowed his eyes at his beta, putting some dominance behind it.
"Let my mate go, Elias. I know you’re just trying to keep her safe after Craig set off your protectiveness, but you are not the only one who is concerned.
I let you hold her because you needed it, but I'm now telling you to let her go. "
"She’s my charge as well as soon-to-be mate," Elias muttered. "What will you do then?"
"This is all new to us, her elf nature pulling more than one mate to her, but it hasn't changed who we are.
At this moment, my wolf wants to rip out your throat for keeping her from us since you are not yet mated.
When I see her with Lane or Zander, I don't have the same need to kill them like I do you right now," Colt explained through gritted teeth.
Lane stepped up as if to be a buffer between the two of them. "Let her go for now, Elias. You know she’s safe with Colt."
Elias grunted as he turned to look down at me, lifting a hand he trail a finger down my cheek then tucked under my chin and lift my face to him.
Slowly, giving me time to pull away, he pressed a gentle kiss on my lips as if he was afraid to break me.
Then he pulled away, nodding to Colt. I reached out a hand to my mate, giving him the lifeline he needed to pull me from Elias's lap and into his own arms. Colt showered my face in kisses before he nuzzled my neck where his mate mark was, sending shivers of pleasure down my spine.
"What are we to do with you, mate of mine?" Colt murmured against my skin.