Chapter Thirteen #2
“I might be an alpha, but I'm also female.” Tension holds her shoulders tight. “His trauma template doesn't have a slot for me. Male alphas hurt him. Female alphas...” She shrugs. “There's nothing in his experience that tells him to fear me. Not yet.”
Not yet. I feel those two words land in my gut. She knows. One wrong move, one moment where she pushes too hard or reads the room wrong, and she becomes just another alpha who hurt him.
“That's an asset.” Kev's voice loosens, just a fraction. The first hint of something other than grief or rage since we walked through that door. “You can get close to him when we can't.”
“I don't want to push too hard. If I become another alpha who forces things on him...” Sera's voice is careful.
“You won't.” The certainty in my voice surprises me. “You're too aware.”
Her chin lifts slightly. Surprised, maybe, that I'd defend her so quickly.
“But Espie…” Her gaze locks on Kev, then Lex, then back to me.
“Is terrified of us,” Lex finishes. He sets down his coffee mug with a sharp click.
“Can you blame her?” Sera's voice is quiet. “After what male alphas have done to her too?”
I stir the soup because I need to move. The vegetables are nearly soft now. Almost ready.
“You should know what happened to him,” Kev says finally. He's talking to Sera. “Aubrey. In case the files didn't cover everything.”
“I've read the reports. Axel Turns. Six years of...” Sera stops. “I know the broad strokes.”
“The broad strokes don't cover it.” Kev's voice is quiet. “He was completely shattered when we got him out. Catatonic. The doctors said he might never come back. We've spent six months trying to reach him, and nothing worked. Nothing.” A breath. “Until today.”
“What was he like? Before Turns?” I like how she spits his name, like he’s a curse.
“Happy.” Lex's voice goes soft. “We found photos of him with his first pack. There's one of him laughing with Thomas Richardson, with his whole face lit up.” He shakes his head. “I couldn't reconcile it with the omega upstairs.”
By the look on her face, she knows Thomas Richardson and his pack were murdered by Turns who then claimed Aubrey.
“Aubrey was stolen. Pack Turns didn't court him. Didn't earn him. Axel saw something valuable and he took it,” I spit out.
“We know some of what he endured, but there’s probably more Aubrey has been unable to tell us,” Kev says, his expression bleak.
“He draws. Or he used to. We found sketchbooks when we went through his apartment. Landscapes, mostly. Portraits. There was one of Thomas, I think. Aubrey is talented.” I stir the soup, watching the vegetables turn lazily in the broth. “He hasn't touched a pencil since we got him.”
“His hands shake too much now,” Kev says quietly. “We tried giving him art supplies once. He just stared at them. Like he'd forgotten what they were for.”
Sera stares into middle distance, tracing the rim of her coffee mug with her thumb. Around and around. “He was whole once.”
“They both were.” Kev's voice is heavy. “Before the system broke them.”
“The system.” Sera's voice goes hard. “You mean the people. The alphas. The institutions that were supposed to protect them.”
“Yes.” Kev meets her gaze. “And now we’ll pick up the pieces.”
Sera sets down her coffee mug. Her spine straightens, her shoulders square. Something harder takes its place. Focused. Operational. “I need to make a call to my captain.” Her voice is clear, strong. “Arrange emergency leave. I have enough banked. They'll manage without me for a while.”
She pulls out her phone and steps toward the doorway, then hesitates. Looks back at us.
“Is there somewhere private I can...”
“Use the living room,” Kev says. “Take your time.”
She nods and disappears through the doorway. Her voice drifts back, low and professional. “It's Sera. I need to activate my emergency leave, effective immediately...”
“She can have the spare room near ours upstairs,” Kev says.
Lex nods. “I'll make sure it's ready. Fresh sheets. Towels.”
“Someone needs to get her clothes. Supplies.” Kev rubs a hand over his face. He looks exhausted. We all do. “She can't live in what she's wearing.”
“I'll go.” Lex straightens. “There's a twenty-four hour Pack&Provision on Morrison. I can get basics. We can figure out the rest tomorrow.”
Kev shakes his head. “Let me. You should stay.” He glances toward the doorway where Sera's voice still carries. “Help Ezra with the omegas. She trusts you more than me right now.”
Lex's eyebrows rise. “Fine. I’ll take a stab at their sizes.”
“Already sized our alpha up, have you?” I add rice to the soup. The small grains scatter across the surface, then sink.
Lex clears his throat. “Then we’ll work on a care rotation. Figure out who's doing what. When. How close.”
Kev nods. “Sera takes primary contact for now. She's the one they'll tolerate. The rest of us provide support from a distance.”
“I'll handle medical.” The words come out steady, even though my chest aches with the absurdity of it. Handling medical for mates who won't let me touch them.
Lex leans against the counter. “And when they need something only male alphas can provide? Heats. Ruts. The biological reality of what they are?”
“We cross that bridge when we get there.” Kev's voice is firm. “Right now, we focus on survival. Theirs. Ours. Getting through tonight. Then tomorrow. Then the next day.”
Sera's voice stops in the other room. A moment later, she reappears in the doorway. She looks tired. Bone-tired, the way I feel after a sixteen-hour shift at the hospital.
“Done,” she says. “He’s not happy, but they'll manage. And I don’t care. My omegas take priority over everything.”
“We all agree about that.” Kev pushes off from the counter. “I’m going to get clothes for the omegas. And for you too, Sera.”
Sera blinks. “You don't have to—”
“You're here now. That means you're ours to take care of too,” Kev's voice softens.
She stares at him. For just a second, her composure cracks, something raw underneath. Surprise. Confusion. She's not used to being taken care of.
Kev grabs his keys from the hook by the door and hesitates at the threshold, looking back at us. “We'll figure this out. All of it.”
The front door clicks shut behind him. The scent of chicken soup fills the room, and for a moment it almost feels normal. Like any other night in this kitchen, except nothing is normal anymore. Nothing will ever be normal again.
“He's always like that,” Lex says. “In case you were wondering. The fixer. It's annoying as hell, honestly, but you get used to it.”
Sera's lips twitch. Not quite a smile, but close. “I'm not used to being on the receiving end.”
“Neither was I.” Lex shrugs. “First few months after I joined this pack, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.” He sips his coffee. “Still waiting.”
The soup is ready. I turn off the heat and reach for the bowls in the cabinet above the stove.
“I never thought this would happen.” Sera's voice is quiet. I almost don't catch it.
I turn, and her gaze drifts over us before dropping away. “Omegas. Mates. None of that happens for female alphas.” She pauses, recalibrates. “No one really wants us. Male alphas see rivals. Omegas see confusion. I made peace with being alone years ago.”
Her voice has gone flat. Rehearsed. She's told herself this story so many times the edges have worn smooth, but the hurt underneath hasn't faded.
No one wants a female Alpha.
Something aches behind my ribs. “That's not true.” The words are out before I've thought them through.
Sera looks up, startled. Wary.
“It's strange,” I admit. “You being here. I've never met a female alpha before. My brain keeps trying to categorize you and failing.” I hold her gaze. “But you're welcome here. More than welcome. You're needed.”
She stares at me. Doesn't say anything. Her throat works as she swallows.
“You can touch them when we can't. You know things about institutional trauma we haven’t seen. You rescued Espie. You stayed when you could have walked away.” I set down the ladle. “You’re an asset. And welcome.”
Something in her face cracks open, just for a second. Underneath the armor, I catch a glimpse of exhaustion so deep it looks like it goes all the way down. And loneliness. Years of loneliness she's learned to carry quietly.
“I don't know how to do this,” she says quietly.
“Neither do we.” Lex's voice is dry. “None of us chose this. We're going to have to figure it out as we go.”
Sera holds my gaze. The wariness shifts into something else.
And upstairs, two terrified omegas are still hiding in a corner.