7. History
History
Kade
S top the world, I wanna get off . The world spun, and I vomited for what was probably the fourth time that morning. There was nothing in my stomach. I hadn’t been able to even think about eating again after the first attempt, not that I found anything appealing in my kitchen.
I’d dragged myself out of bed looking for something to eat and ended up bent over the sink, throwing up the water I’d downed when I’d first woken.
After my stomach had calmed, I’d eaten an apple to get rid of the taste and then had some more water.
Unfortunately, neither had stayed down, but I’d made it to the toilet that time and had just stayed there. I had no idea how much time had passed.
From my place on the cool tiled bathroom floor, I heard the rattle of the lock, the front door opening, and closing, then heavy footsteps. “Kade?”
“In the bathroom, Dakota,” I called weakly.
His head appeared around the ajar door, scanning me. He immediately looked concerned. “You okay?”
I shook my head and quickly regretted it; the motion made my stomach churn. I turned and retched into the toilet. A warm hand landed on my back and rubbed up and down slowly. The motion helped soothe the stomach cramps, and his heat made me shiver.
“You done?”
It took a second as I took stock of my body, but I eventually managed a one-shouldered shrug before Dakota bent and gathered me into his arms and carried me to my bed.
My feet knocked on my dresser as we passed, and the photograph of Papa fell over with a clatter.
He bent to pull back the covers. After gently placing me in my bed, Dakota returned to the dresser and picked up the frame, inspecting it for damage.
“Who’s this?” Idle curiosity laced his question.
There was a part of me that didn’t want to tell him.
It was, after all, none of his business.
We had completely blurred the boss-employee relationship lines.
Hell, even the normal friendship lines had faded.
Except, I still felt fragile and sick, and Papa’s memory was something sweet and comforting if I didn’t dwell on the bad times.
My gut told me to tell him. I was learning to trust this extra sense and wondered if The Luna had seen fit to gift me with an extra sense.
I’d heard of shifters with additional gifts.
Papa often knew things before they happened. Could it be this was a version of that?
“That’s my papa,” I finally said with a sigh. Dakota was still looking at the photo, his back to me. He likely picked up the scent of the salt in my tears but didn’t remark on it.
“Does he visit often?” Dakota set the photo down in the correct place with a sort of reverence.
“No,” I said sadly, “I haven’t seen him in over five years.”
Dakota turned. “Why haven’t you seen him?”
“He died.”
He paled, tan leeching from his face, his mouth hanging open in horror. He came to me, sitting on the edge of the bed, his hand reaching for mine. “I don’t know what to say,” Dakota finally spoke.
I don’t know what made me do it, what led me to deviate from the carefully concocted story that the council had coached me on, but I grasped Dakota’s meaty hand, so heavy and large compared to my own.
His fingers were long but thick, hair on the knuckles and the skin calloused, despite working in an office for half the day.
I looked at his hand as I traced a slender finger over each of his fingers and I just let it pour out of me.
All the pain and hurt of the day before cracking me open and letting the secrets spew out.
“Papa isn’t really dead.”
“But you said —“ Dakota tried to withdraw his hand from mine, but I felt fast to it.
“I’ll explain, but it’s a long story and you can’t tell anyone what you know.”
“Oh...kay,” He drew the word out, sounding uncertain.
“My dad, Rincoln, and Papa, Jasper, met when Papa was twenty and Rincoln was thirty-two. They weren’t fated mates, but the Hayes pack didn’t have many male omegas and something about Papa drew my dad in straight away.
Dad said it was Papa’s fiery red curls.” Dakota’s eyes strayed to my curls and my lips twisted, “Not quite my proper color,” and his eyes widened.
“So Dad and Papa started dating and Papa was due to go into heat and I guess my dad convinced him to go through it together. Not unheard of, but my dad mate marked him before he was twenty-one, against the council rules, and also didn’t use a contraceptive even though he said he had.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. So I was born a few months later and Papa had no choice but to accept the mating and finish the bond. He felt trapped. His family had left him in the Hayes pack. They’d been given some omegas for him.
” At Dakota’s disgusted sound, I did smile.
“Red flags, huh? Well, it got worse for Papa, but I won’t tell you all of it. Actually, could I get a drink?”
“Of course,” I let go of his hand so he could go into the kitchen and get me something to drink, “do you want to try some juice or tea?”
“Mint tea would be great, thanks.” I heard the sounds of Dakota moving confidently around my kitchen and filling the teakettle.
My throat was dry and scratchy, and all my feelings were up at the surface.
While he worked to make the tea, I tried to push them down.
I’d already told him Papa wasn’t dead. It wasn’t necessary to go into the whole sordid past. I could just outline it.
No small part of me wondered why him, why now?
It had to have been because Papa was in my thoughts with the possibility I might be permanently infertile.
As omegas, we’d always bonded over our differences from my alpha dad.
Papa loved children and had taught kindergarten when I’d gone to school.
He’d taken night classes when I’d been a baby just to get his qualifications.
I’d been an only child for most of my life since he and Dad hadn’t had another kid until I was twenty, when everything went to shit.
I hadn’t seen my papa or baby sister since then.
When Dakota returned, he passed a steaming mug to me and settled against the headboard next to me with his own mug. “Smelled good, so I thought I’d join you. Hope you don’t mind.”
“No, it’s cool, I should have said.” I sipped at the hot liquid, nearly burning my tongue in the process.
“You have a lot on your mind.”
“True, but it’s basic manners, and Papa taught me better.” I smiled at the remembrance of those lessons. Papa hadn’t been near as firm with me as Dad, but look out when his temper got up!
Dakota chuckled, “Sounds like my Papa.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I love that man, such a gentle soul, but he’s fierce in a temper.”
I let out a laugh, a real one, and caught Dakota’s grin.
“I’m not going to tell you all that happened.
Just know that mostly, my childhood was good.
” I drank more of my tea, the mint soothing my stomach and throat.
“Only when I was a teen, I began to see the cracks. I saw how the other alphas in the pack were treating their omegas compared to what the council was teaching us in school and online. Dad and Papa had failed to have another child and their mating was suffering for it. When I turned eighteen and started having heats, they argued a lot about how to handle them. Papa didn’t want me to have to mate with alphas, but Dad wanted the prestige of picking out a mate for me. ”
Dakota flinched and I took his hand again, reassuring us both and we sat drinking for a minute before I continued.
“I ended up betrothed to this alpha son of my dad’s second and Roan was okay, really, he was.
We dated from when I turned nineteen until we fled the pack just before I turned twenty-one.
” His fingers tightened around my hand. “I’m okay, I got away,” I reminded him.
“Papa had just given birth, their first child in twenty years, to a beta girl. Sometimes you can’t tell until they are older, but it was obvious and Dad had Angelica tested.
He was furious that he’d been given a ‘worthless’ child after so long.
He’d stopped beating Papa when he’d been pregnant, but it got worse after Angelica’s birth.
They argued over me too when they thought I couldn’t hear.
Dad didn’t want to wait until I came of age.
He wanted me trapped and pregnant like Papa had been, and my boyfriend, Roan, usually followed what Dad decreed. ”
I had to pause and gather myself for the toughest part of the story.
“I went into heat a couple of months before my birthday. Papa had been giving me blockers, but Dad kept finding them, so it only pushed my heat off a few days. He wanted me pregnant by Roan before I was twenty-one so that no other alpha would want me and they could keep me in the pack. Dad was terrified of handing me over to another pack.” I took a deep breath before I could continue as the memories assailed me, “so he was furious. He beat me and kept me locked up until I went into heat.” I felt Dakota tense like he was ready to go defend me.
“Papa was only permitted to see me to get me cleaned up before they took me to Roan.” I swallowed around the lump in my throat.
“Roan wasn’t there and Dad snapped. He blamed Papa for poisoning both Roan and me against their alpha leader.
I was too weak to help Papa, and I begged him to leave while he could, even if that meant leaving me in Dad’s hands. It was a miracle we survived.”
“You don’t have to tell me all this. You know that, right?” Dakota’s face shifted with several complicated emotions.
“I have had no one to talk to about this in five years and there’s just something so comforting about you, Dakota. I know you want more from me, but I thought —“