ulted, and this was to be followed by rape, if the released recordings are to be believed. My father was the perpetrator, and if you need to see the evidence yourself, I can arrange that, but no one is getting between us and our omega again.”
“Of course, Mr Ratcliffe, my apologies. I knew Cynthia was your omega, but—”
“Cyn,” Orion corrected. “She prefers to be called Cyn.”
The doctor left, and they clustered close, looming over my hospital bed, but the wall of bodies was exactly what I needed. This was my nest right here. Something about that thought made them smile down at me.
“Fuck, Cyn, we’ve seen all of it, everything that bastard tried to do. The video footage was released to every news outlet that night somehow,” Rhys said.
“The Ratcliffe name is dirt. The share price for Ratcliffe Industries has plummeted so precipitously, the Exchange has frozen trading on the stock,” Orion said, shaking his head ruefully. “I thought I’d have a fight on my hands, trying to take over the family name, but most of my relatives are distancing themselves as far as possible from Ratcliffe Inc and dealing with their impending poverty.” Then he let out a breath that felt like it’d been coming his whole life. “We’re safe.” He looked at each and every one of us, one by one. “Fuck, we’re safe.”
Bren reached over, slinging an arm around Orion’s neck and pulling him in to place a kiss on his temple. Rhys grabbed my hand and rubbed it, a kind of bliss on his face I’d only ever seen once, when we were mated. His brows creased and smoothed until my hand gripped his tighter.
“Ari?” I croaked out, Rhys moving to get me a glass of water. I took a sip before asking for the next person. “Mum?” Then one more. “Marcus?”
“Ari’s fine. I’ve moved her back to her mother’s place with some added security. I offered her the family home, but she wasn’t keen. My mum… I dunno if she’s who I’d want around Ari right now. I’m busy locating the other siblings, making sure they are safe as well and have options. The board at Ari’s academy has been summarily dismissed. Evidence of their hijinks has been released.”
“Your mum?” Bren said. “She wasn’t at your place, nor the safe house Marcus had set up. Feints within feints. We got an automated email from Marcus that said it would tell us where she was in the subject line, but it’s password protected.”
“Always,” I said.
“What?”
“Password is ‘always.’”
He snorted, then smiled. “Of course it fucking was. We were punching in ‘Cyn’ or ‘Omega’ or… Fuck, I’ll get the boys on it now.”
“Marcus?” I prompted again, and the smiles faded.
“He’s locked up, arrested for executing the sperm donor,” Orion said grimly. “We’ve got our lawyers on it, but…” He shook his head, his jaw tightening, then looked down at me. “It should be a clear-cut case of an alpha defending his mate, but… There was a reason why I didn’t want you to know what was planned—so you were completely untainted. When the police came around to question you, you’d be able to say clean and clear that you knew nothing about it because we knew the process wouldn’t be simple. Dad had a network of allies that protected his arse every time, so if someone was going to go down, it’d be me.”
Orion shook his head slowly.
“I thought it was going to be me who got to do the whole noble self-sacrifice thing, but Marcus…”
“The newspaper and TV reports on what went down are helping. Stuff gets released every day, so I’m hopeful,” Bren said in a gentle tone. “We’re getting him out, even if we have to pull a great escape and nick off to Brazil or something.”
“Marcus always looks after himself,” Rhys added, “so don’t go worrying after him. We’ll get the doctor in here and work out when you can be released.”
Not before I’d been looked over closely, a barrage of tests both for me and the police completed, and then my statement taken. The coppers hadn’t liked my mates being in the room, but as they listened to my halting story, they settled. It all came out, tearing and scratching, one word after the other, until it was all done.
“Marcus was defending me,” I said. “He didn’t want it to be my hand that delivered the killing blow, didn’t want me to chance it in my state at the time. He shot someone who was going to tear me asunder and send his fifteen-year-old daughter off to be raped by an ally! How does that warrant him being arrested?” I cried, strong hands on my shoulders, rubbing big circles, but the officers just nodded, packing away their notebooks.
“We’ll be in touch, Ms Rhodes.”
“C’mon, love,” Brendan said. “There’s a bunch of people dying to see you, but there’s one in particular you need to see.”
“Mum?” I asked, my voice quavering in a way I didn’t like but it tended to now.
They just smiled and drew me out of the hospital room and down the hall.
“Cyn…”
There she stood, looking a little thinner, her face a little drawn, wearing old jeans, a T-shirt, and a cardi, her arms wrapped around her ribs until she let go for me. She frowned as she took a step forward, but her lips curved into a smile, then she raced over, swamping me in her embrace. My hands went around her slowly, Mum’s shows of affection so few and far between, I didn’t know what to do, but eventually, I hugged her back.
“Mum—”
“He kept me safe the whole time, love. I know you didn’t know that. It was necessary, but you…” She pulled back, her eyes brimming with tears. “My Cyn, I saw it all, screaming at the CCTV screen, pounding on the door of my room in the compound, begging them to let me out. He tried to make me see how it had to go, but…” Her grip grew tighter and tighter. “We’re leaving that damn house behind, getting something with a state-of-the-art security. Damn those fucking alphas.”