Chapter 12
The elevator doors slide shut with a ding that signals the departure of the police. Leaving the penthouse in a state of ringing, uncomfortable silence. I still sit on the edge of the gray sofa, my fingers digging into the fabric. I don't look up at the four men standing in the center of my home.
My body betrays my rage. My heat hits me hard as my thoughts slow down, moving like sludge through a haze of desire that builds in my lower belly.
My scent fills the space with a sweetness that sticks to the back of my throat.
It is the smell of an Omega ready to be claimed, and it makes my skin crawl because the only Alphas in the room are the ones who have been lying to me since the day I moved in.
It has only been two weeks since I stepped into this building, but the betrayal feels like it spans a lifetime.
Urie moves first, breaking the stillness that threatens to crush us all.
He carries his medical bag with a practiced, steady grip as he stops a few feet away.
His blue eyes scan my face for signs of shock or distress.
He looks like he wants to offer comfort, but he has no right to touch me after the secrets he kept.
Reid looks at the others, his nostrils flaring as he catches the first real wave of my perfuming.
The Alpha in him reacts to the change in the atmosphere, his pupils dilating until the blue in his eyes is almost gone.
He looks at Dameon, then at Ethan, before turning his focus back toward the foyer.
His face strains as he keeps his distance from the sofa.
"Your heat is starting. I know this is a lot, but we should leave before something happens.
We don't want you to be swayed by your heat. "
I scoff at him, the sound loud in the quiet room.
The nerve of this guy to tell me how my body works after these two weeks of watching me on a screen makes a fresh wave of anger boil up in my chest. He stands there acting as if he still holds the right to dictate my movements or decide what I can handle.
He thinks he can protect me from my body while he hides behind a professional mask.
I'm fuming at the way he wants to take away my autonomy. He treats me like a problem to solve, or a child to protect, instead of a woman with her own fucking mind. He thinks the heat makes me incompetent, a variable he needs to control before it breaks his logic.
He makes a move toward the elevator, his intention clear to everyone in the room.
He wants to retreat instead of facing the woman he deceived.
Dameon shifts his weight near the kitchen counter, his bare chest glistening with a fine sheen of sweat.
Ethan stays by the far wall, his hands fisted at his sides.
They all look ready to follow the manager’s lead and abandon me after spending these weeks watching me in secret.
They think they can turn off the live feed and walk away from the mess they created together.
"Don’t you dare try to fucking leave." The command leaves my mouth before I can stop it, vibrating with an authority that stops Reid in his tracks.
I look up, my eyes scanning each of them in the dim light.
He freezes with his hand halfway to the button.
Urie stays near the coffee table. Ethan and Dameon lock their gazes on me, their expressions a mix of surprise and worry.
My clit aches with need as a flood of warmth fills my underwear. Whatever they’ve been doing to hide their true designations is slipping, and my inner Omega can tell what they are.
"You don't get to leave. You don't get to walk out of here and pretend you were just doing your jobs.
" I stand, the blanket heavy, and I drop it, leaving me in my set of pink pajamas.
I walk toward them, my gaze moving from one face to the next.
I can see the guilt in the set of Reid's mouth and the worry in Urie's eyes.
But I know that once they walk out that door, my brain will lose them.
I know that in an hour, their faces will be gone from my memory, replaced by a mess of jigsaw pieces that never move together to form the whole picture.
"I told you back then about my face blindness; besides my mother, you’re the only other people that knew. And you used it against me."
I stop in the middle of the room, my hands shaking with a mixture of arousal and pure rage. My pajamas are tight against my sensitized skin, the silk rubbing against my nipples.
"As kids, you wore rub-on tattoos so I could tell you apart.
You actually cared back then. You understood that I needed help to find you in a crowd.
But now? You used that same vulnerability to hide.
You probably laughed at how easy it was to trick the girl who can't remember what her childhood best friends looked like. "
My chest aches. They didn't just lie; they exploited a disability I trusted them with. I turn my focus back to Urie. think about every time he pretended to be a professional over the last two weeks. He was the one I felt safe with. He was the one I let stay in my room.
"Which one are you?" I walk toward him, the pink silk of my pajamas rustling in the silence. "I know Dameon is Saturday. I saw the tattoo on his ribs. He didn't even try to hide the ink. So which mask do you wear, Urie? Are you the safe voice on the RAA who tells me everything is going to be okay?"
Urie flinches as if I struck him. He looks at Dameon, then back at me, his face pale. He doesn't look like a doctor anymore. He looks like a criminal waiting for a sentence.
"Tuesday.” He swallows hard. “I’m Tuesday."
I let out a short, mocking laugh that makes him flinch again. "The safe doctor. Did you enjoy the role? Did you like the power of being the only one allowed to touch the Sunflower under the guise of medicine while the others had to stay behind the glass?"
He bows his head, his shoulders slumped. "I wanted to protect your mind, Zora. I saw the way you struggled. I thought the doctor persona was the only way to stay close without triggering your fear of Alphas."
"You triggered a different kind of fear, Tuesday.
" I walk toward him. The scent of my heat hits him full force, and I watch his chest heave as he tries to maintain his composure.
"You made me trust you. You used my health as a cover for your voyeurism and you think an apology fixes that?
Tell me your real name." I can already deduce he's Micah, but I need to hear him say it.
I reach out and grab the lapels of his white coat. I yank him toward me, forcing him to look me in the eye. A faint hint of pine and peppermint that he has tried to hide. The blue of his eyes darken, the pupils swallowing the color as the Alpha in him reacts to my proximity.
"Micah," he whispers, his voice cracking with the strain of his desire.
Micah stands there with his chest heaving, his charcoal shirt tight across his shoulders as he waits for my next move.
He looks like he wants to reach out and pull the pink silk of my pajamas aside, but he stays frozen under the weight of my gaze.
I turn away from him, my bare feet silent on the floor as I move toward the shadows where Ethan stands.
He has his hands fisted so hard at his sides that the tendons stand out in his forearms. All of them have blonde hair, a golden or sandy blur, that used to make them impossible to tell apart in the yard when we were kids, but I know who this one is now.
"I know you, too."
I stop in front of him. I don't need a tattoo to recognize the man standing in front of me now.
I reach out and grab a lock of his blonde hair, the strands long and thick between my fingers.
I used to sit on the old tire swing in the yard while the boy who barely spoke let me brush and braid his long hair for hours.
It was the only way I could be sure it was him when the other blonde heads were running around in a blur.
I should have seen it sooner. I should have known the second I saw that golden length of hair when he fixed my rig's Wi-Fi connection, considering how much he let me play beauty salon with it when we were kids.
"Theo. You were the only one who had the patience to let me do this. And you stood in that lobby and let me call you Ethan for two weeks. You let me think you were just a stranger while you watched me every single day."
Theo searches my face with his gray eyes.
"I didn't want to hide from you, Zora. I wanted to tell you the first time you looked at me, but Reid said we had to follow the transition plan.
He said if we dumped the past on you all at once, you might reject it all.
I was just trying to follow the rules so you wouldn't feel overwhelmed. "
And there they go again, deciding what is best for me. They treat my trauma like a variable they can manage with a spreadsheet. I yank on his hair, forcing his head down so he has to look me in the eye. The scent of my heat hits him, and I see his pupils swallow the dark gray of his irises.
"Reid said." I huff a laugh as I glance over at the manager. "You hide behind his orders like they are some kind of shield. You are just another part of the surveillance team. So which one are you on the site? Are you the one who acts like my best friend?"
Theo closes his eyes, a rough sound escaping his chest. "I'm Friday. I wanted to be the one you could talk to without the pressure of the others. I wanted to be the Alpha who made you feel safe to be you."
"You made me feel safe by lying to me, Theo." I let go of his hair and shove him back toward the wall. "You used my condition to gaslight me."