48. Mine

I was still in my head when I was scooped up into Odie's arms. "I don't know how you did that, Mine," she said into the nape of my neck.

"We should be dead." Ellie's voice was oddly jovial as the shock and adrenaline converged.

"Or worse." Sloane added from behind us.

The room emptied of the council members, and everyone around me couldn't stop talking about what happened and how incredible it was. I didn't think I did very much. Arthur was the one who started it all. They should be thanking him.

This was all very strange, and apparently, this was rather unheard of. Of course, Arthur had mentioned that it had happened before, but due to the topic of the trial, it wasn't known by anyone outside of this room. Even Gerard didn't know about this besides the rumors he initially didn't believe.

Leona and Iker lay on the ground, exhausted from fighting Bernard's pheromones the entire time. The others merely felt relief at being released. Alastor grabbed the keys from Herman, telling him to fuck off, before undoing Gerard and Ellie's handcuffs. No one else seemed to notice how his hands lingered on hers, but I did. The pieces were falling together for them, and maybe in a few days or weeks, I'd pester her for details and ask how she felt about it given I didn't know how an Omega-Omega pairing would work. Since she didn't flinch or pull away, I was in no rush. However, she didn't lean in either, which I thought was interesting.

For now, we would celebrate our win, sleep for the next week, and finally have a future waiting for us outside these doors. I wasn't dumb enough to think things were over or that we weren't going to be under surveillance the rest of our lives, but I didn't care. In fact, I'd have Cy find whatever was watching us so I could make all the rude gestures I could and possibly read them some of the darkest horror romance I could find.

I'd annoy them as much as they annoyed me, but I'd be the only one getting anything out of it. Whoever was my keeper for the rest of my days sure had a lot of things coming their way.

We settled down, and Herman shooed us out of the room and showed us out of the large estate. We had no car waiting for us, no way to get home, but no one cared as we walked down the steps and breathed in the fresh air.

"I still can't believe that worked." Sloane stretched his arms up at the bottom of the steps. "It's going to be a long walk out of here. Good thing we all love a good hike."

"You can't be serious?" Gerard guffawed. "We don't even have shoes. We have no way to call someone to set up a ride. Who knows what even awaits us at the mansion. How do we—"

"Don't worry, Gerard. Trust me. A hike is exactly what we need to let off some of this energy." Sloane smiled a knowing grin and winked at us.

No one questioned him as we continued our way down the stairs and the driveway that seemed to be a few miles long. Eventually, we turned off onto a trail I hadn't noticed with Sloane leading the way up a small hill that looked over the estate. From up here, we could see everything and were already a few miles away. I didn't know what he was planning, but he was right that we needed this to burn off the buzzing energy beneath our skin.

"All right, Sloane, time to spill. What are we doing here?" We all stood in a semi circle, facing Sloane and the estate behind him through the trees.

"I think I can answer that." A familiar voice came from our right, and more than one gasp and question fell from the groups' collective lips. Arthur. "The future where you take charge is closer than you think, Mine."

I'm not fighting them. I want to go home. My arm brushed my side as it fell, scraping against the sores on my wrist. I really wished I had a second hand right now to massage out some of the ache. It was only a mild distraction from the fear running through me at the thought of another battle so soon after our win. The adrenaline was slowly vanishing, and I didn't have anything left in me, not today.

"You may think differently after we explain." Arthur smiled down at me with a patient smile.

"I wasn't running late to dinner because of my new role. Arthur came to me under that guise, and we had a plan of our own to enact. I'm sorry I lied to you, but we were never going to be sentenced to death. Well, they could have done that, but we would have escaped and ended up here anyway." Sloane rubbed the back of his neck as multiple people started yelling at him, and even Ellie threw a rock, hitting him in the arm. It wasn't big enough to do any damage, and I'd probably do the same if I could aim with my left arm.

"My son and some of the others are corrupt. I couldn't let them win any longer. We were barely holding them back as is, having to allow certain wins to skate by even when we didn't want them to." Arthur's lips turned down in a frown as he sighed. "Sloane was given Lucinda's old position thanks to my insistence. I invited him out to discuss it and other things."

"Other things involving our capture and the aftermath of it."

"What the fuck does that mean?" Cy demanded with her arms crossed, most likely to keep herself from punching him.

Sloane turned around and looked out at the estate. "I knew they were coming that night. Arthur warned me, and we formulated a plan to end this once and for all. The council needed to be stopped, and there was only one way to do that. Trade our massacre for theirs."

The fuck did he just say?

"Kill them? How?" Gerard stepped forward, his head swiveling from the back of Sloane's to the estate, trying to sort out what they had done.

"Easy, explosives. Lots and lots of explosives." Sloane smirked as he turned back to us. "They are rigged all over the estate. Ready to blow in a minute. We timed it well, actually. I'm rather proud of this group. Even without knowing it, you followed the plan to a T."

"You're going to explode the entire—" Odie's words were cut off by a blast, then another, and another. They didn't stop for a few minutes, and we watched as each one detonated, destroying more and more of the massive estate that we had been in only an hour ago.

We watched in silence as the council's downfall settled and the explosions stopped.

"There were innocent people in there. What have you done?" Ellie's eyes were filled with tears as she punched Sloane in the face, then turned to Arthur. "You're lucky you're old."

"Wait a second!" Sloane yelled through the chaos of everyone else joining on Ellie's tirade. Even I was signing up a storm, cussing him out for the bullshit he pulled. "No one that didn't deserve to die died! Arthur, please?"

Arthur stepped forward, effectively shutting us all up. "I warned the council members I knew wanted a new regime to take over, cleared out our dungeon, and even sent out a notice during the meeting to all the staff that wasn't on their side to remove themselves from the premises. I have worked years at earning their trust, and I trust that they all escaped. If not, I am sorry for their loss, but I did what I could to prevent unnecessary casualties."

My jaw dropped open. Did he think "oh, I tried" dissolved him of any wrongdoing?

Before Ellie or anyone else could step forward, I took matters into my own hands, old man or not, and punched Arthur in the face.

Thanks for saving us and fucking them over, but that's messed up. And Sloane. I thought I could trust you.

I was being unfair, and I also wasn't. The council needed to be taken down, and realistically, I knew that even if we lost some innocent lives in this, it was a fair trade. Actually, far more than a fair trade. The entire staff could have been in there, and it still might have evened out, but emotionally and morally, I hated the chance they took.

"Who's to say none of the council was tipped off and escaped before this? You told some, but what if the others managed to figure it out? What then? We'd be more fucked than before," Odie rambled as Leona and Iker stood near the back with dumbfounded looks on their faces, Cy backed up Odie with the meanest glare I had ever seen on her, and Ellie and Gerard fumed from beside me.

"It was a chance we had to take. You don't have to like this. You don't have to agree with any part of it. That's part of why you weren't told. This ending was inevitable. They had to be taken out. There was no other option, and we had to work fast. No other plan would have worked. The long play wasn't viable. They would snuff us out and end us. Acting now and fast with no remorse was the only way." Sloane's voice was nearly to the point of a whine, and it was odd seeing an Alpha behave in such a way.

The rest of us glanced at each other, various looks of horror and acceptance gracing our features. We understood why they did it. It was a great plan in all honesty, but they were right. We also didn't like it. For some of us, I thought it had more to do with being left out of the plan. For Odie, Cy, Leona, and Iker, I figured that was the main issue because the objective was complete and the people they cared about were safe. For Gerard, Ellie, and I, it was more. Despite fighting the instincts that Omegas had at times, they were always right there ready to burst out at a moment's notice. They forced us to care a little more, which is why Bernard and the others were so strange to me. They might call me a mutant, but they were far more gone than I would ever be. Alastor was the odd man out. I couldn't read him quite yet, but with his eyes flicking to Ellie over and over, I figured he was more on team one. As long as Ellie was safe, who gave a fuck?

"So now what?" Ellie's voice was small, and I chuckled, watching Alastor's hand twitch before he prevented himself from comforting her. "What's so funny?" she snapped at me, and I raised a brow.

You know what.

She pinched her lips together and didn't say anything. No one else got what I meant, which was even more amusing, so my chuckle turned into laughter.

Despite not knowing why I was laughing, it was contagious, and everyone soon joined in, letting off a little of the steam and anxiety from the last twelve hours. That's all it had been, or maybe a little more since the sun sat high in the sky and beamed down on the remaining rubble of the estate and the deceased council members within it.

The laughter died down, and I reiterated Ellie's previous question. Now what?

"Now we take a minute, clean ourselves up, and let Sloane and Arthur deal with the mess we created. Tomorrow, we will help finish the fight and begin rebuilding what they destroyed." Odie stepped forward and held out her hand to Sloane, then Arthur who both took it and shook.

"Agreed?"

"As long as you're not hell bent on punishing me for keeping a secret, yeah, agreed." Sloane looked sheepish as he smiled at Odie.

"Oh, I'm going to get you back, but thank you for saving what is mine." With that, Odie turned around and picked me up again, heading down the trail.

Arthur called after us, stating that two SUVs would be waiting for us down at the entrance to the estate, but we should hurry to avoid being caught up with first responders and anyone else who was brought in to deal with this mess.

As we made it down the hill, leaving Sloane and Arthur behind, I finally saw that Alastor had given Ellie a piggyback ride down the hill to prevent more damage to her bare feet, and Leona did the same with Gerard. I couldn't help thinking they were cute together as well. Maybe they weren't meant to be together, but a friendship might arise if nothing else.

We walked along, carried or otherwise, until we reached the cars. Our mini team of highly trained security checked every part of the vehicles before deeming them safe. There were no drivers, but the keys were left in the center console for us. Leona took car one with Iker and Gerard. Car two was a little more packed with Odie at the wheel, Alastor in the passenger seat—as demanded by Cy—and Cy, Ellie, and I in the back with me in the middle.

The drive back to the mansion wasn't long, but I fell asleep on Cy with Ellie falling asleep on me, so I wasn't quite sure how long it really was. I needed the rest, but what I really needed was a nice long shower, then a soak in the tub, then a massage, then a week of more sleep. Food had to happen somewhere in there along with an entire pitcher of water and maybe some booze.

I didn't know how they managed to do things like this for their jobs and not want to spend a week in bed due to exhaustion afterward. This was unlike anything I had been through before. Physical damage was one thing, but this was a mental load I never imagined having.

We pulled into the driveway, and everyone hopped out as soon as the cars were parked. The dining room was as we left it. The plates of food were strewn about, blood splatters filled the right corner just inside the doorway where Cy, Leona, and I took turns fucking up Oliver. Our phones were also still on the table as if they never expected us to return.

The house was quiet, and a thought crossed my mind about what they possibly told the staff. Were they still here somewhere, waiting for news, or had they been rushed off away from the mansion?

These, and many others, were questions for tomorrow when the real work began.

The council was gone, and we had one day to sort out our personal affairs before more chaos began, but at least this time, it was the good kind of chaos. The chaos that brought change to the world and a hope for a better future.

For now, I planned to spend the next twenty-four hours with my mates and seal the wound between us for good. I almost lost them, and I wasn't planning on letting them wander too far anytime soon. I loved them, and they deserved to know just how much.