Chapter 37
“ I swear to God, Kane, I love you, but if you don’t go home to your omega soon, I’m going to lose my mind. And Lavender’s probably going to murder you,” I said, sitting up in the bed and glaring at my brother.
He was sleeping on an air mattress on my floor. How they even allowed him to do that was beyond me, because alphas weren’t meant to be anywhere near the Haven.
So, they were keeping me in a separate wing that alphas were occasionally allowed to go in under extreme circumstances, such as this. He was also only allowed in because he was a mated alpha and, therefore, seen as a lot safer.
Kane frowned at me. “I want to make sure you’re settled in,” he said. Although he was far too big for the little air mattress, he hadn’t said a single word of complaint, despite his feet dangling off the edge.
I gestured to the beautiful room around me. “I am settled in. I’m happy and I’m comfortable, brother.”
The Havens had somehow become even more beautiful over the last five years. The room I was in was decorated in soft blues and browns, and I loved it. It was calming and simple.
“You could still come stay with me, you know,” he said.
I grimaced. We had already had this conversation. Several times. “Kane, as I just said, I love you, but the last thing I want is to listen to you, your omega, and all your pack mates going at it at all hours of the day and night. I’ve seen the way you guys look at each other—I would rather not live with that, as much as I love you.”
They’d all visited on several occasions, and every single member of his pack was constantly glancing at each other with that secretive nudge, nudge, wink, win k look—the kind that meant clothes would be coming off in short order. I may have been living in a basement for years, but I’d sussed out sex pretty darn quickly.
I got the impression that, whenever omegas and alpha were mated, they were constantly going at it. I could understand because the frequency I’d wanted to jump my guys at the cabin was quite impressive.
Kane grumbled. “We could always add soundproofing,” he suggested.
I grimaced again. “Do you really think soundproofing is going to be enough? Really think about it,” I said, glowering at him.
He shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t want to leave you on your own.”
“I’m not on my own. There are so many omegas here. There are guards and therapists... Literally all I’m doing right now is going to therapy.”
“How’s that going?” he asked.
I cocked my head to the side. “It’s going really well, I think. I mean, we’re still getting to know each other, but I like my therapist, and I think we’re going to get along well.”
Dr. Sarah, my therapist, was slowly talking me through the entirety of the last few months. Our first appointment was only meant to be an hour or two, but it ended up lasting the entire day. As we ate fries, we discussed my entire history—from living with my family, to the basement, to the cabin.
Kane shook his head. “I still don’t want to leave you alone.”
I groaned, flopping back onto my bed and staring at the ceiling. The room was far more luxurious than I could’ve imagined. The bed alone was fit for a queen; it was the softest bed I’d ever slept on, with enough blankets and pillows to fill an ocean. A lot of the omegas had heard about me coming to the Haven and had sent gifts, most of them in the form of nesting supplies. Every pillow, blanket, hoody, and item of comfortable clothing had come with a sweet note, usually saying they were happy I was here and if I needed anything, I could just message them.
It was overwhelming at first, but I was starting to enjoy it. Although, I'd only met a few omegas so far; they didn’t want to crowd me too quickly. Plus, for the first two weeks, I'd been with my brother most of the time, so I hadn’t had much one-on-one time with any of the other omegas. Most of them didn’t want to be near an alpha, even if they were mated.
“You still haven’t really told me about them, ” Kane said, referring to my guys.
I huffed. I hadn’t gone into detail, but I had made it clear that I had wanted to stay with them. “They’re brilliant,” I said, still staring at the ceiling. “They care about me a lot, and I think I love them. Or, at least, I think I will. I’m not really sure. I need time to figure out what I want—do you get that?”
He nodded. “I do. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. They took advantage of you when you were in a weak time.”
I scoffed. “ I took advantage of them. If anything, I crashed into their private space, stole their food, stole their virtue, and thoroughly enjoyed it.” I beamed at him, watching a blush spread over his face.
“I—wait, huh?” he sputtered.
I giggled maniacally. Okay, I hadn’t stolen the guys’ virtue—technically, they had stolen my virtue—but it was fun to fuck with my brother.
“Hey, you’ve got them to thank for me being here,” I said, gesturing to the room around me. “I wanted to stay, Kane. I was ready to fight tooth and nail. I was ready to bite one of them and refuse to leave. I was going to make a nest in that cabin and never exit.”
“But then we wouldn’t have found each other,” he pointed out.
I shook my head. “I would’ve called and we could’ve met up, but I would’ve been staying with my pack.”
“Then, why are you here?”
“Because they insisted, ” I replied pointedly. “They knew what I’d been through. I told them, I told them more than I’ve told you, honestly, and they were really good about it. They knew I needed time to get my head on straight. Once I’ve had a boatload of therapy, I expect you to support me when I make the choice of my pack. Even if it’s not a pack the Haven presents to me.”
Kane grimaced. “I don’t like it. They vet the guys really well here, but these guys could be psychopaths, for all we know. What kind of people live in a cabin in the middle of nowhere?”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “You know what? Sometimes the weird ones make for good mates. You wouldn’t think someone who kidnaps omegas from a Haven would make a good mate, would you?”
Kane opened his mouth indignantly and frowned. “That’s not the—okay, you are taking this all out of proportion. That was a whole other situation.”
I laughed. “Kane, that was your situation, and it was unique. This is my situation, and it’s unique. But I’m doing good. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. I’m not going to vanish on you. You can call me as much as you want, and Lavender better visit me. She promised to bring me gummy bears next time, and if she doesn’t bring them, I’m going to revolt. But other than that, I’m looking forward to seeing you guys. I need to start behaving like a normal omega here. My guys had only one request of me before I came here, and it was for me to live my life as a normal omega, to go to therapy, and to get healthy and to understand what I want. We all agreed that, in a year’s time, if I still want them, we could talk about it ”
“I don’t like it,” he grumbled again.
“Well, it’s a good thing you don’t have to like it. Only I do.” I paused, giving him a knowing look. “I’m guessing you’ve already vetted several of the keepers for me?”
He nodded. “Yeah, we did a full background check on all of them. The ones you’ve met seem to be really good and solid.”
Once I’d been brought to the Haven, Kane and his pack had barged in and started bickering about security. He didn’t want to admit it, because this would get him arrested, but he and his pack mates had broken into the very same Haven themselves not that long ago to kidnap Lavender. They thought she was in the way of a job they were doing, when in reality, she was the omega for them, and they’d fallen madly in love. A real “captor-captive” situation.
Frankly, I didn’t know how my brother had managed to change his reputation, make himself out to be a golden boy who was rescuing omegas, and thus be allowed to court Lavender in the normal legal way. It was quite impressive.
“I’m never going to settle down and be normal here as long as my brother is sleeping on my floor,” I pointed out. “I need to be able to develop a routine, go to those stupid exercise classes with other omegas, socialise… How am I ever going to figure out what’s out there and what I want if I don’t get the chance?”
Kane groaned. “Of course, you decide to bring this up at three a.m.,” he grumbled, throwing an arm over his face.
“Yes, well, you snore like a dump truck, and you’re keeping me awake, so it seemed like as good a time as any.”
“I don’t snore,” he said indignantly.
I glared at him. “Oh, you snore. Do you need me to record it for you? Just ask Lavender—I’m surprised she’s not gone deaf by the way you snore. You sound like a broken chainsaw going off, and I don’t even sleep next to you. That poor omega puts up with so much from you.” I was trying to glower as I spoke, but I couldn’t stop giggling.
A smile broke out over Kane’s face at the mention of Lavender’s name. “She puts up with so much from me,” he agreed, a dreamy smile spreading over his face. “She’s perfect. I don’t know how I got so lucky.”
I cocked my head to the side, rolling over to face him. “You didn’t get lucky. You found your omega. That’s what a pack is meant to feel like. It’s supposed to feel easy and right and just simple when you’re in it. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you guys had a few hiccups getting there, but now you’re so happy. I want that.”
He had claimed Lavender officially a few months after she had escaped. Thanks to a nasty infection in her leg she hadn’t been able to tell him I was alive—he had only discovered that a few weeks prior and he had clearly been beating himself up about it.
Kane’s eyes widened. “You want to be kidnapped again?”
I laughed. “No, of course not. I mean, I want what you guys have now. I don’t want the whole kidnapping part—unless it’s my guys kidnapping me. I could probably get down with that. But you know what? I feel like I’ve been kidnapped enough for one lifetime.”
Kane grumbled, flopping back on his mattress. “I’m putting a fucking tracking chip in you,” he muttered.
“Well, if you do that, I’m just going to cut it out,” I shot back with a smirk.
Kane groaned. “I’m going to need to get you more security guards, aren’t I?”