“Where’s Lee?” I ask. Nash is supposed to be with Max’s sister in her cabin. His eyes flicker to the side with clear guilt. “She’s… in her cabin?” he asks.
“Is she?” I feign surprise. “Isn’t that where you’re supposed to be too?”
Nash pouts, his bottom lip sticking out adorably. “I don’t want to do spellings today, Uncle Luc. It’s too nice outside.”
“Careful,” I warn, grabbing his lip gently. “Leave that out and one of the birds might grab it.”
Nash gasps dramatically, holding his lip and mumbling something that I don’t catch. I watch him for a moment as he throws himself back into a bunch of leaves.
“Uncle Luc?”
“Yes, bud?”
“When’s Uncle Max getting back?”
Nash’s brow furrows in concern. Too much concern for a six-year-old.
“Soon, Nash. We just talked to him. He won’t be long, but he needs to help someone first.”
Nash considers this for a minute, his acorn-colored eyes reflecting the trees around us in the afternoon autumn sunshine.
“I guess that’s okay,” he declares seriously.
“It is?”
“Sure,” he says. “Because helping people is really imprudent. Aunt Lee told me. And Papa.”
“Important?”
“That’s what I said!”
I bite back a laugh at his earnest expression, but it swells into sadness. Nash is so like his mom sometimes it’s painful.
Nash is the reason we’re all here. The reason our pack exists at all, really.
Nikolai built our house, hidden on acres of land, as part of his long-term plan to protect Emery from the reach of the Omega Creed. We’d already bought the land through a series of false identities thanks to my brother Bastien, our chief technical wizard. We wanted to do everything we could to get them somewhere safe, even though we hadn’t made any decisions on the pack at that stage.
When Em died, we came here anyway. All our broken, grieving parts, a pack held together by prayers and sheer fucking stubbornness, with a newborn baby and a shattered alpha to take care of. It took months to even get Nik to eat, only Nash able to pull him out of his grief. Max haunted the hallways like a ghoul, his guilt soaking into the walls of the house until I could almost taste the tart scent on my tongue.
Bastien and I did the best we could with the help of Max’s sister Leah, making sure the house was as protected as we could possibly be, and that we had the right set-up to keep Nash safe for life. But it took us years to reach any kind of normality.
My brother was right. We have talked about whether we might be able to help other omegas like Em keep out of the reach of the Omega Compound and their stupid fucking rules. Between Bastien’s not-so-legal skillset for hacking, and my gift for the stock markets, we’ve got more than enough money and knowledge to help anyone who needs it.
This is the first omega we’ve come across, though. And she’s in the worst possible fucking situation, the eyes of the OC undoubtedly focused firmly on her due to her pregnancy.
I understand why Max wants to save this omega. I do. Fuck, if there was a way to get her away from them without putting my pack at risk, I’d go there myself.
I just hope that we don’t lose what we’ve built because of it.
Nash cuddles into me, hoping to avoid his schooling for the day. Affectionately, I run my hand over his downy blonde hair.
I know I can be over-protective. Our home was built on the ashes of grief and loss, and became somethingmore. It’s Nash’s home. And anything that could put our family at risk is never going to win my vote. This situation with the omega at the hospital has trouble written all over it. What we’ve done is dangerous enough – and I know Max. He won’t leave her there, especially if she’s pregnant.
If anything goes wrong, we’re all screwed.
ChapterFour
Nikolai
