Chapter Twenty-Two
Declan
Declan escorted Lily into the new headquarters for Ghostpoint Security and knew, without question, the team was going to give him a hard time. He’d talked about her, a lot, but until now he hadn’t introduced them to her.
Steele and Holden were going over plans for an addition to the facility—a training room that would give them enough space to work out in properly—when they walked in. “Holy shit, it’s about damn time you brought your woman by, Dec,” Steele said with a grin.
“We were beginning to think you were ashamed of us,” Holden joked. “Hey, Sasha, Echo, Nikolai, get out here. Dec’s brought his woman by to meet us,” he added, raising his voice so the others could hear him.
Declan groaned at their teasing. “And now you know why I kept her away.”
Lily laughed. “They’re not so bad.”
The other three came into the main room from different directions, and Declan slipped his arm around Lily’s waist to pull her closer. “Everyone, this is Lily. Lily, this is everyone,” he said with a wink. “The wiseguy there is Steele, the walking tank is Holden. And obviously that’s Nikolai, Sasha, and Echo.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Lily. We’ve heard a lot about you,” Echo said. “Dec here has it bad for you, girlfriend.”
Lily grinned. “Yeah, I know, but that’s okay since it’s pretty much mutual.”
“Oh, I like you. I can already tell you’re going to be good for our Declan,” Sasha told her. “He actually smiles now. Do you have any idea how hard it used to be to get that man to crack even a small smile? It was like pulling teeth!”
Declan glared at her and they all laughed in response. “Ignore them,” he grumbled in Lily’s ear.
Lily kissed his cheek. “It’s okay, they’re just glad to see you happy.”
“Dec’s a lucky bastard, that’s for sure,” Steele said with a nod. “Did he tell you about the new business?”
Lily nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s great. I assume you’ll be adding more to your staff? Otherwise y’all are going to be very tired because you’ll never get a break.”
“Gorgeous and smart—you lucked out, man,” Steele said with a laugh. “Yeah, we’re already working on that.”
Declan tightened his arm around her. “Don’t I know it? Like Steele said, we’re already working on adding to the staff. There are a few others who left Special Ops for various reasons; we’re reaching out to them first, then going from there.” There were always ‘vigilante’ types who worked well with others that they could reach out to as well. In their line of work they’d met a lot of different people.
Lily
When they first entered the building, Lily was a little nervous about meeting the team he’d spent so many years with. They knew him in a way she never would. Would they approve of her? It wasn’t like her to care so much about what others thought but these people were important to him. “I have to say, I’m pretty lucky too. I mean, have you looked at him? He’s hot,” she said with a wink at her mate. “But, seriously, I’ve seen how controlling some Alpha males can be with their mates. Declan doesn’t try to control me. Not too much anyway.”
“Something tells me if he did that, there would be hell to pay,” Echo said with a laugh.
“Hell yeah, there would be. When my father tried that shit, I disappeared for six years.”
“Oh yeah, I definitely like you,” Sasha said.
“Me too—she’s feisty—she’ll be keeping Dec on his toes,” Steele put in.
“Keeping our esteemed leader on his toes is a good thing,” Holden said with a grin in Declan’s direction.
“All right, all right, I’m beginning to regret bringing Lily here to meet all of you. Where’s the respect for your leader?”
“We’re just showing you how much we love you,” Nikolai deadpanned.
They all laughed at that. “Yeah, yeah,” Declan grumbled and shook his head.
“Now I know why you like them so much; they’re definitely an interesting group of people,” Lily said after a moment.
“Hear that, guys? We’re ‘interesting’,” Steele joked. “My job here is done.”
Sasha shook her head at him. “He can be serious when he needs to be. The jokester is Steele’s way of dealing with shit.”
“Don’t lie to the woman, Sasha. Steele is a jokester to the core; he just knows how to be serious when he needs to be,” Echo countered.
“I don’t know much about what all of you have done as a team, but I have an idea that some of it is pretty dark, so if Steele managed to keep a sense of humor with that, then the joking isn’t a bad thing,” Lily said softly.
Five sets of eyes turned to look at Declan. “You have told your mate almost nothing?” Nikolai asked. “There are things she should know, Declan—things that could come back to haunt you.”
Declan growled. “I hadn’t gotten around to that yet. We’ll sit down and talk when we get back to the apartment.”
Lily was suddenly nervous again. That sounded ominous. “Okay,” she said and didn’t push him for an explanation right then.
Declan
Declan watched his mate interact with the people he’d come to think of as his pack and couldn’t help but feel proud. She’d been nervous when they first arrived, but within minutes she was bantering back and forth with them as if she’d known them for years. What surprised him, however, was the way his team reacted to her. He knew they would like her, but it was more than that. They were treating her with the respect and regard given to their Alpha’s mate. They weren’t a real pack, not officially, but it felt like they were, and they accepted her like it was natural for them to do so.
He watched as Sasha and Echo got her talking about her childhood, what it was like growing up in Montana and how she’d adjusted to the different climate when she moved to New Orleans, and he couldn’t stop grinning. Lily was so animated sometimes when she talked, and she’d clearly loved her childhood, even after she lost her mother.
“She’s a good woman, Boss,” Steele said, watching the trio as well. “She fits in well with us.”
“She does, doesn’t she?”
“The perfect mate for our Alpha,” Nikolai said, stepping up to his other side. “You know that is how we look at you, da? You’re not just the leader of our team, you are our Alpha.”
“We may be a ragtag pack of misfits, but we’re still a pack,” Steele agreed.
“Best pack an Alpha could ever ask for,” Declan confessed.
“Aw, Boss, you’re gonna make me cry.”
Declan shook his head at Steele. “Go back to what you were doing; I’m taking my mate to lunch,” he said and headed to where she was talking with Sasha and Echo. “Excuse me, ladies, but I’m going to steal my mate from you so I can take her to lunch.”
“It was really nice meeting all of you,” Lily said. “I look forward to talking with you more,” she added before she said good-bye and let Declan lead her out of there.
Lily
By the time they got back to her apartment, Lily was consumed with curiosity. She’d resisted asking about some of the things Declan and his team had done before they left Special Ops, but it hadn’t been easy. Now that they were safely tucked away on her sofa, she couldn’t keep her curiosity to herself, but she wasn’t going to just bombard him with questions either. “Thank you for taking me to meet your team. I like them; they’re definitely different.”
Declan chuckled. “Different. That’s one word for them. I’m glad you got along so well with them,” he said and wrapped his arms around her so he could hold her close. “Did you happen to notice the deference they showed you? Much like the deference a pack shows their Alpha’s chosen mate.”
Lily tipped her head up to look at him. “Yeah, I did. It felt a little odd but natural at the same time.”
“That’s because you’re an Alpha female, doll. They saw it and responded to it.”
Lily thought about it. “I guess you’re right. I never thought about myself that way before, but if I wasn’t an Alpha, I wouldn’t have had the courage to take off when my father gave me his ultimatum.”
“Exactly.” He kissed her brow, then shifted to study her face. “You sure you want to hear all the gory details about my past?”
Lily swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
Declan
Declan watched his mate. He could tell she was nervous about learning all of his dark secrets, but she was determined to know everything about him. Damn, she was the perfect woman for him. It took him a long time to go through the story. He started with being approached when he was eighteen by a government official. He’d gained their attention due to his success on the wrestling team in high school. He’d had no idea when he took the offer and exactly what he was signing up for.
“Within weeks I was being pushed harder than ‘I’d ever been pushed and I’ realized it was exactly what I’ wanted and needed. When I’ graduated from high school, I’d’ felt like I was floundering because I didn’t have a solid direction for my life. Special Ops gave me that direction. It wasn’t easy but it was what I needed.”
As he started talking about different missions, he realized he didn’t want her to know that he was a killer. But she needed to. “I have blood on my hands, Lily. I should have told you about this long before now. These hands have been used to end the lives of so many men and women.”
Lily looked at him. “Were they good people or were they men and women with evil in their hearts?”
“None of them were innocent. They were murderers, rapists, torturers. They kidnapped men, women, and children, put them through hell, turned their lives into living nightmares, and would have continued to do so if me and my team hadn’t taken them out.”
Lily moved on the sofa so she was kneeling next to him. She took his face in her hands and leaned in to kiss him. “You have nothing to be ashamed of then, Declan. They weren’t people, they were monsters—animals that needed to be put down. You might have killed a lot of people, but you’ve saved so many more from suffering.”
Declan stared at her. In his wildest dreams he couldn’t have imagined that she would be this accepting. “Damn, woman, you really are perfect, aren’t you?”
“Hardly. All I had to do was put myself in the place of one of their victims to know that you did the right thing, the only thing you could do in order to make sure they couldn’t hurt anyone else.”
Declan kissed her soundly and held her close. She might not think she was perfect but he sure as fuck did.
Lily
Lily had sat there next to Declan as he’d told his tale. That was how she looked at it, at first. A tale. A story. But it didn’t stay that way. It became very real when he told her about the warlords he’d killed, the rapists, the murderers, the men and women who thrived on the pain of others. Men and women who were so morally defunct that they were monsters.
She could hear the pain in his voice when he talked about their victims. The ones that hurt him the most were the children. Innocent lives shattered by violence and pain. They were forced to grow up too fast because of the things they were forced to endure. Those were the worst.
Later that night, when they curled up in bed together, she nuzzled him and kissed his jaw. She thought about all the things he’d shared with her. When he’d finally stopped talking and looked at her, she’d seen the fear in his eyes. Fear that she would no longer look at him the same. Fear that she would be repulsed by the things he’d done. That was how she’d known he’d taken no joy in the things he’d done, the lives he’d ended. If he’d been proud of it, maybe she would have shunned him, but he wasn’t, and that made her love him that much more. “Why don’t you check out of that hotel tomorrow and just…stay here,” she whispered against his skin.’
“Are you asking me to move in with you, doll?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Consider it done,” Declan growled and held her tighter.
“Maybe it’s crazy. We haven’t known each other all that long, but I like having you here.”
“If it is, we can be crazy together, because I like being here. Get some sleep, doll.”
“I like that. We can be crazy together.” She laughed softly and yawned. “You too, Declan.” Lily fell asleep with a faint smile on her face.