Chapter 24 Twenty-one
Twenty-one
Taryn
I had my first migraine at eleven years old.
It started gradually, just a barely there burn that engulfed my whole head like a warm cap.
Within a few hours, though, I was laid in bed, Gran changing out cool compresses between vomiting fits.
Migraines may be a head thing, but I’d felt that shit in my entire body.
Different levels of sharp, fiery pain in every part of me.
Molten nausea in my stomach; sparks in my neck whenever I moved; a million tiny elves with a million tiny daggers on fire carving their way out of my skull.
I remember crying, asking Gran why it wouldn’t stop. She gave me pills, water, turned all the lights out, rubbed my back and temple and cheek, but nothing worked. It just had to go its course. Afterwards, when the pain had finally ebbed mostly away, I’d felt like a sad, deflated balloon.
As I faded back into consciousness, I felt like that balloon, only this time I was in a street gutter, slimy and grimy and unrecognizable.
For the first time in ages, though, something like…like safety cushioned my waking.
I blinked my eyes open to a dark, blurry room.
Caine’s childhood bedroom. In the Greysmoke Cabin. Where I’d passed my heat.
The fuck?
Did—
What?
That…that happened?
Right?
“Teacup?”
Gorgeous, miraculous red waves buried me, and I overdosed on Brea’s scent as she tackled me in a hug. Lifting my arm to wrap it around her was way harder than I remembered it being.
“Careful,” Brooks murmured, catching my arm gently and placing it back down on the bed. “You’ll pull out the needle.”
Turning my head to look toward my beautiful beta felt akin to lifting a house onto my shoulders, but turn I did.
Brooks—paler than I’d ever known him, shadows beneath his eyes, but with the goddamn dimples that I still wanted to dive headfirst into—was checking a fluids bag and securing the needle back in my arm.
IV fluids.
Because…I was…
Dehydrated?
I wasn’t actually laying on a pillow, but a chest. A warm, citrus-scented chest covered with soft brown hair.
Caine.
I smelled blackberry, but where…
Lin lay curled on Brea’s other side, his arm stretched over her so his hand could grasp mine.
All of them. In the room. With me. Alive. Whole.
And staring at me with stars in their eyes.
“Am…” I cleared my throat. “Am I dead?”
Brea and Lin grinned at me, and Brooks threaded his fingers with the hand they weren’t holding. Caine brushed hair off my forehead. “No, sunshine, you’re not dead.”
“Yeah, see?” Brooks said with a grin as he reached over and—
“Ow!” I squealed. “You pinched me, you jerk!”
“Bad form, Beta,” Brea said, but a smile lightened her voice.
Caine whacked him on the back of the head, making his curls jump. “That’s for am I dreaming, shithead, not posttraumatic stress.”
Brooks draped himself across the bottom of the bed, over my shins, and propped his head on his fist. “I don’t know, couldn’t it be both? Pain is life, and life ain’t dead.”
Caine groaned, a hum that vibrated under my cheek, and Lin gave a low chuckle. “You are a beautiful, beautiful little dork,” he said.
The normalcy of the air around me—the teasing and smiles, the little touches of affection—hell, the laughter—gave me vertigo.
Fuck, had all that shit actually happened? Or was I waking up from the worst heat hallucination ever?
“But…but all that…” I looked between them, confusion and anxiety building pressure in my chest. “That happened?”
Brea smoothed her cool fingers down my temple, thumb stroking over my cheek. “Yeah, Teacup, all that happened.”
She sent me comfort and warmth down the bond, calming me.
For a moment, anyway, until I realized hers wasn’t the only bond I felt anymore.
“Oh, shit!” My eyes went wide, looking between Caine and Lin. At the still-fresh wound on Caine’s arm, on Lin’s shoulder. “I guess it did, huh.”
“I’m glad it did,” Brooks said, though his eyes were sad. Now he was the only one I didn’t feel under my skin. “The bites are the reason you’re out now. And while Brea and I did have a super solid plan to save the day and be heralded as heroes, whatever got you all out fastest was the way to go.”
Slowly, gently, they filled in the gaps of my memory.
The rooftop rescue had been five days ago.
When the guard guy—Sevrin, they told me—had knocked me out, we’d gotten into a helicopter (sent by Heath Fucking Torrington, in a plot twist for the ages) and met up with Brea and Brooks and Vikki in the northern portion of the park.
Between the sedative and the induced heat—which I would spend the rest of my life actively repressing, thanks very much—I’d slept almost straight through to today.
I’d woken a handful of times, none that I remembered, and they’d been here all the while.
A nervous whirlpool started in my gut as they finished their recap. “So…where do we go now? Where will we all be safe?”
Lin unlocked his phone and handed it to Caine to hold and show me. “Your rooftop shenanigans didn’t go unnoticed. Which works in our favor.”
UNNAMED PATIENT NEARLY FALLS FROM PHOENIX LAB ROOF.
“They’re claiming it’s one of their patients who had an adverse reaction to medication,” Caine explained as I skimmed through the article.
“But it means they’re under increased scrutiny right now, especially considering the reports of gunfire at the same time.
Wouldn’t be wise for them to pursue you right now. ”
I nearly laughed. Wouldn’t be wise. “How reassuring.”
“Plus, there’s this.” Brea handed me a thumb drive. “A gift from a fellow survivor. This was her insurance against Phoenix. She now passes it to you.”
I scooted right on past the fellow survivor comment with a mental note to circle back later. “What’s on it?”
Brea swallowed, a little line forming between her brows for just a second. “Proof of what they did to her.” She pulled another thumb drive out, and now none of them could stifle their furious growls. “And proof of what they did to you.”
Chills rose over my skin. To think of what all could be on that hard drive…
“Have…have you looked—”
“No, angel,” Lin said. “Vikki pulled what she thought would be best to have. We haven’t seen any of it.”
I nodded, swallowing down salty tears as best I could. “Good, good,” I muttered, not meeting anyone’s eyes.
Lin continued, “We have these, as do half a dozen different lawyers, with explicit instructions on what to do with them should any of us fall out of communication or trigger an active release.” His fingers squeezed mine. “So, where we go from here, is we go home.”
Surprising no one but me, I slept again shortly after the most earth-shattering conversation of my damn life. Another day passed, and the next time I woke, I felt—well, still like a balloon in a street gutter, but a HAPPY BIRTHDAY balloon instead of a SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS one.
Small victories.
Brooks, as my self-appointed health guardian, granted permission for me to have some chicken broth. Only to then take it away when I tried to guzzle straight from the bowl.
“Spoon!” he said with the cutest stern frown in the world. “Slowly! You’ve been without solid food of any kind for at least a week. You’ll make yourself sick.”
“Don’t care!” I said, reaching for the delectable essence of chicken. “Gimme!”
“Listen to your doctor, Omega,” Brea crooned in my ear. “He’s taken such good care of you.”
Fuck, her tone wasn’t seductive in the least, and I felt about as sexy as—well, as a used up birthday balloon. But a small part of me wanted her to be seducing me.
With a pout, I agreed to slow, reasonable sips of soup.
The next day brought a real treat—crackers!
By my fourth waking day, my sleep schedule had more or less returned to normal, and I could stand up from the bed and walk for a solid half hour before I was too jelly-legged to continue.
“Your strength will come back quickly,” Brooks assured me as I collapsed, exhausted, onto the couch after having braved the stairs.
“Especially once you’re back to eating full meals again. ”
“Which will be dinnertime tonight, right?” I said hopefully.
“Ha!” Brooks smirked and pressed a kiss to my temple. “Soon, though. Better to take it slow than speed through it and make you sick.” He stood behind the couch, combing his fingers through my long hair and separating it into sections.
“Yeah, yeah, you try the all-liquid diet then come tell me how much better it is.”
“Pfft, no way. You’ve got me counting my blessings every time I make a sandwich from now on.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t.” The gentle pressure of his braiding was soothing as he dropped a kiss on my crown. “In fact, I’m pretty sure you love me.”
“I’m pretty sure I told the granola that I loved it, and that has never been more true than this very moment.”
Brooks dropped my loose braid over the top of the couch and swung around to sit next to me. “Hey, sweetness?” he said with a tilted smirk. “Reassure your beta boy, please.”
I sighed, running one of his curls around my forefinger.
His breathtaking, shining curls. Silk on my skin. Golds and browns I could never have adequately imagined, even if I hadn't been actively avoiding doing just that. Dimples I’d promised myself I’d see again. A scent I’d mourned in the lowest depths of despair.
“You, Brooks Alphonse Arceneaux,” I said softly as I traced his cheek, “are one of the greatest gifts of my life. I love you dearly.”
A tiny tear fell from the corner of his eye down to his shirt, leaving a dark blue mark there. “Good, then.” He kissed me messily on the cheek. “Now that that’s settled, how about buttered noodles?”
“Yes, please!”
I lay in bed, nested by my pack. It had to be close to two in the morning. The others had been conked out for ages. And I was the widest awake I’d ever been.
Like, counting the ticks of the clock all the way to seven hundred twenty-three wide awake. Reenacting random movie scenes in my head wide awake.
Gonna crawl out of my skin if I don’t move this very moment wide awake.
We were going home tomorrow. And I couldn’t stand to wait. Couldn’t lay still. Couldn’t sit still.
Maybe I could sneak out of the house. There was a lake not far from here. We’d seen it the very first time we drove up to the house. Granted, I’d been in a nearly full-blown heat state at the time, but I clearly remembered water. I remember thinking how nice it would feel on my fevered skin.
Maybe I could find that lake. Take a swim. Feel weightless for a bit. Would be a nice change. Had to be somewhere around here.
A cloud of pomegranate engulfed me. “You’re thinking some big loud thoughts over there,” Brea murmured, stroking her fingers over my collarbone. “Care to share?”
Honestly, no, I didn’t want to share my daydreams about carelessly walking out into the forest in the middle of the night with no map and no pack when I got winded going to take a piss.
So I turned to her. And I told a different truth. “I want you to kiss me.”
“Always, Teacup,” she breathed, moving closer.
I held her back. “No. I mean, I want you all to kiss me. Touch me. Love me.” I swallowed, willing myself to be vulnerable in a way I’d resisted since this whole ordeal began.
“I don’t want to go home with you all treating me like glass.
If we’re going home, if we’re going to be back to normal, then we all have to be normal.
” I threaded my fingers with hers. “And Normal Taryn wants to fuck her pack.”
Four scents bloomed in the room, the boys having awoken without my notice. Tender caresses—comforting, not ravishing—dropped over my arms, my calves, wherever they could reach.
Lin spoke first. “We’d give you anything you want, Taryn,” he said softly.
“Then give me this,” I said. “The past is in the past. Onward we march. Whatever lame cliche you want.” There was a hand on my bicep. I grabbed it, kissed the palm. “Make me feel good. Then take me home.”