20. Aspyn
Chapter twenty
Aspyn
A spyn- Aged 18
It’s my birthday. I close my eyes and think about my dad and Cassie. They would probably sing and dance if they were here. They were the extroverts, the kind of people who could turn a room full of people into a hive of laughter and joy. The memories aren’t fading, but I don’t think of them and hurt so bad anymore.
It’s a good thing, I think.
Mum is gone. I think she’s either at the bar drinking or working. Since the day she sold me out, our relationship has become strained.
When she does come home, she doesn’t mention my birthday, and I don’t remind her.
I just sit and read the newspaper and pretend like she isn’t here.
I pause, unable to believe what I’m reading.
Kelly Raines Pro Surfer? What?
I read the article, my hand shaking. He’s competing not far from where we are. He’s so close.
He’s a surfer?
If I could just see him again, I think I could be happy to walk away forever.
I’m careful when I take the page. I make sure she doesn’t see me do it, and I fold it up and put it in my keepsakes.
There’s a chance I might see him again.
I’ll take it.
P resent Day
I don’t want to see him again.
Kelly Raines is the last alpha on Earth I want to see again, yet Shale is whispering in my ear about Pack Raines being here, helping to find me.
I shake my head and bury my face in his chest. They hurt me. I want no part of them.
The heat flare started and fizzled. I am relieved, but I’m left wrung out and more emotional than I was before.
Keagan turns on a torch, and I open my eyes, turning my head just enough to see Kelly, Gael, and Ezy on their knees. They look distraught. Good, I hope the Daane kill them, well, maybe not kill but maim them!
The omega in me wants to soothe their pain. The rest of me wants to leave them to rot.
Kelly gets up and stumbles towards us. Beau gets between us and growls at him, but Kelly doesn’t try to get to me. He whispers something and points at the ground.
Beau swears, and I know it’s bad. I look down and finally notice we’re standing in an inch of water.
I let out a terrified shriek. Shale holds me tighter, refusing to let me go, even when I scream it.
“Stop!” Kelly shouts.
I shut my mouth and stare at him. Mutinously. With hatred. And loathing.
“Ezy, Gael, and I are surfers. We’re incredible in the water. It’s the only thing we’re good at. We make terrible alphas, do you agree?”
I nod. Of course, I fucking agree to that. Oh, god, get me out, get me out of here.
“We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”
“You said that before,” I rasp out.
“I know, and I didn’t…I know. I was a bad alpha. But this is different. We will obey the Daane to the letter.”
I shake my head.
“It is.”
“No.”
“You can’t stay here.”
“No.”
“I’m not going to let you die when I gave up everything to keep you alive!” Kelly shouts.
The whole cave freezes.
What?
He snatches me out of Shale’s arms and stalks towards the cave entrance. Shale, Gael, Beau, Keagan, and Ezy fan out around us. I’m so stunned by what he said that it takes me a minute to figure out what he’s doing.
As soon as I hear the rain, I scream.
“You can hate me later,” Kelly growls in my ear.
I fight him, but I’m no match. He carries me back to the village. Through the water, where I can see the storm-tossed waves crashing on the beach.
I think I go a little insane, but then we’re inside, and I have no memory of how I got here. Kelly drags me deep into the bathroom, lets me go, and walks out.
Beau takes his place and peels my clothes from me piece by piece. He puts the hot water on and steps into the shower with me.
I lean against him, exhausted and sore. My whole body is shaking, and I can’t seem to stop.
Music blasts into the hotel room. The classical score drowns out the sound of the rain. I slump in relief.
It doesn’t stop the thoughts, but it’s easier to pretend.
Beau wraps me in a huge towel and dries off, pulling on a dressing gown.
“I leave you alone for one day.” He clucks his tongue and rubs at my cheek.
“Don’t leave me alone.”
I don’t want to be without them. Even if I am a burden. Even if I’m broken. I’m selfish.
I lean over Beau and grip his hair, pulling his head back. I sink my teeth in.
“Shit! Shale!” Beau shouts.
The door rips open, and Shale stands there, chest heaving, staring at us. His eyes are wide with surprise but also exasperation.
“Love, what are you doing?”
“I don’t want to be alone!” I start to sob.
“Fuck sake, baby, it’s not supposed to be like this. Bonds are romantic and beautiful, not for when you’re afraid.”
Shale closes his eyes when he says it.
“I need it now. I can’t do this anymore. Just please, if you want me, take me. Please. I have nothing. I’m no one.”
“You’re everything!” Keagan roars.
I step back a bit, blinking up at him as he barges into the bathroom.
“Stop saying that, because the moment I laid eyes on you, I went from a thug who cared about drinking and fucking and fighting to wanting to be someone. You saved me. You are not nothing. You are everything.”
I blink and look around. “But-”
“Fuck it.”
Keagan stalks over, pulls me up into his arms, and sinks his teeth into the curve of my breast. I let out a cry but then bite him deep on the shoulder.
My head spins as I fall into my alpha and, through him, the other five.
Five?
Beau clamps his mouth on my other shoulder and finishes the bond between us.
Two bonds. I feel drunk.
“That’s enough for tonight. Come, Omega, food and sleep.”
“No, I need you-”
“You need to eat and sleep. I’m not going anywhere ever again.”
I walk out and ignore the other three alphas. Ezy has the TV on, and that’s where the music is coming from.
“Thank you,” I murmur with only slight resentment.
He tries to smile but fails. It’s one room, and there is one giant bed.
“They don’t have the other room anymore, and Nat gave up hers, too. We’ll leave. We just wanted to make sure she was okay.”
Someone knocks on the door, and Gael goes to open it, bringing back a tray of hot food that he puts on the table.
“We ordered food for all of you.”
I climb into bed, and Keagan covers me up while Shale inspects the food and brings a plate over to me.
“Open your mouth, Omega.”
“Bite me.”
“Tomorrow.”
My heart flutters.
“Really?”
“Really really. I’ve waited for years for this moment. I can wait one more night. Now, eat.”
“They have to leave,” I say mutinously.
Shale turns to look at Pack Raines. He’s silent for a long moment, and then he turns back to me.
“No. They stay.”
“What?” Gael asks in shock.
“What?” I almost shriek.
Shale reaches out and takes my hand. “When I thought they would leave, and you were so distraught-”
“I wasn’t distraught-”
“You were distraught. But when I panicked, I, no, we did something terrible.”
I swallow hard.
“We took them down by knife point to the beach, and we forced bonds on them. We are as much to blame for this mess as they are.”
“You were trying to protect me.”
“I will always do that. But you can’t hurt your pack to protect your pack. It doesn’t work. I broke trust with them. And I hurt them. I took their free will and their choices. It was wrong. I can see that now.”
“They hurt me,” I whisper.
“And I hurt them. And we are all in a big circle of miscommunication, and I had some time to think sitting behind bars, and I think I forgot our pack is bigger than four. It’s seven. It’s always been seven, and it always will be. This is our reality, and we need to find a way to make peace with it.”
“No.”
“It’s done, Omega. They’ve been bonded to us for days now. They are Daane. And no matter how much I might want them gone, in your heart, they are yours. And you will never find peace until you have all of us. Above all things, your happiness is my reason for living.”
I want to argue with him, but he just gives me a small, tight smile.
“This is why I wanted to wait before we did bonds, but it’s done, too. We are one pack now, come what may.”
I look at Kelly, Ezy, and Gael. I pined over them for years. Hell, I followed them. I went and tried to see them.
What did they actually do to hurt me?
Nothing. They didn’t actually physically touch me. Just everything else, like taking the Daane, treating me like I’m rubbish. I don’t have to make it easy, and I don’t have to forgive them.
I take the ham and cheese toast and sit back against Beau.
“I don’t want them to touch me,” I spit out sullenly.
“There’s only one bed,” Shale says with a grin.
“Then they sleep on your side,” I snap.
Shale grins. “I love it when you get spicy.”
I chew as Shale gets up and goes into the bathroom. Keagan comes out and climbs into bed, cuddling up beside me.
“Oh, this is the life. I don’t look good in prison, baby girl. It’s awful.”
“You look good in anything, remember?”
The hotel door bangs open, and Nat bursts into the room. She crawls over Keagan, who spits and swears as she flops down on me. Beau just manages to save my food.
“I was so worried about you! Don’t ever do that to me again!”
“Sorry, Nat!”
“I swear to fuck I am going to be smashing cameras tomorrow.”
Oh, the reporters. I hadn’t even thought of them. Ew, I don’t want to think of them. I pat Nat’s back as she gets up, trying hard not to show how much my leg hurts.
“Right. I’ll let you rest, but we’re catching up tomorrow.” She turns and stops dead.
“There are vermin in your hotel room, bestie.”
“I know. They’re my vermin. They have bites and all. I tried to get rid of them, but Shale said I had to keep them.”
“Oh, do they now? Have you tried cutting it off?”
Beau snickers.
Keagan just shakes his head. “You terrify me. Also, we’re naked under here.”
Nat smiles widely. “Let me know if you want them dead. I fucked a guy who owes me a favour.”
I watch as she leaves, disappearing with as much drama as she came in.
“Do you think she really knows a guy?” I hear Gael ask.
“She wouldn’t say so if it weren’t true,” Shale says and walks out towel drying his hair. “Showers free.”
Ezy gets up and slinks into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
I’m getting sleepy, but Shale pulls the quilt off my legs and pulls up my towel.
I glare at him. “Not tonight.”
“Yes, tonight.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I don’t care. You shouldn’t have gone running in the forest.”
“Shale.”
“I love it when you whine, so please keep going.”
“Sadist.”
“Only for you.”
I gasp as he starts massaging my thigh. I tilt my head back so I can’t look at him touching my scarred up legs.
I don’t want to see it. It hurts, though, and, soon, I’m crying and letting out piteous moans.
“It’s all right, you’re almost there. It’s almost done.”
Shale finishes up and pauses. I open my eyes and find Kelly standing there with a warm heat bag in his hand. He’s holding it out like a peace offering. His face, neck, and shoulders are covered in scratch marks, some of them bleeding. I did that.
“It will help,” he says softly.
Shale takes it and puts it on my leg. “Thanks, Kelly.”
I look between the two of them and wish it could have been different. I can see we all could have been friends. This could have worked, but I don’t trust them, and I don’t want to be friends with them.
“Stop thinking, start eating,” Keagan growls. Ezy approaches the bed and hesitates, but Keagan doesn’t. He lashes out with snake speed, grabs the alpha’s wrist, and yoinks him into the bed. “You can bed with me tonight, bestie.”
“We’re not besties,” Ezy protests hotly.
“We will be.”
I stare in stunned amazement as Keagan spoons the alpha and settles down to sleep like this is fucking normal.
“Stop staring,” Beau teases and puts a piece of toast in my mouth.
I eat until we’re all ready for bed. Shale gets on my side, Gael and Kelly on the other side.
“This is the weirdest night I’ve ever had,” I say softly.
Gael starts giggling. It’s infectious, and, try as I might, I can’t help it. I fall asleep smiling.