Chapter 71
SEVENTY-ONE
LAUREL
I rang the doorbell, examining my reflection in the glass in front of me. I barely recognized myself. My hair was still in a messy bun, and I didn’t have any makeup on. I’d stolen a band tee and hoodie from Kaos and thrown on a pair of grey sweatpants to complete my utterly exhausted look.
I wasn’t sure if the Kingsman omega was territorial, so I’d figured it was a good thing that I looked as non-threatening as possible. I was wearing scent blockers and clutched a tray of different sugary coffees in my hands.
The door opened and a tall, scary-looking alpha appeared. His eyes narrowed, and all the rumours I’d heard about the Kingsman pack came to the forefront of my mind.
None of them were good.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m here to visit Ransom? He’s an old friend.”
It was true enough. Rich people didn’t have acquaintances; everyone we met was an old friend until deemed otherwise. Ransom and I had attended a few of the same events when we were younger and had talked once or twice.
“And you are?”
“Laurel Fairchild.” I repressed my wince when his face darkened.
“Yeah, you can tell Thaddeus to fuck right off,” he said, trying to shut me out.
I stuck my foot in the door, stopping it from closing just in time. The alpha snarled and the blood drained from my face. “Please,” I said quickly. “I’m not here for him. I have a feral alpha and I need him back.”
“Good luck,” he said, trying to move my foot.
“Dusk!” squeaked an excited voice. “Do we have a visitor?”
Dusk’s face soured. “No,” he said, moving his body to block me from view.
An omega with large golden eyes and a mass of fluffy brown hair squeezed out from under Dusk’s arm. Our eyes met, and her brows furrowed. “She’s right there,” the omega said. “Are you lying to me?”
“Absolutely not,” the alpha said.
A small arm squeezed past him, pointing at the chocolaty Frappuccinos I’d brought with me.
“She’s brought us coffees!” she said triumphantly. “We have to let her in!”
A few minutes later, I found myself sitting across the couches from two of the scariest-looking alphas I’d seen in my life and Shatter, who had happily started chatting with me.
“We hardly ever get visitors,” she said, beaming. “Dusk said you know Ransom?”
“I—”
That was when Ransom himself came into the room, looking at me with a hint of confusion. “Laurel?”
“Uh, hi,” I replied, fiddling with my clothes. The energy that Shatter was giving off kind of made me feel like I didn’t need to be the Crimson Duchess right now. I offered him a smile. “Been a while. You seem to have a lovely pack.”
My eyes met Dusk’s, and I quickly looked away.
“Thanks,” Ransom said, beaming at Shatter as he sat down. “Did I see you got engaged?”
I shrugged, unsure of what to say.
“Did you come by to catch up with Ransom?” asked Shatter, looking between us.
“Actually, no. I came to ask you for help,” I said to Shatter, and she cocked her head to the side, eyes wide. “I have a feral alpha—”
“Just one?” Dusk interjected, pointedly. Ransom had gone a bit pale.
“Don’t interrupt, it’s rude,” hissed Shatter, smacking him on the arm.
“I heard you might know how to bring him back,” I continued. “Can you help me? I heard you’re an Arkology expert.” I gave her a small smile.
Shatter frowned. “Well, I don’t know about expert—”
“She’s actually a genius,” said the other alpha, Umbra, grinning and patting her on the back.
She huffed, turning a bit pink. “Now you’re interrupting, too,” she said, but let him take her hand.
She turned back to me, then nodded. “I can give you the articles and books if you want. I’d have to photocopy them.
Oh wait, we can do it on the computer, right?
With an email thingy?” She looked at Umbra, who nodded.
“Good. Ransom just got me access to a bunch of scientific journals!”
Her face lit up and she bounced up and down with excitement.
“It’s amazing! Any study I want, and I can read it just like that!
Okay, the best treatment is an omega they respond to—bonded scent matches are the best—and being in a stable pack bond.
Safety and stability in their environment and touch. From all of their pack.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding. “What if the omega is there to stabilize them, and then the omega leaves after? Will they revert back to being feral?”
“If the conditions that made them feral are removed, probably not. But I imagine they’d be more at risk than others.”
“Are there any other ways?”
I doubted Finch and Kaos would be happy to find out that I was needed to help Ocean.
“In theory,” she said, chewing her lip. “None of them are proven. But if you want, I can send you those as well. Maybe you could look them over and decide if it’s worth it? But really, a scent-compatible omega is the best option.”
I chewed my lip.
“I have another question. But it’s an omega thing. If we could—” I glanced at the alphas, and Shatter tried to shoo them out.
They compromised with two of them leaving and Dusk standing in the corner, glowering at me. I fiddled with my sweats again, wondering how to breach this topic.
“I, um…have you ever heard of an omega getting aura sickness?”
She looked at me with concern. “I mean, I’ve only heard of alphas getting it, but there’s something happening to me. My bond keeps getting weaker and then stronger, and my bond mark feels like it’s burning.”
“I’ve never heard of it, no,” she says, and my shoulders droop.
“Oh, that’s okay,” I said, “Don’t worry about it.”
She still looked thoughtful. “Does anything seem to make it better or worse?”
I swallowed, thinking of Ocean in the pits, of Kaos holding me coldly. I glanced at Dusk in the corner before lowering my voice.
“I, um, I think it gets worse when I know my alphas are in trouble. But I can’t help them.”
Or when I can feel their hatred.
“It’s possible,” she mused. “My own working theory is that alpha aura sickness occurs when intrinsic nurturing and protective instincts are chronically suppressed or disregarded, leading to a disruption in the individual—or pack’s—psychophysiological equilibrium…”
She continued on, her rumination becoming so thick with Arkology terms that I couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was saying.
“So, in short, I don’t know right now, but how about I see what I can find!” she finished, smiling at me.
I smiled back and scrawled my email onto a piece of paper. “Thanks so much,” I told her, and she nodded happily.
“Of course,” she replied, as if helping me was something anyone would do.
Not anyone I knew.
But perhaps I knew the wrong kind of people.
I bounced on my feet, nervously awaiting the rideshare I’d arranged to get here. It wasn’t ideal, but Jade had a job now, so I’d had to make do.
A car pulled up on the pavement next to me, and I walked toward it.
Was this my ride? I pulled up my app, but it had frozen. The car door opened, and I stared as a familiar skeletal alpha stepped out, a smug grin on his face.
“Kaos?” I asked, aghast. “You can drive?”
“Not legally, no,” he said mildly, scratching his chest. “Shall we?”
“I’m waiting for a proper ride,” I told him.
He sauntered around the side of the car, and I frowned at him as he approached. He ignored that and, to my shock, wrapped his arms around me. As I floundered, he pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
A purr started up in him as he held me, and I felt my cheeks reddening. My face was smushed into his chest, and his sharp static and absinthe scent flooded my nose, instinctively making me relax.
“Finally. You were gone when I woke up,” he said, his arms squeezing tighter around me. It felt nice, in his arms, and he was so warm.
I came to my senses and struggled to get away from him. I couldn’t move much with the wound on my shoulder.
“What the fuck, Kaos?” I said as I unsuccessfully tried to escape his arms. First Finch apologizing and now this? “One night can’t change everything between us.”
He laughed as if I’d told a joke. “Of course it can, silly,” he said, stepping back and slipping his hand into mine. He looked down at me, his black eyes wide with wonder. “You look beautiful,” he said, and I was sure my cheeks were crimson now.
I swallowed, not sure what to say. A selfish part of me didn’t want to say anything. The way he was looking at me, his hand in mine…it was making butterflies swarm in my chest.
Time to break out the bug net.
I pulled my hand out of his. His forehead creased, and he looked at me, confused.
“What’s your game?” I said, my voice wobbling a bit. Was this some sort of new cruel joke he was playing on me? Now that he’d seen how vulnerable I was last night?
But he had held me. Purred for me. Scent-marked me and stroked my hair until I fell asleep. And I could feel him in the bond, smooth and calm and happy.
“No game,” he said softly. “I just realized you’re my angel.”
I shook my head, because that couldn’t be true. “You’re wrong,” I said, unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice. “Not me. Find someone else, Kaos, because I’m too fucked up for that.”
Kaos laughed in delight, his eyes sparkling.
He took my hand and raised it up, pressing his palm to mine and spreading out our fingers.
“I said you were my angel,” he said. “Don’t you see?
I’m a fighter. For so long, I hated that.
I was trying to run away from myself. I thought that I was a monster who deserved to die and a burden who refused to.
But last night, I realized that maybe a monster is what you need. To protect you from your own demons.”
He laced his fingers with mine, and I couldn’t look away from his eyes and the joy shining in them. “You’ve helped me rethink how I see the whole world. Given me hope.”
I swallowed as I looked at him, my eyes stinging.
They had given me hope too, I realized. Since Jule left, my world had been so dark and bleak. But now I was starting to see that my father isn’t the end of everything. That I don’t have to be trapped in his cage.
Escape was still a faint hope, but seemed more and more possible every day.
There was one thing that had been nagging me, though, a tiny suspicion that I wanted confirmed. “Could we stop by this clinic on the way home?” I asked after I’d strapped in, showing Kaos the address on the screen.
He nodded and started the car.