51 Kayos
The flickering lamp outside Castiel’s bar bothered my eyes, so I waited with my hood on.
Even though this was the place Damien picked for us to meet when I asked him to, it didn’t mean I trusted the rat inside who owned it.
My mind still struggled to wrap around the concept that Castiel and Kit had been in cahoots this whole time.
A man no one trusted just so happened to change his stripes when it came to swooping in and saving Kit?
I didn’t buy it, so I kept my hood up for his cameras not to know.
Smoking a cigarette helped ease my mind.
The others would kill me if they saw it, but I needed something to soothe all the chaos going on inside of me.
After the others found out about my adventure with Kit in the woods, Turner and Jericho let us know about their rendezvous with her in the gym.
Ryatt only added to it when he confessed to having her two nights ago.
That started a whole shit show we weren’t prepared for, so I stepped in to change the subject for something useful.
My dad might’ve been a piece of shit, but my mother was a librarian.
Ryatt was the only one who didn’t take to her books for advice, learning brute force by our father.
Leia and I loved learning with our mom. Now that she was gone, those memories were all I had left.
At least she left me with something useful for this predicament.
Once I told my brother what I remembered, he ordered me to fetch Damien.
I became the errand boy without warning, but I knew better than to start trouble over it.
He was working with the other Alphas after Damien appointed him to help when he pretended to be Kit’s hidden leader.
While Ryatt and Anika dealt with the packs beginning reconstruction of their homes, I stood here to do the dirty work.
“Hey there, big boy. Looking for some fun?” A corner hooker found me. Pressing her tits against my arm, she let the tips of her fingers stroke over my middle.
Rolling my eyes, I gently pushed her off me. “No, thanks.”
“Asshole,” she muttered before finding the next helpless sap on her path.
Eyeing her direction, I noticed some girls flat on their faces within the vicinity of the building.
I took in their lack of movements, confirming what Ryatt had told us about the last time he came here with Kit.
Someone was dabbling in the drug business, but they weren’t cutting them right.
It’d be something we needed to investigate.
Before I could walk over to one for examination, another dark figure emerged from the alley in the back.
Damien had his hood up, but I recognized his scent when he neared.
Without his dead father’s ruining his, it was way better.
The smoky underlying remained, but I got a bigger whiff of sandalwood.
“Kayos,” he greeted me before pulling out his own cigarette. “Have a lighter on you?”
He made our interaction less suspicious by smoking with me and asking for a lighter. Handing mine to him, he lit it up and took a long draw. I watched how his own shoulders relaxed because he had been under an insane amount of pressure.
“Is she alright?” Damien worried this meeting was to give him bad news in person about Kit. It made sense, and I respected that he thought I’d deliver it in person because I would.
“She’s fine. Still combating the addiction, and her heat cycle set in, but she’s alive and eating food again.” That didn’t sound like the best update, but it’s what I had for him.
“She’s in heat?” He paused his next draw.
“Yes, and she’s unmated still.”
“Damn her. I told her to join your pack when I left her.” He shook his head, understanding Kit would never do what he asked if it meant defying her wants.
“She’ll never be ours without being yours too,” I murmured.
“But she can’t have us both, and she gets more from all of you, more than I could ever offer with where I’m at now.”
“What if I told you there’s a way she could have you and us without merging our packs?” Huffing in my own smoke, I left him to ponder it.
“What do you mean? Ryatt and I can’t share an Omega. Pack laws forbid it.”
“While my brother is the handsome face of our pack, I’m the brain. I’m the one who knows of things not many do because my mother taught me and my sister. Leia studied more with her, but that’s because my father hated her. She spent almost every second with my mom to avoid his wrath.”
“Why would he hate his only daughter?” Damien asked a good question.
“We never knew besides she hated him. Something happened between them, and neither told the rest of us, but that’s beside the point right now.
” Shooing those thoughts away, I waved my hand.
“My mom had a book that talked about the old ways, when packs were more primal with less Omegas to go around. There was a ritual used that can make an Omega belong to two packs.”
“Do you know it?” Damien let me see he had a single ounce of hope for this plan working. That was all I needed to get him onboard.
“Most of it. My sister has the books, so I’ve sent word to her. She’ll respond by the end of the day. Would you mind coming tomorrow evening to accomplish it?”
“Why so fast?” He was right to be hesitant.
“Because Kit isn’t doing well with being unmarked and in heat.
Ryatt left her bed yesterday morning, and she thought he left her permanently again.
It almost triggered a relapse. She doesn't want us without you, so this is the only thing I have up my sleeve. It gives her to both of us, and she’ll feel less abandoned from the ties. ”
“And you’re sure it’ll work?”
“Mostly, but I did want to ask who’s in your pack that might try to hurt our Omega. That’s the part I’m worried about with it being your father’s men,” I added.
“Long before recent events, I made a circle of men within my father’s ranks.
They’re now my inner circle and can be trusted.
Most know the truth about my part when it came to the death of my father already, agreeing to help make it happen, and they accept my love for Kit.
They won’t question her connection to me, but I cannot promise they won’t feel drawn to her through that tether. ”
“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t much to process because I already knew Kit’s life would always be more important than our egos. “Fuck it. Even if they fall in love with her, I’d rather have that than her isolation.”
“You sure?” Damien revealed his skepticism.
“Tomorrow night. I’ll pick you up at the address I’m sending your way. Bring your pack for us to formally meet. After, we’ll do the ritual.” God, the others were going to kill me. Putting my hands in my pocket, I began to walk away as though we never dabbled in our deal at all.
“Kayos!” he shouted after me. Turning my head his way, he tossed me the lighter back. “When she’s out of heat, we’ll need to talk too. It’s about your father.”
No one on this planet ruffled my feathers at the mere mention of a name besides him. Randall wasn’t someone I ever wanted to see again, but I knew he hadn’t been too happy when his seat was revoked with the families for Ryatt and I to take his place.
“What about him?”
“He found a new business partner while everything went down. We’ll talk more when there’s better privacy.” Eyeing the drunkards fumbling through the streets, we never knew if it was an act for someone to spy on us. Plus, Castiel could be listening in.
Dipping my chin, I knew Ryatt wouldn’t be thrilled to hear about this one. Pulling my jacket closer with my hands in my pockets, I made my way to my car and headed back to where I belonged. Tomorrow night would be interesting indeed.
***
We sat around the table in Kit’s conference room, our pack on one side with Damien’s on the other.
Yeah, this felt as awkward as we had imagined it would be.
The men across from us had this ruthless appearance, living the hard life Saul provided them.
Most were covered in tattoos, showing their gang ink, and I saw the same one on them all.
The tattoo of six crows lined right along their biceps for strength in pack, but these were older tattoos.
They secretly marked themselves this whole time, and his dad never noticed.
Raphael and Anika watched from the ends of the table, mediating if necessary.
Her hair was a rich red instead of white and blue, but I loved the bounce to her curls that weren’t braided back anymore.
She felt me looking at her, so I pointed to my scalp before giving her the okay sign that I liked her change in style.
She smiled, dipping her chin at my recognition.
No one had spoken yet after Raphael brought them in, so we acted like it was our first middle school dance all over again.
Ryatt finally cleared his throat to begin as the leading Alpha.
“Damien, thank you for being willing to try this. I know it’ll be a little unorthodox-”
“But Kit is worth it,” Damien finished. “As requested, these are the only men I trust within my compound. They’ve known about Kit from being my age when our fathers brought her in the first time.”
“You were forced in by association,” Turner leaned onto the table a little more to study over them with his dark stare.
“We were,” one spoke up. “I’m Edgar, and my father was in Saul’s inner circle. He made me join to provide more numbers in Saul’s ranks. Most of us didn’t choose this life, much-like the lot of you. The only difference between you and us were the positions offered.”
“And how can we know you’ll treat Kit right?” Franco asked.
Edgar placed his elbows on the table before meeting his gaze to let him read the honesty he was about to say.
“We were forced to witness what they did to your Omega the first time. We watched as they tore her pussy open with bottles and baseball bats in the name of fun. We were the ones who covered for Damien when he began removing the screws in the floorboards for her to hide in. If we didn’t turn on her then or now, I feel like it’s a good leap of faith to believe we won’t.
Kit Andrews has been through too much to make her give herself to us just because we share a bond. We respect what she’s endured.”
His words stuck with me. There was no undoing the past but hearing more about hers made me sick to my stomach.
While the others chatted and learned names, I zoned them out completely because I still didn’t feel like we deserved her forgiveness.
It wasn’t until I heard my name being called that I noticed everyone watching me.
Ryatt tipped his chin to the side, asking without words if I needed him.
Doing the same motion in the opposite direction, I told him I’d be fine.
“The ritual?” Damien mentioned as though I missed my cue.
Clearing my throat, I pointed to Anika. “We got word back from my sister, and it’ll be easy enough. You Alphas will have to share your own blood before biting her neck at the same time. The best way to mark her after will be for her to press your heads down on opposite sides to control the pace.”
Ryatt and Damien looked to each other, sharing a silent conversation with how they wanted to go about it.
We could all see when they came to their decision, smirking at whatever idea they were daring each other with.
I could only imagine they planned to help Kit with her next wave of heat while bonding her to their packs.
At least the conference had gone smoothly between us.
We’d take the men back to our room to get to know them better while the leading Alphas did their ritual without an audience.