Chapter 20
Violet
Ihuddled with Skye in the corner of my nest, a large chunk of black tourmaline clutched in my fist.
“So, you never graduated high school?” Skye asked, scrolling through my brother's social media on his phone.
I had a SpaceFace account too, but it’d be long forgotten. Mrs.Stellar wasn’t to concern herself with such trivial things. And now that I was just Violet again, I didn’t want to risk Logan tracking me down, although, after the whole incident yesterday, I worried that was inevitable.
I dropped my rock and grabbed my phone and typed I turned 18 on October 4th, I got married October 5th.
The night Reed and I reached legal adulthood, our parents said they had somewhere special to take us. Mom went with Reed to God knows where, and dad took me to the Stellar mansion.
I thought we’d be finishing a painting, that’s what he said we were doing. But, when he went out of the car to grab our bottle of solvent, he never returned.
No goodbye. No, I love you. No I’m sorry, but this is what family does. I hadn’t even known my parents were drowning in debt until Logan explained to me what was going on.
Logan said I wouldn’t need an education, I’d be taken care of, I typed.
Skye’s expression soured as he continued to scroll. I wondered which long forgotten part of me he was seeing.
The girl with a ribbon in her hair and glitter on her cheeks?
The one who went to junior prom with her twin instead of a date?
Or maybe the confident debate team members holding a trophy nearly as large as her.
No matter what he saw, I’m sure it was the best parts of me that had since withered away.
I’d always questioned if our mom and dad ever loved me, especially after they sold me off, but I never had to wonder with Reed.
Even when he got it wrong, or clung to me too tightly, or acted so possessive it scared off any potential alpha who may have been interested in me, my brother always made sure I knew I was cared for.
Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Reed forcing me to believe I was more than a burden, I would have believed everything Logan told me.
I would have believed I was stupid. Replaceable. That I was lucky anyone wanted me at all.
For a long time, parts of that still felt true. And, realistically, I was a burden now, pregnant, quiet, damaged beyond repair. I needed help to eat. Help to rest. Help to do anything and everything under the sun. But even burdens didn’t deserve what he did to me.
I didn’t deserve to be raped. I didn’t deserve to be hurt and told it was love. I didn’t deserve to be owned and discarded and blamed for surviving it.
I wasn’t weak. I wasn’t a failure.
I’d just been subject to the world’s cruelty.
Skye’s phone went dark as he locked the screen, and he turned toward me fully. His eyes were shiny, and his lower lip quivered.
“You know,” he said quietly before batting at his eyes. “If I ever meet your parents, I’m going to punch them.”
Skye pounded his fist in his hand, and the bugs on his arms danced with the moment. Even now, I could see the definition in his arms, and I wondered what Skye looked like when he wasn’t pregnant. If I’d be around long enough to see that.
Slowly, I shook my head before signing dead.
Skye's brows arched.
“Your parents?”
I nodded.
“Both of them?”
I nodded again. Reed said they were all involved in a car accident less than a month later, mom and dad died, but he got out unharmed. Something about sitting in the back seat. Although, I wasn’t sure I believed him.
The people who mistreated me, down to bullies in school, had a habit of disappearing.
Sometimes they’d drop off the earth without warning, other times they’d end up in the hospital. One omega, who got particularly nasty after catching me curled up with Reed during lunch one day, ended up moving to Africa with her family. No notice. No goodbye. Just gone.
Coincidence, maybe. But it always happened right after Reed found out what they’d done.
I never asked.
He never offered.
But it was easy enough to connect the dots.
And, while Reed didn’t know what Logan did to me, I’m sure he didn’t have to work hard to figure out where I went.
Logan Stellar had been obsessed with me since I was a kid. To him, we were going to get married, I’d be his wife, it was never an if, always a when.
And part of me thought the Stellars artificially engineered my parents debt just so Logan could get his hands on me easier.
Skye shifted beside me, huffing as he peeled his tank top off and tossed it aside. The heat had his dark hair curling at the edges, and his pale skin shimmered with sweat. His bump was full and round, stretched tight across his stomach, and his tattoos twisted slightly with every breath he took.
A sudden thump of movement caused his stomach to jolt and I wrinkled my nose.
He groaned, resting a hand just below his ribs. “Oh my God, feel this.”
I stared at him, completely unwilling to feel anything.
“No, seriously,” he insisted, grabbing my wrist and pressing my hand to his stomach.
Before I could recoil, an unmistakable kick hit my palm. He let me go then, and I wiped my hand on my dress, cleaning it as I would if I touched something slimy.
“What?” He challenged.
I blinked at him.
“Don’t look at me like that, she’s just a baby.” He gestured toward his stomach, which proceeded to undulate. Again.
My face twisted, and I scooted half an inch away.
“You’re such a hypocrite.” Skye rolled his eyes so hard I was surprised they didn’t fall out of his head. “You know your baby is going to do the exact same thing, right?”
I didn’t answer, just looked down at my own stomach.
“Vi, you do know that, right?” He pressed.
I hadn’t really thought twice about it, but I suppose it made sense. My babies were alive and someday they would move.
What does it feel like? I signed.
Skye’s brows pulled together. “The baby?”
I nodded.
He paused for a moment, eyes bouncing side to side as he tipped his head in thought.
“Did you ever win a goldfish from the carnival?”
Had I? No. My mom and dad wouldn’t let us go to a place like that.
But I remembered once, when Reed and I were sixteen, we went to get feeder fish for his turtle.
It was late, the pet store smelled like sawdust and mildew, and the clerk was too busy texting to care that we lingered near the tanks.
We picked out five tiny orange fish, and someone put them in a thin plastic bag for us. I watched them the whole drive home.
They didn’t peacefully swim, they thrashed, battering themselves against the plastic as if they knew what was coming.
Maybe they were panicking because they were being carried to their death.
Or, maybe they just wanted out. To look through that translucent film and see what the world outside their tank had to offer.
Perhaps we were the same in that regard. Sometimes, I wondered what the world outside my tank had to offer. What my life would’ve been like if I graduated high school and went off to college.
But those were all far tight dreams for me, especially now with the—
Skye snapped his fingers, drawing me from my thoughts.
“Vi, did you hear me?”
I shook my head, and Skye forced out an irritated breath.
“Point is, your baby is going to do that soon,” he added.
Instinctively, I shook my head.
“What do you mean no?” he scoffed. “You can’t just say—”
I put my palm over his mouth, effectively shutting him up. His eyes narrowed, but he let it happen.
I reached for my phone, typed quickly, and held it up for him to see: Babies. Plural.
He blinked. “What?”
I held up two fingers and then did the sign for baby.
“You’re having twins?!” His voice pitched up.
Another nod.
Skye flopped back onto the nest with a groan. “Oh my god, when are you due?”
November, I signed.
“Oh my god, I’m due in August. We’re going to be stuck in the newborn stage for six months.” he whined. “And then we’re going to have three whole babies. We are never going to sleep again.”
I lifted a shoulder. Skye seemed genuinely distressed, but I just assumed we’d figure it out. After all, there were five functional adults in our pack, which meant we had more than just me to take care of the babies.
My lips pulled up at the corners.
“What?” Skye asked.
I took my phone and typed: Do you think Vinny would let me get my GED? Before showing it to Skye.
“Uh, yeah?” He chuckled. “Sure, he won’t let you too far away from him. But, if you wanted to, he’d let you go to college online, and pay for it too.”
Heat rushed my cheeks as I stared down at my phone.
Maybe if I could do something like that, if I showed some kind of ambition, I could prove I wasn’t useless.
And, if I wasn’t useless, no one here would ever kick me out, especially Vinny.
Which meant, if he okayed me going to school, I could let him mark me.
Then I wouldn’t need my bunny or his scent to stop me from getting sick, and everything would be okay.
My fingers started to tingle, I wasn’t used to this level of excitement.
The thought of finally doing something for me felt foreign, almost too big to hold. But it was there, a spark catching light in my chest. And it needed out.
Skye started to stand, groaning as he rocked forward.
Skye was still rather chiseled for an omega, you know, other than the pregnancy.
Broad shoulders, muscled arms, he probably had abs long before he had a belly, but that felt impolite to ask.
His inked skin caught the dying sun, the black beetles and butterflies sprawled across his chest looking like they might flutter to life.
And before I could think, before I could reason, I launched.
He yelped as I tackled him back onto the nest, my hands bracketing his face as I smothered him in kisses: cheeks, forehead, nose, all soft and fast like I was trying to devour him with affection.
“Violet!” he squealed, kicking his feet as I kept going. “What the hell is happening?!”
I just giggled as I nuzzled against him, overwhelmed by the surge of joy that had nowhere else to go.