15. Retelling
Retelling
T he omega sat there on the bed where I'd shoved her and watched me with wary eyes. She was feisty, but she held a lot back. She'd asked me what had happened to make me this way, but that was a story that no one should hear, let alone live.
"We're leaving first thing in the morning," I told her.
"How did your brother die?"
She wasn't going to let this go. I leaned over her, letting the omega feel the full weight of my anger. Years of frustration and fury poured off me in waves and from the sudden bitterness in her scent, I knew she felt it.
"I told you. My mother killed him."
Her grey eyes were fixed on mine. "I want to hear it. How did she kill him? What made you think that all omegas are evil?"
Fine. She wanted to hear it. I'd tell her.
"My brother was four years younger than me.
He was sick that night and she left him with me, a ten-year-old, while he was burning up with a fever.
She didn't come home for two days and when she did, he was so sick, he couldn't move or talk anymore.
She took him to the hospital, but it was too late.
He died while I held his hand in the ICU .
. . and when I came out of his room, she was gone. I never saw her again."
"That's horrible." Tears were welling up in her eyes and she wiped them away roughly. "I'm so sorry, River. What's your brother's name?"
"Lake." I snorted. "She liked water names."
"Lake didn't deserve to be left like that.
He didn't deserve to die. And you didn't deserve to live a life without your brother.
" She slid off the bed and tentatively wrapped her arms around me, her body heat warming the front of my body.
"I'm sorry. But that's one very bad mother, not all omegas.
I understand why you hate us, though, with that experience. "
There was nothing to say. Technically, she was right. My mother had been one omega. But . . .
"She wasn't the only one. I dated two different omegas at various points in my life and both of them left me for a pack. They said one knot wasn't enough for them."
"So now you don't want any omegas." She stepped back. "That makes sense. I get it."
"You do?"
"Yeah. I don't want alphas. I've been hurt, too. I know there are good packs out there, but I don't trust them enough to find one. And now that choice is gone anyway." She let go of me and sat back on the bed, against the headboard. "I don't want to go back to the Omega Center, River."
"It's the only place you can go," I told her. "What are you going to do out in the world? An unmarked, unclaimed omega? You'll be eaten alive by the alphas out here."
"Exactly why I don't want any alphas." She smiled sadly. "It's better to be free and suffering than trapped and suffering."
"You sure about that?"
"I just spent a year in that place. Yes, I'm sure."
"I can't just not do my job," I told her. "And I'm not letting you go."
"I know." She leaned her head back against the wall and stared at the ceiling. "It's just . . . thinking about alphas using me for the rest of my life," her voice trailed off as her face paled. "I don't think I can do it. That's not living."
Again, I had nothing to say. Some part of me still wanted to protect this woman, despite her being an omega.
Probably because she was an omega. My alpha instincts weren't completely dormant just because I detested her designation.
But then again, no one, not even an omega, deserved to be raped daily.
"I'll talk to the director," I promised once again.
Quinn's face was desolate. She obviously didn't believe me. Or maybe she didn't believe it would make a difference.
"There must be rules in place. They can't legalize rape," I pointed out.
Her eyes shuttered, and she looked away. "Okay. If you say so."
"It must just be during heats," I reasoned. "When omegas are begging for it anyway and want a knot, so any knot will do."
Silence.
I watched her hands clench into fists by her side and resolved to look further into this. There was no way this was legal.
We spent the rest of the day upstairs, where she couldn't trick my brothers with her scent. The sweetness flared every hour or so and she went into the bathroom a couple of times to splash water on her face. There was no escaping it. The omega was going into heat.
"Stay here and I'll go get dinner," I told her when Orion sent me a text that food was ready.
She didn't answer, curled up on her side in the bed, staring at the wall, her fists between her knees. She hadn't talked since our conversation and I wasn't about to start that up again.
Downstairs, I found the guys in the dining room, eating at the table again.
"Where's Quinn?" Archer asked.
"Sleeping."
"She's been perfuming all day, what are you guys doing up there?"
"I'm working on paperwork. She's just . . . there."
Orion gave me a strange look. "Are you certain she's alright?"
"Yeah, she's fine. She just lying on the bed."
"In pain?"
"No, just pissy because I won't fall for her tricks." A pang of worry ran through me. What if she was in pain and just not saying anything? No, she would use every tactic she could to stay out of the center, so if she was in pain, she'd be writhing and whining to get my attention.
"Take her some food, at least," Archer said, sliding a plate across the table. It was piled high with chicken, toast, and salad. "We're pretty much out of decent food, so that's all we have. Unless you want chips."
"Where's mine?"
He passed me my plate and I headed back upstairs.
I hadn't even reached the bedroom when the aroma of spiced apples hit me so hard, I could barely breathe. She was perfuming more than she had all day.
Pushing the door open with my elbow, I walked into a space that was thick with her aroma, but there was no omega in the bed. It took me a split second to realize she was in the bathroom, standing at the counter with her head under the faucet, water running over her hair and neck.
"What are you doing?"
My voice startled her, and she jerked her head up, cracking it on the faucet and yelping in pain.
"I needed to cool down," she whispered, standing up and wringing out her hair. She left it to hang down her back, still damp. The front of her shirt was damp, too, but she didn't seem to notice. Her cheeks were flushed bright red, despite the water.
I reached out to cup her face. Icy drops of water dripped from her hair and ran down her fiery cheeks. She really had been using cold water, not hot to trick me into thinking she was in heat.
"Food's here." I handed her a plate and walked back out to the bedroom.
"Not hungry," Quinn muttered, leaving the plate on the bathroom counter and following me out. She curled up on the bed again, panting slightly. Her perfume spiked, making my pants tighten with an unintentional hard on from the scent. It was just a physical reaction, though. I could ignore it.
"Eat. You need your strength." I brought her food and set the plate on the nightstand by her head, but she just turned away. Whatever. I could provide the food but I wasn't about to shovel it into her face, either.
I ate my food and took the plate down, leaving hers. Maybe she'd want it later.
When I returned from the kitchen, the omega was in the bathroom again, this time under the shower, with ice cold water pouring over her.
She had stripped off the clothes Archer had lent her and left them scattered on the floor.
Hunched over, she was just skin and bones, the scars from her punishments stood out on her pale skin.
"You good?" I asked gruffly.
"Fine," she gasped out. "Just hot."
"Now you'll want a knot, I'm sure." The words came out bitterly, but she only lifted her head to bare her teeth and glare at me.
"Never."
I snorted. "Sure. We'll see what you're saying in a few hours." I knew how this went. Omegas begged for you when they were in heat, then they turned their backs once your rut died down.
Quinn didn't say anything, so I reached down and rested a hand on her back. She was burning up to the point it was almost painful to touch her skin.
"Shit!"
"Leave me alone. I'm not going anywhere," she muttered.
Finally, I left her in the bathroom with the door open. While I worked on my phone, I kept an eye on the still figure in the bathroom. She didn't beg or cry, though I heard a tiny whine escape at one point.
There was a knock on the door around eleven.
"It's me," Archer called. "Everything good in there?"
I went to open the door and found him frowning there.
"It smells like fucking heaven everywhere in the house, how are you holding up?"
"I'm . . . I'm worried about her," I admitted. "She's burning up."
"The heat. It must be hitting now. She hasn't asked for anything?" Archer pushed into the room and nearly swooned at the thick scent. "God, I don't know how you've survived up here."
He headed into the bathroom, instinctively honing in on her location and I heard him curse. "River, you can't just leave an omega like this!"
When I reached the bathroom, he was bundling her up in a towel that completely engulfed her, hiding those wicked scars.
Her eyes were glazed and she didn't even seem to notice as Archer scooped her into his arm. He glared at me and carried the omega out into the bedroom, calling for Orion as he did so.