Chapter 24
The doctor had come to see Briar a week ago. Since then, she hadn’t left that bedroom. I stayed near the end of the mattress, waiting for her to acknowledge me, but like she did every time, she rolled onto her side, nestling deeper under the blankets.
I left her alone, when all I wanted was to slide into her tight cunt and claim her until she softened. But I couldn’t shake off the self-directed disgust eating at my stomach. Her scowls, anger, and even worse, the betrayal shining in her deep browns causing this sickness.
Long sleepless nights of thinking about the strong-willed Omega—our Omega—had me going mad.
Pausing beside my bedroom, I slumped against the wall. Exhaustion weakened my shoulders, but I couldn’t let myself lose it, too. Elias wasn’t fully with us, almost in a comatose state. It’d been a few days now since he’d left his room.
We were all torn up over Briar, but I couldn’t let this burn in my gut take me down, not when I needed to keep the Omega fed and make sure she didn’t try to hurt herself again. Another wave of nausea wracked me. At the very least, she was still eating, but only after I left her alone.
Kyan and I had been rotating watching her, refusing to leave her alone for too long. While one of us was with her, the other tried to sleep.
Still, neither of us was getting much of it.
Doubt began to creep in, so insistently that I couldn’t breathe. What if she never forgives us? Usually, my little ‘moments’ happened at night.
I thought I was done with fear. As a child, I’d watched my parents take their last breath, while branches speared through their chests and blood dripped off them, trickling onto my cheek. That was when I stopped feeling anything soft.
After the accident took my parents, I was sent to live with Jennifer because she was my closest kin. A cousin twice removed. A thick wrap seemed to cling to me, not allowing anything through. Even when she had first slithered into my bedroom, I watched dispassionately as she began touching me.
That was when I discovered fucking. For a split moment, lust broke through the cocoon. Sex was a way to forget. To feel myself come and the pleasure that wracked through me was my release.
It was the only time I thought I could feel anything.
Today showed me how wrong I was. Briar showed me how wrong I was.
I shouldn’t have given her that razor.
All this bloody shit was my fault. I had a part in driving her to this point.
I ground my molars.
That situation had gone wrong in every way possible. And Elias . . . Bloody Elias.
He was losing it.
If he continued on this spiral, he would push her away until we couldn’t retrieve her.
Not going to happen. I shoved off the wall and shouldered into Elias’ room.
He didn’t turn from where he was crouched, near his bed, his head lowered. His hands were in his hair, his whole body shaking.
“What’s wrong with me?” Elias croaked.
I’d known Elias since childhood, and the bloody man never lost his mind. His emotions pierced through, adding to my pain.
“Block yourself,” I spat, grunting. Each day, he was losing more and more control. A wave of my anger snuffed out his agony.
“You’re blaming me?” he hissed. “Aren’t you the fuck that had two Betas all over him? Something that she saw?”
I tilted my head back and barked out a laugh. “You had two cunts on you, too.”
“I didn’t touch them.” He slammed his palms into my chest. It was on.
I squeezed my hand into a hard fist.
“You two, lower your voices,” Kyan ordered, coming in, dressed.
“Where did you go?” I scowled. He’d been bumming it around in sweats recently.
“The documentation is ready.” Kyan held the folder up. “I had to go pick it up.”
Elias snatched them from his hand and tore them down the middle. Torn-up paper fluttered to the ground.
“What the hell?”
“I already shredded it.” Kyan raised an eyebrow. “Just in case you wanted to send her off again.”
Elias jerked, his red-rimmed eyes becoming angrier.
“What the fuck did you say?” he hissed, lunging at Kyan and shoving him against the wall.
“You’re not thinking clearly with that bond.” Kyan didn’t fight the grip. “But Bourne Pack is still after her. We can’t turn on each other.” Kyan looked over Elias’ shoulder at me. “She needs us to be level-headed.”
Elias’ hand trembled, and he released Kyan with a shove.
Other than getting our Omega to soften toward us, we had to clear her name.
We had to move smart. Bourne Pack was done. They could have all the power in the world, but it wouldn’t stop their ruin.
It would have happened either way as soon as they made her lose her job. Our Omega would have her revenge. Even if I had to slaughter them all.
“Kyan’s right,” I added.
“I know he’s right.” Elias’ jaw worked from side to side.
“I’m going to The Bordello. I’m planning to have one of the girls on the lookout for any Bournes, so they can report back to us.
I just haven’t decided which one.” Kyan shook his head as he continued.
“I was thinking of Candace, since none of us ever fucked her.” His lips thinned.
I didn’t miss the shame on his face because it echoed the discomfort in my gut.
“I’m going to the hall.” Our casino had the Bournes there all the time.
“I’ll stay with her.” Elias scratched his arm as he said it.
It was better that way. He wouldn’t be able to focus on what we needed to with his emotions so erratic.
“Good.” I met Kyan’s gaze. “I’ll take the SUV. Call me if you find anything.” I turned on my heel. Each step thundered through the hall.
I would handle what I needed to . . . It would be easier than facing the hatred in her eyes.
Thick emotion clogged my throat, and I rolled my shoulders, but nothing I did made it go away. It wouldn’t until she stopped looking at me like I had broken her heart.
I gritted my teeth. I would clear her name. Somehow, I would make her free again and return everything we’d had a part in taking from her.