Chapter 34 Thirty
Thirty
Brooks
“Hi!”
Taryn’s voice was overly bright as she approached me. Eyes too wide. Cheeks too pink.
The fuck’s going on, sweetness?
“I—um. Playing hooky?” she asked.
Only a little. She’d been acting strange for the last two days, so I’d convinced Cooper to swap shifts with me today. Then had checked Taryn’s location on the app all five of us had downloaded to our phones. Luckily, she hadn’t thought to take off her necklace.
And here she stood, looking guilty as sin. Over-salted toffee scent bubbled over as she fought the urge to fidget, staring straight into my eyes with a semi-manic look.
Suspicion rating: off the charts.
“Yeah,” I said, affecting airy nonchalance. “Figured I’d see what one of my favorite girls is up to today.” I glanced around the semi-bustling mall. “It’s not a gift for me, now, is it?”
She gave a squeak of a laugh. “Ha. Caught me.”
The stench of anxiety spiked hard enough it made even my beta nose twitch. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders, guiding her toward a quieter seating area out of the main thoroughfare. We sat, and I rested my hands on her knees. “Talk to me, Taryn. What’s going on?”
Guilt shrouded her face, fully exposed. She swallowed, looking down at her hands in her lap. “You don’t need to get involved in this,” she said quietly.
Involved. That word sent a chill down my spine. If I were an alpha, I’d be growling.
“You’re involved,” I said, bending down to meet her eye. “Involve me.”
One trimmed fingernail dug into the skin of her other hand as she weighed her words. I didn’t rush her. Eventually, she swallowed and said in a small voice, “I’m…buying black market heat suppressants.”
Sour dread coated my stomach like milk. “Okay.”
“There’s a guy in the parking lot. I had the cash, but he raised the price, so I came in to return some stuff I bought—”
“What stuff?”
With a sigh, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a sparkling blue Kubotan in her sweaty grip. “I already returned the personal alarm,” she muttered.
I struggled to keep my breaths even. At least she’d had the forethought to take precautions. Maybe it hadn’t been an accident that she’d left her necklace on, after all.
But she’d planned on going back out to meet some drug peddler in the parking lot without those precautions?
Mounting anger made my heart race, but confusion undercut it.
Taryn had multiple weekly appointments for treatment to mitigate any possible consequences of her time at Phoenix.
She knew that she couldn’t take any omega supplements until she’d had a naturally occurring heat cycle to ensure that her system had recovered fully.
“Honey, why are you buying heat suppressants to begin with?”
Fingers twisting together, she told me of her last coffee date with Sheyna, about the unnamed male omega who couldn’t Register and couldn’t let on that he’d presented.
Rage wasn’t the answer just now. On behalf of the anonymous omega, but also at Sheyna. What right did she have to drag Taryn into this? To put her at risk?
Taryn had risked enough for omegas everywhere. Her liberty, her goddamn life.
I swallowed down my frustration. My omega was kind-hearted, and brave, and those were qualities to be admired. But she was also resourceful, which apparently was the secret ingredient to concoct a big ol’ helping of reckless.
With my best attempt at a reassuring smile and a brief squeeze on her knees, I stood. “You, wait here,” I told her as I made for the door.
“Brooks—”
“Taryn,” I said, my voice probably sterner than she’d ever heard it. “Stay. Here.”
Her supplier wasn’t hard to find. The only soul in the far row of the parking lot. He eyed me suspiciously as I walked up.
“You here meeting the omega?”
He glanced in both directions. “Nope.”
I pulled a folded wad of cash from my pocket. “All right. Well, did a not-omega have a deficit to settle?”
The man chuckled. “Damn, no wonder she turned me down. The girl pulls.”
I supressed the urge to gag. “Show me the meds,” I said.
He held up a baggy filled with round yellow pills. My anger rose up in me like steam in a tea kettle. “Aren’t heat suppressants generally oblong?”
The guy stared at me blankly. “These are special.”
I scoffed. I bet they were. “Deal’s off.” I stepped closer and lowered my voice. “By the way, lose her number. I catch you with my omega again, or sniffing around after her, and I will fucking kill you.”
We drove back to the apartment in tense silence.
When I’d returned to Taryn—bless her, right where I’d left her—and told her the pills weren’t right, I could see her questioning. Wondering if I was just saying so to keep her from completing the deal.
We returned to an empty apartment. Good. Better to handle this on my own for the time being.
Summoning every ounce of patience within me, I grabbed her hand, kissed her temple, and pulled her into my room.
I pulled a worn reference book off the shelf in my closet, scanned the contents, and opened it to show a picture of what a full heat suppressant pill should look like.
Oblong and yellow, HST1293 stamped on one side, Z9 on the other.
Then I sat her on my bed and held both her hands in mine. “Sweetness,” I said gently, “I know you want to help, and I know you’re angry.” Pink bloomed on her cheeks, but she didn’t interrupt. “But this isn’t the way to do it. You could’ve gotten hurt. Someone else could’ve gotten hurt.”
Taryn shook her head, shoulders slumped.
“Brea always handled getting my meds,” she said quietly.
“She somehow always knew the right people and the right places to find what we needed. But not everyone has a Brea, and maybe they can’t afford to Register, or maybe they just don’t want to.
” She looked at me, tears tracing shiny stripes down her face. “What was I supposed to do?”
I exhaled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Well, for one thing, you could ask this doctor you know if he could help.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Something like this could lose you your license. And that’s not the point! This is my thing. I’m supposed—”
“You’re supposed to stay safe,” I cut her off. “That’s the plan, right? We lay low, stay safe, wait until we can expose the assholes running the game.”
Taryn rolled her eyes. “And in the meantime, we just keep playing by their rules,” she murmured. “Rules that hurt people.”
Her pain echoed in me. An ache in my chest so deep it stole my breath. She wasn’t supposed to have to fight anymore, but still she swung. But her opponent was bigger, meaner than she was. It had armor where she had none. Steel where she had fists.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek, then I stood. Crossed over to my desk. Pulled out a prescription pad.
“A year’s heat suppressants,” I said, scribbling down and tearing the sheet off for Taryn.
“Prescribing doc assessed you, and due to trauma and hormone regulation, you are not yet fit to endure another heat.” I nodded once, tossing the pad and pen back down on the desk.
“After this, Sheyna can make her connections on her own.”
Taryn held the paper before her like it was a note from God. She looked back at me. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
And with that, every drop of anger, of fear, melted down and away. It didn’t matter which of the sins she apologized for. Keeping me in the dark, putting herself in danger, twice making me her accomplice. All of the above.
I framed her face with my hands, pulled her close so I could press my lips against her forehead. Against every fear and nightmare and sadness, every hope and brave misdeed she could dream of.
“Forgiven, love. Always.”