Chapter 20 #3
It’s clumsy and messy, and I feel like there’s an easier, more efficient way to do this, but I don’t have the energy left to figure it out.
I curl around the silver thread and keep pushing, because as long as our Bond is still there, then he’s still alive.
And as long as he’s still alive, I refuse to let him die.
Silas’ voice breaks my concentration, cutting through the hazy fog I’ve fallen into.
“Your father isn’t coming to save you, Omega.”
The taunt doesn’t land the way I think he expects it to.
All it brings me is relief.
If my father isn’t coming, then maybe he’s run away, and he’s stopped hurting Caelan.
Maybe I was able to save him long enough for his friends to get to him.
I feel Gav take a step closer to the bathtub, where I’m curled in a ball, shaking. Silas grabs my shoulders and pulls me into a sitting position.
“Where is he? Tell us where your father is, girl!”
With a dark curse, Silas yanks his hands away from me. I sway and fall to the side, landing on the tile in a pathetic, broken heap.
The water’s still pounding against my sensitive flesh, burrowing under my skin like hundreds of tiny needles, but I don’t care about the cold. It’s a welcome contrast to the fire in my veins.
My freezing fingers, my chattering teeth, the wet breaths sawing in and out of my lungs—I compartmentalize all of it. Shove it into a box and lock it away tight so I can focus on the only thing that really matters.
Sending my energy to Caelan.
Silas’s next words have tears of joy pooling on my lower lashes.
“They’ve got him. He’s down in one of the cells. They’re getting ready to have him move right now.”
“How is he?” Gav asks.
With renewed fight, I lift my head, straining to hear Silas’s answer. I want to ask them to take me to him. If I can get closer, I know I can help even more.
Part of it is selfish, too. I need to be near him. My heart, my soul, my very bones ache for him.
“He’s not great. Vae said it looked like that asshole had him on a slow-drip of diluted silver, and Dax is getting him triaged. The rest of the place is clear; no one else is here.” Silas’s footsteps come closer. “Except for her.”
His disgust is unmistakable. As someone who spent her entire life living with the constant disappointment and hatred of a parent, picking up on non-verbal and tonal cues has become a matter of self-preservation.
But even if I’d grown up surrounded by a loving family, there’s no mistaking Silas’s feelings.
He hates me.
I release a choked sob, too tired to hold it back. I’m both elated that they found Caelan and terrified for him. A slow-drip of silver? How? How did my Father pull that off, let alone have it already prepared?
“Oh, now you cry? Now that you know you’re screwed, yeah?” I blink open bleary eyes and squint into the bright light.
Silas’s face comes into focus, loathing painted in every line of his expression.
“Don’t you glare at me,” he hisses. “You’re so fucked when Dax and Vae get their hands on you. You’ll scream for your daddy then, but there will be no one to help you.”
I drop my eyes. Dominance rolls off of him in waves and batters against my Omega.
Who are Dax and Vae? What are they going to do to me?
While Silas taunts me, Gav rifles through my vanity, every time he slams a drawer shut, I flinch.
“What are you looking for, Gavran?”
“A fucking suppressant. It only smells like Omega in this room. It’s nowhere else in the house. If she’s off them, her scent would be everywhere. She’s clearly been taking them, so where the fuck are they?”
“Sink,” I whisper weakly.
Gavran’s eyes snap to mine, and I instinctively look away and bare my neck in submission.
These males are so incredibly dominant, just like Caelan. They make my father’s Alpha nature seem like a Beta playing pretend.
Silas turns off the shower and leans in, picking me up and placing me on the vanity sink.
The motion makes my stomach roll.
“Caelan—” I have to get them to take me to him. I can feel his soul screaming out for mine.
Silas’s hands frame my cheeks. The rough way he holds my head makes me flinch. I hunch down and curl my shoulders forward—a protective pose I know all too well.
“What. About. Caelan?”
“I—”
“How long were you and your father planning to set Caelan up? When did you find out about him?” His anger makes me whine in terror, and he growls in disgust at the sound.
“He said he’d come back,” I whisper. “Three days. I waited to tell him but…”
I deflate, knowing what I say doesn’t even matter.
I failed, and Father got to him anyway. By showing up, all I did was make the situation worse.
“It’s my fault,” I whisper through my tears. I gather the thread of our Bond closer and hug it tight to my heart, determined to protect it.
To protect him.
I have to keep him safe. I promised I’d keep him safe.
“Yeah, you’ve got that right. It is absolutely your fucking fault.” Silas releases my chin, and I sway listlessly to the side.
“Get this suppressant in her, Silas.” Gavran orders. “If Dax smells her pheromones or she whines in front of him, he’ll run her over with the fucking SUV, and we’ll never get any answers.”
I don’t protest, and a second later I feel a familiar pinch in my arm. The warmth of the suppressant seeps under my skin.
Like a switch being flipped, my scent disappears.
My Omega perfume. Erased.
How easy it is for Alphas to erase us at will.
“Get her up,” Gavran commands. “Dax wants her secured. They’ve already left with Caelan.”
The world tips upside down, and I moan as all the blood in my body rushes to my head.
Something digs painfully into my stomach, and I realize I’m hanging over someone’s shoulder.
Silas wastes no time. He stalks through my room and into the hall. I hear the sound of something being sprayed out of an aerosol can right before a light mist covers every inch of my body. The burnt taste of chemicals sits in the back of my throat, making me cough.
Gavran steps next to us. “Give it a second for the descenter to work. I don’t want to give her any chance to manipulate us with her pheromones.”
Manipulate?
I’m soaking wet, freezing, my body is still on fire, and I’m ninety-nine percent sure I’m severely concussed. How in the world could I manipulate someone… and with my pheromones of all things?
Of course, I don’t give voice to the question. I just continue to hang there limply, wondering what’s going to happen to me. Wondering who the two other males are that these Alphas keep mentioning.
Is it Caelan’s pack? Does Caelan even have a pack? If so, will they let me see him?
More and more questions spin through in my mind, but I never land on any answers. Right as I feel myself slipping into unconsciousness, we start moving.
Silas jogs down the stairs. His arms barely hold me steady, so I slam up and down on his shoulder as air’s forced from my lungs with each step.
Eventually, it happens one time too many, and I gag. There’s nothing in my stomach, so when I vomit, the only thing that comes out is bile that burns the back of my throat. It lands on the floor of the foyer right as Silas skids to a stop.
He groans. “Mother fuck—come on! Really, Omega?”
Part of me wants to apologize, but I have nothing left to give him.
Gav coughs, which sounds more like he’s covering a laugh. The next thing I know, I’m being flipped around, hauled into a strong chest, and held bridal style.
I peek one eye open. Silas glares at me like he wishes I’d never been born.
“If you throw up on me again, I will bury you myself. Fuck the answers. Fuck your daddy. Get me, little liar?”
I nod weakly. He turns his glare away from me and sweeps his gaze around the foyer. I know exactly what he’s seeing, and I don’t want to look. I don’t want to relive any of what happened here.
“This is unreal,” Silas mutters. “Is that a crack in the flooring?”
“Yeah,” Gavran replies, stepping closer. “On the ceiling around the light fixture, too. Looks almost like an earthquake hit the house.”
“When was there an earthquake?”
There’s a pause before Gavran replies, “There wasn’t. Something large enough to cause this kind of damage would have been felt for miles. This is from something else.”
While his attention’s on the destroyed foyer, I take the opportunity to study the large male.
He’s the most massive Alpha I’ve ever seen in my life. Brown hair hangs to his shoulders, he has piercing amber eyes, and he seems to wear a perpetual frown. His thighs and shoulders strain against his tactical clothing, making him seem even larger than he is.
He catches me studying him and frowns, but I don’t look away. He studies me, but unlike the last time a male made a point of running his gaze up and down my body in this very foyer, he doesn’t leer. Not like Alexander.
Gavran’s expression is more considering. Wary.
My limp fingers flex where they lie on my stomach. I feel very much like prey preparing to run from a predator. Not that I’d get far. I’m small, starved, covered in injuries, concussed, and soaking wet.
Tears burn behind my eyes. I squeeze them shut, not wanting either Alpha to know how upset I am.
Which is stupid. It’s not like they’re not aware of the strength disparity between us.
It’s just…
I don’t want to be prey anymore.
I’m so tired of being small and scared and helpless. I want to be brave. I want to beg these Alphas—no, not beg, order them—to bring me to Caelan. But the intelligent, calculating look in Gav’s eyes reminds me of my place.
Part of me understands. In a way, I’m the reason why their friend is hurt. My mere existence is a large reason why he nearly died.
Another part—smaller, but just as insistent—is furious. That part wants to scream and rage and fight.
Gav’s dominance crashes over me, and my terror wins out. I drop my gaze and make myself as small as I can.
This. This is familiar. Like putting on an uncomfortable pair of sweats, I don’t necessarily like, but wear to keep me warm, knowing the cold will kill me if I don’t.
This, I know how to do.
I’ve spent my entire life waiting for the chance to live.
I dreamt of the day I’d leave, escaping my father’s unending hatred and unjust punishments.
In order to survive until that day came, I spent every moment making myself small and compliant.
Submissive. I never argued back. Never voiced an opinion. Never stood up for myself.
Not until recently.
I know how to survive around Alphas who want me dead. I have over twenty years of practice.
Through the Bond, I feel Caelan. It’s faint, flickering, but alive.
So very alive.
I close my eyes and readjust my grip on the thread of our Bond. I gather what little strength I have left—the tiny, flickering ember that my mother fought to protect—and imagine cupping it in the palms of my trembling hands.
Then, I give one final push.
I’m not gentle. I force that ember to flare, and will it across the Bond like a spark skipping from flint to tinder.
Live. Please live. I don’t care if I die, as long as you live.
I don’t wait to see if it catches. As darkness drags me under, I wrap myself around our Bond, and beg the universe to keep Caelan alive.
Even if it demands my own life in return.