Chapter 4

HUNTER

“What do you want?” Felix yells through the phone, answering on the first ring. His laugh echos through the speaker, bursting my eardrums in the process. “Ledger said to tell you that your brother is a fucking cunt, by the way.”

They’re pretty laid back, considering their sister is back for the first time in five years. The last time I saw Davina, she was about to finish school, those sad blue eyes cast down to the ground as she scurried past the group of us, worlds apart from the firecracker she used to be when we were all younger. My twin Kai and I are close with the Holmes boys, have been since we were little. Their father is our dad’s right hand beta, their most trusted in the wider pack.

“Heard your sister is back in town for the holidays,” I state, trying to keep the tone of my voice even. One of the whiney bitches who works at the small airport in town slipped when she was talking to Kai, disgust rolling off her in waves. Seems our younger brother’s influence does still linger in the shadows. “Didn’t think to tell us?”

“Wasn’t aware you needed to know the inner workings of my family, Hunter. Want to know when I go to take a shit too? Moms cooking has me pretty bound up, to be honest. Not enough fried food to help it all along.”

The thing is, they do usually tell us everything. Not their shit schedule, but we are close. Their sister coming home isn’t something small or insignificant, especially since she revealed as an omega when she left this place. Their kind is coveted and protected, as sacred as they come.

I don’t blame them for wanting to protect the girl after what happened when we were all away. The pain and torment she went through at the hands of our younger brother Elias and his horde of followers is something I still think about, wishing we could’ve prevented it. He has paid for his sins and then some since, with both Ledger and Felix being the main dealers of justice for the little asshole.

“He isn’t the same person he was back then, Felix. You know that. He hasn’t come back in years.”

Felix mumbles something under his breath before hanging up the phone, leaving me in silence. If only he fucking knew just how significant she is, how important she will potentially become if our suspicions are correct and Elias’ strong pull to the girl is anything to go by. The stupid little shit didn’t understand his feelings at the time or what the energy between them meant. Instead of talking to us or our parents about it, he forced her away to make himself more comfortable.

Kai stares me down, his jaw tight. He would have been able to hear every word of that conversation from both sides, so I'm preparing for the onslaught that’s about to be thrown at me. Where I have been able to find some compassion for our younger brother, he hasn’t. It took all of him not to join the Holmes boys the day they beat the living death out of Elias for hurting their sister, his wolf side teetering on the edge of carnage. The two of them would benefit from a fight, but they need to figure it out for themselves.

“How do you fucking know he isn’t the same person, Hunt? Speak to the little rat lately?” Kai snaps, his nostrils flaring. We are identical twins, but we are easily told apart. Between my lack of tattoos and his lack of giving a fuck about his appearance, we barely look like twins unless we’re side by side.

“Don't play coy, Kai. It’s not a good look. I keep in touch with him when he takes the call, which is rare. His instincts should be much more reined in by now; he has been at the barracks for years.”

The year after high school, alphas are sent off for twelve months of training. Should the alphas have entrusted betas, they go as well, but they’re enrolled in different classes. It’s what took the four of us away from Davina, leaving her in the apparently incapable hands of our brother. After getting beaten to a pulp, Elias left for training and never came back, deciding to stay there doing fuck knows what. He should’ve been back with his pack, but none of us had the urge to fight him on it.

“The moment he hears she’s back, he will be here and you know it. The prick is the reason she left in the first place, and if what he said to us the night he left is true...” He trails off, rising to his feet and pacing the length of the room with his fists clenched. “Do you think she’s…you know?”

“What? That she’s our omega? You can say the words, no one else is here. The boys don’t know. Elias thankfully kept his mouth shut. Surely, the two of us would have felt something too if she was.”

Even as the words fall from my mouth, I don’t believe them. The truth is, I had felt things. Not to the extent of Elias, who had a year with her leading up to her revealing as an omega, but they’re there—the intense need to protect her at all costs, how being in her vicinity keeps my wolf side calm.

“Should we go home and have a chat with our parents before we actually see the girl? See what they know? Hazel and Mom are best friends. Surely, she knew Davina was coming home,” Kai snaps, already reaching for his jacket and keys. “Come on, get off your ass.”

The whole house smells like peppermint and cookies, Mom baking up a storm for the annual pack get-together tonight. Every single flat surface of the house is covered in ornaments and tinsel; anyone would think they lived in Santas dirty little grotto. I don’t think the big man would be so pleased about the whole marrying three brothers thing, but it’s fairly normal for omegas to marry into a pack.

We silently follow our noses through the house. Sure enough, our mother is in the kitchen with her portable speaker blaring horrendous music from the stone counter. Christmas carols filled with fucking bells. Her light brows are knitted tight as she strains to read the back of a packet without her glasses, a measuring cup in one hand and a bag of flour in the other.

“Did you know, Mom?” I ask, leaning against the counter with my arms folded across my chest. Kai was right earlier: with our mothers talking daily and being the best of friends since well before we were born, how we have been left in the dark about this is beyond me.

“Hunter, I hate to break it to you, but the world does not revolve around you boys. Hello to you too, by the way,” she breathes with a roll of her honey-colored eyes. Shaking her head, she wipes the flour off her hands on the bright, Christmas-themed tea towel and pins her gaze on me. “Yes, I knew sweet Davina was coming home for the holidays. I helped them decorate their new cabin so she is comfortable here. You are all to leave her the hell alone, or you will have your fathers to deal with. You could all learn a thing or two about how to treat omegas.”

My molars grind, annoyed that she is lumping us all in together, as if the two of us are as bad as Elias. We were not the ones to scar her; pretty sure she used to have our initials in fucking hearts on her books.

One of my fathers, Levi, walks into the room and makes a b-line straight for Mom, wrapping his arms around her middle and inhaling her scent. They are ridiculously affectionate with her, all three of them not giving a fuck who’s in the room while they dote on their omega. It’s gross because they’re my parents, but a part of me longs for that, to have someone I care about so deeply that it’s impossible to be without them.

“My love, you are needed over at the Holmes place. Their little omega has arrived and Hazel is having a freak out that there’s more she needs to know. I will have Archer come finish the baking.”

She gives him a stern look before washing her hands and untying her apron, passing it to him on her way out. “You two kids so much as touch any of this, and you will be banned from touching a crumb of food at the celebration tonight.”

My family is typical of an alpha-omega family unit, not something common in other pairings by any means. Omegas by nature need more than one bonded alpha to get them through their heats, meaning it’s normal to see up to six or seven alphas in a family pack, depending on the needs of their omega.

“Did I say his name three times in front of the mirror by accident or some shit?” Kai asks, popping an uncooked ball of cookie dough into his mouth now that Mom has left the room. Sure enough, the rumbling sound of a motorbike filters through the house seconds later, leaving the two of us on edge. “Speak of the fucking devil and he will appear. That’s what they say, right?”

“Kai, he’s your brother. He’s a little shit, but he’s still part of your pack,” Dad says, slapping Kai’s hand away from taking a second cookie ball from the tray. “And unless you want to go hungry, I would stop. I ain't keeping secrets from your mother. If she notices shit gone, that’s on you. Now, be nice.”

There has been unease within our little pack for years, well before Elias did what he did. He has always been the reckless one, with minimal control over his emotions. Where we have a filter between our primal sides and more human forms, he doesn’t, and it has gotten all of us into a lot of shit over the years. What we have left can barely be called a pack, with those two at odds and my trust barely existing where Elias is concerned.

His smug grin as he walks into the room doesn't do him any favors, the prick now being the same height as both of us. When he left, there was still some of that gangly teenager in him, all limbs and not a lot of muscle. The barracks have changed him, though, hair cut short and defined muscles pressing through his black t-shirt. That’s not what stands out the most, though, no. It’s the scent clinging to him, faint but still there, overpowering everything else in the room.

“She smells good, doesn't she?”