he’d given it back to me. Then he wanted to be fixed, even though he’d said he didn’t. All of it. The whole time there, and how bizarre it really had been.
“The thing was, he doesn’t even know what he wants. He’s out there yelling he doesn’t need to be fixed, that he just wants to punish and kill Omegas, but when I deny him the service of the Omega, he gets mad.”
Rainer ran a hand through his hair. He wasn’t wearing it in the usual man-bun. It was down around his shoulders. “He’s able to do the connections because he’s an Alpha. Living an obscenely long life. Maybe that’s because of the Loup thing. I don’t know. I wish I understood more of how this worked. But truthfully, I don’t. Loups were to be disposed of when I was a kid. I don’t remember there being a whole lot of discussion about helping back then, but then the Omegas were outside of pack influence, too. Maybe our Omegas were out there helping people and I just had no idea. Maybe it was like a Loup either got killed by pack enforcers or helped by the Omega. I never gave it any damn thought.”
What he said was interesting to me. I chewed on my lip. “He can connect as the Alpha. Could you? To keep me here? Could you hold on to my wolf and not let him draw me in again so that I’m taken over?”
I didn’t want to be back on that dock with Ross. I didn’t mind the Loups coming to me. They woke me up, interfered in my life, and were otherwise disruptive, but that was my job. Whether I asked for this or not, I needed to care for them. But Ross was different. Those men who showed up at my door were pitiful in the sense that they made my heart ache for their situations. Ross did not. Maybe once he would have, but what he had done went beyond the bounds of acceptability on any scale. I could not—would not—put up with this. He was to be eliminated.
End of story.
Rainer nodded. “I could try. I’m not entirely certain how to do that.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “But I suppose I could ask our…guest if she knows how to do that. If anyone would know, she would.”
I smirked. There was clearly no love lost between Rainer and Miranda. I liked her just fine, but it was bound to be different with the two of them. And there was something about Rainer getting a little growly that really appealed to my wolf side. It was as though I didn’t mind him being rough and difficult. That was how he was supposed to be.
It showed me the world hadn’t broken him, not even when they’d locked him away. I smiled. Somehow, I knew that his wolf was too strong for that.
That was true for all of them. Preston, with his easy smile and laughter, hid away his pain at losing his family, and yet he was able to cope and push through things faster than anyone I knew. Jarret, who doubted himself at every corner, didn’t see his own worth, and somehow still managed to pull out an Alpha wolf that was strong and sure of his place in the world. And finally Anton, who had been so abused, it might have destroyed someone with less internal strength. Something he must have cultivated all alone, since the world did nothing to help find that place inside of him.
I loved them all. Deeply.
There was no time like the present to start figuring these things out. I swung my legs over the bed to get up, nearly colliding with Preston when I did. He winked at me before he kissed me hard on the lips. I sighed against him and giggled. Bumping into Preston had its perks.
Pres pulled back, and I was pulled into a kiss with Jarret. He rubbed our noses together before he placed a gentle caress on me, lips to lips.
“Missed you,” he whispered in my ear.
I leaned against him. My plans had been to charge from the room, but this was more important. Little moments with them. We had so few, as we were constantly running from one terrible thing to another. In this tiny bedroom in this motorhome I’d illegally bought using Gus’ credit card, I was going to take a moment to breathe.
Jarret let me go, and I stepped into