Finally, she spoke. “When I was eight or nine,hewent away for a month on business, taking a lot of his higher-level cronies with him. No one was there, and my Mom tried to detox. Tried to come back to me for just a little while. We couldn’t leave, of course—there were still guards everywhere—but she locked herself in her bedroom, made me padlock the door from the outside, and went cold turkey for five days. I’d slip her granola bars and food under her door. When she came out, she looked like death but her eyes were clear for the first time in as long as I could remember. It was like having my mom back, the one I remembered from before, but had convinced myself was really just a dream. We baked. Created a succulent garden in the backyard. Watched old movies. It was the best three weeks of my life. Then he came back and she went back to being strung out all the time, until the end. But I remember that she went through that torture just to have a couple of weeks with me.”
She buried her face back in my neck, and I could feel the hot slide of her tears against my skin. I didn’t say anything, feeling like shit that I’d even brought it up, but sometimes you had to rip the scabs off old wounds so they had a chance to heal properly. I held her tightly, my chest thrumming in a purr, as I comforted her the best I could.
When her tears dried a little, and my legs were well and truly dead, I pulled her back slightly. “I swear that Luisa will only know happiness here. There’ll only be laughter and light. We can’t go back and erase your childhood, but we can give her the one you should have had. If you let us, we’ll chase away all your pain too.”
She nodded softly, burrowing back into me. I lay back, still holding her against my chest, thinking maybe she was right. Maybe my past was just what I needed to get here. It was a trial, but now I was the man who would protect her and Luisa until my final breath.
40
Ellar
Seven had a really shitty opinion about the Universe and Fate. The ones you say with Capital letters like they were living entities. Sometimes I thought they must really be goddesses, because they could be cruel bitches when they wanted to be.
Two days before the witch was scheduled to return to fix the ward, the perimeter alarms blared to life. It sounded like a smoke alarm, an ear-piercing whooping noise waking us all from our sleep. I was wrapped in Gatlin’s arms, with Raiden pressed against my back. Seven and Finlo were in bed with Naja.
Luisa had moved to the nursery we’d been painstakingly constructing over the last two weeks. Gatlin sat straight up, on his feet and in sweats faster than my eyes could track. Raiden wasn’t far behind me, and I scrabbled off the bed, shucking myself quickly into sweats and heading to Luisa’s room. The little girl was standing in her crib, her eyes wide with fear. I picked her up, and she wrapped her arms around my neck so tightly that I could feel her trembling.
“Don’t worry, Little Bit. It’s just the alarm. Everything is okay,” I cooed softly, and she relaxed a little in my arms. The alarm cut out, but none of the lights came on. We didn’t need lights; it would just make us easy targets in case this wasn’t a false alarm. But I knew it wasn’t, could feel it deep in my gut.
Naja appeared, holding out her arms, and I passed her Luisa. Although she had a small smile on her face, I could see the absolute fear in her eyes. She was keeping it locked down for the cub, but she was terrified.
Raiden came into the nursery, and I could see from the bulges beneath his clothes that he was armed. “Gatlin, Finlo and Seven are going to check it out. They’ve called the Legion Force, and they are on their way. We should head up to the nest.”
We’d come up with a plan for this. In the case of an incursion, Raiden, Naja, Luisa, and I needed to head up to the nest. It had a reinforced door, and we could escape across the roof if we needed to. I was the last line of defense for them. That fucking terrified the shit out of me. I didn’t have the combat training the others had, but what I did have was an extreme protective instinct. If it came to it, my Beast would tear apart anyone who came for our Omegas and cub. I had to trust the Beast.
I ushered them all up the stairs, and I could tell Raiden was annoyed that he couldn’t be out there too. But he carried our future, and he needed to worry about protecting them first. I bolted the door in three places. We’d replaced it with reinforced steel and bolt slides. It wouldn’t be easy to kick in, even for a supernatural. Unless you were a vampire, of course.
Raiden walked straight over to the window and looked out into the darkness. I couldn’t tell if it was my mind playing tricks on me, or if I could really see movement in the trees. I willed the Legion to hurry the fuck up.
Then the gunshots started. Distant at first, but each one ratcheted up my anxiety. Naja sat on the side of the sunken couch, Luisa clutched to her chest, and she flinched with every shot. I sat beside her, pressing her to my side. “It’s gonna be okay, baby. We were literally bred for this.”
She nodded, but I didn’t think much was sinking in.
Raiden looked back over his shoulder at me. “There are dozens of them out there. The Legion Force isn’t going to make it in time. We’re already surrounded.”
Naja’s breathing became ragged. Raiden came over and knelt in front of her, one hand on Luisa’s back as he sent his calming Omega power through her body. “I promise you, Naja, that this ends tonight. He will die. You will be safe.”
She shook her head. “You don’t even know he’s out there.”
Raiden growled. “He’s out there. That psycho fuck has been here the whole time, watching and waiting. I’ll kill him myself.”
I growled low in my chest too. “I’ll spit on his corpse.”
He kissed her head and stood, heading back to the window. More gunshots echoed, but I refused to think that one of my family might be out there catching those bullets. I believed what I’d told Naja—we were made for this. They would be okay.
My eyes moved to Raiden, and I saw him tense. He threw me a meaningful look and I knew what it meant. They’d breached the yard and were heading to the house. How had they gotten so close without tripping the perimeter wards?
“Any sign of the guys?” I asked softly, but Raiden shook his head. Naja let out a sob, and I squeezed her closer. Raiden handed me a gun, and I took it.
“Baby, I need you to come over here and sit with Luisa behind this cupboard, okay?” I moved the wardrobe as silently as I could, so there was only a little space between the wall and the wardrobe. It would stop any stray bullets and protect them both.
Naja came over and sat behind it, and I hated the blank looks on both their faces. I knew she was reliving the past, they both were, and I wanted to roar in rage.
Instead, I moved to the other side of the room and waited. We didn’t have to wait long. There was a thump on the door as they tried to get into the nest.
“Locked,” I heard someone yell, and another voice came through the door eerily clearly.
“I know you’re in there. Come out and this all ends. The rest of your boyfriends don’t have to die, and you can even leave the brat here with them. I just want you.”
