Page 92 of Scapegoat

People came from everywhere, pouring out of the shops, from office buildings, cars pulling in off the street when the drivers saw there was a gathering, all to hear what he had to say. I knew: it was what was supposed to have happened the minute they were declared heirs, what my body had been trying to tell me when I revealed as an omega. Tears pricked my eyes because right now I could see two painful things. The moment my mother pushed my sister forward to claim what belonged to me and, superimposed over that memory…

My mate trying to right that wrong.

I had to blink and blink my eyes to clear the tears, because I wasn’t about to miss a moment of this. Jay looked just like he did when we were kids, golden and perfect. Sure, he was bigger, scruffier, more worn, just like we all were, but that only made him seem more beautiful. There could be no doubt in anyone’s mind that he was an alpha, because he surveyed the crowd like he had every right to this attention, with a wild grin on his face that was all him. I could hear murmurs running through the crowd as people standing in little groups tried to work out what was going on, but they fell silent the moment he spoke.

“I’m Jayden Campbell.” There was a series of small titters through the crowd, because he didn’t need to introduce himself. “And I thought you should be the first to know.”

Fuck, I thought frantically, fuck.

“Me and my brothers? We’re stepping down as heirs to the alphas.” I scanned his face intently, looking for disappointment, frustration, but there was only relief. “Anna isn’t our mate, no matter what you saw.” The noise in the crowd started to build. There was something to the tone of it, something agitated. But if I had any concerns that people would accept what he said, he quickly resolved them. “She’s our half-sister.”

I dragged my focus away from him, my eyes scouring the crowd. I wanted to see it, some sort of validation. People’s expressions showed how much they struggled with the information; none more so than Jenny.

She was on the outskirts of the crowd and I saw the pain on her face, and how it grew as people turned and stared at her. I saw the moment she flinched each time she caught a comment being made about her, the looks people gave her before turning back to the stage. I didn’t want to put her through this, but the only alternative seemed to be to hurt us and we were done with that. The sins of our fathers and mothers weren’t going to be ours anymore.

“Abby had Anna with Greg, one of my dads, so there’s no way she can be our mate, but…”

Jay turned to look down at me and it was then I realised I was standing so still, my whole body so rigid that I was shaking slightly. This felt like karma and fate and something else all at the same time. Another chance. The day in the square when they claimed Anna had seared a wound into my heart, one that developed thick scar tissue so I could stop crying and start functioning, but it was only now that I felt like I was starting to heal. His eyes shone just as bright as mine and for a second, we just grinned at each other like idiots. Because then he said the words, those perfect words.

“The only woman who was ever going to claim my heart was Kai.”

He held out a hand for me and for a moment I felt the ghost of my former self standing there. Kaia would’ve hated having so many people’s eyes on her. She would have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, expecting someone to leap out from somewhere, to take it all away. But I wasn’t her anymore. I stepped up onto the stage and took his hand, took all of their hands as my other two mates jumped up with us and I think that was what convinced the crowd more than anything Jay had said.

How could they look at us and not see the love that burned between us? No matter what Mum or Anna or anyone said, we were mated.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank—”

“You never need to thank any of us for doing what we should’ve in the first place.” Jayden tugged me close and held me so tight.

“We never needed this place,” Atlas told me, tipping my face his way. “We don’t need these people. They can think whatever the fuck they like, but they won’t disrespect you, our mate.”

“Abby tried to steal something from us before,” Xavier said, casting a weary eye over the crowd, but when he looked down at me, his expression transformed. “But we’re snatching it right back. It’s gonna be good going forward, Kai. Promise.”

But fate has a tendency to make a damn liar of us. We’d just made a declaration in front of some of the pack. The members of the pack who weren’t here would find out what had gone down as the rumour mill went into overdrive. And more than just them. Before night fell, it would have made its way to my mother’s ears, making a statement, negating all of her hard work. And my mum? She was never one to let anyone else have the last word.

Chapter 53

Xavier

For a while after the day in the square, things settled down. It took a bit for me to accept that. I found myself waking up in the middle of the bloody night in a cold sweat, but then I’d see my brothers and my mate and I’d calm down again. I’d turn and press my nose to her hair, breathing in that sweet rose scent that was all Kai and then close my eyes.

But I’d hold her tight as I slept.

She half-complained about it, saying I made her all hot and sweaty. My brothers would wake up and the three of us would show her exactly how hot and sweaty we could get her, but… I couldn’t say it, feeling like if I said it out loud, that somehow it might make it happen. I held Kai tight because I was terrified I’d lose her, that if I let her go, let her breathe apart from me, that somehow she’d slip away. In the cold light of day I’d push those concerns aside, dismissing them as paranoia, but…

“Who was that?” I asked, walking into the kitchen to find Mum standing there, holding the phone receiver.

“I don’t know.”

Things were a bit stiff and awkward with my parents. They hadn’t appreciated the airing of their dirty laundry in front of the whole pack, nor that we weren’t going to be the next alphas. But they’d kept quiet about it, which is about all we could ask for. I frowned now, moving closer.

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

I used way too much alpha bark in my question and Mum frowned at that, but responded immediately to the authority in my voice.

“I don’t know because every time I pick it up, no one answers. Maybe there’s something wrong with the phone line.” She shook her head. “I’ll get it checked out because it’s happened a few times.”

“How many?” My heart began to beat harder, faster in my chest, the wolf and the man coming to attention, our muscles locking down tight, ready to face down the next enemy. And it seemed there was always another one. “Mum, how many?”

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