Fucking hell. What more can we possibly say? Slightly dazed, I let him pull me up and he takes a seat, wrapping his arms around both Ace and Gabe. I look down at them for a moment, pack bonds urging me to stay and look after my brothers, but the bonds settle slightly in my chest as they soak in Ezra’s calming dominance.
I run upstairs to check on Harper. She’s still and silent, but her cheeks are slightly flushed from the warmth of the blankets and she seems to be sleeping normally, so I take that as a good sign. The relief nearly drags me to my knees.
Stepping into the garden, the winds curls around me, biting and nipping at my exposed arms. There’s no sign of Devlin, but I know where he’ll be. Circling around the house, I see his bent neck as he sits on the bench we placed on the porch when we first moved in.
We’re both silent as I take a seat next to him. Slowly, I lean against him, letting him absorb some of my warmth. He doesn’t pull away, which I take as a good sign, but the dullness of his pack bond prickles my senses.
“Ezra said he wanted to tell us something else,” I say. Immediately, I want to punch myself in the face. It sounds so insensitive.
Dev doesn’t bite, though. He just stays where he is, staring at the ground.
“You know,” I say, clearing my throat. “I can speak to Christian about finding any updates on your mom.”
Dev turns to me, clenched fists betraying his anger. His voice is still and expressionless. “She’s probably dead by now.”
“You don’t know that,” I urge. Dread prickles up my spine at the thought. This is the one possible positive thing to come out of the conversation today. Dev’s mom might still be out there. She might even be in the omega compound. We just don’t know.
“If she’s not, then she probably wishes she is.” He swipes a hand over his face, exhaustion lining every feature. “I just left her, Rogue. I never questioned it. Just assumed that what they told me was true.”
“You were a kid,” I point out quietly. “What could you have done, Dev? Look at Ezra. He was a full-grown alpha and he couldn’t get to Ivy. He nearly died trying.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he says, shaking his head. “I haven’t been a kid for a long time. I could’ve looked into this years ago.”
Ezra’s right, though. He hasn’t been ready. It’s Harper’s influence that’s softened Devlin’s rough edges. Even a month ago he would never have sat through that conversation, would never have opened himself to the possibility that omegas might be the ultimate victims of the omega war, and not the ones who started it all.
I stand, brushing a leaf off my trousers and holding out my hand. “Come on. We need to hear what else he has to say.”
“I think I’ve hit my quota of earth-shattering revelations today,” Dev says, his face grim. He takes my hand though, the bond opening up just enough to let in a nudge of gratitude. I’ll let the rest go for now.
Pulling him to me, I hold him tight until his arms come up around my back and he clutches me. We soak up the contact before stepping away and heading back in to hear what else Ezra has to tell us.
I feel down the bond for Ace and Gabe, relieved when they both send reassurance at me in response to my gentle tugging. Stepping into the room, I check over them both, and they both nod at me to let me know they’re okay. Still, I tug Dev over to the couch and pull him down beside me as I sit next to Ace. Leaning over, I touch Gabe’s shoulder. His eyes are red-rimmed, but he glances at me with a small smile. It only lasts a second though, before his eyes flicker up to the ceiling.
“Ezra’s gone up,” he murmurs. “We thought we heard something. He asked us to stay down here.” His head drops down again.
My immediate knee-jerk response is to jump up and sprint upstairs, check Harper over for myself to make sure she’s alright. And possibly shake some sense into her for scaring us all like that.
On second thoughts, maybe it’s good that Ezra has gone up. Even if my instincts are raking at my insides for letting an unfamiliar alpha near Harper when she’s so vulnerable. I trust Ezra implicitly, though, so I nod at Gabe and stay put, forcing my leg not to judder in agitation as we wait quietly for an update.
ChapterThirty-Six
Harper
Light pierces my eyes and makes my head hurt. I murmur sleepily in frustration and turn my face away, relieved when someone closes the curtains.
I try to turn over, but something tugs at my arm, and an ache shoots up my side. Drawing in a sharp breath, I try to feel what’s sticking out of me, and a murmur cuts through my drowsiness.
“Harper? Can you hear me?”
My eyes fly open at the unfamiliar voice. I scramble backward, ripping the needle out of my arm. The sting is nothing compared to the panic coursing through me.
Oh gods. I’m back at the compound.
It comes back to me in a wave of horror. The words slipping through the door that I wasn’t supposed to hear, the alphas I thought I could trust destroying me in a moment. The freezer. Pain rips into me, knives of agony stabbing into my chest.
I’ve clearly been unconscious, and the sight of the needle lying on the sheet in front of me sends terror through my veins. I whimper, wondering if it was all for nothing. Scrabbling, I reach down to touch myself downthere, slightly reassured when I don’t feel any soreness or swelling. They can’t have triggered a heat.
A choked sound whips my attention to the alpha in front of me. I don’t recognize him, and he’s standing back, allowing me some space. That’s not how alphas at the compound behave. With this realization, more awareness sinks in. Twisting my head slightly but keeping the alpha in the corner of my eye, I sweep my gaze across the room, confirming to myself that I’m still in the room that my pack gave me.
