“Is that?” The wonder in his voice matches the awe in our bond. A hint of jealousy tries to surface in my heart, but the feeling fades when Hannah reaches out to me. I place my palm next to my Omega’s and wrap my pinky with his. Seconds pass before I feel it. The soft thump of tiny limbs hitting the side of Hannah’s belly.
“He’s kicking,” she tells us, teary eyes trained on where we touch her. The intimacy of this moment strikes us all, piercing deeply into the connection between us and strengthening it.
Clearing my throat, I put a little pressure on the spot, enough to get him to respond. “So strong. Just like his mother.”
“The strongest,” Foster agrees. He shifts his body so he can lean his head on Hannah’s shoulder. I can’t wait until this becomes our norm. Cuddles, laughing children, and so much love we won’t know what to do with it all.
Something has us all unsettled today. A vibe in the air that wasn’t there a few days ago. I’ve been checking the camera feeds obsessively, expecting someone to have found us. Maybe I should have let Hannah stretch our supplies and not gone into town two days ago. It’s like we’ve all been waiting for an attack ever since.
The quiet ends when an alert chimes from the panic room. Glass shatters, and Foster swears. Rushing to their sides, I carefully lift Hannah over the broken pieces. Her jaw is slack as I set her on her feet. “You-I-How?”
Throwing her a wink, I help Foster get the mess cleaned up and dumped into the trash, and then I head down the hall. The steady beat of my heart doesn’t match the anxiety crawling across my skin as I open the desk drawer and find the emergency phone hidden inside. A message flashes on the screen from a number I don’t recognize. Not that the latter is uncommon; DAU agents all use burner phones when contacting agents undercover or at safe houses.
Grant Montgomery has been arrested.
I’ll call you with more information this evening.
(link) Watch with caution, and make sure Hannah is prepared for what she will see.
My stomach churns as I hover a finger over the link.What hell awaits on the other side?
After a deep breath, I open it. And immediately wish I didn’t. There is no way I can let my Beta see this. Not when she’s already so stressed.
“Shepherd?”
Shit!I fumble the flip phone closed and turn to the door. Hannah hovers in the hallway, a worried expression on her gorgeous face. “I…”
“Whatever it is, I want to know. Please don’t keep things from me.”
The resilience she has shown is what breaks me. I cannot hide this video from her. Not without undoing the fragile trust we’ve been building between us.
“Donovan messaged. Your father has been arrested.”
A weight falls from her shoulders. I watch as her legs go weak, and she crumbles, catching herself on the door frame. My knees hit the floor in front of her, arms encompassing her shaking body as she cries. The sound is soft and full of relief. What this woman has endured… it enrages me to no end to even think of the scars she bears. To collapse, hearing she is finally free from that awful man’s wrath, speaks more than words ever could.
When her tears slow, she sits back, stretching her legs and rubbing her hip. I jump up, pulling her to her feet and into the living room where she can rest comfortably on the couch.“Thanks; sitting on the floor wasn’t a great idea.” A watery laugh slips through her lips, drawing Foster’s attention from where he is building with the magnetic blocks I picked up for Kaitlin. “How… what allowed them to step in?”
I don’t respond until she is settled and has a bottle of water in her hands. Her health and comfort come first.Am I stalling?Absolutely. My stomach is still sick from the brief seconds of the video I watched, so how is she going to handle sitting through it all?
“Shep?”
Perched on the edge of the coffee table, I run a hand through my hair and sigh. “Omen allowed herself to be captured and faced off with your father. She wore a body cam so the tech team at the FCDA could livestream the encounter. The things he admitted were enough for the FCDA to get a warrant for his arrest.”
Hannah makes a choked sound, hand flying to her mouth. “Omen, she… why would she endanger herself like that?”
Meeting Foster’s furious gaze across the room, I swallow thickly. We both know why. PackfuckingGraves. If Omen doesn’t survive their rejection… those assholes had better stay far away from my pack. I may not be comfortable taking their lives, but there are plenty of other ways I can ruin them.
“Based on what I saw of Omen in the video…” I trail off, not wanting to tell her.
“I want to watch it.”
The shake in her voice and the tears trailing down her cheeks gut me. I want nothing more than to pull her into my arms and purr her worries away, but no amount of comfort from me will help her through this. “Are you certain? Donovan told me to warn you against watching.”
Chapter Eleven
DoI want to watch my sister, whom I practically raised as my own, confront the evil man we call Father?Of course, I don’t. I’d rather she had never gone to face him. But I can’t change what she has done. All I can do is bear witness to the damage.
“I’m sure.”
