Gabe interrupts him. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, careful now. You can diss me and Val out all you like, but trying to drag our mother into this is just fucking low.”
Miller sounds almost proud as he gets to the punchline he’s been winding up to. “Your mother was a whore.”
The room drops into silence, I guess everyone is waiting for Gabe or Valak to explode at Miller’s big reveal, but Gabe handles him better than a punch in his face would. “Relevance?”
“Neither of you have the upbringing or financial capability required for handling an omega.”
“Again, Miley, that view of yours is super outdated. But that’s the whole problem isn’t it? You’re so yesterday it’s not funny. The day you agreed to an interview for The Gift was the day you publicly ridiculed yourself. And you seriously haven’t stopped doing it since.”
“You’re uneducated and delusional,” Miller spits, his pack of morons all nodding.
“I mean, I might not have a degree, but it doesn’t mean I’m uneducated. And, really, if anyone is delusional, it’s you.” Gabe cracks his neck again, and I can see every part of him is itching to fight.
Valak responds to the building tension standing next to his brother. I guess everyone does, a couple of the Alliance guards come closer, reading the room properly. Gabe leans back on one of his feet, like he’s readying himself to go Street Fighter.
“Gabe, let’s go,” I say under my breath, knowing he’ll hear me. “He’s a has-been. I’d rather we save our energy for the fights we have coming up, not the ones against people who’ve already been defeated and downtrodden.”
I seriously don’t expect Gabe to walk away from a fight. I don’t think anyone does. But he does. He takes a deep breath before smiling like a crocodile at Miller as he returns to where he was next to me. And then as one, we step off, leaving not only Pack Miller stunned, but the rest of the crowd who’d gathered from the Alliance too.
Once we’re out of the doors, I look wide-eyed at Gabe, completely shocked and so fucking proud.
“What?!” he growls playfully. His arms reaching and pulling me to his chest for an extra grabby hug.
“Didn’t think you had it in you, bro,” Valak says, as impressed as I am.
Gabe keeps his arm around my shoulder, steering me towards the car. “Nah, fuck off, both of you. I made a deal with Len that I’d try really fucking hard to be less explosive. Besides, I’ll figure out something to do to screw their pack up when we’re back home, which will hurt a fuck tonne more than a couple of quick jabs to ole Miley’s ugly pucker.”
Opening the car door for me, Gabe sits me on the edge of the seat and burns off some of his pent-up energy, giving me a filthy hot kiss with way too much tongue before he pulls back, a devilish twinkle in his eyes again. “Want me to teach you how to burn a house down?”
“Is that a question?” I laugh, pulling him down for another kiss, whispering against his mouth. “Gabe, I am so proud of you.”
The drive to Lisa’s is full of us laughing at Gabe’s take down of Miller and working through a bunch of less amusing updates. Kris’s recount of his most recent correspondence with prosecution sounds like we’ve taken too many steps backwards. He assures me we haven’t and it’s all a part of the complicated games lawyers play, but it leaves me feeling unsettled. Gemma calls nearly in tears, anxious she’s going to be seen as a tramp. I spend the next fifteen minutes breaking her anxiety down; yes, she is a tramp, but she is the most beautiful, loud, wildly inappropriate one around that has a following of thousands and is in complete control of her destiny. I twist her momentary lapse of confidence into a crazy pep talk that has her ordering champagne and leaves Lincoln smiling, clearly dazzled by my silver tongue.
“Dove, you are wicked,” he whispers as he leans over to kiss the top of my head.
For the rest of the journey, I check my bank accounts to see if they’re un-fucking-frozen yet, which they are not. I shoot off an email to King & King, letting them know too.
39
NOAH
Watching Lennon next to Gabriel, the both of them lost in a sea of laughter as they feed the small fire, I can’t help but smile. I’m not sure it’s entirely appropriate to be feeling happy as we stand around to watch a person’s meagre possessions be destroyed and their home condemned, but I do.
Lennon shocked me when she said she was only joking about burning the house down, as much as Gabriel surprised me earlier by not fighting. The two of them are the wild cards in our pack but throwing caution to the wind never looked as appealing, or beautiful, as now.
Everything Lennon does reinforces her designation—her strength, and most certainly her hidden softness is part of her omega genetics. Physically she is incredibly tactile, she reaches for one of us constantly, though it’s her unashamed growing need for us that is the most incredible sight to see.
I think we all knew Lisa would disappear. None of us were surprised when Lisa’s neighbour advised the children had been left with her. Of course, it was a set up. All it did was give Lennon more needy souls to care for, and a clearer conscience when she set Lisa’s belongings alight.
I have no doubt within the space of a day or so, Lisa’s children will be formally removed from their mother’s woeful care and set up for life far away from the dull existence they’ve been living. My omega will ensure those children don’t get an easy meal ticket though. She’ll have them working on their education, on forming relationships, one of which will no doubt be her, because that’s the type of person Lennon is.
The world needs more people like Lennon. I want to say her tenacity and compassion is based entirely on her personality, but there’s a large part of her personality that is due to her omega genetics. And inexplicably, I’m one of the men she’s chosen to care for her. Right now, without even meaning to, she’s got me coiled up tighter than a spring.
“Can we please remember how quickly first-degree burns become third degree burns!” I yell over the roar of another blast of fire from her small bonfire. I worry she won’t hear me, but she turns and reaches for me to come closer. And she gets impatient when I take too long, skipping over and sliding right under my arm.
“Come on, Noah,” she says, her eyes focussing on the embers floating up into the sky.
“I think we should go. Let these good people do their work. We’re attracting attention.”
