Chapter 18
Help Me
Liora
Ibarely slept, tossing and turning as my heat began. With every cramp, I felt heavy bodies on me, holding me down, forcing themselves inside me. Leaving the cool mattress, I went into the bathroom and turned the shower on to cold, then sat there, freezing and shivering until I felt almost normal.
Just as I was pulling on a fresh set of sweats, there was a knock on the door.
"Fuck off!" I roared.
"Liora, it's Dr. Nova."
I walked over and opened the door to let her in, baring my teeth at the scents of my former mates wafting in. The second she was inside the room, I slammed the door and shoved the towel back under the door.
"You're going into heat," Dr. Nova said, giving me a small smile. "I brought the suppressants, but I think you're too far along to stop it now."
"But they'll help, right?" I pleaded. "I can't do this. Not with them."
She took a deep breath. "I may have a solution, but it's not ideal."
"Anything. I'll do it."
"Well, the OPA has officers who are trained to get an omega through her heat, no strings attatched."
"So a mini heat den," I said, already shaking my head. "No, I'll do this alone. I don't want anyone to touch me."
"Understood. I'm going to give you a fairly powerful suppressant that should keep it down to a couple of days only and we can start you on regular suppressants after that.
" She set down her bag and pulled out a vial of blue liquid and a syringe.
"Remember, this won't stop your heat, but it will cut it shorter. "
"Okay." I sat down, baring my arm and she quickly cleaned the site, then injected the liquid into my arm.
"Now, before you go into full heat, would you be willing to talk to an OPA agent?"
"I won't go back to the center," I said fiercely. "Never again. I'd rather die."
She frowned. "I understand. I brought Geovani with me . . . he's a friend and he has a little knowledge about your situation already. He's waiting in the car if you want to talk to him."
"What's he going to do?" I asked, suddenly terrified.
"Ask some questions. Listen to your story. He needs to know what the other pack did to you so they can be held accountable."
"Okay. In the living room." I didn't want any alpha scents in my room.
I followed her out to the living room, my heart thumping hard in my chest. The alphas were already there. Aiden offered me some toast and eggs, but I shook my head, too afraid that I'd vomit if anything was in my stomach right now.
"This is Agent Hawthorne, Geovani Hawthorne," Dr. Nova announced. She quickly introduced us all to the handsome man standing beside her with an easy smile. He had chocolate brown eyes and when he reached to shake my hand, his citrusy grapefruit scent washed over me, instantly soothing.
"Call me Geo," he said with a smile that made his eyes crinkle.
"Have a seat," I gestured to the armchair by mine.
"I'm going to be asking some fairly invasive questions, so you may want the others to leave the room," he said smoothly, his rich voice holding a hint of an accent.
"They can hear it all," I said.
Mace looked surprised, but quickly sat down on the sofa. Finn and Aiden glanced at each other, then took their own seats while Dr. Nova excused herself.
"You can stay, too," I told her. "I trust you."
"Alright, I'll be over here if you need me." She settled in the dining room, out of the way, but within earshot.
Geo caught my eyes and gave me another smile. "I understand this is going to be difficult, so if you need to take a break at any point, just let me know. I'm going to record what you say for any future court case, is that alright with you?"
"Yeah." I pulled my hands inside my sleeves and bit my lip. I was actually going to do this. "Do you need to know about the center, or just Pack Parker?"
"Right now, we're going after Pack Parker. The ORC is a goverment funded facility, so we can't do a lot about them except continue regular observation channels. But if you want to file a complaint against them, we can do that after the pack case."
I nodded.
Geo took out a recording device and set it down on the small table between our chairs. Looking around the room, he said, "Please refrain from commenting or making any noise during the interview." The guys nodded in agreement and he turned to me. "Ready?"
"I guess."
He clicked the button. "Can you please state your name and designation for the record."
"Liora Anne . . . Calix. Omega."
"Thank you, Liora. Now, you were rejected by your pack on what date?"
He asked basic questions to start with and I answered them flatly, ignoring the other men in the room. Geo kept his eyes on me, nodding encouragingly. When he'd gone through all the basics, he tapped pause on the recorder.
"Now we're going to get into the heavier stuff, your relationship with the abusive pack. Are you still willing to have these alphas in the room for that?"
"I am."
"Okay." He looked over at Mace. "Can you please bring her something to drink?"
Mace jumped up and ran to get me a bottle of sparkling water. He opened it and handed the bottle and cap to me before taking his seat again.
After a nervous sip of water, I nodded to Geo and he turned the recording back on.
"Liora, can you tell me about your first meeting with Pack Parker?"
With a deep breath, I explained our meeting at the center and going to their home. Geo asked a few more questions about the men, my early thoughts about them, and what the house was like.
"I didn't like them, but I didn't want to go back to the heat dens and I figured they were my only alternative," I told the man in front of me.
He nodded. "Go on."
"The house was basic. Not like I expected. The room where we all slept was the only bedroom. They called it the nest, but it was just mattresses on the floor, no blankets, sheets, nothing."
"Were you fed healthy food?"
"No. I cooked for them and they made me kneel under the table and fed me scraps from their plates."
His brown eyes watched me carefully. "Liora, did they make you do anything else under that table?"
"Yes, give them blow jobs."
"While they ate?"
"Yes."
"Did you get to eat after they finished?"
"No. They always scraped their plates clean and once I kept some food back and they caught me."
"What happened then?"
"I was punished. They didn't feed me for three days and all I had was . . . them."
"Understood." He gave me a nod. "Were you physically abused by the pack?"
"Yes. They hit me. Threw me against the walls. I don't know if it counts, but they would knot me without warming me up first."
"When did all this start?"
"The knotting with my first heat. Then maybe four months in, they started to smack me around."
There was an intake of breath and I glanced over to find Finn's eyes tearing up. Mace was stony-faced, brows low, watching and listening. Aiden had his arms crossed, his nails biting into his dark skin so hard, I could see the indents in his arms.
"Do you want them to leave?" Geo asked gently. "You don't need them to be in the room."
"I want them to hear," I said, bitterness seeping into my words. "They should know what kind of life they condemned me to."
Finn ducked his head. "We're so sorry, we didn't know."
"Let's get back to the questions," Geo said, ignoring Finn.
For the next hour, I recounted every single abuse I'd lived through with Pack Parker. I detailed my heats, not looking the agent in the eye, as I described the constant use, stretching, bleeding, and everything else they'd done to me.
"Did the pack ever bond with you?"
Mace stiffened.
"No. They didn't actually want to claim me, I don't know why."
I was exhausted from reliving those days and all I wanted was to curl up and cry. I wouldn't let myself lose control in front of my old pack though. The bond was tightly blocked so they wouldn't feel the turmoil tumbling through me.
"Liora, you're very brave." Geo turned off his recorder. "I've seen a lot of omegas who have been through similar and most of them are a complete mess."
Snorting, I waved a hand over myself. "This isn't a mess? You're missing a lot."
"You're not. You're bent, but not broken." He leaned forward, his grapefruit scent washing over me, drawing me forward. "I admire you and I promise you, we're going to get these assholes." His voice was fierce as he said the next words, "No matter what, they're going down for what they did to you."
A smile made its way to my face and I sucked in some of that delicious scent. "Thank you, Geo."
"You're welcome." He held out a black business card with gold lettering. "Call me if you think of anything else that might help with the case. Or if you just need to talk to someone. I'm told I have strong shoulders to cry on."
Geo winked at me and I couldn't help but smiled back at him.
"I don't think I'll be crying on anyone's shoulder, but thank you."
He packed up his things and headed to the doorway. I trailed behind to say goodbye to both Dr. Nova and Geo.
At the door, Geo turned, looked past me to the pack and said, "Make her something warm and sweet. Hot chocolate, chai tea, something like that. She needs comfort after going through her story again."
Then he turned to me, taking my hand in his own warm one. "I meant it, Liora, call me if you need anything at all."
"Thank you." I watched him as he walked toward the car and Dr. Nova looked at me with a smile.
"I think he likes you. When you're ready for courting, that man is going to be calling you up."
"Me?" I shook my head. "He smells amazing, but no, I think I'm done with alphas."
"Just so you know, he's one of the agents authorized to help an omega through her heat. He won't stick around if you don't want him to, but he could be just what you need." She tapped a long nail on the card in my hand. "Call him if you need to."
The bit of paper suddenly felt heavy and I curled my fingers around it.
Would it really be so bad with someone like Geo to get me through the heat?
Just the thought of an alpha coming near me with his knot made me want to vomit though, so it probably wasn't a good idea.
I waved the two visitors off and stood for a moment, enjoying the fresh air.
"Liora?" Finn said from behind me. "I have hot chocolate."
I took the mug and started back toward the guest room.
"Wait, we were wondering if you'd be willing to talk to us for a minute?"
"Why?" I frowned. "I don't think there's much to say at this point. You heard everything. You know what I did while I was gone."
"What you did to survive," Mace said solomnly. "You never should have been in that position, Liora. I thought you'd be given a happy, less busy pack. One that would cherish you the way alphas should cherish their omegas."
"No, you wanted to abdicate the responsibility of dealing with an omega," I snapped. "Good job, you pretty much guaranteed you'll never have to deal with one again."