Under Siege: A Contemporary Mpreg Romance Bundle (Omega's Under Siege)

by Aiden Bates

  Slowly, the crowd began to applaud in agreement. But my father wasn’t finished yet. He held up his hand, waiting until the crowd went silent again.

  “I hate to be the one to break it to you all, but this Omega workplace bill just isn’t what it claims to be. The people who are trying to push it through our political system—the one our founding fathers set up to keep the citizens of this great nation safe—will tell you that the bill is about equality. And I’m here to tell you, that’s just not the truth.”

  More applause. He had the crowd eating out of the palm of his dirty, blood-soaked hands.

  “What this bill really seeks to do is to strip our Omegas of the societal protections that have been in place since time immemorial. The world is the way it is for a reason, folks. Do we want to see more Omegas like my son dead, just so some rabble-rousers can charade as champions of so-called equality?”

  The crowd roared with fury. No—no, they did not.

  As for me… I could be sick.

  All week, the news had been focused on my father and the way this new tragedy had struck his family. He’d already lost his Omega. Now, he’d lost his only son as well. It’d sent his approval ratings skyrocketing. There’d even been talk of him running for president in the next election. Of course, he’d graciously said that he hadn’t given it any real consideration, but I knew the truth.

  Stopping this bill would be his meal ticket to the White House. And if he had to turn back the clock of the nation to do it, then so be it.

  I wanted to speak up then, but I knew I had to hold my tongue. This wasn’t our moment. If we wanted to do this right, we had to pick our moment perfectly.

  But finally, my father said the thing that would nail his coffin shut for good.

  “When I looked down at the body of my only son—” He hadn’t even seen my fucking body. More lies. Lies as far as the eye could see. “—all I could think was that I should’ve done more. That I, as a father, an Alpha, and a congressman, should have protected him. Unfortunately, it’s too late for that now.” There was fire in his eyes. “But it’s not too late for all the other Omegas out there. I can’t turn back time. But I’ll be damned if I don’t do everything I can to protect the Omegas of this great country moving forward. I’ll fight for our Omegas down to my dying breath if I have to. And to ensure that, we all have to buckle down. Our morals, our values—the natural order that has brought this civilization so far—it must be preserved. This cannot happen again. This will not happen again.”

  At that, I stood up on the chair I’d been saving for this moment. My hat came off. So did the sunglasses. I handed both to Rusty, and he gave me a nod of confidence.

  As I towered over the rest of the crowd, my knees were shaking.

  But when I spoke, my voice was loud, proud, and without fear.

  “Or maybe, it never happened at all.” There were gasps as the crowd turned to face me. Some of them recognized me immediately from the news reports. For the rest…I supposed I’d have to introduce myself. “My name is Daniel Rasner. I was not murdered. But my father, Brent Rasner, has done everything in his power to try and have me killed.”

  Security was moving on me, but it was too late. I’d been seen. I was being heard. The cameras had already turned my way. Taking me out now would be witnessed by the entirely of my father’s congregation and broadcast all over the state, all over the country, as well.

  And even if they did try and tackle me off my chair…they couldn’t take us all.

  I wasn’t acting alone. Not by a long shot.

  Throughout the crowd, a ripple occurred. Kaleb, Harper and Ernesto were tossing out papers that flew over the crowd like white doves. Rusty flung his stack over the group of people gathered at my feet. On each sheet was a summary of the findings of our investigation into the birth control scandal, with contact information and suggestions for how they could help fight this kind of corruption moving forward.

  Kaleb had already sent a more official set of findings to his friends in the FBI. By the end of the day, a full report would be on the desk of the president herself.

  Across the lawn, my father’s eyes met mine. The fire was still burning in his gaze, but it wasn’t a victory blaze anymore.

  It was a vengeful smolder. The kind that was soon to be stamped out.

  His security officers moved for him instead. One took him by the arm, obviously intending to lead him away before the crowd processed what was on the papers we’d distributed and turned into an angry mob instead. But he didn’t even get off the stage before Miranda and the Columbia city police were on him. The arrest warrant had come through quietly the night before. If he didn’t want to make an even bigger scene that the one I’d already stirred up, he’d have to go quietly as well.

  It was over.

  It was finally over, and somehow, against even the worst of odds, we’d won.

  As my father was led away in handcuffs, I felt Rusty’s hand against my knee. When I looked down at him, he moved his hands to my hips and lifted me down off my chair.

  “Do you think that was…okay?”

  Rusty nodded to the crowd, which was beginning to rumble and froth with discontent.

  “See for yourself.”

  For once, my father’s guards had to work with the law. The crowd was closing in on my father, angry shouts rising up with fists thrust into the air.

  It had worked, alright. If it wasn’t for my father’s bodyguards and the efforts of the police who’d just arrested him, I had no doubt the crowd would have torn him apart themselves.

  “Good.” I couldn’t hide the bitterness in my voice.

  Bitterness seemed normal. As far as victories went, this one was still pretty bittersweet. So many lives had been changed by my father’s actions, and not for the better. Omegas like Harper’s boyfriend Nick were the lucky ones. For every Omega like him, there had to have been a dozen more whose lives had been thrown into disarray that they’d struggle for years to recover from. Joshua King and so many other journalists, researchers and investigators had been killed to protect my father’s secrets. So many people who my father had been close to had been thrown away like so many cigarette butts out the window, or stamped out like embers beneath his heel on the street.

  The mark that my father had made on history would still linger. They could arrest him, lock him up, but it couldn’t be erased.

  So many people my father had worked with, schemed with, been funded by and enabled by, were still at large. They would be, too, until my father sold them out as part of a plea deal. That was some small comfort—at least I knew he’d give them all up in an instant if he thought it meant it’d save his own skin.

  I still didn’t know if he’d had my Omega dad killed. Maybe I never would. But regardless, there was still a long road ahead of us to get him to trial. To see him punished for what we knew he had done.

  And no matter how much I wished it wasn’t true, Alicia was still dead.

  With all of that in mind, I felt something furious roar beneath my ribs. It wasn’t fair, dammit. It wasn’t right, that after all we’d been through, all the work we’d done, the sacrifices we’d made, we’d still have to keep fighting to make sure my father and all of his co-conspirators got what they deserved.

  Bitterness was normal. Anything else would have been fake, manufactured, inappropriate. A fucking farce.

  But when my eyes found Rusty’s…there was a softness in those hazel-greens of his, like laying down in the soft grass of a forest after a long, trying journey and looking up at the sunlight streaming down through the trees. As I looked into his eyes, that bitterness melted away.

  “I’m…I’m so tired, Rusty.”

  He nodded. “I know, darlin’. I know.”

  He opened his arms for me, and I placed myself in them gratefully. His lips brushed against my ear, his voice a soft purr.

  “Come on. Let’s go home.”

  29

  Rusty

  It took months. Longer t
han anyone was comfortable with. Frustrations ran high as we turned on the news every morning. Both sides of the media were spinning the court case their own way, and Rasner had the money to afford the best lawyers money could by.

  But finally, when the dominos were tipped, for once they tipped our way.

  Daniel’s father was convicted for one count of conspiracy to commit medical fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and two counts of attempted murder. It wasn’t everything, but it was a start.

  There’d be more cases after this, I knew, then appeals down the line. And it wasn’t like Daniel’s father was going to end up in the kind of prison that bastards like him deserved. Sorenson, Rasner’s other cronies and the other crooked officers on the Fort Greene police would get their just deserts in the high-security prisons where they belonged, but I had no doubt Rasner would be doing yoga and sipping green tea with all the other bankers and billionaires in some low-security facility in upstate New York.

  Still. A bittersweet victory was a victory just the same.

  Finally, Joshua’s story was getting the attention it deserved. Finally, his spirit could rest.

  And so could we.

  On the evening of the first verdict, we had a somber little celebration at the KPS building. With the way the King family was growing, Nick and Harper’s house wasn’t quite big enough for us all anymore.

  And soon, the King family would be bigger than ever before. It wasn’t just Nick and Derek who had their hands rested over their prominent baby bumps as Ernesto uncorked a bottle of sparkling grape juice to make a toast with.

  “You’re sure that’s grape juice, not champagne?” Daniel was showing now, too. Unsurprisingly, our continued forgetfulness when it came to condoms meant that the second coming of our romance was going to herald in yet another King baby by the end of the year.

  “As if Ernesto would do anything to put his soon-to-be three grandsons at risk,” I said with a chuckle, tucking Daniel beneath my arm. Ernesto had declared himself the defacto grandfather of Lissa and all future King children as well, and he’d been so excited about it that no one had bothered to argue the point. Family was family. It wasn’t genes that mattered—it was the people who showed up. The ones who always had your back. With a granddad like Ernesto, Lissa and our baby-to-be couldn’t have been luckier—or safer, for that matter. “Besides, Ernesto knows that we can’t stay up too late. We’ve got work tomorrow.”

  Daniel frowned. “Nothing dangerous, I hope.”

  “Nope.” I kissed his cheek and grinned. “Nothing illegal, either. Just hospital security detail. Your man’s gone legit, darlin’.”

  “Thank God.” Daniel laughed and cuddled against me as we watched Ernesto pour a very excited Lissa a glass of bubbly. “It’s about time.”

  “Better late than never, right?”

  We got back to the house we’d bought together just in time to get Lissa down for bed. It had been a real fixer-upper, one of the many that had fallen into disrepair back during the mortgage crisis in King’s Place several years back. But if waiting for Brent Rasner’s case to play out had given us anything, it was time. Ernesto and I had worked the house over until it was returned to its former glory. Harper and Nick’s place was just a short drive away, and Kaleb and Derek were just down the block. It was exciting, since our kids would probably be playing ball together in these very streets someday.

  “Well, I’m exhausted.” Daniel collapsed into our plush, king-sized bed and kicked his shoes off before putting his feet up. “I thought my shoes were going to burst, my feet are so swollen right now.”

  “Here.” I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his feet into my lap. Rubbing them made me feel useful, and I liked the way Daniel sounded when I massaged his arches hard enough to make him moan. “This is all coming to an end now, darlin’. It’s about time you finally relaxed for a while.”

  He smiled at me. The dark circles beneath his eyes were finally starting to fade out, and there was a light in his irises that I wanted to keep there for as long as I could.

  “I’m relaxed, hon. More relaxed than I’ve been in a long time.” The light in his eyes flickered into a devious glint as I started to work my way up his leg. “You know…maybe I’m not quite so exhausted after all…”

  “No?”

  “In fact, I think I might be wide awake.” He had my full attention as he started to spread his legs for me. Beneath his calf, my cock throbbed in my jeans.

  Well, if he was awake, then a little more, ahem…celebrating surely couldn’t hurt.

  But just as I reached for Daniel’s belt, Lissa pulled our bedroom door open.

  Fuck. We were going to need to get a lock for that, it seemed.

  “What’s a girl gotta do to get some water around here?”

  Daniel and I shared a look. I chuckled, shaking my head. “We’ve gotta stop letting her hang out with Detective Frank so often. Lissa’s picking up all of Miranda’s speech patterns.”

  “Time’s a-wastin’,” Lissa added in a perfect impression of the detective, tapping an invisible watch on her wrist. “And I’m thirsty.”

  I patted Daniel’s knee. “I’ll handle it. But don’t you move—we’re not done here.”

  “I should hope not.” His wicked smile shifted into something softer as he watched me lead Lissa down the hall.

  By the time I’d given Lissa her water, read to her from Treasure Island, delivered kisses to her and Percy Pirate, and turned out the lights, I came back into the master bedroom to find that Daniel had made good on his promise.

  He hadn’t moved. But he was also completely asleep.

  I undressed and got his belt off of him without even feeling him stir. But as I was reaching up to undo his shirt, I rested my hand on his belly and he jerked himself back awake.

  “Sorry,” I said with a little laugh. I patted his belly fondly. “Just didn’t want you to fall asleep in your dress clothes, darlin’.”

  Daniel moved his hands down to his belly, shaking his head and guiding mine beneath his fingers.

  “No, it’s not that…” He furrowed his brow. “I think the baby just kicked. Can you feel it?”

  I closed my eyes, pressing my hand to his belly, and waited.

  Nothing. Nothing. And then…

  “Christ. Yep. There it was.” Just a little flutter, but it was there. It sent a pang vibrating through my chest, one that echoed and called out to the memory of the same sensation, the one I’d felt when I first learned that Daniel was pregnant with Lissa. But as it reverberated in me, it called out to something else, too. A sharper feeling. A bruise that I was still waiting to heal. “God…I wish Josh was here to feel this. I wish he’d been here for all of this.”

  “I know, sweetheart.” Daniel squeezed my hands, then pulled me onto the bed alongside him. “I know. But he’s going to have so many nieces and nephews now. And they’re going to know what a hero he was. He’s not going to be forgotten.”

  His words washed over me like a warm breeze after months spent in the cold.

  “Mm. Love you, darlin’.” I curled my body around his, spooning him from behind. “You always know exactly what to say.”

  “I love you too, Rusty.” His voice was the sweetest thing I’d ever heard. “I love you too.”

  30

  Daniel

  Two years after Joshua King’s murder, I watched Harper and Nick’s own little Joshua wail like an air raid siren as eight-year Lissa attempted to settle a cowboy hat atop his messy-haired toddler head. Kaleb and Derek’s little girl, Ally, was wearing her own hat with pride. Lissa had deputized her chubby-cheeked brother, who Rusty and I had named Alec in Alicia’s honor, as soon as the crowd had arrived at our place.

  “Look,” Derek said from the couch, baby Cash nestled in one arm and his phone in his free hand. He held it up to us so we could all see a post on his Facebook feed. “Justin and Adrian just posted a pregnancy announcement. Looks like their kid’s going to be in your new little guy’s
class.”

  I passed my hand over my belly—yep, pregnant again, nearly three months along already—and let out a low whistle. After the heat had died down and my father had been locked up for good, Derek’s friend and Josh’s former source Adrian had finally come out of hiding. The crazy bastard had faked his own death, grown a full beard and headed to Mexico to lie low until he thought he was safe again. Apparently, the beard was a better look for him than the mustache I’d seen in some of his earlier pictures. He’d met up with Kaleb’s ex, Justin, at one of the local bars here in Fort Greene one night. Apparently, it’d been love at first sight—even though, having met Justin, I couldn’t imagine two people more bizarrely matched.

  “Let’s just hope the kid takes after Justin,” I said, and left it at that. To be fair, Justin had mellowed Adrian out a lot. When we saw them out around town, they’d looked happy.

  Yet another couple that Josh had somehow brought together. I’d never had the pleasure of meeting Rusty’s youngest brother before his death, but Rusty had said it time and again—it would’ve warmed Josh’s heart to know that out of all the carnage that the birth control scandal had caused, in the aftermath so many people had found love.

  “We ready to head out yet?” Harper was trying to single-handedly wrangle both of his and Nick’s newborn twins—a boy and a girl, Drew and Mia. Even for one-month-olds, they were the wiggliest babies I’d ever seen.

  “Let me take one, babe. Please?” Nick looked tired—they hadn’t been expecting twins, and especially not ones as active as Drew and Mia were.

  But Harper shook his head. “Nope. You carried these little troublemakers for nine months, handsome. Now, it’s my turn.”