8. Talya
CHAPTER EIGHT
TALYA
I wanted to turn away and bury my face in Colby’s neck. Let my alpha take care of it. But I could feel him shake and tremble. He was both absent and at the same time roaring loudly in our bond. I wasn’t sure that he was all here at the moment, so I didn’t look away.
I stared at the new men in the room. It was hard to smell anything outside of my own fear-filled acerbic perfume, but next in potency was Colby’s sharp cedarwood and allspice. Something that was normally warm and assuring was filled with edges like knives. I couldn’t glean anything from their scents since all I could smell was me and Colby.
The men took a step back, hands raised where we could see them. In a quiet, soothing voice, the one closest to us spoke.
“Easy, alpha. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m Officer Yellowleaf with the police department.” With exaggerated slow movements, he reached for his badge. He held it out at arm’s length, though I wasn’t sure Colby was seeing anything at all. “I’m going to take you out of here. Get you to a hospital, then home.”
Colby’s chest was heaving. I could feel his muscles straining, so I whispered in his ear, “It’s okay.” I squeezed my eyes shut and chose to trust these men because I wasn’t sure what else to do. Colby wasn’t going to be able to keep himself upright much longer. I could already feel the sluggishness inside him even though he was fighting to keep himself coherent. “It’s okay, alpha. Let’s go with the police.”
There was a moment where I got no response, and I thought maybe he was already shutting down. But after another moment, he grunted. Pulling me in front of him, he wrapped his arms securely around me then stared down the officers.
No one touched either of us, and I was shocked when Colby managed to make it out of the facility on his own two feet, especially while carrying me. But then, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. An alpha would always take care of his omega above all other needs.
And then we were standing in front of an ambulance. Colby climbed in and sat on the stretcher, growling menacingly when someone suggested I take a different ambulance.
“Don’t be a fool,” one of the medics said. “Based on what we know, they were kept separated for fuck only knows how long. You’re not going to get between them right now. They’ll be fine riding together.”
I released a breath, relieved I wasn’t going to have to argue. I was too tired. Too weak. Too emotionally and physically drained to put up the argument they’d need from me.
We were tucked onto the stretcher and wrapped with straps. Only as we laid there and the ambulance pulled away did Colby finally drift back into unconsciousness. “I’m not going anywhere,” I promised him, tangling my fingers in his hair and rubbing my cheek against his. “No one will ever take me from you again.”
They tried, though. Over the next several hours, many people in the hospital made valiant efforts to split us up, but every time someone put their hands on me, regardless of how comatose Colby was, he would growl like a lion and everyone would back up.
After what felt like days of constantly going through the same struggle of physicians trying to split us up, all the stress got to me. I burst into tears and just let loose on them.
“I get that you don’t understand, and I am well aware of how much you hate me because of my designation and that I innately get something that you crave and won’t ever get. I’ve been made aware of that my entire life, okay? It’s not my fault that I was born an omega! It’s not my fault that you’re treated the way you are by alphas. For just a second, will you get it through your heads that we’ve been forced apart for who knows how long, then drugged and tortured in an attempt to break our bond, so stop trying to split us up again! I’m staying with my alpha. Put that on the door so I don’t have to repeat myself.”
Tears continued to stream down my cheeks. Despite his comatose state, Colby’s arms instinctively tightened as he growled at whatever threat had made me so upset.The doctor looked at me as I cried, and I could only imagine how pathetic I was to him. This beta who made a buttload of money was likely used to watching helpless omegas sob their troubles away with as much concern as they’d give to breaking a nail. Yes, sure. I was that omega.
When I thought the room had cleared out and we were alone, I worked myself back down. My alpha was here. We were together. I was alive. Colby was just sleeping off the remnants of the drugs in his system, and he’d be okay.
He’d be okay!
It was at that moment that I realized maybe he wouldn’t be okay, and another sob broke from my throat. I quietly begged him to be okay, to pull through this. I couldn’t live without him.
By the time I was able to take a regular breath, I realized that my misery had, in fact, been witnessed. The same doctor that had witnessed my meltdown was sitting quietly on the stool, watching.
“Do you need a drink?” he asked.
When I nodded, he stood, a sealed water bottle in his hand, and brought it to me. He unscrewed the cover before handing it to me. Gingerly, so as not to disturb Colby, I sat up and took a sip. A few deep breaths later, I took another couple sips.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
He nodded, taking the bottle back from me and replacing the cover before setting it on the small table by the bed. Instead of leaving, he pulled the stool closer and sat. Close enough that I could curl up again with Colby and still look at this man, but far enough away so that he couldn’t just reach out and touch us.
For a moment, he didn’t speak, so we just looked at each other. With a hand at the collar of his shirt, he pulled it aside to reveal the scar of his own bite. I looked at it for a long time before meeting his eyes again.
The doctor was a big man, bigger than the average beta. If I had to take a guess, he worked out. I always found it surprising when a big man of any designation had a bite.
“You understand then,” I said.
“I do. I cannot fathom what you went through, Talya. I can’t imagine the things they did to you in an effort to break your bond. What you both must have gone through.”
I swallowed and closed my eyes. More than anything, I wanted to forget it all.
“The police are still waiting for your alpha to wake up so they can take a statement from you. They have a lot of questions.”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. There are bad people all over the place. Omegas are always going to be taken because we’re a commodity. Anything rare is stolen and sold to the highest bidder. That’s just the way of life. What could they possibly glean from our experience?”
“You survived it, Talya,” the doctor said. “You’re free again. I’m sure you can imagine how often that happens.”
I shivered. For a second, I couldn’t stop shivering. I’d been at the point where I’d thought that we were never going to get out of there. We were going to be stuck forever, waiting for the next drug. Waiting for the next attempt at breaking our bond.
When Colby’s arms curled tighter again, I realized my breathing had gotten heavy, so I concentrated on taking longer, deeper breaths until I was calm.
“Was everyone released?” I asked. “There were others. When I was opening doors to find Colby, there were others.”
“Yes, we got out everyone that was being held there.”
“Were they all bonded alphas and omegas?”
He looked at me for a moment before shaking his head. “No. Most were just alphas or omegas. None bonded.”
“I guess that means we were lucky,” I spat.
“They were trying to break your bond,” he prompted, a question in his voice.
I met his eyes again. “I don’t really know why, only that they wanted my alpha.” I shook my head and closed my eyes. “You know, growing up, omegas are taught to be afraid. We’re warned to constantly look over our shoulders and never be alone if we can help it. Find a pack as soon as possible. Otherwise, the world is a nasty place where omegas are hunted like large game for resale. But in all that, no one warns you that once you’re bonded to an alpha, there’s still a possibility that you’ll get kidnapped. They don’t tell you that maybe alphas are hunted, too. Doctor, I think there were even a couple betas there. I saw them when I pushed open a door to find my alpha.”
“There were,” he confirmed.
“Please don’t take this as rude or insulting or a reflection of where I hold my designation, but I know what they want with omegas. I’m assuming, like omegas, alphas are rare and that makes a market for them. What are they doing with the betas, though?”
He smiled sadly, releasing a heavy breath. “We don’t know. It sounds as if the betas don’t know either. They underwent experiments as you and your alpha did, though their experiences were quite different.”
I shook my head. “Were they caught?”
This time, he frowned. “As a doctor, I’m not privileged enough for that information.” I could hear the bitter tone in his voice. “So I cannot say for sure. If I had to take a guess, no. If by chance they were, as you said, the world is still filled with bad people willing to do anything for money.”
“Stupid police,” I muttered, closing my eyes again. “If we’re supposed to live in this world, wouldn’t it make sense to warn us of all the dangers out there? Not just specific dangers but the equally horrible ones they’re failing to get under control, the ones they don’t want the public to know about.”
His smile was sympathetic. “I actually think the police do a pretty good job. I know there are many omega rings still out there, but every time one of their auction sites gets shut down, another pops up, and in almost all those cases, the omegas are rarely recovered. But, Talya, you got out of this operation alive and with your alpha. The police deserve some credit.”
I wasn’t really in the mood to give him even that, but he wasn’t wrong. I was alive. My alpha was alive.
“Doctor, is my alpha okay?”
His smile continued to be sympathetic. “I believe he’s just trying to burn off the last bit of drugs in his system, but he’s not let us close enough to examine him.”
“Then get closer,” I demanded.
He chuckled. “I’ll tell you what…” He got to his feet. “You keep him calm and assured that you are safe, and I’ll see what I can find out. Okay?”
I nodded.
For the next half an hour, I petted my alpha’s face and murmured to him that we were alive. That we were safe. That the nice doctor was going to make sure we were healthy and there wasn’t something they needed to do.
Finally, he stepped away, leaving Colby attached to a machine that monitored his heart and oxygen level. He also had a half-dozen vials of blood to test.
“I’ll put the sign on your door as requested,” he said as he headed for it. At first, I wasn’t sure what he was referring to, but then I smiled. “Sleep, omega. Your calm will do a lot for your alpha’s state of mind. I’ll be back when these lab results are in.”
As tired as I was, it still took a lot of effort and energy to convince myself to sleep, but once I was out, I remained that way through the night. It was the first decent night’s sleep I’d had in weeks.