Kean was bone tired, his soul heavy, and he was grateful when Palani sent them away, stating that Ruari didn’t need to be confronted with his father any longer. He was surprised when Bray joined them, and then he wasn’t, because he belonged with them. 

Ruari took Jax back, and when Kean stumbled over his own feet, Bray’s strong arm came around him and he leaned in without a second’s thought. He was tired, so tired, and everything hurt. His heart, most of all. His throat, with the grief that kept encroaching on him, but that he kept pushing back. But his body hurt as well, his eye that was almost swollen shut now. His belly, which had turned black and blue. His ribs, his hands, god, everything hurt.

They went to Omega One, where he wanted to collapse on the bed, but Bray’s strong hand held him back. “You need a shower,” he said quietly.

Kean looked at Ruari, though he didn’t know why. “Go take a shower,” Ruari said.

“But you…” Kean protested, not even sure what he was protesting.

“I need to feed Jax. Let Bray take care of you, love,” Ruari said, and Kean surrendered.

The shower was brutally hot, just the way he loved it, and it wasn’t till he registered that, that he also discovered Bray was right there with him. A naked Bray, standing quietly next to him in the shower, letting Kean hog all the hot water. And for some reason, that broke him.

He reached out blindly, his eyes filled with tears, sobbing with relief when Bray gathered him close and held him. He stopped fighting the sadness, the grief, the hurt, and it all came out. Bray was a rock he held on to; he didn’t even know for how long. 

It hurt. It hurt so fucking much.

Like a zombie, he let Bray handle him. The alpha shut off the shower and toweled him off, and somehow Kean registered how extraordinary it was to see the alpha on his knees in front of him. Bray gently lead him into the room where Ruari was waiting for them. He had clean clothes. Someone must've brought them, but he couldn’t even find the energy to ask who he should thank.

“Here, Bray,” the omega said. “Come sit with your son.”

That did pierce through Kean’s sadness, and he watched with warmth in his chest as Bray settled in a reading chair with his son in his arms, the look on his face pure awe and wonder. But it still hurt, his heart so raw and tender, his mind seeing the same images over and over and over again. 

“Snuggle with me, love,” Ruari said, and Kean didn’t need to be told twice. 

They settled on the bed, their bodies intertwining, Kean holding on to the omega as a lifeline. His heart beat strong, he thought, so alive. He shuddered, the image of Jawon forever etched in his memory.

“What happened?” Ruari whispered. 

Should he tell him? Could he even talk about it? With Bray he had cried it out, but the alpha had seen it. He knew. Should he worry Ruari with this, knowing that his father was responsible?

“Don’t shut me out because you think you need to protect me,” Ruari said quietly. “I can handle it.”

Yeah, he could. He would’ve had to, with a father like his. 

“Jawon died,” he said. Then again. “He died.”

Ruari gasped, clinging closer to Kean.

He swallowed, not wanting to start crying again. “They shot him. One of the attackers shot him, point blank. He was okay and I held him, and then he started bleeding and he died in my arms. I watched him die, felt him take his last breath. They killed him, and for what? Because we refused to surrender. Because he spoke up and told them we’d fight to keep them out of the house. He spoke up, and he died.”

“He died protecting the pack,” Bray said. “With great honor.”

And Kean couldn’t say what he thought, what he felt, that he thought he was the greatest coward ever, because he should have spoken up. He’d let Jawon be the one to voice their resistance, and he’d died for it. It should’ve been him, and yet he was so grateful to be alive. Why was Jawon dead and he alive? It made no sense. Nothing about this made sense. 

“I’m so sorry,” Ruari said, his voice filled with sadness, and all Kean could think was how sorry he was, too. Sorry and yet so grateful, so happy to be alive. To be with his men. To have the chance to live and love.

He lay snuggling on the bed with Ruari, his head slowly calming down as the omega simply held him, until Jax had fallen asleep and Bray tenderly put him away in his crib. The alpha stood in the middle of the room, hesitantly, but Ruari stretched out his arms to invite him.

When he still hesitated, Kean spoke up. “Bray, please. I need you. We need each other.”

Kean could’ve wept all over again when Bray joined them, his big body comforting them both, completing their unit. They lay for a long time, silent, taking strength from each other as much as they gave it back. It was healing, Kean realized, restoring his sense of inner peace, of balance. 

“So, mates, huh?” Ruari finally said, and Kean couldn’t help but smile at his cheeky I-told-you-so tone.

“Yes,” Bray said. “Mates.”

After a few beats, the alpha added, “And yes, you’re allowed to say I told you so.”

Kean grinned. “I told you so,” he couldn’t resist saying.

To his surprise, Bray pressed a tender kiss in his hair. “Yes, you did, my strong beta.”

Kean’s heart skipped a beat. “Yours?”

He turned his head to face Bray, catching the alpha staring at him with a look he’d never seen before. 

“If you want to be,” Bray said softly. 

“I thought you didn’t do relationships,” Kean said.

Bray swallowed. “I came so close to losing you today…” His voice cracked, and Kean’s eyes widened at the emotion that was painted all over the alpha’s face. “When I saw you with that blood all over your shirt… I thought you’d been shot.” He shook his head as if to clear a bad memory. “I know I’ve been an ass to you, and—”

“Stop. We’ll talk about that some other time,” Kean said.

The right corner of Bray’s mouth pulled up. “You interrupted me.”

“Someone told me that was not a big deal, and that I was overly sensitive,” Kean fired back. 

“What an ass,” Bray said. 

Kean studied him, the tightness in Bray’s eyes betraying his insecurity. “Nah,” he said. “Just mistaken.”

He offered his mouth to Bray, who took it in the softest kiss he’d ever handed out, and Kean melted a little. 

“So, mates then?” Ruari said, and they all chuckled.

Bray let go of Kean and they both turned toward Ruari, who looked at them with dancing eyes. 

“If you’ll have me,” Bray said, and Kean’s heart squeezed at his tone, his carefulness. 

“I do,” Ruari said, and those loaded words made a smile break through on Bray’s face. 

Ruari leaned in and he, too, got a tender kiss from the alpha. When Bray leaned back, Kean was amazed to see tears in the alpha’s eyes. He held him close, his heart finding peace again. 

They stayed like that for a long time, three bodies as close together as they could be on the too-small queen size bed, but their hearts were even closer. Finally, Ruari turned off the light, and it didn’t take long before Bray and Ruari fell asleep. Their breaths danced over Kean’s skin, warming more than his body.

Kean lay there, wondering how he could be so intensely happy and grateful and yet so profoundly sad at the same time. He thought of Jawon, that wonderful, quiet man who’d never said much, but had spoken up when the time came, who had defied alphas against all odds, protecting his alpha’s heir. He’d have to live for him now, Kean thought. He’d have to make that sacrifice worth it, to prove that he’d been worthy to be spared. 

And as he drifted off to sleep between his two men, with a baby’s quick breaths in the corner of the room, Kean vowed that he would love them for all eternity. Because he did. 

(To Be Continued…)