Chapter 2 Sin
Sin
Caspian shot forward in the passenger seat with a heaving gasp, throwing his fist out, punching straight into the glove compartment as he yelled.
His eyes wide, his whole body exploded with energy as his aura fragmented.
He jolted, the car shaking as his huge body thumped back into the seat.
“Sin, what the actual fuck!?” he roared.
I stayed passive, focused on the road.
“You fucking shot me! You shot me, Sin! Me! I can’t fucking—”
The moment the memories returned, a choking cry ripped from him, as if I’d shot him again. I couldn’t see into his mind through the bond, but his stomach roiled, bile climbing his throat as he shook.
“I’m sorry, Caspian. It was safer to knock you out than to have you approach her,” I said as I turned onto the bypass. “It would have become too dangerous for all of us if your auras clashed.”
I refused to look at him as betrayal beat through him. I was sure he had many questions, but reaching Kai and Melanie was the priority.
We were close to the restaurant, but we were far too late.
Casually shooting Caspian with a stun gun to make sure Camille didn’t level the house when he went rogue had not been in my plans.
It took me an hour to drag Caspian to one of the spare rooms, clean him up, and fit him into a suit. All while he was unconscious, and I was intensely aware of Michael and Lily’s presence as they and Flint handled Camille.
To say I was irritated was putting it mildly.
Not that it was Caspian’s fault.
If we had to travel to the root of the problem, we would obviously find Zania sitting at the heart.
I swallowed down any emotion threatening to burn through me. I needed to be there for Caspian and trust Lily until we could gather ourselves.
I phoned Kai to explain that we would be late, but the coldness in my omega’s voice was nearly too hard to bear. We weren’t close enough to physically feel his disappointment in us, but it was clear.
Caspian bent forward, another gasp tumbling from him as he pressed his hands into his knees. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a panic attack.
He wasn’t quite hyperventilating, but one wrong word would have him sailing towards his rogue state, and we couldn’t afford to have him snap now.
“How…” he wheezed. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s not necessary for you to understand,” I said.
A snarl ripped from him. “I’m the one who gets to fucking decide that! How long have you been hiding this from me?”
I kept my mouth closed. Whenever he was agitated, I usually let him get it out of his system. He tended to rant and rave before retreating to the gym, or fucking Kai. Neither of which was currently an option.
We had another serious problem we had to take care of.
Because we had left our omegas alone in the clutches of beasts, and we were wholly unprepared to deal with it.
Caspian was aware that Zania had sent the Hiscoxes to Camille, and it was probably the unwisest decision I could make to bring Caspian with me to the restaurant.
From the way he shook, staring wide-eyed into nothing as he processed, I couldn’t imagine he could hold himself together without our omegas. But no one else was suitable to manage him.
At least we could pull Kai and Melanie away from the restaurant and find peace amidst the chaos.
“Sin, you need to explain what the fuck is going on here.”
What was the best way to tell him without him assuming it was his fault?
His guilt had kept him tethered to Camille, and I allowed him to behave as if he were Camille’s alpha for far too long.
I should have put a stop to it when Kai entered our lives, or when Flint entered hers, but I entertained him because Kai rarely complained.
I wouldn’t say we were the worst alphas alive, but the fact that it took Melanie’s appearance for me to realise how we had mistreated Kai was enough to say we had failed as his mates.
“Camille’s aura has been unstable since she presented. We assumed it was because of her weak body, but it can erupt in any alphas and omegas who have died and returned.”
“I don’t understand… Then…” He sucked in a breath. A silent Caspian was more unnerving than his full-blown rage. I navigated the traffic, racing as fast as I could. Another minute passed before he spoke again.
“Sin.” His voice was low as guilt dragged him down. “Was it because of what happened at the lake? Did she actually die?”
His pain tore through the bond as I nodded, and I forced myself not to groan as the ache burned fiercely.
“She died briefly, and the boundary of her aura, her body, broke. There is nothing to contain her energy, and so it regularly erupts rather than maintaining a constant flow, like ours.”
“But she’s had to endure all of that alone? How many times has that happened? What’s been going on with her?”
I didn’t want to confess to him that Camille’s aura had been so unstable that we had to lock her in a cell made of 6ft of steel whenever she went into heat to stop her from destroying the house.
She had spent most of her life in the countryside for exactly that reason.
Camille had killed too many of her nurses and doctors for us to hide it efficiently anymore. From the sheer effort it took to cover it up, it was a miracle no one outside of our family, except Flint, Lily, and Michael, had discovered what she could really do.
We couldn’t call what happened to Camille going feral. It was far beyond that. Because a single brush of someone else’s aura could set her off. She was so tense and nervous around most people because one sudden move could result in her becoming triggered.
“Since Flint arrived in her life, she has been stable enough for us to bring her back into society. Unfortunately, she caught Michael Farringdon’s eye.”
“So, it’s really true? She’s going with him?”
I paused, flinging him a brief glance. He appeared to have calmed down somewhat, though he was too pale for my liking.
“How do you already know about that?” I asked.
His face twisted as he snarled again. “Are you fucking kidding me? It doesn’t matter how I fucking know! Why the hell were we worrying about the Hiscoxes when Michael is the one taking her away?”
“Because the Hiscoxes would have pumped her full of enough drugs to push her into a vegetative state before they impregnated her. At least Mother and Zania pretended to offer us a way to protect her.”
“So you’d rather send her to the alpha who runs fucking sex clubs and rents out whores!”
“May I remind you that without those clubs, we would have never met Melanie.”
I couldn’t quite believe I was defending Michael after the effort I made to stop him from reaching my sister, but Lily was right. I believed I could protect the people in my life from our mother’s manipulations, but I had put my head in the sand.
Another low growl rumbled from Caspian as he gathered his thoughts.
I had distracted him from the harsh fact that Camille had obliterated the three men who were sent to bite and rape her with her aura, but it was not a conversation we could avoid.
With Caspian’s mind fracturing, it was harder to maintain concentration. His shaking reverberated through my body, and the memories assaulted me as well.
I shut my emotions off whenever Camille had an ‘accident’, as Michael liked to say.
There was no one we trusted enough to clean up after her except ourselves.
I treated it as a job, and the blood and viscera were simply part of it.
Flint used his healing aura to subdue Camille, but her mind shattered just as badly as Caspian’s when he went rogue.
With Caspian breaking down beside me, I couldn’t keep the memories subdued, and Camille’s screams echoed in my mind.
I let him clasp my arm, both of us taking deep breaths as I changed gear.
I needed him as much as he needed me. It wasn’t just Camille’s face that assaulted my vision as I focused on the road.
It was the look of pain and despair that Kai held whenever his anxiety and mistrust took over.
And the aching shame and hurt that bloomed from Melanie whenever we treated her—treated them both—like anything other than the most important people in our lives.
“We have two omegas who are waiting for us and who need us. You’ve seen what Zania will do to Camille when she’s pushed. How do you think she will react now that she’s taken action?”
“Sin, my head feels like it’s going to explode. I’m going to fucking punch you if you don’t just tell me.”
I had to remind myself to be understanding. Caspian may have been familiar with death in his line of work, and from his own experiences of going rogue, but seeing the damage Camille could cause was quite another thing.
“Zania hasn’t hurt Kai like this because we bonded with him immediately. I know you like to believe that your mother only attacks with her words, but this must be evidence enough for you. How do you believe Melanie will fare if we don’t bite her?”
The silence that fell around him was deafening as the meaning of my words sunk in.
He pressed his lips together, his fingers digging into my forearms.
“We just need to last until the Selection Ceremony,” he growled.
“Do you really believe that? Because there is no doubt that Zania will continue to target Melanie, whether we maintain this pretence or admit how we feel about her. What do you think Kai will do if we don’t bring her into our pack?
Imagine his heartbreak if Melanie died because we chose to yet again ignore what our mothers are capable of. ”
And my heartbreak, too. Despite how much Kai insisted Melanie belonged to him, she would only truly be bonded if Caspian or I bit her. But it was unfair to bring her into a pack where one member still rejected her. That kind of dissonance could fracture our pack bond and our minds completely.
I sighed as I put my foot down. The faster we reached the restaurant, the better.
His heartbeat was too erratic, and I couldn’t trust Caspian to remain stable throughout the conversation.
Though I did play with the idea of pushing him, making him more enraged, forcing him to go rogue. Then, releasing him into the restaurant to test and see if any of the omegas in there still wanted him while he attacked other alphas and destroyed the room with his blind fury.
“Why do you think we never revealed Camille’s power to Zania or anyone else? It is no coincidence it has taken this long for you to discover the reason Camille is ill. There are too many people in the world who would manipulate her for her power.”
I finally met my mate’s glare. His skin had lost most of its colour, the shards of red in his eyes expanding, his lips drawn back over his teeth as he dragged in breath like he was suffocating.
“Caspian, if Zania discovered Camille’s abilities, she would not have been able to live such a quiet life. We hid this from you to protect you and her. And for Kai and myself as well.”
“What’s Michael going to do to her then? Is he going to sell her off?” Each question made him more worked up. “What if he rents her out? What if he turns her into a—”
He choked off, his aura like shards of ice slicing through me. I endured Kai’s frantic bites over the years as he pierced my skin repeatedly to claim me. I could endure Caspian’s attacks as well.
I turned the car onto the road that led directly to the restaurant.
“We have to protect Camille,” he gasped. “We have to stop him. We can just find a way to get her back.”
“We have other things we must do. Flint and Lily will take care of her.”
“Turn the fucking car around! Sin, I swear to fucking God! We have to go back for her! We don’t know what Michael will do to her!”
I slammed on the brakes as I pulled into the overflowing car park.
“Camille is not your Omega!” I yelled.
My hands creaked on the steering wheel, as if that could stem the rush of anger that burst through me. “We have two omegas! And they are waiting for us inside.” I trembled as I forced myself to breathe, to slow my heart, to stop Caspian influencing my state.
His shock pounded from him, and both of us needed time to stabilise, despite the urge to attack each other swelling.
“If you can’t focus, we may lose one of them soon,” I pushed the words out.
Caspian froze, his aura crackling around us like lightning. The car shook as it built, the red flecks in his eyes thickening, growing wider, drowning out his green irises.
“You are looking in the wrong direction,” I said through gritted teeth. “Camille is behind us. You need to look at what we have now, and our future, at Kai and Melanie.”
He snarled again, but I refused to react. I had to keep holding us together.
I parked, pausing to attempt to summon my love for them to temper myself as well as him.
We had taken far too long, and his concentration was slipping. I needed him to be in control when we entered the restaurant. At least until I could seat him between Kai and Melanie, and our omegas could support him.
His body slumped, his energy firing out in pulses as the state started to dominate him.
Panic took me over, and I darted forward.
“Caspian!” I shouted, slapping his cheeks, forcing him to look at me. His eyes were nearly blood red as a snarl ripped from him. “I need you to focus.”
I held his gaze, summoning as much love as I could. Kai sensed when we arrived, his resentment and confusion fighting against the red rage that was swallowing his alphas up. Even when his love joined mine, it couldn’t break through the cloud that kept building.
“All we have to do is find Kai and Melanie, and then we will leave. You will not snarl. Or growl. You will not say a single word until I feel you are calm enough.”
I lightened my touch, my fingers sweeping down his clenched jaw.
He still wheezed, but his eyes came back into focus.
No matter what I said to him, I didn’t think I could temper his reaction when he saw his mother again.
“We are going in there, we are finding our omegas, stabilising you, and then we are leaving,” I repeated. “Do you understand?”
He looked at me like he was a beast I was muzzling, and now was not the time to think about sex. I was tempted to slap him again, though it could either enrage him or bring him back to me.
“Answer me, Caspian.”
“I understand,” he said, though his aura continued to flare.
“Good.” I nodded as I released his cheeks. “Now let’s find our omegas.”