Chapter 26

"Are you sure about that, Ethan? You only have one semester left before you graduate."

The older Beta looked at me with concern, and I found myself appreciating, for what felt like the millionth time in the last few months, that she was my advisor. So many people would have tied my request to take a semester off to my designation and the fact that I'd found a pack, and just written me off as another Omega drop-out, leaving school to be spoiled by their pack. But my advisor had always been careful to make sure I understood any consequences of my choices, guided me, and fought for me when I needed help.

"I'm sure, Miss Tammy. My doctors told me that I could have a heat as often as every other month until my body settles into the natural processes that I had been suppressing for so long. I will finish my degree but, right now, I can't continue when I have to take time off so often. It wouldn't be fair to anyone."

She nodded, but still looked unconvinced.

"No one is pressuring you to make this choice?"

I smiled then shook my head.

"No ma'am. My pack is wonderful and completely supportive of all my choices. There's no coercion or anything nefarious happening."

She sighed then shuffled some papers around and turned to her computer. We spent the next thirty minutes coming up with a plan for submitting my request for a semester off citing all the documentation I'd brought with me regarding my medical situation as well as the circumstances surrounding my pack. We found the summer courses I could take and the ones that would have to wait until the following Fall semester so I could still graduate in a year. When it was time to go, she hugged me tightly and asked that I keep her updated whenever I could.

As I walked out of her offices, I wondered how often she faced Omegas abandoning the hopes and dreams they'd for themselves in favor of what their Alphas wanted them to do or who they were made to be. Shame washed through me as I realized how happy I had been to sit in my own ignorance for so long. How I'd deluded myself into believing that it was noble of me to give a little bit of time to help Haven. My steps faltered when I felt Jade and Theo both prodding at me through the bond. They must have sensed the shift in my thoughts. I needed to learn to lock that up, sooner rather than later. Especially since they planned on going after Graves tonight. I didn't want to risk distracting them when they were facing off with that monster.

I was lost in thought until sun-ripened blackberries and sea-soaked fresh air hit my senses. Shae and Miles were sitting in the chairs in the reception area with their heads together, discussing something. As Miles smiled and scratched his fingers against the perfectly trimmed beard along his jaw, my stomach gave a little lurch. My packmates were stunning. They spotted me and stood, walking forward to sandwich me between them. When we reached the front door of the building, Miles held it open for us and Shae took my hand.

We wandered through the campus, taking the longer route from the administration building that passed through an area that had the oldest buildings on campus, and broad green spaces with giant trees whose leaves were a riot of golds, oranges, and reds. As Shae and Miles chatted about their own days at university, I breathed in their scents in the crisp fall air and had the sense that these moments would be etched into my memory for the rest of my life.

Miles" phone chimed and he read the text quickly, his mouth turning down as he looked up and scanned the area around us.

"Is everything okay?"

He turned and nodded, smiling at us reassuringly.

"That was the driver. He said there were press vans near the pick-up location, so he moved to the parking garage. It's just past that building. Will you be alright, Ethan? We can have him meet us in another area."

I squeezed Shae's hand and looked between the two of them. This wasn't like before and I wasn't alone.

"I don't know what the media would be doing here, but it's not worth facing them if they want to talk to Shae or if they've connected some other dots. I'll be fine."

Miles moved to my side and pressed a kiss to my temple before moving to give Shae a kiss as well and then he began walking in the direction of the parking structure, motioning for us to follow him. Shae kept me distracted, talking about how excited they were to be working for Drake House now, too, and that they couldn't believe Jade hadn't thought of it sooner. How Cat was feeling like she could come back to work soon, and scheming over how we could get Miles to set up his office there as well so the whole pack could be together most days.

"Won't they need to hire another pair of EMTs? You and Cat can't be on call twenty-four hours a day."

"For sure. Jade said we'd only have one ambulance but maybe get a first responder vehicle as well and hire one or two more teams. We aren't going to be helping people as much as we used to. Jade said a lot of it would be the private clients wanting banana bags for hangovers or patching up small things after they've done something stupid, but it's safer and more flexible for both me and Cat."

I dipped my head over so I could run my nose up their neck and kiss their jaw as we walked. Their enthusiasm was contagious, and I couldn't help but get swept away in it right along with them. We crossed over the walkway that led to the parking structure's ground level, which had the one-hour parking spaces where the driver was supposed to meet us, and spotted the car idling a few spaces down from where we emerged. Shae had continued talking, this time about plans for the night, not so subtly trying to curb my nerves. I had only been partly listening, having become distracted by the way the muscles in Miles" shoulders shifted as he walked and that deliciously rounded ass that filled out his pants.

If I hadn't been staring so hard at Miles" back, I probably would have walked into him when he stopped abruptly, putting an arm out to keep Shae and I behind him.

"Turn around, now. Walk back to the blue callbox on the other side of the walkway and call for help."

Shae's voice was hesitant.

"Miles? What's wrong? There's nothing here?—"

A sound rang through the space, like someone was using a compressed air tool, and Miles spun toward us, his eyes wide. His body jerked once and he fell to his knees, holding his shoulder. Shae dropped next to him, reaching for where blood was leaking through his fingers. I was frozen in place, unable to move. Miles reached out with his bloodied hand and gripped the front of Shae"s shirt, and when he spoke, the Alpha command in his voice was so strong that neither of us could resist it.

"Run!"

Shae got to their feet with an anguished expression twisting their face as they stumbled, turning to run. I'd spun also, beholden to my Alpha's bark and forced to leave him there, until I wasn't.

"Stop, Omega! Freeze."

Miles' growl echoed in the cavernous parking area although it was shaky from pain.

"Shae. Get help, now."

I could see the tears streaming down their face as their bonded Alpha's command overrode the one holding me hostage and they kept running. Miles must have recognized that he and the hidden Alpha's warring commands would just force me into a macabre game of Red Light, Green Light, so he'd focused all of his will on freeing Shae. As they looked back, I met their eyes, and mouthed the word, "Go!" to them. We both screamed as the window of a car they'd just passed exploded into shards of glass.

"Get over here, Omega."

My feet turned in the direction of the command and began to move. Miles collapsed onto his wounded side as I passed by him. He reached out and grabbed hold of my ankle, pulling me to a halt. The scent of whiskey and cigar smoke hit me, and I wanted to wretch. A tall, gaunt-looking Alpha moved out from between the cars. His skin had the kind of pallor that comes from being unwell. He moved stiffly, like he was struggling to walk, and the gun he held up was clenched between bandaged hands. Graves.

"Unless you want a bullet in his head, you will move to me, Omega. You have that bitch Alpha to thank for my shitty aim or he'd be dead already."

I focused on my bonds with Jade and Theo. Like I suspected, they were furious and probing for the source of my fear. I did the only thing I could and thought of how much I loved them. How perfect they were and how thankful I was for them. Looking down at Miles, I saw his jaw was clenched in pain and fury. I gave him a watery smile and bent to pry his fingers from my ankle. His voice was barely audible, and his breaths were broken.

"Ethan, no."

I felt the command roll off me—he wasn't my bonded Alpha and I had made the choice to follow Graves' command. I couldn't risk him following through on his threat. As I pulled each finger away, I took a deep breath of Miles' scent. Though, thanks to all that was happening, it was less reminiscent of beachside days in the sun and more like the air over the ocean before a violent storm makes landfall. It still comforted me, and I wanted to push the lingering odor of stale cigars from my lungs. He squeezed his eyes shut and the hand that had held my ankle now made a fist around nothing.

"Miles." He opened his eyes at my voice and I swallowed thickly. "I love you. Love all of you."

Ripping my eyes away from the misery on his face, I turned to the deranged Alpha and began walking. His nose twitched as I got closer and then wrinkled as I reached him. I took a small amount of joy from the knowledge that he found my scent as repulsive as I found his.

"Your pack got my Omega arrested. So, I'm going to make sure that they don't have theirs, either. Now, move."

I couldn't bring myself to look back at Miles and I didn't fight as Graves shoved me away from my packmate. I just focused on trying to mute the bonds between myself and my Alphas. They were raging through our connections, swarming me with a complex wave of emotions. I thought they might be trying to tell me they were coming, but I knew it would be too late. There was a vicious sound behind me as Miles' roar echoed through the space.

Graves shoved me again, this time so hard that I lost my footing and was sent sprawling to the ground. Landing on my side, I looked up to see Graves sneering at me as he swung the gun in my direction. He let out a mocking laugh as he looked down at me, then his nostrils flared and his expression changed to disbelief just before an enraged, bleeding Miles barreled into him. The gun discharged again. This time, the suppressed sound of the shot was louder, and fragments of broken concrete hit my cheek signaling how close the bullet had come to ending my life. The gun clattered and slid beneath a car close to them as the two injured Alphas growled and snarled as they tore into one another.

I crab-walked backwards away from them until my back was against a car and watched the brawl, knowing there was nothing I could do. Once again, there were the sensations of Jade and Theo searching through their bonds with me, trying to find what was happening, but I couldn't focus on anything but Miles. He hammered a punch with his good arm into Graves' thigh and the other Alpha cried out as his knee buckled. Graves tried to return the hit but, in twisting to try to get to Miles" wounded shoulder, he only put himself in a position for Miles to wrap his good arm around the other Alpha's throat and get a knee on his back. Miles groaned, bringing the arm of his wounded shoulder up to cross under Graves' jaw. The tendons in his arms bulged even as Graves clawed at his forearms. Miles' deep voice was colder than I'd ever heard it as he spoke, so low, that I would have thought I'd imagined it if I hadn't seen his lips moving.

"You will never again touch what's mine."

Graves opened his mouth to respond, or curse us all, or something, but we would never know because, before he could get any sound out, Miles used all his strength to wrench the other Alpha's head to the side. There was no mistaking the sound of his neck breaking, as it echoed around us, and then he went limp. Miles released his hold on Graves' body, and it smacked into the concrete. I glimpsed his unnervingly vacant eyes before Miles" grunt of pain pulled my attention away from the corpse of the Alpha that had been the source of so much death and pain.

Miles fell backward, trying to catch himself on his elbow but failing. I scrambled over to him and just barely managed to slide my fingers between his head and the unforgiving ground when he collapsed. His left side was soaked with blood and his deep brown skin had taken on a gray hue that filled me with a kind of fear I'd never experienced before. He was struggling to keep his eyes open and I lightly slapped his cheek until he looked into my eyes.

"You need to stay with me, Miles. Shae is bringing help, and the others are on their way. You're going to be fine."

Miles" jaw clenched and he gritted his teeth before sucking in a sharp breath.

"Tell—love them."

"No, Miles. You're going to tell them. Shut up so you don't hurt something else."

His smile was weak, like he was losing his battle with consciousness. I could hear sirens and then finally there was the sound of many running feet. The relief I felt was all-consuming, I raised my voice and yelled.

"We're over here!"

"Ethan." Miles croaked and pulled my gaze from where I could hear people coming our way. "L-love you, t-too."

"Don't you fucking dare, Miles." Tears were running down my cheeks as I looked down at him.

Shae crashed to the ground beside me, cursing and ripping Miles" shirt open. I couldn't pull my gaze from Miles" face as they worked to help him. He looked between Shae and me and smiled, before closing his eyes and losing consciousness.

Once Miles closed his eyes, I lost all sense of what was happening around me. The most primitive side of myself had fully taken over, and the only person that I would allow near him was Shae. They were able to convince me to let another paramedic work on him to insert an IV while they treated the wound in his shoulder. When the time came to load him onto the stretcher and take him to the ambulance, Shae had to hold me back. The paramedics realized there was no separating us, so they allowed Shae and I to ride with him. But when we got to the hospital, I couldn't release my grip on him.

"Baby, you need to let go. He has to go to surgery. And you need to get checked out, too."

I whined as Shae spoke. They whispered all the right and reassuring words in my ear, but I couldn't force my fingers to release him. Then a purr sounded from beside me and, as quickly as I had lost myself to the Omega within, my thoughts cleared. Eucalyptus, bayberry, and teakwood filled my senses, blending with the faint ocean air and wilted blackberry blossoms. Pack.

Slender but strong hands wrapped around my own and golden-brown eyes locked with mine.

"Let go, Omega. The doctors need to work."

I did as Jade asked and a broken keen slipped from my lips. Strong arms banded around me and I turned to press my face into Theo's chest. I felt Shae move to lean into my back allowing Jade and Trevor to complete the circle, so we were boxed in by our Alphas.

"Graves is dead. Miles is… he's?—"

"He's stable, baby. He needs blood and the surgeon needs to make sure he didn't do permanent damage to his shoulder, but he's going to be fine."

"We're here, Biscuit. You don't need to worry anymore."

I sank into the comfort of my pack, and we stood there, contained in our circle of love and worry, until a throat cleared and drew our attention. An older cop, an Alpha with kind but hard eyes, stood there with his hands in his pockets.

"Sorry to interrupt when your Omega has been through it, again, but I have a few questions."

I recognized the voice. This was the man that Trevor and I had talked to about Poppy's involvement. The one who was helping Jade and Theo and had a hand in the investigations surrounding all the shit we seemed to constantly be wading through. I looked up at Theo whose head was turned toward the cop, and his jaw locked. Turning until I could see Jade, I sent a questioning pulse down our bond. She smiled at me and returned a feeling of pride. I was learning how to navigate these connections and she was proud of me. She nodded minutely, telling me it was okay for me to talk to this man, and that I could trust him.

Still, I wasn't ready to lose the physical connection with all of them. Turning my neck, so I was looking in the direction of the man, Jack Travers, I laid my cheek against Theo's chest and spoke. Sweat started running down my temples, as I worked my way through a recap of what had happened.

Three growls reverberated around me as I finished explaining and I whined. I knew they weren't mad at me, but it was instinctual. My perfume spiked, trying to appease the rage that my mates felt, to make it better. Travers coughed and took a few steps back drawing my attention.

"I'm sure there will be more questions regarding the other man that was killed but, as far as Graves goes, the Alphas in your pack had a claim of retribution. Nothing will come of his death."

"Other man?"

I looked back and forth between Jade and Theo but it was Shae who spoke.

"The driver. His body was next to the car. I don't know if that was what Miles saw or just the fact that the car was running but empty. Something set off his warning bells and that's when he told us to run."

"I'm so sorry, Jade. What about the driver's family? Did he have a pack?"

I hated that I hadn't even thought about the way we'd been lured to the garage. Trevor answered me, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of my head as he spoke into my hair.

"He was single, and we're looking into his next of kin. This type of thing hasn't happened to Drake House in decades so the Board will be meeting soon."

"Shae? Jade?"

Miles" mom's voice was wobbly as she walked into the waiting area with his dads. Jade and Shae broke away from our arms to update them. I bit my lip to stifle the whine that tried to slip free as soon as they weren't touching me, and Trevor moved to bracket me between him and Theo. They moved with a synchronicity that seemed choreographed but was probably just a product of being around each other their whole lives. They each put a hand on one of my hips and moved to scent mark me at the same time. Theo marked my right temple and Trevor marked my left. A purr kicked to life in my chest and my dick got hard.

Not the fucking time for that, body.

"Beautiful, you're burning up."

"Oh, nononooo."

My eyes were as wide as saucers as I stopped to take stock of my body. I was going into heat.

"I can't do this now. Miles is in surgery, and they won't let him come home until they know he's safe and we need to be here for him?—"

I hadn't realized that the volume of my hysterics had risen enough to draw attention until cool fingers pressed against my lips and Shae tilted my chin in their direction.

"That's part of what the doctors wanted to see you about. I noticed your temperature was rising when we were in the ambulance. And having to endure that much stress when you were already so close to your heat? They have an abortive shot that can delay it, but you have to be sure."

"Yes. Yes, absolutely. Give me the drugs!"

My pack and Miles" parents all chuckled at me, which did stupid things to my emotions because I suddenly felt like they were laughing at me, and I wanted to cry. I really wanted that shot as quickly as they could possibly get it to me. Shae disappeared and apparently asked if someone could come to the surgery waiting area to give me the shot since I was inches from being a completely hysterical Omega, and thankfully they agreed. Within an hour, I was feeling more like myself.

Miles" mom and dads sat with us while we waited for news. The nurse who'd given me the shot had warned me that the heat abortive meds would make me drowsy. I'd started to doze off on Jade's shoulder, when the surgery doors opened and a woman in scrubs came out calling Miles" name. We all stood and moved toward her but it was Miles" mom who asked how he was first.

"It went well. The bullet itself didn't do any major damage but Alpha Owens actions after did tear some ligaments. We've repaired the damage as best we could. As you all likely know, Alphas typically heal faster than the other designations but keeping your Omega close will likely speed it up further. He should have full use of his arm in a month or so."

"When can we see him?"

The doctor turned a tired smile in my direction.

"He has to stay in the post-op area for about an hour once he comes out of the anesthesia but one of you can go sit with him and then he will be taken up to one of the rooms for overnight observation. Your pack can stay together there."

We decided to let Miles" mom sit with him until it was time to take him up to the room where we were going to stay for the night. Once we got up to the room, we maneuvered things around so that, once Miles" bed was brought in, we would again have three beds to share. Shae and Theo left to get food for everyone, and Trevor stepped out to talk to Miles" dads about handling things at Drake House until my heat was over. It seemed like something that Jade should be handling but, instead, she lay next to me on one of the beds, tangling our legs together and tipping my chin up so she could brush the tip of her nose along my jaw.

"Tell me what was bothering you, Ethan. Before everything happened, you were sad and ashamed. You know you don't have to quit school, right? We will fight every step of the way for you to be treated fairly. Nothing that has happened has been within your control?—"

I silenced her with a kiss and tried to share my gratitude in the bond, and the answering feeling of warmth and affection told me that I had succeeded.

"I realized some things that I wasn't proud of, I knew that I had been sheltered and had learned so much working with Haven but I—what have I really done to help?" Squeezing my eyes shut, I tucked my face into her neck, below her chin. "I kept going back to my parents' giant house and never thought about those people again after I fixed their paperwork. Then I found you all, and we've been caught in this whirlwind of horrible shit, but I want to do more, Jade. I want to really help people."

She carded her fingers through my hair and purred softly. I wrapped an arm around her waist and sank into the love and comfort my Alpha was offering me.

"We can do that, Ethan. You're not alone in feeling that way, though. After what happened to Shae, and to you, we've all been confronting the realities that we can do more than write checks to organizations that can be corrupted so easily. We need to do more."

"Like what?"

"I want to bring Haven into the light. Make their work something that others can back with their money. Hire people to build more teams at Drake House that will focus on protecting and helping Omegas who need to escape and start over or just need protection. I think partnering with your mother's organization, and working on bridging the gaps between what exists and what these vulnerable populations need, would be the next step."

"Can we do that?"

Jade shifted so I would have to meet her eyes.

"Yes, sweet Omega. We're going to blow it all up and force people to look at the ugliest parts of what happens in our world. We'll do whatever we can, to make it better for the people who can't do it on their own."

Before we could say anything else, Theo and Shae came back with several boxes of pizza and Trevor trailed in shortly after. We had just begun eating when Miles" mom came into the room, pushing the door right open so that a rolling hospital bed could be wheeled in, containing a groggy Miles covered in thin blankets. His eyes moved blearily around the space in a way that told us he was still fighting either the effects of the anesthesia or the pain meds.

"Where ‘re th-they?"

"Where are who, Miles?"

His mother's voice was calm but had a note of thinly veiled worry as well. I wrung my fingers together, knowing he meant Shae. They moved toward him and some of the tension left him when he gripped their hand with his good one, but his eyes continued to look around. His heart rate spiked minutely, causing the monitor to alert, and the nurse moved to see what the cause had been.

"Where's ‘e? Did take ‘im?"

The monitor was beeping more worryingly now and Trevor cursed before reaching for me and tugging me from where I was trying to stay out of the way while they maneuvered his bed between the others.

"He's here, Miles, Ethan's right here."

I caught my hip on the other bed and was the epitome of grace and coordination when I stumbled into the side of Miles" bed. His eyes widened and he tried to sit up then grunted in pain and flopped back as a flurry of scolding and activity happened around him. Between Shae, his mom, and the nurse, he was arranged back in the position that wouldn't harm his shoulder. Shae moved out of the way and, once again, I was manhandled until I was seated at Miles" side.

"You're ‘lright?"

I struggled to see him through the tears building in my eyes, but I nodded frantically, and he gripped my hand. I wrapped my other hand around his and the incessant beeping of his pulse monitor slowed. He looked from me to Shae and then to the rest of the pack where they all stood around his bed before his eyes began to droop drowsily.

"Stay?"

The word was soft, and he was already drifting off to sleep so I wasn't sure he would even hear my reply.

"Always."

His hand tightened around mine, telling me he had heard, before his breath evened out in sleep. Miles" parents said their goodbyes and we all settled in for the night. Shae slipped in with Miles. Jade and Theo took the bed closest to the door, unwilling to let go of the possibility that someone could try to hurt us again. I lay down in the bed farthest from the door, close enough to the edge that I could reach out to touch Miles. When Trevor climbed into the bed behind me, I still had a moment of surprise. I knew it was silly but some part of me still expected him to keep me at a distance. His giant body wrapped around me, my head tucked just below his chin, and his feet going past mine on the bed. I stiffened for a moment before relaxing completely. His purr vibrated against my back and I sank into it as I drifted off to sleep.