22. Zephyr
Zephyr
Honey and Lazarus have been in Prez’s office for over two hours.
Without an omega in heat to keep me spurred on, my rut is starting to wane.
Maybe. It’s so hard to tell because one minute my body feels like it’s being burned alive, and the next I’m just fine.
But I’ve been just fine since I woke up to Lazarus leading Honey away two hours ago.
I let Phoenix sleep, knowing he’d come find me when he woke up. Sitting here in the hallway outside of Prez’s office seems a little excessive, but I want to be as close to the omega as possible.
Not the omega. She hates it when we say that word in reference to her. Honey, sweetness, or good girl, but never omega.
The door opens, and I stand in a hurry. Fox looms in the opening, his expression the typical blank and bored look he always wears.
“Get in here,” Revenant growls from behind him, and I push off the wall.
Honey’s eyes are red like she’s been crying, and my shadow bristles, the fur around his neck standing on end. What did they do?
I rush to her side, pull her into my arms, and start purring.
“Oh, quit acting like we hurt her,” Revenant snarls.
Honey flinches in my arms.
“Then quit acting like—”
Lazarus clears his throat, and I don’t finish my sentence.
“Are you okay?” I whisper just for her to hear. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”
Honey nods into my chest.
I kiss the top of her head and make myself take a step back. But I can’t stop touching her. I trail my hand down her arm and link our fingers together. Phoenix touches her, so now I want to too.
“Mayhem, myself, Lazarus, and Techno are riding on a reconnaissance mission to where Honey came from. There are sensitive pieces of information at stake.” Revenant is firm with his words. “Can I trust the two of you to not start shit while Fox holds down the fort?”
“Yes,” I answer firmly.
With Honey to keep us occupied, I highly doubt Phoenix and I will leave the room, let alone find trouble.
“Fox, get that tracker out of her. We need to turn the Wi-Fi back on. As much as I like not being reachable, the shit service in the compound is starting more arguments than I’d like.” Revenant doles out orders before looking at Honey. “And if you remember anything valuable, you’ll tell the twins.”
Revenant’s eyes flick to me for a moment.
“Yes, Alpha.” Honey shrinks back in her chair, pulling her fingers from mine.
“We’ll leave at dusk.” Revenant seems uncharacteristically unsteady, like he’s itching to ride out now, but no one questions it.
“Revenant!” someone shouts from somewhere out in the hallway.
“What fuckin’ now?” Revenant pushes out of his chair. “Meeting dismissed.”
We wait while Revenant clears the office, followed by Mayhem.
“You were very helpful.” Lazarus gives Honey a nod of approval.
It’s one I’ve received a few times that feels like you’re walking on water.
Honey offers a small smile.
Fox rolls his eyes and lets out a massive huff. He grabs the whiteboard off the desk and a marker, writing out, “I can’t do the tracker until tomorrow morning after breakfast. The last of the rut will be out of your system, and I won’t have to restrain you while I figure out where the chip is.”
Well, at least I was right, the rut is ebbing.
Honey slightly pulls away from me as she gets up out of her chair. I offer her my hand, trying to get her to hold it, and she hesitates.
She clasps her hands together before her.
Fox couldn’t be bothered to care what’s happening and walks off.
Lazarus though? He sees it, and his scolding look comes with clearing his throat before the truth.
“It is Honey’s choice to join with you and Phoenix.
You must honor her wishes and decisions.
You and your brother should come to the apartment together and find out how she’d like you to make amends after the stunt you two pulled on her. ”
With that, Lazarus leaves us alone. The president’s office doesn’t seem like the best place to grovel, and Lazarus instructed me to get Phoenix up to our apartment and make it right there.
Honey turns away from me, following Lazarus, and I’m cold and alone.
Phoenix is tossing the bedding we slept on into the washing machine in the omega nests when I find him. He yawns and immediately stops what he’s doing to approach me.
“Did you find her?” He hugs me, resting his head on my shoulder.
I mimic his movement, leaning the other way.
“I did. Lazarus knows what we did. We have to make amends, however Honey sees fit.” I close my eyes, waiting for Phoenix to respond.
“Guessing he’s mad that we touched her after Fox said no?” He groans, shoulders dropping. “It’s not like Honey told us to stop.”
“She didn’t tell us it was okay, though, either.” I push my head against his before standing upright.
“She got slick for us.” Phoenix argues with me, his brows furrowing.
I purse my lips, trying to figure out what I need to say to quickly get him to understand we did something bad.
“Just because we don’t subscribe to the teachings of the Gods doesn’t mean Honey’s relationship with her God is any less real.
Lazarus told us that his God sees sex as sacred between mates. Honey probably feels the same way.”
“We are her mates. Obviously.” He gestures back to the nest with the stripped bed. “You saw what spectrum she felt most comfortable with. It’s smack dab in the middle of ours. We’re her mates. Sex with us isn’t going against her God’s will.”
I wrap my hand behind his head and bring his forehead to rest against mine and just wait, hoping for osmosis, or the connection we have as twins, to let it all sink into his brain.
A couple minutes pass before Phoenix pushes away from me. “Oh. We messed up.”
“Yeah, our rut isn’t an excuse for this.” I step away and finish starting the washing machine.
He pulls the zipper up higher on his sweatshirt. “I don’t know how you deal with these zippers falling down all the time.”
“Well, if you quit stealing my sweatshirts, it wouldn’t be a problem.
” I pull off my hoodie while he shuffles out of the sleeves of the zip-up one.
“Lazarus is riding out with Rev and Mayz. Apparently, Honey had some big information, and they want to check on it. Something to do with the people who had her and the ones that Lazarus was with before too.”
“They’re the same people.” Phoenix informs me. “They’re both from this House of Apostles thing.”
“Think he knew her before he was here?” I pull the zipper along the track. It’s not as warm as the hoodie was, but I’m still slightly warm from the effects of rut.
Phoenix shakes his head. “No, I don’t think they did. He’s being weird about her for sure, but I don’t think he knew her back then.”
“Well . . .” I try to look ahead at what’s to come. “Hopefully, after we apologize, Honey will forgive us, and then when Lazarus gets back, we can all become a pack.”
“Laz will have to. I mean, how can he not? Have you seen the way he looks at her?” Phoenix’s sentences start and stop interrupting each other.
I set a reminder on my phone for the laundry down here and head toward the elevator. Phoenix follows me. “One thing at a time. First, we must do better by Honey and make her like us. We’ve got to apologize. We’ve got to make it so she wants to stay with us. Then we’ll get Lazarus on board.”
“What if we can’t?” Phoenix pushes the button for the elevator and leans against the sliding door, waiting for the elevator to arrive.
“Lazarus or Honey?”
“Both.”
“We’re not Revenant, Mayhem, or Fox. We won’t be able to make her or him do something they don’t want to do.” I brace for his reaction with my next statement. “We might just have to let them go.”
The elevator door slides open, causing Phoenix to step back, but the timing makes it feel like he’s being pushed back by my words.
“Her leaving is not an option,” he snaps.
My heart resonates with his words. But the reality of the situation keeps me weighed down.
I’ve been home for only a handful of days, and life isn’t going back to normal. If anything, the life I was dreaming about is gone.