18. Cherry
Cherry
The stone floor is cold beneath my paws, the chill already sinking so deeply into me that it feels like it’s part of my bones.
I pace the length of the cage, the movement tight and restless, my shoulder brushing metal every few steps. The bars don’t rattle, don’t give, just stand there like they always have, unyielding and permanent.
I don’t remember coming back. But here I am. In my cage.
Panic presses in slowly, a suffocating crawl that makes it harder to breathe with every second. The air is thick, heavy with chemicals and something darker beneath it. Burnt fur. Blood. Fear.
My fear.
A low growl vibrates in my chest as I turn again, claws scraping uselessly against the stone. I try to think, to remember how I got here, but everything outside these walls feels distant, like a fog has descended on my mind.
Did I ever actually escape? Or have I been here the entire time?
The thought twists sharply and ugly inside me. The only thing worse than being here is if I had never actually escaped. If I imagined them. My five fated mates.
Did I make up the way Bain likes to feed me? Or Maddox’s protective embrace? What about the twins? Was their charm and model good-looks a figment of my shattered imagination? Did I really make up a wolf as intelligent and handsome as Gage?
The air shifts and something snaps tight inside me, every muscle locking up.
Footsteps echo down the corridor, and I freeze, my body lowering instinctively, ears flattening as my claws dig into the floor, and I try to make myself invisible.
The footsteps stop just outside the cage.
I don’t want to look. But I do anyway.
The man is bathed in shadows, his face unrecognizable through the fog and distortion, making me shake my head to clear the sight. But it doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter, though. Instincts tell me this is the man who’s been leaving notes for me. Who’s followed me across the country. Blaze.
If he’s real, does that mean my mates are real too? Memory mixes with dreams as I try to figure out what’s real and what’s not.
How did I get here? I ask myself again.
Blaze stands on the other side of the bars, his presence wrong in a way that makes my stomach twist. Although I still can’t make out his face, I know his gaze is fixed on me.
I try to press myself closer to the floor, hoping it will swallow me whole.
His expression softens, something almost pleased flickering across his face.
“There you are,” he says quietly. “I missed you.”
His words feel wrong. How can he miss me if he’s never met me before?
Blaze tilts his head slightly, studying me like he’s trying to memorize every detail. “Still fighting it?” he asks. “Don’t worry, it will all make sense soon.”
His gaze drags over me slowly, lingering in a way that makes my skin crawl, like I’m something to be admired instead of feared.
Something owned.
Movement behind him pulls my attention, and the moment I see who it is, my breath falters.
Dr. J steps into view, his expression as detached as ever, his presence hitting me like a physical blow.
“You were right,” Dr. J says, his tone clinical as he looks at me. “Her response is stronger than before.”
Blaze’s lips curve faintly, but his eyes never leave me. “Of course it is,” he replies smugly. “She’s exactly what we thought she was.”
My ears flatten harder, confusion and dread tangling together as I shift my weight back, trying to put even an inch more distance between us.
Blaze crouches slowly, his movements unhurried, controlled.
“You feel it, don’t you?” he asks softly.
A flicker of something stirs beneath my skin at his words, faint and wrong and warm in a way that doesn’t belong here.
I don’t understand it.
I don’t want to.
I bare my teeth again, a warning that feels hollow even as it leaves me.
His smile deepens.
“That pull,” he continues, his voice dropping, turning quieter, more intimate. “The way everything in you reacts.”
My chest tightens as that strange warmth flickers again, just beneath the surface, like something trying to break through. For a split second, it glows—soft, golden, alive. Then it fades. Gone like it was never there.
Blaze leans closer, his gaze locking onto mine.
“You’re an omega,” he says quietly.
The word settles over me, heavy yet familiar. Did I know that?
“Do you know what that means?” he asks.
I just stare at him as my mind tries to find an answer to his question, as if it’s just out of my reach.
“It means you’re special,” he continues. “You strengthen. You bind. You make everything better.”
His lips curve, something sharp slipping into his expression.
“You make me better.”
Revulsion floods through me, hot and immediate, pushing back against the cold for just a second. I snarl, throwing myself at the back wall, desperate to get away from him, from his voice, from the way he looks at me like I belong to him.
Blaze doesn’t move, watching me with that same unsettling calm, like my struggle is something expected. Something inevitable.
Behind him, Dr. J shifts, already turning away. “Enough,” he says. “We proceed as planned.”
The words send a fresh wave of panic crashing through me.
Not again.
Blaze straightens slowly. “You can run as much as you want,” he says, his voice steady, certain. “It doesn’t change what you are.”
My claws scrape harder against the stone, my body trembling as I press into the corner of the cage, trying to make myself smaller, trying to disappear.
“It doesn’t change who you belong to.”
Rage surges up, sharp and desperate, but it tangles with fear before it can fully take hold.
“I’ll find you every time,” he murmurs.
The lights flicker overhead, once, twice, before everything drops into darkness.
His voice lingering as he whispers, “Don’t forget that, omega.”
I jolt upright, gasping for breath. Someone moves beside me, and a scream catches in my throat as I try to leap away in the opposite direction. Not realizing I’m in my human form, I stumble over a body in the bed and fall forward, landing hard on the ground on my shoulder.
Loud, masculine voices fill the air, and a strangled cry erupts from me. I jump to my feet, slipping out of reach of the large hands aimed my way. I see a door and yank it open, throwing myself inside.
Too late. I realize it's not an escape, it’s an empty closet. My legs tremble with fear as I collapse to the ground, quickly crawling forward to the corner and curling up small, my face hidden in my knees as I pray Blaze won’t find me here.
I gasp for breath as tears stream down my cheeks. Am I at the facility? There were no closets there. But Blaze’s warning reverberates around my mind, his voice so clear it clouds all reasoning.
“Shh, shh, it’s okay, baby. We’re here.”
That voice cuts through Blaze’s, and I hold my breath, wondering where it’s coming from.
“That’s it, come back to us, little mate.” That’s Maddox. Is he real? Is he here?
Needing to know the truth and pull myself from this awful mind-fuck of confusion, I force my eyes open.
Light streams in from the open door, and my breath catches in my throat, finding Maddox, Chase, Gage, and Hunter, all sitting on the closet floor in front of me, even though they're crammed in like sardines.
“You’re real?” I whisper, hoping my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me. Someone squeezes me, and my head jerks up in surprise. I find Bain’s worried blue eyes staring down at me.
“We’re real, baby,” he whispers before pressing his forehead against mine. I close my eyes and breathe him in. All five of their scents wash over me, telling me they’re really here.
Realizing I’m sitting in Bain’s lap while he rocks me back and forth, I press my fingers to his chest, needing to feel him.
This is real. The facility and Blaze, that was all just a nightmare.
An awful nightmare.
I woke up and freaked out, and my mates, my wonderful mates, crammed themselves into this closet so they could comfort me. Not because they own me. Because they love me.
I don’t need words to see that.
That’s apparently the thought to break the dam. I throw my arms around Bain’s neck and press my face into him as I let the tears run free.
“Don’t cry, baby,” he says, sounding pained.
I want to tell him that I love him, that I’m crying from relief. I’m crying because that nightmare made me realize how much I care about them and how much I have to lose now.
“She needs to let it out,” Hunter says as several hands rub my back, arm, and leg.
“I don’t like it,” Chase says, sounding like he’s pouting.
“Can’t you tell the difference?” Hunter asks. “Before, she was crying because she was scared. This is different. She’s crying because she’s relieved.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Chase tells him, and Hunter sighs.
A low rumble starts to emanate through Bain’s chest, and I hold my breath, unsure what it is.
Everyone is silent for a moment until Gage asks, “Is he—Is he purring?”
I press my ear into Bain, holding him a little tighter, and realize that’s exactly what it feels like.
He’s purring. I immediately feel the effects of it through my body.
It’s not sexual, it’s calming. Realizing I’ve stopped crying, I wipe at my cheeks and turn a bit more sideways in his lap, so I can press my ear to his chest and let that sound sink into my bones.
That’s when I realize I’m naked. I’m not even sure when I shifted. I remember going to bed in my wolf form.
I press myself tighter into Bain as his arms band around me, holding me tightly. I peek over his wrist at the others and see their worried gazes.
“I-I’m sorry I scared you,” I whisper nervously.
“You don’t apologize for having a nightmare,” Maddox says, his hands resting over his knees, clenching into fists before releasing, as if he’s desperate to hold something.
Me.
I gently press against Bain’s arms, and he lets me go, his purr cutting off as I leap across to Maddox, ignoring the fact that I’m naked as I let him gather me into his arms. “You’re okay, sweetheart.” He kisses the top of my head as he whispers, “We have you.”
I let him rock me back and forth for a minute, letting his scent surround me until I feel someone else’s hand on me. Opening my eyes, I see Gage’s strained smile.
“Feeling better now?”
Instinct has me reaching for him, and I see the flash of surprise on his face before he pulls me into his lap, and I wrap myself around him. He runs his hand up and down my back and lets out a contented sigh. “This is nice,” he whispers.
“Dude!” Chase says with an indignant laugh.
“I don’t mean the whole nightmare thing,” Gage says with a sigh. “I mean being able to hold her without worrying about everyone keeping a hand on her.”
“I like it too,” I whisper before placing a kiss on his neck. He kisses the side of my head, and now it’s my turn to sigh, the nightmare starting to fade away.
“My turn?” Chase asks. When I look at him, he makes grabby hands at me. I can’t help but smile as I reach for him. Instead of pulling me into his lap, like the others did, he pulls me close to his chest, letting me wrap my arms and legs around him, then stands and exits the closet.
I feel him move into the bed before gently lying us on our sides.
A body quickly moves up behind me, and a quick sniff tells me it’s Hunter.
He moves so close there isn’t an inch of space between us anywhere, and as his arm skates around my stomach, I sigh, the last remnants of the nightmare nowhere to be found.
Blaze might be out there somewhere, but right now, I find I don’t care. I have my mates, what more could I need?
Your bonds, a voice inside me insists.
Yeah, well. I’m working on it.