No. If I could have stopped this, I would have. You have to know that.
We do.Nico’s deep voice resonated inside Ben, and some of the fury ebbed away. It would come back, Ben was sure, but for now Ben had to accept his mates had lived as a blessing and move on from there.
Felix encouraged Kylo out of the room, taking four piles of files with them—incriminating stuff but nothing that pertained to the god-awful experimental details. Ben looked at the file on the desk that held his mate’s name. “Do you want me to explain anything about what’s inside?”
When he looked back at Nico, who’d remained silent, Ben couldn’t figure out what he was thinking or feeling. He tried.
“We lived it. There is nothing inside that file that we don’t know,” Nico said simply, yet the words held a world of torment Ben would never understand.
He tugged the hand holding his and pulled Nico into his arms and held him tight. Nico for a second resisted, before melting against him. His nose burrowing in Ben’s neck. Strong arms came around his waist and his large body shuddered. “I’ve got you,” Ben murmured quietly. “I won’t let anyone hurt you again. I swear it on my last dying breath.”
Nico’s arms tightening painfully was the only response and it was enough.
The sound of voices and boots thudding on tiles drew them apart, and Teilo reentered the room with Mao.
Teilo’s grin was back, and his hands were full of explosives. “Come on, Nico, let’s blow some shit up.”
For the first time, Nico chuckled. He nodded at Ben before walking to Teilo. “Okay, just don’t blow me up.”
Activity increased as Mao gave everyone orders, including grumpy Kylo, who they’d compromised with. The lion shifter, Lazarus’s remains, they removed before what was about to happen, for his family’s sake. They’d stored them in the trunk of Kylo’s SUV. Parked a few miles away, they’d had to wrap up what was left of the decayed body and carry it. Not pleasant, but it was the right thing to do. And if it stopped Kylo’s bitching, then that was a bonus, too.
“Are you sure this won’t cause a fire?” Teilo questioned, eyeing the trees around the house.
“I’ve been a demolitions expert for many decades. I know what I’m doing. The building will collapse in, and the power of the charges will leave nothing of the underground parts and turn the house into broken twigs.” Mao answered more patiently than Ben was used to.
Mao checked the detonator he held before passing it to Teilo. He picked up the next one by his foot and did the same thing before passing it to Nico. “I think it’s only right that you get to do the honors.”
Ben felt Teilo’s excitement and Nico’s reticence.
“How far back from the house do we need to go?” Nico asked, his tone serious.
“Around another hundred meters should be fine. I’ve planted the charges under the concrete foundation so the most damage will be below ground. We’ll feel it underfoot before the building collapses.”
They all moved back until Mao was happy. He stood between Ben’s mates. He raised his arms and without preamble dropped them to signal they could press the detonators.
Nico and Teilo’s thoughts were many as they simultaneously hit the buttons as if they were one. Vibrations rocked the ground beneath Ben’s feet, and he steadied himself, as did those around him as they all watched the house of horrors crack apart in a roar.
Wood splintering and groaning filled the forest. The noise sounded like the building was crying for help. Crying for the abomination they had created it for.
The men stood in silence as they watched it crumble and break. Ben sent a prayer to the Fate’s for gifting him his mates and a promise that no one else would ever have to suffer that brand of injustice again. The uncertainty of whether to put forward to take permanent charge of the shifter council went up in smoke with the building. They needed him and his mates to keep the atrocities from happening again.
Teilo and Nico turned in unison and met his stare. The two nodded at once, as if they understood what he was thinking.
Their faces, the same, yet different to Ben, changed his world and he was going to make that world a better one for his mates.
You already made a world of difference to us. We won’t let you forget it.Teilo’s voice filled his mind.
We won’t.Nico added with a firmness that sent shivers of desire through Ben.
Mao’s nose wrinkled, and he whacked Ben on the shoulder hard enough he fired forward. “No. I don’t need you stinking up my truck smelling like that. So, whatever’s going on in your head, stop it right now.”
Ben’s grin was all teeth. “Then ride with Kylo. I’m sure his stink will be more to your tastes.”
Felix snorted and Kylo looked away, his shoulders shaking when Mao snarled at Ben and stomped off.
It felt good to laugh, it really did. He slung an arm over Teilo and Nico’s shoulders. “Let’s go hunt us down some scientists.”
Chapter Twenty-One
