43 Franco
We all snuggled her on her bed where she felt the safest, unmoving from her nest unless we had to pee.
Jericho joined us after a few hours, doing something for himself, but I didn’t ask him where he’d been because I could see something bothered him about his adventure.
He’d tell me when I needed to know, so I had to trust that about him.
Even though I hated not helicoptering his every movement, I was learning Kit might have been right when it came to him needing to know how to defend himself.
If it hadn’t been for Jericho, Ryatt would’ve been lost to us.
Closing my eyes, I hated that truth the most. When the second morning came, the others knew something had to be done, but we weren’t sure exactly what to do or how to go about telling the other Alphas.
Ryatt had been holding Kit since we came in, refusing to let her go for us to share.
We all just had to touch one of her limbs to have the physical contact with her.
She hadn’t woken up since she lied down, but we saw the rise and fall of her chest. It told us she tried to recover from the hell she had suffered.
A light wrap came from the door in the hall, and Anika made her way into the room to address us.
She knew we wouldn’t leave Kit right now as she handled the base.
“I need your help coming up with a plan that will hide what happened. Everyone in this place thinks that Kit was the Omega of an Alpha, and they know she got hurt from the video. I’m not sure how to handle addressing them without having some type of Alpha for them to believe she was under.
No Alpha would let their Omega get hurt without coming back for who did it. ”
Her words made sense, but what we were supposed to do?
Looking to my Alpha, I waited for Ryatt to give a command.
Maybe he had something inside his mind that would help us.
When we looked to him, he nodded his head as though he understood why we were.
“Everyone in this place already knows she didn’t belong to me, so we can’t easily just use our pack as her alibi. ”
“What about Castiel?” Turner asked, directing the question at Anika. “If he’s been in on this this whole time, he would help her defend her home.”
Anika shook her head. “Castiel built his empire on secrets and being a Delta. He won’t change his image even if our Omega loses her empire.”
“Even if it gave him more?” I was the one to ask.
“Castiel doesn’t want more,” she responded.
“He wants his freedom, and he wants to be left alone. With what he does, he has everything he’s ever wanted.
An empire of this magnitude would put a target on his back and force him to be in the world he never wanted to be a part of.
” This woman knew more about that man than we expected, and it made me wonder what else was going on between them.
My thoughts weren’t the only thing led to that observation has Kayos sat up from his side of the bed. “How do you guys know Castiel so well?”
“I’m only going to be honest with you because you know too much already.
Plus, she trusts you.” Anika pointed to Kit, centered between all of us.
“Castiel had been taken to the Sellers, and it happened right at the time I was trying to get a friend out. Not many know this, but the bartender at the bar named Colton is Castiel’s younger brother.
He tried to rescue Castiel without having any help, so he bargained with us.
Long story short, Kit and I were able to save Castiel from the Sellers.
He was one of few who escaped because of her. ”
“And that’s the debt he owed Kit,” Ryatt finished, finding out about it when he went to the bar with her to get that address.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “Once all was said and done, the six of us built this place from the ground up and made it into what it is today. Castiel and Kit became a team to build what they both have right now.”
“Did you say six?” Kashmir had been paying attention to the detail I missed. Doing the math inside my own head, I counted only five, if we were including Raphael.
Anika just smirked as though she let something else slip.
Her eyes darted between Ryatt and Kayos for them to finally piece the last clue together.
Ryatt was the one to say it out loud for the rest of us to comprehend.
“Leia has been a part of this the whole time. That’s how she knew to contact you guys when we needed help. ”
Dipping her chin, she confirmed the final part we had been missing this whole time. Kayos didn’t like that response because it left so much unanswered. “If our sister was a part of this, how come she had to pay for our protection? How come she isn’t here?”
“Your sister knew your family line would never stop being important. She might have been a founding member of this compound, but she knew she couldn’t leave you guys high and dry for a different one.
Using our means to build her own off what we had to extend yours, Leia set up her own path of leadership.
She knows she can call us anytime for a favor. ”
“That still doesn’t answer why she owes you,” I commented.
“We live in a compound where no one knows Kit is the leader. They don’t know the six people who made this place possible, so they really couldn’t grasp none of us are unmarked.
When I got off the phone with Leia, we already knew we would help her, but she knew how hard it would be for Kit to see you guys again.
Leia might have been a part of this, but she also left it just like Castiel.
In their exits, they understood our help would come at a price.
Had it been only your sister seeking sanctuary, she would have been granted it without payment, but it wasn’t herself she asked us to save. ”
None of us were prepared for that, but the truth set her free.
We finally understood why and how this place came to be.
There was a stench of betrayal between us because we understood Leia knew where Kit had been all this time.
Trying not to let it fester, we knew we couldn’t let it eat at us.
Anika read my face, seeing the envy I felt that my sister knew my love lived.
“She tried to go back,” she started, tucking her hands into her back pockets. “She had me drive her to you once we got her cleaned up and fed. She didn’t even wait to have a rest.” A sad laugh fell from her lips.
My hackles raised, sensing she told the truth, but how could that be? Ryatt let his hand pet her hair, soothing her with his Alpha rumble. “She saw we had Jericho. She also saw how happy we were, and she said she couldn’t ruin that. She didn’t know how to be happy anymore.”
Kayos cleared his tight throat. “She mentioned something similar to me in the woods during our mission. She told me that once the threat was gone, we’d return to the life we were happy in before finding her.
When I asked her if she’d be happy, she said she’d be the same person she built herself to be. ”
“Fuck,” I muttered, hating how my chest suctioned around my lungs.
Anika shifted the conversation. “I know this is a lot for you guys to take in, but I really do need help with a plan. If you love her, helping me save her empire is how you prove it. We have a couple hundred people who live in this underground home. They are counting on us to keep them safe, and we all know the other packs won’t help once they learn they were never under the protection of an Alpha.
The Sellers will come in and raid this place, so I need your help in finding an Alpha who can fake being an Alpha long enough for them to believe they were protected this whole time. ”
“What about Damien?” Jericho must’ve been figuring things out to pull that name so fast.
We hadn’t seen Saul’s son since we arrived, and I had no doubt Anika let her brother do an interrogation. Anika chewed on her bottom lip to think it over. “That might work, but it also might make other waves happen.”
“What do you mean?” Turner asked her.
“Castiel is trying to help Damien take over his father’s empire. There’s something they’re figuring out with whom might be involved, so they need Damien to be the head of his household to be their in.”
“But the Alpha’s here don’t know that, and whoever is helping on the outside doesn’t need to know he came in here to help us.
” Kashmir shrugged his shoulders. “The men in here only need a face, and not many of them even knew Saul had a son. He would just need to fake being the Alpha here for a day until we pivot later for his other needs.”
“It’s not a terrible idea,” I tacked on there.
When everyone gave me a funny look as to why, I let my eyes fall down to Kit.
“None of us have been blind to see that he’s in love with her just like the rest of us.
I know the family he comes from isn’t exactly the poster family for morals, but I do believe he loves Kit enough to help.
He already betrayed his father to save her. ”
“His father is doing something else in the city, but we still don’t know what that is.” Ryatt was thought over where the possibilities might led. “We don’t know who’s helping him.”
“Your father,” Kit murmured out of nowhere. She appeared like she slept, so I didn’t know if she was answering or dreaming.
“What?” Ryatt asked her.
“Your father is the secret that Saul hid. He’s helping him build whatever empire they have in mind.
He came to pay me a visit while I was there.
” We watched as Kit tried to sit up on her own in the robe we placed her in.
She was still too weak to handle it, so Ryatt let her rest her back against his chest.
“When you say he paid you a visit…” I couldn’t finish my sentence.
“He did what the others did, yes, but that wasn’t why he came to see me.” Her tired eyes met each of ours to see that we were all here for her. “He’s looking for Leia because she saw something she shouldn’t have. That’s why she’s in hiding.”
“Did she tell you that?” Anika asked, thinking Kit might have hidden something from her.
“No, but Randall filled me in. He was trying to get her location out of me. He also didn’t like it very much where I told him he could handle his business instead. Like I would ever tell him a damn thing about her, but we finally know why she ran when she did.”
Anika nodded as though that was confirmation enough. “Did you hear the part about using Damien?”
“I did, but I need to be the one who talks to him. I need to do that alone.” Trying to gather her bearings, Kit began to scoot to the edge of the bed in order to get off.
Even though she just suffered through immense pain, she strained to be the strongest among us.
When she first stood up off the bed, we thought she might actually have the vigor to walk, but she shortly fell to the floor.
We were on our feet to rescue her because none of us wanted to see her get more hurt than she already had been.
Anika swooped in and helped Kit get on her feet.
She brought her Omega back to the bed for her to stay put where she needed to stay.
“If you want to meet with him, I will bring him to you.”
Her stern look ordered us to leave the room. All the other guys gave Kit a hug or kiss before parting, but I lingered behind. I knew my eyes looked wounded as she asked us to leave, and she saw it instantly without me having to say it out loud.
“I’ll have Anika get you after my meeting with him. I’m not ready to sleep alone yet.” With her confession, I heard even more. Kit was terrified even though she put on a strong face. And while I felt important from her voicing it to me, I hated what it meant.
“I’ll see you soon,” I whispered right before kissing her temple and pulling her close.
Getting off her bed, I made my way to the hallway where the others were waiting.
None of us were too thrilled about the new plan, but we really couldn’t say anything against it either.
Without Damien helping Kit, her empire would be ruined permanently.