Episode 13 The Damage Done
Florence
I
flee into the main house, slipping through the side door and slamming it behind me before flicking the lock. Still feeling skittery and wired, I press my forehead to the glass, ignoring how I can feel the Ashbourne pack watching me from next to the pool.
But they don’t try to follow me. Maybe they understand I’m at my breaking point.
“Ren?” Haven’s voice reaches me just before the omega does. Her small hand slides onto my shoulder and squeezes. “You okay? What’s going on?”
I turn into her embrace, burying my face in her neck and breathing in the familiar pineapple and chili scent of my best friend. “I can’t believe you let them into my house,” I mutter eventually.
Haven sighs and strokes a hand up and down my spine, as the footsteps of much larger bodies join us.
“Listen, babe. Tic brought you home passed-out cold and burning up with fever, we couldn’t wake you up.
We had a doctor come and check you out and were told the best thing we could do would be to bring your pack to you, but barring that? Fever reducer and wait and see.”
I let out a shaking breath. “And then they showed up and you were worried enough about me to let them near me.”
She nods and brushes a kiss on the side of my head. “Yep, exactly. And you can’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same if our positions were reversed.”
She’s right, I absolutely would have done the same thing. Or more likely, I would have flown to Bravonne weeks ago and dragged them to her side by their dicks just to give her a little relief. I’m honestly surprised she didn’t do that.
“You want me to send the boys over to kick them out? They can go find a hotel.”
I consider it. They deserve it, for sure. But a part of me—my alpha obsessed omega part—really likes the idea of them in my space, their scents mingling with mine. I have the brief flash of them in my tiny nest built in my walking closet, and she all but purrs in my chest.
I know they won’t enter it without my permission. Even they aren’t that bold. But a weird part of me hopes they do.
I shake my head. “No, they can stay.”
She pulls back, hands braced on my shoulders as she scans her worried gaze over me. “You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, do you want them up here so you can have your space back?”
After a moment’s hesitation, I shake my head. “No. Not today. They can stay there.” The corner of my mouth hitches up at the thought of the five of them sharing my tiny little house. The couch isn’t a couch so much as a love seat that none of them will fit on. So most of them will be on the floor.
Haven nods, gray eyes running over me, concern etched over her face.
“Okay.” She says, slowly at first, then firmer.
“Okay.” Her arm loops around my shoulders and she guides me into the house, away from the glass door.
Away from the Ashbourne pack. The distance makes my stomach clench uncomfortably.
“Let’s get you set up in the guest room. Get you comfortable. You can rest for a bit longer and then we’ll figure out what we’re gonna do.”
As soon as she says the words, I feel overwhelmed. Figuring out what I’m gonna do is… terrifying.
“They aren’t staying,” I tell her softly as she guides me into the guest room as far from her nest as we can get.
“What?” Her eyes shoot to me like daggers. I wince even though I know her ire isn’t directed at me. No, that’s reserved entirely for my fated mates.
I shrug and collapse onto the side of the bed.
“They all but told me they’re here temporarily.
That they expect me to go with them and become their…
mistress.” I choke on the word and Haven does too, even though she didn’t say it.
One minute she’s breathing just fine and the next she’s coughing, enraged.
“Are you sure they’re your mates?” she finally wheezes, red faced and eyes watering.
“I mean, I don’t think it was Glen the camera guy that broke my heart and made me sick when I had to leave the show.”
Haven perches next to me. “Are you sure? Because asking you to be their mistress is just…”
I swipe a hand wearily down my face and scoot further onto the bed. The sheets smell all wrong, like laundry soap and not like my pack. But I grit my teeth and make myself stay where I am. Haven settles into the pillow next to me.
“I know,” I say softly. “It almost feels like they're rejecting me all over again. Telling me again I’m not good enough to be their omega. But they feel a duty to me now. You know? I’m sick and they feel responsible, so they’re trying to fix it while also keeping the promises they already made.
But I don’t think they actually want me, Haves. ”
She makes a kind of wounded sound on my behalf. “I think they do, Ren. I think they want you so much it’s fucked with their heads and now they’re scrambling. Trying to figure out what to do. But they’re going to get there, babe. I know they will. You’re too good for them to miss out on.”
I lick my lips and stare hard at the ceiling as tears slip from my eyes. “But what if they never get there? What if the only way I can be even remotely healthy is to take what they’re offering? A cottage in the country that they visit for my heats? No bond. No true pack. Can I live with that?”
Can I live with needing them so badly I’ll take the scraps they can give me, but not their whole selves? Can I live with knowing Isadora is out there on their arms preening like a peacock and pretending like she’s their bonded mate?
She reaches out and laces her fingers through mine. “They’ll get there. I know they will. You deserve to have your pack, and you deserve to be happy with them.”
I hum a non-committal sound.
We lay there for a while, the early morning light filtering through the curtains. I’m exhausted even though I’ve been sleeping for the last day, and I do actually feel better than I have since I returned from the show.
But I hate the reason for that.
Haven shifts closer, nestling into my side. Her eyes drift closed and mine do too, lulled to sleep by the sound of my best friend breathing.
I don’t sleep all that well. Tossing and turning in the guest room. Nothing smells right. The sheets don’t feel right. Now that I’ve slept in the arms of my pack, it seems my omega thinks nothing else will do. Which will be a delight when they inevitably leave me again.
I climb out of bed, bleary-eyed and yawning as I make my way through the suspiciously quiet house toward the kitchen, needing a jolt of caffeine to help me survive what will undoubtedly be an awful day.
The door to the back yard is open, letting in a cool morning breeze and the low murmur of voices. Voices I recognize all too well. Gritting my teeth I slink by the open portal, and into the kitchen, where I pull up short, brow wrinkling over the sheer quantity of food spread out on the island.
Croissants, muffins, scones. Pancakes and waffles. A platter of scrambled eggs. Another of bacon and sausage. Yogurt. Fruits. Toast. English muffins. Hashbrowns and home fries. It looks like someone went into a diner and ordered five of everything and then brought it back here.
Is this what the Calloway pack does for Haven every morning? If it is, I’m going to start coming here for breakfast.
My stomach rumbles, letting me know my early morning smoothie was not enough to satisfy it, but I’m still hesitant to stuff myself full of food. It hasn’t turned out well for me in the past.
I pluck a chocolate muffin out of the array and then move over to the coffee pot.
The house stays quiet while I eat the baked good and drink my caffeine, only the faint murmur of voices from outside reaching me. I know the Calloways wouldn’t have left me alone with the Ashbournes, I know Haven wouldn’t have done that either, but it sure feels like that’s the case.
I risk a glance out the window and freeze at what I find there. Court, Thayer and Haven, sitting together on a lounge chair, backs to the house. She’s between them and the insane urge I have to stride out there, grab her by her hair and drag her away from them hits hard and fast.
I have to take a deep breath and force my omega to calm. To notice the ten inches of space between their bodies. To remember that Haven is very happily mated to her fated pack and is currently carrying their first child.
My feet still carry me over to the back door, my coffee abandoned on the counter.
I pause just outside, their voices drifting over the back yard to me. “Did she tell you what happened to her knee?” Haven asks, looking over at Thayer and Court. Unaware that I’m behind them, listening.
Thayer shakes his head slowly. “Just that there was an accident.”
“She never said what though,” Haven accurately guesses. “I’m sure you assumed it was something like a car accident. But it was actually me.” I take one step forward to cut her off, to correct her. It sure as fuck wasn’t her that ruined my dream of dancing.
Both alphas glare at her, rumbling growls pulling from their chests as they clench their fists, and I realize I might need to intervene for a different reason.
Haven is unperturbed though, waving away their threatening growls, and likely the angry alpheromones wafting off of them.
“It wasn’t me directly, but my dad… He was a real psycho.
An abusive alpha who liked to keep me bound up as tight as he could with his commands.
He forbade me from being with my pack, which I ignored because…
well, they’re mine and I wanted them. They protected me, but Florence…
” I close my eyes as the memories assault me, the prick of the needle in my neck, the darkness that rushed in, waking up bound to a chair.
The way the sledgehammer hit my knee, shattering every one of my dreams in an instant.
Haven keeps talking. “He took her. Used her as bait to get to me. He took a hammer to her knee while recording it to really send the message home that he would kill her if I didn’t show up.”