“I walked her home.” My voice is hoarse as I try to understand. Cade gives me a pitying look, but I can see my frustration mirrored in his own eyes.
“She hid,” he says, almost gently. “When you waited at the end of the street. Waited until you were gone.”
Well, fuck. So much for keeping an eye on her.
The dungeon is full of everything society likes to pretend doesn’t exist. Drugs, sex trade, illegal trafficking – you name it, that’s where you get it.
And she lived there. In a shitty little tent that would have been as good as useless if one of those fucker alphas had scented her.
I make a beeline for the door, and Cade steps in my way.
My lips curl back in a growl. “Get out of my way, Cade.”
He shakes his head. “I promised her we wouldn’t steamroll her. And you, in this mood? That’s not happening, Ax. Tone your shit down before you go anywhere near her.”
My breathing heaves as we stare each other off, and Cade lifts his chin as our gazes lock.
I’m not strong enough to challenge him, so when I drop my eyes, I turn and drop into a seat, crossing my arms. “So what now?”
Hudson steps in, his gaze moving between me and Cade. I stubbornly refuse to look in his direction.
Am I sulking?Abso-fucking-lutely.
“She’s staying with us, temporarily.”
Nate’s brows drop into a frown. “Temporarily?”
“For now.” Cade’s voice is firm. “Unless and until we can persuade her otherwise, but this makes things more difficult, not less, Nate. The last thing we want is for her to feel pressured by us because she’s staying here.”
I swallow back my protests. He’s right. We need to take it easy.
“Okay,” Nate reasons. “But she and I spent today together. I’m not pulling back from that unless she wants me to.”
Cade nods. “Just be aware of how you’re acting.”
Nate runs his hand through his hair. “I still can’t believe she’s been living like that.”
Hudson winces. “She said she lost her job, and her apartment.”
I ponder his words. Life is hard for any omega not under the wing of the Grey pack and the Omega Center. Despite the Creed being abolished, I’m well aware that the world isn’t overly kind to a designation many still see as responsible for declining beta birth rates. Not to mention that since the Creed was abolished, there’s a growing section of the population who feel strongly that omegas should still be forced to bear children for adoption through the government.
I purse my lips. I’ve never bought into that shit. Omegas are built differently, pure and simple. It’s not their fault that betas can’t have kids.
Alphas can father kids, something that seems to fall under the radar, all of the hate and anger focused on the omegas. But we’re much harder to take down in a fight.
“What do we know about her background?” I ask.
Nate shrugs, his mouth thinning. “Not much. She said she was in the Compound.”
The Omega Compound.
My fists clench again at the thought of her in that hellhole. We watched the press coverage of Ava Grey speaking up about the abuse she endured – that all omegas endured.
Hudson is clearly thinking along the same lines.
“She needs care,” he says, crossing the room and taking a seat next to Nate. “She needs to be treated like an omega should be.”
“Like a fucking queen,” Nate mutters.
