She warned me to hold my breath for a moment, then let it out as she realigned my nose and added a strip to help with healing. Then she left the room and I quickly put my shoes on and followed her out to the living room, ready to leave.
Chapter 13
Bad News
Aiden
We'd failed her. Not only had we ignored our omega for months, years, even, but we'd sent her away and she'd gotten hurt. My bond mark itched and I rubbed it, trying not to give in to the need to break down the door and see if she was okay.
When Dr. Nova came out, she looked furious.
"You bastards. I've known you for a long time, but what that woman has been through because of you . . ." She shook her head. "I can't tell you everything, since you're technically not her alphas, but she's severely malnourished and has multiple broken bones in various states of repair. I've set her nose but she has a pretty severe concussion. Ideally, she'd be on bedrest for at leasta month, but since I had to bargain with her to get to examine her, I'll be taking her into town."
"What?" I jumped to my feet. "She needs help, you can't just drop her off in town."
"You should have thought of that earlier. And she needs to report this to the Omega Protection Agency. This sort of abuse needs to be screened for before they assign omegas."
"There was no screening. They didn't even check on me," Liora said, stepping out of the bedroom. Her dark hair was damp, hanging limply against the simple green tank top she wore with gray sweatpants. She had her favorite shoes on her feet, the ones I had tucked into the bag when Mace ordered all her things to be removed.
"Liora, you're hurt. You need recovery time," Mace said. For the first time, he didn't demand something from her. Impressive.
"Baby, we don't want to see you in pain," Finn begged.
"You won't, because I won't be here. I've already shut down the bond as best I can." She stood there, trembling and even though she'd mostly closed off the bond, I could tell she was hurting.
"Where are you going to go?"
"Anywhere there aren't alphas," she said tiredly.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay here?" Dr. Nova asked gently. "You could stay in the guest room and they could leave you food outside your door."
"We'll do anything you need to keep you safe," I told her firmly. "If you need us to disappear, we will."
"I just want to disappear myself." She turned to Dr. Nova. "You said you'd give me a ride."
"And I will. I just wanted you to consider all your options."
"I wouldn't want to be a burden to these alphas," she said coldly. "Let's go."
We watched her leave with the doctor. She didn't look back once, getting into the doctor's little red sportscar and pulling away from the house.
"We're not just letting her leave," Mace said angrily. He jumped up. "We fucked up enough and now she's out there alone and hurt?"
"You go to work," I said. "Both of you. I'll follow her. Make sure she doesn't get into any trouble. We need to have eyes on her at all time now."
Mace grimaced, not wanting to give up control, but in the end, he nodded. "Fine. I'll send you the tracking software so you can see where she is. I'll replace you at six and Finn can take the next shift."
I quickly gathered what I'd need for the day, downloaded the app, and headed for my car. There was no need for Liora to know we were following her, but I wasn't going to let her get away again. We'd pushed her the first time and now we had her back, I was determined to keep her safe. Especially since it was starting to sound like her new pack had been behind the injuries she now sported.
We weren't going to be so stupid as to let our girl out of our sight again. Mace might be reluctant, but Finn and I were 100% on board with getting her back, no matter how much groveling we had to do.
Chapter 14
Alone
Liora
Iwas alone at last. Dr. Nova had driven me two towns over so I'd feel better about staying put for a bit, so she could check in on me from time to time. She pulled up in front of a hotel and told me to wait while she went in to get a room for me.
