Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
Irolled over, trying to ignore the buzzing on the nightstand. Whatever time it was, it was too early. I’d had another episode, and the last thing I wanted was to be awake enough to talk to Mike. It could have been Peter, but he had been pretty conscious of the time difference when calling.
Except the phone didn’t stop vibrating. I was pretty sure it was the third call when the phone buzzed its way onto the floor and continued its path on the floor. I took a breath, trying to close my ears.
“Oh my god. What the actual fuck?”
Laila threw open my door, and I curled up against the light. She stomped around the bed, picking up the phone that was now probably on the fifth call, and answered it.
“Look, you know what he went through last night. You really think…?”
“You need to leave! Now!” Mike’s voice nearly screamed through the line.
I pushed myself up weakly. “Mike…what’s going on?”
“I’ve been monitoring the house since I got back in.
Alpha Genesis came over with your brother.
They were talking to Ebony.” He was talking a mile a minute now, and I tried to listen to everything.
“They set it all up. All of it. Alpha Genesis was behind the mall plan and paid off the Council not to intervene. Taking Marcus and poisoning him. Allowing you to leave.”
“What do you mean, allowed me to leave?” I cleared my throat. “Ebony said…”
Mike growled. “She lied, Colt! Alpha Genesis already knows you’re an Omega. He knows you’re pregnant too. They let you go because they have Marcus, but he knows where you are. Ebony tracked you to the house.”
My heart dropped in my chest, and I felt the blood leave my face. “He knows…”
“Your exact location. I don’t know how, Colt. She even said the tracker they used ended up failing off, but they found you. You need to get out! You aren’t safe!”
I looked down at my hands, my arms straining to hold me upright. “I can’t right now. I’m too weak. I wouldn’t be able to get up onto Lai.”
“Damn it! I don’t care how you leave, Colt! Steal a car! Take a boat! Fly! I don’t care! Alpha Dylan was just handed your coordinates and you need to fucking go!”
“Alright, Mike. We’ll figure something out.”
Nodding to Laila, she hung up the phone and then sat on my bed. Her eyes watched me, but I fell back down against the pillow. The phone rang again, but she silenced it. She reached out, rubbing my leg.
“Are you okay?”
I shook my head. “I know what he’s saying. I know, but…part of me wants to just give up. I’m so tired, Lai.”
“But Marcus…and your little girl…”
Tears filled my eyes, and I curled up more. “I know. I can’t even move right now.”
“Are you hungry? I can get you some food, and some of your ginger tea? Then we can talk about a plan? Cause there are options, like Mike said. It took us a while to get here. So even if they come straight over, we have a bit of time. We probably need to assume we are being monitored, though.”
Humming, I closed my eyes. “Thank you, Lai.”
She got up, but came to sit closer, her hands combing through my hair. “It’s okay. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. That stupid Alpha of yours doesn’t scare me. I’ll squash him under my big fat earth-dragon butt.”
Laila got a chuckle out of me. “I thought you didn’t have a big butt.”
“Yeah, well, I might have seen my reflection in the windows the other night.”
Coughing, I continued to laugh. “Is that why you were so sad? And why the tub of ice cream suddenly disappeared?”
“Maybe.”
We were quietly chuckling, and I reached out and squeezed her hand. “I bet Peter is a butt guy.”
“You think?”
I shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
“I’m not asking him that!”
“No, but you could go home. Where you belong. Work with Peter and get your relationship back on track. Really, get you back on track.”
Laila growled at me. “I’m not leaving you here alone, Colt. Out of the question. So Alpha Genesis can just scoop you up when he wants? No way. Nice try.” She squeezed my side. “I’m making you some tea, and then we will figure this out.”
Her weight disappeared from the bed, and I sighed.
I knew I shouldn’t have said anything. I was genuinely worn out.
Two episodes almost back to back were enough to strip me down.
Days without Marcus, not even feeling him, and knowing that he was with Ebony.
That there was a real possibly that I might actually lose him.
My hand rubbed my stomach absently, a motion that was starting to bring me comfort.
She was okay. Our little girl was still kicking and rolling around.
If anything, I needed to hold out for her.
I wasn’t at the safe point yet for her to be born.
We had weeks before she was ready, but the fear wormed its way into my heart.
What if we don’t get him back? What if I lost Marcus? Would I be able to survive her birth? Would I be able to live without Marcus?
Tears filled my eyes, and I buried my face in my pillow.
It hurt to think about it. The doubts creeping in, despite Mike saying the Alford’s were working on it.
It had been over a week. It had been over a week, and Ebony had been untouchable.
Too many eyes, too many attackers, too close to Marcus.
Mike just got back into the house security, but what did that do?
Watch her break him with the poison she was injecting into him?
“Colt?”
I rubbed my tears away into the pillow before looking up at Laila. She had a mug in one hand, reaching out to help me sit up with the other. Taking the mug from her, I blew off the steam coming from it. Sitting down next to me, she rubbed my back.
“It’s okay to cry. I don’t mind.”
“It’s not. I chose to leave. I thought…I thought it would give us time.”
She frowned. “It did. It gave you time. Didn’t you say that Ebony was just being used by Dylan? She’s probably useful until she isn’t. His goal has always been you.”
I snorted, taking a sip of the weak ginger tea. “Everyone is disposable to him.”
“Plus, it wasn’t like you were making it freely. You were under…what’s that word? Dissect?”
“Duress, Lai.”
Laila rolled her eyes. “Alright, smartass. Whatever. You made it under duress. Marcus was in Ebony’s hands; you were being threatened, your little girl, and Mason. You did what you had to do to keep them safe. Now, we need to focus on keeping you safe.”
My lips trembled, but I took another sip of tea to cover it. “Where do we go? What chance do we have? If they already found us here… I can’t keep running.” I flashed her a smile. “I can’t even run at this point, and I’m pretty sure that it’s only going to get worse the longer I’m without Marcus.”
“What if we buy a small place in Mexico or something? We could also go back. Fight for Marcus. Ebony already broke the promise. Whether that asshole knew before or after, she fucking lied. You have no obligation to stay away now.”
I nodded absently. “Maybe. I don’t know if I want to be closer to Dylan though. I don’t know if that will be conducive to staying safe.”
“I mean, depends on where we go. We could go back to the Alford’s. Stay with Tyson and Candice. I’m sure they would be happy to house you.”
Frowning, I shook my head. “They are already dealing with Marcus…I’m not…”
“Don’t you dare finish that.” Laila snapped at me.
“I know you mean more to them than that. I know you might think you don’t, but you do.
Even Peter has said so. It’s an option, a safe one, Colt.
Otherwise, where else are we going to go?
I can’t take you to Dragon Isle or anything.
We could go into the Middle Eastern countries. I know of a few flights over there.”
“I’m not a dragon, though. On top of that, my existence…” I rubbed my bump. “I can’t. She and I will both lose everything.”
Laila growled, falling back onto the seat. “We need to do something. As soon as you are strong enough, we need to leave. You can’t stay here.”
I agreed with her. I just didn’t know where. Part of me thought of going back with Mike and Sabrina, but it would be a mess. Maybe we could go on the offensive, attack the house directly. Try to drive them out and stay there.
My body let out a shiver. I don’t think I could stay there anymore. The thought made my stomach churn. It wasn’t a safe place anymore. Ebony having her paws all over it made it worse.
“I think…I’m going to take a shower.”
Laila shook her head. “Do you want me to help you in the shower?”
Slowly, I put my feet on the floor. It was a wobbly step, but strong enough to hold myself up.
I shook my head. She nodded and watched me as I ran my hand along the wall to help, as I flicked on the lights to the bathroom.
The warm water felt good. After every time I fell asleep, I woke up in a sweat, and it felt good to be clean.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, I rubbed myself down with the towel and pulled on my usual sweats and sweatshirt.
My nose wrinkled, pulling the sweatshirt down further.
It wasn’t reaching all the way down today.
Groaning, this was so much worse than a pants issue.
This was Marcus’ sweatshirt. How was I too big to fit in this one?
Running my hand over the wall, steadying myself as I walked down the hall, I made my way to the kitchen.
It was about three-thirty in the morning now.
I thought Laila had gone to bed while I was taking a shower, but I saw her sitting in the chair, hunched over the phone.
She was typing furiously on it. Peter and her started texting as well, and it was going about as well as their conversation had gone.
As I poured the hot water, Laila slammed the phone down on the counter before plopping onto the stool at the island. I raised my eyebrow at her and she huffed.
“I hate him.”
“You don’t actually hate him.”
She snorted. “I do! He’s worse than my mother! Or my father. Or my entire family combined!”
I bit back the fact that her family probably should have been stricter with her growing up. “He cares. He just wants you to…”
“Be an obedient little mate?” Laila growled.
“No. If he wanted that, Lai, he would have just brought you home without giving you the freedom to dig yourself into a hole.” I put my mug down, looking at her seriously.
“I promise you that isn’t what he wants.
He wants the best for you. The problem is that you don’t know what is best for you, and Peter is trying to figure it out too. ”
I expected her to snap back at me, but she didn’t. Instead, her eyes glossed over, not looking at anything in particular. Smiling, I turned and pulled out a few different ingredients for a late-night snack.
“Hey, Colt?”
Humming, I put the baking tray into the oven.
“Why are you so mature?”
Closing the oven door, I turned around and put my hand on my hip. “Laila, I’m pregnant…at nineteen. I don’t think mature is the right word for it.”
“I mean, we all make decisions that aren’t always smart. Just…you come out of it like you…I don’t…like you’ve been through hell and back again. That no matter what, you have a level head.”
“I definitely don’t.” My hands pulled down on the sweatshirt.
“I’ve just gotten really good at shrinking myself into the background.
My entire life, I’ve been on a balance beam.
Balancing between being too much and not enough.
Because if I tipped either way, people would notice me. People would ask questions.”
Giving her a sad smile, I shrugged. “I got good at not letting anything out. Much to the chagrin of all my friends. Marcus especially hates it, but I think he realized it wasn’t just with him. So he backed off a little to give me room to fill the space slowly.”
Her lips pursed. “I don’t know if that’s true.”
“Then…let’s just say it’s easer to give advice than to take it.
” I chuckled. “People on the outside have a different perspective of what you’re dealing with.
For me, I’ve always looked at everything a little differently because one wrong move could mean life or death.
So I tend to be a little harsher than others. ”
“No kidding. That lecture you gave me coming in was downright mean.”
I stood up from my lean and pulled out a couple more ingredients for a dip. “Did you listen?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Had anyone else told it to you like that?”
“No.”
“Did you listen to anyone else?”
“No.”
“Then it did its job.”
Laila snorted. “You’re mean, Colt.”
“I never said I was nice.”