Page 116 of Omega's Secret Guardian
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FIXING THE PAST (PART 2)
“I realize nowthat I was young and stupid,” Storm said, leaning into Linus’ comforting presence. “I realizenowthat I shouldn’t have done the things they told me to do.
“But back then, I wanted to have a purpose in life. I had just presented as an alpha and I wanted to be needed. I wanted people to depend on me, and I didn’t know where to get it.
“I went to school one day and one of my friends said he was making money on the side doing odd jobs for some people. Not that he said it was a gang, at first. He told me it was a group of friends who needed help every now and then, and he said they were looking for people like me.
“So I went to check them out. Initially, they wanted help beating down people who threatened them and their territory. Then they had me running illegal drugs—”
Mom gasped and paled. “You did drugs?!”
Storm shook his head. “I was just the middle guy doing the deliveries. I got some cash out of it. Then, as I did more jobs and became someone they could trust, they gave me moredifficult orders. Staking out territory, dealing with people who threatened them. The first person I killed—”
Mom made a soft, horrified sound. Dad frowned deeply. Tripp’s shoulders were tense.
Storm forged on. “—deserved it, to be honest. He was terrorizing omegas on the street, my friends’ friends.You guystaught me to stand up for omegas, and that was what I did.”
“You should’ve just called the police,” Dad said reprovingly.
“Yeah, probably. But I had just acquired a brass knuckle, and I needed someone to test it on. Who better than an abusive alpha? I went a bit too far. But I still don’t regret it, because even at the end, he didn’t seem keen on changing his ways.”
Linus huffed quietly. “I should’ve guessed.”
Storm fought down the urge to grin. His family would definitely kick him out if he started smiling in the middle of this conversation.
And yet Linus merely bumped their arms together, accepting Storm completely.
“What about the... the others you killed?” Dad asked warily.
“One of them was a serial killer who was picking off kids,” Storm said. “We weren’t looking for him or anything. But we happened to pass by an alley and saw what he was doing, so he went down. Then we went through his phone and tracked down his contacts to see if they were the same kind of people.” Storm shuddered. “That was fucking nasty.”
Linus looked a little green.
“That’s dangerous!” Mom cried. “You could’ve gotten hurt!”
“Well, probably. But I had already been hurt before, and more kids were going to get hurt while we waited for the police to take their sweet time with the investigation. Besides, I needed the fighting experience. There’s only so much you can learn from practicing with your friends.” Storm rolled his shoulders, flipping through his memories. “Things were going well, too. I was actually gettingreally goodat fighting.”
“What happened then?” Dad prompted.
Storm sighed. “I killed the wrong person.” Yeah, his parents were still flinching at the word ‘kill’. “We received some fake intel. It was a setup. By that point, I was getting a reputation for ruining plans, especially when the people involved were shitty. The other gangs were starting to take note of me. Guess I was a threat to them.
“They bribed some alpha to abuse an omega, and I caught wind of it. Tracked him down, took him out while he had the omega cornered in an alley. Then the police swarmed me.”
“Oh, Storm,” Linus sighed, his gaze sympathetic.
Mom looked torn, as though she couldn’t decide what she wanted to feel. Dad looked proud and disturbed at the same time. Tripp was not meeting his eyes.
“So,” Storm continued. “They sentenced me to four and a half years in prison. That was why I disappeared for so long. I literally could not come home.”
It wasn’t an ordinary prison, either. Storm had been locked up in a high-security prison, full of killers like himself. It was why he got along so well with Jag, Hades, and Fury. None of them would bat an eyelid at killing someone who deserved it.
Come to think of it, Rex would probably off a few bad guys, too. He just needed to learn the skills for it.
We’re such a lovely brotherhood.
The house had gone so silent, Storm could hear the rustle of leaves, and a car driving by the next street over.
