Chapter Three
Eden
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She watches them drag the giant alpha away, the one who had saved her from what felt like a certain death at the hands of that hoard of nearly feral alphas.
She had been sure she was going get raped, torn apart, and murdered. She could practically see the light. And then he was there, like a whirlwind of brute alpha strength, towering over all of them like some pagan god of war.
He was huge, tall even for an alpha and built like a brick wall. But his tawny hair curled around brown eyes that were unmistakably kind. In that moment, he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life.
He had told her that his two pack brothers, Julius and Tenor, would take care of her.
Even when he wasn't here, he was saving her.
For several long minutes, she could not tear her eyes away from the spot where he had stood just moments before in that dimly lit cell.
She felt frozen, every muscle in her body locked, until finally she forces her gaze to the remaining two alphas.
Tenor—he had said that was the name of the one who had given her water—stares at her with concern in his golden eyes.
He was beautiful, if an alpha could be called that, all tanned skin and hair that somehow looked stylish despite being in prison.
She thinks if she had met him anywhere else, she never would've been able to even speak in his presence, he was so handsome.
But Julius's gaze—the one who scared her—penetrated through her, making her wilt with the brute force of it.
His eyes felt like an icy blue sun, burning her where they touched.
His light blond hair was buzzed close and it suited the cold look of him.
If she would've been intimated by Tenor, this one would've made her run to her nest and hide.
"Lights out is in five minutes." Tenor's voice finally breaks through her thoughts. "You need anything?"
She shakes her head. Did she need anything? She needed to wake up from this nightmare. She briefly considers whether it might have been better for her to have died in that hoard than be stuck in this cell forever, dying by inches with these two strange men.
It was only a matter of time before she was cornered again and some other alphas descended upon her. She feels panic rise in her again, despite the exhaustion in her body.
"You'll get your work assignment tomorrow, we'll make sure it's with one of us," he says, his voice reassuring, and then he climbs onto the bunk above her and she hears him settling in for the night.
Listening to the quiet, domestic sounds around her, Eden cannot help the worry from bubbling in her thoughts and through her lips.
"Is he— I mean—will he be okay?" She doesn't know where the question comes from, but she needs to know, the uncertainty clawing at her.
She hears Tenor pause, the bed creaking above her as he looks over the side at her. "Luke?"
Was that his name? "Yes."
Julius snorts dismissively from where he's settling into his own bed on the lower bunk across from her. She quickly averts her eyes from the intimacy of the scene.
His huge body looks like it's going to burst out of the bed, which clearly hadn't been intended to hold an alpha of his size. He's too handsome and it makes Eden uncomfortable. With his striking eyes and classically handsome features, he looks like a model.
"It's not his first time in the hole, and it won't be the last. He'll be fine. Don't waste your time worrying about him." The man's voice is as hard as the concrete box surrounding them.
It felt like they were speaking another language, using terms that make no sense to her. Her confusion only makes her more anxious.
"What is 'the hole?'" She can hear the fear in her question, but she has apparently lost her ability to modulate her own voice.
"Solitary." When she still looks confused, he elaborates. "Solitary confinement. Punishment. He'll probably get a month or two for leaving behind the bodies."
A month or two? In solitary confinement? She feels nauseous at the thought but she says nothing.
Her mind mulls over his choice of phrase 'leaving behind the bodies.' Did they... ever dispose of bodies? What kind of place was this?
The thoughts cloud together as she climbs under sheets that smell like warm earth and safety and alpha. The lights all go out at once a moment later. She's asleep quicker than she would have thought possible in the suffocating darkness of this place, and her dreams are horrible.
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She wakes in a panic, unsure where she is.
She jolts back, her heart in her throat, and her head bashes against the cinderblock wall behind her.
She keens in pain, confused and terrified, as she realizes there is a heavy weight of someone sitting on the bunk next to her.
She cannot tell her dreams from reality, cannot even see her hand in front of her. It's pitch black.
The world is spinning when she hears a soothing sound rumbling out of their chest, and then she smells him.
Woody, but kind of spicy. Tenor, the golden eyed alpha who gave her water.
He is sitting next to her on her bunk. The world pieces itself back together slowly, glued together by that sound that promised safety and comfort.
"Hey," he says, tentatively reaching out to touch her head, probing around the wound with quick, practiced hands as if making sure she didn't need stitches or something. Was he a medic? "Hey, you're okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I thought you were awake. You were crying."
She wasn't aware of her tears until he mentioned them, but then they are flowing freely down her face and she feels a terrified sob heaving in her chest.
"Are you injured?" His voice is soft and gentle, and it only makes her cry harder.
Her skull is throbbing, but she doesn't feel any blood. Her answer comes out as a question. "No?"
His purr is horribly comforting and it only serves to make her more confused.
"They don't give us anything to make a nest out of," he says as he looks down at the paltry nest she's tried to make around herself with the single thin blanket and sheet. "Is that what you need? A nest?"
"I have two omega sisters," he continues, and she hears a smile in his voice. "Anytime they're upset, they always go back to their nests. Usually they make me bring snacks and stuff to them. It always makes them feel better."
She whines a little at the thought. A nest was a place of safety and comfort, something an omega needed in order to rest. His mention of omega sisters sends a pang through her chest at the thought of a home, a family, safety.
But before she can consider it further, he is reaching up and tugging his sheets and blankets down from his own bunk.
"Here," he offers. "Use these, will that help?"
As he presses the scented fabric into her hands, Eden feels her head swim.
She had never had a nest that smelled like alphas before.
She had never felt safe enough to invite an alpha back home before, let alone to let one of them into her bed.
And now she was surrounded by rough, scratchy blankets and sheets that smelled richly of these alphas who were protecting her.
But if he gave her his blankets— "Where will you sleep?"
Tenor chuckles softly, the sound unbothered. "I'll be fine," he replies. "Don't worry about me."
"W-would you stay with me?" Her voice sounded tiny and pathetic to her own ears.
"With you? In your nest? You sure?"
"I'd feel safer." It sounds stupid. How could she be safer with an alpha in bed with her? But she couldn't deny that these alphas did make her feel safer. It felt as if nothing would hurt her when she was with them, just like they had said.
"Alright, ma. Put me where you want me." There's a lightness to his voice, and the warmth of it wraps around her.
She considers for a moment, and then guides him into the narrow bed.
She turns on her side with her back pressed against the wall and lays him facing out, a little spoon nestled against her front.
It's the first time she's ever cuddled with an alpha, but she doesn't let herself dwell on that. Not right now.
She begins building her miniscule nest around them, weaving the two blankets and sheets around the two of them as best she can. The beds are tiny, forcing them into a strange intimacy in the close proximity, but feeling him pressed against her in the confines of the bunk is strangely soothing.
"I've never done this before," she mutters, needing to explain to him why she's struggling.
A little bit of frustration leaks into her voice as she tries to adjust the nest to suit the length of him.
For some reason, she doesn't want him to think she's an amateur or something.
Doesn't want him to think she's bad at making nests, if that were possible.
"What, built a nest in a prison bed?" His voice is dry and it sounds sleepy, as if he's about to drift off.
"Built a nest with an alpha in it," she snips back.
She feels him freeze and tense at that, but he doesn't respond. As she settles the blankets around them, her body seems to relax at last, the spicy wood scent of him filling her nose this close in proximity.
This time, when she sleeps, there are no dreams at all.