“It’s also none of your bloody business,” Forsythe growls out.
Sykes smirks at me. “Nah, it is our business. See, Miss Karlin is under our protection. It's our job to keep her from harm, and even if we weren’t being paid for the delightful duty of keeping you away from her, we’d still do it. As far as we’re all concerned, not one of you is worth the shit on the bottom of her shoe.”
“I swear to fuck,” Grieves growls, hands fisting and relaxing on his thighs repeatedly, “that if you don’t open that goddamn gate in the next ten seconds, I’m going to leave this car and rip your bloody head from your body.”
I wince at the threat, certain it’s not going to win us any favors, but I stand corrected when there’s a loud buzzing and the gate slowly begins to open.
The first guard gives Forsythe a strained smile. “Seems the boss has deemed you worthy enough to give you entrance. But be aware we’re all watching and at the slightest indication that you’re going to hurt Florence, we will not hesitate to rip you apart.” He pats the top of the car and gives us all a charming smile. “Have a great day now.”
Then he backs up, leaving us free to drive through the gates and onto the Calloway pack property. The driveway is long, but not so long we can’t see the house when we pull through the gate.
Anticipation thrums through me, my hands move in a tapping rhythm that has Grieves growling at me to ‘knock it the fuck off’, but I don’t. We’re about to see Pixie for the first time in over a month. And we’ll scent her for the first time too. Fully. Not a stale scent off clothing she never really wore, but her true full scent.
God, I can’t fucking wait.
The car pulls to a stop and I’m already shoving through the door before it’s fully parked, bounding up the stairs before I consider whether it’s wise.Get to her is,all I can think.Find her.Make sure she’s okay. Never fucking let her go again.
The front door opens before I can knock. Of course it does. They knew we were on our way to the house, opened the gate for us.
I draw up short and eye the man on the other side of the door. The alpha. The one that scooped Ren up off the floor and carried her out of the interview. “Atticus?” I guess.
“Courtland,” he growls back, without the title and the deference I’m used to hearing. His gold eyes move to my pack behind me. He doesn’t bother to greet them, keeping his bodyin the open space of the door, like he’s considering barring our entrance.
Let him fucking try, my alpha thinks somewhat gleefully, like he’s salivating for a fight. But that really shouldn’t be our focus right now. No. Ren is our focus. The only thing that matters.
“Let me be clear,” Atticus says, keeping his voice relatively level, but there’s no missing the underlying thread of menace. “I was against letting you anywhere near Ren. I argued against it. Having you here and then having you leave might make her condition worse. You’re all pieces of shit who broke the best thing that ever happened to you. But, my omega, Ren’s best friend in the entire fucking world, wants you here.”
We wait like there might be more, but apparently there isn’t because he steps back, leaving the door open behind him as he leads the way inside. The combined scent of their pack hits my nose--pineapple and chili, sea salt, petrichor--not unpleasant but notmine.Though buried under the Calloway pack is a faint scent that makes my alpha scratch at my ribs and my heart rate pick up.Florence.
Atticus leads us into the living room, where we’re greeted by three other bristling alphas and one very pissed off, very pregnant omega.
Haven is small, dark-haired and grey-eyed. Pretty, but nowhere near as pretty as Ren. In my mind no one could ever compare. She’s standing in front of her pack, arms crossed and eyes narrowed as she scans over all five of us and then shakes her head scoffing.
“Took you long enough to come to your senses.”
Agreed.I glance at the rest of my pack and see Grieves, Forsythe and Thayer are glaring right back at the other alphas. Piers and I exchange a look. Seems like it’s up to us to try tosmooth things over enough that they won’t keep us from seeing our omega.
He moves up next to me, his solicitous smile already in place, and I curl my lips into something similar.
“You must be Haven. I’m-”
“Courtland,” she spits out. Those narrowed eyes of hers travel around the group. “I know who all of you are. Watched every second of you making my best friend fall in love with you, only for you to reject her.”
There is not an ounce of deference in her, in the way she talks to us, in the bold way her eyes meet each of ours. She doesn’t give a shit that Forsythe is a prince, that the rest of us are nobility, even Grieves has a title though he’s not comfortable using it.
But then she motions at herself. “As you say, I’m Haven. This is my pack—Jude, Creed, Atticus and Hale.”
“Thank you for letting us in,” Piers says, sounding fidgety and nervous. Not because of the alphas filling the air with dominance, but because of the need we’re all feeling. “We really appreciate it. We’re… anxious to see Florence.”
A little growl rolls out of the omega, accompanied by matching growls from the alphas around her.
Hale slides a big hand on the back of his omega’s neck squeezing gently and she just melts under his touch, all the fight going out of her, while Jude bends to press a kiss to her shoulder. “Remember what the doctor said, button. You gotta not let yourself get worked up. Gotta try to stay calm for the baby.”
Haven closes her eyes and takes a deep inhale. “Sorry. It’s just seeing their stupid faces in real life is so fucking infuriating. They hurt Ren!”
“We know, baby girl,” Creed murmurs low and soft. “Just say the word and we’ll take them out back and bury them in the garden.”
The corner of Haven’s mouth ticks up like she’s imagining it. Letting her pack march us into the no doubt perfectly manicured yard and murdering us. She’s a blood thirsty little thing.Thank God Florence has her. Hasthem.
