15. Invasion
Invasion
Oren
"They said she's fine. After investigating, the OPA has determined this omega is in good condition and is being well-cared for." Santi looked up from his messages and raised an eyebrow. "They talked to her."
"She's not okay." Jude scowled at our alpha.
"I'm going over again." I stood up from the sofa.
"Oren, they're not going to let her see you."
"I have to try." I strode out of the house and over to the neighbors' place. When no one answered the doorbell, I walked around to the side gate.
"You can't go back there without permission," Grayson hissed over the fence.
"Screw that. She's in trouble, I know it. I can feel it, Gray."
He sighed. "Fine." There was a rustle and then he climbed over the fence and opened the gate for me. "Let's go."
No one was in the backyard, which didn't surprise me. It was getting chilly these days. I peered in the windows, but the place was empty. Perfectly clean and set up, but empty.
"Maybe they took her out," Grayson suggested, but he didn't sound like he believed it.
As we walked back around to the gate, I suddenly noticed a window tucked behind a corner of the house. It stood open.
"Wait a sec." I walked over to the window and peered inside.
At first glance, it was stunning. Painted trees covered the far wall, with branches framing individual scenes. The paintings stretched onto the next wall, but most of it only had the tree part painted.
"Hello?" I stuck my head in the window and immediately saw our omega. She was curled up on a single bed in the room, fast asleep.
"Is she there?" Grayson was beside me in a split second. "Emilia?"
She jerked awake, looking around in confusion before she turned and saw us in the window. Her entire face lit up and she slid off the bed, staring at us.
"What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you. What happened to you?"
Emilia bit her lip, tipping her head so her pale hair blocked her scar. She didn't say anything and that scared me more than not knowing where she was.
"You can talk to us," I told her. "We can keep a secret."
"They'll be furious if they find out I talked to you," she whispered. "They think I asked you to call OPA."
"We did call them, but it's because they've said you're sick every time we try to talk to you," Grayson said. "We've been trying to find you somehow and all OPA said was that you're fine. But you're not, are you?"
He'd gone all growly, like the alpha he was and I could see it was scaring Emilia. Gently pushing the alpha back from the window, I reached in and cupped her cheek.
"Tell me what's going on?"
"I can't. They'll be so angry."
"Okay. Are they feeding you?" She looked thinner than last time we'd seen her.
"Yes."
"Good. Do you want us to bring you anything?"
She shuddered and hugged herself. "No, they'd see it."
God, they'd really done a number on our little omega. I was tempted to just pull her out the window and take her home, but it would be far too obvious where she was. We had to be smart about this.
"How about some conversation, then," I suggested. "We'll stay out here so our scents don't mix and we'll go over the fence after. If we are seen, we were just getting Gertie out of your yard."
Emilia smiled faintly. "Okay." She climbed up and sat in the window, bare feet dangling. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Who did those paintings in your room?"
"I did." She smiled and glanced back. "It keeps me busy when I'm not needed."
The words made my chest hurt. "They're awesome. You should do that professionally!"
"Omega, remember?" She shrugged. "No one would hire an omega for that."
"I'm an omega, too," I reminded her, leaning against the wall, right by her legs.
Emilia shifted a little so her leg touched my shoulder and I heard her sigh. Looking up, she had her eyes closed. This omega was dying for someone to provide physical contact, I could tell. Taking a chance, I caught her foot in my hand and started gently massaging her ankle.
"That feels good," she groaned, gazing down at me with those chocolate brown eyes. "Wow."
"He's good at massages," Grayson told her. He leaned on the other side of the window and started working on the other foot. "So, you like to paint. Do you draw, too?"
"I do. Not well, but it's fun."
"You should have things that are fun," he told her, a little too intensely.
"I do." She shrugged, but her eyes were sad.
We chatted about recent shoots Grayson and I had been on. I pulled some of the photos up on my phone and she admitted that she'd looked us up on social media.
"I used to check every day, until they took my tablet." She snapped her mouth closed at that point.
"They took your tablet?"
"They thought I was talking to you guys or that I called OPA."
"Those motherfuckers . . . " Grayson growled. "They're not treating you well. You deserve a pack that will look after you and not replace you with some stuckup bitch."
Emilia's mouth dropped open. "Candace is a bitch," she admitted. "Can you believe she thinks I should make lunch just for her every day? I mean, I eat too, but how hard is it to make a sandwich for yourself?"
"Come back with us," I begged. "You can stay with us and we'll look after you."
"Tempting." She wiggled her foot in my hand. "But then I'd be sent back to ORC and I don't want to see that place again."
"Was it bad?" I asked.
"Not for me. I was in the widows' section. They let you grieve for a while there before you are sent on. The other side, where rejected mates go, that's where the horror stories come from." She shivered. "That's where I'll go if this all goes wrong. I have to be good."
Grayson and I looked at each other, frustrated. There had to be a way out of this.
"Let's run away to Mexico," I decided. "No one will bother us there."
"You're all famous models. You think no one will notice?" She laughed and shook her head. "It's okay. It's not your job to fix my life."
"You're my scentmatch, it's absolutely my job," Grayson told her seriously.
"Scentmatch." She snorted. "I'm such an idiot."
"What?" I stared at our omega.
"I thought you all smelled so incredible, like . . . . treats I want to lick. But it never occurred to me that you're my scentmatches. No wonder we're so drawn to each other."
"Will your pack understand?" I asked hopefully. "They know what it's like to have a scentmatch."
"I don't know. Jake has been so angry with me lately." She looked behind her anxiously.
"Okay, here's what we're going to do. I'll come back tomorrow with a phone," Grayson told her. "You can keep it hidden, but it will have all our numbers and we can text on it. We're working on figuring out how to get you out."
"Really?" She looked so surprised that I wanted to kiss her and prove that this wasn't some pie in the sky dream.
"Really," I said fiercely. "Emilia, you belong with us. You deserve to be loved and cherished. Not locked up in a room."
"Technically, I can always escape out the window," she pointed out.
"And that may be what you have to do," Grayson admitted. "If anything happens, get out this way and come straight to our place. We'll keep you safe."
"Thank you." She leaned over and wrapped her arms around me, lingering for a moment before she turned to hug Grayson, too. "They'll be home soon, so you better go. I feel better talking to you, though."
"Good." I gave her leg one last rub and reluctantly turned away.
Grayson and I hopped the fence and turned to wave at Emilia as she slipped back in through her window.
"I'm going to get her a phone right now."
"I'll come with," I said, hurrying after him on the way to the car. "We'll never not know what's going on with our omega again."
I smiled. I was already thinking of her as ours. This was exactly how it was supposed to be.