Epilogue

“Atta boy, Matthew!”

“Look at him, all grown up and mated!”

“My man! Fresh from the rut!”

“Congratulations, brother!”

“Can’t believe an Omega would pick your dumb ass!”

Matthew grinned as the other Alphas gathered around him, clapping him on the back and shoulders.

Everyone wanted to shake his hand, the same one he normally held a gun in, the very same one with Gabriella’s teeth marked on his wrist around the gland. He was a marked and mated Alpha, with a beautiful Omega who had chosen him. It was only natural that his Alpha brothers, all who thought finding an Omega would be impossible while on suppressants, was impossible.

As the group thinned, he looked over his shoulder toward the very Omega who had marked him and saw that she, too, was smirking as she watched the cheers and applause. Her face was normally passive while speaking as the boss of the Santorini Family, particularly when a meeting was something official, but she had apparently given up on remaining blank and was enjoying the high praise.

Were they all basically telling him, Hey, congrats on having sex! ? Yes. Yes, they were.

Yet none in the room could boast that they too were mated and marked by an Omega and certainly not by their very own boss, one of the most powerful people in the city.

So, maybe it was for more than just the sex they were congratulating him for.

“Alright, settle down,” Gabriella said as she approached the podium. “I know, I know, Matthew has tasted the divine and you’re all so proud of him but—”

A round of laughter and cheers erupted, and Matthew shook his head as he moved to join her.

It was disrespectful for them to cut off the boss, and they never would have done such a thing to Renaldo, but she was still smirking and rolling her eyes, giving off signs she was amused more than annoyed.

“Well while you’re all in a mood to celebrate, let’s just get this out of the way,” Gabriella announced, raising her voice. “You should all know that I have also made Matthew Mr. Santorini , as we are now married.”

Cheers were even louder this time, but even that wasn’t enough to prepare Matthew for the sudden attack on his own person as Tommy slammed into him with a giant hug, with Ben and Smitty right behind him. It was nearly suffocating, having more and more Alphas join them to give him a hug and another clap on the back.

“Taking her name? That’s a man confident in himself.”

“A new Mr. Santorini in the house.”

“That’s my boy, mating and marrying his Omega all in one rut cycle.”

“Proud of you, man. Look at you out here, moving up in the world.”

Matthew shrugged them all off, grinning and shaking his head.

Many were still standing around the front and ignoring the chairs and tables Gabriella had had sent over, wanting to change the Alpha Compound from something so cold and metal and militaristic to something more like family.

The Alphas were all well trained, however, and preferred to stand. Sitting around wasn’t their call. He was pleased to see, however, that they were no longer standing in rigid groups with their teams and were mixed around. This was a good sign for the future and for things that were to come.

“Yes, yes, I am in fact Mr. Santorini ,” Matthew confirmed as he raised his hands. “But there’s no question about who the boss is. I may be the one in the suit with multiple weapons on me but Gabriella is far more deadly than any of us could have ever expected. A change in my name doesn’t change who’s in charge around here, understood?”

There were a few nods of approval, and no one gave off any air of discomfort at the idea of a woman and an Omega in charge.

That was unsurprising, of course. After all, Alphas were made to follow the whims and desires of Omegas. Normally, it was the Omega they were mated to, but these were all suppressed and unmated Alphas who would otherwise be wreaking havoc on a city. Serving under her should be easy for them.

Looking around the room, Matthew noted one Alpha was standing away from all the rest. He had also been the only one who hadn’t stepped forward to congratulate him or even given a cheer. In fact, the other Alpha hadn’t even moved from where he had been standing when Matthew and Gabriella walked in, leaning against a side wall with his arms crossed and shoulders sagging.

To say that Alessandro looked like shit was an understatement. The man was clearly exhausted and barely able to hold himself up. Yet he was so tense he would probably draw a weapon on a kid jumping out and yelling “ Boo !” Even more concerning, however, was the anger that seemed to be rolling off him and pushing everyone else away. They were all clearly giving Matthew’s right hand a wide berth, lest they be caught in whatever was making Alessandro so mad.

Fucking hell, if Matthew didn’t know any better, he would think Alessandro was fighting the same battle and doing a spectacular job of losing at it.

Shit, he did know better. Gabriella had mentioned it more than once, and sure, he had believed her, that something was going on between Alessandro and the blonde Omega who was now a member of her inner circle, but he had assumed it was general attraction and maybe curiosity. Clearly, it was something far deeper than that.

Addison had also been dodging Gabriella’s request to sit down and chat, just the two of them. Matthew had assumed the other girl was busy, as taking over for her father was no small task, but it was now time for his mate to press the issue. Even on suppressants, an Alpha and an Omega knew their mate.

And Matthew refused to let anyone else fuck up and go through the same shit.

The room finally settled completely as the men sat at various tables, waiting for Gabriella to speak.

She no longer wore her delighted smile, or her amused smirk and was instead now very serious, given the announcement she was about to give. It was one that he had spent hours with her discussing, trying to plan the right way to approach the future of the Alphas and the Alpha Program. So many things were still up in the air, undecided, needing both time and research and a few sit-downs with lawyers, but there was one item in particular, which was time sensitive.

The Alphas and their injections.

“As you all know, I have taken over from my father with your support. Support which I consider priceless. But until this point, none of you have been paid. Yes, you receive everything you need in the form of lodgings, medical care, clothes, food, a gym but that’s... that’s not a wage. That’s not payment. And that needs to change.”

The previous arrangement was one which Matthew had been fine with for years, given the safety and security of the injections in comparison to the risks of being off them. Many in the room felt the same.

Gabriella, however, did not.

“That sounds like payment to me,” Hank, a captain, called out. He had been around for longer than most and was certainly not speaking for just himself. “Everything we need, we have access to. And you can’t put a price on the injections. We’d all be dead men or imprisoned if not for them.”

People nodded, which was to be expected. They saw themselves as performing a job and receiving something they considered priceless.

Did Renaldo see them as nothing more than mindless soldiers to send out to do his bidding?

Yes.

Did Dr. Ford see them as nothing more than science experiments and specimens?

Definitely.

But there was already a change in the air with Gabriella now in charge. Any previous issue the Alphas saw with their situation had been disappearing.

The fact they could joke around and sit while the boss was in the room already showed that.

“Yes. Your injections, the suppressants. It sounds as though you like being on them, then?”

A few of the men chuckled

Smitty spoke up. “I hate needles, Ma’am but I’ll take that any day over losing my fucking mind, and all control. Yeah, we like the injections.”

Gabriella nodded, and Matthew pressed a hand to her back, knowing that what she was about to say was personal . If she wanted the Alphas to be honest with her and not give her the answer they thought she wanted, she had to let down her walls.

“I spent years on my own form of suppressant, not knowing what I was and not suffering from the changes. It gave me more choice and more freedom, but the rapid change that hit me was hard. It was painful where it shouldn’t have been, like a light switch flipping. I don’t know if I would recommend it to anyone else, to be honest. Despite my father’s hopes that the pills could turn me into a Beta, you can’t change someone’s designation. They are what they are. You can’t fight nature.”

Matthew looked back toward the Alphas, ready to gauge their reactions. What she was about to offer them was something no one had ever even considered being possible. The injections were tied to being an enforcer so none of them could ever leave.

“But being an Omega is also different. We can exist without an Alpha. Yes, there are sacrifices in that but it’s livable . We can survive. We can choose to never go into heat and live our lives as close to being a Beta as possible so long as we never meet an Alpha. Which is why my feelings toward my relationship with suppressants do not matter because for Alphas, it is not the same. You are not the same.”

Nervous energy filled the room, but none gave off any signs of fear. They wanted to know what she was going to say and could sense change was coming.

“It’s not the same at all for Alphas,” Gabriella continued, repeating her previous statement something he had insisted she do. “Without the suppressants, you will enter your rut and become destruction itself. It’s entirely outside of your control. An Omega can choose to enter their heat when they are ready, at least in most cases but Alphas?”

Her own experiences, while important to the discussion, were so different from their own. She knew the effects of the suppressant on their systems, but she could never understand what it was like, to be afraid of her own power. Matthew wanted the Alphas to all know that she recognized that in truth.

Looking nervous, she raised her gaze from the papers in front of her, notes they had assembled for this discussion. The Alphas in the room would sense it. More than one shifted in their seats, unsettled by the scent of an Omega who was nervous.

They were already ready to rise from their seats and comfort her, even with the suppressants pushing down their nature.

It was inevitable, and they feared the enforcers would give her the answer they thought she wanted, rather than putting themselves first.

“Alphas should have a choice,” she said clearly, her eyes moving across the room. She was gaining confidence. “And these suppressants give you that. But, even still, Matthew once told me that every single one of you would die for me, in an instant, if I spoke the word. That you would obey, without question. I can see, now, why that is. Because without your injections, you’re as good as dead anyways. And such loyalty because you have no other choice and not because of any devotion to me and my family, is not loyalty I want. You should have the choice. And so, I ask you, would you stay loyal to me, if I no longer made it a requirement for you to have access to the injections? Would you stay, if you knew maintaining control was not a requirement of such allegiance?”

The room was absolutely still. Matthew could hear the steady beating of every heart, now very slow and almost in sync.

What she was offering them was something none of them had ever imagined. They knew, from the first injection, that their loyalty was to Renaldo Santorini so long as control over their own nature remained. Any possibility of escaping it and escaping the Santorinis, was not in the cards for them. They either died betraying the family, or they died when they entered their rut. At their core, Alphas needed to survive, all in the hope of one day finding their Omega.

His gaze shifted across the room, looking for any who might be questioning or considering.

None who chose to leave would be labeled a traitor but would instead be given an out. Yes, they knew too much, but they would never turn on an Omega regardless.

They would never truly turn on Gabriella. They would be allowed to live a normal life, free of the mafia and the crime and the underworld they ruled. They could find their Omega, find happiness, find freedom. All they had to do was say the word. All they had to do was choose that for themselves.

The last man Matthew would have expected to speak rose, drawing every eye toward him.

Matthew tried to ignore his own feeling of betrayal, knowing that any who wished to leave would be allowed to. Still, he hadn’t expected it to be one of his own team and certainly not Tommy.

The jokester Alpha looked serious for once, a look normally reserved only for the roughest of missions. Although, even then, a false smirk usually lay on his lips with a joke about how they would have a laugh about their near-death experience later.

“Everyone here knows what you’ve said about us, for us, about Alphas not being kept as pets and science experiments. I’ve been here longer than most, one of the first to survive save for Matthew and Alessandro. I’ve been here long enough that the idea of freedom and escape is one I no longer even consider. Some of the newer guys talk about life after this, after the Santorinis, but for me... I knew the boss would never let us go.”

Matthew nodded, remembering more than one conversation Tommy had sat through with newer recruits, breaking their spirit when they talked about what came after . He was the one to give a chuckle each time, telling the new Alphas that the medical care sucked but at least the food was good—after Matthew and Alessandro had told them to forget any hope of leaving. It was a known fact that Renaldo would never let his prized Alphas leave alive.

“Loyalty to your father? That was out of necessity. It was either die on the streets or die in the lab because he would never let his pets go. Either way, it’s death. But you? You’re not like that, and that started before you knew you were an Omega. You treated us like family from the start. Like you could trust us. Even without Matthew there. You see us as humans first and Alphas second. If it was the old man asking us if we would stay, I would call it a trick to test our loyalty, and no one here would leave, but I know you, Gabriella Santorini, and this ain’t no trick.”

Gabriella was stone still, but Matthew could tell through their soul bond that she was touched by Tommy’s words.

They were all true—never once had Gabriella treated any of the Alphas as anything other than trusted members of the family. Perhaps it had been his own words and their connection that had caused such an effect, but he had been absent for the first few weeks of her return to the family. It was all Gabriella.

It was no trick, and he was glad the other Alphas saw that.

“We’re all fucked if we ever find an Omega who isn’t aligned with the Santorinis because we’re all bound to follow our Omegas but my heart, my loyalty, and my Alpha need to protect is with you, and this family. I’m not going anywhere. I stand with you. No matter what comes against us.”

Every heartbeat in the room picked up speed. Matthew nodded to his brother in arms, pleased with his words and his statement. He was ready to agree that it was no trick.

“Any of you lot feel differently? Speak up. It’s no joke. She’s not like the old Santorini, and you all know it. Ignore the need to protect her and your brothers for a moment. You’ve all talked about life beyond this program before. If you want it, no one is gonna judge you for it.”

No one spoke up and eventually, Tommy nodded before taking his seat.

Only then did Alfie, a more tech-savvy Alpha, rise to his feet. Every eye was on him, and the nervous energy radiating from him made Matthew want to take a step closer to Gabriella, but he didn’t move, waiting for the other Alpha to speak first.

“If you’re allowing Alphas to stay on the suppressant while not being part of the family, does this mean you’re making it available to those outside of the family?”

Matthew looked to Gabriella, who was now looking at him for an answer. It was something still in discussion, barely even in the planning stages. If they were to pursue that route, to make it widely available, how would they do so without the government breathing down their necks? The entire Alpha Program and years of research would immediately come under heavy scrutiny, and the trail of dead bodies would surely come to the surface.

Sure, every Alpha had signed a waiver, but nothing about the Santorini family was legal. They were in the business of crime, after all. The only thing they did properly was pay their taxes, because Gabriella loathed to have the IRS after her.

The only possible routes were to either go through a foundation, fund researchers with crazy ideas, and guide the research along to make a miraculous new discovery from the start. This would take years of planning and investment.

Gabriella had the funds, but it was something they would have to do carefully and legally. It was one thing to have drugs and liquor and money that already existed running through their hands. To have something brand fucking new? There was no telling what could go wrong.

“I only ask because I have a little brother. A brother who has a year or two left before he’s too far gone. My parents are in denial because they only have three kids, and the numbers say more than one Alpha from our lot should be impossible, but I can tell. He wants to pursue music, and I don’t want this life for him. He’s... he’s good. But if he has to, then—I won’t have him shot on the streets for it. Not when there’s a way—”

“I’ve heard enough,” Gabriella said, then looked towards him. He knew immediately what her decision was, but was leaving it up to him. “Matthew?”

“We won’t let that happen to him,” Matthew insisted, nodded at Alfie. “We won’t leave him out in the cold like that. We’re still figuring it out because the last thing we need is Feds crawling all over the lab, and all over the books, poking in places they shouldn’t, but if you’ll stand for him, I’d like to meet him. We take care of our own. Your family is our family.”

“This is uncharted territory.” Gabriella added. “Within the Santorini family, everyone who has been a part of the family circle has been from one of our main families and always a Beta before my father married my mother. Of course, we had associates and employees who were Alphas and Omegas but not like this. Not like with you. My father brought in Alphas gathered off the streets, and I intend to treat you all as close family as well. The responsibilities you all have once would have been entrusted to family members, and there will be some adjustments because I do not expect your entire families to join, but they will also enjoy the protection of this family if need be.”

Alfie looked relieved as he took his seat once more, others clapping him on the back in comfort, and Matthew could tell, as he looked across the room, that others had the same question. Many in the room were like himself, the product of one-night stands between an Alpha who had yet to present and a Beta. Their living parent would have assumed their child was a Betas as well with no siblings at risk of being an Alpha, but if any of them had an Omega parent who had never found their Alpha... the statistics made it likely they had siblings who were Alphas not yet presented, with parents in denial.

“Matthew is right,” she continued, looking around. “We cannot just give this away to anyone, not yet, but this goes beyond my husband being an Alpha. Your family is my family. If your family member is showing they might present as an Alpha, all of you, don’t let it be too late. Whether they serve this family or not, we take care of our own. They will receive the injections if for no other reason than their own protection, the protection of this city and your own peace of mind.”

More than one Alpha nodded and Matthew ran through them all, thinking of their family situations. He was pretty sure most were like himself, but perhaps others had lied, wanting to save their own family from the domineering and demanding Renaldo Santorini. Yet another task he would have to handle in the coming days—bringing the families of his Alpha brothers into the fold.

He was fortunate to be an only child.

The relief was palpable in the room, and even Gabriella seemed to sense it. He gave her another nod, encouraging her on in her speech as the changes and the potential she was offering them had not yet all been listed.

She smiled, and he had to fight to urge to not move forward and kiss her. The last thing he needed was for every Alpha in the room to smell just how much they desired one another in the days after his rut and his marking her. It was impossible to keep the scent from them entirely, given how the house, despite the windows being open and the housekeeper going hard with cleaning products, still reeked of them.

Maybe the next thing she should have the scientists researching was ways to mute the scents of Omegas. There were only a few left, as those who agreed with Dr. Ford’s methods were now worm food, but there were the ones who also saw the humanity within Alphas and had been decent over the years. They would all have a good future, working within whatever foundation or research facility the Santorinis eventually established. They would need a new project to work on now that the research to turn Alphas into full weapons with controlled ruts had been terminated.

“While I did not plan to speak on this quite yet, Tommy, I would like to return to your earlier point—” Matthew hated when Gabriella went off plan. Shit. What was she about to say? “Never mind for the moment. I can already tell Matthew is frustrated with me for deviating from our list.”

Chuckles erupted as Matthew shot his beautiful Omega a glare. Yes, everyone in the room could sense that her words had put him on edge, but she didn’t need to point it out.

“But do know, we will discuss finding your Omegas in a few minutes.”

Matthew’s attention shifted to Alessandro almost immediately, as he saw his right hand straighten up, his curiosity now piqued. Shit. He really was an idiot for not seeing it sooner.

“Now, I know that Alphas are the strongest, and the fastest, and all of that but, many of you were also in higher education or starting new careers when you presented as an Alpha. This is something I would actually like to encourage you continuing. As I said before, I see you all as members of the family, and if you chose to stay with us, it need not be as an enforcer. Instead, you could serve us all by extending into your own interests. This could be working in things like security and electronics and mechanics, all things highly needed. Why would we go to someone else when we have one who is trusted in our own house to see to such things? But even beyond that, I know at least three of you had been studying medicine. Who better to have in the family than doctors who can see to the wellbeing of those of us who do not heal as fast?”

Every eye was on her, and Matthew could nearly hear their brains working in overdrive as they remembered the men they had once been before they were Alphas. None of them had ever intended to work for the Santorini family as a soldier and an enforcer. This was a chance to return to who they once were. To who they had always wanted to be.

“This is something for you to all think about. We still have need of foot soldiers, still need the protection of Alphas, but that does not mean you are trapped in this role. So, think about it, if you want to return to what you once were but working for this family. It would also give you the ability to provide for your own families one day, beyond what you earn here.”

“None of us ever thought we would find our mates, that it would be suppressed,” Matthew said, ignoring Gabriella as he looked around the room. “Obviously, that’s not true. I knew from the start that Gabriella was mine, even though I had no idea she was an Omega. And I fought it. I fought it hard. Pushed right through the suppressants, even with double injections. We tried to hide it, but it was obvious when Alessandro put me in that cell, what was happening to me.”

He hadn’t talked about it to any of the others yet, but if Gabriella planned discuss the possibility of them finding their Omegas, then he was going to give this warning.

“If you’re stupid like me, you’ll think you can fight it. You’ll try to ignore it. Try to reject it happening. But you would be wrong because you can only fight it for so long before you break. It’s inevitable, so if it happens, don’t be a fucking fool. Tell someone it’s happened. Tell your team. Tell me. Shit, don’t end up like me.”

The room was silent, with others bowing their heads.

Alessandro wouldn’t even meet his eyes.

Fuck, how many of them had found an Omega to pique their interest?

Gabriella spoke up again.

“Any Omega who is not a member of this family can take as active or inactive a role as they want. Plenty of mafia spouses know nothing, while others participate only in the social aspect. And then, there are those like Irene Machado, who has been the brains behind her husband for years. I am making a return to those old ways, when the wives were just as active as the husbands, if they wanted to be. When life and death decisions were made while making dinner or over tea. Don’t feel as though you have to keep an Omega separate from this. Any partner you bring in, they will choose their involvement.”

He could feel where she was going with this already, as Tommy had brought it up earlier, and he didn’t like it. The possibility an Omega was unaffiliated with any family was the most likely possibility. However, throughout the city, many paid into other families for protection and services.

It was possible their mates could live in another family’s territory.

“And if they are a member of another family, they can’t be that high up. They can’t be a true member of the family. Sure, they might pay in, but every other family is Beta, through and through. If they are tied to another family, we know you cannot act against your Omega, but I will gladly accept any who swear their loyalty to us and bring them under our protection. You let me worry about smoothing things over with other families. If you find them, don’t betray us. Tell us. And don’t let your fear keep you from finding your mate.”

Matthew could tell, without asking, that this was a new fear of hers. No one could stand against their Omega. No one could fight against them. If an Omega was found among the ranks of another family... It could easily result in war. The betrayal Gabriella would feel...

“Is there any among you who have come across an Omega, whether your own or an Omega in general, who is a member of another family?”

The question was a dangerous one.

Matthew looked around the room and saw only blank faces and heard calm heartbeats.

“I’ve been around more than a few Marinos and Reinhards, and I can tell you right now, not a single one of them has the scent of anything other than Beta to them,” Luis, who interacted with the other families more than the others, called out. “Probably why we’re better than all of them. They have no one worth merit in their ranks.”

Alphas chuckled, and Matthew could feel Gabriella settling, but the possibility was still there. They would have to figure out how to handle that shit and soon.

The room was far more relaxed, now that the apparent possibility of their Omega being from another family was off the table.

Yet the final question, the one he knew Gabriella had to ask but was nervous to do so, was still hanging in the air. If they weren’t careful, every cell would fill up with Alphas going into rut, and they had to stem that off and fast. Matthew was only the first to find his Omega. With more freedom being given to the Alphas, particularly if they took on other jobs, which would expose them to meeting Omegas, it was only a matter of time.

He wouldn’t let any of them suffer save for Alessandro if he was stupid enough to try it. His brother and right hand had been the one to lock him in a cell and sedate him over and over again. If he was going to deny reality, maybe he did need a few days to knock sense into himself.

“I’m going to ask something I already know the answer to,” Matthew said, ready to bring the meeting to a close even though he knew opening this door was about to create a new round of of problems. “Something some of you are going to want to lie about, and I love you all like brothers, but if you lie, you’re just as stupid as I am.”

More than half the room was looking at him, while others were looking to his left, toward his mate. There was one, however, who wasn’t looking up at all.

Alessandro. He was looking haggard, but no longer angry. Perhaps a few days in a cell wasn’t necessary to knock sense into him if he was already accepting it. Still, he was a fucking idiot to not bring it up sooner.

Matthew took a deep breath before moving toward Gabriella and took her hand in his. He kissed the back of it, and she nodded at him, urging him to continue. The question had to be asked. They knew that, but, fuck...

“Anyone in here know who their Omega is?”

The room was absolutely silent...

A hand was raised, confirming what Matthew and Gabriella already knew, followed by another and then more.

“It looks as though our family will be expanding,” Gabriella muttered.

Matthew nodded, taking in the room full of Alphas, knowing their work had only just begun.

The End for now…