Page 52 of Vegas Baby!

“Luke?” Mom gasped.

“Let’s go, sweetness.” Jesse ushered me outside and Andrew yelled after me.

“Don’t be stupid, Ava. You know what I said is true.”

It wasn’t.

It couldn’t be.

I sobbed down the walkway, listening to the shouting behind me. Once I was secured in the vehicle, the rest of the pack came tumbling out of my childhood home and barreled into the back seat, piling in on each other as Jesse tore down the street.

Bryce and Luke had wild eyes, and Micah looked furious.

“You okay, Aves?” Luke asked.

“No.”

I wasn’t. Not even a little bit. It wasn’t enough that Andrew had betrayed me, but now my mother had very clearly sided with him and I felt like I lost a whole new piece of myself.

I could only hope that the universe was done taking from me for a while.

My breathing was still erratic as I stroked a hand over my belly. They would love the baby. Wouldn’t they?

I couldn’t imagine what I would do if they didn’t. I closed my eyes and prayed that we could all be happy together, safe and loved. I had started to think that was a possibility, but now I wasn’t so sure.

Pain shot up my arm as that motherfucker’s nose crunched beneath my fist. He yelped like a kicked dog, his arms pinwheeling as he scrambled back and braced himself on the banister leading upstairs. Even without the bond, Ava’s fear when we’d entered her mother’s home had been evident. Jesse got her outside, which left me face-to-face with the two assholes who’d put that burnt sugar scent in the air and struck the fearof god into Bryce and Jesse when her panic had raced down the bond.

I advanced on Andrew, Ava’s mom retreating into the kitchen. He squawked when I hoisted him up by his shirt collar and snarled in his face. “You come anywhere near our girl again and I’ll do more than break your fucking nose.”

He paled, grabbing ineffectively at my hands. “She’s notyours.”

“She sure as fuck is,” I snapped back. “Ava’s pack, and I’m telling you right now if you fuck with my pack, you arereallynot going to like the result.”

Ava’s mom came running toward us with a rolling pin in hand, but before she could clock me with it, Luke snared her around the waist and reversed her course. “Don’t be dumb here, Mrs. M. You hit Micah and I’m going to have to get involved.”

“Get out of my house, you heathens!” she hissed, fighting like a feral cat in Luke’s arms.

“Gladly.” I dropped Andrew back down and grabbed Bryce, who was standing there, looking ready to commit homicide. “Let’s go. Our omega needs us.”

Luke tossed Ava’s mom gently aside, and she stumbled, catching herself on the hall table as we all barreled out her front door and piled into the van.

“You okay, Aves?” Luke asked when we were far enough down the road the house was no longer visible.

“No.”

Her burnt sugar scent was so thick I was choking on it, all my alpha instincts screaming to fix the situation. I couldn’t fix betrayal, though. Couldn’t fix that her mother had put her in danger.

We went straight back to her apartment. I scooped her out of her seat when we arrived and she let me cradle her close until we were up in her apartment. I took her to the couch and sat downwith her on my lap, keeping her pressed against me and trying to regulate my own breathing, to calm my scent, so I could help her. One by one the others joined us, crowding around while she broke into sobs.

Our girl was safe with us, now, but god, I wished we’d gone inside with her, that we hadn’t accepted her idea to warm her mother up to the pack before meeting us. It wouldn’t have stopped the betrayal, but at least our omega wouldn’t have had to barricade herself in the bathroom to protect herself. We should have been there.

“How are you doing?”

Ava had been understandably shaken by the experience at her mother’s, but with a week of distance she had settled into a new equilibrium, and with the magic of money, Bryce had gotten us moved in to the gorgeous new pack house he had purchased for us. Luke was salty that it had been so easy for Bryce to do, but I for one was not going to complain over having a millionaire in the pack. If it got Ava comfort without us having to drain our accounts, I was all for it.

“Everything feels so surreal,” she replied.

We still had unpacking and painting to do, but it was a huge weight off our shoulders once the sale had gone through.

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