us to run out and show ourselves."
"You think he's still out there?" Darcy asked, suddenly sounding a little afraid herself.
"I would bet every one of those two million dollars on it," she said.
All the alphas tilted back their heads and drew in long breaths.
"She's right," Zeke said. "There's someone out there. Far away and covered in scent blockers, damned good ones—but he's there."
"So why didn't he take us all out?" Cassidy asked. "After all, we were easy targets."
"Because we're all underestimating him," Aric suddenly broke in, his voice tight with fury. "He wants Jocelyn dead. Probably me too—but this beta is smart. The last thing he wants is an all-out alpha war. He knows that's the one scenario he can't win."
Samson looked from one brother to the other. "Then you know that's what we have to give him, right, brothers?"
Zeke groaned in response. "Life was a hell of a lot simpler before all you damn omegas started showing up. No gunfights. No talk of war."
Samson laughed, the sound echoing through the destroyed house. "I'll remember you said that next time you give me shit about mating with a beta.”
Chapter Fifteen
Aric threw together a simple dinner while Samson dragged the bodies away to serve as snacks for carrion feeders, and Zeke cleaned up the worst of the mess. The women took their plates and retreated to the bedroom, talking a mile a minute. The alphas ate leaning against the walls since the table and chairs lay in shards.
The shadows were just getting long by the time they finished eating. Aric served up glasses of his treasured reserve moonshine, but he barely tasted it, brooding while Zeke and Samson shot the shit. Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore.
"I didn't sense him. Not either time—not until it was too late."
Aric had kept this shameful truth from his brothers, and it had been pressing down on him more and more with each passing second. Admitting to his brothers that he'd failed was bad enough—but admitting to himself that he'd failed Jo was much worse. What good was pledging his life to protect her, if he couldn't even sense a threat when it appeared?
He had to tell someone, and his alpha brothers were the only ones who would understand.
There was another reason he had to confide in them. While the two other alphas had no trouble pinpointing the beta sniper's location by the slight chemical trace of his blockers, Aric could not—which meant that he would be a liability.
He could not help track the beta, who was still sitting patiently up in the hills above his cabin, nor could he defend against an attack when he didn't know which direction it would come from. And since they planned to head out when it was fully dark, time was running out to admit the truth.
Aric had agreed to wait until nightfall despite the fact that the thought of letting an intruder keep breathing on his land—especially one with murderous intentions toward his omega—had been almost unbearable. But he knew this beta was patient, so he had to be patient as well. The longer the alphas waited, the more tired the sniper would become. And tired prey was easier to catch.
Samson and Zeke shared a glance. The evening was silent except for the buzzing of insects and the hum of the women's conversations through the wall. Though Aric didn't focus on their words, wanting to give Jo her privacy, from the sound of it, she was getting along famously with the other mates. While Aric had never really spent much time thinking about the women in the settlement, now he was grateful for their presence.
Jo had questions. The other women had answers—answers that Aric was in no mood to give, being far too preoccupied with his own shame and rage.
Unfortunately, neither of his alpha brothers seemed to know what to make of his problem as they continued to quietly sip their moonshine. But Aric's guilt wouldn't let him drop the subject.
"There were three of them this time," he snarled, angrier at himself than he had ever been at any intruder. "Three. And I didn't hear them until they were a second away from firing. What the hell is wrong with me?"
"I don't know," Zeke said heavily. "That's some scary shit. An alpha without his senses is…"
He trailed off before saying the one word Aric feared most.
Nothing.
Without his senses, an alpha was nothing. Unable to protect his property, himself, his omega. No better than a beta.
"What the fuck