49. Aspyn
Chapter forty-nine
Aspyn
A spyn Aged 22
I walk through the marketplace, being ignored by everyone. I’ve got my cane, but my leg feels somewhat okay at the moment.
The tourists are here, the surfers.
I scan them, standing on the beach, checking over each and every one of them.
He’s not here. It’s devastating.
It always is.
I turn away when I see a guy walking towards me with a huge smile. He’s got ginger hair and sky-blue eyes. I start to edge back because I don’t trust that smile.
He gets close, and the scent of alpha hits me, but it’s faint, almost hidden.
“Hi!”
I eye him warily. “Hi.”
“You’re Aspyn, aren’t you?”
If anything, his knowledge of my name just makes me more alarmed. “I am. Who are you?”
“Oh, I’m Eben.”
When I don’t immediately recognise him, he frowns.
“Shale never told you about me?”
“Shale?”
“My older brother, Shale. He told me about you.”
I’m curious now. I step closer, looking up at him.
“Can we talk?”
He glances around, but I nod because if he’s Shale’s brother, he must be good.
We sit down on the sand.
“So, I’m just going to come out and say it.”
I tense.
“I just, I can’t understand what games you're playing with Shale. He’s completely devoted to you. He won’t even look at anyone else, and he’s wasting all this time. How can he have a family and kids if he’s chasing an omega who won’t give him the time of day?”
I flinch and wrap my arms tight around myself.
“You are the most selfish person I’ve ever met. It’s just cruel to keep them dangling on the end of your hook-”
Eben is yanked up and away. Shale pulls back and smashes his fist into Eben's face.
Over and over. Eben tries to fight back, but it’s clear the alpha doesn’t have the savage skills that my Shale has. Or he’s not trying.
“You want to open your fucking mouth, Eben? You want to talk about fucked up? What about what you did? I know all about Emrys.”
Eben flinches. “That’s different. I’m just trying to help you-”
“You aren’t. You’re imposing your bullshit beliefs from your experiences on my life. If you would have been doing it for me, you would have realised how much she means to me.”
Eben is silent, staring up at him from the sand. “I’m sorry.”
“Get off my island!” Shale says in a bitter voice.
A couple of people move to help him, but Keagan steps up beside Shale and looks around with his sinister smile. The people back off, eventually walking away.
Beau picks me up and carries me away from the scene.
“He’s not wrong,” I whisper to Beau.
“Oh, my babe, he is the most wrong person on this planet. There is no Daane without Aspyn.”
I blink at him, trying to hide the wounds that are bleeding, but I can never hide anything from them.
“We want you as you are, Cher. No more, no less. Whatever you can give is what we will worship.”
I close my eyes, a tear escaping.
I don’t deserve them, but I can’t exist without them.
P resent Day
There is no Daane without me. That’s what he said. That means I need to fight. I need to stay alive. This is my pack. I am Daane.
I struggle against the force that’s holding me down. My lungs are burning, and I frantically fight to get to the surface. I break through suddenly, take a breath, get my feet under me, and am hit from behind. I slam forward, twisting and rolling. My hip bounces on the sand, and when I try to stand up, I can’t break through the rolling white.
But then it’s gone, and I surge upwards, gasping for air, and all I can see is the churning grey skies. The ocean pulls me backwards at an alarming speed. By the time I’m able to turn in a circle and spot the island, I’m much further out than I would have thought possible, and I can’t touch the bottom.
It’s disorientating.
I’m slammed into the water, a wave throwing me forward, moving so fast I can’t figure out which way is up or down. This time, when I’m dropped, I can feel the ground, but when I stand up, I’m on my tiptoes. I look around and spot Mitch with Nat. He’s dragging her up on the shore and fighting. It doesn’t make sense, but then the ocean’s stolen me off my feet. I let out a shriek as I go down again, pulled out faster than before.
I fight to stay with my head above water, but I keep going under, and when the next wave comes, it rolls over me and tumbles me like a washing machine.
The next time I break through the waves, I can’t touch the bottom, and when I turn to look at the shore, it seems like it's miles away.
I turn back, facing the threat which are the waves.
I kick as hard as I can, but my leg is cramping, and I’m cold now. Every part of me is bruised and tired. The rain makes it hard to see anything, but when I see the next wave, I do what I’ve seen the surfers do. I dive into it.
I come up for breath, panting and shaking.
Rips. Currents. I need to stop fighting. I try to remember where everything washes up on the island, but my brain isn’t working right either.
The next wave is here, and I dive, forcing my tired body through the water. I come up, and the next beast is upon me. I just manage to dive again, but my lungs are aching, and when I come up, I get a mouthful of salty water and start coughing hard.
I look up through squinted eyes and see a dark and oily black wave coming at me. It’s so huge. It’s like that black wave is chasing me.
It’s the one from my childhood, the one that took my dad and Cassie. Now it’s here for me, it won’t let me go.
I float up the wave, dragged faster, and then I’m at the top, and on the other side is Typhor. Somehow, I’m not surprised to see him. He wants to destroy me more than he wants to live.
That is insanity.
He bares his teeth and hits out at me, but before he can make contact, a massive shape throws itself at him, and they both sink beneath the waves.
My cry is snatched away, but my heart aches. I know that was Gael, and the agony of his disappearance and the fact he doesn’t come back up rips me apart.
He saved me.
I bob there, scanning the surface, begging, pleading for him to reappear. Tears mix with salt water, but he doesn’t come back. Somehow, I’m even more freaked out that I’m alone and that I can’t see anyone. All I can see is pouring rain and the enormous waves. I can’t even see the island anymore.
The cold is seeping in, and the effort to stay on the surface is getting harder.
I’m lifted on another wave, and I see something bronze. A flash of colour and then, to my surprise, arms are around me.
“Ezy?”
“I found you. Oh, god, I fucking found you,” Ezy says into my ear. He smacks a kiss to my temple and then starts maneuvering me so I’m lying on my back, pressed to his chest.
I whip my head around so I can stare at him. “You’re alive. You’re really here and alive. Ezy,” I whisper his name over and over.
He grabs me securely and pulls a life jacket over my head before pulling me against his chest again and leaning back. To my surprise, he lifts a gun in the air and fires it. Into the pouring rain, a bright red flare blooms into the air above us.
“We’re going to be okay,” Ezy says confidently.
I hold onto his arm that he has wrapped around my chest. I hear a sound, and when I lift my head, Kelly is there, standing in the little inflatable boat, peering down at us. He looks like a golden god. His expression is fierce, and his wet shirt and hair whip around him. He’s alive.
I mouth his name, unable to even speak.
Ezy moves instantly, rolling me up and into the boat before he, too, climbs up.
“Where’s Gael?” I shout over the roar of the engine, the ocean, and the rain. He’s going to be okay. I know he is. But he was bleeding, and he saved me.
“I don’t know!” Kelly shouts.
But then Gael launches up from the water, rolling into the bottom of the boat, breathing hard. I pull free of Ezy’ hold and slam my hands down on his thigh, trying to stem the bleeding.
I stare at his face. My beautiful alpha. “You saved me. You all did.”
“Get us on shore, Kelly,” he heaves out.
Kelly turns the boat and drives us back to shore. He doesn’t even slow down, just runs us up on the sand. I’m hoisted out of the boat by Ezy and moved several feet up the beach away from the water. I collapse on my knees and vomit up sea water.
“Cher!”
Beau lifts me up, pulling me into a hug that has me weeping. I’m safe. I’m safe.
I wrap myself around him but open my eyes to look for the others.
Keagan is frozen, staring at the water. I twist around and, to my absolute disgust, see Typhor climbing out of the ocean. On the shore, the six people he brought with him are unconscious or dead. I don’t even care.
“How many lives does this prick have?” Keagan snarls.
“I’ve had enough,” Kelly says.
Typhor stumbles towards us. “Take me home now. You win. I’ll leave you alone. I’ll even give you part of Alpha Labels.”
The demand leaves me breathless. Does he really think that’s going to happen?
“Kelly, take Ezy, Gael, and Aspyn.”
Shale steps up to me, his fingers brushing mine in a calm, reassuring touch.
No one will hurt me and live. Ever. That’s what they promised.
They are alive. We are all alive.
Kelly grabs me and swings me up into his arms.
“Where are you going? I made you! I created you! You would have nothing if it wasn’t for me! You owe me!”
Kelly doesn’t turn around, and I wonder if he does feel some semblance of guilt.
“I gave you everything!” Typhor screams.
The last thing I hear is Shale’s calm words. “The Daane protect their own, Typhor Raines. Do you have any last words?”
I bury my face in Kelly’s neck, but none of us say a word.