“We know each other well enough by now, don’t you think?” she says dryly and stands up.
She’s avoiding my gaze. As I watch, she swipes her hair behind her ears, then unhooks the hair on the side of her face where the scar is. It’s a brutal reminder of what she went through. And a reminder that she still thinks she needs to hide, even behind a curtain of hair.
She is so damaged and vulnerable to these alphas. I can’t leave her with them.
The little omega packs up her belongings and, with quiet dignity, leaves the house.
Shale slams me into the wall. My head cracks against it, and I see stars. Fuck! I reach up and grip his wrists, but he’s immovable. Ezy tries to pull him off, but the alpha has lost it.
“I’ve had it. Come with me!” Shale barks, and I feel the command sink into me. I can’t fight it, though I try.
He leads us next door, somehow knowing she will be gone, down the dark garden path and to the hidden cave at the bottom of the garden.
“What are we doing here?” I snarl.
Shale doesn’t answer, just walks into the cave.
I wonder if he’s going to kill us, but when I get in there, I find a bed with a few pillows. It smells earthy and there are candles around the floor.
“What the fuck is this?” I snap. I edge back away from him, uncertain.
Shale waits until we’re all in here. Then he turns and speaks.
“When we found Aspyn, she was almost dead. She’d been homeless, and I don’t even know how long it had been since she ate last.”
I stare at him, feeling sick at his words.
“Aspyn is not welcome in the town, not with the townsfolk. Partly because of her injuries and how she looks, her mother’s profession, and probably more so to do with the fact that she is a good person who has been hit by a crap tonne of bad luck.”
Yeah, right. People don’t treat people like that. They would help her. But it’s a nice story, I’m sure it makes them feel better at night.
“That doesn’t explain this.”
Shale looks at the mattress with so much sorrow that I immediately return my eyes and try to see what I’m missing. A bed, candles, pillows, a dark place.
My eyes widen, and my breath punches out of me.
“No!”
Ezy and Gael make the connection and go still.
“This omega needs all of us, and if I have to beat every one of you until your skulls break every day until you give in and help her, I will do it. But I am never letting you go. Your days of freedom are long gone. Your omega needs you.”
Shale stalks out, fury in every line of his body.
I can’t look away from the mattress. Now I can smell the remnants of the heat. It presses at me, dragging a soul deep hunger out of me.
Aspyn isn’t living an idyllic life. Not at all.
I can’t leave.
Not until I get her free.
Chapter fourteen
Aspyn
AspynAged17