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“Thank you for being with me,” I mumbled, toying with Spud instead of looking directly at Hana.
“You’re welcome. I texted the pack to let them know the situation. You’re welcome to stay with us for as long as you want.”
“How am I going to go back to my apartment after this? What if they don’t charge him?”
“Nicky, don’t worry about that right now. The important thing is that both you and Spud are safe. We’ll figure out the rest later.”
As the adrenaline faded away, I could only nod, the energy to do any more than that entirely depleted.
I wasn’t up to eating, but Hana did insist that we stop for smoothies on the way back, and I sipped mine in the car until I could work myself up to going inside the pack house. I had nothing with me, no supplies for Spud, and no way to get back into my apartment. With a sigh, I let Hana escort me inside, where the whole pack, save Jasper, was waiting for us. I fell into their collective embrace and lost it all over again.
Soothing voices were surround-sound, and arms cradled me from every direction.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Nicky, you have nothing to be sorry for,” Hana insisted. “Why don’t you give Spud to Billie so he can have some breakfast, and we’ll get you changed into something more comfortable?”
As much as I didn’t want to let go of my little boy, it wasn’t fair to keep him hungry for my own comfort. Billie cradled him like the treasure he was and scooped him some extra fancy wet food. Hana carried me bridal style. I was too drained to resist, so I simply curled into her arms and let her do what she wanted.
Upstairs she got me out of my work clothes and into a borrowed pair of her pajamas.
She cupped my face in both hands and lifted my chin until I looked at her, drowning in those perfect amber eyes.
“You did very well today, Nicky. We’re going to fix this, and until we do, we’re here for you. Whatever you need.”
I nodded slowly and tipped forward into her arms, looping mine around her waist and tucking my face against her throat. “Right now I just need this.”
“Then you have it.”
35
JASPER
“Packmeetinginmyroom.”
I woke to Hana's whisper in my ear and carefully inched myself away from Nicky. She had slept on the main floor in the couch nest with Spud curled on her pillow like a little grey fuzzball. I didn’t blame her one bit for wanting to be easily accessible to him. We’d set up everything he might need close by so he didn’t have to walk too much with his tender hip.
I draped an extra blanket over Nicky and tiptoed up the stairs on my alpha's heels. The others were already in Hana's room when we arrived, scattered around her space with Gabe perched at her desk, Billie on the foot of her bed, and Tony leaning against the wall.
“I changed my mind about everything,” Hana said as I closed the door behind me.
“In a good direction or a bad direction?” Billie asked.
“I want her in,” Hana said. “ I was ready to tear that fucker’s spine out through his nostrils when he made her cry.Fuck. Every alpha instinct I’ve ever possessed wanted me to commit homicide.”
Hana didn’t get into feral moods like this very often, but there was something about her ferocity that made her absolutely breathtaking. Alphonse was lucky he’d been able to drive away. If she’d have caught himinsideNicky's apartment, he probably wouldn’t have been able to walk out of it.
While we had taken turns last night getting Nicky settled, Hana had updated us on all of the bullshit Alphonse had pulled. I was only alittlebit jealous that the entire rest of the pack had gotten to play protector while I had been at the bakery every time this asshole had shown up.
“Do you think she would stay with us?” I asked. “I’d feel better with her here. A gated community offers one extra step of protection. I’m sure her family would take her in a heartbeat; it would probably only be a matter of time before Alphonse found out where she was staying.”
Hana crossed her arms, her brow furrowed. “I just hope the cops catch him. He doesn’t really have plausible deniability with how good Spud got a slap in.”
Gabe rose up from the desk and hooked his arm around Hana's waist, pulling her into a soothing hug. “I’m going to install a motion sensor doorbell with a camera. I’m happy to have Nicky stay with us, and I think a little extra security step will make everyone feel better.”
“Ugh! This is so dumb.” Billie flopped back onto the bed. “Why can’t this asshole just accept a simple ‘no’ and leave our girl the fuckalone?”
“Pretty sure he thinks Nicky is his property,” I said. I had been lucky to find Billie and Tony as early as I had, but as a teen, I had run into similar issues with possessive assholes. None of them had gone as far as Alphonse did, but I had heard plenty of stories and knew that there were a lot more steps he could take if you really wanted to. If I had anything to say about it, he wasn’t going to get the chance. Nicky had suffered enough.
