Page 161 of Night Call

Pember chuckled and knuckled his ribs. “Congratulations, you’re Cherry’s new daddy.”

“No I’m fucking not,” he whispered, running a hand over his chin.

“Yes, you are. It says so in black and white.” Pember stuck out his tongue before looking down at the box. It had a white ribbon looped around it.

Tugging it free, Pember hummed and looked up at Blake with a confused expression. “It’s just a spoon,” he said, turning it over. “And it has ‘temperance’engraved on the back.”

With a loud laugh, Blake kissed Pember’s forehead and snapped the box shut.

CHAPTER 37

EPILOGUE

Pember

Ice cubes clinkedand condensation dripped down the side of Pember’s glass, leaving a wet ring on the patio tiles. He sighed and looked up at the bright sky from beneath his broad-brimmed hat. An airplane flew overhead, leaving a white streak across the endless blue sky.

Summer had well and truly hit, with the humidity ramping up to seventy-eight percent.

He stretched his bare legs across the reclined wooden deckchair, the tops of his thighs pink with sunburn that would no doubt leave a really shit tan line where his denim shorts ended.

Sweat began to dampen his cotton T-shirt, so, pulling the fabric away from his chest, he took another sip of elderflower wine and pressed the cold glass to his neck.Bloody delicious. He wriggled with excitement, silently congratulating himself for getting the fermentation process right.

Blake was in the kitchen talking on the phone. He’d been pacing all day as they both anxiously awaited the sentencingverdict, the inexperienced judge having well and truly shit the bed at the prospect of sentencing all four omegas.

However, there was another reason Blake was so restless. His rut was imminent, and would no doubt hit later that afternoon. They’d only just made it through another of Pember’s heats, and on the next one their cycles would probably align. Hormones were clever like that.

“Thirty-seven years,” Blake said, appearing on the patio with the phone still in his hand. The deckchair creaked as he sat on the end between Pember’s legs. “Twenty-one each for Sal and Leo.”

Pember sighed, pressing his lips together. “Damn, the judge really wasn’t pulling any punches.”

Blake nodded. “It’s probably the biggest decision of his career. The last thing he wants is a public uproar for being too lenient.”

Out of the four of them, only Maya had appeared in the news. She carried herself with the grace of a saint as she bowed her head and smiled when the camera crews followed her between the prison and the courts.

However, when Pember had been called to give evidence, she’d stared straight at him, right into his soul, until the prosecution barrister decided to pull the curtain between them.

She wasn’t remorseful or ashamed in the slightest. If anything, she’d looked pleased with herself, and made it a point to look at every single omega in the jury. And they’d looked back, some of them with reverence. What she’d done, what they’dalldone, was still being talked about in the news nearly three months later.

Mating bond removal was on the rise, as was domestic violence in alpha-centric relationships. Oliver was run ragged, and they’d had to combine Domestic Abuse with the Child Protection Unit. Luckily, Blake was first on the list to return,and with the old gang back together he seemed much happier at work.

Pember cleared his throat and pressed the ball of his foot into Blake’s hip. “But what about Ru? Did he make it to court today?”

Blake shook his head, taking off his glasses and clipping them over the collar of his shirt. “The judge wanted to give him the same sentence as Leo and Sal, but his defence team managed to vacate the hearing pending a psychological assessment. As much as I dislike defence lawyers, I’ve got to admit that they’ve done right by him.”

Pember let out a long sigh. He’d met Ru’s defence team in the lead-up to the trial. In fact, he’d been horrified when he found out his barrister was an alpha. But both Blake and Oliver had assured him that it was probably an attempt to steer away from the ‘omega psycho killer’ narrative that the jury would undoubtedly be drawn to. If an alpha was representing him, then perhaps he was beyond reproach. Forgivable. The others, of course, had requested omega defence teams.

“Can I see him?” Pember said, giving Blake a pleading look. “When the trial’s over, can I visit him in prison?”

Blake’s mouth opened and closed several times. “Pem… I don’t think an omega prison is somewhere you want to go.”

Sitting up, Pember placed his drink on the ground and gripped Blake’s elbow. “I don’t care what it’s like, I just want him to know that there’s someone thinking of him on the outside.”

Blake gave him a soft smile. “Maybe start with letters. See how you feel. Build up to a visit, yeah?”

Pember let out a breath, resting his cheek on Blake’s shoulder, his gaze trailing down to his clasped hands. They were still caked in soil, and his nails were all dirty.

“How’s the herb garden coming on?” Pember smirked, knowing full well Blake had been wrangling with a strangle weed bush not ten minutes prior. Val had a whole host of invasiveplants behind her shed, not to mention the colony of slow worms underneath the decking. It still gave Pember chills every time he thought about it.

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