We sit in silence, watching the lake ripple softly. Right now, there’s nothing else to be said between us. We both have a tremendous amount of healing to do, but I don’t think either of us can do that until the Wraiths are completely destroyed.
“I don’t like this,”I tell Axel as he holds my face, explaining bits and pieces of the plan to me.
“I know. I don’t either, but this is our chance,” he urges me to understand.
“You stay here with the others; Ink is going to stay behind too,” Cash states, and I look over to Ink, who has his leg propped up.
“I’ll make sure your mom is safe,” Tate promises.
“What about Dread?” I ask, my heart aching for my mother.
Not only did she lose a son, but she’s about to find out what a lowlife, piece-of-shit Alpha she’s been living with for a decade.
Tate looks at me softly, his hand gently gripping my chin, tilting my face to look up at him. “I can’t make any promises when it comes to him. Anyone who has defected against the Palms has to go.”
I swallow and nod.
“Stay safe, and we’ll be back soon,” Tate promises.
He shocks me by leaning forward and placing a chaste kiss against my lips. He doesn’t say anything else as he glances at me one last time before leaving the house.
Axel and Cash take their time touching me and reassuring me that they will come back. I can feel the eyes of all the other Omegas on me as they shower me with affection, and I feel more than uncomfortable.
Mickey, Doc, Atlas, and Maverick all leave with my guys, and a sense of terror fills me. What they’re about to do, there’s a chance that one of them won’t come back.
Shelby still hasn’t entered the house, so I go to sit next to Ink.
He’s one of the quieter members of the club, but he’s always been kind to me. There’s a small blonde Omega sitting next to him. They aren’t touching, but I swear she’s sitting next to him for comfort.
“I’m sorry about Ambien,” he says.
It feels weird hearing my brother’s road name, but it actually brings a small smile to my face, thinking about it.
“I’m sorry you got shot trying to get us out,” I respond.
“Oh, this little thing. It’s no big deal,” he says, pointing to the lower part of his leg that is wrapped up.
The Omega next to him makes a sound of distress, and Ink looks over at her. I’m not sure what look he’s conveying, but she turns away and starts quietly speaking to the male Omega I noticed earlier.
“What’s going to happen to all of them?” I ask Ink, looking around the room.
“More than half have homes to go back to,” he replies.
“The other half?”
“Guess it all depends on how tonight goes,” he sighs solemnly.
My stomach drops just thinking about what my pack is going to do in order to keep me safe and to restore the club I thought I loved so much.
It’s hard to grasp the lies I grew up on. How can the man who paid for my ballet lessons and bought me the supplies for my soap shop be the same one who has been kidnapping and selling Omegas? The same man who reverently kisses the burn marks on my mother’s face? Who brought me heating pads and medicine during my period?
It’s almost like Kurt is a coin, two sides that are completely different but somehow are one and the same. There’s always been an edge of danger around him, but I would have never expected this.
He was not only flipping members of the Dead Palms that he trusted over to the Wraiths, but he was simultaneously taking out anyone he saw as a threat.
His selfishness destroyed all those other chapters, and it’s why he wanted Tate gone so badly.
There was no way Tate would have ever gone along with joining the Wraiths. I thought I could’ve said the same about Leon, but he thought of Kurt as a father just as much as I did.
