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I honestly didn’t remember making the decision to clench my fingers closed and draw my arm back, but an instant later, pain was radiating from my split knuckles up through my wrist and elbow as my fist impacted with the asshole’s jaw.
He staggered, crashing to the floor with a groan.
Mia’s voice penetrated my awareness, growing louder as she approached. I turned to look at her.
“Yes, that’s right!” she said breathlessly into her phone. “He just forced his way in, and I ran to hide in my bedroom! I need the police here right away!”
Blankly, I took in the little black cylinder Mia was holding in her free hand. She toggled something on its top and came right up to stand next to me, before I could organize my thoughts well enough to tell her to stay back.
“Oh my god!” she said into the phone, mock hysterical. “He’s coming after me! I’m going to have to pepper spray him!”
With an ice-cold expression at odds with her high-pitched voice, she stepped up to the moaning figure on the floor. Orange spray shot out of the keyring pepper spray canister, hitting Scalise directly in the eyes. He screamed, clawing at his face as he descended into frantic hacking and retching.
“Oh, no!” Mia told the emergency services operator, not breaking expression. “It’s still not stopping him! Oh, wait. Never mind. My alphas are here. They’ll restrain him. Please hurry with those police cars, though.”
She thumbed the phone off and stuck it in her pocket, cutting off the voice on the other end. We all stared at her.
“Whoa,” Luca said, his expression awestruck.
At our feet, David Scalise coughed and dry-heaved, tears and snot streaming from his splotchy red face.
Much,muchlater, the seven of us stood around in the kitchen. Silence echoed in the house after the commotion of police officers taking statements and Scalise hoarsely cursing us up one side and down the other.
Thankfully, poor Tony already had a restraining order against his stepfather on file, processed at the same time his emancipated minor status had been. That order would further smooth the way for us legally. Not that Scalise had a leg to stand on, if he tried to argue he’d been assaulted. But with the restraining order in force, I doubted there was a lawyer anywhere in the county who would even agree to take his case.
“I can’t stay here.” Tony’s complexion was pasty, and he couldn’t seem to meet anyone’s gaze. “In St. Louis, I mean. I’m sorry... I know you’ve done a lot to help me get set up here. But... I can’t.”
Luca looked exhausted. He sat at the table, leaning forward with his elbows resting on the tabletop and his fingers laced tightly together. Emiel stood behind him, one hand clasped on his shoulder.
“Go someplace far away, Tony,” Luca said quietly. “Start over. Don’t give your past any more chances to catch up with you.”
With a pang, I wondered if Luca was regretting not having done exactly that, five years ago.
“Yeah.” The word emerged on a sigh. Tony took a deep breath and straightened his spine. “I’ve, um... I’ve always kind ofwanted to live in Chicago. Maybe this is the universe telling me to do that.”
My brain immediately tried to dive into logistics, but I cut off that line of thought for now. It wasChicago, not Timbuktu. We’d figure it out.
“We’ll help you make that happen,” I promised. I shot a glance toward Byron, who nodded.
“Yeah, no problem. I’ll get us a pair of tickets,” he said. “We’ll go up together; find you a job and a place to stay.”
I tried to let my gratitude show through my eyes. Byron just flickered an eyebrow at me, managing a twisted shadow of a smile in acknowledgement.
The pair didn’t waste any time getting out of Dodge. They left the following evening, taking the train from the Amtrack station downtown, with all of Tony’s earthly belongings stuffed inside a single, battered suitcase.
The day after that, Mia and Luca ambushed me after dinner. They gave Nat and Emiel matching significant looks—in response to which, Nat cleared his throat and suggested he and Emiel go catch a college basketball game on TV.
Then I was alone with the omegas.
“Can we talk in your room?” Luca asked. “It’s about the mating.”
I nodded, knowing this discussion should have happened ages ago. As I led them upstairs, I tried to rehearse what I wanted to say... and failed utterly.
Once we were all inside with the door closed, Mia turned to me.
“I asked you once if you wanted a mated pack again, after losing Julie,” she said. “Do you remember? And you told me,only if it’s the right pack.”
I winced. “Not really my finest moment. I hope you both know that thisisthe right pack. For me, I mean.”