Chapter 174: Out of sight...still in mind

Elias’s POV

My first kill was easy.

I sank a needle into the guard’s neck. I pulled it out and pushed it in again. He was bigger and older than I was, but somehow, at thirteen I managed to kill the guard who beat Damien up the most.

My older brother was shocked to see me kill. He knew I liked to keep my hands clean. He knew I didn’t even play in the dirt with him and Kai, but I killed that man for my family’s sake.

I’ve done things outside my comfort zone for my family...I will do even worse for Noah’s sake.

"Would you like me to play the radio, sir?" the driver asks and I turn my head to look at the spot Noah should be occupying.

"Would you- fuck" I catch myself talking an empty spot.

In my head, Noah is right here.

In my head, my omega is sitting next to me with his arms folded over his chest stubbornly. He’s feigning brattiness. He’s still being unreasonable by talking to insects and the air.

"Play the radio" I answer the driver and a song fills the car. It sounds like one of the songs Noah played to me in his room. I remember the title; Lovers Rock by TV Girl.

The very first lyric hits me in the chest like a punch. My breath stutters and I let out a heavy sigh. I want to go back.

I want to go back to the beach, hold him, and kiss him till we’re both breathless on the sand.

The song’s lyrics continues to bite at my heart, and I can’t fucking take it. If feels like mockery to me.

"Turn it off" I say in a hoarse voice, but the driver doesn’t hear my order.

"I said turn it the fuck off" I say with a louder and rougher voice and the driver instantly put off the radio. I’m fucked.

I rub my fingers on the bridge of my nose. I need to focus. I need to put Noah out of my head. Out of sight should be out of mind...why the fuck is he everywhere?

The car stops at my family’s home, and I waste no time in heading to the meeting room.

My brothers, my parents, Silas, a few guards and a beat-up Roman Stiles are all inside the tense room.

The Governor’s son is being held up by two guards. His head is lolling to the side and his face is swollen. My parents are both watching quietly, Kai is playing one of his games, and Damien is caressing his gun.

"I’ve arrived" I say and Damien slouches in his seat.

"Fi-fucking-nally" my older brother says and I ignore him. I take my seat next to my mother and place my hands on the table.

"P-please, Elias. Please talk to them..." Roman says in a small voice, "don’t let them livestream my father’s burial" he begs.

"You’re in no position to ask for anything, Stiles" Kai says with intense hate in his voice. Kai, like me, is not a people’s person, but he seems to have a deeper hate for Roman Stiles.

"Why shouldn’t we broadcast the burial of your father?" I ask and everyone turns their attention to Roman.

"It will show that you’re involved and if that happens...my plan to work with you would fail" Roman Stiles, breathing through his broken nose with difficulty.

"That’s a considerable idea" I say and Damien slaps the table with anger.

"Enough with this diplomatic bullshit, Elias. We catch monster, we kill monster, that’s the way shit goes" my older brother states before leaning back and manspreading in his seat like the egoistical bastard he is.

"We catch monster, we tame monster" I say flatly and Damien grunts with disapproval. This has always been my logic. I don’t kill for the fun of it; I kill for the control it gives.

"I’m willing to help if you-"

"Shut the fuck up, Ken" Damien snaps at Roman and the injured alpha looks at me. I can see the desperation in his eyes. People’s eyes matter to me. The eyes tell unshared stories and reveal unspoken thoughts.

"Mom? Dad? What do you think?" I ask, turning my attention to the heads of this clan.

"Were you aware that Noah was promised to you as a future spouse?" Mom asks and Roman nods rapidly.

"It was no news. We both knew about it since we were around twelve, but I also knew no contracts were officially signed. We were told to wait till he presents and we’re both legal" Roman explains.

"If he had presented as anything else...what would have happened?" Mom asks with iciness in his tone.

"I would have still married him. I loved him that much as teens. I told my dad that we’ll hide his secondary gender and I would love him forever..." he says and I flash my alpha eyes at him.

"Mind your words, Stiles" I growl in warning.

If he says he loves Noah again, I will not hesitate to ease his neck of its function. The whole world can take care of the consequences when I’m done.

"Were you aware that Noah was signed over to Julian Fletcher?" Dad says with a lazy drawl and fear floods Roman’s face. He fears the mad man. My father, the peter pan of the mafia world.

"N-No...I only heard he became Noah’s godfather when he got back from the kidnap" Roman says.

"Damn. Goldsmith fucked up them all up" Damien says.

"Since Stiles, Goldsmith, and Julian were all business partners, Stiles must have figured that Noah’s marriage into his family was likely not to happen" Kai says.

Fuck. How did I forget this bit? Freya was giving Noah to Stiles behind Goldsmith’s back.

"I went through Freya’s phone when she took Noah. Goldsmith wasn’t aware that Freya was selling Noah to Stiles for half price" I say as I recall the disgusting conversation between Freya and Stiles.

She took advantage of Winslow’s raid to make her own profit. Too bad she can’t spend the money she made in hell. Too bad I will find her in hell and make her pay again.

"This is messed up...so Stiles must have always had eyes for Noah and lied in his son’s name..." Damien says what he is able to grasp from the situation.

"Correct" I say flatly.

"Goddess" Roman whispers, he looks like he’s in pain. The pain he is experiencing is nothing compared to the one I want to inflict on him. It’s nothing compared to how much pain Noah has endured either.

"I had no idea anything like this was happening. My dad used to be the person to push my relationship with Noah forward. He would drive me down to Winslow regularly and welcome Noah to our home too..." he says.

"Can we kill him now? My ass is starting to hurt from sitting" Damien says.

"Siren, what do you think of this? Our boys are too emotional about this to make a sensible decision" Dad says my mom and I clench my fist.

"We’ll give him two weeks to give us feedback. Get us something useful to use on Julian and Goldsmith, then we’ll decide what happens next. Oh...and abort the Livestream" mom says and Roman nods rapidly.

"Thank you...thank you..." Roman says breathlessly as he gets dragged to his feet.

I take my eyes off the Stiles son and look under the table to type into my phone. I can’t feel Noah in our bond. It’s too quiet for an omega as expressive as Noah.

Elias:

Lucas. How is Noah?

Answer my text.

Is Noah okay? Did he take water yet?

Is he hungry yet?

Lucas respond to my text soon.

"Keep him in the room again, we’ll check on him soon. This case is over for now" Mom waves his hand to signal the end, and I shoot out of my seat.

"Eli, sit" Dad orders and I growl in refusal, but the rebellious sound dies in my throat when I see Silas’s eyes on me. My father’s righthand man is looking at me with dead and angry eyes. Something is severely wrong.

"What?" I ask as I return to my seat.

"There is a rebel division we spotted. They have been keeping their actives quiet and have infiltrated our city through the government" Silas says in his deep voice and my jaw ticks.

"They’re your business, fucking deal with them" I say and get up again. "My omega needs me" I add and mom sighs.

"Your omega is in the stage where he needs you to eliminate every threat in his way. So sit the fuck down and let’s strategize" Dad growls and I sit again.

He’s out of my sight, but he is not out of my mind...I’m the one who’s out of his mind. I pull my phone out of my pocket and open my messenger.

Elias:

Lucas. Tell Noah that I’ll be there in an hour.

Lucas. Please reply.

I need to know if Noah is okay. The bond is quiet.

With a tired sigh, I had estimated the meeting to last an hour, but it didn’t go as calculated.

The meeting, planning, mapping, and ordering goes on for five hours.