Page 94 of Bonds of Fate

Grayson squeezes him tighter, so Nix leans in, pressing a kiss to his neck.

“May I borrow your phone, Jamie? I would like to call Erin.”

Jamie stills. “Nix.” His voice is tight, his grip on their new mating bond suddenly insistent, tugging hard.

Gideon is already on his feet. “No.”

Detangling himself from Grayson, he stands and steps back, putting space between himself and his pack—just enough to see them all.

He has their attention. His wolf revels in it—there is love in their fear.

The only thing he can do is reward them with his truth.

“I’m going to do it, Jamie. Gideon, it’s my right.” His voice is steady, unyielding. “The things he did…maybe he did them to get at you—before or now. Maybe we’ll never know why, but he did them to me.To me.

“It is my right to make him pay—for every time I cried, every time I screamed. For every cut, every burn. For every broken bone, every torn muscle. For every minute, I spent cold, hungry, exhausted. For every rip and every tear. And for every single fucking minute of the last five years that he stole from me. Fromus.

“It is my right. And I am going to take it.”

There are larger consequences at stake—and maybe he’s not even meant to worry about them.

Maybe this is his fight to win—and the bigger things belong to fate, the Goddess, and the unseen network of omega advocates spanning the world.

Faith, Nix.

When he meets his mates’ eyes, one by one, he sees it all—tears, anger, fear. He knows this isn’t the end of it, not for Gideon. And especially not for Jamie, but that’s fine. He’s willing to fight them on this—just as much as he’s willing to fightforthem.

Because when he meets Dawson Hayes on the field, his torturer will take his last breath—knowing Nix was the one who ripped it from his lungs.

Chapter Twenty: Leo

Leo

It is my right to make him pay—for every time I cried, every time I screamed. For every cut, every burn. For every broken bone, every torn muscle. For every minute, I spent cold, hungry, exhausted. For every rip and every tear. And for every single fucking minute of the last five years that he stole from me. From us.

Leo hears those words ringing in his head—a litany of horror—and he can’t make them stop. Change them. When he’d learned about the choices Erin Christie had set out, he fully expected option A: lie.

If a Costas lawyer said they could get away with it, and it was the safest option, then despite his twinging conscience, this was absolutely the best choice for Leo’s pack.

The safest for Nix, certainly. They could coach him through harrowing testimony, add a military-grade scent blocker, and Hayes would see a long twenty years in prison or–hopefully–a nice short few months if Gideon’s connections could arrange a cell mate who didn’t like assholes and knew his way around a shiv.

If option A weren’t something Finn or Jay could live with, then surely there were other, more qualified Weres in this house than a traumatized, fresh-from-a-coma, not-fully-bonded, teeny-tiny Nix Rena. Even Leo’s sweet-mocha-mateLuca was scrappy and–when pissed–could fight dirty—Leo has a scar under his chin to prove it.

After Nix’s impassioned speech, he spins on his socked feet and strides out the left wing entrance, heading for the stairs.

Behind him, his mates stand on the precipice of an explosion.

Gideon’s rage crackles through the room, his scent thick with lightning and rare sulfur, tangled with petrichor. This has to be the exact opposite of what Gideon had wanted—what he’d expected—despite Nix’s previous trip up that tree.

Rowan has Grayson in his arms as their sensitive enigma cries—quiet, hitching sobs of fear shaking his shoulders—his face blank.

Finn, too, is pale. Leo imagines their caregiving alpha’s brain is rerunning that first day when their omega was bloody and broken in his ER.

But it’s his pack alpha’s face that truly breaks Leo’s resolve.

Jay sits down heavily on the edge of the couch, elbows on his knees, hands locked together instead of covering his face. His breath is shallow and sharp as if he’s trying to hold something in that threatens to break free.

Luca is on him in an instant, pressing against him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

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