Chapter 31
VANDLE
I followed Tyler into the library stacks.
He plucked books off shelves, handing them to me to hold. A lot of the covers were couples embracing, or a flower given a place of honour in the middle of the title. Same as Phantom, I couldn’t tell the damn difference.
I peered across the shelves, squinting a bit at the few titles that blended with the spines in my colourless world. There seemed to be a huge variety in here. I doubt I’d ever visited—the Archiva pack seemed quite protective over the space. They wouldn’t have let in a feral alpha.
Phantom continued to chat with the rest of the Archiva pack in the central area. When we got far enough away that I didn’t think they would be listening in, I cleared my throat.
Tyler looked at me with a lifted eyebrow. “What?”
“How’s the non-fiction selection?”
“We have a disproportionate number of books about dolphins and a ton of outdated GPRE handbooks.” He nodded to the stack of books that seemed to make up a large, bookish sculpture of a middle finger in the corner.
I chuckled. Okay, well, that was a lot of extra.
Seemed the guards upstairs had got us mixed up with the dump.
“Not helpful.”
“If you want help, I need specifics. You’ve been feral for a while, but surely you remember how broad a category ‘non-fiction’ is.” His tone was dry.
He slipped another book off the shelf and put it on the pile. This one looked newer, in pristine condition with a cover that featured illustrated flowery art, instead of photographed flowers.
I needed a book about Arkology—on alphas and omegas.
Every time I tried to peel back the veil on one of my many repressed memories, my head exploded in pain. My body didn’t want to remember before.
But I needed to. If it wasn’t important, I wouldn’t have been fucking dreaming about it.
Sin had been a victim of experiments, like I had, and it’s possible his eyes were a result of that, but gold pack omegas were known for their eye colour, so something nagged at me that there was more to it.
I’d never heard of a red-eyed omega before, though, so I wasn’t sure where to start. Well, I’d also never heard of an omega who could dark bond command alphas—but I certainly hadn’t barked by fucking choice.
At the edge of my conscious thoughts, the memory reached out for me—I could remember. With help, I thought.
One or two pieces of information. Maybe even just seeing the word written out.
I didn’t want to be too specific—didn’t want to risk giving anyone leverage over us. Yet the library was the only place that had come to mind that might have something to help me.
“Arkology.” I grunted. “Books on designations. Anything that goes into unusual alphas or omegas. Gold packs, experiments. That sort of thing.”
“You looking more for alphas or omegas?”
“Both. Either. But maybe errant experiments. Stuff out of the ordinary.”
“Experiments?” That had Tyler turning to face me, giving me a slow once-over.
He hummed. “You might be in luck. We get castoff books down here. Banned or confiscated from prisoners, by the looks of it—but not fit to be read by the Vault’s staff.
Some are very strange.” He scratched his chin, pacing down the aisle, almost talking to himself.
“No point in not sending them down, I suppose, if they were going to be trash anyway. I bet they think they’re doing us a huge favour.
And on the off chance we got out and talked about the material, who’s going to believe a near-feral alpha spouting nonsense? ” He snorted.
Seemed cocky of them to not burn the books outright, but that was typical for these organizations. They think they’re untouchable.
“Aha.” I watched as he pulled a worn black book from the shelf and leaned over to hand it to me.
I took it, cracking it open to find wavy paper and smeared ink.
I frowned as Tyler chuckled. “Utterly ruined—but it does have some strange things in there, if you can decipher what’s left of it.
Then let’s see… I have a few more that might be helpful… ”
CRESCENT
I settled back into what was becoming a super cozy nest.
Sometimes my alphas gave it side eyes as if they felt it wasn’t good enough, but they didn’t know the bland place I’d come from.
At the Convent, I’d been banned from anything close to nesting, so this bed, with soft pillows, hidden treasures, and stacked blankets, was like nothing I’d ever had before.
I tucked the books in around me as Vandle spoke to Phantom.
I didn’t completely follow what was going on, and I didn’t think they wanted to scare me with it, but I was listening.
“...Check in on Karma at the gym…” Vandle was saying. “Rick and a few of the others are back next door now. Need to get a bit out of myself.” I peered up to see him stretching his neck, something tense in his expression.
“How is his aura?” Phantom asked.
“It’s not the worst I’ve seen in here.” Vandle didn’t sound confident. His eyes could see how stable alphas and omegas were… And I knew that was critical for our appeal.
We were closing in on it.
Maybe I hadn’t been doing enough?
“He has… cycles.” Phantom said.
“What?”
“His stability. Doesn’t like to burden us with it so he’s got into the habit of burying it down. So then when it comes out, it’s worse. I think the pressure of everything’s been getting to him.”
“I’ll go spar a few rounds. Can’t hurt.”
“He can sleep with me tonight?” I asked. Phantom turned to me, though I couldn’t read his expression from here. “I can do a better job of balancing him…”
It was his turn anyway.
Vandle’s gaze drifted to me for a moment—well, I thought it did. At the door, he was just far away enough it was a bit hard to tell, but blurry or not it was hard to miss the feeling of my pack lead’s gaze on me.
“You’re doing perfect, Little Omega,” Phantom said. “Swear it. He’s more lucid than he’s ever been.”
I nodded, but was distracted by the fact that Vandle was tugging his shirt off in preparation to go to the gym.
Dang.
I squinted, willing these stupid eyes to work a bit better.
I edged forward in the nest, hugging the new fairytale book to my chest, but Vandle was already turning to leave.
I stifled a little whine, cursing out my eyes.
I really needed to try some prayer—faith intact or not. I don’t think I was supposed to be this turned on, even if I was packed up. It was sinful…
Turns out I hadn’t stifled it very well, because Vandle crossed toward me before he left.
Oh, thank goodness.
I got a clear view of his glorious, muscled torso as he approached. He leaned down to give me a kiss and I caught his lip with my teeth before I could stop myself.
“You want me to stay, Princess?” His eyes were so intense, one with his iris pure white and the other shining red like Sin’s.
“No, it’s okay.”
“Did you just lie to me?” he asked.
“No.” I pouted.
“Princess.” His voice was firm as he took my chin between his fingers. “Don’t lie to me.”
The dark bond lit up at the command and my lips popped open. “Yes.” The word spilled out before I could stop them. “But… you gotta go.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“I’d have you all in the nest all day all night if you let me,” I whined.
I was slowly coming to the conclusion that my job, as a pack omega, was to make sure I rotated the alphas just right so they all got equal attention.
I don’t think it was an omega thing, since Sin was not like this at all, but I’d come to the conclusion that I could go my whole life being cuddled by one of my alphas.
It made sense that there were usually more alphas than omegas, since none of us would be able to do anything at all if I only had one and I had to cling to him all the time.
“But uh…” I shrugged. “I have Phantom, and you’re supposed to go beat up Karma?”
Vandle grinned. “Could go either way. Wouldn’t bet on his odds, though. Never got pack lead from me.”
“You go,” I said. “The appeal is the most important thing… I promise.” I added, crossing my heart as he looked skeptical.
He straightened as Phantom snorted.
“Anything you need me to look for while you’re gone?” Phantom asked, waving at the books.
“Found what I could on designations. Looking out for anything to do with the red eyes. Could be nothing, but I want to make sure.”
Phantom nodded. “I’ll start searching.”
I frowned, taking a mental note.
I know they were trying to protect me and all that, but I wanted to be the one to help out again.
Just like in the cage…
I pouted as Phantom shot me a startled look, possibly sensing the spike of lust from me down the bond.
Maybe I needed prayer and holy water…?
Possibly.
When Vandle was gone, Phantom cuddled up next to me, diving right into the first text book to help out with whatever it was Vandle was looking for.
I examined the strange black notebook that he’d picked up.
It was hard, peeling it open, as if it had been soaked in water, but something about the challenge drew me to it.
I eyed Phantom, who was turning pages far too fast.
Narrowing my eyes, I looked back at the book.
Gotta beat him to it.
I opened the notebook, taking in the first few lines of handwriting. A very odd book to be found in a library, but nothing in Anarchy was normal.
The pages were wavy with damage, and the words were often washed away completely. But I peeled one page back at a time.
From what I could gather, it was notes from a scientist, documenting tests or experiments. Many didn’t seem interesting, but they all seemed centred around alphas and omegas.
I was moving faster than Phantom, mainly because the amount I had to read was scant due to the damage, so I was half way through when I froze, cocking my head to make sure the words I was seeing were right.
Oh—oh!
I stopped on the faintest, smudged scrawl of: ‘crimson eyes’.
I’d found it!
Ah hah—see, I could be helpful.
“Do you have a pencil?” I hissed, squinting at the words like if I stopped, they’d vanish.
“Uh… Karma does.” Phantom got up and rummaged about in Karma’s bed before handing me a rather chewed-on mechanical pencil.
I looked back down at the words, squinting hard—with Phantom joining me this time—to try and lightly retrace the missing piece.