He clutched Madison close. “Trying to give me a heart attack over here, I see.”
“I’m sorry.” She nuzzled against his chest and hugged him back tightly.
Ava whacked me in the chest. “What the hell happened? You scared all of us.”
“It took a little longer than expected, but we’re out and safe now. Had to hop the fence and tripped into the pool.” I yanked Ava into a damp hug.
Madison went to Leo next and his eyes widened as she slipped herself into his embrace, his arms slowly wrapping around her.
“Do you think we could head to Alve’s? I’m starving and I could use some nest time and a shower.”
“You’re welcome to eat here,” offered Ava. “And shower, but I’m sure you want to get settled, so I’ll leave the invitation open.”
“You’re an angel.” Madison smiled, her eyes dipping to me. “Dinner another time, I think. I need to get the cats back to the apartment.”
“No worries.” Ava nodded.
“I could definitely use a good meal after all of this.” Leo looked like he wasn’t sure what to do with himself, as if he hadstepped into a parallel universe. The truth didn’t feel too far off from that.
“I vote we order a fuckload of pizza. I’ll buy,” I offered.
If ever there was a good time to get to know my possible packmates, it was after we robbed an asshole for our omega.
Partners in crime.
I grinned. If this all worked out, we were going to have a really fucking fun life together, but we should probably get through the night first.
Spending half an hour in Tyler’s presence had me in awe of Madison’s ability to tolerate him for all those years.
The man was slime.
He really and truly didn’t care about omegas or their safety if it meant he could profit off it. I had sat through a rant about how my money would be better spent on a matchmaking service so omegas didn’t need safe housing to begin with. After that, I hadexcused myself to the washroom and texted Beau, begging him to call me with an emergency when he had the chance.
Since I didn’t want to completely sour business relations with Tyler in case we ever needed to get him out of the way again, I had to instead steep in my own personal misery, nodding along and trying not to make it obvious that I was grinding my teeth.
My phone buzzed and I reached for it.
Thank god.
“Hello?”
It wasn’t Beau’s voice that greeted me, but rather his packmate, Dylan’s. “Emergency! Alve, you have to come immediately.”
“What’s going on?”
“No time to explain. We need you now!” His voice carried enough that Tyler could overhear and was perked up listening.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I ended the call and turned to Tyler, trying to summon a look of regret onto my face. “I’m so sorry, but I need to cut this short.”
“Yeah, I heard. Go on.”
I fumbled out a few platitudes, passed some money to our server on my way out, and sprinted to my car where I texted the others that Tyler would be on his way soon. Had I failed them? What if they didn’t have enough time? Maybe I should’ve stuck it out for longer, but they would have to forgive me. Anything Madison needed, I would buy in a heartbeat.
I had to go straight back to my place rather than to where the rest of my pack was so we didn’t risk Tyler seeing me and getting suspicious. By the time I arrived home, Nathan had messaged.
Nathan:
Pizza is ordered and we’re on our way over
