Chapter Twenty-One
Eden
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Eden quickly learned that all her mates had apparently worked construction to earn extra money in high school, because after a trip to the hardware store where they drilled her on which tiles she wanted in the bathroom, what vanity, what backsplash, what trim, what light fixtures, what seemed like everything– the cottage came together in a week.
It would've been sooner, they told her, if the plumbing hadn't been done by someone "with a blowtorch and a hatred in their heart for God's goodness," as Tenor had said.
They didn't let her help either, busying her with trips to pick out paint colours and nesting materials and the pack bed.
And now, she was blindfolded with one of Tenor's folded shirts and seated in the back of their new baby blue Bronco, which had turned up one day after she had complimented one on the street. Nervous anticipation filled the bond from the three of them.
Finally, they come to a stop, piling out and then opening her door to guide her out. Three sets of hands stay on her as the blindfold comes off. What she sees makes her gasp.
The porch had been repainted a soft white, and a massive cream-coloured swing sat on it, complete with multicoloured throw-cushions that looked like something from her wildest dream's Pinterest board.
She could just picture them sitting out there, enjoying the fresh air.
A luxury that was denied to them for so long. ..
"It's beautiful," she breathes.
They chuckle. "That's just the outside, baby, come on," Luke says, urging her up the steps.
When she steps inside for the first time, Eden wonders if this is even the same place. But yes, it was. The same river stone fireplace stood against one wall, the wood panelling around it now gleaming with a coat of varnish.
The wall where the kitchen sat was painted a cheerful soft green that blended perfectly into the forest behind it.
She cannot stop her feet from inching closer, and she sees the marble countertops she had chosen with stainless steel appliances set against teal cabinets.
They had installed a beautiful chef’s kitchen in this little cottage in the woods all for her.
In the corner next to the door she sees a cute round dining table with four chairs and an antique white buffet behind it that currently housed an arrangement of roses in a pitcher.
Against the far wall next to the fireplace stood the pack bed she had chosen, seeming to be floating in the room, all the nesting supplies she had chosen already sitting there, waiting for her.
Her chair and bookshelf sat in another corner with an arc lamp above it and she could already picture herself there in the evenings with a book. ..
It was perfect.
She doesn't realize she's crying until their arms are around her, pulling her against them where she is safe and warm. Loved. Home.
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They fall into a routine as if they'd been doing it their whole lives.
Tenor takes a teaching assistant job at the local community college using their new IDs and comes back swearing about how the freshman are somehow even more illiterate than the inmates getting their GEDs were.
Luke does something on the computer that he only gives her vague answers for and Eden decides she's better off not knowing.
Julius eventually takes a job as a foreman at a local construction company when Luke calls him a border collie and threatens to send him to herd sheep if he doesn't leave their omega alone, and Eden doesn't argue.
But she can't deny it is nice when he comes in the door smelling like sweat and wood and fresh air and takes her against the wall while telling her how much he missed her.
As for herself, Eden starts therapy online with a therapist who specializes in EMDR for trauma.
After the first session, she can barely hold in her sobs.
She wakes from sleep with tears streaming down her face for days.
But then, like a miracle, she finds some of the weight lifted off her.
The memories were still there, still awful, but somehow lighter.
And so she goes again the next week. And it isn't quite as hard.
And then suddenly one day she realizes that she's looking forward to her sessions.
Tenor helps her enroll in classes at South York University online, and she doesn't know what she wants to do, but they encourage her to take whatever interests her.
She enrolls for a class about Omega Authorship in the Early Modern Period and a course on Culinary History just for fun.
She finishes the semester with an A average and she has never seen her mates so proud of her.
The four of them spend the evenings piled on the couch together, taking turns rubbing her feet.
One warm evening in May, she breaks the peaceful silence. She's sitting in Julius' lap with her feet on Tenor's as he massages her soles.
"There's others like me, aren't there?" She's not sure where the question came from. Her mates pause, looking over at her, so she continues. "Omegas who were... stolen."
Julius runs a hand down his face, breathing out a heavy sigh. It's Luke who responds, his voice soft, but he's never been one to lie to Eden or hide the truth from her. "Yeah, baby. I think there are others like you."
"I want to help them," she whispers. "Can we... do that?"
They're silent for another minute, and she can feel them through the bond, each of them a turmoil of shame, sadness, and then determination.
"Yeah, baby," Julius finally says. "We can help them."