Page 78 of Knot All Is Lost: Part 1

thirty-two

Thedriveoverto Capitol Building was a quiet one. Nixon had informed the other Officials that Marius had been sick for the past three days ensuring he was covered. Now we were about to go in there and explain that not only had he not been sick but we’d been fucking an Omega they didn’t know about through her first heat.

From what I understood in the Care Centers they medicated them through a heat if it happened before they found a pack. For all we knew Cambrie could be knocked up since none of us took any precautions when she was the most fertile. With heats only happening once or twice a year it was the prime objective of the Alphas to get that Omega pregnant. Granted, we hadn’t had that intention but, well, that girl was knotted more times than I could count over the past few days.

“What are we even going to tell them?” I asked, unable to keep the question to myself any longer. “They’re going to ask us where we found her and why we didn’t hand her over right away.”

Marius let out a sigh so heavy I knew he was beyond stressed. “My gut says to be as honest as we can be, but then another side of me says to lie so there’s no way they could take her from us.”

“What lie would that be exactly?” Rafael asked with a raised brow.

“I don’t know, she’s pregnant, bonded, or something equally desperate to show they can’t take her from us,” Marius offered.

Rafael pinned him with a look that I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of, it was so intense. “One or both of those things could have been the truth if you’d let me mark her instead of stopping all of us from doing it. I know Oscar wanted to mark her just as badly as I did.”

Marius snarled at Rafael, angry at himself as much as he was at the situation. “Don’t you think I know that? Tell me, Raf, if we had done that, marked her, filled her with a baby and they still took her from us what would that do to her? They don’t give a flying fuck about her, they only care about what they get out of it.”

Now Oscar was the one glaring at Marius from the rearview mirror, singing as fast as he could while we were at a stoplight. “Why didn’t you tell us things were this bad? We could have been more aware and possibly handled this situation better. Maybe we could have found a place to keep her safe that wasn’t at the house. Now you’ve just cut our legs out from under us.”

“Whoa,” Bodhi cut in. “That’s not fair, Oscar. I get you’re upset just like I am but I would bet almost anything that none of us would have changed how we’ve interacted or cared for Cambrie up to this point. She is our Omega, that’s a fact. No other Omega will fit into our pack the way she does, but if she heard us talking like this accusing each other we’d have our asses handed to us.”

That seemed to silence the accusations as we pulled into the Capitol Building parking lot. A young man, Tommy, ran up to the car waving at Marius in the passenger seat.

“Whatever we do needs to be done as a unit. Do you all have enough trust in me to handle this the best way possible? I know these men, who they truly are under the masks, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to make sure Cambrie stays with us,” Marius stated as he looked at the rest of us in the car.

I gave him a reassuring smile and reached out to squeeze his arm. “You know I’ll stand behind you no matter what.” His hand rested over mine for a moment, then he turned his attention to the others.

The rest of our pack gave their agreement which also signaled for us to get out of the car and hand over the keys. Marius spoke to the young man clapping him on the back before joining us. As a unit, we entered the building, moved through security, got our badges, and were escorted to a waiting room.

“I’ll be right back once I tell them what this meeting is for. They will want to do this as normal as possible even if I’m an Official,” Marius explained, then he leaned in, keeping his voice barely above a whisper. “Do not say anything you don’t wish them to hear, there are eyes and ears everywhere.”

Well fuck, this isn’t going to go well at all, is it?

I leaned back in my chair letting my hand rest on Nixon’s thigh needing his reassurance he was in this with me. A woman came in asking if we wanted coffee or water but we all declined after the warning Marius just gave. Wouldn’t want them to drug the beverages or something equally heinous. My leg started to twitch restlessly as we waited for what seemed like ages for Marius to return.

“Sorry there were a few things that needed to be dealt with right away since I was out at the beginning of the week. If you want to follow me we can head into the meeting hall,” Marius said, gesturing for us to follow.

I’d been to his office on occasion but never without an escort and without venturing into these sort of behind the curtain halls. The staff bustled about with papers and cups of coffee looking nervous about something. Nothing in this whole building ever puts you at ease, it had been built for the sole purpose of making you understand your place in the world. That we were all well and truly under their control, is what it told me.

“Good morning,” Frederick greeted, his boisterous voice echoing in the vast room.

A man I didn’t know was seated in a fifth spot, so by deduction, I assumed it was Willem, the City Magistrate, who filled in for Alton in certain votes. I figured they would need another person present since it would have only been Yoram and Frederick who weighed in. Not that it mattered since Willem was Yoram’s man.

“What brings you boys here to see us?” Frederick carried on like he didn’t already know the answer to that, but this was a formal request so it appeared he wanted it to be formal.

“My pack would like to petition for an Omega,” Marius announced.

Yoram shifted in his seat as he looked over all of us standing there in a neat row before them. “I see, as you are well aware as an Official you are entitled to bring an Omega into your pack. Did you have a timeline for when you wanted this to happen?”

It took everything in me not to let my eyes wander to stare at Marius impatiently waiting to see what his answer to that would be.

“Immediately,” Marius answered succinctly.

Yoram blinked twice, the only sign that Marius might have surprised him. “I see, unfortunately, that isn’t how that works. We need to see what Omegas are ready to be paired with a pack and to pick one we believe would be most beneficial by what your pack has to offer. Those within the Council of Four need to have an Omega that can withstand what comes with a life of being in the limelight.”

“That won’t be necessary, we already have an Omega picked out,” Marius admitted. “She is exactly what our pack needs and completes it in ways we never realized.”

This had Yoram sitting up straighter— if that was even possible, eyes locked on Marius. “Am I to understand you already have an Omega in your home?”

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