Page 48

Chapter 48

Ava

I’m not really sure what happened to me in the woods past a certain point, and so I’m not sure when it is that Caleb finds me.

One moment, I’m shivering and in pain, and I can’t find it in me to be brave anymore. I just want to die. Everything hurts, and I’m cold and hungry, and I can’t even think properly.

The next moment, Caleb’s calling to me. He’s picking me up and cradling me close, freeing me from my bonds and easing my pain. And then all four of my Alphas are around me, promising me that I’m safe now, and that nothing bad will ever happen to me again.

I wonder for a moment if this is a hallucination. If maybe, I have a fever, or I’m dying, and this is what my mind is coming up with to comfort me in my last moments.

But hallucinations don’t feel this real, and they don’t last for this long. This is real. I’ve been found. I’ve been saved.

My four Alphas hold me tightly for a long, long time, and I bask in their scents. As I breathe them in, I feel alive again. No, more than that. Like I’m no longer a scared animal operating purely on instinct, but a real live person again.

After however long, the other three reluctantly pull away so that Caleb can carry me out of the woods. That’s when it gets fuzzy again. My vision and consciousness fade in and out.

Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing things, but I’m not really awake. I’m not processing any of it. It feels like trees and trees and more trees. Like we’re walking for days.

Other times, my eyes are closed and I can’t see anything, but I can hear the men talking in low voices. They discuss therapy, and a doctor, and one of them says he’s going to “pamper the fuck out of me.”

I’m so out of it that I can’t tell who says what. It all sounds the same to me, a chorus of soothing voices. But I know that all four of them mean safety. They mean home.

I can’t seem to stop shivering, even with Caleb carrying me and letting me leech off his body heat. At some point, there are other voices, and strange bright lights that I feel should be familiar, but I can’t place them. Red and blue, and red and blue, and red and blue.

I watch them until I can’t watch them anymore, and when I can pay attention to anything again, I’m inside somewhere enclosed and close.

This place smells even more like my mates, and I burrow even deeper into Caleb’s embrace. A leather jacket is draped over me, and I know it’s Garrett’s from how it smells.

“You’re driving this time,” someone says. “So Garrett doesn’t kill us.”

“Hey, now.”

“We have precious cargo this time.”

“Fair enough.”

“I’m still speeding.”

Their soft teasing washes over me. I try not to move too much, despite my shivering. My mouth hurts, my ankle hurts, and especially my wrists hurt.

We drive for a long time. Like in the woods, sometimes it feels like I’ve been in this space for days. Caleb keeps holding me, and someone else is stroking my hair. It takes me a moment to realize it’s Dante. I know that scent, the spicy clove. The bourbon and honey.

At some point I must drift off properly, because it’s all black and I don’t think or feel anything at all.

I wake up when we stop moving.

Immediately my body starts shivering again, uncontrollable. I can’t even speak with how my teeth are chattering.

“I’ve got the bath,” someone—Ethan?—says, and then I’m being passed from Caleb’s arms to someone else.

“Here you go,” Garrett rumbles, and I realize he’s the one carrying me. He purrs soothingly as I’m carried somewhere.

I can’t seem to open my eyes, so I’m not sure where I am. I just know that Garrett is carrying me, so I’m safe, and that he’s purring because he’s trying to heal and comfort me.

Eventually, I’m brought somewhere that’s dimly lit. I hear and feel Garrett snort. “Candles?”

“I think it’ll help her feel safe,” Caleb says. “No harsh lighting.”

I’m lowered into deliciously hot liquid, and I gasp, my eyes flying open.

Everything’s blurry for a second, as I sink into the tub. That’s where I am. I’m at home, in the bathtub.

Dante strips and climbs in with me, holding me close. “Careful.”

He dips my wrists into the water and I hiss at the pain. Dante purrs quietly, the sound vibrating against me. “I know, I know, but we have to clean them so we can bandage them, there we go.”

Garrett and Ethan climb in next, and although it’s a big tub, it’s still a bit of a tight fit for all four of us. Not that I’m complaining. I want all of my Alphas as close as possible.

I’m not sure how many minutes go by, but Caleb appears with some first aid supplies a short while later. He sits on the edge of the tub and bandages my wrists. Something about my wrists, and why they’re hurting, pierces through the fog and fever in my brain.

Danger. There’s danger .

“Marcus,” I manage to get out.

“Shh, it’s okay.”

“No.” I try to grab at them, tugging my wrists away from Caleb. “No, he—”

“We know,” Ethan promises me. “We know it was him. We know he’s the one who kidnapped you. The police arrested him. It’s okay.”

In a way, I’m not sure what his words mean, and yet at the same time, they hit something in my brain, some button that turns everything off and lets me know that I’m safe. It’s okay. My mates will handle it.

I sink back against Dante’s chest and let Caleb finish bandaging my wrists.

“Good girl,” Garrett murmurs. “You’re being such a good Omega for us, letting us take care of you.”

“We’ll take care of everything,” Dante promises me. “You don’t have to worry about anything. We’ll watch over you.”

We stay in the tub for a little bit, the hot water and their bodies warming me up, until I stop shivering. Caleb feeds me a spoonful of what I presume is medicine. It has a crappy artificial fruity taste, but I swallow it down, along with the water he makes me drink.

Then Dante gets out, and I must doze off, because when I open my eyes again, Ethan is holding me and Dante is wearing clothes and has a bowl of something delicious in his lap.

“Here,” he says quietly. “Eat up.”

He feeds me, spoonful by spoonful, delicious soup. It’s hot and clear and tastes delicious without being too much for my body, and goes down easy.

When I finish, my eyelids are drooping again.

“Okay,” Ethan says. “Bedtime.”

Caleb and Dante each take one of my hands from outside the tub and lead me out, wrapping me in a warm towel that they must have heated up. The other two men get out and quickly dry off and drain the tub, then wrap me in a big, fluffy bathrobe.

Dante picks me up, and the four of them carry me to bed, where they strip so that I can have as much skin-to-skin contact as possible.

I burst into exhausted tears when I’m placed into my nest. My lovely, lovely nest, my nest that I spent so much time working on, my nest where I sleep safely with my wonderful mates.

The four of them crowd around me, all of them holding me in some way or another. As my head hits the pillow, it’s like the last part of my consciousness finally accepts that I’m safe, and that there’s nothing to worry about anymore.

I can completely let go, so I do, and let the darkness of sleep claim me.

* * *

It takes days for me to recover.

My fever lasts for a couple of them. I’m not quite sure how long exactly, since I’m out of it, but I know that it’s at least two. I’m in bed with at least one of my mates the entire time, but most often it’s all of them.

The only time one of them seems to leave is to use the bathroom or to grab food to bring up to the rest of us. It’s almost like my heat, except more solemn, and with a lot more sleeping. I’m sure asleep most of the time. I’m not sure what my mates get up to, but whether they’re watching a movie or just resting or chatting, they’re at my side.

I’m fed the basics, like chicken noodle soup and toast, and given plenty of water. I sleep with my head on one of their laps or shoulders, intertwined with them as much as possible, and let myself doze. I don’t think I’ve ever slept so much in my life.

Sometimes I toss and I turn, the fever too much for me, and nameless monsters chasing me in my nightmares. I wake fitfully to find all four of my mates staring at me with concern, like they would reach into my mind and take the pain away from me if they could.

I wish I could tell them that they’re already doing perfect just the way they are, but I can’t find words. It’s like I’ve forgotten what they are.

But finally, finally, I wake up from a deep sleep feeling refreshed.

I’m no longer shivering, and I actually feel properly hungry and thirsty. My head isn’t pounding, and I can think straight.

I sit up, nearly bursting into tears with relief at how good it feels to be thinking . To know where I am, and who I am, and what’s going on. I don’t feel like I’m half-awake in some kind of dream state.

Garrett was spooning me from behind, but now that I’ve sat up against the pillows, his arm is over my waist. Caleb is on my other side, and Ethan and Dante are at the foot of the bed, talking quietly.

They both turn when I sit up and smile with relief. “How’re you feeing?” Ethan asks softly.

“Much better,” I admit. “Starving.”

Dante jumps to his feet. “I have food.”

He hurries out of the room while Garrett yaws and sits up, and Caleb blinks his eyes open. “You okay?”

I nod at them both. “Yes. I’m okay.”

Dante returns with a bowl of delicious spicy noodles with chicken. “This will perk your senses right up,” he teases gently, setting the tray down in front of me.

I chuckle and dig in, wolfing down the food. All four Alphas beam at me. I can’t quite remember everything that I saw and felt during my fever. I’m not sure which of the vague memories I have are dreams, and which are based on reality.

But seeing how relieved and happy they are now tells me just how concerned they were while I was in the grip of my fever. I’m relieved that they’re relieved, and that I’m not worrying them anymore.

I finish eating, and then take some vitamins that Dante hands me, along with drinking a lot of water. It’s only when I finish all of that, that I think to look down at my wrists, and wiggle my ankle.

“How am I doing?” I ask them quietly.

“Your ankle wasn’t that bad,” Caleb promises me. “It must’ve been what sent you to the ground, but it’s just a bit swollen. We’ve tried to keep it on ice but you tossed and turned a lot. You just have to take it easy while it finishes healing.”

“We had a doctor do a house call,” Garrett says.

I must’ve been really out of it, because I don’t remember this doctor at all, or any ice on my ankle.

“He said that you were going to recover just fine, and that there shouldn’t be any major scarring, but he gave a salve to help with that healing process just in case. You need to keep the bandages on for a little while longer.”

“Mostly because of the bruising,” Dante adds. “Similar to your ankle. They’re kind of swollen right now.”

I nod, looking down at my wrists. I recall the pain of the zip ties, but I also remember how it kind of just… became something I didn’t feel anymore. It didn’t matter.

I’m pretty sure that must’ve been when the fever set in.

The idea of what could’ve happened to me if my Alphas hadn’t found me in time is haunting, but I know that they did find me in time, and that’s what matters.

“Are you feeling okay to tell us what happened?” Caleb asks gently.

“Marcus apparently is refusing to talk, on the advice of his lawyers,” Garrett says, his voice sharp.

“It makes sense,” Ethan grumbles. “It’s what I’d suggest if I was a lawyer. There’s nothing he can say that won’t incriminate him so might as well keep this mouth shut.”

“We’d like to hear what happened, from you,” Dante says. “But only if you want to. You don’t ever have to tell anyone. Although we thought maybe getting you some therapy might help too, if you’re up for that. It would be entirely confidential.”

“You don’t owe us any information.”

I nod. I appreciate that they want me to be taken care of and to process my trauma without pressuring me to tell them anything. I know in my heart that if I told them I didn’t want to ever talk about what happened, they would respect my wishes and never ask again.

But I don’t want any secrets between us, and I don’t want them thinking that something worse happened than what actually did. And I think it will help me to get it off my chest, to remind myself that it’s in the past and that I’m safe now.

“The prison guards didn’t do anything once I was released, they just processed my paperwork, and gave me my things, and then… I was on my own.”

Garrett gives Dante a sharp look that Dante returns. I have the feeling that a call to some fairly high-up people will be happening soon.

“I assumed that you guys had gotten the charges dropped, so you’d be out there waiting for me when I left. The guards didn’t tell me anything. I went out, and a white van pulled up, with someone yanking me inside. He tied me up and gagged me and I…”

The memory of that horrible moment hits me. The way that Marcus yanked me inside so fast I had no hope of escape. How nobody saw anything and didn’t care. How quickly he overpowered me. And his horrible, terrifying smell.

I take a deep breath. I made a decision in that van not to let my fear of Marcus rule me anymore, and I plan to stick by that rule. I need to talk about this out loud so I can purge it from myself and move on.

“He smelled awful,” I admit. “I’ve thought for a long time his smell was discomforting. Unsettling. But smell is so strong for us. I didn’t get it when I was on blockers and suppressants, but once I was free of them…”

“As an Omega, you’d be especially sensitive to the scents of Alphas,” Caleb agrees.

I nod. “Yes. His smell was so much worse then. I tried to fight back, but he overpowered me. After a short bit of driving, I think to make sure nobody was following them, the van pulled over and the driver left.”

“We found him,” Ethan says. “The guy is one of the workers in a production factory that Marcus owns in the city. He was a foreman and would give Marcus tours when he came down to check on the work.”

“The guy was hard up on cash,” Dante says. “And Marcus promised him a lot of it.”

“I thought so,” I replied. “I could hear what sounded like cash being counted. And then the man walked away, and Marcus got into the driver’s seat. I was alone in the van.”

“That would explain the other bruises,” Caleb says.

“Other bruises?”

“On your back and upper legs. We thought maybe he hit you.”

I shake my head. “He didn’t. He threatened to do a lot of things to me, but he never hit me. Not that time, anyway. I think he wanted to wait until I’d… earned it.”

The four men around me look like they’re debating if they can get away with breaking into the prison and killing Marcus with their bare hands. Knowing how protective they are of me makes me feel overwhelmingly safe.

It helps to banish the nightmares and let me talk about what happened.

“Well, I’m sure you can imagine what happened next, because you were there. We drove to Marcus’s place. I think it’s his family home. He never was close with his parents. I didn’t meet them. But I knew he came from money so when we were driving for a while I figured he was taking me upstate, since a lot of rich families have homes there.”

Garrett snorts. “Yeah. My damn family is one of them.”

I squeeze his hand fondly and he kisses my shoulder.

“When we got there, I admit I was terrified. I knew what would happen and how he would treat me. But I was sick and tired of being afraid, you know?”

I look around at my four Alphas, making sure that I make eye contact with each of them for a moment before I speak again. “You four showed me just how rich of a life is out there for me. Just how much I can be loved and be joyful.”

I gesture at myself. “For all those years I thought I was living on my own terms, but really, I wasn’t living much at all. I was terrified of people knowing my true status so I never made friends. I never took any risks, I never got to relax. I was scared all the time.”

I smile at Ethan. “And then the best accident of my life happened, and I met all of you. And I realized the kind of life I really could have. I experienced what true freedom was.”

“We’re proud of you, baby girl,” Dante assures me, reaching out and squeezing my knee.

“I didn’t want to lose that. And it made me so angry, what those years of being scared had stolen from me. What Marcus had stolen from me by being so terrible that I ran away and abandoned all my friends. So I decided to fight back.”

“That’s our girl,” Ethan says proudly.

“When he opened the van, I head-butted him…”

I have to pause because all of my Alphas start laughing. I’m confused for a second, because I know they’re not laughing at me, and it’s not necessarily a funny story that I’m telling.

But then Garrett wheezes out, “I would’ve fucking paid to see that knothead get fucking body slammed. Oh my god. I bet his face was priceless.”

They’re laughing at Marcus, I realize. I grin. “I wish I could’ve stopped to drink it in. The glimpse I did get was pretty funny. But I knew he’d recover quickly so I ran into the woods.”

The others nod, serious again.

“I just wanted to lose him. I thought, that since there were other houses around even though I couldn’t see them, that I could just run fast enough to get him off my trail and find one of those houses and get help.” I shrug. “Maybe nobody would be in one but I could hide out somewhere on the property.”

“Smart thinking,” Caleb says.

I make a face. “Yeah, except the woods turned out to be way bigger than I had expected and I got lost.”

“Marcus gave up trying to find you, at least for a bit,” Dante says. “That’s when we showed up. Luckily Caleb saw him coming out of the woods and cursing you, otherwise we might not have found you as quickly.”

“He refused to tell us where you were,” Ethan says.

“We would’ve made him talk,” Garrett says. “Police or no police.”

“The police showed up,” Caleb explains.

Oh. That explains a scrap of memory, the red and blue lights. I didn’t understand it at the time, clearly out of it all with fever, but it makes sense now. “What were the police doing there?”

“We called it in as a kidnapping,” Dante says. “The police took a minute to take it seriously but once they figured out that we were right, they were on it like flies on honey.”

“That’s why Marcus is in custody,” Ethan adds. “The police were on-site to arrest him. We didn’t have to subdue him and then call the police and then find you.”

Garrett sighs. “As much as I wish the police had been just a minute later so we could’ve roughed him up a bit, I’m glad they came. It meant they could deal with Marcus and we could focus on finding you.”

I shake my head. “I feel kind of stupid. I twisted my ankle, busted myself up, and got a major fever.”

“You got hypothermia, to be exact,” Caleb says.

“Exactly.”

“Babe.” Ethan gives me a fond smile. “You were kidnapped. You were tied up and you couldn’t get help. What the hell were you supposed to do? You did the best you could, and you succeeded in getting away from Marcus. That’s the most important thing.”

“That’s why you’re not alone anymore,” Dante points out. “You’re never alone. You always have us. You do your part, and we’ll take care of the rest.”

“I hope that we never have to do something like that all together again,” I admit. “I’d rather we stuck to being a team on things like chores.”

The men all chuckle. “Deal,” Dante agrees.

“Marcus is going away for a long time for what he did,” Garrett says with an air of deep satisfaction. “Abducting anyone is bad enough but an Omega? Trying to force her to be his mate? The prosecutor is going to have a damn field day with this.”

“There’s more than just the abduction charge, though,” Ethan says with glee.

“Oh?” I ask, playful.

Knowing that Marcus is in jail and is going to stay there for what he did makes me feel that much more relaxed, and I sink back against the chests of my Alphas.

Prison was a terrible place. I hated it there. And maybe this makes me less of a good person, but I’m glad that Marcus will be there. He tried to make me an object, to make me less than a full person, to own me.

Now he’ll be in a place where the guards treat him the way he wanted to treat me. They don’t care about him. They look right through him. He’ll finally feel as small, insignificant, and powerless as he wanted me to feel.

Good. It’s what he deserves.

“Tracy, the employee of ours that he got to be the mole in our company,” Ethan says, “she’s come forward and wants to give evidence. She gave us a call.”

“Oh, that’s really good for her.” I’m glad. I hope that this means she’s able to move forward. I understand how charming Marcus can be, and I know he manipulated her. I hope she can be better than that now.

“Well, it’s not just that she’s testifying about his corporate espionage at our company,” Dante says. “It’s that she suspects we weren’t the only company that Marcus would do this to.”

“After we confronted her, she started to realize that she was being used, and she decided to look into other products that Prodigy Corp has put out,” Caleb continues. “And she noticed in her research that the products were coming out right around the time other tech companies would start acting like they were about to make a new product announcement.”

“But Marcus would make his announcement first,” I guess. “So the companies would have to cancel their product.”

“Or, in some cases, try to release their product anyway with slight changes,” Ethan says. “But they’d be accused to stealing Marcus’s ideas. And of course, they couldn’t ever prove that he had stolen theirs.”

“We got our lawyers on the case,” Dante says. “And they interviewed some former Prodigy Corp employees. Turns out, Marcus has a suspicious habit of showing up with all the schematics and information for a new piece of tech, like he came up with all of it himself.”

“At the time, they all believed in his charisma and thought he was a genius.” Garrett sounds offended, like he can’t believe that people ever fell for that schtick.

“But of course, these people left for a reason,” Caleb concludes. “It looks suspicious that this one guy’s showing up out of the blue with hit after hit invention.”

“Almost everybody shows their work,” Dante says. “Even Steve Jobs. Marcus would refuse to show anyone any works in progress, wouldn’t let people into his studio… he was way too secretive.”

“And nobody ever saw him actually do any tech work,” Ethan adds.

“Are these people willing to testify?” I ask. “And can you find evidence other than their testimony? Because you know that a case built entirely on witnesses and no hard evidence is shaky.”

The four men beam at me with pride and I can feel my face flushing. “You’re so fucking smart,” Ethan says, delighted. “I hope you realize how smart you are.”

“Yes,” Garrett assures me. “They’re all willing to testify and to provide whatever evidence they can from their time working at Prodigy. But we’re also having our lawyers subpoena him for company information.”

“We’ve contacted the other companies that Tracy suspected had been stolen from,” Dante says. “And we’re letting them know what happened to us. We expect they’ll be slapping Marcus with their own lawsuits before long.”

“We’re going to take down his entire damn company,” Ethan says, that signature gleam in his eye. “It won’t just be Marcus. It’ll be Prodigy Corp too.”

“He won’t be able to use his wealth in shady under-the-table ways to be the king of jail,” Garrett says, “because he won’t have any wealth to do it with.”

“And if, for some reason, he’s able to get out early, like for good behavior or, I don’t know, overcrowding,” Caleb rolls his eyes, “he won’t have a company waiting for him. He’ll have absolutely nothing.”

Dante takes my hand. “You might have to testify. It depends on how the case goes. Are you okay with that?”

I think about it. Being up in court, in front of a couple dozen people trying to figure out if I’m lying, while Marcus stares me down, doesn’t sound like my idea of a good time.

But I decided I wasn’t going to live in fear of him and I’m sticking to that. I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure he pays for what he did to me, and if that means testifying, then so be it.

“Yes,” I promise Dante, and the others. I squeeze his hand. “I can handle it.”

“You’re amazing,” he promises me.

Listening to them talk about Marcus, and how they’re going to make sure he never hurts me ever again, makes me feel a sense of safety and comfort that I’ve never experienced before.

Ever since I met these men, they’ve taught me what it is to have a family and a home. What it is to be loved. I feel surrounded by that love and by their protectiveness.

I know without a doubt that I want to be with these men forever.

“Can I… talk about something else, real quick?” I ask.

The men all nod, listening attentively.

“I know that I said it before, but that was before everything happened, and so I want to say it again so you know I haven’t changed my mind.” I smile at them all. “I want to be bonded to you. I want you four to be my mates. Officially. The way you already are in my heart.”

The reaction is immediate. I see all four pairs of eyes darken, and I smell how their scents shift. I brace myself in the best way, certain I’m about to be deliciously devoured, when Dante takes a deep, steadying breath and holds up a hand.

“Baby girl, you’re still recovering. As much as we really… really … want that for all of us… you’re not up for it right now.”

The others nod, the heat subsiding from their scents.

“You just woke up,” Caleb points out. “And you were asleep for a bit.”

“We were really worried,” Ethan admits.

I pout. “But I’m clearly fine,” I point out slyly.

The idea of getting to seal my bond with my mates, after what Marcus tried to do to me, is beyond appealing. I want them, and I want to know for sure that nobody will ever be able to do that to me again, because I’ll already have a bite and be claimed.

But even as I pout, I see the other four exchange looks that I know means I’m not going to get what I want… yet.

“We’re not taking any chances,” Garrett says. “We’ll bond with you when you’re fully recovered.”

“And trust me,” Dante purrs. “We’ll make it worth the wait.”

“Well, if you promise,” I tease.

“We do,” Caleb says solemnly.

My heart melts all over again for these men, these wonderful men who would clearly do anything for me. I’ve never felt so happy before in my life.

The four of them cuddle me close. “We’ll stay by your side until it’s the right moment,” Ethan promises.

“And then we’ll make you ours forever.” Garrett’s voice is full of promise.

There’s no second-guessing. No worry. No fear.

I just trust them, and believe them.