Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
The sedative makes me drift in the haze of my heat, keeping me somewhere between consciousness and unconsciousness.
Pain still flares in my belly, but it feels distant, just a far-off buzz.
My body feels heavy, and I sink into the sweat-stained sheets as they stick to my skin.
I’m still feverish, despite the eternity that seems to have passed.
My gown clings to my body, soaked in sweat from my fever, and I wish I had the strength to rip it off.
It feels stifling, too tight, too tangled up in my legs.
But I’m alive. I didn’t meet my end from the sedative my father jabbed into my arm.
I wasn’t taken to an operating theater to have my maginalus removed.
It’s too early for him to steal away my magic once more, this time in a far deadlier fashion.
His success rate has to improve, which means more omega test subjects.
I weep, not from pain, but from the agony of knowing I won’t be able to prevent their deaths. Did the omega with the fire affinity survive after I lashed out at my father, or did he return to her and perform the brutal operation?
My thoughts drift away, stolen by my heat and the sedative.
I refuse to see my father sedating me as a kindness, even though it has let me drift through my heat, floating on the surface of a sea of pain.
Two thuds sound outside my door, but I’m too deep in the haze of my heat to think too hard about them—until a Soldier stalks into the room, his scribe raised, my men behind him. All but Luca. Saints, my frayed mind thinks the worst when the Soldier approaches.
No.
The Soldier has brought them here to kill them in front of me. My punishment for slashing my father’s face. My chest tightens, as heavy as a stone, and my eyes heat as I begin to sob. My worst nightmares are coming true, and I’m cuffed to a bed, not caught in an omega trap.
My affinity…
I’m too weak. Too weak to stab pain into the Soldier’s mind, giving the others a fighting chance.
And then the Soldier removes his mask.
Luca.
His long blond hair is mussed, and his pale green eyes wild.
I sob all the harder at seeing his face. At seeing my men all here with me.
I reach out for him, and he comes to me, releasing me from the handcuffs. I fly into his arms, weeping against his neck as I gulp in his scent.
“Fuck, princess. Your heat came?”
“Early,” I croak out.
My pack surrounds me, their scents washing over me, but they’re bitter from fear, laced with tension. I feel it down my bonds, now so strong since my pack is here with me.
Marcus lingers at the door, watching the hallway, but he spares me a glance that fills my heart with hope.
They’re alive.
“Come on, love,” Cassian says in a low voice. “We’re getting you out of here.”
I whine for him, and he comes to me, cupping my cheek in his hand. He presses a kiss to my lips, pouring all of his love and relief into it.
Ian comes up to me and takes my hand, pressing a kiss to my heated palm. “We’ve got to go, my darling. This has to wait. I know you need us right now, but you have to be brave. We don’t have much time.”
I nod up at him, understanding the need for haste through the haze consuming my mind. Now that they’re here, I can let go. I can let it overtake me.
Ian makes quick work of the collar around my neck, casting the same spell we used to unlock them previously. The cool metal unlatches from around my neck, and he tosses the inert collar to the bed.
Luca dons the mask again, but I don’t shudder. Saints, he’s so brave to wear it again. If he were caught… No, I can’t think like that. Not now when they’re rescuing me.
Luca lifts me into his arms as Marcus drags two bodies into the room. Soldiers, stunned into oblivion. Maybe dead. I don’t spare a second thought for them.
The moment we’re out the door and into the hallway, Ian takes the scribe from Luca and traces out wards that will take the Soldiers hours to break. In the hall, I see the headmaster, and I frown, but I’m too lost, too adrift to consider why he might be here.
In Luca’s arms, I sink deep into the confusion of my heat, slipping in and out of consciousness once more.
The sedative is still making me slow, but I’m safe in my alpha’s arms. We walk through the hallway and eventually descend several flights of stairs, Luca taking great care so as not to jostle me in his arms. Darkness surrounds us as we make our way to… to where? I don’t know.
Ian lights the end of his scribe, but it’s such a dull glow that I can’t make out anything about our surroundings.
I’m carried for what seems like hours, but it could be only minutes, half-awake in Luca’s arms as I drift. Luca’s scent in my nose is like salvation, juicy cherries and dark red wine. It wraps around me, stilling some instinctual part of me.
Marcus is just close enough that I smell him too. The wintry scent of pine is just enough to calm the wild fear making my heart race. He holds a stolen scribe aloft, though not lit. I can just make out his features over Luca’s shoulders in the too-dim light of wherever we are.
He won’t let us be caught and captured once more. My stalwart protector won’t let any harm come to me.
I’m carried along, eyes closed now, strained from trying to make out our surroundings by the low light of Ian’s scribe.
And then I feel it. Cool night air on my cheek, a light autumn breeze flowing over my heated skin.
Saints above. I’m free.
I beg for my mates, needing their skin against mine, their bodies moving with mine, but they deny me.
“You’re too fragile right now, my darling,” Ian murmurs while applying a spell to my abdomen to dull the pain.
I scowl up at him, batting at him ineffectually. “I need it.”
“You need to rest, love,” Cassian says, kneeling beside me with a bottle of water. I bat at him too but eventually drink down the whole bottle. He caps it and tosses it aside before lying down with me, pulling me into his arms.
I vaguely recognize my nest around me, but the haze and need have stolen my thoughts away once more. Home? Am I home? Is this all some sort of dream? My pack is finally here with me, their touches soft on my heated skin.
Cassian tucks me against him and nuzzles my temple, marking me with a scent I want to spike, want to drink in until the feverish need inside me subsides. Ian applies another spell, this time to my neck, and I glare up at him at the betrayal.
Another sedative to string me out, like I haven’t suffered enough during this heat.
“I hate you,” I snarl. “How dare you sedate me? You’re supposed to be my mate, so mate me!”
Pain flashes through his bright blue eyes, but I barely register it as the sedative pulls me under.
I walk a tightrope between wakefulness and sleep, unable to fully wake, unable to finally succumb to a few hours of sleep.
I hear my pack talking quietly in my nest around me, but their words are muted, too far away to make out.
Still, the sound of their voices, their scents in my nose, is a relief so palpable tears leak down my cheeks.
Someone brushes them away with the cuff of their shirt. Simon. I whine for him, but all he does is press a kiss to my forehead. “Rest, Junes. You need to rest. You’ve been through something horrific. Your body is weak.”
I shoot him a dark look and turn over in my nest, right into Ian’s arms.
I burst into tears at how cruel I was to him, but the need inside me still flares, unsatisfied. “I don’t hate you,” I sob. “Please forgive me. I’m so sorry, Ian.”
He dries my tears and holds me close. “I know, my darling. I know. And I know you’re needy, but Simon is correct. You’re weak right now.”
I whine but let him tuck me against his shoulder.
His scent is strong here, and it washes over me in a wave of cedar and bergamot.
He nuzzles his scent into my skin, and I preen for him, tears still leaking from my eyes.
“My father sedated me while I was confined. I thought he was going to kill me. I’m sorry,” I say again, my voice choked with tears.
“Shh. I love you, Juniper. Nothing you could say will ever change that.”
I look up at him, my eyes watery. “I love you, too.”
The sedative pulls me back under, and this time, wrapped in my alpha’s arms, I finally fall asleep.
My fever breaks the next morning, and I kick away the sweat-soaked sheets, fighting with my blankets.
Luca helps me, pulling back the blankets and sheets and shoving them down to the foot of my nest. His eyes shine with tears as he strokes my cheek, marking me with his scent.
I keen into his touch, but the desire is gone from my core. Finally.
“You’re alive and here with us,” Luca breathes, amazed. “Saints, I thought we would never see you again.”
I nuzzle his neck. “They weren’t going to kill me,” I murmur. “But I… but I thought…”
He holds me closer. “You don’t need to say it, princess. We all know. We’ve all been through something horrific, but we’re free now. Can I convince you to eat something?”
“Not if it means you leaving this nest,” I grumble.
Not a moment later, Marcus appears at the top of the stairs, a small plate in his hand. Luca releases me, and I crawl to the edge of my nest. Marcus crouches before me, tilts my chin up and pulls me into a sweet kiss. “We’ve got you, sweet-tart. You’re safe.”
“Stay with me?” I beg, looking up into his green-gray eyes. His scent has been missing from my nest, and I need him beside me, need to feel his strong arms around me.
He bundles me into his arms, settling me on his lap. “Eat first, and then I’ll lie down with you, okay?”
“Okay,” I say softly. I let him feed me apple slices dipped in peanut butter while curled to him, breathing in his scent. The scent that belongs here, with my pack. When I’ve finished my food, he sets the plate on the stairs and comes to me, wrapping his arms around me.
“You’ll stay?”
“Always, Juniper. Always.”