“No matter what happens, keep moving.”
Then they are gone.
We sit in silence, but it’s tense.
Taryn looks up and stares at Mordecai. When she speaks, she doesn’t sound at all like herself. “Your friend is going to visit you tonight. You need to listen carefully, Alpha, because this is a pivot point. Everything we do from here on out will change the future.”
Mordecai has gotten steadily stiffer. Is Taryn talking about the omega from his dreams?
“Taryn?” I ask, but she just lays down, curling up against Mia’s back, ignoring me.
Mordecai avoids looking at me and lays down. Cadel and I are on watch. I stand at the window, and he brackets me in, his arms battling off the chill of the night.
The world comes alive when the people are gone. Animals scurry to and fro. Foreen is thriving, despite its devastating history.
Despite everything, I can’t get Taryn’s words out of my head. I don’t trust Mordecai, not anymore, and what she said, that message caused all the hairs on my arms to lift. It made me want to run and hide. To call out for Cadel or Jarek or my mum.
It made me forget how old I was and reduced me to a scared child. What is going to happen?
I have no idea, and just trying to predict it makes my head ache.
Cadel holds onto me, the safe harbour keeping me from losing it completely. We don’t exchange a word. He’s just there, and I’m hyper-aware of him and his touch on me.
At dawn, Mordecai jackknifes into a sitting position, gasping. He gets up and, without a word to anyone, rushes out, pulling the door shut behind him.
He doesn’t come back for a couple of hours, and when he does, he’s shut down completely. I can see it. Whatever secret he heard in his dream, he’s keeping it to himself.
“Let’s get out of here. We’ve waited long enough.”
I want to protest, but Cadel grabs my wrist and shakes his head. I follow his gaze to the quiet and withdrawn Taryn and Mia, who looks just as sick.
Taryn shakes her head. “Can we just wait a few minutes? I’m scared, and I want…I want someone to know who Taryn was.”
That is a very strange way to phrase talking about herself.
“I was born in a small village where nothing really happened. My parents were lovely people who farmed and fished. We had this little boat, and my father would take me out onto the lake. We wouldn’t catch much,but he would tell me the funniest stories, and we’d just laugh and laugh. My parents smiled a lot. I think that’s why I fell for Dawn. He smiled so damn much. The moment I saw him,” she pauses and smiles with the memory. “I knew he was the one. It was like I was struck by an arrow. It was instant. He was everything I ever dreamed. Intelligent, funny, kind, patient.”
Mia grips Taryn’s hand.
“I have two sons. Dusk and Dae. They are my whole entire world. Dae is an omega. He’s only eight, but we can feel it already. I’ve taught him to hide, to be afraid. Dae doesn’t smile; he doesn’t laugh. We didn’t tell him stories to make him shine. We taught him fear.”
“You did what you had to so he would survive,” Mordecai says gently.
Taryn shakes her head, and tears go flying. They catch the light, like diamonds, before they hit the dusty concrete and disappear.
“I would do anything for my sons. Things that would change who I am, reshape me, good things, evil things. It doesn’t matter, I have never loved the way I love these three men.”
“We won’t forget,” Mordecai says. “No one will forget how much you sacrificed for your sons, Taryn. How much you loved them. When we win, someone will go and collect your children and mate and tell them everything.” Mordecai is being unusually tender with Taryn, enough that my skin crawls.
Why is he making it sound like she won’t make it out of here?
Taryn looks up and nods. “Thank you.” She stands up, but it’s like she’s aged before our eyes. Her energy is brittle; her pain makes her slow and jerky.
“Taryn?”
She shakes her head and smiles at me. “Promise meyou’ll fight.”
I don’t want to give her that promise. “I can promise I will consider it.”
