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 andNiko’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 ouromegaand betaare 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 takessmall townto 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 saidThief 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 tohelpour 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 thisisgoing 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.”
