Page 59 of Broken Bonds

That was just the universe making a mockery out of me.

Mr. Roberts is a burly man, an alpha who smells of patchouli, which I find a bit irritating to my senses, but nothing worse than a tickle at the back of my throat. His hair is a deep mahogany color with some streaks of gray visible around the temples and across his forehead. There are laugh lines around his lips and crinkles around his eyes, making him appear somewhat softer.

I’d put him close to his late fifties, maybe early sixties, but that’s pushing it.

“It’s nice to meet you at last, Omega Daniels.”

“Ramsey, please,” I tell him, holding out a hand for his.

Mr. Roberts nods his head and smiles gently at me, shaking my hand with a firm grip that I appreciate.

“Ramsey. Your alphas spoke fondly of you the few times I’d met with them. I’d hoped to meet you under much better circumstances, but regardless, here we are.”

He opens a drawer on the right side of his desk and begins leafing through the files he has there. The silence becomes a tad stifling as the minutes tick on, and all I can think about is the way he mentioned he had interacted with my alphas on multiple occasions. How many times exactly is afew?

I can’t even imagine why they set all of this up without me to begin with. It’s so unlike them to leave me out of something so important.

What the hell made them decide they needed to set up a will and whatever else without involving me? What were they thinking?

And now I’m wondering if I should also set something in place for my babies like they did for me because I’ve seen that the worst can happen. Something could happen to me during childbirth or a few years from now. What then? What would happen to them? Who would take care of them?

More to add to my never-ending list of shit that needs to be done. It grows by the day and resembles a mountain at this point. One that I’m just not ready to climb yet.

“I can see you have many questions. I promise to answer as many of them as I can. Just let me get the right file and we’ll get to it.”

I sigh.

Ollie always said I had the most expressive face he’d ever seen. They could all read me like a book so easily.

I used to absolutely hate it. They’d always know what I was feeling or thinking about before I ever got the chance to voice it. Sometimes there were things I wanted to tell them about myself rather than them guessing, so when they’d figure it out before I could tell them, I’d get so pissed I’d lock myself in my nest and refuse to let any of them in until I could cool down.

“Ah. Here we go. Okay, so Rule, Ollie, Van, and Lake Daniels came to me about five or six months ago wanting to put safeguards in place should anything happen to them before was expected. They had paperwork drawn up so I would be contacted after you should the worst-case scenario happen. Based on your expression, and how far along I’m guessing you are, your pregnancy was the catalyst that made them jump into action.”

I nod my head, a numbness washing over me. Nobody could have predicted that all four alphas would die at once, but they still set out to make sure I’d be protected should the worst happen.

“Right, well, most of this is all standard stuff. Since you were a registered pack, legally everything that was theirs is yours, of course. Each of them left a letter, just in case, that I was instructed to give to you with all the legal paperwork. It was one of the first things they set up with me, all of them coming armed with their letters for our first meeting. I think they planned to add a letter every year,” Mr. Robert’s says, chuckling and shaking his head.

A tear tracks down my cheek, and a rueful smile graces my lips. I knew I loved those assholes for a reason. Even in death, they’re thinking of me.

He holds four envelopes out to me, and I lean up to grab them from him with shaking hands. I hold them close to my chest like they’re a lifeline, and honestly, maybe they are.

My last link to my alphas.

Their last words to and for me.

“How did you know about Link?” I ask him, the question having been burning in my brain since he showed up.

Mr. Roberts clears his throat, pulling at his tie anxiously.

“Lake and Van paid me a visit by themselves about a month or so before the accident. They wanted to talk with me alone, to find out if I would call Mr. Drevet if something should happen to Lake. I suggested they let all of you know about him when I realized none of you were informed on the matter, but they said they weren’t ready for the past and present to meet. I can’t imagine why. From what I gathered, they didn’t necessarily have anything to be ashamed of. Van’s home life was not ideal, but Link and Lake had each other to lean on and, even though they were raised in the foster care system, it was not a terrible life.”

That’s information I’d gained the other night when I was having dinner with Link.

They knew I grew up in foster care and that Ollie’s stepdad was abusive before he died when Ollie was sixteen, leaving Ollie to fend for himself to keep social services from finding him. And Rule was adopted, but once he left for AOA, he all but abandoned the people that gave him a home. From what little he’d told me in the beginning, they weren’t necessarily good people.

We all had lives that were less than perfect before we found each other, so why keep this from me? From Rule and Ollie? We were a family. Family doesn’t keep such monumental secrets. Especially ones that could be devastating should that person die leaving the other person with so many unanswered questions.

I quickly wrap up the meeting with Mr. Roberts after that revelation and rush out to my car, practically feral with my need to read the letters. Most of what he needed to go over with me was technical stuff I knew I’d have to deal with eventually.

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