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“Good girl. We’ll take care of everything now.”

I grumble something, but the truth is, I don’t care. Dot comes out and helps them bring me inside. She takes care of me.

The injection she gives me sends me into a hazy, dark world that eventually sucks me under.

Chapter thirteen

Edric

I wash my handsmeticulously and watch the older beta carefully pack up all her supplies. Kingston and Mael have gone in separate directions.

Mael’s sitting with her, just in case, while Kingston has gone to find either Bailey or this mysterious soon-to-be-dead Hammer person.

Instead, I wait until Dot goes outside with two beers, follow, and sit beside her. She hands me one and grunts.

“You’re going to ask, and I’m going to tell you because this has gone on far too long.”

I don’t say a word.

“When you left, you left that poor omega bereft. She was aimless and so very angry. Her daddy didn’t get easier. He lost a lot of free labor and fear when you lot left. Police were called plenty of times to the house before she took care of it for good. I’m not saying she killed him, but he disappeared one day and didn’t come back. But you left an enormous hole in this community, and when the Crimson Cobras became aware of the hole, they muscled their way in. Always someone stronger, someone who wants to prey on the weak.”

She heaves a sigh. I open my beer and drink a third of it while she lights up a smoke.

“I quit these, but every time she comes in like that, I light one up and sit out here and hate the fact that the only thing I can do is clean up the mess they make of her.”

I tense but don’t move, watching the side of her face intently, waiting for her to give me the information.

“They wanted reparations. A monthly sum was decided on, and every resident needs to pay it.” Dot spits. “It was for protection because we need their protection like a hole in the head.”

I put my beer down, not liking the sound of this at all.

“We struggled, but she stepped up. After a year, we voted her our alpha, and she’s been taking care of us ever since. Doing all the things we can’t.”

They voted her alpha? What the fuck?

“That doesn’t explain the fights.”

Dot doesn’t look at me, she just makes an irritated sound. “Money doesn’t grow on trees, Edric. She’s got to give them something. The issue is that what she’s giving them isn’t what they want. What? You expected her to beat the whole damn gang on her own? She tried, she did try.”

I pick up the beer again, but I have to fight the desire to hurl the bottle as far as I can.

“What do they want? With her specifically.”

“I assume it’s her broken and doing what they want instead of fighting them at every turn.”

“So she fights to pay off the reparation debts?”

“Among other things. She beats up anyone who hurts us or bullies us as well, any dealers who come in hunting the kids. Selene keeps husbands in line when they lash out with fists. She tutors the kids, feeds anyone who doesn’t have food, helps us out with money, sews clothes, fixes roofs, she’s a chef, security, a handyman, a plumber, an electrician, a mediator, a carer, a teacher, a friend. She became our alpha. So if you boys think you can come in and hurt her, I will tell you now, no one in this neighbourhood will stand back and let you.”

“We don’t want to hurt her, but she can’t keep doing this.”

“Someone needs to protect her, even if it’s from herself. She’s given so much of herself, Edric. She’s carried the weight of all our troubles alone.”

I can hear the silent rebuff in her words, and while there is guilt in me, most of me is still reeling. I cannot fathom what she’s been doing. The strength it took.

My admiration grows and grows.

“We’ll take care of it.”