21. Bexley

21

BEXLEY

I saw them going into the house together. It wasn’t as if they were covert about it or anything like that. I saw them gathering. I saw them huddling together through the window of the house on stilts. And at first, I originally marched over here to figure out why all of them were meeting without me. Why they were keeping me out of the loop on shit. But, I silenced my footsteps up the stairs, tapping into my skill set that kept me off the radar, and listened to their entire conversation.

I knew I couldn’t hide any longer. So, I sat there in front of Voss and the guys and waited for their questions.

Except, Dom was the first to ask a question. “How did we not know you were outside?”

I slowly looked over at him. “It was part of my training when I was younger. Stealth operations is one of the first things you learn when you train with the CIA.”

“What training?” Voss growled.

Ronyn hovered over me, cloaking me in his shadow as Dom walked up to where I sat. He crouched beside me, just like Voss was crouched in front of me, and I felt Ronyn’s brutal presence behind me.

“Are you hungry?” Dom asked.

I shook my head.

“Thirsty?” he offered.

I shook my head again.

“What training, Bexley?” Ronyn asked as his voice came from above me.

“Talk,” Voss commanded.

Might as well tell them everything. “I grew up poor.”

Voss leapt to his feet. “The fuck does that have to do with anything?”

I rolled my eyes. “I grew up poor and my father died while in prison over stealing food for me and Mom to eat. Then, Mom died from an unchecked STD after deciding that the only way she could make money was to use her body in order to do it.”

I looked down into my lap and fiddled with the beds of my nails. “I dropped out of high school early, shortly after my life fell apart, and I was contacted by a very kind man who came to my foster home one day and offered me a chance at starting a new life. He told me I’d be educated, well fed, trained, and given more money than I could ever dream of.”

I raised my head and looked over at Dom. “So, of course, what fifteen-year-old wouldn’t jump at that opportunity?”

Dom’s eyebrows rose. “The CIA started training you at fifteen?”

I shrugged. “Anything to get away from my abusive foster care situation.”

“What happened after that?” Voss asked.

His voice didn’t have that sharp edge any longer, but I knew he still meant business. So, I drew in a deep breath and allowed them to pepper me with their questions.

“After I left my foster care situation with that man, I entered into a training program in D.C. where I was trained how to be a spy and assassin for the U.S. government. It was one of those programs where it was sink or swim, and by god, I swam as hard as I fucking could.”

I smiled softly as I looked back down into my lap. “I ended up becoming one of the best. Or, you know, so they told me. I never really put my stock in it. I was just glad to have a place to call home, you know? I was around people that knew how to do things that I did. They understood how to relate to some of the things that I’d seen and been through. It was like I had a family again. It was all I’d ever known.”

“Keep going, you’re doing great,” Dom said as he rubbed my arm softly with his hand.

I gave him a soft smile before I continued. “Then, I was transferred from D.C. to Seattle for a promotion that would plant me stateside, permanently. No more overseas assignments. No more assassinations. It was a chance to steady myself and provide not just a stable space for myself, but to give me a chance to form some semblance of a life outside of my professional life.”

I puffed my cheeks out with a heavy sigh as the awful memories came rushing back. “Then, my boss happened.”

“Your boss?” Voss asked.

I nodded slowly. “Senior Supervisor Special Agent Delilah Delauney. And I knew something was wrong with her the second I laid eyes on her.”

“How so?” Dom urged.

I looked around me and found the guys hanging onto my every syllable. They didn’t look upset. Well, Ronyn did, but Ronyn always looked upset. Voss was stiff, but his gaze implored me to keep going. Dom looked comforting, to say the least, but even he waited on me to continue.

Why were they so curious about my boss?

Did they know something I didn’t?

I shrugged. “Well, things were fine there for a while. I got into a new groove. Found this little café across the way from where I worked that I thought was as sweet as all get out.”

Ronyn chuckled, and I answered his chuckle. “Yes, the café you frequented today, Ronyn.”

His chuckling halted, even though Dom’s kicked up, but Voss was the one that nodded his head and urged me to keep going.

So, I did. At the very least, they deserved to know who I was so they could make a decision themselves on whether or not to keep me around.

Honestly? As long as they kept my pack with them after they threw me out, I didn’t care what happened to me.

“Anyway,” I said with a heavy sigh, “there was one night where I had to work late. That’s par for the course with my profession, but my boss had me working late pretty much every single night that week.”

“What prompted your transfer?” Ronyn asked.

I cleared my throat as tears crested my eyes. “The death of my partner.”

“Jacob?” Voss asked.

I sniffled and wiped at my eyes. “D.C. Headquarters thought that a new change of scenery would’ve been good for me. I wasn’t quite right in the field after losing Jacob, and…”

Dom rubbed my back. “We get it. Just keep going as you can.”

“I want to hear,” Ronyn commanded.

I didn’t even have to look at Dom to know he shot that man a look. “I said, we get it, and she can keep going as she can.”

“Thank you,” I whispered as I ran my hands up and down my clothed thighs.

“Not a problem,” Dom whispered back.

I drew in a deep breath and closed my eyes. “After my transfer, I worked just about as many late nights as possible. But, my boss was always good with shooing me out. Usually. Not that week, though. That week, she almost encouraged me to work with her into the early hours of every evening.”

The memories of that night flooded back as I opened my gaze. “I remember it so vividly, you guys. She called me into her office. She had me sit down in front of her desk. I figured she was about to talk shop, or get on me about fucking up one of the files I was working on, but instead…”

“Instead what, Bexley?” Voss urged with a shockingly calm voice. “What happened next?”

Dom settled his hand on my knee and squeezed softly, and I mindlessly placed my hand over his. I’m still not sure why I did it. It just… felt right to do.

“She brought me into her office and wanted to talk about Jacob. See how I was doing. I wasn’t ready to talk about it, so I got up from my chair. She told me to sit back down. I told her to make me. And…she just…”

“She made you?” Ronyn asked.

I blinked a few times and shook my head. “It was like she picked me up, clear off my feet. I was practically tossed back over toward my chair with a thud, and I crashed right into it. Tumbled over it. When I scrambled to get to my feet in order to get my bearings, she was on top of me with these—these fangs. Her eyes glowed, and her grip was tight. Like a vice.”

I swallowed hard before I continued. “She licked her fangs and told me that I had a chance to see Jacob again, if I wanted to. She said something about death not being the end, and I thought she was going to kill me. I honestly thought that’s what she was about to do. So, my instincts kicked in and I fought her off.”

“You fought her off,” Ronyn said.

I nodded. “Yeah. It took everything I had, and she damn near almost snapped my neck, but I managed to get out of her office?—”

“You fought off a vampire and lived,” Voss said.

I looked up at him and paused. “I’ve… done that with a few of them, yes.”

Dom chuckled to himself as Voss tilted his head. “What happened after you got away from her and ran?”

I licked my lips. “I just… ran. I grabbed my purse and my credentials, and I booked it out of that place. I heard her on my tail for the longest time. Even after I got back to my apartment, she was there. I mean, I sped there in my car like a speed demon and she just… ran after me. And even though I couldn’t quite piece together what was happening at the time, I knew I had to go on the run. Until I could figure out what the fuck was happening and what the fuck to do about it, I had to go full stealth and stick to the shadows until I could figure out what in the absolute fuck was going on with my boss.”

I cracked my neck as my story finally wound to a close. “I waited until she left my apartment alone, and then in the middle of the night, I made my way into the woods. I figured if she knew where I lived, then my home wasn’t safe, so I made the woods my home. I foraged and hunted for food. I did my best to gather intel on Delilah. But, about a week into my survival in the woods, I stumbled across a pack being attacked.”

“The pack you’re with now,” Ronyn said.

I tilted my head back and peeked up at him. “Yep, the pack I’m with now. They were being attacked by the same kinds of entities that could run around in a flash, just like Delilah. They had fangs, and glowing eyes. Their skin was cold to the touch and pale. Just like my boss. And that’s where I found the term I needed to label my boss.”

“Vampire,” Voss growled.

I shook my head quickly as the tears came once more. “I couldn’t just leave them there, you guys. I know that I’m not an Alpha and I know I’m not a shifter, but they had dead kids in the mix, Voss.”

I raised my head to look up at the Alpha of the pack who took us in. “Dead kids, and dead parents. Dead grandparents. They were slaughtered down to the numbers I have with me today, and when they looked to me for answers, I just sort of…”

“Gave them direction?” Dom asked as he squeezed my knee.

I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, we were all looking for it. So, I guess we just sort of found it with one another.”

Silence fell for a while before Ronyn spoke. “Do they know?”

I nodded slowly. “Yes, my pack knows that I’m human.”

I expected them to say something else, but they didn’t. So, I stood to my feet. “Look, if you let me go, just please keep my pack with you. That’s all I ask. They’re safer here since I’m such a target. That means I’m the one that needs to leave. No one else has to.”

I stared around at the guys as they surrounded me. Dom slowly raised up from his crouched position while Ronyn continued to stare me down through that scar on his face. But, it was Voss that leaned down toward the shell of my ear and uttered a string of words that, to this day, sent shivers down my spine.

“Over my dead fucking body, Bexley. You’re staying here with us.”

And even I knew better than to fight him on it.