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Chapter forty-three

VIOLET

The warmth lingers even as consciousness creeps in, a slow and steady thing wrapped in the scent of my pack, the steady rise and fall of Sofie’s breath against my chest, the solid weight of Gray at my back. His arm is draped over my waist, fingers twitching slightly like he’s still chasing sleep. Sofie’s hands rest loosely against my shirt, her body curled into mine, soft and pliant, lost in the haze of slumber.

I have no idea how he snuck in here but I’m not complaining. Apparently, Sofie didn’t mind either but I was too tired to even notice when it happened. It’s quiet. Safe. A moment that shouldn’t be disturbed.

Then a loud, earth-shattering bang shatters the silence.

The front door rattles under the impact and my entire body locks up, my heart hammering hard enough to shake the edges of sleep from my mind. Sofie makes a soft, confused noise, nuzzling deeper against me, but the next bang has my muscles coiled tight.

A voice follows. “Open up! This is the police!”

Fuck.

Gray groans against my shoulder, muttering something incoherent, but I’m already moving, slipping free from the nest, the loss of warmth barely registering. Sofie stirs immediately, her sleep-heavy limbs clinging for a second before her instincts catch up, her fingers wrapping around my wrist as she scrambles after me.

The hallway is dim, shadows stretching long against the floor as I rush toward the main area, my pulse hammering in time with each step. Hawk is already there, meeting us halfway. He plants himself in front of me, a wall between me and whatever the fuck is about to come through that door.

“Stay put,” he murmurs, his voice calm but edged with uncertainty.

Another bang. More voices. The door handle rattles and Hawk mutters a curse before striding toward the entrance, his movements tight with barely contained irritation. The door swings open and three Alphas in full uniform push inside without waiting.

Big, mean-looking motherfuckers who fill the space with too much presence, like they were handpicked to make a statement. The station didn’t send some low-rank Beta for a polite conversation—they sent their best enforcers. A deep voice rumbles from behind me.

“What the fuck is so goddamn important at…”

Puma steps out from his room, rubbing a hand over his face, his movements slow and unbothered despite the sudden intrusion. Sweatpants hang low on his hips, his bare chest broad and marked with the tattoos I’ve fallen in love with, his entire presence dripping with the kind of authority that makes even the officers pause.

His expression is unreadable, but there’s something in the sharp lines of his jaw, the way he rolls his shoulders back, that makes it clear he isn’t fucking amused. One of the officers steps forward, the one in charge, his uniform stretching over too-large muscles like he’s trying to intimidate his way into an advantage. “Puma Ashford?”

Puma exhales slowly. “Yeah. That’s me.”

The officer crosses his arms. “We have some questions for you.”

Puma tilts his head slightly, unimpressed. “At three in the fucking morning?”

“We received new information about your involvement in the forgery case. Puma Ashford, Lance Ashford, and Hawk Ashford—you’re under arrest for the purchasing and distribution of fraudulent artwork.”

Sofie’s fingers dig into my arm, but I barely register it, my mind still catching up to the words that just left the officer’s mouth. The words echo, bouncing around inside my skull, rattling loose something panicked in my chest. No. That’s not possible. Fraud? Distribution? Arrest?

This isn’t how it works. Cases like this take months, sometimes years, to investigate properly. To build enough of a case for charges, let alone a fucking arrest. There’s no way they have enough evidence already. None of the information I gave them yesterday would have pointed them in the Ashford Alphas’ direction.

The officers don’t give us time to argue. “We can do this the easy way,” one of them states flatly, his tone impassive, his expression hard. “Or we can cuff you and drag you out.”

Sofie stiffens at my side, her scent shifting from warm and honey-soft to something sharp, uneasy. A quiet, nervous sound escapes her, barely more than a breath, but it still spikes something furious in my blood.

Puma just sighs, rubbing a hand over his jaw before reaching for his coat like this is nothing more than an inconvenience. “No need for dramatics, gentlemen.” His voice is calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that makes my stomach knot up, that tells me he’s already thinking five steps ahead. “Let’s go.” Lance and Hawk exchange a glance before moving in tandem, grabbing their jackets without a word.

I feel like I’m drowning. “Wait—” The word barely makes it past my lips. My chest is tight, lungs refusing to work right. “You—you can’t just arrest them for some bullshit charges. This takes time. There’s no way—”

One of the officers turns his gaze on me. “Ma’am, we have probable cause.”

Probable cause. Probable fucking cause. My stomach knots, twisting into something painful. “That doesn’t mean you get to skip protocol.” I have no idea what I’m talking about but I’m hoping something works.

The officer sighs like I’m nothing more than an inconvenience. “Tell it to your lawyer.”

Panic claws up my throat, frantic, desperate. This is wrong. This is fucking wrong.

I turn to Puma, hoping for him to say something, to do something. He meets my gaze, everything about him composed even at three in the fucking morning. That’s what pisses me off the most—the way he looks like he’s already played this scenario out, already calculated every move, already accepted that this is happening. I am barely processing it and he’s already playing out something he’s planned for.

He steps closer, gently prying my fingers from where they’ve locked around Sofie’s wrist in a death grip. “Dove,” he murmurs, voice a steady anchor in the chaos. “Gray will take care of you both. Call Banks.”

Gray stiffens beside me, every trace of humor drained from his face, his entire body going rigid with something cold. “I’ll handle it,” he says.

Lance and Hawk nod, but their eyes stay on me, watching, waiting—like they know I’m about to do something reckless. Like they think I’ll fight for them. Like they think I’ll make this worse. Sofie was right about wanting to do something, needing to do something. But there’s nothing I can do in the moment as Puma whispers to us that they’ll be back soon. And then just like that, they’re out the door, the police cars heading back down the driveway until I can no longer hear the engine or see the flashing lights against the large windows of the house.

Sofie is trembling against me but I can tell she’s in shock. Gray stalks into the kitchen, his voice sharp as he shouts into his phone, most likely speaking with Banks. I want to fall apart, drop to my knees, yell into the void but that won’t help anyone. No, my priority is my Omega and make sure that she’s settled.

“Come on, baby,” I urge her back toward her nest. She doesn’t go right away. Only until I gather her up in my arms does she seem to shake out of the stupor she was in. Sofie curls into my chest, letting me place her back in the multitude of pillows, Gray joining us soon after. I tell her to rest, that maybe our Alphas will be back in the morning.

However, even tucked between me and Gray, wrapped in the warmth of the nest, she stays tense. Every so often, a little whimper slips from her lips, her body twitching like she’s caught in some restless dream. Every instinct in me screams to fix it, to make it better, but there’s nothing I can do to untangle the worry curling around her like a vice.

Exhaustion finally drags her under. The moment her breathing evens out, I watch her for a long while, letting my own breath match hers, grounding myself in the rise and fall of her chest. Safe. Warm. Protected. But none of those things apply to Puma, Hawk, or Lance. A slow, burning frustration churns beneath my skin, making it impossible to stay still. Instead of twisting and turning and waking up Sofie, I slip out of bed, hoping I can find something to distract me.

Gray moves the second my feet touch the floor, following me out into the hallway. “Princess,” he murmurs, voice thick with sleep. “Where are you going?”

My body pushes forward on instinct, straight to the office, too restless, too fucking pissed to stay in bed and pretend everything is fine. Gray follows, his footsteps trailing mine, a sigh slipping from his lips as he drags a hand through his hair. “You can’t solve this on your own,” he mutters, voice quieter now. “We’ve got a great family lawyer—”

I whirl on him, tension snapping like a live wire. “I can’t just fucking sit here!” I hate this helpless feeling growing inside of me. For a while, I let myself fall. I told myself that I didn’t have to be in control. I handed the reins over to them, loving the freedom that came with not having to think about every goddamn thing. And now the very men who I gave that control to are gone and I’m spiraling because I don’t know what happens next. Gray could tell me a thousand fucking times that they’ll be okay and for some reason I can’t bring myself to believe it.

Gray steps up to me, squeezing my shoulders as he drags me against his chest. “Princess, we will figure this out. Banks is pure magic when it comes to matters like this. They’ll be home in the morning but you’ll be no good running yourself into the ground. I should know.”

A shattered breath falls from my lips as I sag against him. “I need everything to be okay.”

He hums a response, slowly wrapping an arm around my back, the warmth of his skin against mine causing me to sigh against his chest. The other slides along my shoulder, his fingers slipping into my hair as he holds me. “You’ve needed to be absolutely everything to Sofie for so long that you’re having trouble separating that and these moments right here. You crave control when everything is chaos but let me tell you that this is one thing you can’t control.”

Tears glaze my eyes as I cling to him.

“However, we have people who can control it and I need you to trust that they’re damn good at their job.”

I let out a watery laugh, thinking back to when I was at the station. “You mean the guy who charges $2,500 an hour?”

“We get a discount. But yes. Banks knows what he’s doing.” He continues running his fingers through my hair before leading me to the couch. He pulls me into his lap, my back pressed against his chest, his fingers now playing across my belly beneath my shirt. It’s a mixture of intimate and perfect as I sag against him. “I’m giving you half an hour to work through the thoughts in your head and then we’re going back to Sofie. No excuses.”

Fifteen minutes later, Gray’s answered every last question I had, adding onto what Puma told me. Gray keeps nuzzling against my cheek and my shoulder and I realize that he’s using his scent to calm me. It’s a strange movement but I’m not as squirrely anymore and there’s no dying need to solve everything tonight. Still, I’ve got fifteen minutes and I’m going to use them.

“You said someone had it out for Puma?”

“Not exactly. More like a vendetta against anyone that kind of gets in his way so the Ashford pack has been on his list, I suppose. The name he goes by is Orion but we can’t seem to find a connection to what’s happening now and his usual… deviance.”

I snort at the word, placing my hands over his before tangling our fingers together. “I know an Orion.”

“Yeah?” His voice is soft against my ear, one of his hands trying to dip lower but I keep it firmly placed on my belly.

I let my mind turn over the memory, picking apart the details. “One of the guys that used to help hang up pieces at Ash & Ivory . Always real nice. Would stick around longer than most. Talked to Xavier a lot.”

Gray straightens slightly, the shift in his posture small but noticeable. “I don’t think he’d be on a crew.”

“Why not?” The question leaves me before I can think better of it. “If he wanted to make sure his shit was getting in the right place, why wouldn’t he be?”

Gray shakes his head, his skepticism thick in the air between us. “Because Orion isn’t a goddamn delivery boy. He’s got people to do that shit for him.”

I shrug, crossing my arms. “Maybe he wanted to make sure everything was handled personally. Wouldn’t be the first time a guy with money wanted to play in the dirt for a little while.”

“Orion’s got a reputation for being a goddamn bastard, Violet. Ruthless. I don’t think he’d be chatting up Xavier for fun.”

A smirk tugs at the corner of my mouth, my head twisting just enough to catch his expression. “Why does it sound like you’ve never actually seen him?”

Gray scoffs. “Because it’s almost like he’s a myth. He supposedly exists, but very few people have actually met him. He operates in the shadows, makes deals through whispers. If someone’s been showing up at Ash & Ivory pretending to be Orion or sharing the same name, I highly doubt it’s actually him.”

“Well,” I hum, tapping my fingers idly against the desk. “He’s pretty.”

Gray untangles his fingers from mine and twists my entire body around until I’m straddling his thighs. I also forget that he’s so much stronger than I am, his lean body wholly deceptive. I grin at the glinting metal staring back at me, metal that definitely lured me into his bed the first time around. He digs his fingers into my hips, fingers flexing, his mouth hovering just over mine. The heat rolling off of him is all challenge, all smug, sharp-edged amusement. “I’m pretty,” he growls out.

A short laugh pushes past my lips and I tap his chest playfully. “Is that a line? Because that’s not going to get you fucked.”

Gray groans, tilting his head back like I’ve just told him the worst news in the world. “I try so hard.” He recovers just as quick, pressing a soft kiss to my lips before slipping me off his lap. “Times up. Let’s get back to bed before Sofie wakes up alone. She’ll have our asses for it.”

She absolutely would and I don’t want to be on the other side of that anger. For now, I’ll try to sleep, to rest, to trust in Gray’s words that Banks has it handled and that my Alphas will be fine. I don’t need to be in control , I tell myself. Now, I just need to believe it.