Chapter 9 #2
Bell doesn’t hesitate to pick me up and place me in his lap, food forgotten as he holds me.
“Aunt Matilda is where things went wrong,” he says, his voice murderous as he echoes my thoughts.
“Matilda Richards,” Shiloh says, typing the name in.
“How do you know her last name?” Bellamy asks.
“Research,” Shiloh grunts. “I have bits and pieces of information that I’ve been able to find, and I found out where you previously lived by finding high school photos.
Facial recognition goes a long way, and you haven’t changed very much.
Your previous high school records had a lot of very important information to help me find Matilda. ”
“Stalker,” I sniff, amused despite my tears.
“You have no idea, Winter,” Abbot murmurs. “Shi is dangerous behind a keyboard. Is it an invasion of privacy? Yes.”
“Does he care? Not at all,” Cassidy says, hiding a smile.
“Careful, baby,” he says to her, smirking. “I care, but I also don’t want to be surprised by something we need to know.”
I find myself touching my neck subconsciously, remembering Bret’s fucked up parting gift from when we were with him.
“Does something hurt?” Abbott asks.
They’re so observant. I’m going to have to get used to that I guess.
“No,” I say, forcing myself to drop my hand.
I don’t know how long the injections Bret gave Bellamy and I will keep us from having heats. I also don’t understand the mechanics of the birth control. How long will it last?
I have so many questions, and very few answers about my own body. It feels so fucking wrong.
Should I mention it? Bellamy’s lips brush my neck, and I relax slightly. He’s telling me to wait, so I will. I trust him more than anyone else, and he has protected me to the best of his ability.
He’s the same age as I am, and we’ve had a lot of firsts together. Looking around the room, we are definitely the youngest of the group.
“My aunt lasted a month before she was tired of having us in her house,” I say, trying to keep my mind off some of the things that have been done to me against my will. “She was very excited to find out that both Bell and I were omegas, as we presented three weeks into living with her.”
“Madam Clara paid her a lot of money to take us off her hands, money Aunt Matilda thought she needed,” Bellamy grunts. “She spent a lot of our parents’ money, blaming it on the upkeep of taking care of us. It was all bullshit.”
“Madam Clara,” Shiloh reports. “You’re going to make me a nice long list, aren’t you?”
Thinking about everyone who’s hurt us, I shrug. “Some of them are already dead,” I admit tonelessly.
The tears are gone, and I find myself beginning to disassociate to keep myself from crumbling.
“Winter,” Cassidy says gently.
“It’s fine,” I mutter. “I’m not upset they’re dead, I’m angry it wasn’t enough.”
Neither Bellamy or I feel much like talking after that.
“I think you need a tour of the house,” Abbott says, surprising me. “You can’t sleep on the couch forever.”
We can’t? Bellamy and I haven’t slept in a proper bedroom since our parents died. Aunt Matilda sold our parents’ house, and she gave us a closet floor in her home to sleep in. The woman didn’t have a good bone in her body, and was disgusted at how close Bell and I were.
“You’re siblings. Stop touching each other!”
I flinch at the memory, almost as if she were in front of me. God, some nightmares find a way to slide through the veil to torture you in broad daylight. Isn’t that fun?
“Come see?” Cassidy suggests. “You can decorate however you want. Make it yours.”
Cautiously, I take Bellamy’s hand and follow Cassidy. While Bellamy limps slightly, he reassures me through the bond that his feet are better. The woman who ran The Hug Project was cruel, and treated us both as if we were disposable.
Cassidy shows us the downstairs area, as well as the basement, which she says houses the home gym. My nose wrinkles at the idea. I’ve never been one to enjoy physical activity. I love to read, where the heaviest thing I’m lifting is a page.
“More upstairs,” she murmurs, heading toward the stairs tucked in the middle of the house. The house is split by the stairs in fact, something I’ve never seen before.
The alpha men follow behind us as Cassidy leads the way.
This house is so odd.
Bellamy hums under his breath in agreement as we gaze at all the crown molding and glance back at the pretty chandelier in the foyer.
“This house is very old,” Abbott says, as if sensing our curiosity. “It has a lot of charm, as do the neighboring homes. As soon as it came on the market, I bought it for Cassidy without a thought.”
At the landing, Cassidy blushes at his sentiment.
“I hate being further than a walk away from my favorite places,” she admits. “The parks are nearby, my favorite coffee places are too, and there’s always something fun happening. This city breathes with life. I want to be a part of it.”
I haven’t been conscious in Savannah for long enough to experience it outside these walls, but I want to. I don’t even remember where Madam Clara took us for her temporary set up. She kept changing her plans, as if someone was already hunting her.
“We have a run club that allows us to enjoy the city as well. Different scenery always helps me keep pace,” Ansel chuckles. “It also allows us to catch up with friends. How do you feel about exercise?”
“I’m not a fan,” I admit, wrapping my arms around myself as I walk along the hardwood floor.
I can imagine parties happening here with the previous owners. Cassidy and her pack don’t seem like the type to enjoy unknown people in their home. It’s why I don’t know how to feel that we’ve basically moved in and taken over a part of their lives.
“Spill, Little Dove,” Ansel murmurs behind me. “What are you musing over?”
“I feel like an interloper in your home,” I say, blinking at how quickly those words burst free.
There wasn’t an alpha bark or command to force me. How the fuck did that happen?
“You do seem like really private people,” Bellamy mumbles. “Scent matches or not.”
“Meh,” Shiloh says. “What’s the point of having this big house if it’s not for this?”
“I thought you bought the house for Cassidy?” I ask, trying to figure out what’s real and if there’s a lie I haven’t found yet.
“Correct,” Ansel agrees. “However, we’ve been in this home together for enough years that we wanted to find an omega.”
I nod, thinking that over as Cassidy opens a door and steps back.
“What do you think?” she asks.
Bellamy and I step inside a huge room that immediately feels like too much. The ceilings are too high, there are too many windows, and the bed is in the wrong place. Why isn’t it in a corner?
Bell and I clutch each other’s hands, while I wonder if it would be insane to ask to sleep in a fucking closet. I’m hyperventilating, as is Bellamy, and I don’t know how to ground myself.
I can’t stop, and black spots spread across my vision as my heart flip flops in my fucking chest. It wasn’t a big deal to sleep on the couch surrounded by bodies. It made me feel safe, and I was also very out of it.
“Winter…”
Now, Bell and I are spiraling.
“Woah,” Cassidy gasps, catching Bellamy and I as we weave on our feet. “Did we move too fast? I can sleep with you guys if you want. Or we can try the nest?”
“Why do you have one of those?” I moan, freaking out more. “Did you have an omega before this?”
Ansel, Shiloh, and Abbott circle around us and do the only thing they can think of: they purr. Deep, chest rumbling, purring.
The fierce fear trembles in the face of alpha purrs, but my eyes are still too wide, and my skin still feels too damn tight.
“No,” Abbott answers me. “There’s never been an omega in this house…ever. We attempted to court recently, but it’s been a bust.”
“Why?” I breathe. “Not all alphas find their scent matches.”
“The other omegas don’t want me,” Cassidy whispers in my ear, a truth that breaks my heart. “Be a good girl and breathe for us. Your brother is already doing better. Come on, Lovey.”
A sob releases as Bellamy pulls me into his embrace, his body trembling as he holds me. Cassidy begins to let us go, but Bell’s head shakes violently, a sign for her not to go far.
“We…haven’t slept in a bedroom in almost a year, not since our parents were alive,” he rasps.
“It’s too big, we can’t sleep in here. Aunt Matilda stuck us in a closet, and refused to give us anything more than a couple of blankets.
I was Winter’s pillow, and even then her aunt hated that we were so close. ”
“Why not separate you?” Shiloh asks, but Bellamy bares his teeth in anger.
“Any time we’re apart, bad things happen,” he says cryptically.
He’s right. Bret raped him when we were separated, I was raped in the private rooms at The Hug Project, and we were branded like animals when we were with Madam Clara.
Even the group room at The Hug Project was easier to handle together because of the gas pumped through the vents.
We can’t be without each other. We graduated high school last May, so we didn’t have to worry too much about being apart for too long due to classes.
Our parents knew we likely wouldn’t be able to handle being at separate schools, so they moved me to Bell’s school.
The change was worth being closer to him.
I would still have mild anxiety until we were together again though.
“I wasn’t suggesting it,” Shiloh murmurs. “So the bedroom is a bad idea.”
“Can’t we just sleep on the floor,” I mumble, meaning it.
“No, sweetheart. That’s not going to work,” Abbott rumbles, making Bellamy and I shiver.
I have a lot of conflicting feelings running through my body, and I don’t understand any of them.
“The nest needs to be aired out,” Shiloh muses. “We didn’t have a chance to get that room ready.”
“Ugh, we’re so ungrateful,” I groan, my body unable to regulate from the crashing emotions.