I nodded but didn’t look at them. “And he came here looking for help. Because of who—what—you are.”
“He was one of them, yes.”
“There’s been a lot? Omegas, I mean.”
“Yes.”
“And you help them.”
“Yes.”
“And I killed him.”
“It wasn’t you,” Joe said hotly. I looked up, and his eyes were filling with red. He crossed his arms over his chest. “You had no control. You weren’t you. This is on Livingstone, Robbie. He took away your free will. He made you do this.”
“It was still my hands,” I mumbled. “Still my teeth. And Chris and Tanner—”
Ox was up on the porch and next to me before I could finish. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close. I didn’t hug him back, my arms dangling at my sides. He squeezed me hard like he was trying to force me into his chest.
“I don’t want to remember,” I said against his neck. “Because if I do, I’ll remember what it felt like. I’ll know what it’s like to kill an innocent person. How can I come back from that, Ox? How can you even stand to look at me?”
“Because you’re mine,” he said simply. “And that will never change.”
“You let me go,” I choked out. “You let me go because you all thought I….”
“Fuck,” Joe muttered.
“We did,” Ox said, and it hurt more than I thought it would. “We were scared. Confused. And we were wrong. It took us longer than I like to think to realize just how wrong we were.”
“Maybe it’d be easier if I just—”
“Nope,” Joe said. “Get that out of your head right now. You’re not going anywhere. I don’t care if we have to shove a tracker up your ass, you’re staying right here where you belong. We got you back, Robbie. Do you really think we’d let you go?”
“What if it happens again?”
Joe had no response to that.
Ox did, though. He said, “They won’t touch you again,” and his voice was deep and strong. “I won’t allow it. Let them come. We’ll show them what happens when you fuck with the Bennett pack.”
I tried to pull away from them, but they wouldn’t let me. Joe stood on one side of me, Ox on the other. They held my hands. We walked through the house toward the kitchen. Jessie had gone to the backyard. Elizabeth looked up at us, first at Joe. Then Ox. Then me. She nodded. “Good.”
And that was it.
She said, “Joe, if you please, the cutlery. Ox, don’t lift a finger. It’s your birthday and you don’t get to do a single thing. In fact, why don’t you take Robbie out back? I’m sure the others want to see him.”
I didn’t know about that, but Ox wouldn’t let me go.
He pulled me toward the back door. I could hear the others laughing and talking loudly. The timber wolf growled at something Carter was saying, and Kelly was teasing them both.
Rico saw us first. His expression hardened, but he didn’t say a word.
Chris and Tanner were next. “Birthday boy!” Chris shouted. He grinned at the both of us. “And look what the wolf dragged in.”
Tanner said, “You’re so old now, Ox. You realize that, right? It’s all downhill from here. Unless you’re lucky like me.” He flexed, kissing each of his biceps. “Yeah, that’s the good stuff.”
Chris shoved him. “No one wants to see that, man. Put those away before you hurt yourself.”
Tanner flashed orange eyes at him in challenge.