Chapter 7

My focus was completely shot. I'd gone into Drake House to work on uncovering the trail between the Pack who were known to run the Jackals and the people who'd taken Shae and Cat, but I couldn't make sense of anything. Maybe I was just hangry.

Hoping that having someone to bounce things off would help my focus, I looked around the BullPen to see who could help me with the thread I had been pulling. There were a few other people that Cole and I had been working with. Amy was a sweet Beta who was competent and dedicated when given a task, but also deeply introverted. I hated for her to feel uncomfortable so I wouldn't bother her about working with just me. There was more madness than method to how I worked, like I was hunting for a needle in a haystack, and I'd got the feeling that made her uneasy. Derek was also working. He wasn't a bad guy. Less competent than Amy, but he was friendly enough, in a brown-noser kind of way. Maybe it was just Omega bullshit, but I didn't like the way he hovered around Trevor.

My attention slid to Trevor next. He'd come back into work after taking care of something at the hospital with Jade and was wearing dark gray slacks and a black button down. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, exposing the ropes of muscles on his ink-covered forearms. He was a wet dream, and my stupid fucking hindbrain was not getting the hint that Trevor wasn't mine. Just because he was pack didn't mean he owed me anything, and he certainly didn't need to appease the greedy bitch that was my Omega by putting physical distance between himself and anyone outside our circle.

I'd caught up with everything that Persephone needed me to do for Haven when I first came into the BullPen. I sent her updates on everything we'd learned about the Jackals and the drug they were giving their victims as well, asking her to let me know if she heard anything.

We needed the police to work as quickly as possible to get these people off the streets. Logically, I understood that doing everything properly, legally, meant their hands were often tied. We'd been lucky that the law allowed a ton of wiggle room for Alphas when it could be proven that they were acting to protect their pack. Worked out great for instances like the type of justice that Jade, Theo, and the others had dealt out to get Shae and Cat back. But it was all the cases of Alphas abusing those laws that kept myself, Persephone and everyone working with Haven busy.

Life was so fucking complicated.

My phone began to vibrate, and I immediately felt a little bit better just seeing my sister's name on the screen. I hadn't been able to see her or my mom in the weeks since I'd left the house, and the ache of missing them was constant. But at least any time I got to talk to them that pain eased.

"Hey Aubs, what's?—"

"Ethan, you need to come home. Can you bring your Alphas? Mom is?—"

The panic I felt at hearing her tear-filled voice lessened slightly when I realized our mom was in the background, speaking in loud, rapid-fire Spanish. I couldn't make out what Mom was saying but I had never heard her talk like that before. My breaths were coming quickly and my pulse raced. I tried to calm down, reminding myself it was unlikely that either of them was hurt.

"What happened? Are you alright?"

"It's the dads, they were talking in their office this morning and I think they said something about Shae or you, I'm not sure, but Mom lost it. She started calling them pathetic excuses for fathers and saying she was going to get me away from them. They… they used their bark, E."

"What?"

"They told her to be quiet, to remember her place, and sent her upstairs."

Aubrey was fully crying by that point, obviously trying to be quiet about it, but she couldn't hide the way she sniffled or the wobble in her voice. I had started to tear up as well. We knew our parents' pack wasn't a fairytale. Our dads had become almost unrecognizable to us, but we'd assumed that was to do with us growing up and becoming our own people than actual change on their part. But forcing Mom to comply, to basically be a puppet—it was one of the scariest possibilities for an Omega. Part of me couldn't believe they'd do that to her. Another part of me remembered the looks on their faces that night in my dad's office, when they'd told me I had basically been sold off for their benefit. I wanted to weep as I imagined what life must have become for my mom.

"Ethan?" Aubrey's voice shook.

"I'm here. This happened this morning? Why didn't you call me, Aubs?"

"They made me stay in my room and my phone was downstairs. They left a while ago and since then Mom's been on the phone, talking to Nate, saying we're leaving. But what if he tells the dads? What if they come back? I've never seen them like that. I need you to come home. Please, Ethan?"

"I'm at Drake House but I'll get—" Fuck, Jade was at the hospital with Theo, Miles and Shae were at home and I didn't want to worry them unnecessarily or wait for them to figure out how to get to me and then get to my parent's house. The scent of mahogany and teakwood surrounded me and I looked up into Trevor's worried blue eyes. "I'll be there soon, okay? Call me right away if they come back."

Aubrey promised and hung up. I braced myself to ask for Trevor's help, knowing there was a very real chance he would deny me. No matter how much progress we'd made toward civility, we weren't much more than acquaintances.

"Ethan, what's going on?"

"My fathers said something to upset my mom. When she tried to talk back or maybe stand up for—" I flushed, my throat clogging with embarrassment over what my fathers might have said about me or my pack. I grimaced and continued, "I'm not exactly sure, but they used their bark on her to force her to obey them."

I shuddered as a bolt of fear ran through me because of what my fathers had done to my mother but also knowing how easily it could have been me. Trevor's scent took on a dangerous quality. When he was sad, it was like walking paths in a damp forest. This was rage like the threat of a fire ravaging through the brush. The anger in his gaze had me shrinking in on myself. He shook his head and looked away, clearing his throat, voice gruff when he spoke.

"Do they need our help?"

I stood there with my mouth gaping—he'd said our help. I really hadn't expected him to do anything except maybe call the others.

"Um… yes? Aubrey said mom is trying to leave. She called Nate and was talking to him but, after the party, neither of us really trust him. Aubrey's scared of what will happen if the dads come back when Mom is trying to leave. She asked me to bring Jade or Miles but…"

"Is Daniels there?"

"Who?"

"Noah Daniels, the Alpha who is her assigned bodyguard."

"Sorry, she never told me his name, just that he was bonded and didn't want to fu—uh, ignore that. He's only with her when she goes to school or scheduled events, not at home."

Trevor nodded and pulled out his phone, then started to walk away from my station. Was he calling Jade? Drake House wasn't that far from my parents' house, but the hospital was across town. I needed to get to Aubrey and my mom faster than she'd get here. His steps paused a few feet away from my station and he turned to look back at me.

"Are you coming?"

"Huh?"

"I'm taking you there. Let's go."

I scrambled out of my chair and ran to catch up with him. As we walked through the halls that lead down to the garage, he called Aubrey's guard and told him to meet us there.

"Should we call Jade or Miles?"

"I don't think anything will happen. From what Jade and Theo have said, your fathers talk a big game but they're just bullies grasping for power. I'm not worried about it. We'll call them when we're leaving."

"Oh, okay."

We stepped into the elevator and Trevor nodded to the two Betas already inside. I thanked whoever had arranged this moment in my life, so I wasn't alone in an elevator with an Alpha whose scent made me want to get naked, face down and ass up faster than any other scent ever had. Damn it, focus. I slipped my phone from my pocket to update Aubrey as the elevator descended.

Me: I'm on my way with Trevor and he called Daniels so he's coming too. We'll be there as fast as we can.

Aubs: Okay. I wish I wasn't such a fucking mess right now because Trevor, huh? Mom said Nate is coming to the house, too. She swears it's fine, but I don't know, E.

Me: I know, just call if he gets there before me, okay?

Aubs: Yeah, love you.

Me: Love you.

The elevator had come to a stop and I tucked my phone into my hoodie as we walked toward Trevor's car. I was chewing on the corner of my lip and overthinking everything when I realized he'd stopped beside a smaller black SUV and was holding the passenger door open for me. My steps stuttered and I blinked up at him. He'd slid a hand behind his neck and was rubbing it but not meeting my eyes. Another gesture that was so reminiscent of Theo that my breath caught. I shook myself and climbed into the seat, buckling myself in as he walked around the front of the car. This whole ride was going to be bizarre. Trying to push that out of my mind, I focused on what was happening with my family.

Betas often lamented about how the other designations had it better or something. But they failed to appreciate how fucked up it was that our instincts flipped a switch inside us, constantly, that made it so we couldn't get past the most basic desires to mate and breed, regardless of what else was happening. And there was a lot happening right now. My mom was trying to leave my controlling and abusive fathers, and my baby sister was stuck there, terrified. The man I loved was in the hospital, literally having his DNA reorganize itself. Another person I was in love with had just been rescued from a trafficking ring, for fuck's sake. But all my brain wanted me to think about was Trevor's scent and his knot and if he wanted inside me as much as I wanted him to be. Ugh.

I must have been lost in my thoughts for several minutes because Trevor cleared his throat to get my attention.

"Are you cold?"

"Um, maybe a little? I can?—"

"I'll just?—"

We both spoke at the same time, as I reached to turn up the temperature for the passenger side of the car and he reached to push the button that turned on the heated seats. Our hands met in the middle and I sucked in a sharp breath at the feel of his warm fingers sliding over mine. We both pulled our hands back and I stuffed mine into the pocket of my hoodie. He brought his hand to his thigh where he curled it into a fist before bringing it up to grip the steering wheel. I watched the knuckles turn white from how tightly he held the wheel and realized my perfume had begun to get stronger.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… do anything to make you uncomfortable. I?—"

"It's fine, Ethan. We're here."

I'd been so focused on trying to force my body to disappear that I didn't even realize we'd been rolling through my parents' neighborhood and were approaching the house. There weren't any cars in the driveway, so Nate hadn't arrived yet, but I didn't know about Aubrey's guard since he could have parked along the street. Our car came to a stop and I jumped out to rush up to the door, pulling my keys out as I ran, thankful to still have them on my key ring. A muffled curse behind me had me briefly feeling guilty for taking off on Trevor. Probably not the smartest thing to do with everything going on but it was done. I unlocked the door and pushed in, listening for where in the gigantic house they might be.

"Mom? Aubrey?"

"Ethan?"

Turning toward the hallway that led to the kitchen, I saw my mom standing there wringing her hands in a gesture that was so familiar. As she looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes, that still hardly had any lines around them, I saw the tracks of recent tears on her cheeks. I closed the distance between us and wrapped her in my arms and her arms banded tight around my waist as she turned her face into my chest and shook. I hated my fathers. Hated them for what they'd done to me, to her, and for the things I had no doubt they were plotting to do to Aubrey. We stayed like that for a moment longer until she pulled away and reached up to hold my face.

"My beautiful boy. Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me. I'll always be here if you need my help."

She moved her hands down to my own and raised them to press a kiss to each of my palms.

"Not that, mi vida. For having the courage to find your own way. To find people who love you and for giving an old woman courage to make the right choice."

Emotion choked my voice and she began to blur as my vision clouded. I brought her back in for another hug since I couldn't make myself speak. We held each other like that until there was a knock at the door and she stiffened in my arms. I looked over to see Trevor dip his head to my mom before turning to answer the door. His spine was straight and his demeanor had shifted back into the intimidating Alpha persona that he stepped into everywhere but at the pack house.

"?Quién es ese?"

"That's Trevor, Mom. He's one of my… um, one of the Alphas in Pack Owens."

My mom's penetrating gaze seemed to understand all the things that I had left unsaid, or maybe Aubrey had told her about my run-ins with Trevor. She nodded as if deciding something as a deep voice broke the silence.

"Where's Miss West?"

My hackles rose at the stranger's rudeness but when I looked at Trevor, he didn't seem concerned.

"Hello, Noah dear. Aubrey is packing up her room."

A lemony soap scent hit my senses and I realized he was the same Alpha who I'd run into during my first visit to Drake House with Jade. Judging by my mom and Trevor's reaction to his appearance, this was the guard they'd assigned to protect my sister. He just nodded once to Mom and went up the stairs to Aubrey's room without acknowledging me or Trevor.

My brows furrowed and I opened my mouth to call after him. I may have been an Omega, but that Alpha was at least a decade older than Aubrey and she was still my baby sister. Omega or no, all my protective spidey senses were tingling and I didn't like it. A soft hand squeezed mine and my mom pulled my attention back to her.

"It's fine, Ethan. Aubrey is quite safe with Mr. Daniels."

"But… packing? Mom, where are you two going?"

"Yes. That is an excellent question, Ethan. What do you think you are doing, Marisol?"

Fear slammed through me as my fathers came through the open front door. Anger thickened their scents and weighed down on me. Trevor's growl was so low that it was more vibration than sound, moving through the space and reverberating through my body, like I was standing too close to a speaker at a concert. He had been standing to the side, letting my mom and I have some privacy, but quickly moved to block my fathers from getting too close to us.

Harrison stumbled back a step at the sight of the six-foot five Alpha covered in tattoos in front of him. The only signs that Charles, my biological father, was affected by Trevor was a brief raise of his graying brows and the curl of his upper lip.

"We made it clear the night those… undesirables came to claim you from our home, Ethan. You are no longer welcome here. You have shamed your family. So don't think you can crawl back here when these miscreants and the criminals they are mixed up with?—"

It was that statement that pushed away the fear and gave way to rage.

"I've shamed my family? What about you, Charles?" I'd hoped for a flinch or any kind of reaction to calling him by his first name, but he showed nothing. Nate and I had always called Harrison by his first name, though, of the two dads, he'd been the kindest to us as kids. But it had always been drilled into the three of us that we were to address Charles as Dad, especially in public. "My pack are criminals? You're the one who has broken the law over and over, and what about what you did to Mom? Using your bark to coerce your bonded Omega because she, what? Dared to disagree with you?"

He reacted then, his mask of aloof disgust cracking to show the same rage that I'd only seen when Jade came to take me away.

"You disgusting little?—"

He took a step forward but I held my ground. Trevor's hand shot out, pressing into my father's chest and forcing him to take a stumbling step back.

"What the hell is going on here?"

My brother's voice rang through the foyer where we stood facing off.

"Nathan, your brother is attempting to take your mother and Aubrey from this house. We need to call the authorities and have him removed from the property."

I looked at Nate. His face was blank as his eyes shifted between our fathers and where Trevor stood protecting my mother and I from them. Nate started forward, buttoning his designer suit jacket as he came to stand shoulder to shoulder with Charles. I only just held in a whimper as my last hope, that the brother I loved was still inside Nate, died. My mother's hand came up to my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. I thought she might have been coming to the same realization that I was, until I looked down to see a small smile on her face. Swinging my gaze back to Nate, I watched him turn and step between Trevor and our father until they were almost nose to nose.

"Go ahead and call the authorities, Father. I would be more than happy to give my statement about your treatment of my mother. While I'm at it, I could let them know about the campaign finance violations and embezzlement that Alpha Owens already warned you would be exposed if you hurt Ethan again."

Harrison's face was slack with shock and Charles' was nearly purple. I couldn't believe it. Nate was turning on them?

"Or, you can leave the premises until Mom and Aubrey have removed all the belongings that they would like to take to their new home. That will give you plenty of time to contact your attorneys and arrange for a quiet separation, with generous monthly support payments to be made to this account."

Nate pulled a card out of his jacket and my father snatched it from his hand. He glared at me before shifting his eyes to my mother, who straightened and met his stare. Pride swelled in my chest. Something flickered in his eyes and my father's shoulders slumped. He turned to leave without another word. Harrison trailed behind him, giving one last look toward the stairs where I realized Aubrey and Daniels had been standing, watching it all unfold, before our fathers walked out the door. Nate closed the door and turned back to us.

"Gentlemen, if you would, there's a moving truck outside and I could use some help loading so Mom and Aubrey can move into their new apartment straight away. And I'd like a moment alone with my family."

"The boxes in my room are ready to go."

Aubrey's voice was small and it broke me from my stupor. I looked up to where she'd started down the stairs and saw Daniels' brow furrow. His hand lifted like he wanted to reach out to her but that was all I saw before a broad chest suddenly blocked my line of sight.

"I'll help Daniels. Call if you need me."

Trevor gave me an almost sheepish grin before he walked past my sister and up the stairs to where Daniels had disappeared down the hall. I needed to sit down. Too much was happening too fast and I was struggling to process it all. Nate's quiet voice pulled me back to the moment and to my family. Aubrey was cuddled into Mom's other side as the three of us looked at him.

"I'm so sorry."

My big brother's stoic and pristine persona crumbled before my eyes as he crouched down and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. Looking over at my mom and sister, Aubrey looked as shocked as I felt and a tear slipped down Mom's cheek. She walked over to Nate and gently tugged on his hands until he stood. His face was a study in sadness and self-loathing until she wrapped him in a hug and began speaking softly in Spanish. Telling him it wasn't his fault, he was a good man, and how proud she was of him for helping them.

Aubrey reached out and squeezed my hand, and I used it to reel her in until she was pressed into my side.

"What's this about an apartment?"

Mom and Nate broke from their hug and he cleared his throat to answer Aubs.

"I have been trying to get a place for you and Ethan in one of the safest buildings in the city for about eight months now. I finally got the notice that we were off the waitlist about two weeks before Ethan was… taken."

What? More importantly… "Why? Why do this? Why not say anything to us?"

Nate flinched at my tone. I couldn't tell if it came out as the accusation, I'd meant it to be or if he could hear how much his indifference had hurt me, especially these last few months.

"I thought that if I did all the things they asked, if I kept them proud of me, distracted, they'd leave you two alone. When Aubrey perfumed, I realized how stupid I'd been. It started with them laughing at jokes that men at their club made about her matches ‘opening doors' for Charles. I'm embarrassed about how long it took me to realize those jokes had stuck with them and become more of a plan, not just for Aubrey, but for Ethan too. I knew I had to get you all away, but I was scared that Mom wouldn't want to leave or that they would do something like they did today. I couldn't figure out how to get you all out."

"Then everything happened with Ethan and I started to get desperate. They were making moves that I didn't think they would until he perfumed, or Aubrey turned eighteen. It was all going to shit, and I couldn't protect any of you. I was failing you, when all I wanted to do was?—"

His voice choked off and Aubrey and I moved to surround him and Mom in a hug. I couldn't remember the last time I'd hugged my brother. I tucked my head against his shoulder blade as he struggled to compose himself.

"I heard what your Alpha said to them at the party. About the money, the crimes, and I investigated from my end of the businesses. It was what I needed. Charles cares more about his reputation than anything or anyone. Harrison would never go against him, so I set up an account they couldn't access and moved some of their money into it for Mom. Just in case. I signed the lease and started to get it furnished and everything so at least Aubrey and I could move in when she turned eighteen but then Mom called today and I told her everything."

We all pulled apart, Aubrey and Mom brushing their cheeks. Nate looked at me and I saw his jaw tic as he seemed to not know what else to say.

"I wish you'd told me."

"I know, I'm sorry…"

Whatever else he may have said would have to wait as the other two Alphas came down the stairs, interrupting us, both balancing multiple boxes in their arms. Aubrey made an odd little squeak and hustled over to open the front door for them. We needed to get everything they wanted from the house packed up and moved out.

"Ethan, you should go through your room, too. I'm sure there are things we missed when Aubrey and I tried to pack that night."

Mom patted my cheek before linking her arm with Aubrey and walking up the stairs. I followed behind them knowing that I'd take a few pictures and sentimental things, but mostly just wanting the time to think.