Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
GARETH
“I can’t believe you did this,” I hiss, laying Olivia down on the bedsheets. She was standing in the middle of the room when she slashed her arms, so the sheets are still clean.
My mind races as I think about how easily we could have lost her.
“Wake up so I can yell at you,” I growl, knowing that sleep is important for her to heal. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life.
My heart is beating sluggishly and hurts as I gaze down at her. I have to do something.
“Gareth,” Aled says, walking into the room.
I glare at him, and Balthazar follows behind him, showing his teeth before he jumps onto the bed. I open my mouth to warn him to be careful, but he curls up next to Olivia's body, pressing himself tightly against her.
“Good boy,” I whisper, watching how careful he is with her. “What do you want, brother?”
“Don’t do that,” Aled groans. “You’re right, okay? We’ve majorly bungled things.”
“So now you want my help?” I snort, noticing the way that Olivia’s hair is in her face from fighting with my stepfather. Brushing it away, I frown at how pale she looks.
“Yeah. I started it all. We always said that we’d never put an omega through what our mothers went through,” he says.
“I was never part of that conversation,” I deny. “Is it because we’re together?”
“No, it’s because you do things without thought,” Cai says from the doorway. “We also don’t like to remind you of your mother.”
He’s not wrong. I don’t remember her at all. All photos but one have been destroyed by my stepfather. I’ve always told myself that it didn’t matter how she died, because why would you kill your wife and then adopt the kid?
Dylan Behan does everything with an ulterior motive, and I’ve been the perfect weapon for him my entire life. It would track that he’d decide to use me the way he does everyone in his life.
It hurts to think about my mother because of all the secrecy around her. What if he hurt her and she couldn’t handle it? What if he killed her?
Either way, my stepfather needs to pay for his sins.
“Sometimes, you have to do what your gut tells you to,” I shrug.
On a whim, I pick up her hand and bite down hard on her thumb. I want her to open her eyes just so I can see them.
“Should you be doing that?” Aled asks wryly.
“I’m a beta. We can’t bond with omegas, right?” I ask, my brow wrinkling as my body fills with pain. “What the fuck?”
“Could we not have a fire to put out while I’m here?” Dr. Royal asks peevishly, squeezing past Cai. Maddox looks worried as he gazes around the room as he shows the doctor in, as if he’s trying to figure out where the fire is.
A droplet of blood bubbles up to the surface of Olivia’s thumb, and she whimpers softly.
“I need you to answer something for me, Doc,” I rasp, terror clawing at my insides. “Betas can’t bond with omegas, right?”
Please tell me I’m right. She has to accept it or something, consent! Goddamn, please tell me I didn’t just fuck shit up even more.
“Yes, they can,” he says slowly, walking over to gaze at her thumb. “Ahh, that’s not good. Do you feel any different?”
“Her pain,” I say, panic flooding through me. Olivia whines in her sleep, and Dr. Royal growls under his breath.
“Stop freaking out,” he insists. “It sounds like you did just bond with her, but that would only happen if she was open to it. You’re going to need to tell her as soon as she wakes up, or she’ll feel betrayed. If you’re the only safe person in this house for her, don’t take that away.”
Forcing myself to breathe, I nod. I compartmentalize really well, which may be why it bothers me so much when Olivia disappears into her mind. I want her to lose it, scream, anything except disappear.
Today, she did lose it, which was an entirely different kind of terrifying. I really thought my stepfather was going to snap her neck or stab her. I don’t want to be left behind again. I want her to fight and survive it.
I refuse to call Dylan Behan my father ever again. He was, in a way, responsible for Olivia deciding that death was preferable to losing her bodily autonomy. This was her final straw.
“Working on not freaking out,” I promise. “I’ve bitten her before, nothing fucking happened!”
“You got cocky,” the doctor snorts in derision, gently taking her hand from me. “Actually, I think you should grab some clothes for Olivia. I’m realizing how torn the ones she’s wearing now are.”
His eyes are respectfully trained on the bedspread and my brothers surprise me by growling. Olivia’s shirt is still torn open, her breasts on display. Moving quickly, I pick up the first long sleeved shirt I can find that's oversized and comfortable and return to change her into it.
I’m less worried about modesty than her comfort, but I appreciate that Dr. Royal steps aside, and my brothers glance away as well. Olivia deserves respect.
I can yell and curse at my stepfather all I want, yet he gave me the best brothers I could ever ask for. Aled and I may be on the outs as well at the moment, however, he’s always been there for me.
Her skirt is next to go, and I cover her carefully with the comforter and sheet. Balthazar barely moves from her side outside of lifting his head to give me an unimpressed look.
Yeah, buddy, I know. Trust me.
Dr. Royal returns to Olivia’s side and sets up her IV before rattling off signs of infection before muttering that he needs to head to his shift. I don’t blame him for not wanting to spend any more time than he needs to around us, not when the tension is so high in the room.
“Tell her,” Dr. Royal grunts before he strides from the room with his things.
“I’ll make sure he leaves,” Maddox says, dogging his steps. Paranoid as always.
“I really don’t think the doctor is an issue,” I snort, finally glancing down at my hands to realize they’re covered in dried blood.
Sighing, I walk to the bathroom and scrub at my hands and arms, all while watching Olivia from the doorway.
“We aren’t going to steal her away,” Cai says drolly, watching my furtive glances.
“Why wouldn’t I be worried when you were ready to give her to that monster,” I snarl, referring to my stepfather.
“We wouldn’t have let it get that far,” Aled sighs. “Dad would have murdered her and left if we’d shown any signs of weakness.”
“I know how he fucking operates!” I scream, my jaw clenching as Olivia’s body stiffens. Scrubbing at my skin, I curse as the blood takes forever to come off. “We have a shitstorm building, guys. Not only that, but I accidentally bonded with Olivia, and she may never forgive me.”
“I don’t know about that,” Aled murmurs. “She trusts you. I don’t know how or when, but she looked to you for comfort.”
“She looked to me to save her, and I couldn’t,” I correct him. “There’s only one way to fix our biggest problem. The question is are we ready to fill his shoes?”
“Legitimate business is boring,” Maddox says, rejoining the conversation. “We can keep the company going because of the jobs it’s creating, and easily take over the crime side as well. The entire time Dad was here, I felt like I was silently screaming inside. The cycle of his abuse ends now.”
“Use some petroleum jelly for the rest of the blood on your skin and wipe it off,” Cai adds. “You’re just stripping layers of skin off at this point, Gareth. You can't inflict pain on yourself if you're connected to Olivia.”
Blowing out a breath, I dry off my skin with a nod. I fucking know this, I just can’t think. Applying a thick layer of petroleum oil to my skin, I wipe the blood off easily as I lean against the door frame.
“So that’s it?” I ask. “After all of this, you’re nonchalantly agreeing to kill your father?”
“Everything that’s happened in the past twenty-four hours are the exact things we hoped to avoid,” Aled confirms. “I don’t want to constantly be looking over my shoulder, wondering when the other shoe will drop, and now our mothers can finally heal after whatever bullshit Dad put them through.
Seeing it first hand helped me realize that my mother isn’t as selfish as I believe her to be. ”
“It still doesn’t make me feel any better about how she deals with things,” Cai grumbles. “The small amount of what I know from Olivia shows how strong she is. She seems to be a much better mother than ours ever was.”
Finally happy now that the blood is off my skin, I toss the towel into the trash can. Gazing down at my clothes, I strip down and toss those into the trash as well since they’re also splattered from the way I was holding her. Pulling on a pair of pajama pants, I call it a day.
It’ll all need to be burned by our men later, but at least now the reminder of Olivia’s suicide attempt is off my body. Moving to the bed, I nudge Balthazar over so I can lay down between them.
“So the three of you are completely fine with staging a coup and killing your dad?” I ask, scowling as I tuck my arm behind my head. “This isn’t some kind of fucked up way to find out my plan and then tell him?”
Cai whistles under his breath, folding his arms over his chest as Maddox shakes his head in disapproval. I know it’s always been us against the world, but I’m feeling really disappointed in my brothers right now. I need to know where they stand.
“You truly believe so little of us, of me?” Aled asks, hurt. “She’s—”
“Mine,” I rumble. “You don’t deserve her or me.
We can review that after she’s safe. I can’t split my focus between things when we’re discussing murdering the head of the California Welsh crime family, Aled.
As for Olivia, she can speak for herself.
You’d better believe that she needs to have a reason to give any of you another chance. ”