44. Aspyn
Chapter forty-four
Aspyn
A spyn Aged 22
The white dress I’m wearing makes me feel beautiful. I feel beautiful. But I’m nervous, Pack Daane are away for a couple more days. I shouldn’t have agreed to meet him, but it’s Ezy, and he pleaded and promised it would be perfectly safe. But I have to do this for myself. It’s important. I can’t rely on them forever.
I get to the front door when thunder cracks across the sky.
I scream.
I scream so loud it hurts my ears.
I grip the door frame in the house and look back and forth, my eyes getting wider and wider.
I didn’t check the weather! I always check the weather!
The rain starts a minute later.
I cringe, recoiling so violently I hit the wall hard enough to leave bruises.
The memories slam into my head with the next bolt of lightning. The power cuts out.
I’m sobbing, desperately hanging onto the walls, sure the deluge is just outside.
“HELP ME!”
I scream until my voice is hoarse. But no one comes. I feel the house shake in the wind and bolt, ripping open the front door and dashing out into the pouring rain.
I slip in the mud and see the water running over the grass.
I scream louder as another bolt crashes. With a cry, I stand up, and my leg collapses, but I force myself up and stagger to my cave.
I get on the mattress and sit there, rocking.
Every scream for help goes unanswered.
P resent Day
“I’m reporting a crime. Are you, as the police officer in charge of this island, telling me you are refusing to let me make a complaint?” I lean over his desk, making sure I keep my cane firmly in my grip.
Sonny looks away, his lips turning down and rocking back in the chair. “Nothing to complain about. Nothing happened.”
The mutter incenses me. How dare he say that! This is such crap.
“I have eight broken windows, a damaged house that will cost thousands to fix, and two terrorised witnesses, and you’re saying you won’t investigate?” My shrill tone hurts even my ears. “Sonny, please, you’ve known us for years. Please don’t do this.”
I hate begging, but I’m not above it.
Sonny looks at his computer. He hasn’t made eye contact since I walked in, but I can see the tense lines of his mouth getting firmer. I’m losing him.
The tiny office reeks of chicken soup and has printouts of wanted felons on one wall. There’s a corridor to the left that leads to the toilet and the only cell that this island has. Gael is in that cell.
“There’s nothing to report.” His sullen voice leaves me awash with despair. Lost in fear.
I dip my chin and let those words sink in. “I see. And have you found Gael’s phone? Or mine or Nat’s?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t have time to search for phones. I’m the only police officer on the island. There’s lots of work that needs to be done.”
I bite my cheek. I have been unable to contact my pack. It’s been three weeks now. I can’t even feel them through the bonds at this distance.
If we could just get a call out, but no one will let us use the phones. It’s a concentrated effort island wide to keep us helpless.
“Can I borrow your phone?” I whisper. “Please, Sonny?” I grip my cane harder, hoping and praying that he will, just this once, show mercy.
“What for?” His tone is bitter and exhausted.
“I need to make a call,” I whisper.
“To whom?”
I stare at him, the tiny slither of hope fading. “What have they got over you?”
Sonny stands up abruptly and points to the door. “Get out. I’m done with you wasting my time.”
“Yeah. I bet you are. I’d be interested to know if he still wants you when he finds out you betrayed the Daane. Mitch loves the Daane, you know that. Do you really think he’d forgive this?”
Sonny goes pale. “I didn’t, the Daane are gone.”
I tug my collar down, revealing three of my six bond marks. “Yeah, you did.”
He stares at the bonds in something like dawning horror. “You need to leave.” He staggers back. “Get out! I’m not helping you. I can’t.”
He stutters over the words, but I let it go, looking at the door that leads to where Gael is being held.
Last night was the last night.
I’ve had enough.
Totally and completely.
Gael was right, it’s time to fight back.
S onny is in the car parked out back, getting his lying dick sucked by the ever talented Mitch. He’s valiantly decided to take one for the team.
I take the key that I stole and creep into the tiny police station. Inside, I sneak down the hallway and pause when I find another door. I open it.
Gael is lying asleep on a small cot. I limp forward and reach down, laying my trembling hand on his chest. He’s so beautiful.
I almost burst into tears, I’m shaking so bad. The sick feeling ebbs, and I curl my fingers in his shirt and tug slightly.
Three weeks.
I haven’t seen my pack in three weeks.
A great well of yearning and relief spills open in me.
Gael snaps his eyes open. In seconds, he’s up, enfolding me in a hug before he can even draw a breath.
“Aspyn, what are you doing here?”
“Breaking you out. Come on, we have to go.”
He doesn’t hesitate, his hand clasped in mine. I close everything up, put the key on his desk, and walk out.
I don’t give a fuck about cameras or anything. If he wants to play this game, I’ve got him on camera refusing to help me and being sucked off by his fuck buddy at work.
I have enough to destroy his career, and if he comes after my pack again, I will.
This omega is done playing around.
Gael stays right with me. I lead him to the beach, walking towards the other end where a little jetty extends out into the ocean, and a boat is waiting for us.
“Where are we going?”
“We are getting out of here,” I mutter.
“But where?”
“The other side of the island, there’s a place the Daane go. It should be safe for the three of us until they get here.”
Gael tugs me to a stop and kisses me. I lose myself in the kiss, breaking into a thousand pieces and being remade.
He pulls back. “Every moment in there, I thought of you.”
“Every moment you were in there, I tried to come up with an idea of how to get you out.”
His white smile is blinding, and I feel giddy with relief. I tug him towards the jetty but stop when I see people standing on the beach. The moonlit ocean hides them until it’s too late to get away from them.
I look for the boat but can’t see it.
“Where is Nat?”
Gael makes a deep sound in his chest and shakes his head. “Nat’s gone. The boat is on the beach. Was the boat on the beach before?”
I turn and look around, wondering where the fuck she went.
“Shit!”
Gael turns back, and I notice the group slowly turning our way, becoming aware of us.
I grip Gaels’ hand tight, but he pulls free and puts himself between us and the group that’s coming towards us.
“Who are they?” Gael asks.
“Thugs, people the Daane have kept in line. People who hate me.”
Basil Ore jumps forward, bumping chests with Gael and trying to intimidate him into surrender.
I hold my breath, glaring as more and more join us. Everyone is someone I know. No one is a stranger. That’s the worst part. But I don’t recognise them. I don’t know where the rage and blood lust has come from.
Gael holds my hand, refusing to let go, even to defend himself.
I grip the back of his shirt, waiting to see what they are going to do. Basil turns it into something vicious when he pulls a knife out of his pocket and brandishes it in our direction.
“You fuckers think you can own the whole island?”
I pull Gael back and look around. No one seems worried. In fact, they all seem excited by the appearance of the knife.
“Who the fuck do you people think you are?” Basil snarls. In the dark, his features look demonic.
“We are the Daane,” Gael says flatly.
Basil barks a laugh. “You aren’t part of the Daane.”
Gael smiles widely. “Are you sure?”
“Of course, I’m sure. Those assholes hate everyone except each other.”
“And us,” I spit out. “If you so much as look at us the wrong way, Basil, the Daane will take care of it in a way that you won’t like.”
His gaze slides from Gael to me and turns to something else. He reaches down and squeezes his junk suggestively.
“You’ll look good on your knees.”
Gael stiffens, but I spit out a laugh.
“I’ll never get on my knees for you.”
He laughs. “I’ll just make you.”
I laugh, but there’s a hysterical and enraged sound to it. I cannot believe I’m hearing this.
Gael stands there, watching the group encircle us. He’s bracing to fight, but he knows he’s going to lose. He can’t win against this many.
I pray to everything I’ve ever believed in and open my mouth and let loose the sound I’ve been practicing night and day since we got back to the island.
The group freezes.
Through a rough purr, I tell them to go home. I don’t ask, I command. The sheer strength of my purr has every single one of them leaving us.
This is what Locke told Erin to tell me. This is the hidden secret of omegas. Our strength. We aren’t as vulnerable as everyone says we are.
Gael grips my hips and pulls me into him. “You are incredible.”
“I am Daane,” I say breathlessly and then laugh.
He kisses me hard. I cling to him until he reluctantly leans back.
“Yes, you are.”
We look for Nat, but there is no sign of her. The motor for the boat is gone, too. With disappointment, we slink back into the night to search for Nat and another way to escape.