Chapter 28 #3
I mean, that’s not how I look at her, or how I would ever look at her.
I hate that I even implied—if only to myself—she is or was something bought and owned, property traded amongst shitty fucking alphas who used and abused her for years.
She’s my omega, my soul bond and one of the people in my pack that I’m fortunate enough to be able to love for the rest of my life.
Liv was nothing like the omegas Niko and I saw at auctions, simply because she means everything to us, and I’m an asshole for thinking that way even if I didn’t mean it.
It’s hard not to slip back into the mindset of using that kind of terminology when these topics come up, though.
Especially after staying with Alexei for so long.
But it definitely doesn’t make it okay, and I need to get my shit together.
I’m such a bastard.
Despite that, Hayk flagging somewhere in my brain means very little after growing up in an environment where douchebags like him were a dime a dozen.
“We had a house. Property. I thought I was finally going to be free.”
I blink a few times as I turn back to Liv, my chest tightening over the sadness in her voice. “You are free, kotenyk.”
She gives me a watery smile. “I am now, yeah, and I’d like to think this is the beginning of the life I was always meant to have, but it was their sacrifice that got me here. That’s why I have to find out what happened and why, then handle it. I owe that to them. It’s the very least I can do.”
I get it.
I think we all finally get it.
To be honest, it helps me get over the hypocritical and wildly illogical jealousy I feel every time her previous pack comes up.
It’s not right, and I know that, but I can’t help it. None of us can because I know for a fact I’m not the only one who feels like that, but the way Liv talks about them, how she has a deep love for them but might not have really been in love with them, it takes those feelings down a notch.
“Why don’t you think the bites took?” Leon asks, unknowingly following my train of thought.
I was always under the impression that even chosen mates could bite and form a version of a bond as long as they reciprocated the feelings.
That’s what happened with Boris and Niko’s mom.
They weren’t scent matched like he was with my mother, or soul bonded in any way.
My father had a weird soft spot for Mia and Niko, and that led to a mutually beneficial relationship, then eventually, Tatiana.
“I honestly don’t know,” Liv says with a sigh.
“I made peace with it a long time ago, just kind of accepted that’s how things were supposed to be, and that's why we decided to get the rings.” She fingers the charm on her necklace and slides it back and forth on the chain.
“But I never understood why we couldn’t mark each other when we all wanted it. ”
Styx huffs and Niko growls to himself, and I can’t help but chuckle over the way our omega and beta are the ones to vocalize their disdain for that comment.
It’s kind of adorable.
Leon winks at me then turns back to Liv. “Maybe we should look at property in… Thief River Falls, was it?”
She nods. “I didn’t want to live there at first, it felt like a million miles away from civilization, but eventually that’s what sold me on it. It takes small town to another level, and I was starting to warm up to the idea of it becoming our permanent address. Then—”
“Wait.” My heart starts racing as I suck down my cigarette then stab it out on my shitkicker. Wait a fucking minute. “Hold on, wait. You said Thief River Falls, Minnesota?”
Liv rolls her eyes and parks her hands on her hips. “We’ve been over this already, D. Are you sure you don’t want me to bust out the Crayolas and—”
“We had a hit in Thief River Falls.” The sound of my pulse pounding in my ears is the only thing I can hear as those words roll off my tongue.
My entire pack freezes, silent and unmoving, barely breathing as all eyes land on me.
Liv isn’t breathing at all, I can tell by how stock fucking still she is, and I swear to god, I can hear her begging the god she stopped believing in years ago for this to be a coincidence.
“When?” Styx asks as his eyes move between me and Niko. “When was the hit, D?”
“Two and a half years ago,” Niko whispers as all the color drains from his face. He starts shaking his head as he turns to Liv, his eyes wide as they begin to well with tears. “We didn’t know.”
Our girl is like a statue. The position she’s in would be relaxed for anyone else, with her arms dangling at her sides and her shoulders slumped, but her muscles are flexed and tense, and I’m almost positive she hasn’t blinked since I started to connect the dots.
I wish I never had.
“Liv, kitten, we didn’t know. I swear we didn’t know, how could we?”
I move next to Niko and place my hand on the small of his back, stepping slightly in front of him as we throw our gloves into the ring and brace for some kind of fight.
“Boris gave us the orders,” I say, my voice low as I hold my hands out in front of me, slowly trying to get closer to our omega as I begin telling her the truth she obviously needs to hear.
A truth I had no idea we were going to be able to give her, and I fucking hate that we can.
“Thief River Falls, Minnesota. A small house in the middle of nowhere. About an acre of land out back before the trees, less in the front but there was a long driveway that ended between the house and an old barn converted into a garage.” I take a few more steps but stop the second Liv starts backing away.
“He gave us a map and blueprints, then handed over the physical copy of his orders and told us we had twenty-four hours from arrival to carry them out.”
A tear rolls down our girl’s cheek as she stops, steeling her spine as she braces for whatever I’m going to say next but those words, they’re harder than any I’ve said before.
I swallow hard, almost choking on the words, and look back at Niko, both of our omegas openly crying while more emotions than I can name fly through our bonds at the speed of light.
I could use my bark to make everyone listen, to keep Liv from taking off or doing anything rash.
Purring would soothe both of them, I know that, but it feels wrong.
Both feel wrong. I’ve destroyed so much, I’ve fucked up so many times already, the last thing I want to do is use the natural abilities given to us to help our omegas in whatever way possible, just to manipulate Liv or give her some false sense of security.
This is another level of betrayal, one I can’t really comprehend regardless of the obliviousness accompanying it, and I won’t do anything to make it worse if I can help it.
I have no idea how this is going to play out, honestly, but I know for fucking sure that I’m going to try like hell to be as transparent as I possibly can, tell her the entire truth, and pray I don’t hurt her any more than I have to.
Because this is going to fucking hurt, and I can’t change that.
“We had thermal imaging goggles and sniper rifles. We set up on the roof of the garage and waited until we saw what we needed to, and we did what we were told to do.”
Liv blinks as a few more tears roll down her cheeks, swiping them away with shaking hands. “Which was what?”
I take a deep breath and hold it, my heart seconds from beating out of my chest, then I give our girl the closure she’s been waiting for.
“Four people. Three males, one female. No names, no faces, no details. Keep it clean, keep it quiet. In and out. No need to obtain proof, a third party was going to be sent to do that. Location was remote, so it should be an easy job with a big payout.”
Every goddamn word is like a knife to my chest, stabbing and twisting all the way down to my bones. I’m just waiting to see which word will be the one to sever our bond as I singlehandedly ruin six lives this time.
“How much?” Liv asks after what feels like an eternity.
My brow furrows in confusion. “How much what?”
“The payout.” She looks me right in the eye, straight into my black fucking soul and starts shredding it. “How much did you get for the four of us?”
“Liv,” Leon says as he gets to his feet, looking between the rest of us as the severity of the situation takes a hard left. “Baby, I don’t really think that’s important, not when—”
“How fucking much?!”
“One million per body,” Niko says quietly, his voice broken and full of fear. “Half up front, the rest when the third party got confirmation.”
Our girl nods as she starts backing away again.
“Not bad. Might have gotten more if you took home some proof, but I guess things would have gotten messy if you had.” Then she laughs, an empty, hollow sound that makes it hard to breathe.
“I wonder what they would have given you if they knew you needed to kill me twice?”
Niko pushes past me, seconds from dropping to his knees, whether to beg for forgiveness, or for our girl to love us even though we don’t deserve it, I’m not sure, but stops short when Liv holds up her hands.
“We had no idea, Liv. You have to believe that. We didn’t know, there’s no way we could have. ”
“Since I’d never even heard of Boris Volkov until I met you, I can’t imagine the hit was one he came up with all on his own.
Some meaningless little omega, a used up sex slave and the gang of alphas contracted to fuck her when she wasn’t being pimped out?
That’s just another Tuesday to a guy like him.
Business as usual, right?” Liv uses the heels of her hands to scrub the tears from her cheeks.
“So, who really wanted us dead? Who was the one that called dear old daddy and asked him to send his best men out to BFE Minnesota?”
I push my hands aggressively back through my hair and grit my teeth. “Hayk Petrosyan. That’s why I recognized the name, it was written on the orders, but I didn’t know him. Neither of us did.”
“They were just doing their job, love.” Styx says cautiously as he and Rune join us. “They didn’t know it was you, and even if they had a name, they wouldn’t have known—”
“What? That we’re supposed to fall madly in love and become some big bonded pack that pops out tons of babies while we all live happily ever after?
” Liv laughs and sobs at the same time, the sound gut wrenching and brutal as she looks at our beta and tries to compose herself.
“You’re right. If they hadn’t murdered my pack in cold blood, I wouldn’t be here right now, having my mind fucking blown by the men I’m actually bonded to.
So, I guess there’s that.” Our girl lifts her hands to her temples, rubbing them for a brief second before she drops them to her sides once again.
“I thought my family was bad, and believe me when I say, they are really, really goddamn bad and I’ve barely told you a fraction of that trauma, but fuck.
Look at us. You were hunting him for a bounty”—she motions between Leon and me—“you shot him a couple of times before abandoning him completely”—Liv points at Niko—“the two of you killed the men who saved me from a life I wasn’t sure I could keep living, and I bet you were even the one who managed to successfully put a few holes in me in the process.
” She motions to me again then sweeps her arm toward Rune and Styx.
“What’s next? Who’s next? I think it’s kind of like the biting shit.
If we haven’t all been almost murdered by someone we’re in love with, what’s the fucking point of being a goddamn pack? Where is the goddamn love in that?”
As soon as those last few words leave her lips, our girl spins on her heel and starts to run toward the barn, stifling her sobs the best she can while she does exactly what I knew she was going to do.
“Don’t fucking follow me!” Liv yells right before she goes inside, and that’s when it clicks.
Fuck. “Where are your keys?” I ask Niko seconds before their truck comes tearing out of the barn at full speed, the wheels kicking up grass and dirt as the Ford speeds across the yard. “Fuck me.”
My head falls back on my neck as I close my eyes, my hands returning to my hair where I tangle my fingers and pull hard at the roots.
This is one hell of a twist of fate.
A hit almost three years ago turns out to be the catalyst for a series of horrible events that ultimately led us to the here and now.
A fucking hit that shattered Liv’s already guarded heart, and I have no goddamn idea if the five of us are enough to put the pieces back together.