Page 67 of Hide or Die

“Yeah, no shit,” Flynn agreed. “When they get back, all right?”

“Deal,” I told him.

He nodded and left me alone on the couch with my thoughts, in favor of easing back into the omega’s nest with them. Leona flopped one uncoordinated arm across his stomach and nuzzled into his shoulder without waking. Inside my chest, something clenched with an almost painful tenderness.

* * *

Many hours later, thesound of an approaching vehicle tickled the edges of my alpha hearing. Flynn raised his head and met my gaze.

“That’s the Jeep,” he said. “You go. I’ll stay with these two.”

Kam drew in a breath and opened his eyes, immediately tensing up. “What’s wrong? Is someone here?”

“Just Alex and Beckett,” I told him, my body cranking up the reassuring alpha pheromones without any input from my higher brain functions.

What did I say earlier?Kryptonite.

“You can go back to sleep if you want,” Flynn added. “Jax—bring some food up with you afterward.”

“Will do,” I agreed. Pausing to collect the Glock I’d stashed next to the couch—just in case—I went to meet the others at the door.

They’d brought groceries. Beckett looked tired and drawn, as well he might after the events of the past day. Alex was inscrutable, though she did lock eyes with me briefly as they entered. I gave her a terseall-is-wellnod, and she nodded back.

“What’s the verdict?” I asked, rather than beating around the bush.

“They’re in if they want to be in,” Beckett said. “How are they faring?”

“Asleep,” I told him. “Flynn’s with them. Mr. Patel is holding up well, but Ms. McCready is struggling.”

“Not surprising,” Beckett said. “No matter how prepared you think you are, when it actually happens, you find out you’re really not.”

I gave a considering nod. “I’m getting them some food for when they wake up. Later, though, we need to hold a pack meeting if that’s okay, boss.”

Alex’s posture stiffened almost imperceptibly.

Beckett’s pale eyes always saw more than they should, but he only nodded. “I can take the food upstairs and relieve Flynn, so you three can have a talk.”

“Thanks, boss,” I said, heading to the kitchen to put away groceries and make sandwiches.

Beckett joined me there a few minutes later. He’d lost his jacket, rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, and splashed water on his face. I handed him the tray, and he headed upstairs, leaving me alone with Alex.

“Flynn is going to harp on about exactly what you’d expect,” I warned her. “But the thing is, I’m not all that sure he’s wrong.”

“We can’t protect them, Jax,” she said.

I let out a breath. “Maybe not,alef—but we took a pretty good crack at it this morning. Do you really think they’ll belesssafe with an alpha pack around them?”

Of course, she couldn’t say no without it being an obvious lie, and Alex hadn’t become our leader by lying to us.

“Let’s wait for Flynn before we get into it,” she said instead.

Our packmate joined us a couple minutes later.

“They’re both awake,” he said, by way of greeting. “Beckett’s gonna talk to them about the offer.”

“And you still want to make them a different offer,” Alex replied, gesturing the three of us to sit around the battered kitchen table. “You realize their decision on Beckett’s proposal will make a big difference here, Flynn. That is, unless you intend to bail on us and run off after them to the South Pacific or something.”

“They’ll stay,” Flynn said with absolute certainty.

---