11 Jericho
Wandering aimlessly, I needed some fresh air from being cooped up underground for so long. It grew harder to sneak past everyone, and I was surprised Raphael let me out of the compound. That surprise quickly ended when I realized why. Ryatt was already out here, and he wasn’t alone.
He had just greeted Kit in the boathouse, but I couldn’t hear their conversation from being outside the window.
It felt intrusive to keep watching them, but I knew I needed to learn more about the situation.
Only Kashmir had opened up a little bit about the woman harboring us, and his truth bomb shook me to my core.
No wonder she didn’t like me right away because she thought I replaced her.
I couldn’t even ease her mind because I was beginning to feel like a secondhand replacement in her shadow.
The guys didn’t notice how much I watched them with her, but not even one of them could keep their eyes away from her for longer than a second. They were constantly aware of where she was in any room we were in with, and it was making me feel unwanted.
I knew the guys would never get rid of me because I gained a place in their pack, but I didn’t like all the secrecy when it came to this woman and their past. She was stunning, and any man would want her for an Omega.
Even now, as I watched her and Ryatt get into a heated conversation, her venomous glare only made her look more beautiful.
She was a vixen in a fur coat, and now I knew why my guys had the rule they did.
They agreed to not keep females in the pack, so they all exercised their right to have one-night stands when they felt the need to have a woman for company.
I always thought it was to keep jealousy out of our group because females often drove men to the brink of madness from doting on one over the other.
Now I could see for myself that it was to never replace this woman.
They left that seat open in their pack because it had already been filled without being marked.
As much as this all bothered me, I also began to understand their grief when we arrived.
Kit was someone else’s Omega, marked by him to never be theirs.
Even after all this time, I could tell my men held out hope they would find her and claim her as theirs.
Yes, I was mad at them for lying to me, but it didn’t stop my worrying as their Omega.
When they hurt, I hurt too. This was hurting them.
I knew it’d been wrong to spy on them, but I kept telling myself it was okay because I couldn’t hear their conversation. Ryatt’s anger only got worse as he gripped her neck and pinned her against the wall. She became crosser with him, and she hated he just bested her.
Unlike the other night when she manhandled Franco, Ryatt was the one who stood victorious in this moment. They were arguing and fighting, and I got goosebumps even from this distance. The tension made me pause my breath because I could see how much the two loved each other still.
It was hard trying to be what my men needed when I could see their desire wasn’t me right now.
I wanted nothing more than for them to come to me and ask me to make it better, but I wasn’t fully receptive either.
Right now, I had to figure out if I’d be strong enough to let them embrace her, or if I was too weak to let this one settle.
Part of me knew I also needed to get to know her better, but that was hard when she avoided me like the plague.
Kit didn’t want to be near me because I was her replacement in the pack.
Even though she moved on and was claimed by someone else, I could see what their leaving did to her. It made me feel compassion toward her.
As quickly as their conversation turned to anger, it was now something else.
It was almost a dare on the tips of each of their tongues.
Ryatt moved her leg to the side to place himself between hers, stroking her neck in the one spot I knew would make her purr.
Kit gave into it, relaxing under his dominance.
They both loved each other, only denying it to themselves because of pack law.
No doubt rested in my mind that Kit had other lovers in their pack, but it wasn’t an Alpha from an outside pack sharing her nest. Right before things got too steamy between them, something reminded Kit where she was.
They spoke of sorrow between them, crying with each before she left him with a kiss on his cheek.
Her emotions were too raw, and I could tell they were affecting Ryatt.
She left him in the boathouse, running to get away.
I hid myself against the wall for her to avoid because I knew I witnessed something I shouldn’t have been.
Completely broken, there was no denying her suffering.
Leia had contact with this pack, so I knew it had to be hard on Ryatt and Kayos to know their sister stayed in touch with their former Omega.
It also made me wonder why their sister didn’t tell them where she was this whole time.
Something bigger had been at play, but I wasn’t sure exactly what that could be.
Why would their sister not let them know where the love of their life lived?
I felt like I was missing part of the story, but I knew my guys were too.
The side I needed could only come from the woman who marched by me in complete agony that gutted her to the core.
Moving around to go to the door off the dock, I entered the boathouse to find Ryatt leaning against the window with his forehead on his arm. He looked completely and utterly lost as though he wasn’t sure what to do. Clearing my throat, he turned around the second he heard a male voice coming in.
Wiping his face off, he was trying to pretend he carried strength through it all. “Jericho, what are you doing outside?”
“I could ask you the same thing, or why you’re in the boathouse with Kit?” I didn’t say it aggressively, but I did let him know what I had seen.
“I’m not sure what you want me to say right now,” he said, and I knew it was the closest to the truth he’d given so far.
“How about you start from the beginning so I can understand,” I murmured, keeping my distance from him. He could sense my unease, nodding to begin making amends.
“We went to high school together. Kit was this quiet and mousey female, but she caught everyone’s eye from her beauty.
She was sweet and caring, and you remind me a lot of her.
Clearly, you’re both very different, but I guess I have a type in an Omega.
” He tried to smile but it fell. “Kit grew up in the trailer park across the river, so she always felt like she wasn’t good enough for us.
My dad never made her feel welcome when she would come with us to my home.
We all fought it though, and we made sure she felt loved and seen by us all. ”
“So why did you leave her?” None of that part made sense.
“It wasn’t like we wanted to. We left for training, so we left her.”
“But why wouldn’t you claim her?”
“We weren’t sure if our dark life would be good for her pure soul, so we made a plan to get through training then decide.
What we didn’t know was someone had been waiting for us to leave and take her for themselves.
Even worse, we didn’t know who it was to fight them.
They left us a dead animal on her porch for us to find when we rushed back, but we couldn’t find her… ”
“But you loved her,” I argued on her behalf. “Why would you leave her unprotected?”
“Because I was a stupid boy, Jer. I didn’t know what I do now to change what happened.
” His head hung in defeat. “For awhile, I had my father’s second watch over her.
He’d update me here and there to let me know that she was doing okay.
Broken hearted but okay. Six months went by, and we were all completely miserable from not having her. Then we got the call.”
“She was gone,” I finished what was so hard for him to say.
“She was,” he returned with a vacant stare. “It ruined us for a long time after that, and we spent endless hours searching for her. Just like the night we disappeared on her, she vanished on us. She has every right to hate me because had I marked her, she never would’ve suffered. She’d be mine.”
“Do you still want her?” I raised the one question that had been haunting my mind. Ryatt could also see the second question lingering in my stare even though I never verbally expressed it.
“Jericho, don’t think for two seconds that we don’t want you or that you’re some kind of replacement. Kit could never be replaced, just like you can’t either. We claimed you as soon as we could because I couldn’t lose you the way I did her.”
“I appreciate you calming my nerves on that, but you didn’t answer my first question.” For once, I could see this part had nothing to do with me. He wasn’t answering to hide it from me. He wasn’t answering because he wanted to hide it from himself.
“There will never be a day that goes by I don’t want her,” his response was honest and genuine. “But we were too late in finding her. The only woman I’ve ever loved now belongs to someone else outside our pack.”
We were both quiet for a minute because his words were heavy with his admission. There was one more thing I needed verified, and I knew he wouldn’t lie to me right now. “And the others? Would they want her to?”
“I can’t speak for them now, but I do know they loved her just as much as I did. She’s the reason why we’ve never had a female be consistent in our pack because that was her place. As I said, you’ve never replaced her, but you made missing her a lot lighter.”
Nodding my head, I accepted my role a long time ago as their male Omega. There wasn’t many of my kind because Omegas were mostly female and already rare enough, but I favored the male species as lovers. Maybe it was because of my submissive nature, but I submitted to their control.