39. Aspyn
Chapter thirty-nine
Aspyn
A spyn Aged 20
I open the newspaper and read it like I do every day, front to back, searching for a couple of names that I keep hoping I won’t find. I don’t know why I find them both today.
Kelly is on page five with a big write up about him. There are two guys on either side of him, and the newspaper caption reads that their names are Gael Dahan and Ezekial Boothe. I stare at them for a long time, but they mean nothing to me. All I focus on is Kelly.
I stroke my fingers over Kelly’s beautiful face and then carefully cut the article out of the paper and put it away. Four years, and I still feel every inch the rejected omega. I still want him to come rushing to my side and tell me it was a mistake.
I turn the pages.
Her name is where I least expect it.
Kathryn Montauk, beloved wife.
She married again, but not for long. I feel numb as I stare at her name even as the day drifts on by the dusk coming with a chill that fills my whole body.
My mother died.
I never got to ask why. Why did she do this? Why leave me here? Was I such a burden?
The tears come silently, rolling down my cheek, ripping open old wounds and reminding me that I am alone. Always alone.
P resent Day
I remember seeing Kelly all over the newspaper. Local hero, golden surfer, amazing Alpha.
I do not like being on the cover. I stare down at my face on the tablet screen and purse my lips while my heart thumps hard in my chest. I’m on the edge of a panic attack, I can feel it.
They have at least a half decent picture of me. I’m staring sadly across the crowd below, looking untouchable in the gold dress.
But then, there’s another closeup of the edge of the scar on my face, one of my cane, and another of my pack.
And one other photo that makes me feel sick. I haven’t seen this photo in years. I run my finger over it, and I can hear the roar of the water again. My ears ring with the sound of people screaming, trying to be heard over the sound of the floods’ roar.
I’m standing on the edge of the water, my head wet and tangled. I look like a ghost. They used it for a while to talk about the victims of the flood, but then, like with all things, people stopping caring.
The newsletter paints a gloriously offensive image of me. Much like the old stories, but, this time, they go into depth, interviewing the people my father’s business screwed. Speaking to some of my mother’s old neighbours. They get some really good fodder from Gwen’s cronies again.
I am disabled, and I use it as a manipulation to get what I want. A con-woman who preys upon tourists using my fake psychic abilities. A whore just like my mother who caught the pack with my exceptional skills in bed that I learned from my years turning tricks.
I snort a laugh. I was never ashamed of my mother or what she had to do to survive. She kept us fed and housed, and the way they make it sound is so sordid. I was ashamed of how she treated me and even more what I was to her; someone who trapped her.
Kelly snatches the tablet away from me and talks coldly into the phone. “She is not manipulating us. There is nothing wrong with Aspyn. Ah, I see, so you have an issue with people with disabilities? You apparently do because you’re allowing these slanderous accusations to be printed. Her mother is her own person, and what she did to survive has NOTHING to do with my omega.”
Ryn puts a hand on Kelly’s arm, but he snatches himself away from her and paces to the chair closest to me and flops down in it.
“Just because she was injured as a child does not mean she’s a gold digger. It doesn’t mean she’s useless-”
I hear the next words. She claims to be psychic, Kelly.
“I DON’T CARE! Prove she isn’t!” he growls with a terrifying rage.
I shift my weight, wishing I was anywhere else.
“Have you told your mother she can’t have children?” Lia asks.
Kelly whirls, narrowing his eyes. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Lia holds up her hands and backs off, back into the arms of her pack.
Ezy stomps into the room, followed by the other packs.
“It’s all over the news. It’s everywhere.”
“She is my omega, and nothing is going to change that!” Kelly thunders.
“And that’s exactly our point!” The person on the phone shouts back. “Kelly, you are besotted with an omega who can’t give you children, who claims to be a psychic. Her mother was a whore. She’s an orphan now with no family and no money. Hell, she can’t even walk properly. Her father ruined hundreds of families' livelihoods. How do you expect to present this to the board and win any kind of vote? You’ve been gone too long, we don’t know you, and we don’t trust her.”
“This isn’t up for vote.”
“If you want this company to succeed, it needs to be.” The person snaps back.
I stand up in the silence and limp from the room.
I can hear Kelly raging, but he doesn't come after me. None of my pack does. The people that do surprise me.
Erin, Bailey, and Ryann find me in the library.
“Are you giving up?” Erin asks calmly.
“No.”
“What are you doing, then?”
I turn to regard the alpha. She is beautiful and so strong. I wish I could be more like her. “I know what I am. Whereas you have been born with strength that makes you stand out, I was gifted with weakness. But that doesn’t make me weak anymore than it makes you strong.” I sigh, annoyed I’m being so rude. “I came to think.”
“What about?”
“I’m wondering how he found all that information so readily,” I murmur and lean on the desk. The floor-to-ceiling books are one of my favourite things about this house. “It’s a tad convenient. And it’s a lot of information. Did they hire a PI? How quaint.” I smile to myself and then chuckle.
Ryann makes a sound and turns lavender eyes on me. She’s the quietest of the packs, and I think we’ve exchanged two words so far.
“They won’t stop, but you need to not react. Don’t give them any ammunition. Let it go.”
Erin frowns. “Locke told me to tell you something.”
I cock my head and wait. My eyes widen as she whispers words into my ear.
My stolen phone rings, and I answer the call without looking at the number.
“Aspyn?” Nat sobs.
I am so happy to hear her voice that I turn instantly, almost seeking her out.
“Nat, what’s happened?” I cry out, hearing the distress and pain.
“I’m in the city, I need you to come get me.”
I frown in confusion, already mentally working out how to get back home to rescue her. Wait! “What city?”
“Blackburn. I’m sorry, Aspyn. I need your help.”
“Where are you?”
“Broadmeads Hospital,” Nat whispers and starts to cry.
“I’m on my way.” I snatch up my cane and limp as fast as I can to the front of the house. “I need the car, Holt.”
“Sorry, Miss, that isn’t allowed.”
“Get me my car!” I shout.
He shakes his head.
“I’m telling you now, you get my car or I’ll have you fired.”
“I can’t, Miss, it’s against the rules.” His smirk is positively evil.
“Where are the keys?”
“I can’t let you have them.”
I lift my arm in frustration, but his next actions completely stupify me. He recoils and holds his hands up like I’m trying to strike him.
“What are you doing?” I ask and drop my arm.
“Don’t hurt me, Miss!” Holt cries out.
It finally dawns on me what he’s doing. “You fucker. You’re going to wish I had hit you. I didn’t want to do this. Once you open this Pandora’s box, you can’t close it.” I turn and raise my voice, making it ring throughout the house. “DAANE!”
The reaction is instant; the house gets cold, and my three alphas, who have had themselves masked this entire time, drop their camouflage, allowing all the Raines to see what they’re dealing with.
Bailey straightens and really takes a good, long look at Shale.
“What’s wrong, Cher?” Beau murmurs and slinks towards me. He slides a hand up my ass and up to my shoulders. “You look lovely this morning.”
I turn to Beau. “Holt is filming me and pretending I’ve hit him. He’s also refused to give me the keys to the car, and Nat is in the hospital.” I burst into emotional tears, which annoy me no end, but Beau simply gathers me in his arms and kisses my head.
“I’ll take care of it, baby.”
“She’s not lying,” Erin says, but I can see her nervously watching Keagan, who has floated closer.
“Early retirement,” Shale says, looking right at me. “Or an early grave, your choice.”
Keagan walks up and punches the beta in the face so hard he flies back into the wall.
Beau, who has let me go, wanders over to take his turn. He hits him so hard in the gut that Holt vomits down the front of himself.
Shale holds out his hand. “Keys to the car. My love needs to go to the hospital.”
Charles swallows hard and passes his keys to Shale. They all ignore Holt sobbing on the floor.
Ezy hands over their phones and wallets while Gael hangs up his phone.
“I just spoke to the nurse. She’s been badly beaten, but she’s okay.”
I throw myself into his arms. “Really?”
“Really. I spoke to the nurse who’s been taking care of her all morning. She is okay, just scared.”
Kelly closes his eyes. “You guys go ahead. I need to keep fighting here.”
Ezy looks torn but then goes to stand with Kelly. I know they have to, and they are doing it for me, but I wish they would come with me. I need them.
Gael grabs his coat and snatches the keys out of Shales’ hand. “I’m driving.”
Shale shrugs and looks at Holt. “Go to your room and stay there. Do not harm yourself. Do not call anyone. Just sit there and wait for us to come and deal with you.”
The command is so absolute that there is no way he can fight it. I almost feel sorry for him, but then I remember how he flinched and called out, ‘don’t hurt me.’
He can go to hell.
I lift my nose in the air and follow my pack outside. Shale drapes an arm over my shoulder and pauses, glancing back inside the house.
“We are Pack Daane. Not Raines.”
The Raines family stare back at us, their faces white. Charles nods once. “It’s good to have you with us.”
It appeases the Pack, and the tension disappears.
Then Shale pulls the door closed and guides me down to the car that’s waiting for us.
When we’re in the car, Beau pulls me into his lap and starts kissing and nuzzling my shoulder.
“She will be fine. Nat is a survivor.”
I nod. I know this, but it doesn’t stop the ball of fear inside me. What will I find?
Teeth sink into my neck, a painful reminder to stay in the present with the alphas I’m with.
“Okay,” I murmur. “I’m paying attention, and I’m not going to freak out until I know she’s okay.” I wait, and the words just won’t stay in. “What is she even doing here? I thought she was waiting for us to come back? Wasn’t that the plan?”
“It was the plan,” Keagan agreed.
“I want whoever did this to her dead. I want them done and destroyed.”
“It will be my pleasure,” Beau purrs and drags his teeth over my neck, leaving me shuddering with goosebumps running up and down my arms.
Gael turns his head a little bit and curses.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think we’ve got reporters following us.”
I cringe, but Beau just murmurs nonsense in my ear. Shale puts a hand on my thigh, while Keagan, who is in the front, peers in the mirrors.
“The hospital is close now. But they’re probably going to be waiting for us.”
I hate this. I hate all of it.
Gael parks the car. We get out, and, sure enough, we’re mobbed.
“Who do you know in town, Aspyn? Is it one of your mother’s Johns? Are you going to get tested to see if you have a disease? Are you having therapy for your leg?”
I stalk past as best I can while Beau happily throws himself on the nearest reporters.
“Ooops. I tripped.”
He gets up and steps on a phone, kicks a camera, and scares the shit out of a woman before he jogs and catches up to us.
“Was that fun?” Keagan whines. “It looked fun!”
“Don’t worry, Kea, there are plenty more where they came from.”
Keagan looks delighted with Gael’s nickname for him and beams.
Gael leads us through the hospital corridors and into a maze of cream-coloured sameness that has my head spinning as I try to remember which way we came from.
Eventually, he stops outside a set of random doors. They look exactly the same as any other random doors, but these are the ones Gael is pointing down.
I brush them open, only to find a nurse with a clipboard frowning at me.
“Hi!”
“Hello, can I help you?”
“My friend Nat is here. I need to see her.”
Her expression clears. “Bed 18A. Follow the corridor down, turn right, and then it’s the fourth door on the left.”
I dip my head, but I’ve already forgotten her. Nat is here, somewhere, and until I see her, I will be imagining the worst. I get to the room and step inside. There are six beds, three have curtains pulled around them. But at the very last bed, visible only when I pad further into the room, I find the distorted, swollen vision of my best friend.
“Nat?” I breathe.
She turns towards me; I don’t know if she hears me, but I well up with emotion and hurry towards her.
“What happened? Who did this to you? Tell me so I can sic the Daane on them.”
Nat sobs and breaks down. I slide onto the bed beside her and hold her until she’s ready.
“I met this guy. I thought he was something special. But it turns out I was wrong, again…”