Chapter Eighteen
Liam slept in Jensen’s arms most of the journey home, wrapped in Jensen’s jacket. It had been a successful event, and everyone seemed pleased, Eve especially. But that all paled into insignificance in the face of the unexpected. Liam had asked Jensen to be his mate. To be his alpha. The one thing Jensen wanted most in the world, the one thing he’d waited such a very long time for.
He’d hoped to get to that point in their relationship soon but to have Liam take the initiative, to ask for what he wanted, made it so much sweeter.
When they arrived back at the den, Jensen lifted a still sleeping Liam into his arms. He was about to follow Ollie back to his place when a sleepy Liam woke and took in his surroundings.
“Can I stay with you tonight?”
Jensen paused. “Of course. If you’re sure.”
He knew they were both too tired to do anything but sleep. Even then, the idea of just being close to Liam was enough to have him readily agreeing.
Liam snuggled against him with a sigh. “Good.”
A nearby Ollie chuckled. “Someone’s found his voice.”
Liam just smiled.
Jensen got him settled into bed and quickly checked to make sure there’d been no messages left or changes to his schedule. Then he joined Liam, climbing in beside him. The omega was awake again, biting his lip and looking a little uncertain.
“Time to get some sleep,” Jensen said, tugging the covers up over them both. “We can talk tomorrow about when we’ll mate.”
That got him another brilliant smile and Liam scooted over and lay against him.
“I’d mate with you right now,” he insisted, his words punctuated by a yawn. “If I wasn’t so sleepy.”
Grinning, Jensen gathered Liam closer, pressing a kiss to his shoulder and the skin behind his ear, eliciting a low moan. “It’ll be worth the wait, I promise.”
The first half of the night, they both slept soundly. In the early hours of the morning, Jensen woke to Liam twisting and turning in the bed beside him.
He waited to see if he’d settle, but the omega didn’t, getting more distressed and making soft sounds under his breath. Then he froze and called out a name. A name that was at once familiar and horrifying. Jensen felt like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water over him.
“Nevan!”
Jensen pushed the covers back and reached over to wake the omega.
“Liam? Liam, can you hear me? I need you to wake up now.”
The omega jerked awake with a cry, his arms flailing.
“Easy,” Jensen said, trying to soothe him but unable to keep the urgency from his voice. “You were talking in your sleep.”
Liam curled away, tried to hide his face. Jensen caught his chin in a gentle grip.
“Liam, this is really important. I can keep you safe, but you have to be totally honest with me. About Nevan.”
The omega flinched at the name, yanking his chin from Jensen’s hand, and would have dived off the bed if the alpha hadn’t caught hold of him.
“You have to tell me. I can protect you but only if I know the truth.”
Liam went still, his head down, his body tense.
“You won’t want me for a mate when you know.”
“When I know what?”
“Who I am. What I am.”
Jensen ducked down, trying to catch Liam’s gaze, which was wide and fear-filled.
“What you are? Liam, I don’t understand.”
“I’m a slave.”
Jensen froze, trying to get his head around the words and recalling what Liam had said his first week at the den.
“A… a slave?”
“I ran away. I thought… I thought they might not look too hard.”
“And where does Nevan come into all this?”
“He’s… he’s my alpha.”
“You don’t just mean the alpha of your pack, do you? You mean you’re his.” His slave.
Two green eyes glanced up at him then ducked back down and Liam nodded stiffly.
“Is he the one who hurt you?”
Another nod and mumbled words. “I’m a useless slave. Didn’t give him cubs. Didn’t take his mating mark, like I was supposed to.”
Jensen crouched down, cupping Liam’s cheek in his hand. “What happened then?”
Liam gave an awkward shrug and stayed silent.
“Liam, please. Talk to me.”
“Hurt me. Had me locked up. As punishment. Said I’d heal, or I’d die. But they forgot to lock the window and I climbed out and ran away.” He glanced up again. “I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know what he’ll do when he finds me.”
“Liam—”
“Maybe I should go back? If he sees that I know I was bad, that I did wrong, maybe he won’t…”
“No!”
Liam jerked at his near-shout, freezing in place, afraid to look at Jensen and afraid to look away.
Jensen tried to soothe him, stroking his cheek. “He can’t get to you here in the den. You’re safe.”
“I’m his,” Liam countered softly. “If no one else has claimed me, then I belong to him. He can do what he wants with me. I thought, if you were my alpha, then I’d be safe. But now you know what I am, you won’t want me.”
“You think I wouldn’t want you because you’ve been hurt?” Jensen asked, trying to understand Liam’s train of thought.
“I’m a nothing. Just a slave. And a liar. Why would you want to mate with me?”
“It’s just a word, Liam. A label your pack gave you. It isn’t true and certainly not here in River Den. There are lots of unmated omega here. They belong to no one but themselves.”
Liam watched him, curious. “But Ollie and Cade… they were born like that. I was born a slave. Nevan says it’s in my blood. I’m not very good at it, though. I always made him angry.”
A thought seemed to occur to the omega and he sat up.
“Will you speak to Nevan? Tell him to come and get me?”
Jensen shifted closer, putting his hand on Liam’s arm.
“Why would I do that?”
Liam shrugged. “He’s my alpha.”
“No,” Jensen insisted. “He’s not. You told me yourself, you couldn’t take his mating mark. If he was your alpha, you would have. But he isn’t.”
Liam kept his eyes down, his knees pulled tight to his chest. “He said it was my fault. I was stupid and broken.”
“Nevan’s a bully and a liar.”
“He’s my alpha. It means he’s right.”
“No,” Jensen said again. “He’s not.”
“How do you know?” Liam asked, meeting Jensen’s gaze once more.
“Because… because I know Nevan, I know the kind of alpha he is, the kind of lies he’s capable of telling.”
A jolt ran through the omega. “You… you know him?”
“Yeah. I haven’t seen him for a long time, though.”
“But shouldn’t you give me back to him, if he’s your friend?”
Jensen stroked Liam’s cheek again as tears slipped down the omega’s face. He decided to turn the tables.
“Nevan is no friend of mine. And he’s not your alpha, no matter what he told you. Mating is an omega’s decision and no one else’s.”
Liam shook his head, wrenching his face from Jensen’s hands. “But I wanted to mate with Nevan.”
“Why? Because you were scared of him?”
“He took care of me. He taught me how to serve him. Corrected my mistakes.”
Jensen had seen firsthand what that looked like. “That doesn’t sound like love. And I’ve seen up close his idea of care. I’m not very convinced.”
“A… adoration, obedience, submission. Those are what Nevan said I needed to show. I tried, I really did. I can try harder, with you…”
Jensen pressed a finger to Liam’s lips.
“I don’t want you to submit to me. I don’t want blind obedience or unearned adoration. I want to have earned your friendship, your trust, and your love.” He caught Liam’s chin before the omega could turn away.
“But you’re an alpha, I’m just an omega, I—”
“Just an omega? Oh, no. You’re much more than that, Liam. I’d like you to give us a chance to show you that.”
“I don’t understand,” Liam whispered.
“I know,” Jensen said. “Just remember that you’re safe here. The den is a safe place for all omega and most omega here don’t have an alpha. Having an alpha is your choice, no one here will take that from you.”
Jensen could see the omega was tiring. “Here, lie back down.”
Once Liam’s head was resting on the pillows, the blanket up around his shoulders, Jensen tried to reassure him.
“Nevan won’t find you here, Liam. And even if he does, he has no claim to you now. You don’t carry his mating mark, you don’t belong to him.”
Liam’s confused eyes met his. “But I’ve always been his. I was born in his pack, raised there, and he tried to claim me when I came of age. But I couldn’t take his mark. The only way I won’t be his, is if I belong to someone else.”
Stroking Liam’s cheek, Jensen tried to find the words to ask what he needed to ask.
“Liam, how do you feel about me?”
He had to know. Was the omega’s attachment motivated purely by fear of Nevan and wanting someone who would protect him?
“You’re different to any alpha I’ve ever met and any lion. You talk to me like I matter, like I’m someone worth caring about. When you touch me, you take my breath away. And there’s this feeling, here, anytime I think about you.” He held his hand over his heart. “And it’s so big and good that sometimes I feel I’m going to burst from happiness.”
Jensen heaved a shuddering sigh of relief, resting his hand over Liam’s, feeling the omega’s heart beating through it.
“I love you, too.”
They cuddled together on the bed until Liam drifted back to sleep.
Jensen waited until dawn before he slipped out, hoping Liam would sleep for another couple of hours while he went to talk to Hunter and Max.
Jensen paced back and forth in front of the other alphas. Seth was there too, visiting the den with Dara and their litter.
“Doc,” Max said. “Whatever it is, it might be better to just come out with it, don’t you think?”
“Liam… he’s from my old pack. He mentioned an alpha by the name of Nevan.”
Jensen wished Eamon was still around. The old shifter was the only one in the pack who knew the full story of Jensen’s past. He’d been careful to keep it that way. And now his past was coming back to haunt him.
“So, you know this Nevan?”
“Nevan is the reason I was forced to leave. He’s my uncle.”
“Why did he force you out?”
“My father was alpha. As his eldest son, I was supposed to take over the pack. But my father died, in difficult circumstances, and… Nevan turned the pack against me. If I hadn’t left, I’d have been killed.”
Hunter, who’d been listening to all this in silence, spoke up. “Difficult circumstances?”
Jensen stopped pacing, pressing a hand to his head.
“I thought I’d left all this behind.”
But if Nevan was going to be coming for Liam, they needed to be ready. They needed to know.
“Nevan killed my father. Murdered him. Then blamed it on me and used that to chase me from the pack. I was sixteen.”
A heavy silence fell across the room. His secret out at last.
“And now an omega from your pack, your omega, according to both Cade and Ollie, Nevan’s omega, according to Liam himself, has turned up on our doorstep and made himself a home here,” Hunter said.
“Hey, isn’t this basically the plot to the Lion King?” Seth asked.
“If ever there was a time for jokes, Seth, now is not it,” Jensen replied. “Nevan is dangerous. The most dangerous alpha I’ve ever met.”
“So, you must know Liam then. You must have met him before?” Max asked.
“I don’t remember him. He’d have been a kid. Six years old, at most. Even before my father died, Nevan was scheming in the background, trying to take power where he could. He had supporters, people under his control. If Liam’s parents were among them, our paths may never have crossed.”
He’d have remembered Liam. Those eyes. He was sure of it.
“How did Liam get from there to here?” Max asked.
Jensen related what little Liam had told him.
Hunter got to his feet. “I’ll do a sweep further out from our borders, see if I can pick up Liam’s trail or any sign of lions sniffing around. There’s been heavy rain more than once since Liam’s arrival. Hopefully, that will have obliterated his scent and his tracks.”
“I’ll come with you,” Jensen said.
“You have an omega to care for,” Max replied. “I’ll go with him. Seth can help hold down the fort here. Besides, the last thing we want is this Nevan guy to discover you’re here.”
“He may already know. It’s not that well-kept a secret.”
“Well, let’s assume right now it is. Encountering a bear and tiger is much less likely to get his attention than encountering you.”
Max was right, though Jensen was loathed to admit it. His past, his problem, but not his to deal with alone.
Liam woke alone in Jensen’s bed, feeling his heart sink. The alpha knew everything now, all the secrets Liam had been hiding.
Getting up, he went to the kitchen, finding it empty. He sat down on a chair and waited.
It wasn’t long before the front door opened, and footsteps approached. Jensen appeared in the doorway.
“You’re back.”
“I was just talking with Hunter and Max. They needed to know about Nevan, so we can all make sure to keep you safe.”
“Were they mad?”
Jensen grabbed a chair and set it down in front of Liam before taking a seat.
“No. They’re not mad.”
“Are you?”
“Of course not. I understand why you didn’t tell me, but I’m really glad I know now.”
“And you still… you still want to mate with me?”
“You’re my omega. A hundred Nevans wouldn’t change that, let alone one.”
Jensen sounded so sure and so kind. Liam could hardly believe that he wasn’t dreaming.
“What happens now?”
Jensen smiled. “Now, we have breakfast. Are you hungry?”
“Starving.”
“Good. You make the coffee, I’ll get cooking.”
Jensen held a hand out to him. Liam reached out and took it, feeling the alpha’s warm hand close over his before he was gently tugged to his feet and wrapped in a pair of strong arms.
“You’re safe with me. Always.”