20. Chapter Nineteen #2
Seb looked at me with a concerned frown, his teeth worrying his bottom lip. “Briar, listen to me.”
I shut my eyes tight, shaking my head.
Then the doctor appeared. He explained how he’d managed to stop the bleeding and stabilize Hal as best as he could, which was hopefully enough for the journey home.
When I asked him if Hal would make it, he looked at me with kind eyes, then patted my shoulder.
“Only time will tell,” he said, his voice not giving anything away.
“But your alpha is young and strong.” My alpha. My heart, more like it.
Upon arriving back at the palace, Hal was brought directly to Doctor Aron while Seb watched over me.
I knew what Seb was trying to do as he continued to talk to me, but I couldn’t focus on his words.
I vaguely remembered Elias popping in at one point and sitting down next to me, his fingers tangled through mine, but mostly it was all a blur.
I didn’t even object when he touched me, just stared out into nothingness, a massive void in my chest where my heart once was.
“Briar?”
My head snapped up. Sin. I blinked, trying to merge the memory of my older brother with the real-life version of him, now much older but still just as familiar to me.
“Are you real?” I whispered. With everything that’d happened to Hal, I’d pushed all thoughts aside about my brother, but now he was here, in front of me.
He looked well, not at all like someone who’d just been rescued.
I hoped he hadn’t been and that he’d been safe all along, living happily with his alpha, clueless of our father’s scheming.
Sin smiled and sat down next to me. We were all alone outside the doctor’s office. I hadn’t even noticed Seb leaving. Or whoever it was who’d sat next to me last.
“Briar. I’m so sorry you got roped into this mess.” Sin’s eyes looked haunted as he scanned my face, likely also noticing all the small differences a couple of years had done to our appearances. “Are you alright?”
I almost scoffed. How could I be? But of course, I knew what Sin meant, since my clothes were covered in dried blood.
Tears gathered in my eyes, and soon I sobbed quietly into my hands.
Sin’s arms were warm and comforting as he held me.
I allowed it, welcomed it even, his soft, comforting touch.
It didn’t take away the pain of being away from my alpha, but it did bring me comfort.
As though he’d sensed where my mind had wandered, Sin whispered, “Hal is fine. He’ll wake up soon, and you’ll see for yourself.”
“There was so much blood, Sin.”
He made a shushing sound, petting my hair like he’d done when I was little. “Trust me. He’ll be fine.”
I broke down further, my cries the only sound in the hallway. I didn’t dare believe Sin’s words. Hope was such a dangerous thing. My thigh continued to throb as if a part of me was tied to a part of Hal, the connection invisible to the human eye, but there nonetheless, strong and hopefully eternal.
I had no idea how long we sat like that, my brother with his arms around me, keeping me safe. But once I stopped crying, Sin looked at me, then said the words I knew were coming. “Father is dead.”
I nodded. “I know.” The scream coming from Father had been filled with pain and anguish. I hadn’t looked his way when we left the cottage, my eyes locked onto my alpha.
“How does that make you feel?” Sin asked. I was glad he’d told me now and not waited. I wanted all of this to be over and done with. If Hal truly survived, I wanted to focus solely on him and his recovery.
“I feel…” I searched through my emotions.
“Sad and relieved.” My words were honest. For a brief moment, when Father had let me out of the small cellar, I’d thought he would save me.
My foolish inner child had wished for it: a loving parent who came to my rescue.
But that was all it was. A wish. Father had never been that kind of parent.
Omegas were supposed to be nurturing and kind, but he’d never been.
He’d cared only about himself, keeping me from my brother all this time.
“Me too,” Sin whispered. “I’m so sorry about all of this, Briar.”
I frowned, looking at his guilty expression. “Why are you sorry?”
“I took Father in and believed his lies. I was the one giving him a safe place to rest his head at night, while he plotted this whole thing. If I hadn’t…”
I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “He lived with you?”
Sin nodded, then laughed brokenly. “He wanted to be the perfect father. Promised he’d changed and that he’d missed me. I even let him babysit Rue.”
“Rue?”
“My son,” Sin smiled wistfully. “Your nephew.”
“I have a nephew?” I asked, tears gathering once again.
Sin cried, too, nodding with a smile. “My alpha, Martin, is on his way home to get him. We didn’t want to bring him with us, so Martin’s omega father kept him safe.”
Father had lied to everyone at the palace when Seb had approached his heat, telling everyone I’d been visiting Sin and helping with his newborn. Had he known Sin had become a father? Or was it just another lie? So many questions I’d likely never get the answer to.
The door opened, and Doctor Aron stepped out, wiping blood off his hands with a white towel. He smiled kindly at me. “Hal is doing just fine. You can come in and stay with him while he wakes. Just give me a second to clear out the room first.”
I nodded as the words settled in me. Hope bloomed once again, and the throbbing sensation in my thigh dulled into a subtle hum. Sin had been a perfect distraction, and I definitely needed to speak more with my brother, but for now, I longed to see my alpha again.
“So you finally realized the curse thing was a load of crap, huh?” Sin said, chuckling a little.
I met his gaze, bewildered. “What do you mean?”
He blinked in astonishment. “I thought you’d figured it out by now! That it was all a lie. I mean, you have an alpha!”
“I know,” I snapped back, a tad annoyed now. “But Hal’s the only one who’s ever touched me.”
Sin was still blinking. “Briar… Father told us of your curse after finding me with Martin. He didn’t want you to end up like me, so he made the whole thing up before forcing me out of the palace.”
I gaped at my brother. Had it really been a lie all along? Had Father truly been that horrible? I touched my tender neck, the dried blood a clear reminder of what sort of man he’d been.
A sort of calm rushed over me. Right then and there, I no longer cared if I was cursed or not.
Hal would be the only alpha to ever touch me anyway, but my poisonous touch hadn’t affected either Hal or that alpha who’d worked with Father.
The evidence pointed to the curse being a lie.
A cruel lie. But now, I could move forward with my alpha, and as the door opened, I rushed from the chair. Real curse or not, my mate needed me.