7. Elliott #2
“He mainly thanked me for the information and wanted to know if I would notify him about any new findings I came across. I asked him if he would tell me about their experiences, and I told him I worked for the SOS and that he could fact check that with Kristopher and Jermaine Gatlin. He promised to get back with me.”
“Do he and his brother have the same abilities that Ben and I do?”
“He said they can heal things sometimes, and they have occasionally predicted things that later happened. He also said they can communicate with each other in their dreams.”
“What?” I asked, shocked. “For real? I’ve never heard of anybody doing that!”
“I haven’t either. I knew you’d find it interesting. Do you think you and Ben might be able to do it?”
“I don’t know. We’ve never tried. You said they’re twins. Could that part of it be a twin thing?”
“I suppose it could,” Gail said.
I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around what she just told me. “How long ago was it that the person emailed you?”
“Almost a week ago. I’ve been waiting until I heard from him again to mention it to anyone because I’m not sure he’ll get back with me, but I really wanted to tell you about the dream communication.”
“Maybe we can learn something more from him and his brother. I hope he contacts you again.”
“Gail smiled. “He sounded very excited in the email to have found this information, so I’m sure he will. Now, before we wrap up this session, I want to ask if you feel you’ve made any headway with your fear of alphas.”
I knew she would ask, which was the reason I’d taken the lemonade out to Jet and Joel the day before.
The last time I’d had a session with Gail, she’d given me the assignment of finding little ways to get closer to alphas on my own terms. Joel scared me just from being associated with what happened yesterday, but I’d been okay approaching him to give him a drink because of Jet’s presence.
I related all that to Gail, and she praised me for it.
“You’re making headway, Elliott. I’m so proud of you. We can end the session here, if there’s nothing else. Please don’t avoid me. I’m really trying to help you. I hope erecting some boundaries helped you to feel more empowered in our dynamic.”
I smiled. “It really did. I’ll see you next week.”
As soon as I got outside, I pulled my phone out of the pocket of my jeans and dialed Ben.
“Do you have time to get together?” I asked.
“Sure. When?”
“Today, if possible.”
“Lucy June goes down for a nap in an hour. Can you come over?”
“Be right there,” I said, then disconnected.
Looking around, I spotted Jet, rather than Kirk, waiting for me. Gail’s request had already been carried out.
I could call Keane to see if he’d go to Ben’s with me, but two things made me reconsider: one was the fact that I was always bothering Keane to help me and knew I should stand on my own, particularly if I was going to carry through with my plan to get evidence against the government; the second was Gail praising me for taking lemonade to the two alphas.
That had felt so good and made me feel as though I could do more courageous things if I really tried.
But could I go alone with Jet to Ben’s? The Angel’s ranch was only a couple of minutes down the road, and I really wanted to see Ben as soon as possible to tell him what Gail told me.
Uncertain, I stood chewing on my lip. It was a huge leap of faith on my part. I didn’t like the idea of being in an enclosed car alone with an alpha at all. The very thought raised goosebumps along my arms.
But Jet had proven himself trustworthy so far, which was why he was the one I’d chosen to be my guard.
I trusted him to an extent already. And at this moment, he stood yards away, waiting patiently for me to decide my next move, not approaching me as other guards had done in the past, making me so uncomfortable I sometimes ran from them.
Like he respected my feelings.
“Jet!” I called out to him, and he walked toward me, stopping several feet away. “Would you drive me to Ben’s house?”
Jet looked surprised, as well he should. Already, my palms were sweating at having asked him to do it.
“Of course I will. When do you want to go?”
“Right now. I’ll text Laura.” I tapped out a quick text saying where I was going and that Jet was taking me.
Laura immediately texted me back.
“You’re okay going with just Jet?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, then. Text me when you get ready to come home from Ben’s just so I know you’re back.”
I sent her a thumbs up.
We took one of the extra vehicles, a jeep. The two minutes it took to get to Ben’s while sitting alone with Jet in the jeep felt like two hours. As soon as the car came to a stop outside Ben’s house, I jumped out and ran to the door, pounding on it like a bear was about to eat me. Again.
When the door opened, I rushed past Ben’s husband-mate, Angus, who looked outside, undoubtedly to see what the hell was going on, and upon seeing only Jet, nodded at him and closed the door.
“You okay, Elliott?” he asked me.
The older alpha was dressed in his work clothes, including his scuffed-up boots. He had either just come in from his chores or was about to go out.
I nodded. “Yeah. Just, uh, anxious to see Ben.”
“Ben!” Angus called out.
Ben appeared from their wing of the house, Lucy June in his arms. At almost eight months, the little girl was a cherub, plump and beautiful, with light-brown curls and eyes the color of bleached denim, like Angus’s, leaving no question that he was her biological sire rather than their husband-mate Colt.
I immediately reached out to hold her, pleased that Lucy June leaned toward me, eager for me to take her.
I followed Ben into their section of the house that they’d built to accommodate Angus’s growing family.
In the nursery, which was painted a pale yellow and featured a beautiful crib that Colt had made himself, I sat in the white rocker and gave Lucy June her pacifier.
Rocking her, I smiled at her as she stared up at me.
“And you’re sure you don’t want children?” Ben asked me.
I sighed and shook my head.
“That’s too bad. You’re so good with them.”
“I don’t want to talk about that,” I said, remembering my boundaries.
“Okay.” Ben sat down on the small loveseat against the wall.
Accustomed to running from topics I didn’t want to discuss, I was surprised at how good it felt to just say no and have someone respect that. I needed to do it more often.
“Is something on your mind?” Ben asked. “I’m glad to see you, but you called kind of suddenly. It sounded urgent.”
“Yeah, I want to tell you something.” I proceeded to tell him everything Gail had said about the anonymous emailer.
Ben’s eyes widened, but he kept his voice low because the baby was drifting off to sleep in my arms. “Wow! Two more like us! That’s awesome, right? And they can communicate with each other through their dreams? Do you think we can do that?”
“That’s what I was wondering.”
“It could be just a twin thing between them. Twins are supposed to have a connection to each other,” Ben said.
“I asked Gail about that, and she said possibly. But I don’t think Ren and Riku can speak through their dreams. We could at least try. Are you willing?”
“Sure.” Ben shrugged. “Maybe if we think about each other as we go to sleep, it will help. And if we wake up during the night for any reason, do it again. It would be so cool if it worked. I hope he emails Gail again. I’d love to know everything about them.”
“Me, too,” I said. “I’ll try that tonight, and you do it, too. The other thing I wanted to talk about is—do you think we could heal me of having heats?”
Ben frowned. “I mean, they aren’t an illness.”
“They feel like one to me,” I said glumly. “Oh, before I forget. Do you have heats more frequently than other omegas? Because, I do. I wondered if that’s also an omega x thing.”
Shaking his head, Ben said, “No, sorry. When I lived with Jackson and David, we all went into heat around the same time. Kind of in sync. When I was on the run, my heats didn’t come as frequently; and then, when I arrived here, Jackson’s mom put me on heat suppressants.
When I ran out of those, I didn’t have heats at all for some reason until I mated Colt and Angus.
Elise and Laura thought Angus and I had partially bonded, and maybe that was the reason for it.
It could have even happened with Colt, I don’t know. How often do you go into heat?”
“Only a couple extra times over the years, and then that one recently. My dad used to have more than what’s usual.”
“Maybe we’ll learn more when the guy emails Gail again,” Ben said.
I stared down at Lucy June, now sleeping peacefully in my arms, her nose tucked into my side. She was so precious.
“I have some news myself,” Ben said. “I’m having another baby.”
I looked up, a grin spreading over my face. “Really? Congratulations!”
Ben looked happy, and that made me happy.
“I’ve missed you and David,” I said. “It’s been a while.”
“We’ve missed you, too. I’ve been worried about you,” Ben said earnestly.
“Because of what I said the last time I saw you?”
He nodded.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry I said that.”
“Are you still thinking about doing it?”
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“Please don’t. It’s dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt,” Ben pleaded softly.
“I won’t do it without a lot of thought,” I said. “That’s all I can promise you.”
Ben got up and gently lifted Lucy June from my embrace. As he placed her in her crib, he spoke quietly.
“Recently, the rallies at the capital have ramped up. Parents of omegas in the program are really pressuring government officials to look into ORCRO and ORP, especially ORP, as they are the ones not giving parents any information about reintroducing omegas. Also, Carter is working with Vaughn and Elise to gather information. Vaughn told him he recently spoke to Dr. Mandrake—he’s the one who wrote the book The Omega Dilemma, the one several of us read—and he’s going to tell us about their conversation when he and Elise come visit in a couple of weeks. ”