Chapter 16
Nightmare
Liora
Icried myself to sleep after Finn left me. Then I dreamed of faceless alphas attacking me, of crying out for them to stop. And then, Finn, Aiden, and Mace appeared, their faces stony, eyes cold.
"You're a burden. Time to get rid of you," Mace said, lifting a huge knife. He plunged it into my abdomen and I screamed. Then Finn was pummeling me with his fists and Aiden pulled off his belt to whip me.
"Stop, please stop! I won't be a burden, just stop!" I begged, trying to shield my face from their blows. Pain radiated from my stabbed belly and I sobbed as Mace kept coming at me.
"Liora!"
"No, please, just stop," I whimpered, the pain increasing.
"Liora, I'm here. It's okay, no one is hurting you." Aiden's voice sounded soothing, but his face above me was twisted with hate as he kicked me in the side.
"Liora, wake up!"
I dragged my eyes open, confused. I was in someone's arms. Blinking, I finally focused on Aiden, who was cradling me to his chest, his eyes wide and terrified.
"Aiden?"
"It's just me. You were having a nightmare."
My eyes adjusted to the dim lamp light and I realized the door was hanging off its hinges, clearly broken. Bits of painted wood were scattered through the remnants of my salad on the blue carpet.
"What happened to the door . . . why are you . . . what?" I tried to make sense of what was going on, but it was too hard to focus.
"You had a nightmare. You were screaming bloody murder and I couldn't wake you up, so I broke down the door and came in." Aiden winced. "I don't think this room is habitable anymore."
I scrambled out of his arms and onto the bed, looking around in confusion. "Why are you here? Where's Finn?"
"He's at home. It's my shift."
"Shift?" A heavy stone plummeted into my stomach. "No, no, no. How do you even know where I am? What did Dr. Nova tell you?"
"Nothing. She kept your secret." He held up his hands and stood up. "We're tracking you. You have a tracker, remember?"
The vague memory of Mace insisting I get a tracker so they could find me if I was ever taken hostage flickered in my head. They'd used it to track me. It suddenly made sense that they'd just appeared when I was in the woods. How had I not questioned that before?
"You're okay," Aiden said. He grabbed the last bottle of orange juice from the fridge, opened it, and handed it to me. "Drink this and you'll wake up a bit more. Do you want some coffee? I can make coffee."
"No." I drank the orange juice and waited until the sugar hit my system, just watching the man I'd loved for so many years. "Why are you watching me? Why take shifts?"
"We can't stay up for multiple days," he reasoned.
"But why are you watching me? You don't care about me. You wanted me gone." A tear escped and I swiped it angril yway. "You threw me out like trash, Aiden. You can't just decide that maybe you do care after all."
"But we do. We realized right after you left that you were our stability. The one that we all needed."
"Isn't that convenient? Right after you got rid of me and hooked up with Andrea."
"We never . . Andrea?"
"Blond beta who mattered more than your mate at the grand opening?"
His eyes widened as he recalled. "Oh, right. She's just a business partner. She was there to support us at the ribbon cutting."
"And you chose her over me."
"We didn't." He frowned, shaking his head. "I remember that day, but you were there. Beside us."
"No, that was her. Look at the photos." I sighed, leaning back against the headboard. "I thought you were feeling love and pride for me, but it was for her.
Aiden looked striken. "We didn't even realize. I'm so sorry, Liora. You were a huge part of our success and we never realized just how much until you left."
"I left? Or you got rid of me?"
He dropped his head. "We thought it was the best thing at the time. It wasn't. We're sorry."
"Like I told Finn, sorry doesn't fix what you broke."
"We want to make it up to you, Li. Whatever you need, we'll do it."
"I need a world where an omega isn't forced to have a pack of useless alphas to survive." I shook my head, sliding off the bed. My stomach cramped again and I frowned. "I think I'm sick."
"Do you want me to call the doctor?" He was on his feet in a split second.
"No. I want . . . fuck." I stared at the broken door. "This place is so safe, no one even cares that someone broke in at this hour?"
"Come home with me," Aiden started gathering up the few items I had. "You can stay in the guest room if you don't want your nest."
There wasn't a lot I could do. I had no money. Nowhere to go. And probably a pack of furious alphas after me. Reluctantly, I nodded. "Fine. But it's not my home and I'm leaving as soon as I can figure something out."
"Deal." He reached for me and I flinched away. "Sorry." The look on his face was heartbreaking, but I steeled myself. I didn't need to feel the pain through the bond to know he was upset.
We drove to the mansion in silence, with me blocking the bond as thoroughly as possible and trying to also block the cramps that threatened to take me over.
On the way, I sent a message to Dr. Nova to let her know what had happened and where I was.
She was supposed to check in on me later today. I asked her to bring suppressants.
Aiden pulled up in front of the house and got out of the car. As he rounded it to grab my stuff, I stayed put, watching the front door. No one came out. They must still be asleep, I thought. Maybe Aiden got the full brunt of things because he'd been so close when I had the nightmare.
Finally, I got out and followed Aiden up the wide steps to the front door.
There was the sound of an engine roaring and we both spun around to see a sportscar race up to the house, skid to a stop and lurch as it parked.
Mace burst out of the driver's seat, dressed only in black pajama pants, his eyes frantic.
"You're okay!"
"I told you she was," Aiden muttered.
"Li?" Finn got out of the passenger side of the car, also in pajamas. "Are you alright? We felt . . . you were so scared."
"It was a dream," I said flatly, wrapping my arms around myself. "Nothing of importance, but Aiden broke the door down so now I have to stay here."
"I should have done that," Finn said. He glanced at me. "I wouldn't really do it, unless you were in danger, of course."
"It FELT like she was in danger," Aiden said. "Come inside, you're going to freeze out here, Li."
Mace scanned me with those dark eyes, but didn't say anything else as I followed the others into the house. His presence behind me made me jumpy and I stepped to the side once we were in the foyer to avoid having him at my back.
"I won't hurt you," he said quietly.
"Forgive me if I don't trust any men right now." I toed off my shoes and took a deep breath, shuddering at the familiar scents . . . the scents that once meant home to me. "I hate being here."
"Why?"
"Memories." I moved into the living room and perched on an armchair as Finn moved to add wood to a fire that was crackling in the fireplace.
"Coffee? Hot chocolate?" Aiden was hovering near the kitchen, looking like he didn't know what to do with himself.
"Hot chocolate, please."
I hadn't had chocolate in a very long time. When Aiden handed it to me, topped with mounds of whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles, I couldn't help but smile. My favorite drink.
Another cramp twisted through me and I winced.
"Are you still sick?" Aiden asked, still standing next to me.
"Fine." I took a sip of the drink and willed my body to hold off on the heat. I couldn't do this. Not here. Not with them.
"Do you want the guest room? It's already made up for you," Finn said. He looked flustered. "Just, just in case."
"I guess." It wasn't where I wanted to be, but if it was all there was besides my old nest, I would take it. "I'm going to go lie down." Leaving them in the living room, I hurried to the guest room.
It smelled like them. They'd been in here, changing sheets and fixing things up. There were more pillows on the bed, some of them from my old nest. A fuzzy pink blanket that had once been my favorite was folded at the bottom of the bed. It all stank like them.
Rage boiled over and I let out a snarl, grabbing the blanket and the pillows and stalking out to the living room where the alphas still sat, looking tired.
Without looking at them, I threw the blanket into the fireplace and then stuffed the pillows in after it.
The flames were partly smothered, but then sprang up again, devouring the unwanted bedding.
"Um, Liora? Weren't those your favorites?" Finn asked tentatively.
I spun around, the fire burning hot at my back and making me sweat.
"I want NOTHING from before. No reminders of what I lost because you three imbeciles threw me away.
I don't want to think about being comfortable when I had to go through hell.
I don't want things that you saved because .
. . I don't know why you saved them! You got rid of me.
You didn't want me! You, you gave me away to people who hated me and only wanted to use me, but you kept a fucking pillow and a blanket? "
"We still love you. It was painful for us, too," Mace said.
The anger burned brighter, tearing me open inside, spilling lava into my veins as I faced him down. "You're in pain?" I asked softly.
He nodded, eyes bright in the firelight.
"Tell me. Did you get tased dozens of times over a period of months?"
He shook his head, eyes widening slightly.
"Did you have a knot forced inside you so brutally that it ripped you open and you bled?"
"Liora . . ." Finn gasped.
"Did anyone crack their belt, metal side, mind you, across your back and thighs?"
Mace stared at me. "I'm so sorry."
"Don't be sorry. There's nothing left of the omega you claim to love. She's gone. Burned away by the things she went through because the alphas she pledged herself to gave her up." I grabbed the fire poker and turned to stab at the flaming pillow that threatened to fall out of the fireplace.
No one said a word as I replaced it and marched back to the bedroom.
There, I opened the window, stripped the bed and threw all the bedding out the window onto the back lawn.
Then I grabbed the scent neutral spray from the bathroom and sprayed the entire room with it, blocking out most of their scents.
Finally, I laid a towel down under the door, then curled up on the bed with fresh air flowing in.
It was clean and fresh, free of the reminders I didn't want.