Chapter 17 Jo
seventeen
Jo
"Ihave to do this on my own, Declan." I tilt my chin defiantly, crossing my arms.
"Princess, just because I agree it's a good idea for you to do it, doesn't mean you have to do it alone." He frowns at me, a crease lining his brow.
"If you're there, it'll ruin everything. When they catch me, they'll waste my time trying to get me to tell them who helped me. Besides, if you're there, how will I know that I really did this on my own? What if they were more compliant because they were afraid of you?"
He grits his teeth, his stance one that mirrors my own.
He knows I'm right. Finally, after what feels like way too long, he sighs, pushing his ginger hair back from his face.
"There are twelve names on that list, right?
" At my tight nod, he continues, "Humor me.
For the first two, I'll hang back in the shadows, keeping an eye on you in case anything goes to shit.
Then, once you get through those two unscathed, you can take on the remaining ten by yourself? "
Huffing a breath through my nose, I glare at him.
He stares right back at me, before sighing again and gathering me in his arms. My cheek rests against his chest even as my own arms stay crossed in front of me.
His tobacco scent fills me with comfort, something I could never say about Daddy.
"C'mon, Jojo. Go easy on me. I just got you, and I can't stand the thought of you being in so much danger.
You may not be my omega, but you're family, and my alpha is raging at me that I'm supposed to keep you safe. "
Safe. Have I ever been safe? In the two years since Declan found me in Daddy's trailer and set it on fire, he's trained me. Taken my rage and taught me how to direct it. He helped me find out what happened to Mabel.
There's no way she killed those alphas.
Looking up at him, I nod. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have him watching over me while I make the kills necessary to send me to where they're holding my sister. "Alright, but only the first two, and that's it."
He leaves me to get ready, and I slip into my clothes, all black, as well as a balaclava to hide my face. The alpha who raped and murdered thirteen year-old Sylvie Benson will never see me coming—son of the Mayor or not.
Beep…beep…beep…
Fuck. Why does my head hurt?
Beep…beep…beep…
And what the hell is that sound? Did I…did the alert setting on my alarm get changed?
I want to open my eyes, but I can't. The last thing I remember was falling asleep with Hayden in my bed…but his smoky pepper scent is nowhere to be found. His scent…fuck.
Flashes of me following him back to his room so I could switch our bedding around come to mind, and I groan internally. I've always been a shit omega, and now is when my instincts decide to rear their ugly head?
After switching our bedding, I convinced him to not wash the jumpsuit he came in and let me take it instead…then I rushed back to my room and…shit.
I started making a nest. Using his comforter, briefs, and jumpsuit, and then…nothing. I don't remember a single thing.
Maybe I'm still in my room, and the nest-induced sleep is so good I'm having a hard time coming out of it.
But I can't smell him anymore. If I was in my room, my nose would be buried in his comforter, and my head wouldn't be pounding.
"We must've messed something up in the injection yesterday," a male voice mutters quietly.
Is that…Dr. Brooks? My fingers twitch, rough fabric brushing against my skin.
Am I in a hospital bed? Slowly, I become aware that there's something keeping my wrists in place. I must be cuffed to the bed railing.
Again.
"Yes, unfortunately." Another male voice answers.
One that I've never heard before. "I wonder why her omega was able to break through so quickly.
We'll have to keep an eye on that, but it seems that her scent is under control now, and we didn't even have to use an external scent blocker.
We're one step closer to figuring out how to completely nullify her omega, and in turn, alphas. "
His words…did I hear him right? Did he say he wanted to nullify omegas? That's not what they told me the shot was going to do. They said they just wanted to subdue our instincts.
Now that I'm thinking about it though, he's right. Something happened when I saw Tilly with her hands all over Hayden and my omega lost her mind. It was like a wall had shattered in my mind, or a cage had broken. Is this what they're doing to everyone else too?
The voice I don't recognize keeps going. "We'll have to notify Senator Kinsley right away that we've made some progress. Take whatever I've given her and make it the correct ratio for the Vasiliev bastard. See if it finally takes hold."
My hand moves again at the mention of Kole, twitching under the feel of stiff tape on the back of my hand. Assholes stuck a needle in me.
Both voices halt, and I have a distinct feeling they noticed my hand twitch. So, I make a show of yawning, finally try to open my eyes again, and I don't have to pretend to wince at the bright lights above me.
"Ah, Jo, you're awake." Doctor Brooks has moved to stand over me, looking across my body with a clinical eye.
"What…what happened, Doc?" I croak out, trying to sit up. “We gotta stop meetin’ like this.”
"It seems that our instinct tamping drug…
wore off early," he says with a tight smile, and I don't miss the fact that he went back to saying "tamping" instead of "nullifying".
"Mr. Pierce found you in your room, unconscious, and brought you to us.
He was quite panicked. It looked like you had been trying to build a nest."
I frown, pretending like I have no idea what he's talking about. "A nest? Doc, I've never had a proper nest in my life."
The owner of the second voice steps into my vision.
"Be that as it may, Josephine, we removed several items from your room that belonged to Mr. Pierce.
" The man in question, another beta, stares down at me with a judgmental look on his face.
He looks to be around his early fifties, with black hair graying at his temples.
He might be handsome if the sneer on his face didn't make him so ugly.
"No offense, Mr…?" I raise a brow, knowing he's obviously a doctor but wanting to make him a bit miffed.
"Doctor," he all but snarls. "Doctor Henry Whitmore, the brain behind the drug that's keeping you from being put in the Cathedral."
Whitmore. That’s who the orderlies in Zombieland referred to. So this is the mastermind behind everything here.
"Doctor Whitmore," I give a saccharine smile, "who's to know what's omega instinct and what's not? I enjoy ownin’ a little piece of my man, but I can assure you I was not nestin’. I've never even had a heat."
Something that Declan's doctors had been doing their best to figure out, but ultimately concluded that my omega is in a constant state of distress and has never had a safe place to exist. They figured that Mabel being taken was so traumatizing, that even once I was safe in Declan's care I most likely wouldn't stabilize until I knew where she was.
Don't want to think about what that means if we're too late.
"We're aware." Doctor Brooks gives me a fake smile. "Not to worry, Jo. It won't be an issue anymore… Mr. Pierce has been very worried about you these last two days." There’s a note of warning in his voice, like he might expect me to claim him as my alpha.
But nope, I’m not biting.
It’s then that the last part of his sentence hits me, and my stomach sinks. Two days? I really hope Turnip found someone else to hand-feed her bits from the cafeteria.
"I've been out of it for two days?" I try to keep my jaw off the ground. What the hell happened to me? That's two days I haven't been able to look for Mabel. I need to figure out how to get out of here so I can go back to the abandoned wing and snoop some more.
"We've been keeping you hydrated and comfortable. We don't know what caused the loss of consciousness exactly, but we upped your dose of the instinct inhibitor, and you should be good as new." He pats my hand, and I suppress the urge to pull back and wipe it off.
"Thanks Doc. Any word on when I can get out of here?"
"I'll send nurse Helaena in to check your vitals, and then you'll be good to go," Brooks says before heading for the door. "Doctor Whitmore? Are you coming?"
The other doctor's jaw ticks as he glares at me like he wants to say something, but then he nods at Brooks and follows him out the door.
Ugh. I get the same slimy feeling from Whitmore as I do Brooks, but…Whitmore actually seems like he might hate me. Which, totally fair if you know me, but I've never even met the guy before.
I only have a brief second to rest my head back on my pillow before Nurse Helaena comes bustling into the room.
"Hi, Jo," she says kindly as she approaches the bed.
"How are you feeling, sweetie?" The bruises on her neck are pretty much gone at this point, and her deep brown eyes shine with warmth as she pulls a stool next to me.
I never much cared for people calling me sweetie, but there's something about Helaena that reminds me a bit of Mama.
She doesn't look a thing like her, but it's all in her demeanor.
The way she's able to keep her kind heart despite dealing with assholes like Brooks and Banesworth.
Part of me wants to ask why she's here. Why she works in an abusive environment like this, but I of all people know that we aren't always in control of our circumstances.
"Just peachy," I give her a weak smile, noting that I feel much weaker than normal, but that might be due to not eating for a couple of days, "any chance of gettin' these things off my wrist though?" I look pointedly at the handcuffs, still tethering me to the bed.