Chapter 4
TALBOT
Shit. I made her cry.
Shirley Sue elbowed me in the ribs. “Hug her!” she hissed. “When I cry, someone hugs me, and I feel better.”
“Or chocolate. Actually…” Bohdie added. He patted his pockets and pulled out a crumbling cookie. “Do you want a cookie, ma’am?”
Dawn tried to smile, but that just seemed to make her cry harder.
The lion cub shot me a horrified look, and I shrugged, but Shirley Sue released an aggravated huff and climbed on the bed, wrapping her arms around Dawn’s head and pressing their cheeks together.
“Don’t cry. It’s okay. You don’t want any gross pocket cookies.
We’ll get you ice cream, because that’s what you’re meant to have when you’re sick. ”
Dawn sniffed, her eyes closing softly as if she really was enjoying being suffocated by a six-year-old. Finally, she gently moved her head away, peeling Shirley Sue off her face. “Thank you. That does make me feel better.”
Shirley Sue climbed off the bed, looking way too happy with herself as she went to stand with her tiny posse.
“Alright, you lot. Back out to your parents. You know the infirmary is off-limits.” They dropped their heads.
“But first, a quick lesson in Omega etiquette, if you don’t mind?
” I asked Dawn, and she tilted her head in my direction, studying me with those piercing blue eyes that had haunted my teenage dreams. Finally, she nodded.
“Bohdie, come here. This is especially important for you.” The lion cub would one day be Alpha of whatever pride he chose, and this was a lesson I would burn into his brain over and over if I had to. “Do you know what an Omega is?”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
“They are a gift from the moon goddess for all shifters, but especially Alphas.” I looked at Dawn again. “May he touch your hand?”
Dawn nodded, though she seemed just as engrossed in the lesson as the cubs. Bohdie reached out and wrapped his small hand around hers.
His wide eyes whipped up to mine.
I smiled reassuringly down at him. “Do you feel that? Can you explain to the others what it’s like? Because while Omegas will calm betas and other shifters, they’ll never feel the way you do now because they aren’t Alphas.”
Bohdie frowned. “It’s like… You know when you are watching cartoons super loud, and then your mom tells you to turn it off, and then there’s just that really loud silence? Like that, but with my lion. It’s like he wants to lie down and take a nap.”
Yeah, that was pretty accurate. “Omegas soothe the beast in us, but especially in Alphas. For that reason, they always deserve your respect. When you meet an Omega, I don’t care if you are Alpha or beta, always bow your head respectfully.
They are healers of the soul, and a gift that is far too rare these days.
” I tensed my jaw. “Not every shifter agrees, believing they are little more than chew toys for violence. If I ever catch any of you being anything less than respectful to any Omega, I’ll kick your ass.
” I lowered my voice. “And trust me, I’ll always know.
” I made it sound a little menacing, so it would forever be burned into their brains now.
I straightened to my full height. “Okay, get out of here. Shirley Sue, here’s your payment.
” I pulled out three of her favorite honey nougat bars.
“Keep up the good work.” I grinned, and she gave me a conspiratorial smirk.
The kid loved heights, and I paid her in candy to fuck with Franklin by climbing the tallest tree she could find then pretend to have vertigo.
Listening to him try not to swear about it over the radio was the funniest thing ever. What kind of bear hated to climb trees?
The cubs tore out of the room, except for Bohdie. He looked up at Dawn once more, bowed his head low, and said, “Omega.”
She smiled. “Alpha.”
Bohdie grinned and chased after his friends.
I watched them go, shaking my head. I’d get Vance to make another announcement that the infirmary was off-limits to cubs tonight.
I sucked in a breath and turned to the girl whom I was once totally obsessed with. Now, she was a woman—a broken, beaten down woman. “Dawn.”
I couldn’t help myself. I leaned down, slid my arms under her back, and pulled her up against my chest. I wrapped my body around her, and when she snaked her arms around my back, holding me just as tightly, I wasn’t sure I could ever let her go.
I didn’t know how long we stayed like that, with me clutching her to my chest like she’d fade away, but finally, she let out a shuddering sigh, and I lowered her to the bed.
I wanted to ask so many questions. How did she get here? Why did it take her so long? What happened when she stopped writing to us all those years ago?
Most importantly, why did she turn up dying on our doorstep, with half her reproductive system missing?
We’d called a doctor from the town down the mountain—a human, because we were so isolated and didn’t have much choice—but the man was old and had known about the bears in the area for a long time.
He’d stitched her up but said someone had taken out her uterus, and without much skill.
He was amazed she wasn’t dead. He’d given us a pointed look at that, like usual when he was faced with the evidence of our paranormality.
It was always met with blank looks, and we’d move on, because he couldn’t prove it, and we’d eat him if he tried.
I went over to grab the sandwich I’d brought for her, as well as a bottle of water. I put it on one of those wheely trays and pushed it over to her, but my eyes didn’t leave her prone form for more than a few seconds. I was worried she’d disappear.
“I brought you something to eat. Take it slow though, you had surgery.” Twice.
She winced from my words but picked up the sandwich filled with deli meat and nibbled the edges.
No matter how much I wanted to question her, I didn’t, and although I would never admit it to anyone else in the den, it was because I was scared…
terrified even. Terrified that if I pushed, she’d run.
I needed her to stay here, with us, where we could keep her safe, so I kept my mouth shut and held her hand as she ate tiny bites.
That was until Franklin burst into the room and shoved me out of the way.
He bowed his head respectfully, murmured, “Omega,” then planted a huge fucking kiss on her lips. It looked like he was trying to get a piece of lettuce from her back teeth. I made a mental note to give him shit about his technique.
He pulled back, and Dawn’s eyes were wide, and her cheeks were pink.
Franklin grinned down at her. “I promised myself that if I ever saw you again, I wouldn’t waste another opportunity to kiss you.” He looked at her like she was everything. “Now, do you want to tell us why you showed up on our doorstep, gutted like a fish, and who we have to kill in revenge?”
I slapped the back of his head. Fucking hell. There went subtlety.